It is, according to the auctioneers Christie’s, in paintings like The Sky Lovers that we see the roots of Yeats’ most emotional and highly evocative works. The 1947 work provides a striking example of his late painting style. Early in 1947 Yeats lost Cottie, his wife of 53 years, and when he returned to his easel it was with a new found emotional intensity. In this work two figures are depicted looking to the sky as one raises his hands imploringly to the heavens. Through light and vigorous brushstrokes the artist brings energy to the work, a sense of desolation and a yearning for something lost. The Sky Lovers comes up at the Modern British Art evening sale at Christie’s in London on January 21 with an estimate of £200,000-300,000.
Jack Butler Yeats, R.H.A. (1871-1957) The Sky Lovers . UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £225,000
Contents from Newtown House and other clients will come under the hammer at Sheppards in Durrow on January 21 and 22. Around 870 lots will come under the hammer in two days of sales broken up into four sessions. Among them in a sale of antique furniture, silver, jewellery, art, rugs and collectibles is a Chinese silver rickshaw supporting condiments with an estimate of just 200-300. The catalogue is online.
UPDATE: THE RICKSHAW CONDIMENTS SOLD FOR 650 AT HAMMER
Tamara de Lempicka’s Portrait de Marjorie Ferry (1932) will be a highlight at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale in London on February 5. The painting was commissioned by the husband of the British-born cabaret star Marjorie Ferry at the height of Lempicka’s fame in Paris where she was the most sought-after and celebrated female modernist painter. By 1930 Lempicka had become the première portraitist in demand among both wealthy Europeans and Americans, specifically with those who had an eye for classicised modernism. The portrait is estimated at £8,000,000-12,000,000.
Tamara de Lempicka, Portrait de Marjorie Ferry . UPDATE: THIS MADE £16.2 MILLION
Three works recently restituted to the heirs of Gaston Lévy, one of the most notable patrons and art collectors living in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s, will come up at Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art evening sale in London on February 4. One is by Camille Pisarro, two by Paul Signac. Lévy’s art collection was dispersed under the Nazi occupation, and two of the works to be offered in February were lost to the ‘Einsatztab Reichsleiter Rosenberg’ (an organisation dedicated to receiving looted cultural property) in October 1940. After the war, the works were repatriated to the French state, and have recently been restituted by the French Government to Lévy’s heirs from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The third of the works to be offered – Signac’s Quai de Clichy. Temps gris – had been stored in the Lévy’s country home, the Château des Bouffards, but later found its way into the collection of the dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, whose illicit hoard was discovered by the authorities in 2012.
UPDATE: The three works restituted to the heirs of Gaston Levy made #22.2 million. Pissarro’s Gelee blanche made #13.3 million, Signac’s View of Istanbul made £7.6 million and his Quai de Clichy made £1.3 million.
Paul Signac – Quai de Clichy. Temps gris UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £1.3 MILLION
David Hockney’s The Splash will highlight Sotheby’s Contemporary Art evening auction in London on February 11. It is estimated at £20-30 million, over six times the price achieved when it last sold at auction for £2.9 million at Sotheby’s London in 2006. That was then an auction record for a Hockney.
Painted in 1966, The Splash immortalises a fleeting moment just seconds after a diver has broken the calm surface of a swimming pool. The painting’s protagonist is present, yet absent, masked by a torrent of displaced water. The work is a quintessential example of Hockney’s lifelong fascination with the texture, appearance and depth of water – a fascination which culminated in one of the most celebrated and instantly recognisable bodies of work in 20th century art.
It is the second in a series of three ‘splashes’, the largest and final of which, A Bigger Splashis in the Tate collection in London. These paintings represent the apex of Hockney’s Californian fantasy. Created at a watershed moment in his career, the three ‘splashes’ secured the artist’s international reputation as a leading artist of his generation and confirmed his unrivalled ability to combine elements of disparate movements – Minimalism, Modernist Abstraction and Pop Art – into a new style entirely of his own.
David Hockney, The Splash, 1966 . UPDATE: THIS MADE £24.1 MILLION AT HAMMER
The Claddagh ring collection of the Hon Garech Browne of Luggala, who founded Claddagh Records in 1959, comes up at Sotheby’s 2020 instalment of Royal and Nobel in London on January 21. Irish lots feature prominently in this 250 lots auction.There is furniture, paintings and collectibles from Killadoon House on the banks of the River Liffey in Kildare, formerly one of the seats of the Earls of Leitrim and owned by the Clements family; a selection of mostly collectible lots from Luggala and the collection of the late Garech Browne and some lots from an important Irish collector.No less that 22 Claddagh rings representing love, loyalty and friendship owned by Garech Browne are included. The Claddagh ring as it is now known was first produced in the 17th century in the fishing village of Claddagh. Many of the examples in Garech Browne’s collection are rare and early. The most expensively estimated is a c1700 ring by Thomas Meade, Kinsale or Galway at £2,500-4,500. Galway makers featured include James Clinch, Nicholas Burge, George Robinson, Richard Joyce and Austin French.Also from Luggala is a collection of mostly Galway 18th century ecclesiastical silver, Irish 18th century rosaries with pendant crucifixes, some Irish silver, furniture and a George III longcase clock by James Aikin, Cork c1780 (£3,000-4,000).
There are portraits, Irish 19th century furniture, Chinese and European porcelain and bronzes. Also in the sale from an Irish collection is a George II side table in the manner of William Kent which is estimated at £30,000-50,000. This table was brought to Birr Castle in the 1940’s by Anne, Countess of Rosse and came to the present owner by descent.
UPDATE: A total of 21 Claddagh rings sold mostly at prices considerably above the top estimate.
This c1700 rare Claddagh ring by Thomas Meade, Kinsale or Galway is estimated at £2,500–4,500). UPDATE: THIS RING SOLD FOR £9,375
Rene Magritte’s A la rencontre du plaisir (Towards Pleasure) comes up at Christie’s Surreal auction in London on February 5. It combines several if his most iconic motifs into a single, evocative image, creating an elegant summation of the poetic imagination which fuelled his unique form of Surrealism. Purchased directly from the artist shortly after its creation, the painting has remained in the same family collection for over half a century, and is coming to auction for the first time and is estimated at £8-12 million.
René Magritte, À la rencontre du plaisir UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £18.9 million
An online auction of Irish art by Morgan O’Driscoll runs until the evening of January 20. Artists featured include Mark O’Neill, James Humbert Craig, John Shinnors, Melanie le Brocquy, Patrick O’Reilly, Markey Robinson and many more. The catalogue, with 259 lots in total, is online.
MARK O’NEILL (B.1963) – Summer Floral II (2019) . UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,200 AT HAMMER
Henry Moore’s Square Form, a rare surreal sculpture from 1936, is among the highlights at Christie’s Modern British Art evening sale in London on January 21. It is estimated at £3-5 million. The auction will launch the 20th century series at Christie’s which includes a day sale and works from the collection of Allen and Beryl Freer on January 22 and 23. The Mill, Pendlebury, a recently discovered painting by L.S. Lowry bought directly from the artist is estimated at £700,000-1,000,000. The evening auction will feature early Modernist paintings by Ben Nicholson, John Piper, and Richard Lin alongside the Vorticists David Bomberg, William Roberts and Lawrence Atkinson. Two paintings by Howard Hodgkin from The Jeremy Lancaster Collection continue to illustrate the collector’s career-long support for the artist.
One sale to look forward to in 2020 takes place at Sotheby’s in London on March 18 – the day after St. Patrick’s Day. It will focus global attention on the art and antiques of Ireland at a time when international buyers are playing an increasingly important role in many sales in this country. Jack Yeats and William Scott made art which could not be more different, yet together they represent the two hottest Irish artists in the salesrooms right now. Both artists featured in the collection of late property developer Patrick Kelly, who furnished his Georgian home at 44 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin with an array of paintings spanning the 18th to the 20th centuries.These paintings were wonderfully complemented with fine Georgian and Regency furniture, silver and decorative arts, amassed by Kelly from auctions and dealers over the past three decades.On offer at Sotheby’s will be 120 lots from the estate of Patrick Kelly (1942-2011) who was one of our most successful property developers.Arabella Bishop, head of Sotheby’s Dublin office, said: “I have known Patrick and his collection for many years. 44 Fitzwilliam Square was a truly stunning setting to showcase the paintings, furniture, and objects which he collected from around the world over a number of decades. In holding a dedicated auction, we are able to celebrate Patrick’s vision and look forward to sharing it with collectors not only in Ireland but internationally.”The auction will offer art by Daniel Maclise, George Barret, Roderic O’Conor, Yeats, Scott and others. Furniture highlights include a pair of George II Irish mirrors supplied to Sankey Winter, Dean of Kildare, and marquetry tables attributed to William Moore of Dublin.Sotheby’s say the collection as a whole reveals Patrick’s passion for Irish art and his discerning eye, with pictures and furniture beautifully married within the elegant surroundings of his Georgian home. Central to the collection are five paintings by Yeats, including The Showground Revisited, painted in 1950 (£150,000-250,000 / €170,000-282,000) and Young Men, painted in 1929 (£150,000-250,000 / €170,000-282,000), and an exceptional work by William Scott, entitled Deep Blues (£300,000-500,000 / €339,000-565,000).
