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A VAN CLEEF & ARPELS CHRYSOPRASE AND DIAMOND BROOCH. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This Van Cleef & Arpels chrysoprase and diamond brooch modelled as a four leafed clover comes up as lot 296 at O’Reilly’s auction of fine jewellery, silverware and antiques in Dublin on March 27. Signed and numbered and in 18 carat gold it is estimated at €12,000-€14,000. Chrysoprase is a gemstone variety of chalcedony. The catalogue for the sale is online.
Orpens at Farmleigh is the title of exhibitions by Sir William Orpen and Goddard Orpen at the OPW Farmleigh Gallery in Dublin until August 25. A Family Legacy displays a range of less well known paintings and illustrated letters by Sir William Orpen and members of his family. This runs side by side with an exhibition of photographs by Goddard Orpen (1852-1932) from a recently discovered collection of glass plate negatives documenting life in the home and an the farm.
K. Knitting by Colin Middleton at James Adam. UPDATE: THIS MADE 21,000 AT HAMMER
This one or that one? With sales of Irish art at de Veres on Tuesday on March 26, James Adam on the following evening and a Spring online art sale running at Whyte’s until March 25 the key decision facing many collectors of Irish art in the coming week is what to choose.
If like so many collectors you love John Behan’s Famine Ships and have not yet got around to acquiring one there will be an opportunity to do so at de Veres. Lot 21, a signed and dated bronze Famine Ship from 2021, is estimated at €8,000-€12,000. The most expensively estimated lot is Sean Keating’s Eliza Doolittle in Dublin (€50,000-€70,000). Art by Keating, Colin Middleton, Patrick Collins, John Behan, John B Vallely, Felim Egan and George Russell head up the catalogue at de Veres.
Famine Ship (2021) by John Behan at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,000 AT HAMMER
The sale is characterised by a variety that encompasses fairly abstract works like Menhirs on the Plain by Patrick Collins (€10,000-€15,000) and Pool by Felim Egan (€7,000-€10,000) to landscapes like Resting in the Wood by George Russell (€7,000-€10,000) and a Wind Blown Tree in Killary by Letitia Marion Hamilton (€4,000-€6,000). There is a collection of works on paper by Mainie Jellett and art by Tim Goulding, Peter Curling, Tony O’Malley, Sean McSweeney, Barrie Cooke, Desmond Carrick, Roy Lyndsey, Arthur Maderson and many others with estimates from as little as €100.
Painting and sculpture by many of Ireland’s best loved artists from the 19th century to the present day will feature at Wednesday evening’s sale of Important Irish Art at James Adam. The most expensively estimated lots are The Bog (1911) by Paul Henry (€60,000-€80,000), Spring Morning (1957) by Patrick Collins (€30,000-€50,000) from the collection of Sir Basil Goulding and K. Knitting by Colin Middleton from the early 1960’s (€15,000-€20,000). This modernist work in Cubist style depicts the artist’s wife Kathleen in an intimate domestic scene.
Aubusson Tapestry entitled Woman and Two Bantam Cocks by Pauline Bewick and Regine Bartsch at James Adam. UPDATE: THIS MADE 6,000 AT HAMMER
There are estimates of from €10,000-€15,000 on Lot and his Daughters by Dan O’Neill, Being by Louis le Brocquy, Solitude, Lough Neagh by Dan O’Neill and Rebuilding of Monte Cassino by Patrick Hennessy which featured on these pages last Saturday. This work was exhibited at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2016 and is one of a number in the sale by Patrick Hennessy and Harry Robertson Craig from the collection of Dublin couple George and Pamela Fegan, friends of both artists.
There is a selection of work by women artists like sisters Eva and Letitia Hamilton, Grace Henry, Evie Hone and Pauline Bewick. Bewick is not widely known for her tapestries and the sale offers a collaboration with Kerry based artist Regine Bartsch titled Woman and Two Bantam Cocks. Woven by Aubusson master weaver Bernard Battu in 2003 it is based on a tapestry woven by Bartsch for Bewick in the mid 1980’s and is estimated at €1,000-€2,000.
The sale offers 19th century oils by James Arthur O’Connor, John Henry Campbell and Thomas Sautelle Roberts and 20th century sculpture by artists including John Behan, Bob Quinn, Oisin Kelly, Eamon O’Doherty and Patrick O’Reilly.
The Spring art online sale at Whyte’s celebrates a selection of affordable art from Ireland and around the world. There should be Cork interest in two etchings by James Barry (€500-€700), a pencil drawing by Daniel Maclise (€150-€200) and a miniature portrait of a boy by Adam Buck (€400-€600). There are prints and etchings by William Crozier, Elizabeth Frink, Ronnie Wood, Jack B Yeats, Elizabeth Rivers and Bernard Dunston and a wide selection of work by acclaimed Irish artists.
Catering for many tastes and both deep and shallow pockets these sales combine to present a fascinating and complex array of beautiful choices. Now it is over to you…..
Wind Blown Tree, Killary by Letitia Marion Hamilton at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE 12,000 AT HAMMER
Major institutional sales, seven figures sales and a growth in international private collectors were notched up in Maastricht this month. Over eight days nearly 50,000 visitors flocked to The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) to see 7000 years of art history displayed by 270 exhibitors from 22 countries across ancient art, antique furniture, paintings, modern and contemporary art and design and works on paper. With 300 museum directors and 650 curators attending the emerging trends noted were juxtaposing the old and the new and huge interest in female artists, cultural heritage and preservation. Displays of ancient art on contemporary furniture and delicate porcelain contemporary flowers on 17th century Delftware fragments sold to private collectors for six figure sums. The Rijksmuseum acquired the only signed painting by Gesina ter Borch (1631-1690).
The asking price was €4.5 million for Van Gogh’s Head of an old peasant woman with a White Cap at New Orlean’s based gallery M S Rau, sold for an undisclosed sum. Koopman, which sold the personal seal of Lord Nelson to a private collector, reported that clients were aggressively chasing the top objects. The Aga Khan Foundation in Toronto acquired a 17th century Safavid mirror for €200,000. Against a background of multiple seven figure sales an insiders collecting guide drew specific attention to objects priced at under €20,000. This is just a flavour from a fair which showed the international market to be in a state of rude good health.
A Shining Palace by William Leech (1881-1968) is among the leading lots at Sotheby’s Irish Auction in Paris this year. Sales in 2022 and 2023 drew bidders from the UK, US, Canada, Australia, France, Austria and other European countries. In 2024 Sotheby’s will hold a third instalment of this sale from April 25-May 2 with a number of private tours and artists talks while the sale is on view in Paris. Work by Roderic O’Conor, Louis le Brocquy, Sir John Lavery, Gerard Dillon, FE McWilliam, Melissa O’Donnell, Rowan Gillespie, Orla de Bri, Gareth Reid, who was Sky’s Portrait Artist of the Decade and a group of works by Patrick Scott from the artist’s estate will feature. The auction remains open for consignments until the end of March. Highlights will be on view at Sotheby’s, Molesworth St., Dublin next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (March 26-29).
The Pattie Boyd Collection at Christie’s online realised over seven times the pre-sale high estimate and made a total of £2,818,184 / $3,604,457 / €3,291,639. Providing a remarkable window into the private world of the celebrated model, muse, photographer and icon, the sale was led by the original artwork chosen by Eric Clapton for the cover of Derek and The Dominos 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs which sold for £1,976,000/ $2,527,304 / €2,307,968 – 33 times the pre-sale high estimate – after a prolonged bidding battle (estimate: £40,000-60,000). This set a new auction record for an original album cover artwork. Bidders registered from 30 countries and 46% of them were new to Christie’s.
Patti Boyd said: “I am completely blown away by the enthusiasm of international bidders for these special treasures that I have always loved. I am so happy that new hearts will now enjoy them, as they enter into their next ‘chapters.’ I am lucky that my life today continues to bring me joy and different adventures – I would encourage people to follow their passions and live their lives with gusto!”
The Modern British and Irish Art evening sale at Christie’s in London realised a total of £23,781,300 / $30,226,032 / €27,776,558, a 23% increase year on year. Registered bidders from 15 countries highlighted the global appeal of Modern British and Irish artists. The sale was led by L.S. Lowry’s masterpiece Sunday Afternoon, which sold for £6,290,000, the second highest price achieved for a work by Lowry at auction. The painting was presented from the Collection of Sir Keith and Lady Showering and had not been exhibited publicly for 57 years.
The appeal of female artists continued as Women’s History Month is celebrated. Pauline Boty’s powerful tribute to Marilyn Monroe, Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give realised a world auction record for the artist (£1,310,500). Barbara Hepworth’s Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red, a unique hand-carved work that fuses the constructivist principles Hepworth had pioneered in the late-1930s and a newly awakened sensibility towards her local landscape in Cornwall, achieved £3,549,000.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for February 9, February 21 and March 13, 2024)
The atmospheric quality is evident in this semi abstract work by Patrick Collins, a key figure in Irish Post War art whose work is acclaimed in this country. Spring Morning from 1957 comes up as lot 30 at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art which takes place on March 27 at 6 pm. Estimated at 30,000-50,000 it was once in the collection of Sir Basil Goulding. Viewing is now underway at Adams, and continues every day until 4 pm on March 27.
Abstract Composition (Blue) by Mainie Jellett comes up as lot 36 at de Veres timed online Irish art auction which runs until March 26. From the collection of Bruce Arnold the gouache on paper is estimated at 3,500-5,000. It is one of a number of lots by Jellett in the sale, which opens for viewing at Kildare St. in Dublin today. The catalogue is online.
Selected timepieces from the collection of Michael Schumacher, one of the most successful drivers in Formula 1 history, will come up at Christie’s in Geneva in May. Marking the 30th anniversary of Michael Schumacher’s first Formula 1 Drivers Championship win in 1994 the Rare Watches auction on May 13 at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva, will include a section dedicated to this group of watches, highlighting key moments in his career, demonstrating the unique quality of this collection. The unique F.P. Journe Vagabondage 1 Model timepiece, dating from circa 2004 pictured here features a bespoke dial and an engraved personal gift dedication on the 18k gold movement. The stunning red dial immediately captures attention – around its circumference are symbols representing Michael Schumacher’s seven F1 World Championship victories achieved by 2004 and includes Schumacher’s racing helmet together with the Ferrari emblem.
Before he suffered catastrophic injuries in a ski accident in 2013 Michael Schumacher, in conjunction with Schuberth helmets, helped develop the first lightweight carbon fibre reinforced polymer helmet for racing drivers. In 2004, a prototype was publicly tested by being driven over by a tank; it survived intact. The helmet kept the driver cool by funnelling directed airflow through fifty holes. Schumacher was a special ambassador to UNESCO and donated to the organisation while other charitable and philanthropic work included the construction of a school for poor underprivileged children and for area improvements in Dakar, Senegal – support for a hospital for child victims of the siege in Sarajevo, which specialises in caring for amputees – in Lima, Peru, he funded the Palace for the Poor, a centre for helping homeless street children. Schumacher also donated $10 million for aid efforts after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, surpassing that of many worldwide corporations and even some countries. From 2002 to 2006, he donated further millions to various charities. Schumacher also gave support to other campaigns, such as Make Roads Safe, to recognise global road deaths as a major global health issue. In 2017 his family founded the Keep Fighting Foundation to continue the charitable work that has always been so important to him.
