Shouting, an epic large scale work by Jack B. Yeats, made a hammer price of €1.4 million at Whyte’s sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin tonight. With fees and VAT this amounted to €1.74 million. It had been estimated at €1.5 million – €2 million, making it the most expensively estimated Irish artwork to come to sale in Ireland. Painted in 1950 this visionary work, painted late in his career, is considered to be one of his finest achievements. It ranks as one of the most expensive Yeats paintings ever sold. At the sale of the Ernie O’Malley Collection at Whyte’s in Dublin in 2019 Reverie and Evening in Spring, both by Yeats, made €1.4 and €1.3 million respectively. In 2001 The Whistle of a Jacket made £1.4 million (€1.65 million) at Christie’s in London and The Wild Ones by Yeats made £1.2 million (€1.42 million) at Sotheby’s in 1999. The winter selling season of Irish art has proved to be spectacular so far. Sales at Sotheby’s, de Veres and Bonhams last week achieved an aggregate of around €7 million. With 50 in room bidders, 500 on-line bidders and about 60 telephone bidders Whyte’s added another €2.5 million to that total with 85% of lots sold. There were new world records for Grace Henry and Graham Knuttel. With big sales at Morgan O’Driscoll on November 30 and at James Adam in Dublin on December 8 in the offing the winter selling season for Irish art is set to surpass €10 million easily. Irish women artists fared particularly well at Whyte’s. The Fortune Teller by Grace Henry made €37,000 at hammer over a top estimate of €7,000; A Cove in Lake Garda by Letitia Hamilton made €17,000 over a top estimate of €12,000 and The Stringagh (Co. Meath) by Nano Reid made €12,000 over a top estimate of €8,000.
