Drogheda Quay by Nano Reid (1900-1981) UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,700 AT HAMMER
Nano Reid, Colin Middleton, Banksy, Edward Delaney, Pauline Bewick, Neil Shawcross, Edward Delany, Louise Mansfield, Rita Duffy and Graham Knuttel are among the artists at Whyte’s summer online art auction which ends from 6 pm onJuly 1. The sale offers a good selection of affordable and accessible art from Ireland and is on view in Dublin this afternoon and from 10 am to 5 pm next Monday. The most expensively estimated lot is a bronze An Tostal commemorative plaque by Gabriel Hayes (€2,500-€3,500). There is a wooden postcard (€400-€600) and a lithograph (€700-€1,000) by Banksy, a charcoal self portrait by Sean Keating (€1,500-€2,000), a Canal Scene by Walter Verling (€400-€600) and an etching by Dame Elisabeth Frink (€250-€350) among more than 300 lots.
Paul Henry – Hillside Cottages – UPDATE: THIS WAS BID TO 50,000 AND WAS UNSOLD
THIS small oil on board by Paul Henry with a long Cork provenance is the feature lot at Woodwards sale in Cork today. Hillside Cottages has been authenticated by art specialist Dominic Milmo-Penny. It is possibly an untraced work exhibited under another title either at The Fine Art Society in London in 1934 or in New York and Boston in 1930. The painting has aroused significant interest. Woodwards, who last sold it at auction in 1964, say a label on the back indicates it was framed by John Gilbert, Patrick St., Cork in the 1930’s. The name M. Quinlan, 6-8 South Mall is pencilled on the back and the name “Quillivan” is written in chalk. It was acquired by Michael ‘Dick’ Donegan in the 1960’s and thence by descent.
The work is part of a small private collection with paintings by Grace Henry, Alexander Williams, John Faulkner, Joseph Poole Addey and Harry Scully also on offer. The auction gets underway at 10 am today and the catalogue is online.
SÉAMUS O’COLMÁIN (1915-1990) – OÍCHE COIS LIFE (RIVER LIFFEY AT NIGHT). UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,150 AT HAMMER
OÍCHE COIS LIFE (RIVER LIFFEY AT NIGHT) by Seamus O’Colmain is at Whyte’s timed online summer art auction which runs until July 1 and is now on view at Molesworth St. in Dublin. The oil on board is estimated at 1,000-1,500. The auction offers an accessible art from Ireland and around the world. Bidding ends from 6 pm on July 1 and the catalogue is online.
The watercolour illustration for the first edition of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has become the most valuable Harry Potter item ever sold. It made $1.9 million at Sotheby’s sale of the library of Dr. Rodney P. Swantko in New York after a four way bidding battle. It had been estimated at $400,000 and $600,000 – the highest pre-sale estimate for a Harry Potter-related work.
The artist Thomas Taylor used concentrated watercolours with black pencil outlines. He was only 23 in 1997 when he made the iconic image of Harry Potter standing in front of the Hogwarts Express and it took him two days.
GERALDINE M. O’BRIEN (1922-2014) – Still Life – Vase of Flowers
Still Life – Vase of Flowers by popular the Irish botanical illustrator Geraldine O’Brien is lot 8 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall online art auction which runs until July 2. The oil on canvas is estimated at 400-600. She lived at Parteen, a village close to Limerick city, and brought flowers from her garden to arrange her work. She exhibited regularly with the Royal Hibernian Academy. The catalogue for the sale is online.
Mary Cassatt – Child in a Straw Hat, c.1886. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Women Impressionists, a special exhibition marking the first impressionist exhibition in 1874, is at the National Gallery of Ireland from June 27 to October 6. Women Impressionists will include around 60 fascinating works drawn from collections worldwide. It focusses on on four women artists who were integral to Impressionism – Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), Eva Gonzalès (1849-1883), Marie Bracquemond (1860-1914), and Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). All but Eva Gonzales exhibited at Impressionist exhibitions (of which there were eight over the following 12 years).
Impressionist artists are renowned for using friends and family members as models. This is especially so for women Impressionists, who had relatively restricted access to professional models and social spaces. They often painted scenes from everyday life in the quiet intimacy of their homes and gardens. These artists did not only look inwards but they travelled widely, they looked to contemporary art and to art history; they were engaged in the artworld and made visits to studios, exhibitions, and galleries.
Women Impressionists explores how each of these artists navigated complex personal and professional networks to create and exhibit their art. It highlights their collective desire to make modern art and shows how they interpreted the evolving idea of Impressionism in individual ways.
Highlights include an exceptional portrayal of an intimate domestic scene, The Artist’s Daughter, Julie, with her Nanny, c.1884. by Berthe Morisot (Minneapolis Institute of Art). The painting shows the artist’s daughter Julie watching her nanny sewing. Marie Bracquemond’s painting Le Goûter, c.1880 (Musée du Petit Palais)is set on the terrace of the Villa Brancas, the artist’s home in Sèvres. Mary Cassatt was one of the most original painters of women and children in the 19th-century. Her painting Susan Comforting the Baby, c.1881 (Columbus Museum of Art) shows a young woman soothing one of the artist’s infant nieces or nephews. In keeping with her Impressionism, Cassatt has left areas of canvas unpainted, and others sketched in with loose visible brushstrokes.
Dr Caroline Campbell, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, said: “In an anniversary year for the National Gallery of Ireland, as we celebrate our 160th birthday, it is very exciting to mark another important anniversary in the history of art by bringing this exhibition to Ireland. 150 years on from the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris, we look forward to opening our doors to visitors from Ireland and abroad to discover works by these four women artists. The works in our permanent collection by Berthe Morisot and Eva Gonzalès are firm favourites of our audiences so we hope that this exhibition will delight and intrigue throughout the summer.”
The exhibition was devised by Ordrupgaard, Denmark, where it was on display from February 9 to May 20, 2024.
Berthe Morisot – The Artist’s Daughter, Julie, with her Nanny, c. 1884 Minneapolis Institute of Art, The John R. Van Derlip Fund. Courtesy Minneapolis Institute of Art. Licenced under CC BY 4.0
LADY KATE DOBBIN (1868-1955) – A Showery Day, Blackrock Castle, River Lee. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
This watercolour by Lady Kate Dobbin comes up as lot 2 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online auction which begins to close at 6.30 pm today. It is estimated at €600-€900. Bristol born Lady Kate Dobbin married Alfred Graham Dobbin, a tobacco manufacturer and High Sheriff of Cork. She studied drawing and painting at the Crawford Municipal College of Art, Cork in the early 1890s and exhibited extensively with the Royal Hibernian Academy between 1894 and 1947. She painted mainly in watercolour and was a regular contributor to the Watercolour Society of Ireland over a period of 50 years. Her work is at the Crawford Gallery in Cork and many private collections.
Louise Mansfield (1950-2018) – Ocean Breeze. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,000 AT HAMMER
Ocean Breeze by Louise Mansfield is at Whyte’s summer online art auction which runs until July 1. The estimate is €2,000-€3,000 which makes it one of the more expensive lots in this auction of 324 lots of affordable Irish and international art. Viewing for this timed online auction gets underway today at Whyte’s on Molesworth St. in Dublin and the catalogue is online.
La Comedie Humaine, a 1954 Picasso lithograph printed by Mourlot, Paris, comes up at Hegarty’s sale in Bandon on June 26. The estimate is €500-€700. Galway Shawlies by Markey Robinson and a pencil sketch by John Butler Yeats also feature. There are Scottish silver serving spoons and a diamond and sapphire butterfly pendant on offer as well as two photo albums of the Gurka Royal Engineers.
19th century lead fountain. UPDATE: THIS MADE 340 AT HAMMER
Maybe this is not the best June ever to talk about such garden features but water, as distinct from incessant rain and cool weather, can add interest, tranquility and even a touch of glamour to many gardens. You can take your pick from various ways of introducing decorative water at two days of sales at Sheppards in Durrow where the annual Glantelwe Gardens sale will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday.
The daddy of them all is a large bronze neo-classical fountain (€20,000-€30,000). Among the other choices are moulded stone fountain heads (€250-€350), a large Italianate stone fountain (€2,000-€3,000), a cast iron wall mounted miniature (€100-€150), an 18th century carved stone basin (€800-€1,200), a 19th century lead fountain (€300-€500), a set of Regency cast iron fountain heads (€500-€800), large moulded fountains and some wonderfully weathered offerings.
Nestled along the River Erkina at Durrow Glantelwe – by renowned garden designer Arthur Shackleton – is a superb showcase for a sale which includes statues, lions, urns, sundials, planters, benches, seats, patio set, staddle stones, estate railing and stone troughs. Viewing gets underway today and continues on tomorrow and Monday.
A large Portland stone arch. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
