Dan O’Neill, Louis le Brocquy, Jack B Yeats, John Shinnors and Mr. Brainwash all feature at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online evening sale of Important Irish Art on June 20. The auction kicks off with a Study for a Stained Glass Window by Evie Hone and there is art by Mainie Jellett, Percy French, Arthur Maderson, Cecil Maguire, Flora Mitchell, Sean Keating, Rose Barton, Mildred Anne Butler and a wide variety of Irish artists whose work is sought after. The catalogue is online.
Francis Bacon’s magnetic portrait of Lucian Freud will highlight British Art: The Jubilee Auction at Sotheby’s in London on June 29. Paintined in 1964 the full-length portrait illuminates the powerful dialogue of friendship and epochal rivalry which would engulf two titans of art history and spur them to create some of their greatest works. The pair had first met 20 years earlier and would go on to share an intense friendship for over 40 years until jealousy and petty rows would ultimately splinter relations forever in the mid-1980’s.
Though their visual styles differed considerably, both artists were deeply committed to the human figure, painting each other on numerous occasions over the years. Indeed, for Bacon, Freud would become a recurrent – and one of the most significant – subjects of his work in the 1960’s. Bacon believed that: “the living quality is what you have to get. In painting a portrait, the problem is to find a technique by which you can give over all the pulsations of a person…The sitter is someone of flesh and blood and what has to be caught is their emanation.”
The black and white photographs taken by their mutual friend John Deakin would become Bacon’s primary source material as he painted Freud obsessively. Of great personal significance, Bacon would keep these photographs with him for the rest of his life, and they were rediscovered torn, crumpled and splattered with paint in his studio following his death.
MIRRORS sparkled and silver shone on day two of Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth summer fine art sale online from Castlecomer today. This early pair of Irish provincial silver tea spoons, with an estimate of 200-300, made a hammer price of 4,400. An 18th century Dublin c1788 serving spoon with a hooked handle and HM makers mark, made 3,000 over a top estimate of 300, a c1792 Dublin soup ladle with an estimate of 200-300 made 2,300, a cowrie shell silver crested snuff box by Jane Williams, Cork make 2,500 over a top estimate of 600 and a pair of card trays by Michael McDermott, Cork c1760 made 2,200 over a top estimate of 1,500.
An 18th century carved gilt overmantle in the Chippendale manner crested with a ho ho bird from Cahir Park House in Co. Tipperary made 11,500 at hammer and an Irish gilt and gesso two compartment overmantle mirror made 9,500 at hammer. On June 14 a large pair of Irish carved giltwood compartmental mirrors made 11,000.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for May 31, June 8, June 12 and June 14, 2022)
The global scramble for items from the collection of Hubert de Givenchy continued at Christie’s in Paris today. The cachet of owning something from this prestige collection continues to add enormous value. Many estimates were rendered nonesensical. The two polychrome 17th or 18th century busts illustrated here sold for €2,442,000 over a top estimate of €250,000 this morning. Lot 105, the sixth lot of the sale, was not alone in far exceeding the top estimate. A Louis XV Aubusson rug with a top estimate of €60,000 made €214,200; a pair of 20th century metal and porphyry top occasional tables with a top estimate of €12,000 made €69,300, a still life by Georges Braque made €88,200 over a top estimate of €30,000, a Louis XVI beechwood armchair covered with a fabric designed by Braque made €157,000 over a top estimate of €10,000 and a pair of probably 18th century German silver gilt beakers from the Cobblers Guild made €11,340 over a top estimate of €3,000.
UPDATE: GIVENCHY LIVE AUCTIONS ACHIEVE € 114.4 MILLION. Buying by lot 57% from Europe and Middle East, 12% from Asia and 30% from the Americas
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 14, June 5, March 10 and February 2, 2022)
Landscape with Trees by Roderic O’Conor was the top lot at de Veres auction of art and sculpture in Dublin on May 14. It made a hammer price of €300,000. The Breaking Wave by Roderic O’Conor sold for €230,000 and Sea and Rocks made €70,000. Among the other hammer prices were: Moorland Water by Patrick Collins (€38,000); Rhapsody on a theme of Bird Houses and Ash Tree by Tony O’Malley (€36,000); The Catalan Mousetrap by Colin Middleton (€34,000); High Street, Rye by Walter Osborne (€30,000); Reclining Nude by Dan O’Neill (€28,500); River Sanctuary by Donald Teskey (€23,000) and Roadside Grasses, Donegal by Norah McGuinness (€20,000). There was plenty of interest in sculpture. Dialogue by Sonja Landweer made €15,000, Birdwatcher by F E McWilliam and Two Horses by Anthony Scott each made €14,500 and Surfer by Patrick O’Reilly made €10,500.
Eager collectors quickly learn that there is always someone with a more valuable painting, a more desirable collectible, a more fabulous piece of antique furniture, even a better door knocker. In the latter case there was no keeping up with the late couturier Hubert de Givenchy. He had the ultimate door knocker. It was designed by Diego Giacometti sometime around 1975-80. This marvellous piece sold for €120,000 at the opening day of Christie’s sale of the collection of Hubert de Givenchy in Paris today. There were more expensive lots at this sale of masterpieces, like Femme Qui March II by Diego’s brother Alberto. This made €23.5 million at hammer. A cylinder bureau with a mechanism by David Roentgen made €1.75 million, Le Passage de oiseau-migrateur by Joan Miro made €5.75 million, a pair of monumental girandoles attributed to Pierre Philippe Thomire made €4.1 million. The list, and the sale, goes on. This scribe always thought there was something impossibly stylish about having a Giacometti door knocker – it was gratifying today to note that that market agreed. As for us collectors, once we enjoy what we have what difference does it make if someone with more money has a better one? None.
UPDATE: The auction of 63 lots realised €83,030,650 and was 100% sold
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 5, March 10 and February 2, 2022)
An early Chinese cloisonne bowl with an estimate of 100-200 together with a Chinese jardiniere with a four character mark made a hammer price of 14,000 at day one of Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth Summer Fine Art sale today. The bowl was described as profusely decorated with colourful flowers, 10″ (26cms), the Jardinière, with four character mark to base, measured 6 1/2″. The auction is continuing live online. Among the other hammer prices today were €11,500 for a Steinway grand piano, a pair of Irish carved giltwood compartmental mirrors (€11,000) and a white marble inlaid fireplace in the manner of Pietro Bossi (€9,000).
The Weiss Gallery, London, will bring this arresting 1602 portrait by Frans Pourbos to TEFAF Maasticht which runs from June 25-30. The artist, arguably the most sought-after court portrait painter throughout western Europe during the first decades of the seventeenth century, here depicts his greatest patron, Vincenzo Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua, in an imperial manner appropriate for a revered European prince. The Duke proudly wears the prestigious Order of the Golden Fleece, which was conferred to him by Philip II of Spain in 1589.
Under Vincenzo’s reign, the ducal household comprised of more than six hundred people and it was famously extravagant, not least for the art collection amassed by the duke and his forebears. Between 1627 and 1630 a part of the collection was sold to King Charles I – much of these purchases remain key pieces from the British Royal Collection – while the rest was to be scattered following the sacking of the ducal palace in 1630 by imperial troops during a dispute over the Gonzaga succession. At one time the collection consisted of well over 2,000 paintings and more than 20,000 works of art, including bronzes, marbles, medals, coins, armour, ceramics, as well as rare manuscripts and books, making the Gonzaga collection one of the greatest ever amassed.
Frans Pourbus II was born in Antwerp and naturalised French in 1617. He was the most influential court painter of the late-sixteenth and early- seventeenth centuries.
THIS Victorian inlaid credenza is among the main lots at the James Adam At Home sale in Dublin on June 14. The estimate is 3,000-5,000. Other top lots include a composed suite of George III silver cutlery and a 19th century portrait of a racehorse with jockey and owner Johnson Lee set against a gallops. There is jewellery, chandeliers, mirrors, antique furniture and a wide variety of collectibles on offer. The catalogue is online and the sale is on view at St. Stephen’s Green.
WITH everything from tapestries to chimney pieces, art, jewellery and a Rolex Oyster watch the three day Chatsworth Summer Art sale by Fonsie Mealy on June 14, 15 and 16 has drawn collectible pieces from estates right around Ireland like Strokestown House, Co. Wexford, Cahir Park House, Co. Tipperary, the McAteer estate from Newcastle, Co. Down, Celbridge Lodge, Co. Kildare and many other properties.
The most expensively estimated furniture lots are some 18th century overmantle and giltwood mirrors in a range from €7,000-€15,000. Other top lots include a fine pair of William Kent style carved giltwood console tables (€4,000-€6,000), a giltwood and gesso centre table (€3,000-€5,000) and a pair of ornate Victorian Gothic Coalbrookdale radiator covers with sienna marble tops (€3,000-€4,000).
A c1720 Antwerp tapestry by Jacob Van Der Goten (€8,000-€12,000), an 18th century Flemish tapestry (€5,000-€7,000) and some wonderful chimney pieces will attract considerable attention for their rarity at this live and online sale. Lots like a white marble inlaid chimney piece in the manner of Pietro Bossi (€5,500-€7,500), a carved white marble Portman fireplace (€3,500-€5,500) and an early Irish Kilkenny black marble chimneypiece (€3,800-€5,000) are not to be found every day. There is fine furniture, antique collectibles, silver, ceramics, art, miniatures, clocks, taxidermy, jewellery, carpets and light fittings in this treasure trove of a sale. Viewing is underway in Castlecomer.
