antiquesandartireland.com

The sculpture auction by Morgan O’Driscoll at the  RDS Minerva Suite in Dublin on June 9 features 96 lots.  The collection on offer is notable for its diversity and features work by Irish, UK and French artists. No less than 82 lots are to be sold entirely without reserve.  The catalogue is online. Here is  a small selection.

John Behan (b1932) Ghost Famine Ship (unique) (15,000-20,000)  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 13,000

Sea Horse by Helen Walsh (unique) (1,000-1,500).  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 1,600

A Slice of Dublin (unique) by John Cohen (b1932) (2,000-2,500).  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 1,700

Goldfish by Peter Killeen (edition 2/6) (900-1,200)  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 1,300

A group of four works from the collection of Ralph C. Wilson jnr., founder of the Buffalo Bills NFL franchise, will lead Sotheby’s sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in London on June 23.  The collection is highlighted by two paintings by Claude Monet.  Ralph Wilson was best known as the longtime owner of the Buffalo Bills. He was also a passionate collection of art.  Seeking out the finest examples he acquired these four examples in the 1990’s. Monet’s La Seine a Argenteuil is estimated at £7-10 million while his 1888 view of Antibes has an estimate of £6-8 million; Jeunes Femme dan les Fleurs by Edouard Manet is estimated at £4-6 million and Les Bords du Loing by Alfred Sisley is estimated at £1-1.5 million.

CLAUDE MONET (1840 – 1926)
LA SEINE À ARGENTEUIL  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £8,358,500

ALFRED SISLEY (1839 – 1899)
LES BORDS DU LOING  UPDATE: THIS MADE £1,082,500

Francis Bacon
Three Studies for Portrait of George Dyer (on Light Ground)  (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)  UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR £26,682,500

An outstanding example by Francis Bacon – Three Studies for Portrait of George Dyer (on light ground) – will come up at Sotheby’s in London on  June 30.  The small scale triptych dates from 1964 and is estimated at £15-20 million. It is one of only five known depictions of Dyer in this intimate format reserved by the artist for what are widely regarded as the most profoundly personal and  intense portraits of the 20th century.  The record for a small scale triptych by Bacon is £23 million set at Sotheby’s in London in 2011 for his portrait of Lucian Freud.

The rare lifetime depiction of Dyer, the man who was the love of Bacon’s life at the moment when they were most deeply involved, is full of the painterly exuberance that marks out Bacon as one of the greatest painters of the 20th century.  The work is a counterpoint to the black portraits of Dyer painted in the early 1970’s.  Their affair began in 1963. In the autumn of 1971 they travelled to Paris for the major Bacon retrospective at the Grand Palais. Barely 36 hours before the opening George Dyer was found dead from an overdose of sleeping pills in their hotel suite.   Grief stricken and haunted, Bacon continued to paint Dyer for a number of years.

This museum quality work is in all likelihood the first painting for which Bacon used the legendary photographs by his friend John Deakin as the source material.  In early 1964 Bacon commissioned Deakin, a former Vogue photographer and a drinking pal,  to take photos of Dyer and other regulars at Soho’s Colony Room. These photographs had a huge influence on his portraits from then on. The painting, which has been in the same collection since 1970, comes to auction for the first time ever.