Barcelona Red Mirror by Sean Scully made £482,600 at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary day auction in London today. Executed on two vertical canvases it epitomises Scully’s hallmark configuration of stripes. Spanning bold alternating blocks of crimson and deep mahogany on the left panel and coal black and lilac on the left the present work creates a ruptured duality, a certain asymmetrical union. Signed and dated 04 on the reverse it brings to mind the artist’s early double canvases, at the same time paying homage to Barcelona, where Scully has had a studio since 1994.
Lady with a Fan – the last portrait Austrian artist Gustav Klimt painted
There was a new auction record for a painting sold in Europe at Sotheby’s in London tonight when Klimt’s last portrait – Lady with a Fan – soared past its estimate of £65 million to sell for £85.3 million. After a four way bidding war it went to a collector in Hong Kong. This is the second highest price for a portrait ever at auction.
The painting, described as “a masterpiece by an artist at the height of his powers”, has strong Asian influences and is part of the Japonisme trend, which refers to the influence of Japanese art and design among Western European artists.
It also features several Chinese motifs including the phoenix, a symbol of immortality and rebirth, and lotus blossoms that signify love.
Helena Newman, the chair of Sotheby’s Europe and worldwide head of impressionist and modern art, said: “Dame mit Fächer is the last portrait Gustav Klimt created before his untimely death, when still in his artistic prime and producing some of his most accomplished and experimental works.
“Many of those works, certainly the portraits for which he is best known, were commissions. This, though, is something completely different – a technical tour de force, full of boundary-pushing experimentation, as well as a heartfelt ode to absolute beauty.”
Previous highest prices achieved in Europe were:
£65m / $104.3m – Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man (Sotheby’s London, February 2010) – record for any work of art sold at auction in Europe £40.9m / $80.4m – Claude Monet, Le basin aux nymphéas – (Christie’s London, June 2008) – record for any painting sold at auction in Europe £59.4m / $79.8m – René Magritte, L’empire des lumières (Sotheby’s London, March 2022) £49.5m / $76.7m – Rubens, The Massacre of the Innocents (Sotheby’s London, July 2002)
(See post on antiqesandartireland.com for June 24, 2023)
Sir William Beechey, R.A. Portrait of Mrs Dorothy Jordan (1761–1816) as Rosalind in Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £22,860
Sir William Beechey’s famous and much illustrated portrait of the great Irish actress, Dorothy Jordan, mistress of King William IV comes up at Sotheby’s in London next week. She was the mother of ten illegitimate children by him, all of whom took the surname FitzClarence. Its significance was recognised by her bibiographer Claire Tomalin who used the painting on the front cover of her definitive publication on Mrs Jordan in 1994. Born the daughter of Irish and Welsh emigres in London Dorothy Phillips (her unmarried name) started off her professional life on the stage in Dublin. In 1790 she attracted the eye of the young Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence and later William IV, who gave her an annuity of £1,200 and enough provisions for her accompanying family. She was subsequently given the use of Bushy House, a residence of the Duke in Bushy Park, where she became mother of his ten offspring. Rising debts and the search for a society marriage prompted William to call-off the affair, and Jordan was to receive £4,400 in a settlement drawn up shortly after their parting in 1811. Their eldest son George Augustus Frederick FitzClarence, 1st Earl of Munster (1794–1842) would have been King rather than Queen Victoria but for his illegitimacy. The painting is lot 142 at Sotheby’s Old Master and 19th century day auction in London on July 6 with an estimate of £20,000-£30,000.
Sir William Orpen R.A., R.H.A. – The Yacht Race (Sighting the Boat). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
The Yacht Race (Sighting the Boat) by Sir William Orpen comes up at Sotheby’s Modern British Art sale in London on June 28. Orpen’s summer ritual from 1909 onwards had been to rent Arthur Bellingham’s house known as ‘The Cliffs’ overlooking the majestic sweep of Dublin Bay for the month of August. There he would be joined by his wife, Grace, and his daughters, Mary and Kit, along with other members of his family. Since the Howth holiday followed his summer term residency at the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin friends and students sometimes joined the party. These convivial gatherings became subjects for drawings and paintings for, as his brother Richard recalled, while these ‘long, lovely, never-to-be-forgotten summer days’ were carefree. The pencil and watercolour on paper is estimated at £90,000-£130,000. A Shining Place – a Venetian painting by William John Leech – comes up at the same sale with an estimate of £50,000-£70,000.
Fountain in St. Stephen’s Green by Camille Souter. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,600 AT HAMMER
You don’t have to be actually in west Cork – though plainly it would be better at this time of year – to enjoy an upcoming auction in Skibbereen. Artists from Patrick Hennessy to Jack B Yeats, Camille Souter, Percy French, Graham Knuttel, Mainie Jellett and Mildred Anne Butler all come up at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current online Irish art sale. It kicks off at 6.30 pm on June 26. The catalogue and bidding is online and it will be followed on Monday, July 3 with an online auction of affordable Irish art.
Lady with a fan by Gustav Klimt at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £85.3 MILLION TO BECOME THE MOST VALUABLE PAINTING EVER SOLD IN EUROPE.
A late painting by Klimt set to become the most valuable artwork ever sold in Europe, wonderful antique furniture, portraits and exceptional collectibles will make rich pickings for the rich and plenty of eye candy for the rest of us in London in the coming weeks. This is the time of year when the art world descends on the British capital for a variety of major sales, fairs and significant one off events like the re-opening after five years of the world renowned National Portrait Gallery. Despite some indications that the global art market might be in slightly hesitant mode right now the London summer season of 2023 is unlikely to disappoint. Lady with a Fan by Klimt at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary evening sale on June 27 has an estimate of around €80 million. The last portrait he painted was still on an easel in the studio at the time of his untimely death in the flu pandemic of 1918. Featuring an unnamed woman it is described by Sotheby’s as an ever deeper, ever more joyful immersion in pattern, colour and form, filled with the creative exuberance. The auction will offer a strong grouping of portraits with work by artists like Alberto Giacomett and Edvard Munch.
These c1765 carved mirrors in the Chippendale style are being shown by Ronald Phillips at the Treasure House Fair
In celebration of the re-opening of London’s National Portrait Gallery last Thursday the dynamism of portraiture across the centuries, redefined by each generation, will again be highlighted at Christie’s sale on June 28. One of the more contemporary offerings here is Diplomacy I by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Part of the Tate Retrospective which closed last February it depicts a group of suited delegates recalling Marion Kaplan’s photographs of African heads of state at a summit in Uganda in 1967. The artist has created bold new characters for black representation in art. In this imagined portrait Yiadom-Boakye has inserted a single woman, clad in pink. The sale offers portraits by Frank Auerbach, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Edgar Degas, Lucian Freud and Howard Hodgkin.
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Diplomacy I (2009) at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE £1,371,000
The Treasure House Fair, in full swing until next Monday at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, was generated by leading UK dealers after the cancellation of Masterpiece, which cited a lack of overseas exhibitor interest. Treasure House has attracted dealers from France, Switzerland and the US like Geoffrey Diner and Michele Beiny. There is fine antique furniture from leading UK dealers like Ronald Phillips at this curated global event with distinguished names across a wide range of disciplines.Meantime the city is gearing up for London Art Week which runs from June 30 to July 7 with 53 specialists and expert dealers with museum quality examples of decorative arts, paintings, sculpture and works on paper from antiquity to contemporary. Various galleries will show work by Irish artists like Sir John Lavery, Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (who lived here for a time) Augustus John and Gwen John as well showcasing artists from Giambologna to Renoir, Picasso and Dora Maar. The Fine Arts Society will exhibit an enamel by Phoebe Anna Traquair, the Irish born artist who achieved international recognition for her role in the Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland. She produced large scale murals, embroidery, enamel jewellery and book illuminations. On show in London is The Life of the Virgin (1906), three plaques in enamel with foil on copper.
The Life of the Virgin (1906) by Dublin born Phoebe Anna Traquair is on display at the Fine Arts Society in London.
A set of five Lemon & Son brand sterling silver engraved Kentucky Derby jockey trophies won by legendary horse jockey Bill Hartack. UPDATE: THESE SOLD FOR $317,500
An exceptional lineup of nearly 900 sports artefacts will come up at Julien’s live and online sports legends sale in Beverly Hills on June 23, 24 and 25. Lots on offer span the worlds of basketball, soccer, baseball, hockey, football, tennis, golf, the Olympics and beyond from sports legends like Pelé, Kobe Bryant, Floyd Mayweather, Diego Maradona, Babe Ruth and Rafael Nadal. Historic items of exceptional provenance from the greatest basketball player of all time Michael Jordan will be offered to benefit the James R. Jordan Foundation International, including the Michael Jordan signed and worn commemorative 1992 “Dream Team” USA jersey ($400,000-$600,000) and his 1982 commemorative signed North Carolina Tar Heels training jersey ($80,000-$100,000). The James R. Jordan Foundation International provides a pathway out of poverty by empowering youth and strengthening families through education and partnerships so they can become successful human beings and productive contributors to society. The Bill Hartack trophies illustrated here come up as lot 828 with an estimate of $300,000-$500,000.
FELIM EGAN (1952 – 2020) – Untitled. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,200 AT HAMMER
This oil on canvas by Felim Egan comes up as lot 5 at the James Adam online picture sale on June 28. Felim Egan is one of Ireland’s leading contemporary artists. He exhibited across Europe and was the subject of major shows at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. He represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in France in 1981 and at the Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil in 1985. The estimate for this piece is €3,000-€5,000. The catalogue for the auction is online.
Bronze garden sculpture group of dancing figures by Robin Buick at Sheppards. UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD
Singular opportunities to add oodles of style to your garden and home await at upcoming auctions by Sheppards in Durrow and Victor Mee in Belturbet. Extraordinary architectural ornaments and garden sculpture will grace Sheppards annual live and online sale at Glantelwe Gardens in Durrow. There is grandeur here, and art and pieces for large and small gardens among a selection which includes entrance gates, fountains, statues, lions, urns, sundials, planters, benches, seats, patio sets, staddle stones, pumps, estate railing and stone troughs.
The Sheppards sale of 850 lots offers numerous decorative objects of the sort typically associated with the pleasure grounds and gardens of the Irish country house in centuries gone by. That is no reason to prevent anyone in our 21st century from locating such objects of beauty in the lovely gardens and balconies of the cityscapes and burgeoning leafy suburbs in cities and towns throughout Ireland.
A pair of carved stone French rococo lidded urns and stands at Sheppards. UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD
Exceptional lots include a monumental pair of Sphinxes, a pair of carved stone French rococo lidded urns on stands, a lifesize bronze stallion and jockey after Isidore Bonheur (1827-1901), a pair of 19th century Medici lions, four Francois Carre garden sunburst armchairs, a bronze crane and a set of dancers by Robin Buick RHA. Glantelwe is a secret garden nestling along the banks of the Erkina River at Durrow. The name comes from the late Middle Ages and is an Anglicised version of Gleann Tulaigh (the glen of the hillocks). The garden designer Arthur Shackleton worked with Sheppards to provide an appropriate setting for the accoutrements in this annual auction, now in its seventh year.
Auctioneer David Sheppard said: “The objects we are bringing to sale have been treasured by generations of families and will bring great joy to their new owners”. Viewing at Glantelwe gets underway on June 24. The auction is on June 27 and 28 at 10 am on each day.
This composition fountain made 1,450 at Victor Mee.
Garden sculpture crops up at Victor Mee’s evening online June decorative interiors sale on June 20. Among 879 lots is a set of sandstone statues of the four seasons, life sized cast iron statues of a deer with fawn and of a deer family and a composition garden fountain on lions feet decorated with cherubs and carp. Leading art lots include works by James Humbert Craig, Cecil Maguire, Arthur Maderson and George Gillespie. Furniture ranges from an Art Deco style armchair and footstool and a chrome and walnut consul table to a 19th century Viennese carved oak armoire, a Victorian mahogany server with carved back, a 19th century burr walnut sewing table and a hand dyed aviator three seater sofa.Collectibles include a brass and oak wall mounted xylophone, a Sitzendorf Monkey Band (12 pieces), a Victrola gramophone, a copper bed warmer and a chrome and leather chess set. There are some marble fireplaces to choose from along with lanterns, mirrors, chandeliers and an Edwardian serpentine front desk. Catalogues for each of these sales are online.
A bilingual level crossing sign UPDATE: THIS MADE 480 AT HAMMER
Railwayana and pub memorabilia collectors will find much of interest at Aidan Foley’s on the premises auction of contents from Thady O’Neill’s pub at Ennis Road, Limerick on June 20. Once part of the Two Mile Inn the popular hostelry closed about 12 years ago and with its barrel vaulted carriage like interior it has remained more or less untouched. The 647 lots on offer include rarities that will enthuse collectors like a complete Jacobs Biscuit Tin on stand with a see through lid, an old CIE level crossing sign with warnings in Irish and English, platform signs, enamel advertising, leaded glass pub doors and an antique butter churn. The catalogue is online and there will be viewing at Thady O’Neill’s on tomorrow and Monday.
A large sale at Aidan Foley’s Sixmilebridge auction rooms on June 26, 27 and 28 is to be the second last sale at this venue. The Auction Room premises at Sixmilebridge has been sold to a supermarket. Auctions will continue online.
