Paul Henry RHA

Paul Henry was born on 11^th April 1876 in Belfast and became one of Ireland’s greatest twentieth-century landscape painters. Railway companies (1920s) and Bord Fáilte (1940s) popularised his work with masses through reproduction coloured prints. In his own words, Henry wanted to capture in his work “the very soul of Ireland”.

Henry recalled that the atmosphere at home was constricting throughout his childhood, however, when he entered Methodist College, Belfast in 1882, he began drawing frequently. When he was fifteen, he moved to the Royal Belfast Academical Institution where he had already decided to become an artist.

In 1898, Henry left Belfast and studied under Jean-Paul Laurens in the Académie Julian in Paris. Here he first met Grace Mitchell, they married in 1903 in London. He stayed in Paris for a further two years before moving to London. To make a living, Paul submitted illustrations to local papers and taught classes in writing pamphlets.

In 1910, Henry first exhibited at Dublin’s RHA, becoming an associate in 1926 and then a full member in 1928. He was one of the first Academicians of the Ulster Academy of Arts. His early works of the west of Ireland included figures, he later focused on capturing cloud formations, hillsides and lakes around Connemara and Wicklow.

Henry’s career has been both documented through his own writings and Dr S. B. Kennedy’s monograph, Paul Henry.