The signed part of the foundation document of Sinn Fein. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Lot 143 at Whyte’s Eclectic Collector auction on April 18 – which goes on view in Dublin from today – is a manuscript agreement which confirms the amalgamation of three political units into Sinn Fein. Dated October 21 1906 it is written in Arthur Griffith’s hand and signed by representatives of the National Council, Dungannon Clubs and Cuman na nGaedheal. The attendance is noted as follows.
“At a Conference held at Dundalk on Sunday the 21st October 1906 called at the instance of the Executive of the Dungannon Clubs to discuss the question of a possible Amalgamation between the three organisations at present working on Sinn Fein lines the following delegates were present: ‘National Council: Arthur Griffith, Cole & Sheehan Dungannon Clubs: Messrs Hobson, McCullough & McCartan Cumann na nGaedheal: Messrs Doyle, A. Ingoldsby & O’Brien.”
The estimate for this important historical document is €15,000-€20,000. The party split before the civil war and again afterwards, giving rise to Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. The remaining Sinn Fein organisation continued its association with the IRA. Another split in 1970 led to the modern Sinn Fein party. The other faction became the Workers’ Party.
The sale offers a fascinating array of historical artefacts, manuscripts, documents, photographs, books, militaria, medals, weapons, memorabilia including advertising, sport and entertainment, posters, postcards, photographs, coins, banknotes and other collectibles dating from the 16th century to the 20th century in over 500 lots.
An original Pablo Picasso painting worth more than €1 million has just been won in a charity raffle. The winner is engineer and art enthusiast Ari Hodara. More than 120,000 tickets for the draw were sold at €100 each, raising around €11 million for Alzheimer’s research. This was the third edition of the “1 Picasso for 100 euros” fundraising raffle, founded in 2013. Tête de Femme (Head of a Woman) is a gouache-on-paper portrait of Picasso’s partner and muse, the French surrealist artist Dora Maar.
“How do I know this isn’t a prank?” the 58-year-old asked when he answered a video call from Christie’s in Paris. Hodara, who lives in Paris, bought his ticket number 94,715 over the weekend after learning about the competition by chance.
The first edition of the raffle was won by a 25-year-old American from Pennsylvania in 2013, with funds raised to help preserve the Lebanese city of Tyre – a Unesco World Heritage Site. A 58-year-old Italian accountant won the second edition, in 2020, after her son bought her a ticket for Christmas. Proceeds were donated to sanitation projects in schools and villages in Cameroon, Madagascar and Morocco.
A Sheraton inlaid walnut bureau. UPDATE: THIS MADE 320 AT HAMMER
Availability is not a problem for those brave enough to forget the latest fashion trend and opt instead for a style of home that is individual. Because demand for serviceable antique furniture – stylish and prized by previous generations – has all but collapsed there is great value to be had.
The selection of Georgian, Victorian, William IV and Edwardian available at Woodwards in Cork on April 18 is worth looking into. How about a Georgian walnut chest of drawers, an Edwardian three section economy dining table, a George II mahogany card table, a bowfronted chest of drawers or a three tier dumb waiter? All are available at top estimates of €800 and under in the auction. At a time when not everything even makes the low estimate some of them can be picked up for much less. Among other lots are a Sheraton inlaid walnut bureau (€400-€800), a William IV circular cellarette (€500-€800), a large walnut cylinder top desk (€800-€1,500), a set of eight Hepplewhite style dining chairs (€600-€1,000), a Victorian davenport (€200-€400) and a set of six inlaid Edwardian dining chairs (€300-€400). There is a Tiffany style leaded lamp (€200-€260), a large Persian Hamadan rug (€500-€800), a Tabriz runner (€200-€400), a cast iron garden seat (€400-€600), a large selection of Waterford Crystal and a five piece cast iron patio suite (€1,500-€2,200).
A Tiffany style lamp. UPDATE: THIS MADE 140 AT HAMMER
William Scott – Still Life on White with Beans UPDATE: THIS MADE 150,000 AT HAMMER
Green beans on a white plate inspired William Scott in 1978, a red pumpkin was all world renowned Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama needed. These are revolutionary artworks while the subject of a 1922 drawing by Hazel Lavery is a revolutionary. Her pencil portrait of Michael Collins was made in May of 1922, just a few months before his assassination at Beal na mBlath.
All these works feature at Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale of Irish and International Art on April 21 on view in Skibbereen until April 13 and at the RDS in Dublin from April 17-20. The catalogue cover lot is William Scott’s Still Life on White with Beans (€120,000-€180,000). In a note about the painting Peter Murray remarks that since the 1930’s, perhaps more than any other Irish artist of the 20th century apart from Jack Yeats, Scott’s work has been exhibited worldwide.
Still Life on White with Beans contains the essential elements of abstraction for which he became renowned, Murray writes: “The square format suited his search for simplicity. Colour has been reduced to the simple monochrome tones of grey, white and green”. First shown at Gallery Moos in Toronto in 1978 the oil on canvas measures 24″ x 24″.
There are two other works by William Scott in the auction, Pear and Grapes and Table Top Still Life. Each gouache of paper dates to 1975 and each is estimated at €15,000-€25,000.
Yayoi Kusama – Red Pumpkins. UPDATE: THIS MADE 850 AT HAMMER
Kusama’s Red Pumpkin is a playful painted cast resin piece published by Benesse Holdings, Naoshima, Japan. Stamped on the base and in a box it is estimated at €400-€600.
Hazel Lavery is best known nowadays as the subject of numerous portraits painted by her husband John Lavery. She too was a talented artist who had studied in America and France. It is not known when the Lavery’s first met Michael Collins, who moved to London in 1906. After the Easter Rising the Lavery’s used their social connections and friendship with Collins to facilitate negotiations between Ireland and Britain. Hazel Lavery made this head and shoulders portrait with Collins in three quarter profile when he was leading the Irish delegation negotiating the Treaty. It is signed and dated May 1922.
Hazel Lavery – Portrait of Michael Collins (1922) UPDATE: THIS MADE 10,000 AT HAMMER
The sale offers 156 lots of great variety. Mrs. Harrington’s Horses by Peter Curling (€7,000-€10,000) shows six chestnut racehorses from Jessica Harrington’s Commonstown Stud near Moone in Co. Kildare being exercised. The focus of Still Life (1984) by William Crozier (€3,000-€5,000) is flowers in a vase against an arresting blue and yellow background. Cottages in a Landscape by Paul Henry (€25,000-€35,000) is a small, spirited oil on panel probably painted on Achill and P2.05 (2005) by Charles Tyrrell (€1,000-€1,500) is an abstract rectangular oil on aluminium.
There is a selection of sculpture by John Behan, Patrick O’Reilly, Rowan Gillespie, Ana Duncan, Imogen Stuart and others. Many of Ireland’s favourite painters including artists Percy French, Arthur Maderson, Sean Scully, Sean MacSweeney, Hughie O’Donoghue, Jack B Yeats, Colin Middleton, Letitia Hamilton, Donald Teskey, Louis le Brocquy, John Shinnors, Richard Gorman, Dan O’Neill, Mainie Jellett, William Leech, Graham Knuttel and Roderic O’Conor are in the auction.
On the international side Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Mr. Brainwash, Damien Hirst, Jacob Epstein, Salvador Dali all feature in a catalogue that is brimful of interest and online too. Lots from Morgan O’Driscoll’s upcoming auction of jewellery on April 22 will also be on view at the RDS.
William Crozier – Still Life (1984). UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,800 AT HAMMER
April in Paris offers a touch more than even usual right now. La Pomme de New York, a monumental piece by Claude Lalanne is on view at the Bristol Paris until next Tuesday before being auctioned by Christie’s on April 15. Standing nearly 2.5 metres tall it is the most monumental sculpture ever created by the artist. The apple has had a central place in her practice since the 1960’s offering Lalanne a fertile ground for experimentation, balancing figuration, surrealism and a playful sense of scale. La Pomme de New York numbered 7/8 and dated 2008 is estimated at €5 million – €7 million. It will be a highlight at the 20/21 Century art evening sale. Located at rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré Le Bristol Paris is an iconic palace hotel and showcase for art which celebrated its centenary in 2025.
A rosewood desk by Nanna Ditzel. UPDATE: THIS MADE 6,000 AT HAMMER
An array of legendary designers like Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Niels Otto Moller, Arne Vodder, Eileen Gray, Gio Ponti and Nanna Ditzel feature at Adam’s Mid Century Modern timed online auction which starts to close from 2 pm on April 14. Now on view in Dublin there is accompanying art by Andy Warhol, Patrick Scott, Earl Bliss, Merlin James, Hughie O’Donoghue and others. Highlights include a rosewood desk from the golden era of Scandinavian design created in the mid 1950’s by Nanna Ditzel, chairs by Eileen Gray, a portrait of Kimiko Power by Andy Warhol and a pair of Colonial chairs by Ole Wanscher.
Rare portrait lithographs of Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith signed both by the sitters and artist Sir John Lavery feature at Whyte’s timed online Eclectic Collector sale which runs from April 7-18. Lavery painted portraits of Griffith and Collins in 1921 whilst they were in London negotiating the terms of the Irish Treaty. Within months of their portraits being painted, both men were dead – Griffith of a heart attack, Collins assasinated. The lithographs are based on the oil portraits now in the collection of the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin and estimated at €8,000-12,000.
Mark Rothko – Brown and Blacks in Reds 1957. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $87,780,000
Art by the titans of American Abstract Expressionism – Franz Klein, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko – from the collection of dealer and financier Robert Mnuchin could make more than $130 million at a dedicated evening auction by Sotheby’s in New York on May 14.
Led by Rothko’s monumental 1957 canvas Brown and Black in Reds a total of 24 works from the collection will be offered in the standalone sale.
Mnuchin, who died aged 92 last December, loved going to auctions where he was known for shouting out his bids. A New Yorker who graduated from Yale in 1955, he served in the US Army and joined Goldman Sachs in 1957. After a 33 year career there he retired at 56 to pursue a career in art and became a legendary dealer.
Franz Kline – Harleman 1960. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $14,480,000
The deeply personal collection, assembled with his wife Adriana over the decades, demonstrated a devotion to pursuing works they loved and wanted to live with. This embodies a collecting ethos mirrored by many art lovers. “The reason to buy art is because you love it, you love it, you love it”, Mnuchin said. Sotheby’s say the examples he chose for his own collection demonstrate “extreme connoisseurship”.
Standing nearly eight feet tall Rothko’s Brown and Blacks in Red ($70-$100 million)(€60.6-€86.6 million) dates to 1957. From the artist’s seminal decade when he developed the signature bands of colour it has been in some of the most important exhibitions dedicated to Rothko including the celebrated show at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in 2023-24.
Acquired by Seagrams around 1957 it has been in the Mnuchin collection for more than two decades. The palette was an important influence in the development of the Seagram Murals commissioned for the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram building in New York in the years to follow. The renowned murals, found today in galleries like the Tate in London and Washington’s National Gallery of Art, showed Rothko’s commitment to expressing basic human emotions like tragedy, ecstasy and doom.
An early transitional Rothko, No. 1 1949 ($15-$20 million)(€13-€17.3 million), stands at the threshold of his breakthrough and was included in the famous 1950 exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery.
Willem de Kooning. Untitled XLII, 1983. oil on canvas, 80 x 70 inches. Private collection. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $12,410,000
Mnuchin ranked Willem de Kooning among his most revered artists. The selection on offer in May – led by an example of his late lyrical style Untitled XLII from 1983 – presents a retrospective encapsulation of de Kooning’s career featuring works spanning four decades from the 1950’s through the 1980’s.
Harleman is the finest work by Franz Kline to come to auction in over a decade. This monumental example of his black and white paintings dates to 1960.
Mnuchin was an early supporter of Jeff Koons. Louis XIV is an icon of the artists statuary series and ranks among his most important early works. This example is the artist’s proof from an edition of 3, plus one artist’s proof. The rest of the editions are held in museum collections, including the Nasher Sculpture Center, The Broad, and the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art.
Robert and Adriana Mnuchin were drawn to works that represent defining moments in the career of an artist. As New York collectors of thier time they were in a unique position to champion some of the most innovative and celebrated artists of the second half of the 20th century.
Jeff Koons – Louis XIV 1986. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $8,570,000
This 1600 Mughal painting of the Virgin Mary standing in Prayer is rare and almost identical to an example at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. It comes up at Christie’s sale of the Mary and Cheney Cowles collection of Indian paintings and calligraphy in London on April 28. The estimate is £30,000-50,000 (€34,780-€57,970). Christie’s the Mughal incorporations of European motifs and techniques can be seen as expressions of their cultural cosmopolitanism and universal order. Construction of the Taj Mahal started in 1632. The Seattle based couple hold one of the most distinguished private assemblages of East Asian painting and calligraphy in the western world. Their collection tells stories of emperors, poetry, love, faith and daily life across India and the Islamic world. Estimates for this portion of it, comprising 86 lots, range from works offered without reserve to £180,000 (€208,700).
Red Orchard by Louise Neiland at Taylor Galleries at Art Evolve.
With cutting edge contemporary art at Art Evolve in Dublin, the annual members exhibition at the Lavit Gallery in Cork and online art auctions in full swing Irish collectors are spoiled for choice right now. More than 60 galleries and artists are assembled under one roof this weekend at Art Evolve making the RDS a great venue for the culturally curious.
Even if you happen to keep a very close eye on contemporary happenings in the art world there is bound to be new work and new artists to discover. This show offers a great opportunity to trawl through what is currently being created in Ireland and available right now.
Blue Cupped edition 3 by Nigel Rolfe at Green on Red Gallery at Art Evolve.
At Art Evolve the Contemporary Art Gallery Association (CAGA) has joined forces with other galleries and individual artists. The CAGA galleries driving this event are Kevin Kavannagh, Kerlin, Taylor, Oliver Sears, SO Fine Art Editions, Solomon, Molesworth, Hillsborough and Green on Red.
Demand for high end modern art is dynamic according to organiser Patrick O’Sullivan. There is no shortage of variety, affordability and availability making this a good time for art lovers to get their skates on and join in the hunt. More than 9,500 people came to view the first edition last year and interest runs high.
Majestic Vellum Hathor by west Cork based Hammond Journeaux at the Lavit Gallery.
If you cannot make it to Dublin the annual members exhibition by Cork Arts Society at the Lavit Gallery is now underway. This is an annual highlight where work submitted by members is selected for show. Around 100 works from over 300 submitted were chosen by the three person judging panel, Katie O’Grady of The Glucksman, artist Michael Quane and Sarah Foster from the Crawford College.
Exhibitors include Katherine Boucher Beug, Wendy Dison, Paul la Rocque, Deirdre Brennan, Hammond Journeaux, Damaris Lysaght, Ben Reilly, Inge van Doorslaer, Vivienne Bogan, Gerard Daly and Joseph Heffernan. The exhibition continues until April 18.
The Galway based auction house Dolan’s is running a timed online auction with Irish art and rare Irish whiskeys until 6.30 pm next Monday evening. There is a collection of 60 Irish whiskeys, mostly Very Rare Midleton, which attracts global internet demand from as far afield as Sydney and San Francisco.
Among the artists in the auction are Arthur Maderson, Cecil Maguire, Susan Cronin, Mark O’Neill, Charles Harper, Maurice Wilks, George Gillespie, Desmond Turner, Manus Walsh and Anne Primrose Jury. There is a collection of original Hollywood film posters and autographed photographs of stars including Debbie Reynolds, Pierce Brosnan, Maureen O’Hara, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, Meryl Streep and Nick Nolte. The catalogue is online.
Early Easter light on Inishmaan by Cecil Maguire at Dolan’s. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
