Allegory, an Aubusson tapestry by Louis le Brocquy, was the top lot at de Veres art and sculpture sale in Dublin last night. It sold for a hammer price of 92,000. Patrick O’Reilly’s GI Bear, unique and bronze, measuring eight feet by nine feet, which had been displayed outside the Merrion Hotel, sold for a hammer price of 80,000.
Louis le Brocquy – Allegory
Other top hammer prices include: Rowan Gillespie Portrait of a Dreamer 67,000; Louis le Brocquy Tinker Breaks Whitethorn 42,000; Patrick O’Reilly Bear 30,000; Stephen McKenna Black and Yellow Lighthouse 29,000; Patrick Scott, Gold Painting 28,000; Walter Osborne, High St., Rye 17,500 and F E McWilliam Carving 16,500.
Impressionist and Modern masterpieces features at Sotheby’s evening and day sales in London on June 18 and 19 respectively. Helena Newman, Worldwide Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department commented: “From Monet to Modigliani, this season’s London sales bring together outstanding works by some of the world’s most beloved and sought-after artists”.
Claude Monet, Nymphéas, 1908 (£25-35 million)
“Monet’s Nymphéas – an iconic image of his most celebrated subject – is at the same time radical and poetic, whilst Modigliani’s deeply arresting portrait of an unnamed youth unites the personal and the archetypal. These outstanding works have remained unseen for over half a century in their respective private collections and epitomise quality and freshness, both critical criteria for today’s global collectors. They will be offered alongside defining examples from landmark moments of Impressionism and Modern Art.”
Amedeo Modigliani, Jeune homme assis, les mains croisées sur less genoux, 1918 (£16-24 million)
Rich pickings await collectors at two sales of Irish art in Dublin and one in London this week. The evening sale of art and sculpture at de Veres on June 11 offers three tapestries by le Brocquy including Allegory from 1950 (60,000-90,000). This series rarely appears at auction. There is as well a fine watercolour from his Tinkers series (40,000-60,000).The auction features work by artists like Patrick Scott, Mainie Jellett, Hughie O’Donoghue, Tony O’Malley, Robert Ballagh, Stephen McKenna and Sean McSweeney.A feature of this auction is the sculpture section, on view in the garden of The Merrion Hotel. The first piece on view is a massive bronze GI Bear by Patrick O’Reilly standing outside the hotel on Merrion Street (80,000-120,000).
Tinker Picking Whitethorn, a watercolour by Louis le Brocquy at de Veres UPDATE: THIS MADE 42,000 AT HAMMER
Interest in the work of Mary Swanzy has hugely increased in latter years, helped no doubt by her major exhibition currently at the Crawford in Cork previously on show at IMMA. Her South of France Landscape dating from around 1915 is lot 38 at the James Adam evening sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on June 1. It is estimated at 20,000-30,000.Low Water, Spring Tide, Clifden by Jack. B, Yeats dates to 1906 and is his first oil painting, created when he was moving on from watercolour. It is estimated at 40,000-60,000 at Adams. The sale offers a number of fine 18th and 19th century landscapes by artists including William Sadler, John Henry Campbell, Frederick Brocas and William Ashford. Lot 62 is a monumental bronze by Edward Delaney featured in an RTE still photograph of the poet Patrick Kavanagh in 1962. Titled Cathedral it is estimated at 15,000-20,000. There are abstract works by Cecil King, William Scott, Felim Egan and Michael Farrell, A Connemara Landscape by Paul Henry and a 1920’s portrait by the English painter Gerald Leslie Brockhurst of Florence Forsythe. Adams point out that a portrait of film star Merle Oberon by Brockhurst sold last year for $290,000. Adams has a more modest estimate of 20,000-40,000 on their example.The Irish selection on offer at Bonhams Modern British and Irish art sale in London on June 12 is headed by Yeats’ Romeo and Juliet. There are two Irish sketches by L.S. Lowry as well as works by Louis le Brocquy, Colin Middleton, Rowan Gillespie, William Scott, Sean Scully and Sir John Lavery.
South of France Landscape by Mary Swanzy at James Adam UPDATE: THIS MADE 32,000 AT HAMMER
AN exciting archive of accounts from the first Dail of 1919 is included in Fonsie Mealy’s sale of books, literature, manuscripts and collectibles at the Talbot Hotel in Dublin on June 18. These are described as the financial sinews of the struggle for Independence with some accounts almost certainly written by Michael Collins. Previously unpublished, they are from the archive of Domhnall Ua Conchubhair (1872-1935), sometime secretary to the Gaelic League, accountant to Sinn Fein, the First Dail and allied bodies. The archive contains a green clothbound ledger with 20 pages of loan and deposit accounts for the Dail of 1921-22 with a separate page of military claims. This includes a note stating that amounts paid to the M. Collins account are not entered in the books of the Sinn Fein Bank and taken from notebook only. As far as Fonsie Mealy knows these accounts are unpublished and have not been seen or quoted by any historian. The estimate for the archive is 15,000-20,000. UPDATE: THIS MADE 18,000 AT HAMMER
Viewing gets underway in Dublin today for the auction of Important Irish Art at James Adam on June 12 at 6 pm. Prime lots include Homeward Bound by Sean Keating (60,000-80,000), Cottages in a Landscape by Paul Henry (60,000-80,000), Low Water, Spring Tide, Clifden by Jack B. Yeats (40,000-60,000) and Cuchulainn VIII, 1999, an Aubusson tapestry by Louis le Brocquy (30,000-50,000). The selection is broad and the catalogue is online.
Seán Keating PRHA (1889-1977) Homeward Bound UPDATE: THIS MADE 76,000 AT HAMMER
Upcoming at de Veres art and sculpture sale in Dublin on June 11 is Rowan Gillespie’s Portrait of a Dreamer 1982 (Homage to John Lennon) with an estimate of 40,000-60,000. Other works in this sale include a complex gold painting by Patrick Scott and a Horse with Rider by Michael Quane. Louis le Brocquy is represented by three tapestries including ‘Allegory’ from 1950. Among the artists in the sale are Patrick Scott, Mainie Jellet, Hughie O’Donoghue, Tony O’Malley, Robert Ballagh, Stephen McKenna and Sean McSweeney. Viewing of the sculpture in this auction is to take place in the garden of The Merrion Hotel. The catalogue is online.
Portrait of a Dreamer by Rowan Gillespie UPDATE: THIS MADE 67,500 AT HAMMER
A first edition of Ulysses, number 30 of 100 copies signed by Joyce and printed on fine Dutch handmade paper, comes up at Fonsie Mealy’s Rare Books, Literature, Manuscripts, Collectibles and Ephemera sale at the Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan, Dublin on June 18. Described by Fonsie Mealy as the cornerstone of any Irish collection copies of this most desireable printing are all but unavailable now. Most of the original copies are securely lodged in institutional and important collections from which they are unlikely to emerge. These copies are from the full edition of 1000 finely bound by Buddenbrooks of Boston in full patinated black morocco with dark green inlays. This rare prize is estimated at 70,000-90,000.
There was a new record for any work – collaboration or independent design – by Eugène Printz and Jean Dunand at Christie’s design sale in New York. A cabinet by the pair achieved $5,496,000 during a protracted bidding war among three telephone bidders, smashing the pre-sale auction estimate of $300,000-$500,000. This result is the highest price for a work of French Art Deco since Eileen Gray’s Dragon Chair sold for $28 million at Christie’s 2009 auction of the Collection of Yves Saint Laurent et Pierre Bergé, and the third all-time highest price for a work of 20th and 21st Century furniture design. The auction totalled $14,038,250, selling 80% by lot and 96% by value.
EUGÈNE PRINTZ (1889-1948) AND JEAN DUNAND (1877-1942) IMPORTANT CABINET, CIRCA 1937
A Yeats painting based on the last scene of Gounod’s 1867 opera Romeo and Juliet based on Shakespeare’s tragedy is a highlight at Bonham’s Modern British and Irish art sale in London on June 12. Painted in 1927 the much exhibited work depicts the ending of the play in the Capulet family mausoleum. Waking from a drugged coma Juliet finds the lifeless body of Romeo, who had committed suicide believing his wife to be dead. Stricken with grief Juliet takes her own life. Yeats shows the bodies of the star crossed lovers slumped at the front of the tomb. It is estimated at £80,000-120,000. The sale features two drawings of Londonderry by L.S. Lowry dated 1961 and 1962. Each is estimated at £20,000-30,000.
JACK B YEATS – ROMEO AND JULIET. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £62,562 on July 1, 2020
The Maharajahs and Mughal Magnificent sale at Christie’s in New York on June 19 promises to be the most valuable jewellery auction ever – eclipsing that of Elizabeth Taylor which totalled $144 million in December of 2011.The mystic east at its most fabulous is revealed in this unprecedented group of jewels, gemstones, and decorative objects from The Al Thani Collection. It consists of almost 400 lots spanning more than 500 years.The Al Thani family rules Qatar and many of the pieces in the sale have been seen at exhibitions of their collection at The Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Among many highlights are the Patiala Ruby Choker created by Cartier Paris in 1931 which is considered by many to be the finest ruby necklace ever made and a riviere necklace from the collection of the Nizam of Hyderabad with nearly 200 carats of fine Golconda diamonds.Works from the Al Thani Collection will be shown at a new museum space due to open in central Paris next year. The museum will provide for the long term display of select pieces drawn from across the entire collection.
THE PATIALA RUBY CHOKER
Significant historical pieces are complemented by an important selection from the 20th century by the houses of Bulgari, Cartier, Janesich, Lacloche, Linzeler, Mauboussin, and Mellerio. The Patiala Ruby Choker was commissioned by Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, one of the Cartier’s most important Indian clients of the 1920’s and ’30’s. He often travelled to Paris with trunks of diamonds and gemstones from his treasury for Cartier’s workshops.
The Arcot II, D Colour, Internally flawless, one of two diamonds presented to Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, by Muhammad Ali Wallajah, Nawab of Arcot.
