Circle of Augustus John – Portrait of Lady Gregory
This c1920 portrait of Lady Gregory from the circle of Augustus John sold for a hammer price of €5,600 at day two of Fonsie Mealy’s sale in Castlecomer today. The sitter is clearly in mourning and Lady Gregory perpetually wore black in memory of her late husband William. In the National Portrait Gallery in London there is a lithographed portrait of Lady Gregory, by Flora Lion, dating to 1913, that compares with the present work. Lady Gregory often welcomed visiting artists and poets as guests at her house, Coole Park, in Co. Galway, and this work may have been painted by an artist such as Augustus John, who stayed several times at Coole Park, and at Mount Vernon, the Gregory summer home in the Burren. It had been estimated at €3,000-€5,000.
DAVID COWAN DOBSON (1894 – 1980) – PORTRAIT OF JOHN MCCORMACK. UPDATE: THIS MADE 320 AT HAMMER
This portrait of Irish tenor John McCormack (1884-1945), considered to be one of the finest singers of the first quarter of the 20th century, by the Scottish artist David Cowan Dobson comes up as lot 70 at the James Adam timed online picture sale which runs until November 15. The oil on canvas, signed and dated 1944, is estimated at just €500-€700. Dobson first exhibited at the Royal Academy when he was only 19 and was a leading London portrait painter of his day. Among his sitters were Admiral Lord Beatty, Clement Attlee, the Duke of Argyll and Harold Wilson.
The drawing room of Cuskinny House, Cobh, Co. Cork, home of Mrs. Wanda Ronan who died last year aged 101, displaying a pair of large Cork Regency convex mirrors and a fine pair of Famille Rose Canton Export vases and lids.
A pair of fine antique Cork convex mirrors with a label for R & W Clarke, a Cork longcase clock by John Elliot, a pair of Famille Rose Canton export vases and an 1837 maritime painting of the ship Madagascar with the white cliffs of Dover in the background by William John Huggins are among the top lots at an important country house contents sale by Lynes and Lynes in Carrigtwohill, Co. Cork on November 18. On offer are contents from Cuskinny House, Cobh, home of Mrs. Wanda Ronan – widow of noted Cork lawyer John Ronan – who died aged 101 last December. Cuskinny was passed onto Wanda Ronan (nee Goolden) in 1950 when she inherited it from her uncle and godfather Hugh French. The French family bought Cuskinny in 1806 so it has been in the ownership of the same family for more than two centuries.
One of a pair of Cork convex mirrors. UPDATE: THESE MADE 10,000 AT HAMMER
A total of 496 lots, including some from Sprayfield, Sandycove, Kinsale will come under the hammer. There is period furniture, quality porcelain, silver, paintings and interest effects. The photo of the drawing room at Cuskinny shows some of the pieces in situ, including the Cork Regency mirrors and a fine pair of Chinese vases with lids. Estimated at €8,000-€10,000 the mirrors are in rope twist circular frames with reeded insets surmounted by a seahorse with decorative swag bases and lions head insets. They were known in the family as the Trafalgar mirrors. The Canton export vases on the mantelpiece are estimated at €5,000-€7,000. An early Georgian longcase clock by John Elliott, Cork is a rarity estimated at €7,000-€9,000 as is the painting by William John Huggins (1781-1845).
The hall at Cuskinny with lots including a Cork clock by John Elliot and a seascape by W.J. Huggins. UPDATE: THE CLOCK MADE 6,000 AT HAMMER, THE SEASCAPE WAS UNSOLD.
Prime lots of antique Irish furniture include a Georgian hunt table (€4,000-€5,000), an early 19th century server table (€3,000-€4,000), a pair of brass banded turf buckets, an Irish Georgian circular dining table, a Regency Cork cylinder bookcase and desk and a Cork Regency sofa table all estimated at €2,000-€3,000. Auctioneer Denis Lynes expects strong interest in a large pair of Chinese blue and white jars and covers with Buddhist lions. Even though there is some damage he estimates them at €6,000-€8,000. A 19th century sofa table (€700-€1,000) and a pair of knife boxes (€300-€400) are among the more affordable options.There is a collection of portraits, mostly by the Cork artist James Butler Brenan (1825-1889) and a collection of books. Among the latter is six volumes of An Account of the Voyages from making Discoveries in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallace, Captain Carteret and Captain Cook (€500-€600) and The Ancient and Present State of the County and City of Cork by Charles Smith (€300-€500). There is Cork, Dublin and English silver and collectibles include medals, fishing rods and reels, Cork Morgan views, old Pewter, a large stuffed Buffalo head from 1912, maps and trunks. Viewing in Carrigtwohill will continue from 10 am to 6 pm daily until next Friday and the catalogue is online.
Pair of large antique Chinese blue and white jars and covers.
A c1780 Irish Provincial bottle carrier. UPDATE; THIS WAS UNSOLD
From a portrait of Oliver Cromwell on Horseback to an Irish Provincial bottle carrier on stand, probably Limerick, the Chatsworth winter fine art sale by Fonsie Mealy on November 14 and 15 has much to interest collectors. Among more than 1,000 lots there is period furniture, paintings, Irish and international art, silver, militaria, clocks, glassware, jewellery and collectibles.
Thomas Wyck’s (1616-1677) c1655 portrait of Cromwell on a white horse with a Moorish attendant has an estimate of €20,000-€30,000 and is the most expensively estimated lot. Collectibles include a Victorian Birmingham silver castle top card case depicting Queen’s College, Cork after Robert Lowe Stopford (€1,200-€1,500), a pair of Georgian carved coconut cups presented to the Duke of Wellington when he was Ambassador to St. Petersburg in Russia in 1826 (€1,000-€1,500), a George III flintlock musket stamped Dublin Castle (€800-€1,200), a 19th century Irish vernacular elm hedge armchair (€400-€600), two large wood bound travel trunks (€1,000-€1,500), a 17th century oak armchair said to have belonged to Dean Swift (€4,000-€6,000) and a portrait of Lady Gregory by the circle of Augustus John (€3,000-€5,000). The c1780 bottle carrier (€7,000-€9,000) was commissioned by William Stacpoole, High Sherriff, Co. Clare for his new residence at Eden Vale, Killone, Ennis. The sale is on view in Castlecomer on tomorrow and Monday and the catalogue is online.
Thomas Wyck (1616-1677) Portrait of Oliver Cromwell on Horseback with Moorish Attendant c 1655. UPDATE: THIS MADE 20,000 AT HAMMER
JACK B YEATS – THE DONKEY SHOW. UPDATE: THIS MADE £381,000
The Donkey Show, a 1925 painting by Yeats, is among the headliners at Sotheby’s annual Irish art sales in London on November 21-22. His first painting of the annual Donkey Show at Goff’s Yard in Dublin was burnt in the Royal Hibernian Academy fire during the Easter Rising. In the second version, a decade later, the artist is totally released from his former representational manner. The viewer is invited into the scene by a group of grey donkeys in the foreground with distinctive pitched ears and the work is estimated at €458,440-€687,660. Evening and day sales will offer 54 works of Irish art estimated to bring in more than €2 million. There are two works by Lavery from direct descendants of the artist and contemporary artists featured include Hughie O’Donoghue, Linda Brunker, Orla de Bri, Richard Hearns, Melissa O’Donnell, Jack Coulter, Rowan Gillespie and Nick Miller. Works are on view at the RHA in Dublin today and tomorrow.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for November 2, 2023)
Claude Monet – Le bassin aux nymphéas sold for $74,010,000.
Monet’s Le bassin aux nymphéas was the top lot at Christie’s stellar 20th century evening sale in New York last night. His lily pond painting made $74 million in an auction that brought in $640,846,000 and established artists records for Richard Diebenkorn, Barbara Hepworth, Arshile Gorky, Joan Mitchell, Joan Snyder and Fernando Botero. This is the highest total in a single night for a various-owner evening sale since November 2017. Selling 97% by lot, 98% by value, and 105% hammer against low estimate it brings the running total of the week so far at Christie’s to $748,297,800. The second highest price of the night was for Francis Bacon’s Figure in Movement which made $52,160,000.
Richard Diebenkorn’s Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad was the highest record of the night, selling for $46,410,000. Joan Mitchell’s Untitled made $29,160,000. Arshile Gorky’s Charred Beloved I made $23,410,000, Barbara Hepworth’sThe Family of Man: Ancestor II sold for $11,565,000, Fernando Botero’s The Musicians achieved $5,132,000, and Joan Snyder’s The Stripper sold for $478,800.
Three Cezanne paintings were sold to benefit the Langmatt Museum in Baden, Switzerland. The group was led by Fruits et pot de gingembre which realised $38,935,000. This was followed by Quatre pommes et un couteau selling for$10,415,000 and La mer à l’Estaque made $3,196,000.
Richard Diebenkorn – Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad made a record $46,410,000.
Pablo Picasso – Femme a la Montre (Woman with a Watch)
Picasso’s Femme a la Montre became the most valuable painting sold at auction this year when it was knocked down for $139 million at Sotheby’s in New York last night. This was the second highest price ever achieved for a Picasso after Les Femmes d’Alger (Women of Algiers) which made $179.3m at Christie’s in 2015. Femme a la Montre was previously owned by the late art collector Emily Fisher Landau, who bought it in 1968, and has been purchased by an anonymous buyer. It depicts Marie-Therese Walter, the lover of the Spanish artist and subject of many of his artworks. Known as Picasso’s “golden muse”, Walter was 17 when she met the 45-year-old Picasso in Paris, and the pair later entered into a secret relationship while he was still married to Olga Khokhlova, a Ukrainian ballerina.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 13, 2023)
Augustus Earle (1793-1838) (Attributed. – Napoleon’s Grave on St. Helena. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This painting of Napoleon’s Grave, on the island of St. Helena, can be attributed to the British artist Augustus Earle and comes up as lot 773 at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth Fine Art sale in Castlecomer on November 14 and 15. Within this depiction of a verdant valley, there is a hidden message. Two tall trees in the foreground are painted so as to form an outline or silhouette of the Emperor, standing with his arms folded and wearing his classic bicorn hat. The silhouette is based on the 1820 watercolour by Francois-Joesph Sandmann – Napoléon a Sainte-Hélene. With its hidden image, this painting is a coded work of art, designed to avoid British censors who would have disapproved of any glorification of Napoleon.
The oil on canvas depicts a wooded valley, with, at its centre, a gravestone inscribed with a cross. A wooden fence surrounds the grave, while beyond can be seen the gable end of a small house. In the distance, there is a glimpse of the sea, and a sailing ship. The artist, who travelled to South America, Australia and New Zealand in the 1820’s, has emphasised the abundant flora and fauna of St. Helena. The tall trees in the foreground may be Cabbage trees, a species native to the island now almost extinct. The estimate is €6,000-€8,000.
MARKEY ROBINSON (1918-1999) – Swallows. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,500 AT HAMMER
This gouache on board by Markey Robinson comes up as lot 104 at the James Adam online picture sale which starts to close on November 15. The estimate is €1,000-€1,500. The catalogue, which is online, features 270 lots and kicks off with Composition in Red, a lithograph by Howard Hodgkin (1932-2017) with an estimate of €500-€700 and the sale offers a wide selection of paintings, lithographs, posters and drawings.
Female artists represented one fourth of Christie’s 21st Century evening sale in New York last evening and performed exceptionally well. The 41 lot sale brought in $107.4 million and more than 10% of buyers were millennials. Issy Wood’s Fanta Car Interior made $277,200 against a low estimate of $80,000 and Stefanie Heinze’s Third Date sold for $239,400 against a low estimate of $60,000. Artists of colour saw strong results: Eat dem Taters by Robert Colescott sold for $3,922,000, Night 1 by Matthew Wong achieved $4,164,000, and Intersection of Color: Loge by Reggie Burrows Hodges matched the record for the artist, selling for $730,800.
The top lot of the evening was Cy Twombly’s Untitled (Bacchus 1st Version II) which made $19,960,000. The second highest price came for Basquiat’s Untitled which achieved $11,910,000. There was five new records: Jenna Gribbon’s Regarding Me Regarding You and Me, brought $478,800; Jia Aili’s Combustion made $4,769,000; Jadé Fadojutimi’s A Thistle Throb achieved $1,683,500; Ilana Savdie’s A High-pitched Complicitysold for $201,600, and Lalanne’s Mouton de laine sold for $1,502,000—the highest total for a single Lalanne Mouton.
