Much loved actor Michael Caine is downsizing. His personal collection is to be sold at Bonhams in London on March 2. For six decades, he has lent presence and distinction to every role he has undertaken – from the era-defining Alfie to classic films such as Get Carter, Zulu and Educating Rita; from his Oscar-winning performances in Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules to Batman’s unflappable butler, Alfred. Among the highlights are his Rolex wristwatch, a portrait of Sir Michael Caine by John Bratby, a large Italian cinema poster for Zulu, a director’s chair associated with Get Carter and Les amoureux dans l’arbre by Marc Chagall.
Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. Portrait of Thomas Dawson, 1st Viscount Cremorne. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $100,800
This portrait of Thomas Dawson by Sir Thomas Lawrence comes up at Sotheby’s online Master Paintings sale part II which opens in New York on January 18 and runs to January 28. It is estimated at $40,000-60,000. The sale includes a number of important Renaissance devotional paintings, 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings, portraiture across the ages, landscapes and still lifes.
Thomas Dawson was born in 1725, the third son of Richard Dawson of Dawson Grove, Monaghan, and Elizabeth, daughter of John Vesey, Archbishop of Tuam. He was a member of Parliament for Monaghan from 1749 to 1768. In 1770 he was made Baron Dartrey of Dawson’s Grove; in June 1785, Viscount Cremorne; and in November 1797 was named Baron Cremorne of Castle Dawson. He was first married to Anne Fermor, youngest daughter of the 1st Earl of Pomfret. Following her death in 1769, Dawson married Philadelphia Hannah Freame, daughter of Thomas Freame and granddaughter of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. Viscount Cremorne died in 1813. As he had no heirs, his titles became extinct.
Looted by the Nazi’s, restituted to the heirs of a Viennese Jewish industrialist, El Greco’s mesmerising 1570 Portrait of a Gentleman made €1,433,393 at Christie’s Old Masters evening sale in London in December. It was one of three works from the collection of Julius and Camilla Priester in the sale. The Priesters escaped Vienna and eventually made it to Mexico City via Lisbon. Despite photographic evidence their efforts to retrieve the collection after the war failed. It was discovered that some appraisers who had worked for the Gestapo were now dealing privately in Nazi loot. In 2010 the London based Commission for Looted Art in Europe identified the El Greco, still in its original frame, after it was acquired by a London art dealer. An unknown number of Nazi era looted works are still unaccounted for.
This Georgian mahogany chest on chest comes up as lot 7 at Hegarty’s evening fine interiors sale online on January 11. It is estimated at 2,000-2,500. There are 272 lots of design, furnishing, contemporary art and silver in the auction. The catalogue is online.
Set of four George II mahogany torchères c1740. UPDATE: THESE SOLD FOR £37,800.
This set of four torcheres come up as lot 69 at Sotheby’s Royal and Nobel sale, online from today until January 20. To have a set of four mahogany torchères from one source is extremely rare as they are often found as pairs. Originally used to supplement the fixed lighting arrangements in large rooms, torchères played an important role in the 17th and 18th century interior. The refined form of those in the present lot highlights the quality of the mahogany used in construction. According to Sotheby’s it seems that those offered here were bought or commissioned for the Long Gallery at Blickling Hall, Norfolk. They are estimated at £6,000-9,000.
MARKEY ROBINSON (1918-1999) – Winter Landscape. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,000 AT HAMMER
This winter landscape by Markey Robinson comes up as lot 9 in Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online sale, which runs until January 10. The work in gouache is estimated at 2,000-3,000. Morgan O’Driscoll’s auction is on view in Skibbereen by appointment and subject to the current government Covid guidelines. There are 447 lots in the auction and the catalogue is online.
DIEGO RIVERA (1886-1957) La bordadora.UPDATE: This made $4,140,000 and was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
La Bordadora (The Embroiderer), a rediscovered masterpiece by Diego Rivera, comes up at Christie’s in New York on March 11. Painted in 1928 as part of the nation building project that fuelled Rivera’s return to Mexico in the 1920s it pays homage to folk and craft based practices and the role of Indigenous women in preserving these traditions. Known only through black and white photographs taken shortly after it was painted La Bordadora was discovered to have been in the same American family collection since the 1920’s. It is estimated at $700,000-$900,000 (€620,900-€798,535). Last November Frida Kahlo’s Diego y yo (Diego and I) sold in New York for $34.9 million (€30,967,962), a record for a work of Latin American art. The previous record of $9.76 million (€8.65 million) was set by Diego Rivera with whom Kahlo had a decades long tumultuous relationship.
Sandro Botticelli – The Man of Sorrows. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $45.5 MILLION
A link between Botticelli and the buses, unknown to art history, has emerged on the art market. You wait for ever and then two come along more or less together. One of the last great masterpieces by the Renaissance master will highlight Sothebys annual Masters Week sale series in New York later this month. The Man of Sorrows is estimated to make in excess of $40 million (€35.4 million). It is a late period work from a time when the artist was greatly influenced by the fanatical preaching of hellfire Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola. The most distinctive features are the frontal presentation of the stunningly modern human portrayal of the resurrected Christ and a halo of angels holding the instruments of the passion.
Works by Botticelli are exceedingly rare. In January 2021 Sotheby’s sold Sandro Botticelli’s Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel for $92.2 million (€81.78 million). It is the most valuable Old Master painting ever sold at auction.
Sandro Botticelli – Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775-1851 Below Arvier, looking down the Val d’Aosta towards Mont Emilius, 1836
We might as well approach the New Year with hope. Ireland’s art lovers missed out on the annual Turner exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland in January 2021 because of the pandemic. In 2022 the much loved Turner watercolours at the gallery go on display for the month of January from today. A highlight of the yearly cultural calendar the paintings have been shown annually in January since 1901, except for 2021.The 120th exhibition, Turner and Place: Landscapes in Light and Detail scheduled for last year, opens today instead. With luck and a dose of optimism this might be the harbinger of a more complete cultural year in 2022 with more gallery visits, more in room attendance at auction, more fairs, more opportunities to meet and greet. Fingers crossed.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775-1851 Lake Lucerne from Fluelen, 1841
The Turner watercolours on display from today are remarkable and range from highly finished work to atmospheric sketches.In 2022 there is much to look forward to in terms of Turner. JMW Turner: The Sun is God opens at the Beit Wing in the National Gallery next October. The touring exhibition of works from the collection of The Tate will display more than 80 works in a show that explores his fascination with natural forces and the sun, moon and clouds. The exhibition, devised by the Turner scholar David Blayney Brown, showcases the artistic innovations of one of the greatest painters of the Romantic period. It will feature 25 paintings and an array of watercolours.
Meantime, back to Turner and Place. The 31 Turner works will be shown alongside a group of 19 rare topographical drawings by Francis Place, who visited Ireland in 1698.Place’s views are the earliest known depictions of Drogheda, Dublin, Kilkenny, and Waterford within the national collection. This collection was purchased almost 50 years ago through the Gallery’s Shaw fund. It is the first time the two collections have been shown together and the first time since 1972 that the Place works will be displayed as a group.The Turners were bequeathed to the gallery by the English collector Henry Vaughan (1809-1899) who stipulated that the delicate watercolours be shown every year in January when natural light is at its weakest. Subsequent generations of art lovers in Ireland have benefitted incalculably from Mr. Vaughan’s generosity.
NGI 7516 Dublin from Phoenix Park by Francis Place. (1647-1728)
BANKSY (20TH/21ST CENTURY) – Peckham Rock (2018). UPDATE: THIS MADE 700 AT HAMMER
This wooden replica of Peckham Rock by Banksy recreated by the British Museum in 2018 is Lot 43 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall online art auction which runs until January 10. Unframed it measures 4.9″ x 7.2″ and the framed size if 14.6″ x 13.8″. It is estimated at 500-600. There are 447 lots on offer and the catalogue is online.
