HUGH DOUGLAS HAMILTON (1739–1808) – George Clavering Cowper, 3rd Earl Cowper
A recently discovered full-length pastel portrait by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, the most celebrated Irish portraitist of the Grand Tour, has been acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art. The portrait had remained in the sitter’s family and is preserved in remarkable condition. The full-length pastel was a type developed during the 18th century and appealed to English tourists on the Grand Tour to Italy. The earl, a cultural paragon and a patron of artists and composers, spent most of his adult life in Florence, where he sat for Hugh Douglas Hamilton. Cowper championed the music of Handel, sponsoring performances of his works in Florence for the first time, patronised a stream of artists, including Johan Zoffany from whom he acquired the Niccolini-Cowper Madonna and Small Cowper Madonna both by Raphael and both now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. He sponsored a number of scientists including Alessandro Volta’s work on electromagnetism.
Hugh Douglas Hamilton lived in Florence for two years, studying in the Uffizi and producing portraits of Grand Tourists as well as members of the resident British community. His portrait of Cowper is undoubtedly the masterpiece from his time in the city,
ANTOINE WATTEAU (1684-1721) – Le Pèlerinage a l’Ile de Cythère. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $1,860,000
Le Pèlerinage a l’Ile de Cythère, a rediscovery of a major addition to the small canon of paintings by the French master, Antoine Watteau. comes up at Christie’s Old Masters sale in New York on January 25. Larger in scale than most of Watteau’s paintings the oil on canvas provides a crucial, previously unknown stage in the creation of the artist’s most celebrated masterpiece The Embarkation to Cythera in the Louvre.
The picture was catalogued in detail in a number of 18th-century collections and clearly identified as a work by Watteau. During the 19th century the attribution was lost. It has now been reattributed. Contemporaneous attributions are further supported by extensive scientific examination which has revealed that the painting was created using Watteau’s distinctive methods with materials consistent in age and type with his work. The work is to be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné by Alan Wintermute.
A video installation Still Life, 2013-2016 (yellow version), by Roscommon born James Coleman has just opened at the National Gallery of Ireland. A pioneer of lens-based installation art Coleman works primarily in film and slide projection. On view until next October 8 in the Sir Hugh Lane Room it offers a silent, large-scale projection of an uprooted poppy against a black background. One year after its acquisition in February 2022 this is the first display of the work at the Gallery and its first appearance in Ireland. Coleman is recognised internationally for his influence on late-twentieth century conceptual art and represented Ireland at the 1973 Paris Biennale.
A pair of late Regency library chairs, possibly by Gillingtons, Dublin c1815. UPDATE: THESE SOLD FOR $8,190
This pair of late Regency mahogany klismos library chairs, possibly by Gillingtons of Dublin c1815 come up at Sotheby’s in New York on January 31. They are of almost identical form to a set of fourteen supplied by the firm of Gillingtons to Euseby Cleaver, Archbishop of Dublin from 1809 -1820. An identical pair of chairs attributed to Gillingtons was sold Sotheby’s London in 2016 and a single chair of almost identical model previously with Apter Fredericks was sold Sotheby’s London in 2010. A klismos chair is a type of ancient Greek chair with curved backrest and tapering outward curving legs.
John Gillington (fl.1787-1809) was made a Freeman of the City of Dublin in 1787 and worked as a cabinetmaker with his sons George and Samuel, trading as John Gillington & Sons from 1810-1814, after which his sons took over the business, recorded in Abbey Street. They were one of the leading furniture making firms in Dublin during the first third of the 19th century along with Mack Williams & Gibton, also located in Abbey Street. The chairs are among several Irish lots at Sotheby’s live auction entitled Hyde Park Antiques: Past, Present and Future, in New York. The estimate is $8,000-12,000. There is a similar estimate on an Irish George II bureau cabinet and a pair of early 19th century brass bound Irish peat buckets is estimated at $5,000-8,000.
UPDATE: THE bureau cabinet made $6,300 and the peat buckets made ¢9,450.
This pair of scagliola pedestals comes up at Sotheby’s timed online Stone IV sale which runs in London on January 17. Described as c1830 and made in England or Ireland, measuring 146 cms in height, they are estimated at £4,000-6,000. A pedestal of identical design is in the collections of Chatsworth House. UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD
This mid century modern style console table comes up at Hegarty’s auction in Bandon, Co. Cork which continues until January 17. In excellent condition there is a polished chrome frame and shaped teak top. The estimate is 1,500-1,800. The online auction of 195 lots features a selection of antique furniture, art, jewellery, clocks and collectibles. UPDATE: THIS TABLE WAS UNSOLD
What has been described as the joyous return of the leading antiques and fine art fair in the US will bring together 68 global exhibitors from Europe, South America and the US. Global experts in fine and decorative arts will assemble for The Winter Show, which gets underway at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan ON January 20 and continues until January 29. Time and tastes are changing and the eclectic mix at the Armory show is less rigorous in terms of antique timelines than would once have been the case. Alongside old favourites like a George II Chinese red lacquer bureau and stand (Ronald Phillips), an 1812 Parisian inkstand (Koopman Rare Art), The Judgement of Paris by Lucas Cranach the elder (Robert Simon Fine Art) and a favrile glass lava vase by Tiffany (Lillian Nassau LLC) there is furniture from 1969 and even 2019. Everything on offer, from Rodin to Tiffany to Frank Lloyd Wright, is vetted for authenticity and quality.
An 1804 portrait by John Singleton Copley of Mary Montagu and Robert Copley, her brother.
Maison Gerard of New York will exhibit a cabinet by Achille Salvagni created in Italy in 2019. Made of parchment covered wood and cast bronze, with gold plated bronze details this deeply layered piece bears all the characteristics of Salvragni’s work with material richness and craftsmanship. An avowed Modernist his work, with its emphasis on creating sophisticated residential and yacht interiors, draws on the architectural legacies of the 1920’s and ’30’s.In complete contrast is a sculptural, natural sandstone formation from France. Robert Simon Fine Art of New York will exhibit this piece which is around 30 million years old and weighs just over 97 lbs. Traditionalists will undoubtedly value a double portrait by the American born Anglo Irish artist John Singleton Copley (1737-1815) of Mary Montagu and her brother Robert Copley. Hirschl and Adler Galleries will exhibit this work, once in the collection of former New York Governor and Democratic politician Averell Harriman.
A 1969 free edged conoid table in Persian walnut by George Nakashima.
A 1969 free edged conoid table of Persian walnut and ten chairs by George Nakashima will be shown by Geoffrey Diner of Washington. The selection ranges from Victorian jewellery to African carving, Japanese folding screens and a unique late medieval/early Renaissance astronomical calendar at Daniel Crouch Rare Books.
If you love fairs and all this New York style sounds a bit beyond your league – and much of it is beyond the league of most of us – then console yourself. The two day National Antique, Art and Vintage Fair, billed as Ireland’s biggest, takes place at Limerick Racecourse on January 21 and 22. With ample space and easy parking the new venue for the fair at Limerick Racecourse has already proved to be hugely popular. Fairs are scheduled to take place there four times this year, in January, March, September and November.
An exhibition of richly coloured and textured new abstract work by Bridget Flannery entitled Terra Incognita runs at the Solomon Gallery in Dublin until February 4. The Cork born artist, who graduated from the Crawford in 1981, has held numerous exhibitions throughout Ireland and Europe and has work in private and public collections including the OPW, The Crawford, UCC, Bank of Ireland, The Four Seasons Hotel Group and the Museum of Fine Art in Latvia.
Ox Blood Leather Chesterfield Three Seater Settee UPDATE: THIS MADE 950 AT HAMMER
This three seater Chesterfield comes up as lot 210 at Aidan Foley’s two day online auction of contents from a number of five star hotels on January 17 and 18. A total of 1115 lots of furniture, artwork and collectibles will come under the hammer. The most expensively estimated lot, at 5,000-7,000, is an artwork by Graham Knuttel titled Cocktail Girl. The chesterfield comes with an estimate of 600-1,000. There are lots from Dublin’s Four Seasons (now Intercontinental), Westin and Trinity City Hotels, Glenlo Abbey in Galway and Powerscourt Resort and Spa in Wicklow along with memorabilia from Buck Whaley’s nightclub and Larry Murphy’s pub. The sale is on view today, tomorrow, Sunday and Monday at 67 Prussia St. in Dublin and the catalogue is online.
UPDATE: The auction was 97% sold and realised more than €200,000.
William Scott OBE RA (1913-1989) – Two Pears (1977). UPDATE: THIS MADE 60,000 AT HAMMER
A 1977 oil on canvas by William Scott – Two Pears – is among a very strong offering of art at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online art auction which runs until January 30. There will be no less than five watercolour works by Jack B. Yeats, three of them featured in The Turf Cutter’s Donkey by Patricia Lynch with illustrations by Yeats. Lot 15, The Turf Cutter’s Donkey, has never been on the auction market before. Estimates for these range from 5,000-25,000. Among other artists featured are Donald Teskey, John Shinnors, Hughie O’Donoghue, Mainie Jellett and James Arthur O’Connor. The William Scott is estimated at 50,000-70,000. The catalogue will go live on January 18.
Jack Butler Yeats RHA(1871-1957) The Turf Cutters Donkey watercolour and ink on paper. UPDATE: THIS MADE 27,000 AT HAMMER
