Fine Arts: Henry’s majestic Mayo mountainscape leads Whyte’s upcoming sale

Lobster Fishermen off Achill is expected to realise €200,000-€300,000 at the March 7 auction

Lobster Fishermen off Achill, by Paul Henry (€200,000-€300,000). The mountain, probably Slievemore, ‘is at once romantic and menacing in its immutability’

In Paul Henry’s Lobster Fishermen at Achill, the two minuscule figures silhouetted against the might of the towering mountain can be seen as a metaphor for the hardship of life on the island.

Before arriving on Achill, Henry had been a plains dweller, and he wrote of how the abruptness of the mountains had disturbed him. As SB Kennedy has described it, the mountain, probably Slievemore, “is at once romantic and menacing in its immutability.” ...