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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
A total of 144 lots of Asian Art from a private collection in Wicklow will come under the hammer at Sheppards in Durrow on February 20. The selection is broad and encompasses everything from tiny foo dogs to brush washers, monochrome and polychrome porcelain, cloisonne vases, jade pendants, bowls, censers, jardinieres and a couple of lots of Chinese lacquered furniture. Oriental art and porcelain has become a growing sustainer of auction houses in Ireland and it is probably not unfair to remark that in this context Sheppards leads the field.
The centenary of the birth of artist Dan O’Neill will be marked at the Farmleigh Gallery in Dublin this summer. This will be the first retrospective of Daniel O’Neill’s work since 1952 and includes many works from private collections unseen at exhibition for over 50 years. It will feature works by his friends and fellow painters Gerard Dillon, Colin Middleton, George Campbell, Nano Reid and others. Born in Belfast, O’Neill had little orthodox training. He started painting with watercolours at the age of 15 and studied Italian renaissance painters at Belfast Reference Library. In 1945 he was taken up by the Dublin dealer, Victor Waddington and several one man shows followed. He visited France and moved to London in 1958. From there his paintings were sent to the Waddington Gallery in Montreal and he showed at the Dawson Gallery in Dublin. In 1970 he exhibited in Belfast and his last two exhibitions were at the Dawson in 1971. He died in March 1974 aged 54. The show will run from May 10 to July 24.
A timed online sale of accessible art from Ireland and around the world runs at Whyte’s in Dublin until the evening of February 17. It will include work by Yeats, le Brocquy, Estella Solomons, Colin Middleton, Markey Robinson and Sean McSweeney with estimates from €50-1,000. In a timed auction last split second bidding is prevented by ten minute wait periods. The catalogue is online.
UPDATE: The sale included 26 American artworks from the New York office of liquidated Anglo-Irish Bank which sold for a total of 29,000.
With everything from longcase clocks, a Russian icons and a Killarney wood bookstand the Making Room Sale by Fonsie Mealy on February 19 offers much of interest. The sale at The Avalon House Hotel in Castlecomer is by way of being a clearout. This no reserve auction will be of interest to bargain hunters, collectors, interior decorators and home owners. Lot 323 is a 19th century Killarney wood bookstand typically decorated and inlaid with shamrocks, harp and ruins and estimated at just €100-150. There are Crown Derby urns, Victorian button back sofas, barometers, a selection of clocks and all sorts of collectibles including lot 83, a 19th century Russian School icon on panel with an estimate of €700-1,000.
