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    YEATS AND LE BROCQUY FAIL TO FIND BUYERS AT BONHAMS

    Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

    A Sunlit Farmyard by Frank McKelvey made £18,000 at Bonhams. (Click on image to enlarge)

    The top lots by Yeats and le Brocquy failed to get away at Bonhams first Irish sale on February 9.  Insiders suggested that the timing of the sale, so early in the season and slap bang in the middle of London’s Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art selling season, was wrong.
    Only about half the 108 works on offer found buyers in an auction that brought in around £195,000 including buyer’s premium.  The top lot sold was an oil on canvas entitled A Sunlit Farmyard by Frank McKelvey (1895-1974).  It made £18,000 inclusive of buyer’s premium.
    See antiquesandartireland.com posts for January 4 and September 15.

    STRONG BIDDING ACROSS ALL RANGES AT SOTHEBYS

    Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

    Sotheby’s day sale of Impressionist and Modern art on February 9 brought in £21,463,975 against a pre-sale estimate of  £16,934,000 – 23,608,000. The top was La Mandoline Noire, 1926, a late work by Juan Gris. It made £926,050.  Altogether 212 out of 266 lots sold, with strong bidding in all price ranges.  Over 500 people registered to bid from as far afield as Africa, US, Asia, Russia, Australia, North and South America and Europe. The total for Impressionist and Modern art at Sotheby’s over the last two days is £90,298,370.

    PICASSO MAKES £25 MILLION AT SOTHEBY’S

    Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

    Picasso's La Lecture (click on image to enlarge)

    Picasso’s La Lecture sold  for  £25,241,250, more than double the low estimate, at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern art sale. There was a heated six minute long bidding contest between seven bidders on the phone and in the saleroom.  The 1932 painting of Marie-Thérèse Walter was bought over the phone by an anonymous buyer.

    The sale brought in £68,834,400, well within the pre-sale estimate of £55,630,000-79,250,000.  There were 42 lots on offer and 32 sold, mostly at prices at or above their estimate.  Fifteen works made over one million pounds and the average lot value was £2.15 million.
    Among the works that failed to sell was Alberto Giacometti’s bronze portrait of his younger brother from 1957.  Grand buste de Diego avec bras was estimated at £3.5 to £5 million.  Dealers reckoned it failed to sell because of its pale colour.

    ART FORTNIGHT IN LONDON

    Monday, February 7th, 2011

    Georges Braque (1882-1963) Nature morte à la guitare (rideaux rouge) signed and dated 'G.Braque 38' is estimated at £3.5-£5.5 million. (click to enlarge) UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR £3.9 MILLION

    Hundreds of millions of pounds worth of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art will change hands in London this fortnight.  Two weeks of major art sales in London begin on  February 8.  It is anticipated that the market recovery will see more than £400m spent on art in the coming days

    Sotheby’s kick off with  with an evening sale of impressionist and modern art and continue into next week with contemporary works. Their 42-lot evening session is estimated at £55-£79 million.  This sale  includes the most expensive lot of the week, Picasso’s “La Lecture”. The high estimate of this portrait of his lover Marie-Thérèse dated 1932 is £18 million. Sotheby’s other evening sale, on Thursday, February 10, is a private collection estimated at £39-£55 million.
    At Christie’s there is an estimate of £73-£109 million for the the Impressionist and Modern  and the Art of the Surreal sales on February 9. This is the second highest pre-sale estimate for the February Impressionist sales at Christie’s in London. The highlight is Nature morte à “L’Espérance”, a still life painted by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) in 1901 while he was living in Tahiti. It is expected to realise £7-£10 million. (See antiquesandartireland.com for January 7) The sale includes four works to be sold by the Art Institute of Chicago (two Picasso’s, a Braque and a Matisse), and will feature the artists Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Fernand Léger.
    Self-portraits by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat will star in contemporary-art auctions in London set to raise at least 72.5 million pounds ($116 million).

    BACON STUDIES FOR A PORTRAIT OF LUCIAN FREUD AT SOTHEBY’S

    Saturday, February 5th, 2011

    Bacon's study for a portrait of Lucian Freud (click on images to enlarge)


    Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for a portrait of Lucian Freud features at a sale at Sotheby’s on February 10.  On offer is an exceptional private collection of 60 European modern and contemporary works collected over 30 years.  Along with the Bacon (estimated at £7-9 million) it includes work by Salvador Dalí, Amedeo Modigliani, Alberto Giacometti, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, Lucian Freud, Alexander Calder and Eduardo Chillida.
    UPDATE: The Bacon headlined Sotheby’s Evening Auction ‘Looking Closely – A Private Collection’. Three Studies for a Portrait of Lucian Freud, made the outstanding sum of £23,001,250/$37,004,411triple the pre-sale estimate. More than ten bidders from four continents competed for this exceptional and intimate artwork, before it finally sold after 7 minutes to an anonymous buyer in the room.

    DOLANS IRISH ART AT CLONTARF CASTLE

    Friday, February 4th, 2011

    The drawing room is the title of this oil on board by Norman Teeling from Dolan's sale at Clontarf Castle. It is estimated at 800/1,200. (click to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE 1,250

    The Dolan’s auction at Clontarf Castle

    Among the more unusual lots at the sale art pattern books of watercolour floral designs from the Coalport China Company. This one is estimated at 80-120. (click to enlarge) UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 80 EURO

    in Dublin on Sunday, February 6 at 4 p.m. will feature around 250 lots of affordable Irish art.  Most lots, including over 30 works from the studio of artist Norman Teeling, will be sold entirely without reserve.

    UPDATE: The Teelings all sold for prices from around 500 to 1,900, the top lot was a Victorian oil on canvas of Killarney by Bartholomew Collis Watkins which made 5,500, Frank McKelvey’s Bringing Home the Cattle made 4,500, Sean O’Sullivan’s Harbour on Aran sold for 4,250, an Italian beach scene by Arthur Maderson made 4,000, as did an oil on canvas by Charles Harper and Banjo Player and Friends by John Vallely.

    IRISH ART PRICED TO SELL AT CORK SALE

    Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

    Idrone II is the title of this oil on paper by Cecil King. Signed and dated 1980 with the Oliver Dowling Gallery label it is estimated at !,000-1,500. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: IT WAS WITHDRAW AT 800

    The first Morgan O’Driscoll Irish art sale of 2011 takes place at the Radisson Hotel, Little Island, Cork on Monday February 7 at 6.30 p.m.
    This 285 lot sale features everything from a watercolour landscape by Frank McKelvey to abstract prints by Sean Scully, interior scenes by Liam Treacy and a nude by Markey Robinson. There is work by the ever popular Arthur Maderson and Viva Nicaragua is the title of a mixed media piece by Robert Ballagh.
    There is an affordable oil on paper by Cecil King and many works by highly collectable artists including Brian Ballard, Barrie Castle, Erskine Nicholl, Pauline Bewick, Kenneth Webb, George Campbell, Charles Brady, Ciaran Lennon and Sean McSweeney,
    The more expensively estimated lots include Markey Robinson’s large landscape, The Coastal Village (14,000-18,00),  the British artist William Gibbs McKenzie (1857-1924). “Street scene with newspaper vendors and boys playing a game of spinner” (10,000-15,000), Harry Kernoff’s Bellevue Park Steps (5,000-7,000), Mark O’Neill’s The
    Committee (7,000-9,000),  John Shinnors Bus Stop, White House (5,000-7,000), Kenneth Webb’s Rock Pool, Connemara (12,000-15,000), Liam O’Neill’s Portrait of a Man ( 8,000-10,000) and a bronze by F.E. MacWilliams entitled Lying Down Girl (12,000-15,000). This is a sale where art is priced to sell with many lots to be sold without

    reserve.

    UPDATE: The auction was 71 per cent sold and brought in 219,000 exclusive of fees.  Markey Robinson’s Coastal Village was withdrawn at 12,000, the William Gibbs McKenzie made 10,000., Harry Kernoff’s Bellvue Park Steps was withdrawn, Mark O’Neill’s The Committee made 6,300, Liam O’Neill’s portrait of a man failed to sell and F.E. MacWilliams Lying Down Girl made 11,000.

    See antiquesandartireland.com post for January 25.

    SOTHEBY’S IRISH SALE ON MARCH 29

    Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

    Lavery's portrait of Lady Gwendoline Churchill (click to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE £121,250

    Sotheby’s 17th annual Irish sale in London on March 29 brings together quality Irish artworks from all corners of the globe.  It features art from a range of dates and stylistic movements and focuses attention on the richness of Ireland’s longstanding artistic output.

    Paysage by Roderic O'Conor at Sotheby's. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE £337,250

    Sir John Lavery’s portrait of Lady Gwendoline Churchill (estimated at £100,000-£150,000)  has come from a private UK collection, where it has been for several generations.  It depicts the sister in law of Winston Churchill.
    Paysage by Roderic O’Conor is estimated at £120,00-£180,000.  It has re-surfaced from an American private collection and Sotheby’s say it is one of his most accomplished Fauvist landscapes to appear at auction.
    Other highlights include work by Basil Blackshaw, Colin Middleton, Sean Scully, William Scott and Louis le Brocquy.

    GOOGLE ART PROJECT ENABLES VIRTUAL TOUR

    Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
    Google’s Art Project, which is just launched, is a collaboration with 17 international museums, including the Met in New York, the Hermitage in St Petersburg, the Uffizi in Florence, and the National Gallery in London, to enable viewers take a virtual tour using “Street View” technology.
    Each institution has nominated a single piece as a “Gigapixel Artwork” which produces an electronic image containing 7 billion pixels, allowing viewers to study a work like Botticelli’s Birth of Venus or Holbein’s Ambassadors in microscopic detail.

    PORTRAIT OF BACON HEADS BONHAMS IRISH SALE

    Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
    An image of Francis Bacon (1909– 1992) the artists known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery, heads Bonhams first Irish Art Sale in London on February 9.  It is the work of Bacon’s friend and fellow painter, Louis Le Brocquy, Ireland’s foremost living artist.
    The watercolour  is estimated to sell for £60,000 to £80,000.  Although he painted Bacon several times, trying to capture “the Baconness of Bacon”, this example is more representational than most.
    Speaking about his art Louis Le Brocquy says: “Contrary to a generally held view, I think that painting is not in any direct sense a means of communication or a means of self-expression. When you are painting you are trying to discover, to uncover, to reveal. I sometimes think of the activity of painting as a kind of archaeology – an archaeology of the spirit.”
    See antiquesandartireland.com post for December 22