Henry Moore’s Square Form, a rare surreal sculpture from 1936, is among the highlights at Christie’s Modern British Art evening sale in London on January 21. It is estimated at £3-5 million. The auction will launch the 20th century series at Christie’s which includes a day sale and works from the collection of Allen and Beryl Freer on January 22 and 23. The Mill, Pendlebury, a recently discovered painting by L.S. Lowry bought directly from the artist is estimated at £700,000-1,000,000. The evening auction will feature early Modernist paintings by Ben Nicholson, John Piper, and Richard Lin alongside the Vorticists David Bomberg, William Roberts and Lawrence Atkinson. Two paintings by Howard Hodgkin from The Jeremy Lancaster Collection continue to illustrate the collector’s career-long support for the artist.
Golden Globes won by Doris Day are among the lots from the estate of the singer and actress on view at the Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, Co. Kildare until February 3. More than 800 lots from her estate will be auctioned live and online by Julien’s Auctions in Hollywood on April 4 and 5. This is the only European exhibition of the collection. On offer is a selection of her most iconic costumes and memorabilia from films and television shows and furnishings from her home in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Proceeds will go to the Doris Day animal foundation. The Golden Globes are estimated at $4,000-$6,000 each.
One sale to look forward to in 2020 takes place at Sotheby’s in London on March 18 – the day after St. Patrick’s Day. It will focus global attention on the art and antiques of Ireland at a time when international buyers are playing an increasingly important role in many sales in this country. Jack Yeats and William Scott made art which could not be more different, yet together they represent the two hottest Irish artists in the salesrooms right now. Both artists featured in the collection of late property developer Patrick Kelly, who furnished his Georgian home at 44 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin with an array of paintings spanning the 18th to the 20th centuries.These paintings were wonderfully complemented with fine Georgian and Regency furniture, silver and decorative arts, amassed by Kelly from auctions and dealers over the past three decades.On offer at Sotheby’s will be 120 lots from the estate of Patrick Kelly (1942-2011) who was one of our most successful property developers.Arabella Bishop, head of Sotheby’s Dublin office, said: “I have known Patrick and his collection for many years. 44 Fitzwilliam Square was a truly stunning setting to showcase the paintings, furniture, and objects which he collected from around the world over a number of decades. In holding a dedicated auction, we are able to celebrate Patrick’s vision and look forward to sharing it with collectors not only in Ireland but internationally.”The auction will offer art by Daniel Maclise, George Barret, Roderic O’Conor, Yeats, Scott and others. Furniture highlights include a pair of George II Irish mirrors supplied to Sankey Winter, Dean of Kildare, and marquetry tables attributed to William Moore of Dublin.Sotheby’s say the collection as a whole reveals Patrick’s passion for Irish art and his discerning eye, with pictures and furniture beautifully married within the elegant surroundings of his Georgian home. Central to the collection are five paintings by Yeats, including The Showground Revisited, painted in 1950 (£150,000-250,000 / €170,000-282,000) and Young Men, painted in 1929 (£150,000-250,000 / €170,000-282,000), and an exceptional work by William Scott, entitled Deep Blues (£300,000-500,000 / €339,000-565,000).
If you have not yet managed to see it there is still time to catch a marvellous show at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. Life Above Everything brings together the work of Lucian Freud (1922-2011) and Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957). Freud had a lifelong interest in the work of Yeats and admired its force and energy. He did not cite Yeats as an influence but seems to have found common purpose with its originality and independence. A pen and ink drawing by Yeats, The Dancing Stevedores, hung beside Freud’s bed forI over 20 years. Unique to the show is a group of seven paintings by Yeats which Freud selected for a close friend, advising him which works to acquire. Freud’s first visit to Ireland in 1948 has been described, at least in part, as a pilgrimage to the site of Yeats’ work. They exhibited together only one in their lifetimes, at the inaugural show at the ICA in London in 1948. Freud’s work has been exhibited with that of other artists, but this is the first time that it is presented with a single other artist. The show runs until January 19.
The annual exhibition of Turner watercolours opens today at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin. This year, watercolours by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) will be complemented by the works of a broad range of over 20 artists that were inspired by him. All works in this year’s display, by artists such as William Leech, Evie Hone, Paul Cézanne and John Singer Sargent, are from the Gallery’s collection, with many watercolours having not been seen in years. Some recent acquisitions by the artists Basil Blackshaw and Kyffin Williams will also be included. In 1900, the Gallery received a bequest of 31 watercolours and drawings by Turner from the English collector Henry Vaughan. Vaughan stipulated that the watercolours be exhibited every year, free of charge, for the month of January, when the light is at its weakest. Since 1901, the Gallery has displayed the watercolours for just one month every year, ensuring that the collection remains in pristine condition. Turner: The Visionary is on display until January 31.
Below Arvier, looking down the Val d’Aosta towards Mont Emilius, 1836, Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775-1851, Watercolour on paper.
According to a file at the Heinz Archive and library the boy depicted in this painting grew up to become the last High Sheriff to burn a witch. The portrait attributed to Thomas Murray (1663-1735) shows Henry Stewart as a boy. Stewart died in 1717. The sitter was the son of William Stewart (1625-1706) and Margaret Shaw (b. 1625), who married in 1664 and lived at Killymoon Castle, County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, which William’s father had purchased in 1634. Henry Stewart became High Sheriff of County Tyrone in 1711. The portrait, from Killadoon House in Co. Kildare, comes up at Sotheby’s Royal and Nobel sale in London on January 21 with an estimate of £8,000-12,000.
ATTRIBUTED TO THOMAS MURRAY | PORTRAIT OF HENRY STEWART (D. 1717) AS A BOY . UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £11,250
More than 1,100 lots will come under the hammer at the annual holiday auction by Matthews in Kells, Co. Meath on December 29 and 30. Viewing gets underway today. The catalogue is online.
A pair of Tiffany dragonfly lamps (200-300). UPDATE: THESE MADE 190 AT HAMMER
THE Mystic Nativity by Sandro Botticelli dates to 1500 and is in the collection of London’s National Gallery. They bought it in 1878. The infant Christ reaches up towards the Virgin Mary, oblivious of his visitors – the Three Kings on the left and the shepherds on the right. The golden dome of heaven has opened up and is circled by 12 angels holding olive branches entwined with scrolls and hung with crowns. In the foreground, three pairs of angels and men embrace; among their feet demons scuttle for shelter in the underworld through cracks in the rocks. It is his only signed work.
We will all visitors to antiquesandartireland.com a very happy Christmas.
Instantly dubbed “The Scar of Bethlehem” the latest work by Banksy appeared on yesterday in the Israeli occupied West Bank. A Christmas crib with the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph backlit through damaged concrete. The vertical concrete slabs behind the scene are pierced by a hole making a latter day star apparently created by a mortar shell. The work is at Banksy’s Walled-Off Hotel, where rooms overlook a concrete section of the barrier built by Israel. On instagram the artist described the work as a “modified nativity”.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for February 28, 2015)
Monet, Picasso, Bacon and Rothko were the highest priced artists at Sotheby’s in 2019. The top lot of the year at Sotheby’s was Meules by Monet which made $110,747,000 in New York. Picasso’s Femme au Chien made $54,936,000, Bacon’s Study for a Head sold for $50,380,000 and an untitled work by Mark Rothko made $50,095,250. All these works were sold in New York last May.
