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Steven Dews painting to commemorate an epic sea battle 200 years on. (Click on image to enlarge).

A painting of the epic sea battle between H.M.S. Shannon and the U.S.S. Chesapeake during the Anglo-American War of 1812-14 will come up at Bonhams in London 200 years after the event next April. The renowned naval encounter occurred in 1813 after Captain Philip Broke of H.M.S. Shannon came upon the Chesapeake refitting in Boston Harbour and challenged her to come out and fight. Captain James Lawrence brought Chesapeake out into the open sea and after a furious annihilating action lasting just fifteen minutes, was forced to surrender.
After firing two devastating broadsides Broke led his boarding party onto Chesapeake but was so badly wounded that he had to relinquish his command. Casualties on both sides were extraordinarily high – 48 Americans, including Captain Lawrence, were killed and 96 wounded whilst Shannon suffered 33 dead and 50 wounded. Captain Broke survived to be rewarded with a baronetcy although he never recovered sufficiently to be able to return to active service.
The oil painting in which the British artist John Steven Dews (born 1949) celebrates the bi-centenary of the battle is estimated to make £60,000-80,000 at Bonhams Marine sale on April 24, 2013 in London. Dews is Britain’s most sought after living marine artist.

A Christmas Irish art auction by Dolan’s takes place at the Pillo Hotel, Galway on December 9. The catalogue is on line. Here is a small selection (you can click on any image to enlarge it).

The Drawing Room by Norman Teeling (750-850).UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Galway Hookers, Low Tide, Claddagh by Ivan Sutton (1,500-2,500). UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,300

Old Town Light by Mark O’Neill (900-1,200). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Moonlight in Connemara by Markey Robinson (4,500-4,800).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,750 AND WAS THE TOP LOT OF THE AUCTION.

Artist’s Studio by Mat Grogan (500-600).  UDPATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

One of a set of six limited edition colour prints by Pauline Bewick at Dolan’s in Galway (600-800).  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 600.

Raphael’s Head of an Apostle sold for £29.7 million at Sothebys in London on December 5.

Raphael’s Head of an Apostle (c. 1519-20) achieved a record £29.7 million at Sotheby’s in London tonight. This is the second highest price ever achieved for any Old Master work of art. It dramatically surpassed all previous prices achieved not only for any Old Master drawing, but for any Work on Paper sold at auction.
Following an intense battle between four bidders – both in the auction room and on the phones – which was sustained for 17 minutes and leapt in increments of up to five hundred thousand pounds, the hammer came down on the winning bid cast on the telephone.

Gregory Rubinstein, Worldwide Head of Old Master Drawings at Sotheby’s, said “If you are lucky, at some point in your career a work like this comes along.  A number of the world’s greatest collectors stepped up tonight in recognition of the genius of Raphael and the extraordinary beauty of this drawing with its exceptional provenance.”

The Raphael drawing being shown at the auction.

Executed in black chalk, the drawing from the Devonshire Collection at Chatsworth depicts one of the key figures in Raphael’s Transfiguration – one of the greatest of all Renaissance paintings, which now hangs in the Vatican Museum, Rome. When Raphael died, his body was laid out in state in his studio with the Transfiguration hanging at his head. Head of an Apostle, is one of only three drawings of this calibre to have appeared at auction in the last 50 years.

The Massacre of the Innocents by Sir Peter Paul Rubens which made £49.5 million at Sotheby’s in London in 2002 remains the most expensive Old Master painting ever sold at auction.  Turner’s Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino, sold at Sotheby’s in London in 2010 to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles now shares second place with Raphael as both works made £29.7 million.  In July 2011 Francesco Guardi’s Venice, a View of the Rialto Bridge, Looking North, from the Fondamenta del Carbon made £26.7 million at Sotheby’s in London and is the next on the list of most expensive Old Masters.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 4, 2012).

Work by Jack Yeats, Paul Henry, Nathanial Hone, Sean O’Sullivan, James Humbert Craig, Lady Kate Dobbin, Walter Osborne, John Lavery, George Campbell,William Leech, Aloysius O’Kelly, William Scott, Samuel Taylor, Hans Iten, Charles Lamb, Jerome Connor and numerous other artists will come under the hammer at the James Adam evening sale of important Irish art in Dublin on December 4.  The catalogue is on-line.  Here is a small selection (you can click on any image to enlarge it).

Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) Galway Market Scene (15,000 – 20,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 30,000 AT HAMMER

William John Leech RHA (1881 – 1968) Lake Geneva, Winter (1911) (20,000 – 30,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 40,000 AT HAMMER.

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) The Belle of Chinatown (1943) (60,000-80,000).  UPDATE: THIS WAS WITHDRAWN.

Richard Thomas Moynan RHA (1856 – 1906) The Travelling Show (1892) (150,000 – 250,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE A HAMMER PRICE OF 140,000.

Kathleen Fox (1880-1963) Ruins of the Four Courts, (1922) (15,000- 25,000).  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Nathaniel Hone, RHA (1831-1917) Sketch of Haycocks (800 – 1,200)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,000 AT HAMMER.