CHATSWORTH FINE ART SALE April 29th, 30th & May 1st 2026

84 IMPERFECTIONS NOT STATED Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 809. Nathaniel Hone R.H.A., (1831-1917) “Coastal Scene, Kilkee, Co. Clare,”O.O.C., 59cms x 100cms (23” x 39”) Signed l.r. ‘N.H.’ (1) Nowadays recognised as one of Ireland’s finest landscape painters of the Impressionist period, during his lifetime Nathaniel Hone the Younger was often under-appreciated, largely because he came from a wealthy family and did not have to sell his paintings to make a living. Freedom from the constraint of having to please clients and purchasers meant that Hone’s art has a marvellous purity of purpose. He contrived, and succeeded, in making remarkable paintings out of everyday subject-matter, scenes that in other hands might be unremarkable. His paintings of cattle in fields, and beaches and coastal scenes, are full of an appreciation of the colours and atmosphere of the Irish landscape and climate. In this classic work, possibly depicting the coastline near Kilkee in Co. Clare, rain clouds gather on the horizon above a slate green sea. In the foreground are dark rocks, while waves break upon the shore and seagulls skim over the choppy seas. In the background, a line of dark mountains recedes into the distance. A faint hint of blue sky, contrasting with the deep grey clouds over the horizon, conveys a sense of rapidly-changing weather conditions of the West of Ireland. As Thomas Bodkin wrote of Hone, in Four Irish Painters, ‘His best work is painted in rich, liquid pigment, laid on thinly and boldly, with that caressing ease which only comes through ceaseless effort. With the matured technique may be noticed a tendency to simplification in subject and composition, and that love and understanding of loneliness which age often brings to great men.’
While revealing Hone’s debt to the Impressionists, this painting also shows the influence of the Barbizon School, a colony of artists that flourished near Fontainebleau in the mid nineteenth century. Hone perfected his landscape painting technique during the 1860’s, when he lived in and around the village of Barbizon. He was an active member of the group, which included (at various times) Corot, Rousseau, Courbet, and Henri Harpignies, with whom he was friendly. In the late 1960’s, Hone exhibited both at the Royal Academy and the Salons in Paris. In 1875, after spending seventeen years in France, he returned to Ireland to live at his family’s estate and farm at Malahide, where, apart from annual trips to the West of Ireland, he remained for the rest of his life. Based on direct observation, his studies of Irish skies are among his finest works, redolent of Constable’s cloud studies. Peter Murray 2026
 €8,000 - €12,000