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Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) Stormy Seas pen and ink (6,000-8,000). Click on image to enlarge. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,000.

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) Martha Graham, Letter to the World (The Kick) 1986 unique screenprint on Lennox Museum board. (10,000-14,000). Click on image to enlarge. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Irish landscapes, figurative and abstract, feature at the Morgan O’Driscoll art sale at the Radisson Hotel in Cork on April 30.   There are figurative works by Percy French and James Humbert Craig and more abstracted works on the same theme by Sean McSweeney and John Shinnors.  The auction offers a pen and ink by Jack Butler Yeats entitled Stormy Seas and an Andy Warhol unique screenprint among more than 280 lots.  The catalogue is on-line.  Here is a small selection:

UPDATE: The auction was 68 per cent sold and realised around 275,000.

John Shinnors (b.1950) Kite Over Carraroe oil on linen on panel (7,000-10,000). Click on image to enlarge. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

James Humbert Craig RHA RUA (1878-1944) Leenane, Connemara (6,000-9,000). Click on image to enlarge. UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,800

Percy French (1854-1920) Bog Scene watercolour (5,000-7,000). Click on image to enlarge. UPDATE: THIS MADE 7,600.

Sean McSweeney HRHA (b.1935) Bogland (6,000-8,000). Click on image to enlarge. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

QI BAISHI (1863-1957) Pigeons and Apples, courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE HK$5,060,000.

Chinese classical works by Ming master calligraphers and painters from Dong Qichang to Qi Baishi will feature among rare works at Christie’s Hong Kong Spring sales on May 28 and 29.  More than 600 lots valued at over r HK$400 million -US$53 million – will come under the hammer at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.  Christie’s say the sale will offer paintings and calligraphy from the Ming and Qing periods to the present day, accentuated with private collections from Asia, Europe and the United States.

SHAO MI (1594-1642) Landscapes after Old Masters courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE HK$5,060,000 US$ 651,728

DONG QICHANG (1555-1636) Poems in Running Script Calligraphy, courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE HK$ 57,780,000 US$ 7,442,064

An ink on paper handscroll entitled Poems in Running Script Calligraphy by Dong Qichang is estimated at HK$5-7million/ US$650,000-904,000.  It features work by the poet Li Bai.  This handscroll was previously in the Imperial Qing court. There are outstanding works by Zhang Daqian including the 1969 work Mist Clearing Over Pine Covered Peaks, a scroll in ink and colour on paper (HK$12-15 million/ US$1.543 -1.93 million).  Other highlights include Landscapes after Old Masters by Shao Mi (1594-1642) and Pigeons and Apples by Qi Baishi (1863-1957). Standing Horse by Xu Beihong (1895-1953), regarded as a pioneer who painted Chinese subject matter with the techniques and perspectives of Western realism, is from the collection of General Zhang Fakui.

XU BEIHONG (1895-1953) Standing Horse courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE HK$2,180,000.

ZHANG DAQIAN (1899-1983) Mist Clearing Over Pine Covered Peaks courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MAKE HK$29,780,000

J.M.W. Turner, R.A. (1775-1851) Storm at Sea (£150,000-250,000), courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge).

The Golden Age of British watercolours will be celebrated at a single owner sale at Christie’s  in London in July.  The collection and stock of W/S Fine Art and Andrew Wyld (1949 – 2011) will be offered in two parts, at King St. on July 10 and at South Kensington on July 18.  The sale of around 400 lots is expected to realise between £1.5 million and £2 million.

The Golden Age encompasses the great age of landscape watercolour painting in Britain from 1750 to 1850. Wyld was a connoisseur renowed for his discerning eye with a gallery in Mayfair.  The sale represents a roll call of artists of the Golden Age, including John Constable, David Cox, John Robert Cozens, Peter de Wint, Thomas Gainsborough, and J.M.W Turner. The crowning glory of any collection is a work by Turner. Storm at Sea appears to be the first idea for Turner’s major oil painting Staffa, Fingal’s Cave exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1832.  Another highlight is Cozens Rome from the Villa Mellini, a precursor of the Romantic movement in British art. A number of works by George Romney include an oil portrait A Mother and Child Reading.

The sale will offer vibrant and immediate topographical views of regions from London and its environs, to East Anglia, Yorkshire and Northumberland to Scotland and Wales.  It encompasses views of France, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Greece and Turkey.  Estimates range between £500 and £250,000.

John Robert Cozens (1752-1799) Rome from the Villa Mellini Watercolour (£100,000 –150,000), courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge).

George Romney (1734-1802) A Mother and Child Reading (£100,000-150,000), courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge).

L.S. Lowry's Industrial Landscape: Stockport Viaduct, 1958, courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. UPDATE: THIS MADE £1,273,250.

Lowry, Lavery, Scott and Peploe are among the big names peppering Christie’s 20th century British and Irish art sales in London on May 23 and 24.  Expected to realise more than £12 million the sales will feature over 300 lots with estimates from £500 to £1.8 million.  L.S. Lowry’s Industrial Landscape:  Stockport Viaduct, 1958 is, at £1.2 to £1.8 million, the most expensively estimated lot in an auction which features Scottish Colourists, London School artists, St. Ives, Neo-Romantics, sculpture, Pop Art and Irish art.

Aïda, a Moorish Maid by Sir John Lavery, courtesy Christies Images Ltd., 2012. UPDATE: THIS MADE £181,250.

The top Irish lot is Sir John Lavery’s Aïda, a Moorish Maid, estimated at £150,000-250,000.  Works by Lavery and by William Scott dominate the Irish art section of the sale.  The most expensively estimated works are all by Lowry.  He set the two highest prices for any work in the category last year when Piccadilly Circus and The Football Match sold for £5.6 million in November and May respectively.  Scottish Colourists feature strongly with work by Samuel John Peploe R.S.A. (1871-1935), John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961), Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell R.S.A. (1883-1937) and George Leslie Hunter (1877-1931).  The Gorbals, 1944 by Edward Burra (£500,000-800,000) depicts urban decay in the modern slums of war-time Glasgow. A key Neo-Romantic work it will be offered from The Collection of Lord Forte (1908-2007) and is estimated at £500,000-800,000. The London School is showcased with work by Frank Auerbach (b.1931), David Bomberg (1890-1957) and William Roberts, R.A. (1895-1980).  St. Ives is represented by Sir Terry Frost (1915-2003), Bryan Wynter (1915-1975), Alfred Wallis (1855-1942) and Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975).  Rolling Over Horse,1980 (£120,000-180,000) by Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930-1993) is one of a number of highly collectible sculptures. There is Pop Art by Gerald Laing (1936-2011), Joe Tilson (b.1928) and Allen Jones R.A. (b.1937).  There are fine and highly collectible works by both Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979) and Sir Stanley Spencer, R.A. (1891-1959). The Bridle Path, Cookham, 1938, by Spencer has been in the same family since it was painted.

William Scott, Orange Still Life, courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (£100,000-150,000). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

SIR JOHN LAVERY, Boating at Remenham (£20,000-30,000), courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. UPDATE: THIS MADE £39,650

Portrait of Rose, Fourth Marchioness of Headfort by Sir William Orpen (1878-1931). UPDATE: THIS MADE £577,250.

Prime Irish works of art gathered from around the world will be on view in Dublin and Belfast prior to Sotheby’s  sale of British and Irish art in London on May 10.  Sir William Orpen’s Portrait of Rose, Fourth Marchioness of Headfort (£300,000-500,000) and Portrait of Geoffrey, Fourth Marquis of Headfort (£60,000-80,000) are being presented for sale together.  The sitters, Geoffrey Thomas Taylour and Rose Boote, married in the face of disrepute and disgrace. It was a love that endured until Geoffrey’s death in 1943. Rose commissioned the portraits. They were exhibited at the 147th summer exhibition of 1915, by which time Orpen was unquestionably the leading portrait painter of his generation in the Royal Academy in London.

Augustus John (1878-1961), Portrait of W.B. Yeats. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £51,650

There are two landscapes by James Arthur O’Connor (1792-1841). A View of Fin Lough and Delphi Lodge (£30,000-50,000) and A Mountain Road in Mayo (£15,000-25,000) were commissioned by the 2nd Marquess of Sligo.  A Connaught Fishing Village (£120,000-180,000) is the most expensively estimated of four Paul Henry (1876-1958) works in the auction.  All are classical western landscapes. Among the Twelve Pins, Connemara is estimated at £100,000-150,000, The Edge is estimated at £80,000-120,000 and Turf Stacks in the West has an estimate of £60,000-80,000.  A still life by Roderic O’Conor  (1860-1940) is estimated at £50,000-80,000 and a reclining nude by the same artist has an estimate of £40,000-60,000. A portrait of W.B. Yeats by Augustus John (1878-1961) is estimated at £30,000-50,000.  May Day by F.E. McWilliam (1909-1992), one of his most striking Bean sculptures, is estimated at £70,000-100,000.  A group of Northern Irish works includes Summer by Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) estimated at £60,000-80,000 and Manna by Colin Middleton  (1910-1983), estimated at £30,000-50,000.

Irish paintings and sculpture from the sale will be on view at Sotheby’s, 16 Molesworth St., Dublin on April 24 and 25 and at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on April 27 and 28. (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for January 16, 2012).

James Arthur O'Connor (1792-1841) - View of Fin Lough and Delphi Lodge. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £36,050.

May Day by F.E. McWilliam (1909-1992). (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

Dame Elisabeth Frink, Walking Man, bronze, 1986, est. £150,000-250,000.

Peter Randall-Page, Green Fuse, granite, 2008, est. £60,000-80,000.

A total of 18 monumental works from the Jerwood Sculpture Collection, exhibited in the grounds of Ragley Hall in Warwickshire since 2005, are to be offered by Sotheby’s in London on May 10 and 11.  Included are works by Antony Gormley, Dame Elisabeth Frink and Peter Randall-Page, as well as three winners of the Jerwood Sculpture Prize – Judith Dean, Benedict Carpenter and Gereon Krebber.  The collection comes to the market with a combined estimate of £650,000 – £1,000,000.

Dame  Elisabeth Frink’s Walking Man was the first sculpture to enter the Jerwood Collection in 1999. It belongs to a series of male nudes conceived in the mid-1980’s, all originally purchased by WH Smith Plc. for its headquarters in Swindon. It is estimated at  £150,000-250,000.  Peter Randall-Page’s monumental Cornish granite carving, Green Fuse was commissioned in 2007.  The title The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower, is taken from a 1934 poem by Dylan Thomas. The work draws on Indian temple sculpture and is estimated at £60,000-80,000.

Alan Grieve, Chairman of the Jerwood Foundation commented: “We assembled the Jerwood Sculpture Collection over the last 12 years with the intention of offering an insight into the development of the medium in Britain. The sculptures offered for sale will include some important works from the generation who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as a dynamic group of young sculptors working today. The works are being sold on behalf of the Jerwood Foundation to further its dedicated support of the visual and performing arts.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) The Salutation of Beatrice courtesty Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge).

The romance between Jane Morris, wife of artist and designer William Morris, and the pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a source of gossip in Victorian times. The couple took great care to protect their privacy.  Each destroyed the correspondence with the other. Now a previously unknown portrait of Jane Morris by Rossetti from a private collection in Scotland associates Jane with Dante’s muse Beatrice Portinari.   It will be offered at Christie’s Victorian & British Impressionist Art sale in London on May 31 and is estimated at £1-1.5 million.

William Morris was Rossetti’s business partner.  Rossetti met and was attracted to Jane in 1857 when he was already engaged to Lizzie Siddall. Jane married Morris. Siddall suffered an overdose of laudanum in 1862, probably taking her own life. The relationship between Rossetti and Jane Morris was eventually re-kindled.  Rossetti’s 1869 painting ‘The Salutation of Beatrice’ was unrecorded and unknown to scholars. This was the year when it is generally assumed their affair began. It lasted until about 1875. The painting is described by Peter Brown, Christie’s director of Victorian Pictures, as the most important work by Rossetti to appear at auction in 25 years.

The sale will also feature a rare depiction of Florence Nightingale studied from life by Jerry Barrett (1824-1906). The Mission of Mercy: Florence Nightingale receiving the Wounded at Scutari shows Florence Nightingale in the Barrack Hospital at Scutari, the scene of her heroic endeavours to improve the medical treatment of the British Army in the Crimea.  It is estimated at £30,000-50,000.  There is a larger version at The National Portrait Gallery in London.  At the same sale A Winner at Epsom by Sir Alfred James Munnings is estimated at £500,000-800,000.

Jerry Barrett (1814-1906) The Mission of Mercy: Florence Nightingale receiving the wounded in Scutari in 1856. (Click to enlarge).

Sir Alfred James Munnings, P.R.A., R.W.S. (1878-1959) A Winner at Epsom. (Click to enlarge).