antiquesandartireland.com

Derby Day by William Powell Frith RA at Christie's. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £505,250.

Re-discovered at a beach house in New England, Derby Day by William Powell Frith RA (1819-1909) is estimated to make £300,000-500,000 at Christie’s on December 15.  The original first working of the masterpiece by Frith at Tate Britain hung on the walls of an unlocked beach house for the past 50 years. The masterly panorama will lead Christie’s Victorian & British Impressionist Art in London on December 15.

The sale of 90 paintings and works on paper includes work by artists ranging from the Pre-Raphaelites to the British Impressionists, including Millais, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Cowper, Munnings, Clausen and de Glehn.  It is expected to realize more than £4.5 million.

UPDATE: The sale brought in £2,940,500. The top lot was Dery Day by William Powell Frith which sold for £505,250, a world record for the artist at auction.

SMARTPHONE users can benefit from new technology introduced by Morgan O’Driscoll for Irish art sale in Cork on on Monday, November 28 at 6.30 p.m. QR codes have been placed throughout the catalogue, which is on-line. Simply pointing a mobile phone or other camera enabled mobile at the QR code is enough to go directly to the website if the device has QR decoding software. A bid can be placed on any lot by scanning the QR code on the top right of each page.

Morgan O’Driscoll believes that this is the first auctioneering company in the world to offer the service.  A varied selection of 289 lots is on offer.  Here is a small selection:

Peter Curling (b.1955) Lone Gondola (3,000-5,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,200 AT HAMMER

Pauline Bewick RHA Tao de Ching (6,000-9,000) UPDATE: THIS MADE 6,800 AT HAMMER.

William Scott OBE (1913-1989) Lines with Breadth Supercede limited edition print 9/72 signed and dated ‘72 (1,000-1,500) UPDATE: THIS MADE 900 AT HAMMER.

Badgers Underground by John Shinnors at Dolans. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

THE Dolan’s auction of Irish art at the Radisson St. Helen’s Hotel, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin on November 27 at 12.30 p.m. features a large oil on linen by the Limerick artist John Shinnors entitled Badgers Underground.  It is estimated at 14,000-18,000.

Cheese and Wine by David ffrench le Roy. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,200.

There is a collection of 40 works from the studio of John Kingerlee and 20 works from the studio of David ffrench le Roy all to be sold without reserve.

The sale features work by Charles Harper, Jack Donovan, Henry Morgan, Arthur Maderson, Markey Robinson, Mark O’Neill, John Behan, John Coll, Cecil Maguire, Gladys Maccabe, Graham Knuttel, John Morris, Douglas Hutton, Thelma Mansfield, John Schwatschke and Norman Teeling among others.

Rhine II by Andreas Gursky, the world's most expensive photograph.

There was a new world record for a photograph at auction on November 10 when Andreas Gursky’s image of the  River Rhine sold for $4.3 million at Christie’s in New York.  The German born photographer, whose works hang in major museums, said that Rhine II is his favorite picture;  “It says a lot using the most minimal means”.  The huge three meter wide glass mounted work was described by Christie’s as: “a dramatic and profound reflection on human existence and our relationship to nature on the cusp of the 21st century”.

The previous record for a photograph was set when Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #97 was sold, also by Christie’s New York, in May for $3.89 million.  Gursky, who was born in 1955,  is particularly well known for his enormous landscape and architectural photography.

1949-A-No.I was the top lot. (Click on image to enlarge),

A group of four paintings by the celebrated Abstract Expressionist Clyfford Still sold for a combined total of $114.1 million over an estimate of $51-71.5 million at Sotheby’s in New York.

The group was led by  1949-A-No. 1 – one of the greatest examples of 20^th century American painting – which was sought after by five bidders before fetching $61,682,500, more than double the previous record for the artist at auction.  All of the works came from the estate of Patricia Still.  Sold by the City of Denver they will benefit he endowment of the new Clyfford Still Museum, scheduled to open on November 18.

See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for October 13 and September 21.