Paul Henry RHA (1877 - 1958) Cottages in Achill Oil on canvas board, 35 x 45cm (13¾ x 17¾) Signed, inscribed in pencil verso Mountains can have that effect on a person. According to the artist's Irish Portrait (Henry 1951, p.50), prior to his first visit to Achill, Henry was a plains-dweller and the abruptness of the mountain contours now disturbed him. On Achill there is no getting away from Slievemore (An Sliabh Mór), its 671 meters dominates the landscape from virtually every direction and is instantly recognisable due to its conical form. From its summit there are magnificent views of Croaghan, the Inishkea islands and Belmullet peninsula, the Nephins and all the hills south to Mweelrea. Dr Brian Kennedy, the foremost authority on the artist, when inspecting this painting with the writer in 2002, dated it to 1925-30, at which point Henry had left the island after his prolonged sojourn that ended in 1919. Despite it being painted six to ten years after leaving Achill, the composition still reflects his sense of awe of the majesty of the mountain. As much as in real life, the mountain dominates the composition occupying a central position, the blue hues beautifully painted and modelled with the artist's signature fluid application of paint and glazes. The precision, even economy, of the brushwork throughout is another characteristic of Henry's work in general and is something he learnt from his early teacher, James Abbott McNeill Whistler. The foreground is simply made up of a shallow strip of vaguely arable land on which three thatched cottages anchor the composition, accompanied by small turf stacks. The scale of the tiny habitation nestled into the landscape is made all the more dramatic due to the layered backdrop of two ridges before ascending to Slievemore. The light and fluffy clouds which suggest one of those 'pet' days you get in the West, occupy half the composition, are beautifully modelled and brighten the scene, helping to create a sense of the majesty of nature as opposed to it being oppressive and overbearing. The impact of Henry's time in Achill cannot be overstated. It was to Dugort, on the north of the island and at the eastern foot of Slievemore, that Henry went when he first arrived on Achill in August 1910. But even then he found the village busy with tourists. 'Every second house seemed to be an hotel or boarding house', he later wrote, and so the morning after his arrival he set off for the much quieter village of Keel, itself positioned south of the mountain, where he subsequently established himself, taking rooms with John and Eliza Barrett who ran the post office in Keel.