The autumn selling season is underway with a vengeance. Art auctions, fairs and large sales of antiques and collectibles will keep many people busy next week. The choice confronting auction goers and collectors in Ireland right now is nothing short of dizzying. Collectors of art can sharpen their focus as viewings are underway in Dublin for sales of Important Irish Art by Whyte’s on September 26 and at James Adam on September 28. A trip to Dublin this weekend also creates an opportunity to drop in to Timeless, the Irish Antique Dealers Fair which continues at the RDS today and tomorrow.
The capital is exerting a strong pull but an online sale of affordable Irish art by Morgan O’Driscoll until Tuesday (September 27) offers opportunities to view in Skibbereen and a number of important sales around the country are on view too.Against a background where the Irish art market is growing year on year Whyte’s will offer two 1946 works by Yeats, The Changing Dawn (€250,0000-€350,000) and River Mouth (€200,000-€300,000). Among the artworks of a completely contrasting styles on the catalogue of 150 lots are William Scott’s Chinese Orange III (€40,000-€60,000), Black and White She Scarecrow by John Shinnors (€25,000-€35,000) and Stephen McKenna’s Interior Scene (€8,000-€10,000).
The choice at James Adam ranges from the late 19th century to the present day. A c1891 portrait by Roderic O’Conor, Le Marin Barbu (€60,000-€80,000) and a self portrait by Gerard Dillon titled Man on a chair (€50,000-€80,000) are the most expensively estimated lots. Fisherman with Lobster c1937 (€15,000-€20,000) by Charles Lamb which depicts Padraic Ghrealis of Rinn, Connemara was once a key work on the wall of Lambs Restaurant at the Seagoe Hotel in Portadown, hometown of the artist.Two paintings in the unmistakable Modern style of Norah McGuinness, Waterweeds and Day’s End, Dublin Bay – each estimated at €30,000-€40,000 – once adorned the walls of Ballymascanlon House Hotel near Carlingford in Co. Louth. A panoramic view of Clifden on a grand scale by Maurice MacGonigal comes with an estimate of €15,000-€20,000, as does Portrait of a Young Woman by Dan O’Neill.
