Morgan O'Driscoll Irish & International Art Auction 21st October 2019

32 24 Henry Robertson Craig RHA RUA (1916-1984) Pony Rides signed lower right oil on board 25 x 35cm (9.75 x 13.75in) Provenance: Christie’s, The Irish Sale, 8th May 2008, Lot 82; where purchased by the present owner €1,200-1,800 (£1,061-1,592) Henry Robertson Craig, son of a grocer, George Craig, was born in Dumfries, Scotland. He studied art at Dundee College of Art where he met fellow student and lifelong partner Patrick Hennessy. In 1940 Craig joined the British Army, spending most of his service in London working in the Royal Army Service Corps on maps, camouflage, and various tasks for the underground forces of occupied Europe. After the war with landscape painting in view, he travelled to Ireland and renewed his friendship with Hennessy. They took a house in Crosshaven, Co. Cork, then moved to Cobh, a few miles away remaining there until they departed for Dublin in 1950. By 1966, he was represented by the Richie Hendriks gallery in Dublin and his paintings from visits to Italy, Germany, Paris, Cote d’Azur, and Dordogne were seen at his one man shows in Dublin as well as a one-man show at the Guildhall Galleries, Chicago. In 1968 both painters left Dublin for Tangier, and from this North African base travel extensively. David Hendricks, the dealer, a close friend of both, presented a joint exhibition at Cork Arts Society Gallery in 1974. In 1980 they went to live in the Algarve, Portugal. In twenty-five years of exhibition at the RHA, Craig had shown some fifty works. He died on 5th December at Portimao, Portugal: cremated at Golder’s Green Crematorium, London. A studio sale of his and Patrick Hennessy’s work was held at Christie’s London, in 1986.