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There is art by William Conor, Charles Lamb, Derek Hill, Breon O’Casey and Markey Robinson at Bonhams sale of British and Irish art at Knightsbridbge in London on July 21. The auction is led by Summer Holiday by Sherree Valentine-Daines (born. 1959) which is estimated at £5,000-7,000.
THIS large and historic topographical painting by Cork artist John Fergus O’Hea of the inaugural Prince of Wales Plate at Punchestown Racecourse in 1868 made £694,500 (€811,590) over a top estimate of £150,000 (€175,289) at Christie’s sale of the collection of B.J. Eastwood in London. Photography was in its infancy when the Prince of Wales went to Punchestown against the wishes of his mother Queen Victoria who worried about the reputation of the then 26 year old prince, his passion for horse racing and pursuit of amusement. The first known photographs of Punchestown Festival were taken that day by John Chancellor who ran a studio in Dublin. He commissioned O’Hea to make the painting.Trained at the Cork School of Design the artist was son of barrister James O’Hea who was active in the Young Ireland movement and secretary to Daniel O’Connell. John Fergus was a political cartoonist and noted illustrator who sometimes published under the pseudonym Spex. He was co-founder of Zozimus, a satirical magazine similar to Punch and painted trade union banners for Cork parades in the 1860’s, ’70’s and ’80’s.In 1883 the conservative British journal St. Stephen’s Review described him as an out and out nationalist and “one of the cleverest artists in the three kingdoms” who draws his marvellous cartoons for the most miserable of Irish comic papers. Gladstone described his pencil as “directly guided by the spirit of patriotism”. The trip to Punchestown began at Kingsbridge (now Heuston) Station with the Prince and Princess of Wales, Lord Abercorn (Lord Lieutenant) and an entourage including Lord Hamilton, Lady Georgia Hamilton, Lady Albertha, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar and Prince Teck. In those days the train went only as far as Sallins and the rest of the journey was completed by carriage. The painting, which measures 132 cm x 214 cm, was sold at Christie’s with a key to the principal characters. The annual Spring festival at Punchestown has been a fixture since 1850, but it did not become the popular national racing festival known to this day until that day in 1868. It is reckoned that around 150,000 people turned up to see the inaugural Prince of Wales Plate. The Royal visit to Punchestown was also painted by Henry Barraud. Prints of his painting became popular and still turn up occasionally at auction.
Contents from Osberstown House, Naas, Co. Kildare will come under the hammer at an online sale by Fonsie Mealy on July 27. More than 600 lots will come under the hammer. Viewing will be available by appointment on July 23, 24 and 26. The sale will be live online in Castlecomer, but there will be no public attendance.
A window on printmaking over the past 500 years is open at the City Assembly House at South William St. in Dublin, headquarters of the Irish Georgian Society. Art by Rembrandt, Durer, Turner, Tissot, Pisarro, Cezanne, Whistler and Samuel Palmer is featured in a touring exhibition entitled “Print REbels” which runs until August 27. This is a show of works collected over the past two and a half decades by Corkman Edward Twohig, currently Head of Art at Marlborough College in Wiltshire with 140 historical and contemporary original prints. They were first brought together at the Bankside Gallery in London to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Francis Seymour Haden, first president of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. Haden created his finest work in Ireland the exhibition includes some of his prints.
There was a new auction record for Paul Henry at Christie’s sale of the B.J. Eastwood Collection of Important Sporting and Irish pictures in London on July 9. Mountains and Lake, Connemara is a classical Henry work. Estimated at £120,000-£180,000 it sold for £622,500. The collection of 30 pictures achieved £14,187,750, more than double the pre-sale low estimate. Over 70% of works sold for over the high sale estimate.
With the Olympics less than two weeks away there is right now a rare chance to brush up on matters Japanese – specifically the floating world known as ukiyo-e that expressed the ambitions of the common townspeople of the Edo period – at the marvellous Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle. Edo in Colour: Prints from Japan’s Metropolis explores how woodblock prints shaped fashion, fame and identity in Edo, the city now known as Tokyo.
During the Edo period (c1603-1868) Japan and its arts flourished in isolation from the rest of the world. By the late 1630’s foreigners were officially prohibited as traditions of the past were revived, refined, parodied and transformed by expanding societies during the relatively peaceful 250 years when the Tokugawa shoguns ruled. In urban Edo a witty and irreverent expression surfaced in the visual and literary arts which gave rise to Kabuki Theatre and the woodblock prints of ukiyo-e. Chester Beatty offers pictures of actors and beauties with masterpieces by Hokusai and Hiroshige and many more from the library’s renowned collection. The exhibition features more than 100 prints and printed books from Edo. Shown in two parts between now and December the exhibition will close for a week on August 30 to allow for a changeover. There are various opportunities to explore this fascinating world online and through the accompanying catalogue. Don’t miss it.
Bernardo Bellotto’s View of Verona and Leonardo da Vinci’s Head of a Bear were the top lots at Christie’s Classic Week evening sales in London. Last night there were artists records for for Bernardo Bellotto, Adriaen van de Velde, Francesco Tironi, Gregorio di Cecco da Lucca, the Master of Sterbini Diptych, Georges de La Tour and Marco Ricci. The Exceptional Sale and the realised a combined total of £64,620,750 with registered bidders from 102 countries across 4 continents. The combined total of Classic Week sales to date is over £70 million.
This work by Jack B. Yeats – Bachelor’s Walk, In Memory – has just become part of the national collection at the National Gallery of Ireland purchased with special support of the Government of Ireland and key contributions from several donors. The painting depicts an incident in Dublin city centre in 1914 in which a detachment of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators. Three people were killed (a fourth later died) and over 35 were injured. Earlier that day soldiers and officers of the Dublin Metropolitan Police and Royal Irish Constabulary had intercepted Volunteers and members of Na Fianna transporting a consignment of rifles and ammunition that had arrived at Howth earlier on board the yacht The Asgard. The artist did not witness the event but visited the following day and based the painting on a sketch he produced on the spot. He noted ‘a bullet hole in shop window’ and recorded that ‘a few paces further towards O’Connell bridge flower girls had thrown flowers’. The painting was not seen publicly until 1922, when it featured alongside other works by Yeats at the ‘Exposition d’Art Irlandais’ in Paris. It has been on long-term loan to the Gallery for the past twelve years.
This small drawing of a bear’s head by Leonardo da Vinci at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in London today is estimated at £8-12 million. It measures just 7x7cm and is among just a few drawings by the Italian Renaissance master which are still privately owned. The sketch previously belonged to British painter and collector Sir Thomas Lawrence, before being sold at Christie’s in 1860 for £2.50. It is one of fewer than eight surviving drawings by the artist still in private hands outside the Royal Collection and the Devonshire Collections at Chatsworth. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £8,857,500, A NEW WORLD RECORD FOR A DRAWING BY THE ARTIST.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for May 8, 2021)
Among Horses by Jack B. Yeats comes up at Christie’s live online sale of the B.J. Eastwood Collection in London on July 9 with an estimate of £400,000-600,000. Painted in 1947 it was acquired in 1994 by Barney Eastwood. The 30 lots in the sale represent B.J. Eastwood’s deep interest in Irish painting and equestrian art. B.J. Eastwood started his collection in the mid 1970s, at a time when he was particularly drawn to collection and house sales. However, it was his abiding love of sport and his eye for quality and detail which translated into an intrigue and fascination specifically with Sporting and Irish artists. He followed the great sales of the 1970s and 1980s, and over time built an outstanding collection of the genres’ greatest examples. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD. THE EASTWOOD SALE BROUGHT IN £14,187,750
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for June 18, 2021)
