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  • Archive for February, 2019

    A COLOSSAL NUDE BY JENNY SAVILLE AT SOTHEBY’S

    Thursday, February 28th, 2019

    Juncture 1994 by Jenny Saville.  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £5,442,200

    A colossal nude titled Juncture by British artist Jenny Saville is among the highlights at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art evening sale in London on March 5.  The giantess painting will be offered with an estimate between £5,000,000-7,000,000, the highest pre-sale estimate ever placed on a work by a living female artist. A paradigm of the fleshy female body in paint and Saville’s principal subject, the work was born from the artist’s study of twentieth-century feminist theory and the male-dominated canon of traditional nude portraiture. Towering three metres tall, the painting celebrates the female body in a way that squares up to the depictions of women in the traditional art historical canon, and to modern society’s obsession with ageless perfection and petite symmetrical proportion.

    The sale will comprise a total of 68 lots, ranging from a private collection of parodic works by rebellious German duo Albert Oehlen andMartin Kippenberger, to explosive works on paper by Jean-Michel Basquiat, an iconic Pop canvas by Roy Lichtenstein, and the inexorable gaze of Lucian Freud. 70% of lots will appear on the market for the first time, with 35% heralding from five private collections including that of Marc Jacobs, David Teiger and Louis J.C. Tan.

    Albert Oehlen – Die Badenden, 1999 (£1 – 1.5 million)   UPDATE: THIS MADE £2,295,000

    Sean Scully – Landline (£700,000-£1 million)  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £831,000

    OUTSTANDING RESULTS AT CHRISTIE’S IN LONDON TONIGHT

    Wednesday, February 27th, 2019

    Gustave Caillebotte Chemin montant

    With world records for Paul Signac and Gustav Caillebotte Christie’s  Impressionist and Modern Art the the Art of the Surreal sales achieved  £165,674,500 in London tonight.  This is the second highest total for an Impressionist season in London.  The auctions were 82% sold by lot and 72% sold by value.

    Signac’s Le Port au soleil couchant, Opus 236 (Saint-Tropez) sold for £19,501,250, Caillebotte’s  Chemin montant made £16,663,750.  There were strong results for  Cezanne, Magritte and Renoir.  The top lot of the evening was Cezanne’s Still Life with Peaches and Pears which made £21.2 million. Magritte’s Le Lieu Commune made £18.3 million and Renoir’s Sentier dans le bois sold for £12.6 million.

    Paul Signac Le Port au soleil couchant, Opus 236 (Saint-Tropez)

    Paul Cézanne Nature morte de pêches et poires

    FONSIE MEALY TO HOLD HOUSE SALE IN BIRR

    Wednesday, February 27th, 2019

    Fonsie Mealy’s sale of contents from  11 Oxmantown Mall, Birr, Co. Offaly on March 5 offers a wide variety of antique furniture, art and collectibles. Estimates in the 534 lot sale vary from 2,000-3,000 for a suite of three Regency ornate French giltwood pelmets to 450-650 for a Georgian door lock, 450-650 for an English stick barometer and 2,000-3,000 for a brass hall lantern. Viewing is at the house on March 3 and 4. The sale is to be held at the County Arms Hotel in Birr.   The catalogue is online. Here is a small selection:

    George IV rosewood Breakfast Table, attributed to Gillows, c1825  UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,000 AT HAMMER

    Frederick Buck, Irish School, c. 1771 – 1840 Miniature: A good oval half length “Portrait of Man in Blue Velvet Jacket,”  UPDATE: THIS MADE 340 AT HAMMER

    Edith Oenone Somerville, 1858 – 1949 Watercolour: “He’ll not lave his den for them,” watercolour.  UPDATE: THIS MADE 700 AT HAMMER

    Geogian brass bound door lock and receiver  UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,000 AT HAMMER

    Suite of three French giltwood pelmets  UPDATE: THESE MADE 3,500 AT HAMMER

    NEW WORLD RECORD FOR A VENETIAN VIEW BY MONET AT SOTHEBY’S

    Tuesday, February 26th, 2019

    Claude Monet – Le Palais Ducal

    There was a new world record for a Venetian view by Monet at Sotheby’s in London on February 26. Le Palais Ducal from 1908 sold for £27.5 million.  The evening sales of  Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist Art brought a total of £87.7 million.  Following the strength of results for German and Austrian art at Sotheby’s New York last November, the London auction saw a continued demand for rare and important pieces from the region, with six works together bringing £25.5 million.

    The group was led by Egon Schiele’s Trieste Fishing Boat from  (1912) which sold for £10.7 million.  Schiele’s  Auf dem Bauch liegendes Mädchen, a major work on paper, was pursued by six bidders from Europe and Asia, selling for £1.6 million. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Mädchen auf dem Diwan (1906) made its auction debut at £3.8 million and was sold to benefit the Museum of Modern Art, New York’s acquisition fund.

    The Surrealist sale was led by René Magritte’sbold and beautifully painted L’Etoile du Matin (1938), which sold for £5.3 million.

    LEADING IRISH ARTISTS FEATURE AT WHYTE’S SALE

    Sunday, February 24th, 2019
    Yeats, Henry, Orpen, le Brocquy, O’Malley, McGuinness and many other leading Irish artists will feature at Whyte’s Irish and International art auction at the RDS on March 4.  Whyte’s enjoyed a record breaking year of art sales in 2018 and anticipate that more than a million worth of Irish art will change hands in this sale of 208 lots.

    There are two oils by Jack B. Yeats, A passage is Required for 1953 and Justice from 1946. Each is estimated at 100,000-150,000.  Study for a Family by Louis le Brocquy is one of a series that culminated in his celebrated work A Family in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland  This 1951 work is estimated at 50,000-70,000.  There are portrait heads of W B Yeats and Francis Bacon in the sale as well as an offering of le Brocquy’s Tain Prints guiding at 1,500-2,000 each. A Kerry Bog by Paul Henry dates to 1934-35 and is estimated at 60,000-80,000 and Margaret Clarke’s Double Portrait of Two Girls is estimated at 20,000-30,000.  The sale offers work by Banksy, Samuel Brocas, Mildred Ann Butler, William Conor, Barrie Cooke, Sir Terry Frost, Sean Keating, Tony O’Malley, Estella Solomons, Kenneth Webb and a watercolour of the proposed new post office in Sackville Street – the GPO in O’Connell St., Dublin – by its architect Francis Johnston among numerous works.  The catalogue is online. Here is a small selection:

    FRONT ELEVATION OF THE PROPOSED GENERAL POST OFFICE, DUBLIN, 1814 FRANCIS JOHNSTON RHA (1760-1829)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,800 AT HAMMER

    Justice (1946) by Jack B Yeats  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 150,000 AT HAMMER

    A Kerry Bog by Paul Henry  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 66,000 AT HAMMER

    Study for a Family 1951 by Louis le Brocquy  UPDATE: THIS MADE 49,000 AT HAMMER

    VIEWING UNDERWAY IN DURROW FOR SHEPPARDS TWO DAY SALE

    Saturday, February 23rd, 2019
    In Durrow viewing gets underway today for two days of sales at Sheppards titled Paradigms and the Unexpected on February 26 and 27.
    This auction offers more than 800 lots of furniture, decorative art, wines, sculpture, fine art, rugs, jewellery, silver, miitaria, taxidermy and Chinese and Japanese objets d’art over three sessions.
    There is an interesting selection of furniture with everything from an Irish 18th century carved giltwood console table to Chinese lacquered cabinets, silver tables, carved oriental hardwood tables, antique Regency pier mirrors, Qing ceremonial furniture, a Grand Tour specimen marble top table and an 18th century lacquered cabinet on stand.

    Heading the small selection of wine is a cased lot of 12 bottles of Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2009 (4,000-6,000).  The auction gets underway with 34 lots of affordable jewellery followed by art including a Cork School portrait of a man smoking a pipe by Charles Henry Cook (500-700) and a 19th century terracotta bust of George Bernard Shaw by H. Bain Smith (800-1,200). There are bronze sculptures and English Civil War helmets and breastplates, Persian rugs and a Donegal runner.  The catalogue is online.

    (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for February 20, 2019)

    Irish 18th century carved giltwood console table

    An 18th century lacquered cabinet on stand

    SPRING ART SELLING SEASON TO START IN LONDON NEXT WEEK

    Friday, February 22nd, 2019

    The big art selling season gets underway in London next week with Impressionist and Mondern Art and the Art of the Surreal evening sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s on February 26 and 27 respectively.

    Highlights at Sotheby’s include Monet’s Le Palais Ducal in Venice (£20-30 million) and Egon Schiele’s modernist vision of a Trieste fishing boat (£6-8 million) as well as three visually arresting paintings by Magritte as well as work by Kirchner, Chagall, Picasso, Rodin, Degas, Jean Arp and Man Ray.

    Christie’s will offer Monet’s waterlilies – Saule pleureur et bassin aux nympheas, a Still Life by Cezanne, an early Van Gogh portrait and art by Paul Signac, Gustav Caillebotte, le Corbusier, Degas, Picasso and Alexej  von Jawlensky.  Here is a sample of upcoming highlights:

    Paul Cézanne Nature morte de pêches et poires at Christie’s  UPDATE: THIS MADE £21.2 MILLION

    Egon Schiele (1890 – 1918)
    Triestiner Fischerboot (Trieste Fishing Boat) at Sotheby’s  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £10.7 MILLION

    Gustave Caillebotte Chemin montant at Christie’s  UPDATE: THIS MADE £16.6 MILLION

    Claude Monet – Le Palais Ducal at Sotheby’s  UPDATE: THIS MADE £27.5 MILLION

    OVER 1,000 LOTS IN DUBLIN CONVENT CLEARANCE SALE

    Friday, February 22nd, 2019
    Over 1,000 lots will come under the hammer in Dublin on March 5 and 6 when Matthews of Oldcastle offer contents from Our Lady Queen of Peace convent and nursing home off Garville Avenue, Rathgar.  This is a clearance auction which will include vintage items and antiques, medical equipment, the residual contents of a house on nearby Temple Road and a variety of other vendors including Oriental lots from an American collector.  Orwell Private is refurbishing and modernising the facility.  Viewing gets underway on March 2.

    This figure is lot 541

    A consul table

    THE EASTER RISING IN CO. GALWAY

    Thursday, February 21st, 2019

    ‘Reward of Merit Royal Irish Constabulary’ (Constable Michael Lavelle No. 62279 1916)

    The Easter Rising is Co. Galway is recalled at a two day auction at Dix Noonan Webb in London on February 27-28.  Lot 176 is a 1916 ‘Easter Rising’ Constabulary Medal (Ireland) awarded to Constable M. Lavelle, Royal Irish Constabulary, for his gallantry in the defence of the Police Barracks at Gort, Co. Galway, on April 25, 1916. This was Easter Tuesday, the day after the Rebellion started in Dublin.  At 7.20 am on that day there was an attack on the police barracks at Gort which continued until 10:30 a.m. The barracks was fired upon, and the windows were smashed. The rebels numbered 100 at first, but the number increased as time went on. Stone barricades were built across the road at each end of the village.

    The barracks was defended and held by five policemen, who were first called upon to surrender by rebels who threatened to blow up the barracks. It was attacked with rifle fire, and bombs were exploded outside. The police were called on twice to surrender through the Rev. Tully, but refused, and held on for over three hours.
    The rebels then withdrew to Clarenbridge, where they were reinforced by others. An attack was made on Oranmore Barracks. The attack there commenced shortly after noon. The railway line and the telegraph poles were cut, and a large hole was made in the bridge. The barracks at Oranmore was defended by four policemen until relief came at 7:30 p.m. through the arrival of a party of police and military from Galway. Lavelle’s medal is estimated at £3,000-4,000.

    UPDATE:  This sold for £7,800

    QING DYNASTY BOWLS AT SHEPPARDS IN DURROW

    Wednesday, February 20th, 2019

    A pair of Qing Dynasty famille rose peach bowls has come up as an important late entry to Sheppards two day sale in Durrow on Feburary 26-27.  Lot 849 is described as:  Qing Dynasty, with deep rounded sides resting on a short foot, enamelled in vivid tones of rose-pink, shades of green, and yellow, decorated with flowers and peaches, the base inscribed in underglaze blue, with a six-character reign mark of Yongzheng within a double-circle, and probably of the period.  The lot is estimated at 8,000-12,000 and the bowls measure 14.2 cms in diameter.  At this stage this is the last lot of the auction and will end the morning session on February 27. The Paradigms and the Unexpected auction offers furniture, decorative art, sculpture, fine art, Oriental porcelain and furniture, rugs and collectibles over three sessions.  The catalogue is online.

    UPDATE:  THESE SOLD FOR 100,000