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    • PORTRAIT OF 20TH EARL OF KILDARE AND HIS WIFE SOLD AT BONHAMS

    July 5th, 2018

    James, 20th Earl of Kildare and his wife Emily Mary in the grounds of Carton, by Arthur Devis from the collection of the Duke of Leinster, sold for 262,000 euro at Bonhams Old Master Paintings sale in London on July 4. It had been estimated at 80,000-100,000, and was one of five works from the collection in the sale. They made a combined total of 510,215.

    The painting shows the Earl and his wife seated in the garden of the new family seat at Carton House in Kildare, commissioned by his father in 1739. The Countess is portrayed holding the plans for a bridge.

    Bonhams Representative in Ireland, Kieran O’Boyle, “These five beautiful and important pictures from the collection of the Duke of Leinster created quite the buzz when Bonhams announced their inclusion in today’s Old Master Picture sale. That interest translated into spirited competition among bidders on the telephone and in the room, seeing all five sold, with the wonderful double portrait by Arthur Devis”.

    Portrait of Emily Mary, Duchess of Leinster by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), sold for 92,215.  Portrait of Emilia Olivia, Duchess of Leinster by Hugh Douglas Hamilton (1740-1808), sold for 50,000. A pair of Views of Maynooth Castle by William Ashford P.R.H.A. (1746-1824), sold for 106,000.

    (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for June 17, 2018)

    James, 20th Earl of Kildare and his wife Emily Mary in the grounds of Carton, by Arthur Devis

    Portrait of Emily Mary, Duchess of Leinster by Sir Joshua Reynolds

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    TURNER WATERCOLOUR MAKES £2 MILLION AT SOTHEBY’S

    July 4th, 2018

    J.M.W. Turner – The Lake of Lucerne from Brunnen

    One of the greatest watercolours by Turner left in private hands made £2 million at Sotheby’s sale of Old Master and British Works on Paper sale in London today.  The Lake of Lucerne from Brunnen, which depicts one of the most dramatic landscapes in the Swiss Alps,  achieved  one of the top prices for a watercolour for an artist.

    Inspired by Turner’s travels to the region between 1841 and 1844, the work was commissioned by his patron Elhanan Bicknell to hang as a companion piece to the iconic Blue Rigi, which achieved a record price at Sotheby’s in 2006 and now hangs in Tate Britain . Works from Turner’s ‘late’ Swiss series, of which this is one, have come to be seen as the ‘climax of a lifetime devoted to the expression of light and colour’.

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    IMAGES OF WASHINGTON AND BACON AT FONSIE MEALY AUCTION

    July 4th, 2018

    A white marble portrait bust of George Washington and a signed photograph of Francis Bacon are among the wide range of lots at Fonsie Mealy’s auction in Castlecomer on July 10 and 11.  The portrait bust from the studio of Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) is estimated at 3,000-4,000.  A portrait of Washington after Gilbert Stuart is estimated at 1,000-1,500.

    Bacon is photographed looking vexed and animated outside the French pub in Soho by Daniel Farson.  The image is signed by both Bacon and Farson and estimated at 800-1,200.  The catalogue is online and viewing for this 900 lot sale gets underway on July 8.

    White marble portrait bust of George Washington  UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,250

    A signed photograph of Francis Bacon  UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,050

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    A SUMMER ART SALE AT WHYTE’S IN DUBLIN

    July 3rd, 2018

    The summer art evening sale by Whyte’s in Dublin on July 9 boasts nearly 300 lots with guides from as little as 100 euro.  This affordable selection features many of the big names of Irish art. Whytes has changed its internal internet bidding platform for this auction and will sell the works at no extra charge to those who bid live through their own site.  The catalogue is online. Here is a small selection:

    JOHN CHRISTOPHER BROBBEL RBA (B.1950) – CARROWTEIGE, COUNTY MAYO, 1989 (400-600)  U[PDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    PAULINE BEWICK RHA (B.1935) – FOSSETT’S HORSE RIDES, 2001 (800-1,000)   UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,000 AT HAMMER

    CECILY BRENNAN (B.1955) – CLOUD CROSSING MOUNTAIN (400-600)  UPDATE: THIS WAS PASSED

    MARIA SIMONDS-GOODING RHA (B.1939) – ENCLOSURE ON A MOUNTAIN, 1989 ETCHING, WORKING PROOF (200-300)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 280 AT HAMMER

    MICHEAL FARRELL (1940-2000) – THE KNEE CAP, 1978 (24/120) (250-350)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 380 AT HAMMER

    FELIM EGAN (B.1952) – LAGOON A (etching 38/75) (200-300)  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 220

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    AN IRISH SELF PORTRAIT AT LONDON ART WEEK

    June 30th, 2018
    THIS oil self portrait by the Irish artist Peter J. Keelan is among the highlights at London Art Week which runs at various galleries around Mayfair and St, James’ in central London until July 6.
    Redolent of the more Bohemian artists of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods the portrait is offered by Bagshawe Fine Art of Bury St.  Keelan spent time in Paris and Pont-Aven at the end of the 19th century.  He exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy and around 1890 he sent work to the RHA from an address at Pont-Aven.  This was a time when Gauguin, Roderic O’Conor and Walter Osborne were all in residence at Pont-Aven.
    The style of this 18″ x 15″ portrait is naturalistic with broad brush strokes and a stance that is close the viewer.  This work shows that he was plainly an artist of ability.  He remains for now a shadowy figure about whom information is hard to come by.  Bagshawe Fine Art remain confident that they will be able to make a fuller appraisal when more of his work surfaces.

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    BID IN COOL COMFORT AT ONLINE SALE OF AFFORDABLE IRISH ART

    June 29th, 2018

    Too hot to face an auction standoff?  Never fear.  You can do it from the comfort of your own cool at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online sale of affordable Irish art which runs until Monday July 2 between 6.30 p.m. and 11 p.m.  The catalogue is online. Here is a small selection:

    LA HART (20TH/21ST CENTURY)Keith Richards (600-900) UPDATE: THIS MADE 480 AT HAMMER

    ALBERT IRVINE (20TH/21ST CENTURY)Louise VI (250-350)  UPDATE: THIS MADE  240 AT HAMMER

    BRIAN BALLARD (B.1943)Still Life on Window Sill (2003) (1,000-1,500)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 800 AT HAMMER

    NORMAN TEELING (B.1944)Ha’Penny Bridge, Dublin (600-900)  UPDATE: THIS MDE 500 AT HAMMER

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    MASTERPIECE OFF TO FLYING START IN LONDON

    June 29th, 2018

    MASTERPIECE got off to a flying start and will remain in full swing at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London until July 4.  Dealers reported early sales and an increase in footfall on preview days.  Masterpiece attracts 160 leading international exhibitors and is the world’s leading cross collecting fair with art, design, furniture and jewellery from antiquity to the present day.  Here is a small selection of what is on show:

    Georges Braque – L’Oiseau de Feu c1954 at Connaught Brown

    Lalique brooch at Veronique Bamps

    Grand Tour centre table at Butchoff Antiques

    Bust with portrait of an elderly man at Cahn International AG

    Alvar Aalto – Ceiling Lamp 1953 at Modernity

    Sue Williams – Peculiar – 1999 at Maruani Mercier

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    FREUD NUDE MAKES £22.5 MILLION, A RECORD FOR THE ARTIST IN LONDON

    June 26th, 2018

    Lucian Freud – Portrait on a White Cover

    One of Lucian Freud’s last great nudes, Portrait on a White Cover sold  for £22.5 million at Sotheby’s in London tonight.  It was the most valuable painting by the artist ever sold in London. The previous highest price for a London auction of the artist’s work was £16.1 million set by Pregnant Girl at Sotheby’s in February 2016.  Painted when the artist was 80 years old it represents the culmination of Freud’s lifelong engagement with the reclining nude. Alongside the self-portrait, the reclining nude was the defining leitmotif of Freud’s career. Across sixty years of painting, innumerable mutations of painterly style, and a multitude of sitters, he returned to this challenging subject time and again.

    Portrait on a White Cover depicts Sophie Lawrence, who worked for Tate publishing and was spotted by Freud whilst preparing for his Tate retrospective in 2002. This is her only known portrait and there is little written about her in the literature surrounding the artist’s work. Ahead of this sale, she shared her story of sitting for the artist: “I wouldn’t have done it for anyone else, but he is one of the best artists who has ever lived. It was incredibly intimidating, but he made me feel at ease. He was very good at building a rapport with people. I was very fond of him.”

    The artist painted only three further reclining nudes before his death in 2011. The painting which immediately preceded Portrait on a White Cover, Naked Portrait 2002 – depicting Kate Moss pregnant – set a new auction record for the artist at £7.3 million when it appeared at auction in 2005. Four of the top five prices for the artist at auction are for reclining nudes.

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    NELSON’S TRAFALGAR WATCH AT SOTHEBY’S TREASURES SALE

    June 26th, 2018

    Nelson’s pocket watch.  UPDATE: THIS MADE £322,000

    A watch that belonged to Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson and is thought to have been carried during the Battle of Trafalgar will be one of the highlights of Sotheby’s Treasures sale on 4 July. It is estimated at £250,000 – 450,000.  On the morning of the Battle of Trafalgar, William Beatty – the Irish surgeon aboard Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory, observed how before the battle commenced, the Admiral called upon his lieutenants to synchronise their watches to the time on his own watch. It is therefore quite possible that the tumultuous events of that historic day unfolded to the time kept by this very watch.

    Fought on October21,  1805 off the southern coast of Spain, the Battle of Trafalgar was a decisive moment in the Napoleonic Wars (1796 – 1815). Commanded by Admiral Nelson the British fleet defeated the combined fleets of the Spanish and French navies, fighting off Napoleon Bonaparte’s advancements to invade Britain. In the midst of battle, Nelson was shot in the left shoulder, a shot that would prove fatal.

    The Chairman of Sotheby’s International Watch Division, Daryn Schnipper said: ‘The perfect timing of the British assault at the Battle of Trafalgar was key in the historic victory of the Royal Navy so to be able to offer for sale the watch that Nelson probably used to establish the timing for this decisive battle, is a real privilege.”

    One of the nineteen relics returned to Nelson’s mistress, Emma, Lady Hamilton, following his death, the watch was inherited by the Admiral’s brother, Willliam, 1st Earl Nelson and subsequently passed to his sole surviving child, Charlotte. Charlotte arranged for the watch to be mounted in its current form as a carriage clock, presumably so it could be better admired and treasured as her illustrious uncle’s most precious possession. It was excluded from the group of precious relics, including the Admiral’s orders and decorations offered for sale in 1895 and subsequently acquired by the British government.

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    SUCCESSFUL ONLINE ART SALE BY MORGAN O’DRISCOLL

    June 26th, 2018

    There were 230 lots at the successful Morgan O’Driscoll online sale of Irish art on June 25.  Here are some results:

    CIARAN CLEAR (1920-2000) Moonlight Connemara Coast made 5,400 at hammer.

    JOHN SHINNORS (B.1950) Field Forms, Shooting Star made 6,600 at hammer.

    SEAN O’SULLIVAN (1906-1964)The Weaver (1952) made 1,900 at hammer.

    JOHN KELLY RHA (1932-2006) – Harbour, Castletownsend West Cork (2014) made 640 at hammer.

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