antiquesandartireland.com

A landscape by George Barret (1728-1784) features at Sotheby’s Old Master and British Paintings sale in London on July 5.  Estimated at £60,000-80,000 An extensive Wooded River Landscape, with Shepherds reclining in the foreground and Ruins Beyond is from an Irish private collection.  The sale also features a Portrait of a Lady,  thought to be Lady Charlotte McDonnell, Countess of Antrim (1779-1835) by Hugh Douglas Hamilton (1739-1808).  It is estimated at £30,000-50,000.

Both artists were born in Dublin. George Barret was a founding member of the London Royal Academy.  Hugh Douglas Hamilton found great success with his pastel oval portraits in London.  In 1796 he painted Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the Irish aristocrat and revolutionary.

GEORGE BARRET, R.A. 
AN EXTENSIVE WOODED RIVER LANDSCAPE, WITH SHEPHERDS RECLINING IN THE FOREGROUND AND RUINS BEYOND. (Click on images to enlarge).  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £97,250.

HUGH DOUGLAS HAMILTON
PORTRAIT OF A LADY, THOUGHT TO BE LADY CHARLOTTE MCDONNELL, COUNTESS OF ANTRIM. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £34,850.

Small Mirror by Sean Scully.

Small Mirror by the Irish artist Sean Scully sold for £91,250 at Christie’s  post-war and contemporary day auction in London on June 28.  An oil on canvas laid down on board it was painted in 1998 and measures just over 20″ x 16″.  Christie’s day auction realised £15,463,725.  The top lot was Andy Warhol’s Jackie 1964, which made £589,250.  This followed on from the evening auction on June 27 which made £132,819,400, the highest total for an auction of Post War and Contemporary Art in Europe.

At Christie’s the evening and day sales combined realised a combined total of £148,283,725.  At Sotheby’s the summer sales of contemporary art, including the Gunter Sachs Collection sold in May, made a combined total of £124.5 million.

Despite financial uncertainty buyer’s are still prepared to pay record breaking prices, but only for works of great quality and rarity.  Uncertainty about the economic outlook  is still hurting the market for lesser works.

The scene at Christie’s as Yves Klein’s Le Rose du bleu (RE 22) sold for £23,561,250.

A world record for Yves Klein set the seal on Christie’s record breaking Post War and Contemporary Art auction in London tonight.  The sale brought in £132,819,400, the highest total for any auction of Post War and Contemporary Art in Europe.  The top lot was Yves Klein’s Le Rose du bleu (RE 22), which sold for £23,561,250.  This price, which converts to $36,779,111, narrowly pipped the  $36,482,500 achieved for Klein’s FC1 at Christie’s in New York in May.

In total four lots sold above £10 million, 21 sold for over £1 million and record prices were established for David Altmejd, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Marcel Broodthaers, Yves Klein and Beatriz Milhazes. A Study for Self-Portrait painted by Francis Bacon in 1964 sold for £21,545,250, an untitled work by Basquiat made a record price of £12,921,250,  Gerhard Richter’s Struktur 2 made £12,697,250 and Rouge triomphant, Alexander Calder’s largest hanging mobile ever sold at auction made £6,201,250.

Francis Outred, Christie’s Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art, Europe: “Following the record result achieved at Christie’s New York in May, we are delighted with tonight’s results which established a new record for an auction of Post-War & Contemporary Art in Europe. Totalling more than £132.8 million, at the foundation of the auction’s success were five masterworks by Yves Klein, Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Gerhard Richter. The price for the Bacon was particularly satisfactory following the discovery that this self-portrait carries the body of Lucian Freud. Overall we brought together consignments from four continents, reached buyers on four continents and benefitted from a depth and strength of bidding from across the room and on the phone”.

(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for May 29 and April 4 2012.

Jean Michel Basquiat’s Warrior made £5,585,250 and was the top lot at Sotheby’s evening contemporary art sale in London. (Click on image to enlarge)

BASQUIAT’S Warrior topped Sotheby’s evening sale of contemporary art in London on June 26.  It made £5,585,250 in a sale which realised  £69.3 million. Glenn Brown’s The tragic conversion of Salvador Dali made £5,193,250, a record for the artist at auction. Bacon’s 1980 Study for Self-portrait sold for £4,521,250 and Gerhard Richter’s Jerusalem made £4,241,250.  In all 21 works sold for over one million pounds in a sale with sell through rates of 87.3 per cent by lot and 93.4 per cent by value.  Sotheby’s Summer Season of Contemporary Art Sales in London has brought in a total of £110.7 million.

Commenting on the sale, Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby’s Chairman of Contemporary Art Europe, said: “The results achieved for our Summer Sales of Contemporary Art in London bring Sotheby’s 2012 global total for sales of Contemporary Art to a staggering $638.2 million. The auction this evening was led by blue-chip artists, such as Bacon, Basquiat, Richter and Lichtenstein, and also witnessed a record price for Glenn Brown, whose oil on canvas established the second-highest price tonight. With buyers from 15 different countries, the global demand for this area of the market continues to be underlined.”

A total of 8% of works were bought by clients new to Sotheby’s. Bidders from 15 countries participated. A total of 21 works sold for over £1 million, and 26 for over $1 million; eight works sold for over $4 million and four for more than £4 million.

(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 14 and June 10, 2012).