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Ida Reading a Letter by Vilhelm Hammershøi. (Click on image to enlarge).

THERE was a record for any Danish work of art at auction at Sotheby’s when Vilhelm Hammershøi’s Ida Reading a Letter sold for £1,721,250.  It was hotly pursued by three bidders on the telephone before being knocked down to an international private collector. The price surpassed an estimate of £500,000-700,000 and was almost three times above the previous record. Ida Reading a Letter was one of five paintings by Vilhelm Hammershøi in the sale of European Paintings.  His work made a combined total of £4,313,450 in a sale which brought an overall total of £6,527,475.

Claude Piening, of Sotheby’s European Paintings department, said: “Bidding was international, with interest from Asia, America, Scandinavia and Central Europe. Hammershøi appeals to the tastes of the 21st-century collector. Exhibitions in London, Tokyo, Denmark and currently Munich continue to attract new admirers of his work, which draws parallels with Vermeer and Whistler, artists with similar sensibilities.”

Ruth Bromberg Seated (1992). Click on image to enlarge.  UPDATE: THIS MADE £541,250.

Ruth Bromberg Seated (1997). Click on image to enlarge.  UPDATE: THIS MADE £421,250.

THE single most important group of paintings by Frank Auerbach ever to appear at auction comes up at Sotheby’s contemporary art sale in London on June 26. A collection of eight paintings of Ruth Bromberg painted over a 17 year period (1992-2008) will be sold by the executor of the estate of Ruth and Joseph Bromberg as a bequest to the British Friends of the Art Museums of Israel.  Proceeds will benefit the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in memory of their son Michael.

Born in 1931 Auerbach is considered one of Britain’s greatest living artists. He endlessly scrutinised and reworked his portraits. These particular ones tell the story of the friendship between the artist and one of his key sitters. Despite sitting for the artist every Thursday afternoon for nearly two decades Ruth Bromberg is the subject of  just 20 works.

The Brombergs were dedicated supporters of the of the School of London artists. The group includes an etching by Lucian Freud of his daughter Bella and is expected to realise £1.8 million.

UPDATE:  THE group of eight portraits by Frank Auerbach and one work by Lucian Freud was fiercely contested and brought a combined total of £2,476,000.  The auction overall realised  £69.3 million.

Renoir’s Baigneuse at Christie’s.  UPDATE: THIS WAS SOLD PRIVATELY BEFORE THE AUCTION FOR A PRICE THAT WAS WITHIN THE ESTIMATE.

Renoir’s Baigneuse leads Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art sale in London on June 20.  Painted in 1888 Baigneuse is a sumptuous exploration of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s (1841-1919) most celebrated theme, the female nude. It is estimated at £12-18 million.

On the market for the first time in 15 years Baigneuse has been part of distinguished collections including Robert de Bonnières, Adrien Hébrard and the Prince de Wagram. It was later owned by the prominent Swiss collector Georg Reinhart. The painting set the record for a nude by the artist when it sold for $20.9 million in New York.

There are work by Picasso, Magritte, Gauguin, Picasso and a distinguished private collection of 14 bronze sculptures by Edgar Degas (1834-1917) with estimates from £15,000 to £2.5 million. The auction of 71 lots has a pre-sale estimate of £86.5-126.7 million.

UPDATE:  Renoir’s Baigneuse was sold privately before the auction for a price that was within the estimate.  The auction brought in £92.5 million with 27 works selling for over £1 million and 36 selling for over $1 million. The top price was paid for Femme assise, 1949, by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) which sold for £8,553,250.

Gerard Dillon's The Moon over the Bog made £61,250. (Click on image to enlarge).

Gerard Dillon’s The Moon over the Bog made £61,250 at Bonham’s sale of British and Irish art in London on May 30.  The same price was achieved by Sir Wiliam Scott’s Fish.  Paul Henry’s A View of Croagh Patrick from Achill Island made £25,000.  Sutton Sands by William John Leech made £8,750, Persian of the Circus by Jack Yeats made £7,500 and William Conor’s The Turf Carriers sold for £5,000.  Sir Gerald Festus Kelly’s Portrait of Jane with a white shawl XXVII, depicting the artist’s wife Lilian Ryan sold for £9,030.

Sean Keating’s Portrait of Jimmy O’Dea in Costume estimated at £10,000-15,000 failed to sell, as did Dillon’s Little Boy playing at God and Dan O’Neill’s Princess for a Night. The top lot of the sale was St. Ives Rooftops by Ben Nicholson which made £283,250.

Interior of a Cafe by William John Leech was the top lot at Adams.

AN  outstanding 1908 Breton work by William John Leech topped the Irish art poll at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on May 30  On the eve of a referendum on the EU financial stability treaty it made 200,000.  Indoors, Outdoors from 1951 by Louis le Brocquy, which had been estimated at 500,000-800,000, was bid up to 450,000 and failed to sell.

The auction of 148 lots was 75 per cent sold and brought in 1.7 million.  Good Evening Men by Jack b. Yeats made 180,000 and Bound for the Islands by the same artist made 48,000.  Fishing Boats, Dugort by Paul Henry sold for 125,000 and a le Brocquy tapestry, Eden, made 36,000.  Woman of Belfast by F.E. McWilliam made 27,000 over an estimate of 6,000-10,000, William Guy Wall’s View of the Boyne made 26,000 and Patrick Leonard’s Unloading the Catch, Loughshinny Harbour, made 25,000.

See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for  May 27, May 6 and May 8.