Watching the fishing boats by Markey Robinson comes up as lot 12 art Whyte’s Spring online art auction which runs to the evening of March 28. It is estimated at 800-1,000. The auction is online only but viewing is now underway at Whyte’s on Molesworth St. in Dublin. The sale of 273 lots offers a selection by well known artists at affordable prices and is designed to encourage first time buyers as well as more seasoned collectors.
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.
There was a new world record for Sir John Lavery at Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art evening sale in London last night. The Croquet Party, which was making its auction debut, sold for £2,922,000. The auction achieved £25.5 million and attracted registered bidders from 14 countries across three continents. According to Christie’s this demonstrates continued growth in the international collector base for the category.
Bridget Riley’s Gala from the curving colour series was the top lot. It made £4,362,000, a new world auction record for the artist. No less than 60% of lots sold above the top estimate.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for March 8, 2022)
Poised to be the most expensive 20th century artwork ever at auction Shot Sage Blue Marilyn by Andy Warhol wilL lead Christie’s marquee week sales in New York in May. The estimate is in the region of $200 million. Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is a definitive work. Warhol first began creating silkscreens of Marilyn Monroe following her death in August 1962. He would create reproductions of her visage multiple times in bright colours, often with the features somewhat askew. In 1964, he developed a more refined and time-intensive screen printing technique, antithetical to the mass production he was best known for, and created a limited number of portraits of the Hollywood legend. This technique was so difficult that he never returned to it again. The artwork has been exhibited widely at leading institutions including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London, Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Royal Academy of Arts in London, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, the Netherland’s, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen and the Pasadena Art Museum.
Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is from the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation Zurich. All proceeds will benefit the foundation which is dedicated to improving the lives of children the world over by establishing support systems centred on providing healthcare and educational programs. This single painting will constitute the highest grossing philanthropic auction since The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller in 2018.
THIS west of Ireland landscape by Paul Henry comes up as lot 85 at Fonsie Mealy’s auction of Important Irish and International Art on March 23. It is believed to be a preparatory sketch for a more finished studio version, documented by S. B. Kennedy and listed in his catalogue raisonné (Cat. 602). The finished version was in its turn translated into an advertisement poster for the London Midland & Scottish Railway. Published in 1925, the caption on the poster read ‘Connemara by Paul Henry “Ireland This Year” ’. By the early 1930’s, along with another image by Henry, it was among the top-selling posters issued by the LMS Railway. The watercolour is estimated at 6,000-8,000. Among the artists represented in the sale are George Russell AE, Sir William Orpen, Wm. Sadler, Paul Henry, Percy French, Maurice Canning Wilkes, Maurice Mac Gonigal, Dorothea Sharp, Daniel O’Neill, Augustus John, Harry Clarke, William Ashford, Roderic O Connor, Maud Gonne, Frank McKelvey, Frederick William Burton and the Yeats family. There are 236 lots in total in the sale.
A Regency cheval mirror with satinwood crossbanding is among the lots of interest at Matthews sale of the entire contents of Rath House in Dundalk online from Kells, Co. Meath on March 20. The sale of 1,117 lots includes antique furniture, paintings, silver and collectibles. There are tables, sets of chairs, chests of drawers, bookcases, Oriental porcelain, Waterford Crystal, Victorian landscapes and portraits and all sorts of collectibles among a wide variety of lots. Viewing is now underway and the auction will be online.
The sale is a prelude to a number of auctions next week and the week after. Purcell Auctioneers in Birr will offer a 1908 limited edition Collected Works of W.B. Yeats (update – hammer 2,400) in verse and prose as a highlight of their sale of Irish and world interest books on March 23. A very rare Treatise on the Art of War by Roger, Earl of Orrery from 1677 comes up too (update – this made 1,250 at hammer). Works by Richard Brydges Beechey, Roderic O’Conor and William Orpen’s portrait of James Hugh Smith-Barry will highlight Fonsie Mealy’s sale of Irish and International Art on March 23. There are 236 lots on offer. A 48 hour timed online auction of jewellery by O’Reilly’s of Francis St. in Dublin runs from March 23-25.
This marine painting by Roderic O’Conor will highlight the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on March 30. It is estimated at €150,000-200,000. Another highlight is The Boat by Jack B. Yeats, a 1948 oil with an estimate of €80,000-120,000. The sale offers a rich selection of fine paintings and sculpture from some remarkable Dublin collections and includes many works that have not been seen on the art market in a very long time. There are works from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. The catalogue is online and in person viewing gets underway on March 25.
Antonio Canova’s (1757-1822) Maddalena Giacente (Recumbent Magdalene) 1819-1822, the Italian titan’s lost masterpiece completed shortly before his death, will be a highlight at Christie’s during Classic Week in London this summer. The sculpture of Mary Magdalene in a state of ecstasy was commissioned by the Prime Minister of the day, Lord Liverpool (1812-1827). Scholars have searched for the work for decades. In November 1819 Thomas Moore, the Irish poet and lyricist, recorded that Canova: “took me to see his last Magdalen, which is divine: she is lying recumbent in all the abandonment of grief; and the expression on her face and the beauty of her figure … are perfection”. The sculpture passed to Lord Liverpool’s brother and after his death it came up at Christie’s in 1852. It was acquired by Lord Ward whose son sold it at a moment of personal tragedy to the carpet manufacturer Sir Herbert Smith. The attribution to Canova seems to have been lost at this stage. It changed hands as a “classical figure” in 1938 and was purchased by Violet van der Elst, a campaigner who was instrumental in bringing about the abolition of the death penalty in England. It was in the garden in her house at Addison Road, Kensington and was sold with the house several times. In 2002 it was sold in a garden statuary sale and the attribution to Canova has only been established recently. It is now estimated at £5,000,000-8,000,000. The earliest known photograph of the marble was taken in 1857 at the Manchester Art Treasures exhibition which was opened by Prince Albert.
In the 19th century, life for tenanted farmers on the islands off the west coast of Ireland was tough. Their small holdings were barely sufficient to support livestock, and they faced the additional challenge of transporting back home the animals they had bought at fairs on the mainland. Since their boats were too small to accommodate the cattle, the farmers and their wives had no option but to tow the beasts across the treacherous sounds. The drama of this perilous journey is depicted in William Bartlett’s Returning from the Fair at Bonhams 19th Century Paintings sale in London on March 30. It is estimated at £20,000-30,000.
William Bartlett (1858 -1932) was only 20 when in 1878 he first became captivated by the west of Ireland during a summer visit made with the American painter, Howard Helmick. It was not until 1886, however, after many years of artistic training – mostly in Paris where he absorbed the innovative naturalism of Jules Bastien-Lepage – that he returned to the area. The Connemara light and the hardships experienced by the people inspired some of Bartlett most powerful works and proved a life-long inspiration. In a note on Returning from the Fair, painted in 1888, he wrote, ‘To the periodical Markets, held on the mainland, the inhabitants of the outlying islands are often obliged (owing to the smallness of the boats) to tow their cattle after them.’
You never know what you might come across at an auction of house contents. Which is why they are brimful of interest. This copper deep sea divers helmet with the insignia of the US Navy Mark V full size is one of the more unusual collectibles at Matthews sale of contents of Rath House, Dundalk on March 20. There are 1,117 lots including antiques, art, silver and collectibles. The helmet is lot 47 and is estimated at just 120-180.