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Still Life Study with Artist’s Materials on a Chair by Derek Hill comes up as lot 142 at the James Adam Irish Vernacular auction on April 12. The sale will be on view at Adams on April 7, 8 and 11 and the catalogue is online. This oil on canvas is estimated at €4,000-€6,000.
Art by Harry Kernoff, Hughie O’Donoghue and Rowan Gillespie will feature among a strong selection at Sotheby’s second Irish art sale in Paris in May. Highlights from the auction will be on view at Sotheby’s on Molesworth St. in Dublin on April 3, 4 and 5. Already consigned are works by William Leech, Roderic O’Conor, John Yeats, Louis le Brocquy, Sean Scully, Patrick Scott, Basil Blackshaw, Camille Souter, LM Hamilton, Jack Coulter, Maser and Richard Hearns.
In his painting La Place du Tertre, Montmartre Harry Kernoff discreetly places himself wearing his customary trilby hat in a cafe named Jeune Peinture. It is estimated at €40,000-€60,000. Hughie O’Donoghue’s Medusa III (€15,000-€20,000) is from a series in which he engages with the past using personal records of his father’s experience of World War II to create intense and emotionally powerful images. Given that the book was first published in Paris Ripples of Ulysses, Study, 1999 (€10,000-€15,000) by Rowan Gillespie is especially apt. It relates to two life sized James Joyce sculptures, one at the Merrion Hotel, Dublin the other at Regis University, Denver. The artist places Joyce at the centre of his masterpiece, Ulysses, the words of which ripple outwards in 18 concentric circles. The sculpture spins because it is never ending.
Incrementum 2020/2023 by Richard Hearns is estimated at €8,000-€12,000. Born in Beirut during the civil war and adopted as an infant by an Irish UN peacekeeper the Burren based painter has said his dual heritage has inspired his paintings. He is considered to be one of the most exciting abstract painters working in Ireland today by Sotheby’s.
The inaugural Irish art sale in Paris in May 2022 saw strong international bidding and a world record for a work on paper by Mainie Jellett. It also led to the return of many Irish artworks to this country. The success of that sale, which coincided with the centenary of the World Congress of the Irish Race in 1922, has spurred Sotheby’s on to repeat it in 2023. All international exposure of Irish art is to be welcomed. Bidding for this sale opens online on May 4 and runs until May 10. The auction will be on view at Sotheby’s, Paris on those dates.
From a 1920 Dodge tourer (€8,000-€12,000) to a selection of chandeliers at €100-€200 the separate auctions of contents from two hotels will provide much to interest bargain hunters next week. Victor Mee of Belturbet, Co. Cavan will offer more than 2,000 lots, online and in house, from Finnstown Castle, Lucan on April 4, 5 and 6. Sean Eacrett of Ballybrittas, Co. Laois will hold a first part sale of contents from the Lough Erne Resort, with 883 lots on April 4. Finnstown announced its closure last November, not long after undergoing a refurbishment. The popular Lough Erne Resort near Enniskillen is undergoing an extensive refurbishment.
Top lots from Finnstown include the Dodge tourer and a red Singer 9 roadster made for the sewing machine company, fully restored in the 1980’s (€5,000-€8,000), an Irish Victorian mirror bar back with antique glass (€4,000-€8,000), a 19th century ebonised inverted breakfront credenza (€8,000-€12,000), a pair of early 19th century bronze coat and hat stands from a Dublin bank (€5,000-€10,000), a life size bronze model of a stag (€3,000-€6,000), a pair of Irish brass bound peat buckets (€3,000-€5,000) and an Irish 19th century carved mahogany centre table (€4,000-€6,000).There are garden gazebos and urns, outdoor statues of the four seasons, a moulded stone well head and arch, bronze and moulded stone animals, fountains, archways, a pair of early 19th century spiral wrought iron gate pillars, a pair of arched wrought iron leaded glass windows, a good selection of garden benches and a small glasshouse.
The Lough Erne collection sale, the first of three, will include chandeliers at €100-€200, stylish chairs, mahogany veneer desks and cabinets, mirrors and pictures. All are in excellent condition. Wing back floral fabric armchairs are estimated at €80-€120 and tub chairs at €60-€100. There are single and double headboards, luggage racks, glass door cabinets and one hundred ebonised and gilt table lamps with estimates of €30-€50 each.
This exceptional 18th century chinoiserie lacquered two door cabinet on stand will come up at Fonsie Mealy’s Borleagh Manor Country House Contents Sale on Tuesday, April 18. The sale is being conducted on the instructions of the executors of the estate of the late Malachy McDaniel Stone and other important clients. It will take place at the Amber Springs Hotel, Gorey, Co. Wexford, with viewing on the premises at Borleagh Manor on the two previous days.
The cabinet interior is fitted with an arrangement of eleven long and short drawers, decorated with landscape and river scenes with figures attending daily chores. The interior doors are decorated with birds, insects and flowers, the exterior with painted oval panels with figures under willow trees. The giltwood stand is profusely carved with scrolling foliage, flowers, cherubs and a central classical female figure. The estimate is €15,000-20,000.
A large-scale painting of a grim reaper figure riding in a carnival bumper car by Banksy entitled “Brace Yourself!” sold for $2,032,000 – over three times its original estimate of $600,000 – at Julien’s Auctions in Hollywood. It was the first time the work came to auction. The buyer was Miguel Garcia Larios, owner of vintage specialist RCNSTRCT Studio in Hollywhood. Banksy created the artwork in 2010 for a local British band known as “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” who shared the same name the artist wanted to use for his about to be released 2010 directorial debut film. To avoid any copyright issues, the band agreed to Banksy’s offer to create a unique painting for the group if they were to change their name to “Brace Yourself!” According to the original email correspondence, Banksy humorously offered to paint a smiley face on Death if the band felt the imagery was too dark. A portion of the proceeds from the sale will benefit MusiCares® the music charity.
Raval Rojo by Sean Scully comes up as lot 31 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art sale on April 18 with an estimate of €400,000-€600,000. Just one day after the catalogue went online it has already received 25 bids and is currently standing at €105,000. It is signed by Scully and dated 9.04. It was purchased by the current owner at the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin in 2005. If memory serves me correctly it was displayed in that show to gobsmacking effect on the rear wall of the rectangular white space at Kerlin. In a catalogue note Aidan Dunne explains: “The Red Ravine referred to in the Catalan title, and the simmering palette of warm earth hues, relate the painting to his Barcelona studio”.
The sale offers many other fine examples of the work of prominent Irish and international artists.
A single owner collection with over four hundred lots of Twentieth Century editions is to be sold by Christie’s across a series of live and online sales in April. The sales on April 18-19 are anchored by an unprecedented selection of complete portfolios, including an exceptionally rare example of Barnett Newman’s Cantos ($2,000,000-3,000,000), David Hockney’s A Rake’s Progress ($250,000-3,50,000), and Andy Warhol’s Flowers ($2,000,000-3,000,000),. Modern highlights from the collection include Henri Matisse’s Jazz ($400,000-600,000), El Lissitzky’s Victory Over the Sun ($200,000 – 300,000) and a rich selection of prints by László Moholy-Nagy.
Other artists featured in depth include Donald Judd, Jasper Johns, Josef Albers, Blinky Palermo, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinksy among many others. Assembled over decades many of these works are coming to market for the first time in several years. The collection of one of the most important selections of Prints and Multiples to ever be auctioned is billed by Christie’s as The Sale of the Century: An Important Corporate Collection of Prints and Multiples. The collection is expected to achieve more than $10,000,000.
With a pre-sale estimate of more than $150 million the exquisite jewellery collection of the late Mrs. Heidi Horten (1941-2022) is the largest and most valuable ever to come to auction. It is poised to join and eclipse the previous record sales at Christie’s for The Elizabeth Taylor Collection (2011) and the Maharajas & Mughal Magnificence auction (2019), which are the only two jewellery collections to date to achieve more than $100 million.
Consigned by the Heidi Horten Estate and coming up in Geneva on May 12 the collection will be devoted to philanthropy, per Mrs. Horten’s wishes. All proceeds will benefit The Heidi Horten Foundation, established in 2020 to support the museum of modern and contemporary art she founded in Vienna, Austria — The Heidi Horten Collection as well as medical research and other philanthropic activities, which have been supported by her for many decades.
HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
Heidi Horten (née Jelinek) was born and raised in Vienna, Austria. She attended the Hospitality Management School of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and went on to work as a secretary in a Viennese law firm. From an early age, Heidi Horten was exposed to objects of great beauty, first through her father, who was an engraver, and later during her first marriage (to Helmut Horten), when she began to refine her eye for jewellery and works of art. After Mr. Horten’s death, Mrs. Horten was passionately involved in areas as diverse as social welfare, sports and medical research, which had been supported by her for decades. As of the 1990s, Mrs. Horten began building her private collection of modern and contemporary art. Her first significant independent art purchases were works by Moise Kiesling and Emmanuel Mané-Katz, acquired at auction in Tel Aviv in 1994. Her collection grew steadily over the following two decades, and, in 2018, was first unveiled to the public when a selection of 175 works was presented at the Leopold Museum under the title WOW! Moved by the tremendous success of the exhibition, Mrs. Horten began to plan for the future of her artworks, establishing a permanent home for them at The Heidi Horten Collection, modern art museum in Vienna. The grand opening took place on June 2, 2022, which Mrs. Horten proudly attended online, just ten days before she passed away.
UPDATE: THE SALE REALISED A TOTAL OF US$201,520,895
Watching the Boats by Markey Robinson is lot number 8 at Whyte’s Spring online art auction which runs until April 3. The catalogue is online and viewing gets underway on Molesworth St. today. This is a sales designed to encourage both first time buyers and established collectors. The painting illustrated here is estimated at €500-€700.
This c1710 black and gilt japanned dressing mirror by Francis and John Booker comes up at Dreweatts online sale at Newbury in Berkshire on March 29. The printed label on the reverse reads: ‘Frans. & John Booker Efsex Bridge DUBLIN’ and the estimate is £1,200-1,800. Francis and John Booker took over their father John’s business when he died in 1750. The elder John Booker was recorded as a ‘Looking Glass merchant’ when he married early in 1711 or 1712 and his sons were listed in the Dublin trade directories from 1761-1772. The presence of the mid 18th century Francis and John Booker trade label on this japanned dressing mirror of an earlier date could be accounted for by the brothers selling items from their father’s stock from an earlier period.
