Major evening winter sales of art take place in Dublin at Whyte’s on December 2 and James Adam on December 4. There are two works by William Scott (1913-1989) at Adams purchased from his estate and never before on the market. Still Life with Pan and Bowl is estimated at 200,000-300,000 and Red on Red has an estimate of 150,000-200,000. Dated to 1967 this latter work featured in his retrospective at the Tate Gallery in 1972 and is related to the RTE abstract of the same year commissioned for RTE which sold for £187,500 at Sotheby’s in London last week. In sharp contrast to this work Cottages by a Lake by Paul Henry, one of three paintings in this auction by an artist whose work achieves stellar results, is estimated at 80,000-120,000. There is a portrait of J.P. Dunleavy painted by Robert Ballagh to mark his 60th birthday and The Irish Farm by Margaret Clarke is the original 1930 artwork for the Empire Marketing Board Free State Butter poster. There are some highly affordable artworks with low estimates of up to 600 by artists like Anita Shelbourne RHA, Imogen Stuart, Colin Middleton, Mainie Jellett, Rosamund Praeger, Ronald Ossory Dunlop and Elizabeth Rivers. If the budget stretches to 1,000 and beyond the choice widens considerable.
Whyte’s, which goes on view at the RDS today hot on the heels of the sale of the Ernie O’Malley collection last Monday, offers art by Yeats, le Brocquy, Dan O’Neill, Sir William Orpen and Paul Henry alongside international artists like Andy Warhol and a selection of 19 North American works from the collection of Anglo Irish Banks. These are from their New York office and are being sold by the special IBRC liquidator. Why Anglo in their heyday did not avail of the opportunity to hang Irish art in their New York offices is yet another Irish banking mystery. The 238 lots on offer at Whyte’s includes a joyous Bahamas canvas by Tony O’Malley titled Air, Water, Light (40,000-60,000) which was purchased from the collection of the Bank of Ireland almost a decade ago. A painting of Glencree, Co. Wicklow by Paul Henry is estimated at 60,000-80,000. Given what Whyte’s describe as an upsurge of interest in the work of Irish women artists there should be plenty of bidders for a selection of paintings by Letitia Hamilton and one by her sister Eva. A portrait of James Joyce by Louis le Brocquy is estimated at 18,000-22,000 and a 1952 work by Maurice MacGonigal depicts the artists wife and family with dog at Errisberg, Co. Mayo (20,000-30,000). Lot 46, Figures on a staircase, York St., Dublin by Patrick Hennessy was painted in 1942 when the street was the site of a terrace of grand Georgian houses that had become one of the worst tenements in Dublin. They were pulled down in the 1960’s to make way for modern social housing. In this work Hennessy documents some of the grimmest poverty to be found anywhere in the country with large families in single rooms, no sanitation and no privacy. He depicts a woman reading a newspaper on the landing with another woman looking out nervously from her doorway at a time of war. The work is estimated at 8,000-10,000.
The Anglo collection was acquired mostly through artists agents and galleries and offers a selection of mostly contemporary North American artists at price guides ranging from 500 to 2,000. Three of the works, in sets of nine, five and three respectively, are more expensively estimated. They are Glass Series 2004 by Kermit Berg (4,000-5,000); Scene Studies 2000 by Carla Arocha (3,000-5,000) and Seething City This is and We Experience by Gabart Farrar (2,000-3,000).
