antiquesandartireland.com

JOE TILSON (B. 1928) Gagarin, Star, Triangle sold for £169,250. (Click on image to enlarge).

THERE was a new world record for the British Pop artist Joe Tilson at Christie’s sale of Modern British Art in London.  His Gagarin, Star, Triangle made  £169,250 over a top estimate of  £120,000.  It is signed and dated 1968 on the reverse of each wooden relief. Born in London in 1928 Joe Tilson  was the subject of a retrospective at the Royal Academy in 2002. His work is in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London, MoMA in New York and the Stedelijk in Amsterdam.

The Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who died in 1968, was the first human to journey into outer space when he orbited the earth in 1961.

Steven Dews painting to commemorate an epic sea battle 200 years on. (Click on image to enlarge).

A painting of the epic sea battle between H.M.S. Shannon and the U.S.S. Chesapeake during the Anglo-American War of 1812-14 will come up at Bonhams in London 200 years after the event next April. The renowned naval encounter occurred in 1813 after Captain Philip Broke of H.M.S. Shannon came upon the Chesapeake refitting in Boston Harbour and challenged her to come out and fight. Captain James Lawrence brought Chesapeake out into the open sea and after a furious annihilating action lasting just fifteen minutes, was forced to surrender.
After firing two devastating broadsides Broke led his boarding party onto Chesapeake but was so badly wounded that he had to relinquish his command. Casualties on both sides were extraordinarily high – 48 Americans, including Captain Lawrence, were killed and 96 wounded whilst Shannon suffered 33 dead and 50 wounded. Captain Broke survived to be rewarded with a baronetcy although he never recovered sufficiently to be able to return to active service.
The oil painting in which the British artist John Steven Dews (born 1949) celebrates the bi-centenary of the battle is estimated to make £60,000-80,000 at Bonhams Marine sale on April 24, 2013 in London. Dews is Britain’s most sought after living marine artist.

A Christmas Irish art auction by Dolan’s takes place at the Pillo Hotel, Galway on December 9. The catalogue is on line. Here is a small selection (you can click on any image to enlarge it).

The Drawing Room by Norman Teeling (750-850).UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Galway Hookers, Low Tide, Claddagh by Ivan Sutton (1,500-2,500). UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,300

Old Town Light by Mark O’Neill (900-1,200). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Moonlight in Connemara by Markey Robinson (4,500-4,800).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,750 AND WAS THE TOP LOT OF THE AUCTION.

Artist’s Studio by Mat Grogan (500-600).  UDPATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

One of a set of six limited edition colour prints by Pauline Bewick at Dolan’s in Galway (600-800).  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 600.

Raphael’s Head of an Apostle sold for £29.7 million at Sothebys in London on December 5.

Raphael’s Head of an Apostle (c. 1519-20) achieved a record £29.7 million at Sotheby’s in London tonight. This is the second highest price ever achieved for any Old Master work of art. It dramatically surpassed all previous prices achieved not only for any Old Master drawing, but for any Work on Paper sold at auction.
Following an intense battle between four bidders – both in the auction room and on the phones – which was sustained for 17 minutes and leapt in increments of up to five hundred thousand pounds, the hammer came down on the winning bid cast on the telephone.

Gregory Rubinstein, Worldwide Head of Old Master Drawings at Sotheby’s, said “If you are lucky, at some point in your career a work like this comes along.  A number of the world’s greatest collectors stepped up tonight in recognition of the genius of Raphael and the extraordinary beauty of this drawing with its exceptional provenance.”

The Raphael drawing being shown at the auction.

Executed in black chalk, the drawing from the Devonshire Collection at Chatsworth depicts one of the key figures in Raphael’s Transfiguration – one of the greatest of all Renaissance paintings, which now hangs in the Vatican Museum, Rome. When Raphael died, his body was laid out in state in his studio with the Transfiguration hanging at his head. Head of an Apostle, is one of only three drawings of this calibre to have appeared at auction in the last 50 years.

The Massacre of the Innocents by Sir Peter Paul Rubens which made £49.5 million at Sotheby’s in London in 2002 remains the most expensive Old Master painting ever sold at auction.  Turner’s Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino, sold at Sotheby’s in London in 2010 to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles now shares second place with Raphael as both works made £29.7 million.  In July 2011 Francesco Guardi’s Venice, a View of the Rialto Bridge, Looking North, from the Fondamenta del Carbon made £26.7 million at Sotheby’s in London and is the next on the list of most expensive Old Masters.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 4, 2012).

Work by Jack Yeats, Paul Henry, Nathanial Hone, Sean O’Sullivan, James Humbert Craig, Lady Kate Dobbin, Walter Osborne, John Lavery, George Campbell,William Leech, Aloysius O’Kelly, William Scott, Samuel Taylor, Hans Iten, Charles Lamb, Jerome Connor and numerous other artists will come under the hammer at the James Adam evening sale of important Irish art in Dublin on December 4.  The catalogue is on-line.  Here is a small selection (you can click on any image to enlarge it).

Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) Galway Market Scene (15,000 – 20,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 30,000 AT HAMMER

William John Leech RHA (1881 – 1968) Lake Geneva, Winter (1911) (20,000 – 30,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 40,000 AT HAMMER.

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) The Belle of Chinatown (1943) (60,000-80,000).  UPDATE: THIS WAS WITHDRAWN.

Richard Thomas Moynan RHA (1856 – 1906) The Travelling Show (1892) (150,000 – 250,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE A HAMMER PRICE OF 140,000.

Kathleen Fox (1880-1963) Ruins of the Four Courts, (1922) (15,000- 25,000).  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Nathaniel Hone, RHA (1831-1917) Sketch of Haycocks (800 – 1,200)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,000 AT HAMMER.

The Night has Gone by Jack B. Yeats made a hammer price of 225,000 at de Veres.

Abstract Composition by Mainie Jellet (1897-1944) made 74,000 at hammer at de Veres.

The Night Has Gone, a 1947 oil on canvas by Jack B. Yeats, was the top lot at de Veres Irish art auction in Dublin this week. It made a hammer price of 225,000. Safe Harbour by Yeats made 90,000, Mainie Jellett’s Abstract Composition made 74,000 and Fresh Horses by Yeats made 40,000.  Quiet Snow in St. Stephen’s Green by Camille Souter made 18,500 and Mending the Nets by Norah McGuinness sold for 11,000. A bronze horse by Patrick O’Reilly sold for 7,000. A work from John Shinnors’ Kite Series made 8,200.

Daniel Maclise, R.A. (1806-1870) The Wrestling Scene in ‘As You Like It’ signed and dated ‘D MACLISE 1854’. Image courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge).   UPDATE:  THIS SOLD FOR £337,250

One of the finest works by Cork born artist Daniel Maclise comes up at Christie’s sale of Victorian and British Impressionist Art in London on December 13.  The artist often drew inspiration from Shakepeare and The Wrestling Scene from “As You Like It” is estimated at £300,000-500,000.  Maclise loved the theatre and two of his closest friends, novelist Charles Dickens and journalist and critic John Forster, were amateur actors. The painting at Christie’s is a rare illustration on such a scale.

One of Ireland’s best known history paintings, The  Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife by Maclise, is currently undergoing a major restoration at the National Gallery in Dublin funded by a grant from the Bank of America.

The sale will feature three rediscovered works by important artists of the Victorian age: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), William James Webbe (fl.1853-1878), and Frederic, Lord Leighton, P.R.A. (1830-1896). There is a selection of watercolours by Archibald Thorburn featuring  garden birds, wildfowl on the shore, game birds and work for ornithological publications spanning over twenty-five years of his working life.  Most are from a single private collection formed over the last thirty years.