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SÉAMUS O’COLMÁIN (1915-1990) – OÍCHE COIS LIFE (RIVER LIFFEY AT NIGHT). UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,150 AT HAMMER
OÍCHE COIS LIFE (RIVER LIFFEY AT NIGHT) by Seamus O’Colmain is at Whyte’s timed online summer art auction which runs until July 1 and is now on view at Molesworth St. in Dublin. The oil on board is estimated at 1,000-1,500. The auction offers an accessible art from Ireland and around the world. Bidding ends from 6 pm on July 1 and the catalogue is online.
The watercolour illustration for the first edition of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has become the most valuable Harry Potter item ever sold. It made $1.9 million at Sotheby’s sale of the library of Dr. Rodney P. Swantko in New York after a four way bidding battle. It had been estimated at $400,000 and $600,000 – the highest pre-sale estimate for a Harry Potter-related work.
The artist Thomas Taylor used concentrated watercolours with black pencil outlines. He was only 23 in 1997 when he made the iconic image of Harry Potter standing in front of the Hogwarts Express and it took him two days.
GERALDINE M. O’BRIEN (1922-2014) – Still Life – Vase of Flowers. UPDATE: THIS MADE 380 AT HAMMER
Still Life – Vase of Flowers by popular the Irish botanical illustrator Geraldine O’Brien is lot 8 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall online art auction which runs until July 2. The oil on canvas is estimated at 400-600. O’Brien lived at Parteen, a village close to Limerick city, and brought flowers from the garden to arrange her work. She exhibited regularly with the Royal Hibernian Academy. The catalogue for the sale is online.
Mary Cassatt – Child in a Straw Hat, c.1886. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Women Impressionists, a special exhibition marking the first impressionist exhibition in 1874, is at the National Gallery of Ireland from June 27 to October 6. Women Impressionists will include around 60 fascinating works drawn from collections worldwide. It focusses on on four women artists who were integral to Impressionism – Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), Eva Gonzalès (1849-1883), Marie Bracquemond (1860-1914), and Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). All but Eva Gonzales exhibited at Impressionist exhibitions (of which there were eight over the following 12 years).
Impressionist artists are renowned for using friends and family members as models. This is especially so for women Impressionists, who had relatively restricted access to professional models and social spaces. They often painted scenes from everyday life in the quiet intimacy of their homes and gardens. These artists did not only look inwards but they travelled widely, they looked to contemporary art and to art history; they were engaged in the artworld and made visits to studios, exhibitions, and galleries.
Women Impressionists explores how each of these artists navigated complex personal and professional networks to create and exhibit their art. It highlights their collective desire to make modern art and shows how they interpreted the evolving idea of Impressionism in individual ways.
Highlights include an exceptional portrayal of an intimate domestic scene, The Artist’s Daughter, Julie, with her Nanny, c.1884. by Berthe Morisot (Minneapolis Institute of Art). The painting shows the artist’s daughter Julie watching her nanny sewing. Marie Bracquemond’s painting Le Goûter, c.1880 (Musée du Petit Palais)is set on the terrace of the Villa Brancas, the artist’s home in Sèvres. Mary Cassatt was one of the most original painters of women and children in the 19th-century. Her painting Susan Comforting the Baby, c.1881 (Columbus Museum of Art) shows a young woman soothing one of the artist’s infant nieces or nephews. In keeping with her Impressionism, Cassatt has left areas of canvas unpainted, and others sketched in with loose visible brushstrokes.
Dr Caroline Campbell, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, said: “In an anniversary year for the National Gallery of Ireland, as we celebrate our 160th birthday, it is very exciting to mark another important anniversary in the history of art by bringing this exhibition to Ireland. 150 years on from the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris, we look forward to opening our doors to visitors from Ireland and abroad to discover works by these four women artists. The works in our permanent collection by Berthe Morisot and Eva Gonzalès are firm favourites of our audiences so we hope that this exhibition will delight and intrigue throughout the summer.”
The exhibition was devised by Ordrupgaard, Denmark, where it was on display from February 9 to May 20, 2024.
Berthe Morisot – The Artist’s Daughter, Julie, with her Nanny, c. 1884 Minneapolis Institute of Art, The John R. Van Derlip Fund. Courtesy Minneapolis Institute of Art. Licenced under CC BY 4.0
LADY KATE DOBBIN (1868-1955) – A Showery Day, Blackrock Castle, River Lee. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
This watercolour by Lady Kate Dobbin comes up as lot 2 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online auction which begins to close at 6.30 pm today. It is estimated at €600-€900. Bristol born Lady Kate Dobbin married Alfred Graham Dobbin, a tobacco manufacturer and High Sheriff of Cork. She studied drawing and painting at the Crawford Municipal College of Art, Cork in the early 1890s and exhibited extensively with the Royal Hibernian Academy between 1894 and 1947. She painted mainly in watercolour and was a regular contributor to the Watercolour Society of Ireland over a period of 50 years. Her work is at the Crawford Gallery in Cork and many private collections.
Louise Mansfield (1950-2018) – Ocean Breeze. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,000 AT HAMMER
Ocean Breeze by Louise Mansfield is at Whyte’s summer online art auction which runs until July 1. The estimate is €2,000-€3,000 which makes it one of the more expensive lots in this auction of 324 lots of affordable Irish and international art. Viewing for this timed online auction gets underway today at Whyte’s on Molesworth St. in Dublin and the catalogue is online.
La Comedie Humaine, a 1954 Picasso lithograph printed by Mourlot, Paris, comes up at Hegarty’s sale in Bandon on June 26. The estimate is €500-€700. Galway Shawlies by Markey Robinson and a pencil sketch by John Butler Yeats also feature. There are Scottish silver serving spoons and a diamond and sapphire butterfly pendant on offer as well as two photo albums of the Gurka Royal Engineers.
19th century lead fountain. UPDATE: THIS MADE 340 AT HAMMER
Maybe this is not the best June ever to talk about such garden features but water, as distinct from incessant rain and cool weather, can add interest, tranquility and even a touch of glamour to many gardens. You can take your pick from various ways of introducing decorative water at two days of sales at Sheppards in Durrow where the annual Glantelwe Gardens sale will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday.
The daddy of them all is a large bronze neo-classical fountain (€20,000-€30,000). Among the other choices are moulded stone fountain heads (€250-€350), a large Italianate stone fountain (€2,000-€3,000), a cast iron wall mounted miniature (€100-€150), an 18th century carved stone basin (€800-€1,200), a 19th century lead fountain (€300-€500), a set of Regency cast iron fountain heads (€500-€800), large moulded fountains and some wonderfully weathered offerings.
Nestled along the River Erkina at Durrow Glantelwe – by renowned garden designer Arthur Shackleton – is a superb showcase for a sale which includes statues, lions, urns, sundials, planters, benches, seats, patio set, staddle stones, estate railing and stone troughs. Viewing gets underway today and continues on tomorrow and Monday.
A large Portland stone arch. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
The accessories of a Manchu gentleman at Adams. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
The embroidered silk accessories of a Manchu gentleman and a fine pair of arts and crafts hanging tapestries or a suite of sapphire, ruby and diamond ring with ear clips and a homage by Harry Kernoff to Francois Boucher’s portrait of Marie Louise O’Murphy, mistress of King Louis XV of France, the choice is yours at sales in Ireland next week.
These unusual lots can be found respectively at a Fine Asian and African art sale at James Adam and Aidan Foley’s online auction of contents from the Convent of St. Joseph of Cluny in Killiney on June 25 and at The Jewellery Box sale at Adams and Morgan O’Driscoll’s online art auction on June 24.
If lot 101 at Adams is any guide the Manchurians dressed to impress. They conquered China in the 17th century, established the Qing Dynasty and ruled for more than 250 years, The 19th century gentleman’s embroidery yellow silk accessories showcase a peacock, three goats representing peace and prosperity and a phoenix surrounded by peonies as part of a set featuring a fan holder, a double gourd betel nut pouch, a wallet and a pocket watch holder. The estimate is a cool €6,000-€8,000. Among 574 lots on offer are Tibetan fabrics, Chinese ceramics, ritual bronze vessels, carved jades, gilt bronze figures, a Japanese lacquered tray, cloisonne, mother of pearl inlaid furniture and even a fetish statue from the Congo.
A pair of Art and Crafts hanging tapestries at Aidan Foley’s sale. UPDATE: THIS LOT MADE 720 AT HAMMER
Nearer home but no less exotic is a pair of Arts and Crafts hanging tapestries (€600-€1,000) at Aidan Foley’s online auction in conjunction with Niall Mullen of contents from the St. Joseph of Cluny convent offers all sorts of choices. There is a selection of antique furniture, a brass and gilded tabernacle, a walnut organ, a collection of linen, kneelers and church pews and ecclesiastical brass items. The sale will be on view at the convent in Killiney from today.
Early 20th century aquamarine and diamond earrings at Adams. UPDATE: THESE MADE 7,000 AT HAMMER
A pair of early 20th century aquamarine and diamond pendant earrings of chandelier design feature among an appetising selection of 289 lots at the Jewellery Box sale at Adams on Monday afternoon. The estimate is €4,000-€5,000, not quite as much as a single stone diamond ring of 3.01 carats graded as G colour which is, at €7,000-€8,000, the most expensively estimated lot of the auction. Other top lots include a diamond and sapphire crossover bangle (€6,500-€7,300), a pair of diamond pendant earrings (€5,000-€7,000) and three c1987 gem set Patrizia rings by Marina B with pink tourmaline, citrine and blue topaz (€5,500-€6,500). There are lots from €50 euro upwards.
Marie Louise O’Murphy after Boucher by Harry Kernoff at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,000 AT HAMMER
At Morgan O’Driscoll’s online art auction next Monday evening Harry Kernoff’s homage to Marie Louise O’Murphy after Boucher is estimated at €2,000-€3,000. In later years Boucher’s painting was also referenced by Michael Farrell (1940-2000) who produced political versions in a Miss O’Murphy series in the 1970’s and ’80’s. There is a 2024 Famine Ship by John Behan (€15,000-€20,000), a Cubist Still Life by Nano Reid (€500-€700), continental landscapes by Letitia Hamilton (€6,000-€9,000), three offset lithographs from Andy Warhol’s Endangered Species series (1,500-€2,000) and Duffy’s Circus by Barbara Warren (€400-€600) among a particularly wide selection of art. All catalogues are online.
This oval miniature portrait of Robert Emmet, possibly painted during his lifetime, made £3,600 at hammer at Gorringe’s online sale of miniatures and silhouettes this week over a top estimate of £500 after a bidding battle involving potential buyers from Ireland, the UK and beyond. The purchaser, Belfast born David Anderson, Honorary Visiting Professor, Wales Governance Centre, Cardiff University, is based in Lewes and hopes to gift it to an appropriate museum in Ireland. He is in the process of reaching out to find out what interest there is in it.
There are mysteries around this well painted miniature by an unknown artist consigned to the sale by a local vendor in Sussex which came up as lot 214. The old and worn gold locket it is contained in has engravings which raise several questions. It reads on top: ‘Robert Emmet Born 21st May 1872′ (in fact Emmet was born on March 4, 1778). The lower wording – “Executed 20th September 1803’ – is correctly dated. The name ‘Thomas Addis Emmit’ is verso with a handwritten label reading: ‘Gold – Robert Emmett, Irish Patriot, Executed 1893, Aged only 25!’ The name Emmet is incorrectly spelt with two ‘t’s’. Though inaccurate, misspelling of a name is not unusual. Cork born Thomas Addis Emmet (1764-1827), Robert Emmet’s eldest brother, was a senior member of the United Irishmen who became a staunchly abolitionist Attorney General of New York
Back in Belfast linen weavers acted as one of the epicentres of the United Irishmen. More than two centuries ago the family of the purchaser David Anderson were linen weavers. Though not wealthy they gifted £2 towards the building of an anti British Presbyterian Church.
The only known portrait of Robert Emmet is a watercolour miniature on ivory by John Comerford. Painted during Emmet’s trial it was transferred to the National Gallery of Ireland by a descendant in 1970.
