antiquesandartireland.com

The Novelist by Jack b. Yeats sold for 95,000. (Click on image to enlarge).

The Novelist by Jack B. Yeats sold for 95,000 after the James Adam Irish art sale in Dublin on March 28.  The 1944 painting, which had been estimated at 100,000-150, attracted keen interest but was bid to a figure short of the reserve. It was sold the following day.  This brought the total for the auction of over 200 lots to just under 500,000.

Memory of Clifden by George Campbell sold for 20,000.

More than 70 per cent of the lots on offer were sold. The Novelist was in a number of international exhibitions including the Yeats centenary exhibition of 1971 organised by the National Gallery of Ireland shown in Dublin, Belfast and New York.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for March 21, 2012).

William John Leech (Irish, 1881-1968) Sutton Sands. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £8,750 INCLUDING PREMIUM.

Paul Henry R.H.A. (Irish, 1876-1958) A view of Croagh Patrick from Achill Island. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £25,000 INCLUDING PREMIUM.

A view of Croagh Patrick from Achill Island by Paul Henry is one of the Irish highlights at Bonhams 20th Century British and Irish Art in London on May 30.  Croagh Patrick in Co. Mayo is a renowned site of pilgrimage in honour of St. Patrick.  Here the saint reputedly fasted for forty days before using the Black Bell to combat the birds and demons that challenged him, and in doing so banished all the snakes from Ireland.  It is estimated at £10,000-15,000.

The sale includes two works by Gerard Dillon, Little Boy Playing at God (painted in 1945-6 and estimated to sell for £30,000-50,000) and The Moon Over the Bog (painted in 1954 and estimated to sell for £50,000-70,000).  Other works in the sale include Fish by William Scott, initially sold to benefit the Royal Academy of Arts Trust, and estimated to sell for £60,000-80,000, Sir Gerald Festus Kelly’s Portrait of Jane with a white shawl XXVII, depicting the artist’s wife Lilian Ryan (£7,000-10,000), and Sutton Sands, a view of Sutton Beach at the northern edge of Dublin Bay painted by William John Leech in 1909 (estimated to sell for £7,000-10,000).

William Scott R.A. (British, 1913-1989) Fish (1982). (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £61,250.

Cézanne's card players watercolour. UPDATE: IT MADE $19,122,500.

A Cézanne card players watercolour last seen in public in 1953 will highlight Christie’s  Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on May 1 in New York. It has re-emerged from a private collection in Texas after nearly 60 years. The full sized work on paper is a preparatory study for Joueurs des cartes (Card Players), the seminal five-painting series that Cézanne completed between 1890 and 1896. Previously known only from a black and white photograph it was rediscovered in the collection of the late Dr. Heinz F. Eichenwald, a collector and medical expert who spent his career in Dallas after emigrating to the US in the mid-1930s. Meticulously preserved it is estimated to achieve US$15–20 million.

“The Card Player series is justifiably regarded as one of the most important of the modern era, influencing so many of the painters who sought to follow in Cézanne’s footsteps. This remarkable study offers us a rare glimpse into this modern master’s artistic process, showing us how he worked through the pose and positioning of the characters that would come to populate his greatest masterpieces,” said Sharon Kim, International Director of Impressionist and Modern Art. “For a full-size study from this series to come to light now, when it was feared to have been lost to history by scholars and collectors alike, marks a pivotal moment in the art market and promises to inspire great interest from clients around the globe this spring.”

UPDATE: THIS WAS BOUGHT FOR OVER $19,122,500 MILLION BY AN ANONYMOUS PURCHASER.

See post on antiquesandartireland.com for February 4, 2012.

AHMED ALSOUDANI (Iraqi, b. 1975) Untitled at Christie's, Dubai. It was executed in 2008. (Click on image to enlarge). CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2012 UPDATE: THIS MADE $386,500.

THE earliest example of contemporary Iraqi artist Ahmed Alsoudani including a dictator figure in his work is a feature lot at Christie’s  April sales of modern and contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish art  in Dubai on April 17 and 18.  The striking highly coloured image of a disfigured face surrounded by shattered forms was painted in 2008.  It is estimated at $300,000-500,000.  Last October in London there was a new world record for  Alsoudani when his Baghdad I sold for  $1.1 million at Christie’s.

Mahmoud Saïd (Egyptian, 1897-1964) Marsa Matrouh - Vers le bain de Cleopatre at Christie's Dubai. (Click on image to enlarge). CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2012 UPDATE: THIS MADE $602,500.

There are two key works by Mahmoud Saïd, the father of modern Egyptian art.  His view of a woman and donkeys beside the Nile with a mountain range beyond is estimated at $250,000-300,000.  Other highlights  include pieces by Ayman Baalbaki, Jewad Selim, Louay Kayyali, Mohammad Ehsai, Parviz Tanavoli and Nasrollah Afjehei and the Turkish artists Burhan Cahit Do?ançay and Azade Köker. Last week Art Dubai, the Gulf fair for contemporary art from the Middle East, North Africa and South East Asia, recorded high volumes of sales from what is still a young market. In 2012, Art Dubai welcomed 22,500 visitors, including 75 international museums groups.

UPDATE:  Christie’s April sales of Modern and Contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish Art totaled $6,402,825 / AED23,515,190 against a pre-sale high estimate of $6.1 million. The sales were 93% sold by value.

Affordability is a new buzz word at art auctions in Ireland these days.  In Dublin de Veres will hold an affordable Irish art sale with more than 300 lots at the D4 hotel in Ballsbridge on Sunday March 25 at 2 p.m.  This is de Veres first auction of 2012 and a continuation of a series of Sunday auctions.  Here is a small selection (click on image to enlarge):

Anne Primrose Jury RUA 1907-1995 BRINGING HOME THE TURF 400 - 600. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 550

Robert Ballagh b.1943 ROBERT MORRIS BOX 400 - 600. UPDATE: THIS MADE 470

Micheál deBurca RHA ANCA 1913-1985 TURNING THE HAY, ACHILL ISLAND 800 -1,200. UPDATE: THIS MADE 800

John Shinnors b.1950 TWO MAGPIES OVER CATHEDRAL SQUARE Lithograph, ed. 7/10. It is estimated at 400-600. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 450