O’Connell Bridge by Yeats was the most expensive Irish painting sold this year
The strength of the current market for Irish art is on plain view. Around €5 million worth of Irish art was auctioned at Adams, Whyte’s, de Veres and Morgan O’Driscoll in latter weeks.
This following some sterling results in November. The sale of the Hobart collection – most made up of Irish art – at Christie’s in November realised more than €7 million euro. O’Connell Bridge by Jack B Yeats from the collection of Pyms Gallery founders Mary and Alan Hobart sold for £882,200 (€1,055,890) to become the most expensive piece of Irish art at auction in 2024.
At Sotheby’s in London the previous week Sir William Orpen’s dazzling portrait of Mrs. Evelyn St. George sold for £720,000 (€866,230).
Horsemen by Jack B Yeats from the collection of Vincent O’Brien at Adams
There was excitement around the sale of the Jacqueline and Vincent O’Brien collection at Adams at the beginning of the month. Horse paintings by Yeats from the collection of Ireland’s greatest trainer seemed a seductive mix. Even though Adams had plenty of interest at viewings in London, Belfast and Dublin the top lots failed to sell on the night.
What happened? Had Yeats’s horse paintings put a stop to the gallop of the market for Irish art? The market held its breath, for a long moment. Until the announcement by Adams the following day that the four top paintings from the collection had been sold after the auction. They made a total of €1.3 million at hammer prices.
Horsemen and He Reads a Book each made €400,000. Two other works by Yeats, The Window with a view of the town and Willie Reilly made €250,000 and €100,000 respectively. And Orpen’s Old John’s Cottage from the O’Brien collection sold for €250,000.
Sir William Orpen – Old John’s Cottage
There is a poignant story to the latter work, painted by Orpen in 1907 in the interior of the Connemara cabin of Sean and Maire Geoghegan. The grief they felt over the departure of their granddaughter for New York is evident. This is an American wake. She would enter domestic service and never be seen again.
Paul Henry’s Killary Bay, Connemara, made €210,000 at Whyte’s this month, Old Road, Cahirciveen by Yeats made €160,000 at Morgan O’Driscoll and The Sleeping Sea by Yeats made €100,000 at de Veres.
Killary Bay, Connemara by Paul Henry
The top lot at Bonhams latest Irish sale was a South of France landscape by Mary Swanzy which made €43,520. Snow on the Hills, Rockbrook, Co. Dublin by Norah McGuinness made €20,480 and the collection of 20 lots by the artist consigned by her family was entirely sold. Letitia Marion Hamilton’s Ca d’Ora, Venice made €33,280 over a top estimate of €7,000.
These leading Irish artworks are finding buyers in a market where a lot of works by Yeats, Orpen, Lavery and Paul Henry have made recent appearances. It seems as if volume, rather than dampening demand, is stimulating it.
The market is expanding. Our economy is growing and Irish art is getting more international exposure than ever before. Collectors in England, USA, Hong Kong, China, Italy and Spain were among the bidders at Whyte’s most recent sale and there was worldwide interest in the O’Brien collection at Adams. Our art market is relatively conservative and much more immune to the speed bumps that have hit the international contemporary art market. The indicators are all facing in the right direction.
Old Road, Cahirciveen by Yeats
