WILLIAM SCOTT (1913-1989) – Blue and Brown Still Life with Knife (1975). UPDATE: THIS MADE 34,000 AT HAMMER
Viewing gets underway at the RDS in Dublin today for the Irish and International online art sale by Morgan O’Driscoll on November 1. Pictured here is Blue and Brown Still Life with Knife, a gouache and pastel on paper by William Scott from 1975. It is estimated at 20,000-30,000. In a catalogue note to the work Dr. Peter Murray said: “Since the early 1930s, perhaps more than any other Irish artist of the twentieth century (apart from Jack Yeats), Scott’s work has been exhibited worldwide. In 1953, as well as showing at the Sao Paul Bienal, he was introduced by Martha Jackson (at whose New York gallery he had several exhibitions), to Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and Mark Rothko. Five years later, he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, and showed also at galleries in Turin, Milan, Munich and other cities.”
The sale is led by Village by the Marsh, a classical Paul Henry landscape, and there is art by Yeats, Lavery, Crozier, Shinnors and many more leading artists. The catalogue is online.
JEAN-ANTOINE WATTEAU (1684-1721) – Three head studies of a girl wearing a hat made: $3,420,000
With global participation the sale of the Ann and Gordon Getty Collection at Christie’s made more than $150 million. This firmly established the collection, sold across ten auctions which concluded in New York yesterday among the top three fine and decorative art sales at Christie’s. It ranks alongside the collections of Yves St. Laurent and Pierre Berger and that of Peggy and David Rockefeller. Records were set for Mary Cassatt’s Young Lady in a Loge Gazing to Right ($7,489,000); Jacques-Émile Blanche’s Vaslav Nijinsky in ‘Danse Siamoise’ ($2,700,000); Jules Bastien-Lepage’s Portrait de Sarah Bernhardt ($2,280,000) and Jean-Antoine Watteau, Three Head Studies Of A Girl Wearing A Hat (work on paper) ($3,420,000).
Sir Peter Paul Rubens – Salome presented with the severed head of Saint John the Baptist, c.1609 ($25,000,000 – 35,000,000) UPDATE: THIS MADE $26,926,600
A key early Rubens masterpiece from the greatest private collection of Baroque paintings assembled in recent times will come up at Sotheby’s in New York next January. Collected with passion and rigor over three decades, the Fisch Davidson collection distills the essence and power of Baroque art between 1600 and 1650, comprising some of the very finest paintings in private hands by Guercino, Bernardo Cavallino, Valentin de Boulogne, Orazio Gentileschi and above all Sir Peter Paul Rubens.
No less than ten works from the collection will headline Sotheby’s Master’s Week auctions, led by Sir Peter Paul Rubens’ Salome presented with the severed head of Saint John the Baptist. It is estimated at $25-35 million. In advance of the sale Sotheby’s will tour highlights to Los Angeles, Hong Kong and London.
Keith Christiansen, Curator Emeritus, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York said: “What distinguishes the Fisch Davidson collection is the sustained level of quality of the paintings, combined with a willingness to embrace powerful subjects that lesser collectors might find “difficult”. There is nothing shy about these pictures…. These are baroque paintings that speak with a contemporary voice. Their modernity lies in their probing, psychological dimension combined with dramatic flair, realised with brilliantly descriptive brushwork.”
UPDATE: THE SALE OF THIS COLLECTION MADE $49,587,600
One of a set of eight Chinese Qing watercolours. UPDATE: THESE MADE 32,000 AT HAMMER. THE FOLDER MADE 27,000.
Lot 290 at Sheppard’s Gentleman’s Library sale online at in Durrow on October 27 is a set of eight Qing watercolours. They depict figures at various pursuits within a walled garden. The set is estimated at €8,000-12,000. Lot 289 is a folder of 24 Qing watercolours depicting indigenous peoples. There is a similar estimate on this. The sale, which is on view in Durrow today, offers 368 lots in total with an afternoon session devoted to musical instruments headed by some Froggy Bottom guitars.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for October 22 and October 14, 2022)
Portrait of Walter Osborne – Augustus Burke RHA (1838-1891). UPDATE; THIS WAS UNSOLD
Meet Walter Osborne. We are more accustomed to seeing the artists work than the artist himself. This oil on canvas head and shoulders portrait by his friend Augustus Burke comes up at Fonsie Mealy’s Irish and International art sale in Castlecomer on November 16. It most likely dates from the late 1880’s. George Osborne was born in 1859 and died of pneumonia aged 43. Augustus Burke served professor of painting at the Royal Hibernian Academy before moving permanently to England.
Village by the Marsh by Paul Henry. UPDATE: THIS MADE 210,000 AT HAMMER
A classical Paul Henry landscape leads an Irish and International art sale by Morgan O’Driscoll on November 1 which also boasts significant works by artists varying from Jack B. Yeats and Sir John Lavery to William Scott, William Crozier and John Shinnors. An impressive canvas by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson features a three masted frigate off Haulbowline in Cork Harbour in 1846 with a rowing boat in the foreground and a small paddle steamer in the background. It is estimated at €25,000-€35,000.
Village by the Marsh by Paul Henry is estimated at €200,000-€300,000. My River (1950) and Through the wood to the sea (1951) by Jack B Yeats are estimated respectively at €60,000-€80,000 and €50,000-€70,000. The auction is on view in Skibbereen today and tomorrow and at the RDS in Dublin from next Friday until October 31. The catalogue is online.
Seascape, Large Frigate off Haulbowline, Cork Harbour (1846) by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson. UPDATE: THIS MADE 32,000 AT HAMMER
French Empire library chair at Sheppards. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,200 AT HAMMER
Wonderful antique furniture, art including a folder of 24 Qing watercolours, unusual collectibles like a pair of Howdah flintlock pistols and customised guitars all feature at the Gentleman’s Library sale at Sheppards in Durrow on October 27. A late 19th century Louis XVI style inlaid commode with breccia marble top by G. Durand in the style of Jean Henri Riesener is, at €15,000-€20,000, the most expensively estimated lot. Other furniture lots include an 18th century library pole (€500-€800), a 19th century French terrestrial globe (€1,500-€2,500), a French Empire library chair (€4,000-€6,000), two George III Dublin brass bound peat buckets (€2,500-€2,500), a Regency library bookcase (€5,000-€8,000), a leather Chesterfield couch (€2,000-€3,000), a Regency rent table (€1,500-€2,500), an Irish 18th century bureau (€800-€1,200), a French bureau plat (€4,000-€6,000), various Gainsborough chairs and bureaux and plenty of other pieces to choose from.This is an auction to browse through and savour at leisure, either at viewings in Durrow which get underway today or online. On offer is 367 lots from The Smithwick Collection and other clients. A c1688 oval portrait of James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde is attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller (€3,000-€5,000). Other art pieces include a folder of 24 Qing watercolours (€8,000-€12,000), four oils on canvas of a Fete Galante after Watteau (€10,000-€15,000), Irish School portraits, sporting pictures, engravings, lithographs and drawings.There are black basalt Wedgwood lamps and urns, a 17th century stucco bust of an unidentified Roman after an original from Herculaneum, Presbyterian minute books from 1734-1834, a Killarney wood specimen cabinet, mantle clocks, a c1800 pair of Howdah flintlock pistols by Charles Moore of London amd a Burmese arched harp on stand.Among 69 lots of musical instruments are Froggy Bottom customised guitars and guitars by C.F. Martin and Co., Collings, Taylor and other makers. There is a concert harp by Sebastian and Pierre Errard, a Challen baby grand piano, a Paragon tenor banjo and a French violin.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 14, 2022)
Portrait of James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller. UPDATE: THIS MADE 7,700 AT HAMMER
JOHN VARDY – A Pair Of George Ii White-Painted and Parcel-Gilt Armchairs c1758. These made $1,033,200
The first in a series of four live sales and six online sales of the Ann and Gordon Getty Collection at Christie’s in New York realised $79,408,900 with 100% of lots sold for 128% hammer above low estimate. There was lively bidding from around the globe and the auction drew nearly 2 million viewers via social media. In the hours leading up to the auction, Christie’s announced the private sale of Venice, the Grand Canal looking East with Santa Maria della Salute by Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, enabled through a generous donation by Diane B. Wilsey.
Mary Cassatt’s Young Lady in a Loge Gazing to Rightwas the top lot, bought by The Pola Museum of Art in Hakone, Japan for $7,489,000, breaking a 15 year-old record. The sale generated strong results across a wide variety of collecting categories, including English furniture and Chinese works of art. A Royal Early George III Mahogany China Cabinet by William Vile made $2,700,000 and a pair of massive Chinese Cloisonné and Champlevé Enamel Crane-Form Censers made $1,620,000, more than 20 times the low estimate.
L.S. Lowry’s Going to the Match sold for £7,846,500
There was a new world auction record for L S Lowry when Going to the Match made £7.8 million at Christie’s in London this evening. It went to the Lowry Gallery in Salford. The painting was offered by The Players Foundation with proceeds being used to allow the organisation to continue its charitable work in, amongst other things, assisting with those who have dementia and relieving poverty amongst current or former professional players. It was painted for an exhibition in 1953, sponsored by The Football Association, where Lowry won first prize.
Frying Pan Still Life by William Scott made £765,000 at the Modern British and Irish art evening auction, which achieved a total of £20,564,100. Bidders from 11 countries across four continents registered for the sale.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 4, 2022)
ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM VAN DER HAGEN (FL. 1720-1745) King William III off the coast of Ireland, June 1690, with an English Royal Yacht and the Lord High Admiral’s First-rate Flying the Royal Standard
THIS oil painting attributed to William Van der Hagen sold for a hammer price of 32,000 at the James Adam Country House Collections auction today. Dating to around 1730 it had been estimated at 20,000-30,000. What was expected to be the top lot of the sale, an Irish architectural carved giltwood mirror attributed to John and Francis Booker, failed to find a buyer. The Ploughman by Francis Wheatley made 36,000, a portrait of Mary Boyle nursing her son Charles attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller made 32,000, a pair of Venetian oil on canvas views by JMW Turner and an Irish mahogany side table each made 26,000, a portrait of Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland by Thomas Frye made 18,000; a French carved wood model of the Madonna and Child, probably 16th century, made 16,000; a set of four c1750 George II Irish silver cast candlesticks mark of George Hill made 14,500; a silver model of the Battle of the Boyne obelisk made 12,000; an Irish yewwood library table by Arthur Jones and Co. of Dublin and a family scene in the style of Johan Zoffany each made 11,000; a late 19th century George II style side table by Hicks and a bronze banded short barrel cannon each made 10,000; a suite of 14 George II London silver serving dishes made 9,500; a pair of Neo Classical half circular side tables made 9,000 and a pair of Irish bird and flower pictures by Samuel Dixon made 7,000.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for October 17, October 12 and October 8 2022)
