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This pair of Dublin Chippendale carvers come up at Sheppards online auction of contents from Eyrefield Lodge Stud at The Curragh, home to Sir Edmund and Lady Susan Loder, on March 11 and 12. The c1900 chairs are estimated at 1,500-2,500 and come up as lot 95. There are 860 lots from Eyrefield Lodge and other clients and for the convenience of bidders the sales are broken up into four sessions of around 200 lots each.
From Sean Scully and John Behan to Pauline Bewick and Mainie Jellett the selection available at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online Irish art auction which runs to March 8 is comprehensive. Untitled 1996, a unique watercolour, No. 47 from a series of 50, by Sean Scully is estimated at 6,000-9,000. Abstract Composition in gouache by Mainie Jellett is estimated at 4,000-6,000. There is interest in Cat in Winter in the Glass House by Pauline Bewick (5,000-7,000) and John Behan’s Famine Tree (10,000-15,000) and many of the other works. The catalogue is online.
The spring season of interactive livestream 20th century art sales launched in London and New York by Christie’s on March 1 made a total of £43,702,515. Over 145,000 viewers tuned into the sales through Facebook, You Tube, Christies.com and Christie’s Live™ with collectors from 12 countries over 5 continents achieving combined sell-through rates of 98% by lot and 100% by value. In New York A Family Collection: Works on Paper, Van Gogh to Freud, a grouping of eight works made a total of £18,070,765. Van Gogh’s rare portrait La Mousmé sold for £7,459,614 and there was a world auction record for Augustus John’s Head of a Girl (Edie McNeill) which made £348,463. In London Sir Winston Churchill’s Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque set a new world auction record price of £8,285,000 after a nine-minute battle between 10 bidders. Sir John Lavery’s The Viscountess Castlerosse, Palm Springs, from the collection of Charles Delevingne, sold for £862,500, a record for a portrait by the artist. Sir Michael Craig-Martin’s With Red Shoes set a new world auction record for the artist of £325,000.
Christie’s Modern British Art day sale on March 2 realised a total of £5,427,375, selling 84% by lot and 86% by value. The sale was led by John Nash’s still life A Window in Bucks which realised £375,000, more than 10 times its low estimate and a new world auction record for the artist. Vanessa Bell’s Autumn Bouquet sold for £256,250 against a pre-sale estimate of £25,000-35,000, also a new world auction record for the artist.
There was a new world auction record for Sir Winston Churchill at Christie’s in London this evening when his Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque (1943) sold for £8,285,000. The only work Churchill created during the Second World War was once in the collection of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who are divorcing. It was offered for sale by the Jolie Family Collection. Churchill painted it in Marrakech following the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. and gifted it to Franklin D. Roosevelt. This act was seen not only as an indication of their friendship but of the special relationship between the UK and the USA.
Sir Winston Churchill began painting scenes of Morocco after being encouraged to visit the country by his painting tutor, Sir John Lavery. Upon his first visit in 1935, he felt that the light and scenery were unrivalled, creating some 45 paintings of the country.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for February 2, 2021)
Nassau St. and Trinity College, Dublin by Colin Gibson is lot number 23 at Whyte’s timed spring online art sale which gets underway in Dublin at 6 pm today (March 1). The oil on board is estimated at €700-€1,000. More than 260 lots with estimates from 60 to 5,000 are on offer. UPDATE: THIS PAINTING MADE 1,000 AT HAMMER
More than 20 works by L.S. Lowry will highlight the Modern British Art sale at Christie’s on March 2. They range from seascapes and crowd scenes to portraits including Man in a Trilby from the estates of L.S. Lowry and Carol Ann Lowry. There is work by Pauline Boty, Patrick Caulfield, Peter Blake, Michael Craig-Martin’s and the St Ives School is represented by Terry Frost ,Roger Hilton, Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis.
Afterimage is the title of this acrylic on board by Bridget Flannery. It comes up as lot 6 at the James Adam timed online art auction which runs to March 3 with an estimate of 1,000-1,500. The online catalogue lists 193 lots and bidding will begin to close at 2 p.m. on March 3. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 700
The most significant collection to come to auction for years comes up at various sales at Sotheby’s in New York next May. At the heart of Anne Marion’s collection are masterworks by three of the greatest American artists of the post-War period: Andy Warhol’s iconic Elvis 2 Times, Richard Diebenkorn’s sublime Ocean Park No. 40; and Clyfford Still’s staggering PH-125 (1948-No. 1). All three works are estimated to achieve in excess of $20 million.
Legendary Texan rancher and businesswoman Anne Marion (1938-2020) was celebrated for her generous support of cultural institutions, critical contributions to education and healthcare, and her passion for the life and traditions of the American Southwest where her family had been rooted for generations. The treasures of her own private collection have remained – until now – largely unknown. It is estimated in the region of $150 million.
The great-granddaughter of Captain Samuel Burk Burnett (1849-1922) she was heiress to the historic, world-renowned Four Sixes Ranch in King County, Texas. Samuel took the unusual step of willing the bulk of his estate to his 22-year-old granddaughter, ‘Big Anne’, to be held in trust for her unborn child (the future ‘Little Anne’ Marion), thereby launching the tradition of female leadership of one of Texas’ greatest family businesses. Following her mother’s death in 1980, ‘Little Anne’ took over management of the business and ran it for the next forty years. She was a trusted board director and benefactor of the Kimbell Art Museum for four decades, and a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Hugh Hildesley, who joined Sotheby’s in 1961 and played an integral role in the company’s formative years in the US, was a longstanding colleague of Sotheby’s eminent chairman and auctioneer John L. Marion, Anne’s husband for the last 32 years of her life. He remembers: He remembers: “The sheer scope of Anne’s astounding achievements will prove influential and transformative for generations to come: from her role as President of the Burnett Foundation to founding the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; donor of the Marion Emergency Care Center in Fort Worth, to tireless Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Kimbell Art Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Anne knew quality when she saw it”.
After a century in the same private collection a painting by Vincent Van Gogh will make its auction debut in Paris in March with an estimate of 5-8 million. Painted in the Spring of 1887 – during Vincent van Gogh’s two-year sojourn in Paris – Scène de rue à Montmartre is from his series depicting the legendary Moulin de la Galette in Montmartre. The work has remained in the same family collection for over 100 years, and despite having been published in seven catalogues, it has never been exhibited until now. Sotheby’s and Mirabaud Mercier will present it to the public for the first time; with exhibitions to be held in Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Paris ahead of the Impressionist & Modern Art auction on March 25.
Sir John Lavery’s painting of the Viscountess Castlerosse at Palm Springs. comes up at Christie’s Modern British Art evening sale in London on March 1 with an estimate of £400,000-600,000. With all its connotations of the rich at play in the years between the First and Second World Wars it is redolent of an era long gone. Doris Delavigne married the 6th Earl of Kenmare in 1928. A similar version of the scene sold for €50,000 at de Veres in Dublin in 2014.
Christie’s list the provenance as: The artist, and by descent to his granddaughter, Lady Ann Sempill.
Her sale; Christie’s, London, 13 May 1966, lot 77, as ‘Portrait of Lady Castlerosse, seated on a springboard at Palm Springs’.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 22 May 1997, lot 264, as ‘Lady Castlerosse on a diving board’, where purchased by the present owner.
