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Portrait of Rose, Fourth Marchioness of Headfort by Sir William Orpen (1878-1931). UPDATE: THIS MADE £577,250.

Prime Irish works of art gathered from around the world will be on view in Dublin and Belfast prior to Sotheby’s  sale of British and Irish art in London on May 10.  Sir William Orpen’s Portrait of Rose, Fourth Marchioness of Headfort (£300,000-500,000) and Portrait of Geoffrey, Fourth Marquis of Headfort (£60,000-80,000) are being presented for sale together.  The sitters, Geoffrey Thomas Taylour and Rose Boote, married in the face of disrepute and disgrace. It was a love that endured until Geoffrey’s death in 1943. Rose commissioned the portraits. They were exhibited at the 147th summer exhibition of 1915, by which time Orpen was unquestionably the leading portrait painter of his generation in the Royal Academy in London.

Augustus John (1878-1961), Portrait of W.B. Yeats. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £51,650

There are two landscapes by James Arthur O’Connor (1792-1841). A View of Fin Lough and Delphi Lodge (£30,000-50,000) and A Mountain Road in Mayo (£15,000-25,000) were commissioned by the 2nd Marquess of Sligo.  A Connaught Fishing Village (£120,000-180,000) is the most expensively estimated of four Paul Henry (1876-1958) works in the auction.  All are classical western landscapes. Among the Twelve Pins, Connemara is estimated at £100,000-150,000, The Edge is estimated at £80,000-120,000 and Turf Stacks in the West has an estimate of £60,000-80,000.  A still life by Roderic O’Conor  (1860-1940) is estimated at £50,000-80,000 and a reclining nude by the same artist has an estimate of £40,000-60,000. A portrait of W.B. Yeats by Augustus John (1878-1961) is estimated at £30,000-50,000.  May Day by F.E. McWilliam (1909-1992), one of his most striking Bean sculptures, is estimated at £70,000-100,000.  A group of Northern Irish works includes Summer by Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) estimated at £60,000-80,000 and Manna by Colin Middleton  (1910-1983), estimated at £30,000-50,000.

Irish paintings and sculpture from the sale will be on view at Sotheby’s, 16 Molesworth St., Dublin on April 24 and 25 and at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on April 27 and 28. (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for January 16, 2012).

James Arthur O'Connor (1792-1841) - View of Fin Lough and Delphi Lodge. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £36,050.

May Day by F.E. McWilliam (1909-1992). (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

Dame Elisabeth Frink, Walking Man, bronze, 1986, est. £150,000-250,000.

Peter Randall-Page, Green Fuse, granite, 2008, est. £60,000-80,000.

A total of 18 monumental works from the Jerwood Sculpture Collection, exhibited in the grounds of Ragley Hall in Warwickshire since 2005, are to be offered by Sotheby’s in London on May 10 and 11.  Included are works by Antony Gormley, Dame Elisabeth Frink and Peter Randall-Page, as well as three winners of the Jerwood Sculpture Prize – Judith Dean, Benedict Carpenter and Gereon Krebber.  The collection comes to the market with a combined estimate of £650,000 – £1,000,000.

Dame  Elisabeth Frink’s Walking Man was the first sculpture to enter the Jerwood Collection in 1999. It belongs to a series of male nudes conceived in the mid-1980’s, all originally purchased by WH Smith Plc. for its headquarters in Swindon. It is estimated at  £150,000-250,000.  Peter Randall-Page’s monumental Cornish granite carving, Green Fuse was commissioned in 2007.  The title The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower, is taken from a 1934 poem by Dylan Thomas. The work draws on Indian temple sculpture and is estimated at £60,000-80,000.

Alan Grieve, Chairman of the Jerwood Foundation commented: “We assembled the Jerwood Sculpture Collection over the last 12 years with the intention of offering an insight into the development of the medium in Britain. The sculptures offered for sale will include some important works from the generation who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as a dynamic group of young sculptors working today. The works are being sold on behalf of the Jerwood Foundation to further its dedicated support of the visual and performing arts.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) The Salutation of Beatrice courtesty Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge).

The romance between Jane Morris, wife of artist and designer William Morris, and the pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a source of gossip in Victorian times. The couple took great care to protect their privacy.  Each destroyed the correspondence with the other. Now a previously unknown portrait of Jane Morris by Rossetti from a private collection in Scotland associates Jane with Dante’s muse Beatrice Portinari.   It will be offered at Christie’s Victorian & British Impressionist Art sale in London on May 31 and is estimated at £1-1.5 million.

William Morris was Rossetti’s business partner.  Rossetti met and was attracted to Jane in 1857 when he was already engaged to Lizzie Siddall. Jane married Morris. Siddall suffered an overdose of laudanum in 1862, probably taking her own life. The relationship between Rossetti and Jane Morris was eventually re-kindled.  Rossetti’s 1869 painting ‘The Salutation of Beatrice’ was unrecorded and unknown to scholars. This was the year when it is generally assumed their affair began. It lasted until about 1875. The painting is described by Peter Brown, Christie’s director of Victorian Pictures, as the most important work by Rossetti to appear at auction in 25 years.

The sale will also feature a rare depiction of Florence Nightingale studied from life by Jerry Barrett (1824-1906). The Mission of Mercy: Florence Nightingale receiving the Wounded at Scutari shows Florence Nightingale in the Barrack Hospital at Scutari, the scene of her heroic endeavours to improve the medical treatment of the British Army in the Crimea.  It is estimated at £30,000-50,000.  There is a larger version at The National Portrait Gallery in London.  At the same sale A Winner at Epsom by Sir Alfred James Munnings is estimated at £500,000-800,000.

Jerry Barrett (1814-1906) The Mission of Mercy: Florence Nightingale receiving the wounded in Scutari in 1856. (Click to enlarge).

Sir Alfred James Munnings, P.R.A., R.W.S. (1878-1959) A Winner at Epsom. (Click to enlarge).

Tamara de Lempicka Nu adossé I ($3/5 million). Click on image to enlarge. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $5,458,500

Every collector’s dream of owning an undiscovered masterpiece came true for one West Coast art lover. Knowing nothing of the artist but appreciating the quality of the work a US collector bought a painting and kept it at home for a decade. It was in fact a lost work by Tamara de Lempicka, described in the catalogue raisonné of the artist, published in 1999, as location unknown.  The Modern masterpiece Nu adossé I will be offered by Sotheby’s on May 2 in New York and is estimated at $3-5 million.

The work, a classic example of the artist’s aesthetic, was included in her groundbreaking solo exhibition at Milan’s Bottegia di Poesia gallery in 1925, the year it was painted. It was known only from a photograph of that show. Afterwards it effectively disappeared. Sotheby’s was contacted by the owner late last year. He described finding the work many years before and, while not realizing its importance at the time, he had appreciated its aesthetic appeal. A decade later the owner learned that he possibly owned an original Lempicka. An art consultant advised him to contact Sotheby’s. Following first-hand inspection and subsequent research, the work was confirmed to be the lost Lempicka.

Tamara de Lempicka was a pioneering artist who occupied an important position in ‘Roaring Twenties’ Paris. Her aesthetic embodied the spirit of the Art Deco era and its sense of style and modernity. Nu adossé I is coming to market at a time of unprecedented interest in the artist. Over the course of the past year, several new benchmarks have been set for Lempicka’s work at Sotheby’s – in June 2011, a new auction record was set for the artist when her La dormeuse sold for $6.6 million. Five months later, that record was broken again at Sotheby’s when Le rêve achieved $8.5 million.

UPDATE: IT MADE $5,458,500

(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for February 21 and April 5 2012)