The wonderful Barney Eastwood Collection of Important Sporting and Irish Pictures comes up at Christie’s in London on July 9. The 30 lots range from 19th century sporting pictures through to defining representations of Munnings’ oeuvre, to an extraordinary group of Yeats’ illustrating key periods of his work. Other leading examples of Irish Art are included in the sale, with works by Walter Frederick Osborne, Sir William Orpen, Roderic O’Conor, Paul Henry, Sir John Lavery, and Gerard Dillon. The collection, which he started in the 1970’s, represent his deep interest in equestrian painting and Irish Art.
Barney Eastwood, known to his friends and family as ‘BJ’, was born in Northern Ireland in 1932. A talented Gaelic football player he was a member of the Co. Tyrone team which won the All Ireland Minor Championship in 1948. Both horse and greyhound racing were significant sporting passions throughout his lifetime, and together with his great friend and erstwhile business partner Alfie McLean, he had many successful runners over the years.
Charles Cator, deputy chairman, Christie’s International, commented: ‘B.J. Eastwood was a very private man and the collection was intensely personal, acquired not for show or prestige but for the enjoyment of himself, his family and those close to him – it was the least ostentatious way of collecting and it was from the heart.’
