Jack Butler Yeats RHA, 1871-1957
THE RETURN FROM THE PICNIC (1925)
THE change apparent in the market for Irish art in 2014 was re-enforced at de Veres auction of Important Irish Art in Dublin last night. All the top lots were sold and there was competition for the best lots. This is in contrast to the situation during the height of the continung recession in Ireland. For de Veres Rory Guthrie commented that the sale, which brought in 365,000, exceeded expectations. There was no shortage of new buyers and plenty of online bidding. The top lot was Sean Keating’s Unloading the Catch, which sold for a hammer price of 52,000 over an estimate of 40,000-60,000. The Return from the Picnic, a small oil on board by Jack B. Yeats with a similar estimate, sold for 50,000. A boxed portfolio of ten etchings by Sean Scully from 2003 to accompany ten poems by Federico Garcia Lorca sold for 6,000 and Palometta by Barrie Cooke, who died earlier this year, made 20,000 at hammer.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for June 5, 2014)