antiquesandartireland.com

William Orpen’s Portrait of Mrs Oscar Lewisohn, formerly Miss Edna May, a compelling study of personality, temperament, demeanour and style, painted in 1915.

THOUGH she played in The Belle of New York with only limited success in 1897 Edna May became an overnight sensation in London with the role the following year.  Known for her beauty the Syracuse, New York born actress who became a star of the Edwardian stage subsequently played in London and New York.  Feted by many male admirers she married the New York banker Oscar Lewisohn in 1907 and retired from the stage.

This 1915 portrait of Mrs. Oscar Lewisohn by the Irish artist William Orpen is a highlight at Sotheby’s sale of British and Irish art in London on May 22.  Orpen’s sitter is strikingly posed on a dramatic chequerboard floor  against a black background.   The artist reserved such occasions for some of his most distinguished portraits.   It is estimated at £120,000-180,00.  The work will be among 33 Irish lots from the sale on view in Dublin next week.

UPDATE: THE WORK WAS UNSOLD

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for April 23, 2014.)

William Turner of Oxford – A Cornfield at Sunrise – watercolour (£3,000-5,000). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £6,000

The pastoral qualities of the English landscape will be highlighted at Sotheby’s in London on May 22 when Christopher Cone’s collection of paintings come under the hammer. There are 63 works from  John Constable in the early 19^th century to Richard Eurich in the mid-20^thcentury. The vision of England conjured by these artists is meticulous in detail, delicate in colouring, and romantically lyrical. Collectively, this wealth of little masterpieces of landscape painting speaks to the viewer of a piece of land that is ‘forever England’.

For 32 years, Christopher Cone was the partner of the late Stanley J. Seeger, one of the greatest collectors of our time, and together they amassed a succession of exceptional treasures. Christopher went his own direction too, with his eye honed by several memorable years working as a Victorian paintings specialist at Sotheby’s Belgravia in the 1970s, during which time he calculates he catalogued more than 10,000 pictures.

Nicolas de Staël
Composition, 1950 (2.5-3.5 million). Copyright : Sotheby’s/ArtDigital Studio  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 4,241,500

A monumental work by Nicolas de Staël (1914-55) will be a highlight at Sotheby’s contemporary art evening sale in Paris on June 3. Painted in 1950 Composition measures 200 x 400 cm and is estimated at 2.5-3.5 million euro. It was last shown in public at the Pompidou Centre’s De Staël retrospective in 2003. It was the largest canvas De Staël had ever painted when it was bought by Denys Sutton (1917-91) in 1950. It has remained in Sutton’s family ever since. The British art critic edited Apollo magazine for over 25 years and curated numerous landmark exhibitions devoted to Constable, Picasso, Matisse among others in the 1960’s and ’70’s. Sutton met De Staël in Paris at the end of the 1940’s and convinced him to show his works in England. De Staël duly went to London in the summer of 1950, and wrote about being electrified by the city’s light and space.

The work’s appearance on the market coincides with the centenary of De Staël’s birth. From June to November, two exhibitions – at the Musée Malraux in Le Havre and Musée Picasso in Antibes – will pay tribute to an artist who continues to enjoy great popularity in the United States and throughout Europe, as well as in his adopted France.