Francis Bacon – Three Studies for Portrait of Henrietta Moraes sold for £24,300,000
Three Studies for a Portrait of Henrietta Moraes sold for £24,300,000 in London last night. The Now and Contemporary auctions achieved a total of £96.1 million in the highest grossing Frieze Week evening sale at Sotheby’s since 2015. Gerhard Richter’s 192 Farben (192 Colours) sold for £18,287,800. There was a new record for Frank Auerbach whose Head of J.Y.M. made £5,648,800 and new records were set for Caroline Walker, Julien Nguyen and Kiki Kogelnik. Nobody Put Baby in the Corner by Flora Yukhnovich made £1,608,000, Cecily Brown’s Beautiful Not Realistic made £1.8 million over a high estimate of £800,000 and Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Nets (QOTP:) made £3.4 million.
In London the National Gallery said that Van Gogh’s Sunflowers is covered with glass and was not damaged when protestors threw tins of Heinz Tomato Soup at it today. There is some minor damage to the frame of the work, painted in 1888. The two climate activists in Just Stop Oil T-shirts opened the tins and threw the contents on the masterpiece before gluing their hands to the wall. The Metropolitan Police said two people had been arrested.
Louis XVI style gilt bronze tulipwood and bois satine marquetry inlaid commode. UPDATE: THIS MADE 28,000 AT HAMMER
After a model by Jean Henri Riesener this Louis XVI style gilt bronze tulipwood and bois marquetry inlaid commode with breccia marble top is the most expensively estimated lot at Sheppard’s Gentleman’s Library sale in Durrow on October 27. Dated to the last quarter of the 19th century it is stamped G Durand (Gervais Maximilien Eugene Durand) and estimated at €15,000-€20,000. The auction offers 367 lots from the Smithwick collection and other clients. Among them is a folder of 24 Qing watercolours, a set of eight Qing watercolours, a portrait of James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller, an 18th century library pole and a pair of c1800 Howdah flintlock pistols by Charles Moore of London. The catalogue is online.
Christie’s Global President and Auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen selling David Hockney’s Early Morning, Saint-Maxime for £20,899,500
David Hockney’s Early Morning, Sainte-Maxime led Christie’s 20th/21st Century evening sale in London last night. It sold for £20,899,500 in a 47 lots sale that brought in £72.5 million and was 100% sold. Hockney more that doubled the pre-sale estimate of £10 million. Tracey Emin’s Like a Cloud of Blood was sold by the artist to raise funds for her pioneering TKE studio complex in Margate. Setting a record for a painting by Emin, it realised £2,322,000, a new record for the artist.Gerhard Richter, Wolkenstudie (grün-blau) (Study for Clouds (Green-blue)): £11,167,000 / $12,361,869 / €12,719,213 [first time at auction having remained in the same private collection since 1982, it was also the first time on public display]
Study for Clouds (Green-blue) by Gerhard Richter made £11,167,000 and Painting, 1990 by Francis Bacon made £7,102,250. Female artists performed well against the estimate. Praise I by Bridget Riley made £2,202,000 and there was a world record for Sandra Ball whose Untitled (AC16) made £94,500.
A Place with No Name: Works from the Sina Jina Collection was led by Lynette Yiadon-Boakye’s Highpower which made £1,482,000. The combined total of both sales, which attracted bidders from 25 countries, was £75,494,334.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for August 24 and October 1, 2022)
Thaddeus Ropac will exhibit Bird Watch, 1988 by Robert Rauschenberg at Frieze
Bringing together over 280 major league galleries from 42 countries, with specially curated sections Frieze London and Frieze Masters opens today at Regent’s Park. Frieze London will feature over 160 of the world’s leading contemporary galleries. Frieze Masters will feature over 120 galleries, showing work from ancient to modern. The fair is taking place against the uncertain backdrop of inflation, a weakening pound, rising interest rates and energy prices and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Galleries are hopeful that a strong dollar will help sales. Frieze continues until October 16.
THOMAS FRYE (c.1710-1762) – Portrait of Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland, of Brympton D’Evercy in Somerset (1701-1771) UPDATE: THIS MADE 18,000 AT HAMMER
This portrait by the Offaly born artist Thomas Frye comes up as lot 371 on day two of the James Adam Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall on October 18. This magnificent neo-Classical house is the perfect backdrop for an array of some of the finest antiques and artefacts to come on the market in Ireland so far this year. Drawn from many fine Irish country houses and collections, the sale includes 18th and 19th Century furniture with many important Irish pieces, fine period paintings, period portraits and sporting scenes, Irish glass, fine Continental porcelain and a selection of table silver from Birr Castle.
The artist Thomas Frye was from Edenderry and during his lifetime was considered one of the most inventive of Irish Georgian artists. Internationally he won many important commissions including the full length state portrait of Frederick, Prince of Wales. The sitter in the portrait here was 8th Earl of Westmorland, and it was for his grandson, the 10th Earl and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland that Westmorland Street in Dublin was named. The portrait is estimated at €10,000-€15,000.
Day one of the sale is a timed online only auction and the sale on October 18 will be held at St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin. Viewing gets underway at Townley Hall on October 15.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 8, 2022)
FALE AND PASSION FRUIT, 1991 – POPPY MELIA (B.1966). UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,200 AT HAMMER
Fale and Passion Fruit by Poppy Melia comes up art Whyte’s autumn timed online only art auction which runs until the evening of October 17. Many well known Irish artists are represented with affordable works in a sale designed for seasoned collectors and those who would like to dip their toes into the art auction world. The choice is wide ranging and there are 288 lots on the catalogue. Viewing for this sale gets underway in Molesworth St. in Dublin today and the catalogue is online.
Inside the World of Francis Bacon: Works from the Collection of Majid Boustany at Sotheby’s in Paris on October 24 is a capsule collection which will include twenty works spanning over fifty years. There is art by Bacon, historic objects of ephemera, works by Bacon’s acquaintances such as Graham Sutherland, Louis Le Brocquy and Roy de Maistre, as well as portraits of the artist by photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Don McCullin and Peter Beard.
The most expensively estimated lot, at €3.5 million – €5 million, is Figure Crouching from 1949 which has never been on the market before. There is an image of Francis Bacon by Louis le Brocquy which is estimated at €12,000-€18,000. Bacon’s palette is estimated at €20,000-€30,000.
Chairs given by MIchael Collins as a wedding gift to his sister Mary. UPDATE: THESE MADE 1,900 AT HAMMER
A set of six Arts and Crafts dining chairs given as a wedding gift by Michael Collins to his sister Mary – sold at Marshs in Cork in 2017 – are among a number of items of Collins memorabilia at Mullen’s Collector’s Cabinet sale on October 15. The estimate for the mahogany and tooled leather chairs by Schoolbred and Co. London is €1,800-€2,200.
The auction of 649 lots offers everything from Neolithic arrowheads and a giant Elk cranium to more than 40 lots relating to the Northern Ireland troubles. The steel housing for a camera used to monitor one of the H-Blocks (€500-€700) and a flak jacket worn by a member of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (€200-€300) are included. Two photographs from 1941 of a military funeral for four British airmen show coffins draped in the Union flag being carried by Irish Army pallbearers past an honour guard of Irish solders (€150-€200). Lot 90 is the Irish Citizen Army red hand badge of Brigid Brady, a first cousin in Padraig Pearse who worked at Jacobs and played an important part in the 1913 Lockout and the organisation of the Irish Citizen Army. She served at City Hall, Dublin during the 1916 Rising. The badge and her uniform belt are each estimated at €1,200-€1,500.
British airmen received full military honours at a 1941 funeral at Blessington, Co. Wicklow. UPDATE: THESE MADE 140 AT HAMMER
Irish architectural giltwood mirror attributed to John and Francis Booker. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Some fine examples of the kind of antique Irish furniture that remains much sought after and achieves high prices will come up at the James Adam Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall, Drogheda on October 17 and 18. Leading the auction is an Irish architectural carved giltwood mirror attributed to John and Francis Booker. This one, made c1760, has an arched plate with scrolled cresting and a triangular pediment supported on corbels embellished with leaves. There is an attractive border of interlocking chains within an egg and dart frame. A Booker mirror is indeed a trophy piece and the estimate here is €30,000-€40,000.
A c1750 Irish mahogany side table with a white marble top, central carved scallop shell on cabriole legs with faceted, collared feet is estimated at €25,000-€30,000. Other prime Irish lots among a large furniture selection are a fine c1740 Irish mahogany secretaire chest on chest (€15,000-€20,000), a late 19th century George II style side table by Hicks of Dublin (€10,000-€15,000) and an Irish yew wood library table by Arthur Jones and Co., Dublin (€10,000-€15,000). Made for the 1851 Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in London this table is a real conversation piece. Adams say (and I disagree) that it is one of only four known survivors of an 18 piece suite, the others being a teapoy (sold at Adams in 2014), a wine cooler bequeathed to the National Trust of Australia by Samuel Henry Ervin, now in Sydney and a card table in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Irish yew wood side table by Arthur Jones and Co. Dublin. UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,000 AT HAMMER
The reason for doubt is a carved bog yew armchair carved to illustrate the history, antiquities, animals and vegetation of Ireland that I spotted at the Masterpiece Fair in London in early July. This too was made by Arthur Jones and Co. for the Great Exhibition. Perhaps it was a one off and not part of the suite and Adams is indeed correct, but it is enough to make me wonder. Butchoff Antiques had worked hard on this fabulous throne chair since acquiring it at an auction in Ayr in December 2020. They paid £44,000 at hammer, over a top estimate of £3,000, had it re-polished and painstakingly re-covered. At Masterpiece it was labelled a highlight by the vetting committee and priced at £150,000.
Social historians will find interest in a half length portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723) of Lady Mary Boyle nursing her son Charles. It would have been unusual for a woman in the upper echelons of 17th century society to breastfeed her own children. A wet nurse would have normally been employed. Wife of Lt. Col. Henry Boyle of Castlemartyr and daughter of the Ist Earl of Inchiquin Lady Mary is featured with her third son Charles. At a time of high infant mortality he survived into adulthood and pursued a career in the Navy. The portrait is estimated at €20,000-€30,000. Viewing at Townley Hall gets underway next Saturday (October 15) and continues on Sunday week and Monday week. Day one of the auction on October 17 is a timed online only sale with lots 1-281. The live auction at St. Stephen’s Green on October 18 features lots 300-822. The catalogue is online now.
Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723) – Portrait of Lady Mary Boyle nursing her son Charles. UPDATE: THIS MADE 34,000 AT HAMMER
