From Sean Scully and John Behan to Pauline Bewick and Mainie Jellett the selection available at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online Irish art auction which runs to March 8 is comprehensive. Untitled 1996, a unique watercolour, No. 47 from a series of 50, by Sean Scully is estimated at 6,000-9,000. Abstract Composition in gouache by Mainie Jellett is estimated at 4,000-6,000. There is interest in Cat in Winter in the Glass House by Pauline Bewick (5,000-7,000) and John Behan’s Famine Tree (10,000-15,000) and many of the other works. The catalogue is online.
Untitled (1996) by Sean Scully. UPDATE: THIS MADE 17,000 AT HAMMER
A match ticket to the fatal Bloody Sunday game at Croke Park in 1920 sold for a hammer price of 7,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s collectors sale on March 3. It had been estimated at 2,000-3,000 and after competitive internet bidding it went to a buyer in Ireland. Shootings at the game followed the early morning assassination of eleven British Intelligence Agents, “The Cairo Gang,” in an operation organised by Michael Collins. The British retaliated later that day at Croke Park. Military and Auxiliary Forces fired into the a crowd indiscriminately, killing twelve people and wounding about sixty. A total of 73 issues of Limerick War News, later the South Western Command War News from July to October 1922 sold for 6,500 at hammer. This is one of the rarest of all Civil War journals.
De luxe edition of the Harry Potter series aroused much interest. A first edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets signed by J.K. Rowling made 5,000 at hammer; a signed first edition of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban made 4,800 and a signed de luxe edition of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone made 4,000.
The spring season of interactive livestream 20th century art sales launched in London and New York by Christie’s on March 1 made a total of £43,702,515. Over 145,000 viewers tuned into the sales through Facebook, You Tube, Christies.com and Christie’s Live™ with collectors from 12 countries over 5 continents achieving combined sell-through rates of 98% by lot and 100% by value. In New York A Family Collection: Works on Paper, Van Gogh to Freud, a grouping of eight works made a total of £18,070,765. Van Gogh’s rare portrait La Mousmé sold for £7,459,614 and there was a world auction record for Augustus John’s Head of a Girl (Edie McNeill) which made £348,463. In London Sir Winston Churchill’s Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque set a new world auction record price of £8,285,000 after a nine-minute battle between 10 bidders. Sir John Lavery’s The Viscountess Castlerosse, Palm Springs, from the collection of Charles Delevingne, sold for £862,500, a record for a portrait by the artist. Sir Michael Craig-Martin’s With Red Shoes set a new world auction record for the artist of £325,000.
Christie’s Modern British Art day sale on March 2 realised a total of £5,427,375, selling 84% by lot and 86% by value. The sale was led by John Nash’s still life A Window in Buckswhich realised £375,000, more than 10 times its low estimate and a new world auction record for the artist. Vanessa Bell’s Autumn Bouquetsold for £256,250 against a pre-sale estimate of £25,000-35,000, also a new world auction record for the artist.
There was a new world auction record for Sir Winston Churchill at Christie’s in London this evening when his Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque(1943) sold for £8,285,000. The only work Churchill created during the Second World War was once in the collection of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who are divorcing. It was offered for sale by the Jolie Family Collection. Churchill painted it in Marrakech following the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. and gifted it to Franklin D. Roosevelt. This act was seen not only as an indication of their friendship but of the special relationship between the UK and the USA.
Sir Winston Churchill began painting scenes of Morocco after being encouraged to visit the country by his painting tutor, Sir John Lavery. Upon his first visit in 1935, he felt that the light and scenery were unrivalled, creating some 45 paintings of the country.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for February 2, 2021)
Sir Winston Churchill, Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque. Painted in January 1943, it made £8,285,000
Nassau St. and Trinity College, Dublin by Colin Gibson is lot number 23 at Whyte’s timed spring online art sale which gets underway in Dublin at 6 pm today (March 1). The oil on board is estimated at €700-€1,000. More than 260 lots with estimates from 60 to 5,000 are on offer. UPDATE: THIS PAINTING MADE 1,000 AT HAMMER
More than 20 works by L.S. Lowry will highlight the Modern British Art sale at Christie’s on March 2. They range from seascapes and crowd scenes to portraits including Man in a Trilby from the estates of L.S. Lowry and Carol Ann Lowry. There is work by Pauline Boty, Patrick Caulfield, Peter Blake, Michael Craig-Martin’s and the St Ives School is represented by Terry Frost ,Roger Hilton, Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis.
Ben Nicholson, 1946 (Tibetan) (estimate: £100,000-150,000) and L.S. Lowry, Man in a Trilby (1960, estimate: £150,000-250,000). UPDATE: THE NICHOLSON MADE £118,750 AND THE LOWRY SOLD FOR £150,000
