THE portrait of Seamus Heaney at Bonhams. (Click on image to enlarge).
A 1987 portrait of Seamus Heaney – Ireland’s Nobel Literature Prize laureate – is to be sold at Bonham’s in London on April 10. It was painted by Peter Edwards, the artist who painted the Heaney portrait at the National Portrait Gallery in London. It will be sold with an original drawing in pencil made at the poet’s Dublin home in 1987 when the portrait was painted. The estimate is £6,000-8,000.
The portrait is one of several items related to Seamus Heaney in the sale including a number of photographs – including an image by John Minihan taken for the poet’s 70th birthday in 2009 (£400-600) – and very early handwritten drafts of his poem, ‘Song’, from the collection, ‘Field Work.
UPDATE: The portrait sold for £7,500. The autograph drafts of Song from ‘Field Work’ sold for £4,375 and a signed typescript with autograph revisions, insertions and doodles of his ‘Villanelle for an anniversary’ sold for £2,750.