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Estella Solomons, HRHA (1882-1968) Going to Mass is at the next James Adam sale in Dublin.

THE gulf between a Vatican conclave and the catholic faith of the Irish peasant is evident in this genre scene by the Irish artist Estella Solomons. Going to Mass is an oil on canvas which depicts a simple scene commonplace throughout Ireland in bygone days.  There is no grandeur or pomp about this simple act of faith practiced daily and weekly.

Instead it captures both the sense of hurry to be on time and the arrangements made for the smooth working of domestic life in the cottage while the massgoers are absent. The work, exhibited at the Crawford Gallery Solomons exhibition in 1986, comes up at the James Adam sale of Irish art in Dublin on March 26. The estimate is 3,000-5,000.

More than 200 affordable lots of Irish art feature in Morgan O’Driscoll’s Off the Wall on-line art auction.  The sale is now live on www.morganodriscoll.com  It runs until March 25.  Here is a small selection (you can click on any image to enlarge it).

Thomas Ryan PPRHA (b.1929)) – ‘Lady in Red in Cactus House’. (1,200-1,800). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Frank Egginton RCA (1908-1990) – ‘Sunshine and Shadow, Co. Donegal’ (600-800). UPDATE: THIS MADE 600

Mark O’Neill (b.1963) – ‘Windowsill Whites’. (800-1,100). UPDATE: THS MADE 950

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 70^th 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.

El Greco, Saint Dominic in Prayer at Sotheby’s London Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale, on July 3 (£3-5 million). (Click on image to enlarge).

Works by Monet, El Greco and Tiepolo are included in the collection of the late philanthropist Dr. Gustav Rau to be sold by Sotheby’s this year. The collection, valued at more than £16 million, will be offered at a range of auctions starting with the Impressionist and Modern sales in London next June. Money raised goes to UNICEF Germany to fund long-term assistance programs for children, and especially to further assist the Ciriri hospital in eastern Congo. Highlights include Claude Monet’s oil on canvas Le Pont de Bois (£4-6 million); El Greco’s Saint Dominic in Prayer (£3-5 million) and Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo’s Jacopo Porto Appointed Governor of Vicenza (£3-5 million).
Dr. Philipp Duke of Württemberg, chairman Sotheby’s Europe and md of the company in Germany said: “Dr. Rau collected with a rare energy and wisdom. An austere man who wasted no money on himself, he was nonetheless always ready to pursue the greatest works of art, across all schools and genres, to create one of the 20th Century’s most comprehensive and exciting collections”.
Gustav Rau (1922-2002), scion of a wealthy German industrialist family followed his father into the automotive business. At the age of 40 he trained as a doctor to work in the developing world. Following his father’s death he sold the family company and began to use the proceeds to help diminish poverty in the Third World. He moved to the Congo where he lived for two decades, building a hospital at Ciriri and serving as a doctor for the surrounding community. Over a period of 40 years he also indulged his passion for the arts. Self-taught, but with an instinctive eye, his collection encompassed superb works from the early Quattrocento all the way through to the Modern era. On his death, Dr. Rau bequeathed his outstanding collection to UNICEF Germany.

THE first Andy Warhol @ Christie’s online-only sale achieved $2,297,375—twice the pre-sale estimate. The auction, which finished yesterday, attracted 65,000 visitors and 263 bidders. This generated over 1,500 bids from 36 countries. The sell rate was as 99% by lot and by value. Proceeds will benefit The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and will enable it continue to develop long term support of the visual arts.
The sale featured works representing a wide array of media spanning the artist’s career, many never before seen by the public. Estimates ranged from $600 to $70,000. Highlights included I Love Your Kiss Forever Forever (lot 94), a 1964 lithograph in color, which made $112,500 – almost 40 times its pre-sale estimate. In the bottom of My garden (lot 52), the complete book of offset lithographs colored by hand c1956 made $80,250. The Self-Portrait with Fright Wig screenprint on t-shirt (lot 16) realized $47,500. Especially notable was the turnout for the Warhol photographs, which represent 46% of the lots and were 100% sold.
The next Andy Warhol @ Christie’s sale in April 2013 will be dedicated to the artist’s legacy at the Studio 54 nightclub.