Lot 111: William John Hennessy NA ROI (1839-1917) GARDEN PATH

William John Hennessy NA ROI (1839-1917) GARDEN PATH

h:24 w:19in.

oil on board

Paul Ayshford, 4th Lord Metheun, of Corsham Court, Wiltshire (the artist's son-in-law);
Sotheby's, London, 8 November 1984, lot 50 (illustrated);
Private collection;
Whyte's, 28 November 2006, lot 96;
Whence purchased by the present owner

Born in Kilkenny in 1839, William John Hennessy left Ireland for New York with his family in 1849. His early education was by private tutors and having begun life drawing from the age of 15, he soon entered the National Academy of Design, New York. By 1857 he was exhibiting successfully at the National Academy eventually becoming an academician in 1863. From his city studio he also worked successfully in the art of book illustration, illustrating the work of Longfellow, Tennyson, Whittier and other poets. Hennessy was a regular exhibitor at the National Academy and after moving to London in 1870, he became a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and also exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, the New Gallery and the Royal Academy. He also showed eight works at the RHA between 1879 and 1907. While based in London he spent his summers in Normandy and was so taken with the area and its artistic influences that he moved there in 1875. He later toured Italy and returned to England to settle in Sussex in 1893 until the year of his death. See Snoddy, pp. 243-244.