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  • Archive for May, 2012

    RENOIR’S BAIGNEUSE AT CHRISTIE’S IN LONDON

    Thursday, May 31st, 2012

    Renoir’s Baigneuse at Christie’s.  UPDATE: THIS WAS SOLD PRIVATELY BEFORE THE AUCTION FOR A PRICE THAT WAS WITHIN THE ESTIMATE.

    Renoir’s Baigneuse leads Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art sale in London on June 20.  Painted in 1888 Baigneuse is a sumptuous exploration of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s (1841-1919) most celebrated theme, the female nude. It is estimated at £12-18 million.

    On the market for the first time in 15 years Baigneuse has been part of distinguished collections including Robert de Bonnières, Adrien Hébrard and the Prince de Wagram. It was later owned by the prominent Swiss collector Georg Reinhart. The painting set the record for a nude by the artist when it sold for $20.9 million in New York.

    There are work by Picasso, Magritte, Gauguin, Picasso and a distinguished private collection of 14 bronze sculptures by Edgar Degas (1834-1917) with estimates from £15,000 to £2.5 million. The auction of 71 lots has a pre-sale estimate of £86.5-126.7 million.

    UPDATE:  Renoir’s Baigneuse was sold privately before the auction for a price that was within the estimate.  The auction brought in £92.5 million with 27 works selling for over £1 million and 36 selling for over $1 million. The top price was paid for Femme assise, 1949, by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) which sold for £8,553,250.

    GERARD DILLON’S THE MOON OVER THE BOG MAKES £61,250 AT BONHAMS

    Thursday, May 31st, 2012

    Gerard Dillon's The Moon over the Bog made £61,250. (Click on image to enlarge).

    Gerard Dillon’s The Moon over the Bog made £61,250 at Bonham’s sale of British and Irish art in London on May 30.  The same price was achieved by Sir Wiliam Scott’s Fish.  Paul Henry’s A View of Croagh Patrick from Achill Island made £25,000.  Sutton Sands by William John Leech made £8,750, Persian of the Circus by Jack Yeats made £7,500 and William Conor’s The Turf Carriers sold for £5,000.  Sir Gerald Festus Kelly’s Portrait of Jane with a white shawl XXVII, depicting the artist’s wife Lilian Ryan sold for £9,030.

    Sean Keating’s Portrait of Jimmy O’Dea in Costume estimated at £10,000-15,000 failed to sell, as did Dillon’s Little Boy playing at God and Dan O’Neill’s Princess for a Night. The top lot of the sale was St. Ives Rooftops by Ben Nicholson which made £283,250.

    BENTLEY OWNED BY ELTON JOHN AT BONHAMS

    Thursday, May 31st, 2012

    Bentley once owned by Sir Elton John at Bonhams. (Click on image to enlarge).  UPDATE: IT MADE £47,437

    A 1975 Bentley Corniche convertible formerly owned by Sir Elton John, goes under the hammer at Bonhams in Oxford on June 16.  One of only 45 Bentley Corniche ‘Series 1’ convertibles built between 1971 and 1976 it was bought new by Elton John in September 1975.  He sold  it to his personal assistant Robert Halley in 1998 and re-bought it in 1999.  Mr. Halley had it repainted in its present livery and updated with later alloy wheels.

    The current owner bought the Cornice when a selection  of Elton John’s cars was auctioned in 2001. Sir Elton speaks highly of the Bentley, which was one of a handful of his cars used extensively. He said: “I’ve had a lot of people in it, Princess Margaret’s been in it,  everyone’s been in it.” It is estimated at £50,000 to £60,000 at a sale held in Association with the Vintage Motor Cycle Club Banbury Run.

    UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR £347,437 INCLUDING PREMIUM

    OUTSTANDING LEECH TOPS THE POLL AT ADAMS

    Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

    Interior of a Cafe by William John Leech was the top lot at Adams.

    AN  outstanding 1908 Breton work by William John Leech topped the Irish art poll at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on May 30  On the eve of a referendum on the EU financial stability treaty it made 200,000.  Indoors, Outdoors from 1951 by Louis le Brocquy, which had been estimated at 500,000-800,000, was bid up to 450,000 and failed to sell.

    The auction of 148 lots was 75 per cent sold and brought in 1.7 million.  Good Evening Men by Jack b. Yeats made 180,000 and Bound for the Islands by the same artist made 48,000.  Fishing Boats, Dugort by Paul Henry sold for 125,000 and a le Brocquy tapestry, Eden, made 36,000.  Woman of Belfast by F.E. McWilliam made 27,000 over an estimate of 6,000-10,000, William Guy Wall’s View of the Boyne made 26,000 and Patrick Leonard’s Unloading the Catch, Loughshinny Harbour, made 25,000.

    See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for  May 27, May 6 and May 8.

    JOHN CONSTABLE’S ‘THE LOCK’ AT CHRISTIE’S LONDON

    Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

    The Lock by John Constable (1776-1837), courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2012. (Click on image to enlarge).  UPDATE: IT MADE £22,441,250.

    A celebrated Constable masterpiece is expected to realise more than £20 million at Christie’s sale of Old Master and British Paintings in London on July 3.  The Lock by John Constable (1776-1837) is one of six paintings that make up the artist’s most celebrated series of large scale works which also includes The Hay Wain, now in The National Gallery, London.  From the private collection of  Baroness Carmen Thyssen Bornemisza it is the last to remain in private hands.  Sold only once since it was acquired from the artist it became the most valuable British painting ever sold when bought at auction for £10.8 million in 1990. It was originally owned by the celebrated collector James Morrison (1789-1857) and remained in the Morrison family until sold in 1990.

    The Lock was finished in 1824, one of the most significant years in Constable’s career, which saw The Hay Wain exhibited at the Paris Salon and King Charles X of France award him a gold medal. Constable’s success in France has been seen by many art historians as having significantly influenced the course of the history of art; his intense observation of nature inspired French artists in a movement of landscape painting that would find its fullest expression half-a-century later in the work of the Impressionists.

    Jussi Pylkkänen, President of Christie’s Europe, Middle East, Russia and India anticipates that it will attract bidding from museums and collectors from all over the world.  It is estimated at £20-25 million.

    UPDATE: IT MADE £22,441,250.

    FRANCIS BACON STUDY FOR SELF-PORTRAIT AT CHRISTIE’S

    Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

    Francis Bacon (1909-1992) Study for Self-Portrait, courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2012. (Click on image to enlarge).  UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR £21,545,250

    A study for a self portrait by Francis Bacon is a highlight of Christie’s auction on Post War and Contemporary art on June 27.  Painted in 1964 the work marries the artist’s face to the figure and friend of fellow painter Lucian Freud.

    It represents one of only twelve, floor-length self-portraits ever to be realised by Francis Bacon, four of which are now held in international museum collections.

    Christie’s Francis Outred  said that this is the only full length self portrait known to combine the artist’s physiognomy with the physique of Freud, derived from a series of celebrated photographs taken by John Deakin in the 1960s. “It is a rare painting from the height of Bacon and Freud’s relationship, paying tribute to the creative and emotional proximity both felt for a time. Part of the same artistic circle, the artists deeply impacted one another, both in terms of personality and practice”.

     

    UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR £21,545,250

    MARBLE BUST BY JOHN HOGAN AT ADAM’S IMPORTANT IRISH ART SALE

    Sunday, May 27th, 2012

    John Hogan (1800-1858), bust of Francis Sylvester Mahony (Fr. Prout). Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE 8,500.

    A marble portrait bust of Fr. Prout by Ireland’s most distinguished neo-classical sculptor John Hogan is among a great variety of treasures at Adams sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on May 30. Francis Sylvester Mahony (1804-1866) wrote under the pseudonym Fr. Prout and composed The Bells of Shandon, long included in The Oxford Book of English Verse.  Elizabeth Barret Browning, who knew him in Rome, described Mahony as:  “a most accomplished scholar and vibrating all over with learned associations and vivid combinations of fancy and experience – having seen all the ends of the earth and the men thereof, and possessing the art of talk and quotation to an amusing degree”.  It is estimated at 4,000-6,000.

    The auction of 148 lots includes major works by Louis le Broquy and William John Leech and a selection by distinguished Irish painters and sculptors including Paul Henry, Jack B. Yeats, Frank McKelvey, William Conor, Walter Osborne, Aloysius O’Kelly, Mainie Jellett, J.H. Craig, Maurice Wilks, Patrick Scott, Basil Blackshaw, Tony O’Malley, Rowan Gillespie, John Behan and  F.E. MacWilliam.

    See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for May 6 and May 8

    BATTLE OF THE SOMME LINK TO WATERCOLOUR AT AUCTION

    Sunday, May 27th, 2012

    Flying Pheasant by Archibald Thorburn. (Click on image to enlarge).

    A watercolour at auction next month links fairly directly to the carnage of the Battle of the Somme.  It was once owned by the Irish politician who was the first person to suggest holding a period of silence to commemorate dead soldiers from the First World War.  Flying Pheasant by the Scottish ornithological artist Archibald Thorburn comes up at Bonhams in Edinburgh on June 21.

    The painting was owned by Sir Crawford McCullagh, the prominent Ulster politician.  As Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1914-17 he called for a five minute silence for the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division who had died in their thousands at the Battle of Somme on July 1, 1916.  The more familiar Two Minute Silence was first held at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1919 so that, in the worlds of George V “in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead”.

    Flying Pheasant is estimated at £20,000-30,000

    LEADING CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE AT CHRISTIE’S, WADDESDON MANOR

    Saturday, May 26th, 2012

    Jean-Siméon Chardin, Boy building a House of Cards 1735 Waddesdon, The Rothschild Collection (Rothschild Family Trusts) © The National Trust, Waddesdon Manor. Photo: Mike Fear

    Eva Rothschild (born 1971, Dublin) Meta 2004.

    Sculptural works by leading contemporary artists are being shown by Christie’s Private Sales from May 26 to October 28  in the grounds of Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire.  The original, curated exhibition is inspired by Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin’s (1699-1779) Boy Building a House of Cards, 1735 at Waddesdon Manor.  This is the home of the Rothschild Collection and one of the most visited of the National Trust properties.

    The 33 works on show include pieces by Richard Serra, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Anthony Gormley, Urs Fischer, Tony Smith and the Irish artist Eva Rothschild with new works by Anish Kapoor, Joana Vasconcelos and Jeppe Hein. They are all chosen by Christie’s as a contemporary response to an exhibition exploring Chardin’s painting in the house following its recent acquisition for the Rothschild collection. A total of 16 nationalities are represented among the works, 24 of which are shown around the grounds of the Manor and the remainder indoors at the Stables. While a few of the works are on loan, the majority are for sale from £60,000 to £7.5 million

    LAVERY LEADS IRISH WORKS AT CHRISTIE’S

    Friday, May 25th, 2012

    Sir John Lavery’s portrait of Aida, a Moorish maid sold for £181,250 to become the top Irish lot at Christie’s British and Irish art sale in London.  An image of Samuel Beckett by Louis le Brocquy made £85,250 over an estimate of £40,000-60,000.  Jack Yeats’ An old stone in a Field and Paul Henry’s Turf Stacks each made £55,250.

    The top lot was L.S. Lowry’s Industrial Landscape; Stockport Viaduct, 1958, which realised £1,273,250. There were good prices too for Scottish Colourists and British Pop Art. The evening sale, including buyer’s premium, brought in £9,194,650, the day sale brought in £3,286,325.  The overall total was £12,480,975.

    See post on antiquesandartireland.com for Saturday, April 14.

    Louis Le Brocquy, H.R.H.A. (1916-2012) Image of Samuel Beckett sold for £85,250.

    Paul Henry, R.H.A. (1876-1958) Turf Stacks sold for £55,250.

    Jack Butler Yeats, R.H.A. (1871-1957) An old Stone in a Field sold for £55,250.