THIS dramatic oil on board of Sybil Head in Co. Kerry by Richard Brydges Beechey made a hammer price of 56,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s sale of Irish and International Art today. It had been estimated at 30,000-50,000. One of Beechey’s finest marine paintings, Sybil Head depicts three currachs braving rough seas beneath jagged rocks at the north west tip of the Dingle Peninsula. To the left, a sailing vessel, perhaps a naval brig, bears down on the currachs, while to the right a hooker approaches from Ferriter’s Cove. Cormorants take flight and seagulls land on the rough seas. A floating tree trunk lies in the path of the brig; Beechey used details such as these to introduce a sense of danger to his paintings. To the right, a mountain, one of the ‘Three Sisters’, is silhouetted against the stormy sky. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of 14 and art formed part of his training. He rose to the rank of Admiral and became one of Ireland’smost accomplished marine painters. This work is from the Joe McGrath Collection of Cabinteely House, Dublin.
Among other hammer prices a pencil portrait of a young woman by Augustus John made 5,000; a portrait of Iseult Gonne by Maud Gonne made 12,000; a watercolour Connemara landscape by Paul Henry made 17,000: a landscape by William Ashford made 15,000; a portrait of the artist’s wife Grace Knewstub by Willam Orpen made 16,000; a portrait of James Hugh Smith Barry by Orpen made 19,000: Soleil en Foret by Roderic O’Conor made 40,000; Aran Folk by Maurice MacGonigal made 17,000 and Sunshine and Shadow by Dorothea Sharpe made 11,000.
