Arthur Maderson – Evening shadows on the beach. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,800 AT HAMMER
This small oil on canvas by Arthur Maderson is lot 28 at Dolan’s timed online autumn auction of Irish art, rare whiskies and collectibles which runs until September 29. The sale features the work of 20th century and contemporary Irish and international artists and emerging talents in the world of Irish art. This lot is estimated at €2,800-€3,500. A collection of nine Midleton Very Rare Irish Whiskeys leads the auction with an estimate of €4,800-€6,500.
Colourway by the Dublin artist Maser, who first made his mark on the grafitti scene in 1995, is lot 81 at Whyte’s sale of Irish and International art on September 29. He has created immersive installations in cities including Berlin, Paris, Zurich, Milan, Hamburg, Munich and Amsterdam. The unframed acrylic and spray paint on canvas is estimated at €2,500-3,500. Artists in the auction include Roderic O’Conor, William Orpen, Harry Clarke, Mainie Jellett, Paul Henry, Louis le Brocquy, Donald Teskey and Rowan Gillespie. Viewing for the sale is underway at Whyte’s on Molesworth St. in Dublin.
A Family of Cheetahs in a Rocky Landscape attributed to Basawan, Mughal India, circa 1575-80. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £10,245,000 (€11,689,545), 14 times over estimate and a world record auction price for a classical Indian or Islamic painting.
A landmark auction of exceptional paintings from the personal collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan at Christie’s London on October 28 will present the market with an opportunity to acquire masterpieces of Indian and Persian painting. Comprising 95 works, the sale features the paintings that Prince Sadruddin and Princess Catherine Aga Khan chose to live with at their home, Chateau de Bellerive, on the shores of Lake Geneva. This is truly a personal collection that reflects their impeccable taste and discerning eye for quality, rarity and beauty. The group includes some of the most important examples of their kind in any collection in the world, many having been studied and published by leading scholars of the 20th century and featured in ground-breaking exhibitions. With estimates ranging from £2,000 to £1,000,000, this personal collection is expected to realise in excess of £8 million.
William IV combination games/sewing table. UPDATE: THIS MADE 320 AT HAMMER
A Regency inlaid teapoy, William IV games/sewing table or a Georgian davenport. Any of these petite antique furniture items would grace a modern house or apartment and all three will come under the hammer with reasonable estimates at Woodwards in Cork on September 27. The teapoy and the games table are reckoned to make €400-€600 each while the davenport has an estimate of €500-€800.
There is a good selection of antique pieces in this sale, from a harlequin set of Cork 11-bar dining chairs (€1,000-€1,500), a Victorian walnut tallboy (€400-€600) and a Georgian hexagonal cellarette (€600-€800) to an Irish Regency secretaire bookcase (€1,000-€1,200), a Georgian walnut bureau (€800-€1,200) and a Georgian kneehole desk (€400-€600). All have provided sterling and elegant service for many years and can do so for many more. The auction offers a large gilt framed mirror (€600-€800), a set of four gilt framed mirrors (€1,000-€1,500), a selection of Persian rugs and three French chandeliers and many other items of interest. The catalogue is online.
The Lady of the Decoration by Harry Clarke UPDATE: THIS MADE 110,000 AT HAMMER
The largest and most spectacular ink and watercolour by Harry Clarke highlights a collection of important works on paper by the artist at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art on the evening of September 24. Commissioned by the Glasgow based paint manufacturers John Duthie and Sons for a wall calendar The Lady of the Decoration was executed in 1914 and carries an estimate of €60,000-€80,000.
It is one of a number of illustrations by Clarke from various collections in the auction. The artist illustrated a number of books for the publisher George Harrap including Geothe’s Faust. An ink and watercolour drawing for the title page, an unpublished illustration for the 1925 edition, is estimated at €40,000-€60,000. An unfinished 1915 drawing for The Playboy of the Western World has an estimate of €20,000-€30,000. There are five original ink illustrations used in Harrap’s Faust (1915), Swinburne’s Selected Poems (1928) and The Fairy Tales of Perrault (1922) along with signed limited edition illustrated books and two stained glass panels by Harry Clarke of Dante and Beatrice.
The sale offers a highly desirable selection by stalwarts of the Irish art scene like Jack B Yeats, Roderic O’Conor, William Scott, Sean Scully, Mainie Jellett, John Doherty and Gerard Dillon.
Love Alloy and Perspex by Rowan Gillespie. UPDATE: THIS MADE 12,000 AT HAMMER
The inspiration for Love, an alloy sculpture by Rowan Gillespie (€12,000-€18,000) is universal. It depicts two figures divided by a sheet of perspex. “One of the first pieces I made after getting married in 1976” the sculptor explained, “when I realised that it wasn’t so easy. All the best intentions, but so often a barrier of misunderstanding separated us”.
The universality and timelessness of art is apparent in the inspiration for Sean Scully’s watercolour Robe (€30,000-€50,000). The source is a medieval manuscript, the Book of Durrow at TCD. The artist was struck by the elaborate geometric chequerboard pattern on the robe worn by St. Matthew the Evangelist resembling nothing so much as an abstract composition transported back through time. The auction is now on view at Adams and the catalogue is online.
The autumn art sale season is well and truly upon us. Whytes sale of Irish and International art in Dublin on September 29 offers many exciting opportunities for collectors and will be on view at Molesworth St. from next Monday. The catalogue cover lot is le Brocquy’s Image of Samuel Beckett from 1980 (€100,000-€150,000).
The catalogue for the Irish Art Auction by de Veres on September 30 is online and the sale of 230 lots is open for bidding. It offers lots by Martin Gale, Barbara Warren, Robert Taylor Carson, Basil Ivan Rakoczi and many more. There will be a sale of Irish and International art by Gormley’s on September 30.
The Vet’s Surgery, Schull by John Doherty. UPDATE: THIS MADE 16,000 AT HAMMER
Sean Scully (b.1945) – Robe (2002). UPDATE: THIS MADE 30,000 AT HAMMER
This watercolour over pencil by Sean Scully comes up as lot 40 at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art on September 24. The estimate is €30,000-€50,000. The initial inspiration for the robe series was the Book of Durrow at Trinity College, Dublin, dated to the latter half of the 7th Century. Scully was taken with a page featuring a remarkable representation of St Matthew the Evangelist. The saint is attired in a lavish robe with a flatly rendered geometric chequerboard pattern, incorporating diagonal panels. It’s so striking it appears anachronistic, as though an abstract composition has been transported back through time. Viewing for the auction gets underway in Dublin on September 19 and the catalogue is online.
RORY BRESLIN (B. 1963) – Custom House Keystones. UPDATE: THESE MADE €125,000 at hammer
A complete set of 14 patinated bronze masks of the Custom House keystones of the rivers of Ireland by Rory Breslin made a hammer price of €125,000 at Sheppards Irish and International art sale in Durrow. The Original Set of 14 – Liffey, Erne, Foyle, Slaney, Nore, Suir, Lagan, Lee, Shannon, Bann, Atlantic, Blackwater, Barrow and Boyne – were from the artist’s private collection. They are cast after the original keystones carved by Edward Smyth (1749–1812) for the Custom House, Dublin, c. 1791. This exceptional series reimagines one of the great achievements of Irish neoclassical sculpture: the monumental keystones personifying the Atlantic and the principal rivers of Ireland. Smyth’s original carvings, designed under architect James Gandon, embodied the aspirations of an Irish Parliament-era Dublin. Each head is laden with symbolic attributes — maritime emblems, flora, fauna, and produce — evoking the geography, economy, and folklore of its river basin. Breslin’s Variations project captures these qualities with striking fidelity while revealing the energy, texture, and modelling of the originals through the medium of bronze.
An Abstract Constructivist Composition (Study) c1920’s by Thorvald Hellesen made €33,000 over a top estimate of €9,000.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 15, 2025).
Living as he does on the edge of Europe at Allihies in west Cork the artist Charles Tyrrell is fascinated by borders, grids and edges. His latest body of work, Matters Arising at Taylor Galleries in Dublin until September 27 centres on ten new paintings that map, celebrate and expand ideas about how a cohesive whole can emerge from random elements not easily compared. Now in his mid ’70’s Tyrrell said: “I am simply paying homage to what I’ve realised is a constant throughout my painting life. It happens at every level…. dealing with matters arising, the continuous process of reacting to preceding moves”. The show at Taylor includes a selection of new drawings, drypoint prints and a timber wall piece. Pictured here is CG2.25, an oil on canvas.
Paul Henry – In Connemara. UPDATE: THIS MADE 90,000 AT HAMMER
This oil on panel by Paul Henry with an estimate of €90,000-€120,000 is among the leading lots at Whyte’s sale of Irish and International art in Dublin on September 29. Painted in the open air three cottages viewed from above are located in the bottom third of the image. In a catalogue note Dr. Mary Cosgrove observes that: The freedom and spontaneity that this little sketch demonstrates was learnt by Henry in Paris. The technique derives from the ébauche stage of the academic system of painting that affected the practice of landscape painting in particular and led to the development of Impressionism. Henry’s genius lay in amalgamating his artist’s eye with this training whilst still leaving space for the emotion to dwell in. At the same time he was painting what he saw and what people recognised, a new realism in Irish art.
NEW CORK AIRPORT MURAL BY Shane O’Driscoll & Peter Martin
The new Cork Airport Mural by Shane O’Driscoll and Peter Martin is the latest project by Ardú Street Art, the open-air gallery which has been working in Cork city since 2020. This years projects will bring more colour and creativity to the streets of the city. The Wonder of Travel at Cork Airport is the first of three projects in 2025. It celebrates the history of air travel through Cork Airport since 1961 while looking forward to a bright future and further development. The creation of two new large scale murals in the city centre is now underway. With deep roots in graffiti culture the multidisciplinary artist Kone.one is working at Water Street in the city centre. The other by Jo Hicks (aka Hixxy) is located at Liberty St. Ardu is supported by Creative Ireland, Cork City Council Arts Office, Pat McDonnell Paints, and Cork Airport.
