Lucian Freud – Night Interior, 1968-70. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £9,586,700
Lucian Freud’s portrait of Penelope Cuthbertson leads the evening sale of Modern and Contemporary art at Sotheby’s in London on June 27. Night Interior is estimated at £8-12 million. The auction offers four pieces by three visionaries of British Art: Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach and Frank Dobson from a distinguished private collection. All four were created within just a few miles of one another in London. Freud’s meditative portrait will be offered alongside two remarkable paintings from Frank Auerbach’s most revered series’: Mornington Crescent and a portrait of his most famed sitter Juliet Yardley Mills, J.Y.M. Seated II. There is as well a rare to market white marble sculpture of a female form by Frank Dobson. Only ten carvings by the artist have appeared at auction in the last thirty years.
PATRICK HENNESSY (1915-1980) – Marrakesh Roses. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,600 AT HAMMER
THIS oil on board comes up as lot 12 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current online Irish art auction which runs until June 26. The catalogue is online and the sale offers a selection of paintings, drawings, etchings, prints and sculpture. Marrakesh Roses is estimated at €2,500-3,500.
Original 19C Chinese Lacquered Bureau Bookcase. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,800 AT HAMMER
This 19th century lacquered bureau bookcase is among the top lots at Reillys sale of contents from Dyann House, Donadea, Co. Kildare on June 17. The house once featured on RTE’s “Ireland’s most exclusive homes”. The live online auction of 726 lots from this private residential equestrian estate which changed hands in May gets underway at 11 a.m. and there will be viewing on the premises on June 15 and 16. The bookcase is estimated at €4,000-4,500.
Paul Henry – Connemara Cottages. UPDATE: THIS MADE €120,000 AT HAMMER
Connemara Cottages is one of the works by Paul Henry at de Veres timed online sale of outstanding art and sculpture which begins to close from 6 pm on June 13. The catalogue contains gallery standard works by major artists of the 20th Century. There are three paintings by William Scott and five by Paul Henry as well as by Sean Keating, Roderic O’Conor, Mainie Jellet and contemporary works by Callum Innes, Donald Teskey, Elizabeth Magill, Mark Francis and sculpture by Rowan Gillespie and Patrick O’Reilly.
A plate from the Wedgwood Frog service. UPDATE: THIS MADE 170 AT HAMMER
Limited edition Wedgwood plates with views commissioned by Catherine the Great are among the lots at the James Adam At Home sale in Dublin on June 14. Catherine, who reigned as Empress from 1762-1796 after overthrowing her husband, greatly extended the borders of Russia and annexed Crimea (old habits die hard). She corresponded with Voltaire for 15 years and the magnificent Hermitage Museum started out as her personal collection. The Frog dinner and dessert service with 50 settings and 944 pieces was commissioned from Wedgwood and completed in 1774. Most of it is now at The Hermitage. Nine modern limited edition Frog service plates by Wedgwood with six Coalport strawberry plates and six Limoges crescent vegetable dishes form lot 433 at Adams with an estimate of €100-€200.
They are among lots of interesting pieces at timed online sales at James Adam in Dublin and Sheppards in Durrow next week. Adams will hold back to back online sales with the At Home auction starting to close from 11 am on June 14 with a smaller sale of jewellery and watches closing from 11 am on June 15. Sheppards will offer the Chinese jade and snuff bottle collection of the late Dr. Jan Mohamed of Pouldrew House, Co. Waterford on June 15 from 10 am. The extensive collection from Pouldrew House at Kilmeaden was auctioned over four days early in May.
George I burr maple desk bookcase UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
More than 500 lots will come up at the At Home sale, which offers a large selection of silver including Irish Georgian pieces and a three piece tea service by renowned London maker Paul Storr. Among a number of dinner services are fine examples of Herend porcelain and a Limoges service by Dior based on buldings designed by Palladio.A George I burr maple desk bookcase (€7,000-€10,000) is the top lot in the sale. Other prime lots of antique furniture include an overmantle mirror (€3,000-€5,000) once in the collection of designer Sybil Connolly, a Georgian revival bottle tray (€600-€800), a walnut and marquetry inlaid table (€800-€1,200) and an early Georgian sideboard (€1,000-€1,500). Art includes The Slopes of Ben Venue by Alfred de Breanski junior (1,500-€2,000) and Dublin Bay with the ship Eclipse by Joseph Sempill (€1,200-€1,600). Antique, vintage and designer jewellery and watches come to auction at Adams on the following day. Highlights include a tutti frutti design gem set and diamond bracelet (€7,000-€8,000), diamond rings, watches, Victorian and early 20th century jewellery and some novelty brooches.
Chinese green jade scholars stand. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Novelty in the form of Chinese jade can be found in abundance at Sheppards on Thursday. The late Dr. Mohamed was a distinguished collector, renowned for his passion for and knowledge about Chinese antiquities. This is a singular opportunity for collectors, connoisseurs and enthusiasts to acquire unique and exquisite pieces, a once off offering of a large collection of jade carvings, pendants, puzzle balls, amulets, necklaces, seals, plaques, masques and brush washers. Colour ranges celadon and spinach jade to white. Most of the 251 lots are estimated at between €50 and €80, with similar estimates on the snuff bottles.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A. (1775-1851) – Sunrise over the Sea, perhaps at Margate courtesy CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2023. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £1,032,200.
Capturing the enigmatic fleeting beauty of changing sunlight celebrated across cultures and across time, Sunrise over the Sea, perhaps at Margateby J M W Turner is a highlight at Christie’s Old Master and British Drawings and Watercolours sale on July 4 during Classic Week in London. Harriet Drummond, International Head of British Drawings and Watercolours, commented: “This remarkably well-preserved and ravishingly beautiful drawing is an exceptional example of the boldly expressive watercolours Turner made in his final years. Previously dated to the later 1820s, it is has now been associated by Ian Warrell for the first time with sheets of one of the ‘roll’ sketchbooks that were broken up and dispersed after Turner’s death. Turner deployed these light-weight books on many of his later travels in the early 1840s, notably in Germany, Venice and the celebrated final tours of Switzerland. In this instance, the dismantled book can be placed in the sequence of sketchbooks used during the summer of 1845 overlapping in its focus on cloudy skies over the sea with the contents of the ‘Channel’ sketchbook at the Yale Center for British Art, and several of those in the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain.”
The watercolour is estimated at £600,000-800,000.
Turner has posthumously often been celebrated for his depictions of sunset light, but in recent years many of the works John Ruskin and others had identified as that time of day have been retitled as sunrises. Turner confessed to a young admirer at the time: ‘when you are all fast asleep, I am watching effects of sunrise far more beautiful [than the sunsets people associated with him]; and then, you see, the light does not fail, and you can paint them’ (M. Lloyd, ‘A Memoir of J.M.W. Turner, R.A.’, (1880), Turner Studies, summer 1984, vol. 4, no. 1, p. 22). It was this kind of dedicated approach to the observation of changing light that anticipates Claude Monet’s method of painting successive canvases, working on each within a limited time frame during the course of a day; both Turner and Monet were especially drawn to the special character of dawn and twilight.
A landmark rediscovery of the last known pair of portraits by Rembrandt to remain in private hands will highlight Christie’s Old Masters sale in London on July 6. The subjects are relatives of Rembrandt, wealthy Leiden plumber Jan Willemsz van der Pluym (c1565-1644) and his wife Jaapgen Carels (1565-1640). Signed and dated 1635 they were acquired at Christie’s by an ancestor of the present owners almost two centuries ago and have remained completely unknown to scholars ever since. They return to auction after an extensive investigation and scientific analysis at the Rijksmuseum. The portraits remained in the family of the sitters until 1760, when they were sold at auction in Amsterdam. They passed to the collection of Count Vincent Potocki (c.1740-1825) in Warsaw, before briefly entering the collection of Baron d’Ivry in Paris in 1820 and then James Murray, 1st Baron Glenlyon (1782-1837), who put them up for sale at Christie’s in June of 1824. The estimate is £5 million – £8 million (€5.75 million – €9.2 million). UPDATE: THESE SOLD FOR FOR £11,235,000
One of a pair of weathered stone lions. UPDATE: THIS LOT MADE 2,700 AT HAMMER
Weathered stone lions, a wake table, a silver cigarette box and a telescopic brass fender with a hide seat are among the many and varied offerings at auction in Ireland in the coming week. Sales by Woodards in Cork, Hegarty’s in Bandon, Sean Eacrett at the Horse and Jockey Hotel in Co. Tipperary and Mullen’s at Laurel Park in Bray will offer much to keep collectors busy. Choices range from conversation pieces like an Oriental style Carlton House desk to garden furniture, comfortable couches and a variety of collectibles like an unusual pair of Limerick china figures, The Philospher and The Critic, from Rocklow House in Fethard. Top furniture lots at Woodwards online sale in Cork next Saturday (June 10) include a set of six Cork 11-bar dining chairs, a Georgian walnut chest on chest and a seven foot long hunt or wake table. There is a selection of Georgian, Regency and Edwardian pieces among more than 300 lots. The 19th century stone lions come up at the house contents sale by Sean Eacrett at the Horse and Jockey Hotel in Co. Tipperary next Tuesday (June 6) of contents from Rocklow House, Fethard. In crouched poses they are, at €3,000-€5,000, among the more expensively estimated offerings in a sale of just over 1,000 lots. There is a selection of Oriental vases, bowls, jars, along with a private collection of Waterford Crystal including limited edition pieces and a highly collectible pair of 19th century oval Irish mirrors with faceted blue and white decorated frames (€2,000-€4,000). An unusual ebonised Carlton House Desk is estimated at €600-€1,000. There are chandeliers, a 160 piece Spode dinner service, Persian runners and rugs, a Donegal carpet and Meissen figures in a sale which is on view at Fethard from noon to 5 pm on today, tomorrow and Monday.
A George V silver cigarette box at Hegarty’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR €80
A George V silver cigarette box from 1914, engraved with a presentation message in 1934, comes up at Hegarty’s online fine interiors auction next Tuesday (June 6). The estimate is €300-€400. Other lots include a triple panel overmantle mirror (€150-€300), a flame mahogany demi lune hall table (€400-€800) and Summer Shade, a colourful oil on canvas by Martin Stone (€700-€900).
A brass and hide upholstered telescopic fender is among the top lots at Mullen’s timed online auction of 849 lots which runs until 6 pm tomorrow (June 4). The estimate is €1,800-€2,600. This auction offers more than 300 lots of furniture, Irish, English and European art, lighting and a sextant by Cooke and Co. of Hull in a mahogany case. Catalogues for all these sales are online.
An upholstered telescopic club fender at Mullens of Laurel Park
William Scott CBE, RA, 1913-1989 AN ORCHARD OF PEARS NO.1 (1976). UPDATE: THIS MADE €135,000 AT HAMMER
This 1976 work by William Scott comes up at de Veres current sale of Outstanding Irish Art and Sculpture, which runs until June 13. The English summer of 1976 was marked by a heatwave that resulted in an abundant harvest in the apple and pear growing area around Scott’s Sommerset studio. A flourishing pear tree growing against the studio wall prompted him to do an extensive series of 17 paintings, collectively called ‘An Orchard of Pears’, throughout the autumn and winter of 1976/77. They were shown at Gallery Kasahara in Osaka, appealing to the Japanese taste for understatement. This painting was the first of these and it is estimated at €150,000-€200,000.
The pears are carefully placed, huddled around a central point emphasised by the circular plate while simultaneously drawing your eyes away from it. Notice the way the outward tilt of the pears pulls away from the centre, and how the pear at the right edge further unsettles the composition’s stability. Scott is a master of animating empty space by creating subtle visual tension between objects. His genius is that, as a viewer, we’re never conscious of this.
JACK BUTLER YEATS RHA (1871-1957) NEAR THE DOCKS (1945)
Near the Docks, a small oil on panel by Jack B. Yeats, made a hammer price of €110,000 at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin this evening. An oil on board by Gerard Dillon, Norah and Johnny Conneely restirng, made €95,000 on the hammer, Girl with a Ruff Collar by Dan O’Neill made €40,000, Morning by John Shinnors made €38,000, Portrait of Paddy Moloney by Edward McGuire made €35,000, Gantries on a Sunday, Belfast by Harry Kernoff made €28,000, Peace II by Rowan Gillespie made €28,000, Sleeper in Spare Room by Gerard Dillon made €24,000, Dargle, Moonlight and Ruin by James Arthur O’Connor made €22,000 and Valley Walk II by Donald Teskey made €17,000.
