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Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Isabel Rawsthorne 1966 made £11,282,500 and was the top lot at Sotheby’s. (Click on image to enlarge).

Works by Francis Bacon led Sotheby’s contemporary art evening auction in London on June 26. The sale realised £75.8 million with an average lot value of £1.43 million, one of the highest figures for the category in London. More than 90% of lots sold achieved prices at or above estimates.  Bacon’s 1966 triptych portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne made £11,282,500 while the first work the artist ever sold, Head III made £10,442,500.  Bidders from 38 countries participated.

Double East Yorkshire by David Hockney sold for £3,442,500. (Click on image to enlarge).

Afterwards Alex Branczik of Sotheby’s said: “Tonight’s sale was all about the quest for quality – quality across categories – from the modern masters to the new generation of artists”.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for June 10, 2013).

Some Irish art from the Modern British and Irish art day sale at Christie’s in London on July 11. All images courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2013.  (Click on any image to enlarge it~).

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for June 14, 2013).

Patrick Hickey (1927-1999)
Morning, Wicklow Hillside (£3,000-5,000).

Jack Butler Yeats, R.H.A. (1871-1957)
Early Away (£60,000-80,000).

Sir William Orpen, R.A. (1878-1931)
The First Costume (La Premiere Mode) (£10,000-15,000).

“Off the Wall” is the title of Morgan O’Driscoll’s

Mark O’Neill (b.1963)
The White Ensemble (3,500-4,500).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000

current online art auction.  Featuring 212 lots of mostly Irish art it continues until July 1 at 6.30 p.m.  The catalogue is online. Here is a  small selection.

Mark O’Neill (b.1963)
Le Magasin du Vin (4,000=6,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,700.

Markey Robinson (1918-1999)
Still Life, Flowers and Fruit (1,500-2,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,300

Markey Robinson (1918-1999)
Walking Through The Woods (800-1,200).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 600

A total of 167 lots will come under the hammer at de Veres online auction which closes at 7 p.m. on June 26.  Meantime all works are on view at de Veres at Kildare St. in Dublin.  This is a timed auction with bidding carried out through saleroom.com   The catalogue and instructions are online at de Veres.  Here is a small selection:

Theo McNabb – Study for Room 7/7 (400-600).

Peter Curling, Geraniums Stody, 1,000-1,500.

Elizabeth Cope – Globe artichokes, Tuktan rug in dining room at Shankill Centre (500-700).

Brian Ballard RUA, Objects and Gerbras (1,000-1,500).

El Greco, St Dominic in Prayer. (Click on image to enlarge).  UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR £9,154,500 – A RECORD FOR A SPANISH OLD MASTER.

For the first time in living memory two masterworks by El Greco will feature in the same sale. Christ on the Cross and St. Dominic in Prayer are among the highlights at Sotheby’s Old Master and British Paintings evening sale on July 3 in London.  They will make their auction debut after more than 400 years and are estimated at £3-5 million each.

Giandomenico Tiepolo, Six frescoes. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £3,218,500, A RECORD FOR THE ARTIST.

Frescoes rarely appear at auction and unusually there is a set of six monumental gold ground frescoes by Tiepolo at this sale.  Dating from 1760 and originally at the Palazzo Porto in Vicenza (designed by Palladio) they were removed in 1900 and brought to Berlin.  Since 1966 they have been in the collection of Dr. Gustav Rau (1922-2002).  The set is estimated at £3-5 million.  The sale of 48 lots has a combined estimate of £23.7 million.

UPDATE:  With an unprecedented level of participation from new markets and buyers from 33 countries the sale realised £35,048,000. El Greco’s Christ on the Cross sold for £3,442,500.

Claude Monet Le Palais Contarini (£15-20 million). (Click on image to enlarge).

Monet’s 1908 view of Venice, Le Palais Contarini, sold for £19,682,500 at Sotheby’s in London tonight.  This is the highest price ever for a Venetian painting by the artist. The work was completed while Monet and his wife spent three months in Venice.  It has been widely exhibited around the world and was in the Turner, Whistler, Monet exhibition at Tate Britain in 2005.

Moments before Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue (1927) sold for £9,266,500. Five bidders competed for the work, which was eventually knocked down to a bidder on the telephone.

The Monet was the top lot in an auction which brought in £105,939,000, just exceeding the high pre-sale estimate of £104 million.  Bidders from 33 countries competed on the telephones, in the saleroom and online. The auction was 81.7% sold by lot.

(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 6 and May 31, 2013).

Studie zu Improvisation 3 by Wassily Kandinsky is estimated at £12.18 million. CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2013 

Wassily Kandinsy’s Expressionist masterpiece Studie zu Improvisation 3, 1909 was the top lot at Christie’s sale of Impressionist and Modern art in London on June 18.  It made £13,501, 875 in a sale with an overall total of £64,076,575 over a pre-sale estimate of £52.8-75.8 million. The auction was 84% sold by lot and 87% by value and 18 works sold for over £1 million. Modigliani’s 1916 portrait of his dealer Paul Guillaume made £6,781,875. Picasso’s Femme Assise dans un fauteuil made £6,109,875 and Paul Signac’s Sainte Anne (St. Tropez) sold for £3,533,875.

Jay Vincze, head of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie’s London said:  “This evening’s auction saw solid results and the continuing strength of selling rates in the category at Christie’s in 2013. There was great depth of bidding on works of high quality at all price levels, with strong participation from many new and existing collectors from both traditional and growth markets, including Greater China and India. The global appeal and accessibility of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie’s was further highlighted by the auction of ‘Picasso Ceramics’ at South Kensington which was 100% sold by lot and also attracted new bidders from around the world.”