K. Knitting by Colin Middleton at James Adam. UPDATE: THIS MADE 21,000 AT HAMMER
This one or that one? With sales of Irish art at de Veres on Tuesday on March 26, James Adam on the following evening and a Spring online art sale running at Whyte’s until March 25 the key decision facing many collectors of Irish art in the coming week is what to choose.
If like so many collectors you love John Behan’s Famine Ships and have not yet got around to acquiring one there will be an opportunity to do so at de Veres. Lot 21, a signed and dated bronze Famine Ship from 2021, is estimated at €8,000-€12,000. The most expensively estimated lot is Sean Keating’s Eliza Doolittle in Dublin (€50,000-€70,000). Art by Keating, Colin Middleton, Patrick Collins, John Behan, John B Vallely, Felim Egan and George Russell head up the catalogue at de Veres.
Famine Ship (2021) by John Behan at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,000 AT HAMMER
The sale is characterised by a variety that encompasses fairly abstract works like Menhirs on the Plain by Patrick Collins (€10,000-€15,000) and Pool by Felim Egan (€7,000-€10,000) to landscapes like Resting in the Wood by George Russell (€7,000-€10,000) and a Wind Blown Tree in Killary by Letitia Marion Hamilton (€4,000-€6,000). There is a collection of works on paper by Mainie Jellett and art by Tim Goulding, Peter Curling, Tony O’Malley, Sean McSweeney, Barrie Cooke, Desmond Carrick, Roy Lyndsey, Arthur Maderson and many others with estimates from as little as €100.
Painting and sculpture by many of Ireland’s best loved artists from the 19th century to the present day will feature at Wednesday evening’s sale of Important Irish Art at James Adam. The most expensively estimated lots are The Bog (1911) by Paul Henry (€60,000-€80,000), Spring Morning (1957) by Patrick Collins (€30,000-€50,000) from the collection of Sir Basil Goulding and K. Knitting by Colin Middleton from the early 1960’s (€15,000-€20,000). This modernist work in Cubist style depicts the artist’s wife Kathleen in an intimate domestic scene.
Aubusson Tapestry entitled Woman and Two Bantam Cocks by Pauline Bewick and Regine Bartsch at James Adam. UPDATE: THIS MADE 6,000 AT HAMMER
There are estimates of from €10,000-€15,000 on Lot and his Daughters by Dan O’Neill, Being by Louis le Brocquy, Solitude, Lough Neagh by Dan O’Neill and Rebuilding of Monte Cassino by Patrick Hennessy which featured on these pages last Saturday. This work was exhibited at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2016 and is one of a number in the sale by Patrick Hennessy and Harry Robertson Craig from the collection of Dublin couple George and Pamela Fegan, friends of both artists.
There is a selection of work by women artists like sisters Eva and Letitia Hamilton, Grace Henry, Evie Hone and Pauline Bewick. Bewick is not widely known for her tapestries and the sale offers a collaboration with Kerry based artist Regine Bartsch titled Woman and Two Bantam Cocks. Woven by Aubusson master weaver Bernard Battu in 2003 it is based on a tapestry woven by Bartsch for Bewick in the mid 1980’s and is estimated at €1,000-€2,000.
The sale offers 19th century oils by James Arthur O’Connor, John Henry Campbell and Thomas Sautelle Roberts and 20th century sculpture by artists including John Behan, Bob Quinn, Oisin Kelly, Eamon O’Doherty and Patrick O’Reilly.
The Spring art online sale at Whyte’s celebrates a selection of affordable art from Ireland and around the world. There should be Cork interest in two etchings by James Barry (€500-€700), a pencil drawing by Daniel Maclise (€150-€200) and a miniature portrait of a boy by Adam Buck (€400-€600). There are prints and etchings by William Crozier, Elizabeth Frink, Ronnie Wood, Jack B Yeats, Elizabeth Rivers and Bernard Dunston and a wide selection of work by acclaimed Irish artists.
Catering for many tastes and both deep and shallow pockets these sales combine to present a fascinating and complex array of beautiful choices. Now it is over to you…..
Wind Blown Tree, Killary by Letitia Marion Hamilton at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE 12,000 AT HAMMER