 |
 |
A rare complete set of Beethoven screenprints by Andy Warhol comes up at Sotheby’s sale of prints and multiples in London on March 19. This year marks the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. Warhol spared no effort in transforming the idealised and iconic portrait of the composer by Karl Stieler, into the rock star persona portrayed within this set of four screenprints. Created shortly before Warhol’s death in 1987 they are estimated at £200,000-300,000.
Art auctioneers Whyte’s, who enjoyed a record breaking year in 2019, will kick off their 2020 art selling season on March 9. The evening sale of Irish and International Art at the RDS in Dublin includes works by Yeats, Paul Henry, William Conor, Beatrice Glenavy, William Sadler, Nathaniel Hone the elder, Louis le Brocquy, Tony O’Malley, Donald Teskey, Barrie Cooke and many more. Whyte’s results in 2019 were aided in no small part by the record breaking November sale of the Ernie O’Malley Collection at which two works by Yeats soared past the million euro barrier. A 1948 Yeats, Rusty Gates, is the most expensively estimated lot in this upcoming sale with an estimate of €100,000-150,000. It depicts two elderly gentleman standing before a gateway in a high stone wall in a setting reminiscent of Co. Wicklow with a Sugar Loaf like mountain in the background.The first ROSC exhibition in Dublin at the RDS in 1967 was built around 50 of the “best” living artists at that time and included Francis Bacon, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Miro and Pablo Picasso. Among those exhibiting was Polish artist Tadeusz Brzozowski (1918-1987). His work Mastiff from that show returns to the RDS to go under the hammer as Lot 53 with an estimate of €80,000-100,000. The Bog Road by Paul Henry dates to 1917-1923 and is estimated at €50,000-70,000, Stage Girls by Daniel O’Neill is estimated at €30,000-50,000 and works by Sir John Lavery include two portraits and a painting of two cigarette girls in Seville in colourful costume. There is art by Gerard Dillon, Colin Middleton and George Campbell and Reclining Woman by Roderic O’Conor is estimated at €15,000-20,000. Large oils by John Shinnors and Donald Teskey, Sculptor’s Scarecrow and Coastal Report II are each estimated at €10,000-15,000, Mayo Summer by Tony O’Malley is estimated at €15,000-20,000, Rakaia Gorge I by Barrie Cooke is estimated at €6,000-8,000 as is an Aubusson tapestry from the 1970’s by Patrick Scott.The Embarkation of King George IV at Kingstown 1821 by William Sadler II is full of minute detail recording the historic visit to Ireland by the British monarch. The King arrived drunk and suspicions persisted that the main purpose of the trip was to visit his mistress, Lady Conyngham at Slane Castle. The visit was presented as a success and Lot 98 is estimated at €12,000-18,000.There are 200 lots on the catalogue, which is online.
A Mountainous Wooded Landscape with figures gathering wood by Cork artist John Butts comes up at Sotheby’s sale of 44 Fitzwilliam Square, works from the estate of the late Patrick Kelly in London on March 18. It is estimated at £20,000-30,000. The talented artist, who died aged only 37 in 1764, worked as a teacher in Cork where his pupils included James Barry and Nathanial Grogan. He moved to Dublin around 1757 and worked predominantly as a scene painter. A comparable painting by the artist, Poachers: View in the Dargle, is at Tate Britain. In a letter written after his death James Barry described him as … “an unfortunate man, who with all his merit never met with any thing but cares and misery, which I may say hunted him into the very grave. His cast of genius was very much that of Claude’s, whom he resembles without any imitation more than anybody that I know of”. His View of Cork is one of the most popular works in the collection of the Crawford Gallery.
Murillo: The Prodigal Son Restored which opens at the National Gallery of Ireland on February 29, follows a long conservation project. It is 30 years since Murillo’s series of paintings based on the parable of the Prodigal Son has been on display here.
The Prodigal Son cycle by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo explores sin, repentance and forgiveness across six paintings, staged in seventeenth-century Seville. It is the only intact narrative cycle by Murillo in the world. Donated by the Beit family in 1987, the works have been conserved at the Gallery’s Paintings Conservation Studio in a project led by Muirne Lydon, who remarked: “The conclusions of technical research performed on the paintings during conservation will be highlighted in the exhibition, revealing how the series was created – from canvas to ground layers and pigments – and the transformations that they have gone through over time. This new research adds to the growing body of knowledge of Murillo’s painting technique and materials. By situating the paintings both culturally and technically, the exhibition hopes to demonstrate that it is crucial to understand these masterpieces beyond their surface, thereby allowing our visitors to fully appreciate this exceptionally rich series.”
Sean Rainbird, Gallery Director said: “Murillo’s Prodigal Son cycle is one of the treasures of the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland. We are delighted that this exceptional group of paintings, now gloriously conserved for future generations, will be on view at the Gallery this Spring.” The exhibition continues until August 30.
AN online sale of Irish art by Morgan O’Driscoll runs to Monday March 2. There is paintings and sculpture from artists like John Behan, John Shinnors, George Campbell, Elizabeth le Jeune, Patrick O’Reilly, James Humbert Craig, Mark O’Neill, George Campbell and many more. The catalogue is online.
The Bitch Pack of the Meath Foxhounds by the Victorian painter John Emms (1843-1912) is a highlight at Bonhams sale of 19th Century and British Impressionist Art sale in London on April 8. Hunting with hounds is a tradition in Ireland that goes back to ancient times and features strongly in Celtic literature and legend. There is a pack recorded in the Meath area as early as 1723, although the Meath Hunt itself dates from 1817. The Bitch Pack of the Meath Foxhounds was painted in 1896 when John Watson was Master. It is estimated at £180,000-250,000.
Bonhams Head of Victorian Paintings, Charles O’Brien explains: “Emms had the rare ability to give real life to his subject and was at his very best when painting dogs. In this unusually large work – it’s 40 x 60 inches – his confident use of fluid brush strokes gives weight and solidity to the different physical characteristics of the dogs as well as their individual temperaments.”
Few artists spent as much time in the studio as Lucian Freud (1922-2011), regarded as one of the greatest realist painters of the 20th century. He changed the way we see portraiture and the nude. In its latest incarnation the Freud Project at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) has set out on an investigation into the relationship between the artist and their studio and the role of the studio as a space for production. In all its forms the studio exerts a fascination as the physical and conceptual frame as an artist’s work progresses. The exhibition of 29 paintings and 16 works on paper is made possible by the IMMA Collection: Freud Project, a five year loan of 52 works by Lucian Freud to IMMA. The programme of research will build on existing ways of thinking about the studio and focus on the contemporary situation in Ireland. This is the fifth exhibition to be presented as part of the project and it will run until August 30.
A total of 530 lots of silver, furniture, jewellery, porcelain and collectibles will come under the hammer at the At Home sale at James Adam in Dublin on February 23. There are silver brooches by Georg Jensen, some Irish provincial silver, artworks including some Art Deco chrome plated figures, mirrors, antique furniture including sets of chairs, Oriental bronzes and Donegal carpets. The catalogue is online.
Rusty Gates, a 1948 oil by Jack B. Yeats, is the main lot at Whyte’s sale of Irish and International art in Dublin on March 9. The sale includes work by Paul Henry, William Conor, Beatrice Glenavy, William Sadler, Nathaniel Hone The Elder, Louis le Brocquy, Tony O’Malley, Donald Teskey and many other Irish artists. Around 200 lots will come under the hammer in an auction expected to realise about 1.2 million. The Yeats carries an estimate of 100,000-150,000. The catalogue is online.
Rare images from Sir Ernest Shackleton’s doomed Antartic Expedition come up at Bonhams Travel and Exploration sale in London on February 26. The Antarctic explorer, born in Kilkea Co. Kildare, led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. His Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-1917 is remembered for one of the great feats of human daring and valour. Attempting to sail across the Weddell Sea, the expedition ship Endurance became trapped in pack ice, eventually disintegrating in October 1915. The dramatic escape of the crew is the stuff of legend. The expedition’s official photographer, Australian Frank Hurley, captured life on board the stricken vessel and the ship’s final hours. A newly discovered presentation album of Hurley’s Photographs of Scenes and Incidents in Connection with the Happenings to the Weddell Sea Party consigned by a private owner in the UK is estimated at £30,000-40,000.
Frank Hurley joined the Shackleton expedition as the official photographer in 1914, having gained experience with Douglas Mawson’s 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition. The decision to abandon Endurance presented Hurley with an unenviable task. With a long march ahead into an uncertain future, weight was at a premium and he was forced to destroy 400 plates to lessen the load.
Bonhams Head of Books, Manuscripts and Photographs, Matthew Haley said: “The fate of Endurance and the crew’s astonishing and tortuous journey back against all the odds is rightly seen as a testament to the human spirit under extreme pressure. Hurley’s images convey the terrible situation in which the men found themselves, and have come to define the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration as it drew to a close.”
UPDATE: THE PHOTOGRAPHS SOLD FOR £87,500
