Charles Lamb – The Red Shawl
The Red Shawl by Charles Lamb is among the leading lots at the timed online auction by de Veres of the Smith collection of paintings by the artist. The sale of 54 lots draws to a close on the evening of October 20. The Red Shawl is estimated at €8,000-€12,000.
Paul Henry – Gubellaunaun from the Bog at Adams. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
What’s not to like? From west of Ireland landscapes by Paul Henry to Cantaloupes by Andy Warhol and a shimmering nude by Mainie Jellett the early autumn art auctions by Gormley’s, Adams, Whyte’s and de Veres are brimful of goodies.
Paintings by Louis le Brocquy, Paul Henry and Gerard Dillon make up the top six lots at Adam’s evening sale of important Irish art next on September 23. Paul Henry is the sort of artist people invest in. HIs paintings are sought after and expensive. At Adams the offerings this season are small scale works. Painted at a momentous moment for the artist Gubbellaunaun from the Bog at Adams measures just ten and a half by fifteen and a half inches and is estimated at €50,000-€80,000. “The currents of life had carried me to this remote spot (Achill Island) and there seemed no current strong enough to carry me away” Henry wrote in his autobiography. “I made another of my quick decisions, which I never regretted and taking my return ticket to London out of my pocket tore it into small pieces and scattered the fragments into the sea which foamed round the rocks of Gubellaunaun”.
The 126 lots on the catalogue at Adams caters to a wide variety of tastes, styles and prices. They range from Hot Spots III, an oil and mixed media on canvas by Tim Goulding, an abstract figural bronze sculpture by Leo Higgins and a coloured pencil drawing of Figures, Coconut and other Trees, Samoa by Mary Swanzy to a large oil on canvas, Woman (1960) by Louis le Brocquy, A Connemara Quayside by Gerard Dillon and An Early View of Pullough Bay, Achill by Paul Henry.
Maurice MacGonigal (1900-1979) The Tailor’s House, Clifden, Connemara at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,200 AT HAMMER
Fascinating works like the Tailor’s House, Clifden by Maurice MacGonigal, which somehow calls to mind The Little Street by Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum, expose a surprising commonality between a quiet street in Delft during the Dutch Golden Age and an Irish street in Clifden in the mid 20th century.
At Gormley’s online auction of 125 lots of Irish and international art – now on view at Francis St. in Dublin – there is work by Dan O’Neill, Patrick Scott, Colin Davidson, Markey Robinson, Harry Kernoff and Mildred Anne Butler alongside art by internationally acclaimed luminaries like Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon and Anish Kapoor.
Space Fruit: Cantaloupes I by Andy Warhol at Gormley’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,000 AT HAMMER
The most expensively estimated lot is by the Victorian artist John Atkinson Grimshaw, best known for his nocturnal scenes of urban landscapes. Moonlit Carriage by a River carries an estimate of €30,000-€50,000. Andy Warhol’s screen print from 1979, Space Fruit: Cantaloupes I (FS II.20I) is estimated at €12,000-€18,000.
This evening auction is on September 22. The Jellett nude is a Whyte’s on September 28. The sale by de Veres is on October 6.
Art is for everyone to appreciate and enjoy. With estimates from €400 up these sales offer a feast for the eyes without necessarily breaking the bank. Be warned. Most true collectors will sooner or later fall in love with a painting they must have at all costs. The habit of collecting can be both a gift and a curse. Personal banks are occasionally broken for the sake of art. What of it. Where is the art of living if we never ever over extend?
These sales offer far more than mere opportunities to stretch the budget. There is art here to be savoured long into an unknowable future, a chance to enhance a collection or to get one started.
The Fourth Day by Patrick Scott at Gormleys. UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,000 AT HAMMER
Frank Phelan – Study in Brown
The Frank Phelan studio timed online sale is at de Veres from August 27 to September 16. Irish born, Frank Phelan settled in London in the 1950s with sculptor Frank Morris, where he worked as a stagehand and set designer for a number of London theatres. He was a great drinking companion to Francis Bacon, who he regarded as his greatest artistic influence.
Phelan eventually made his way to Penzance and St. Ives where he befriended Tony O’Malley and other figures in the St. Ives circle including Roger Hilton, Patrick Heron and Conor Fallon. He spent his time working between Cornwall and a studio on the Fulham Road. He had his first solo show in 1966 at the Richard Demarco Gallery. His work, represented by Demarco during these years, was shown alongside Joseph Beuys, Paul Neagu, Ron Kitaj and Dame Elizabeth Frink. His exhibited internationally and in England, where he was represented by the Walton Gallery, Cricket Fine Art, and in later years by the Messum Gallery (Cork Street). He rarely showed in Ireland. A life-long member and ex-Chairman of the London Sketch Club Frank Phelan worked until his death in 2023, aged 91. Estimates for over 100 works in the sale range from €200-€3,000.
An Italian 1970’s mobile cocktail trolley. UPDATE: THIS MADE 360 AT HAMMER
f you are dreaming of outdoor summer drinks in warming up Ireland then a striking mobile cocktail trolley on casters might fill the bill. The selection of vintage mid century modernist furniture at the online art and design auction at de Veres until July 15 includes a retro Italian 1970’s mobile cocktail bar which with little effort could be wheeled to a patio in the heat. The estimate is just €400-€600.
A 1960’s rosewood Italian sideboard with an estimate of €800-€1,200, a pair of Magis Bombo aluminium bar stools (€400-€600), a pair of French space age floor lamps (€400-€600), a burr walnut dining table attributed to Willy Rizzo (€600-€900) and a circular table by Arne Jacobsen (€200-€300) all feature at de Veres. There is no in person viewing thugh lots can be viewed by appointment. The auction of 242 lots features a large selection of artworks and the catalogue is online.
A 1960’s rosewood Italian sideboard. UPDATE: THIS MADE 650 AT HAMMER
Andy Warhol – Moonwalk (1987)
Moonwalk by Andy Warhol, a screenprint in a unique colour configuration, was the top lot at de Veres sale of outstanding art in Dublin on May 26. The Moonwalk prints are among the last works that the artist created before his death in February 1987. It made a hammer price of €190,000. Other top hammer prices were as follows: Roderic O’Conor – Breton Farmstead with Haystacks (€155,000), Paul Henry – Evening on the Upper Lake, Killarney (€115,000), Jack Butler Yeats – Dusty Lane, Co. Kerry (€95,000), William John Leech – Cemetery of St. Jeannet (€75,000), Sir John Lavery – Schooling the Pony (€70,000) and Mary Swanzy – Cubist Trees (€70,000).
John Luke – The Mournes at Whyte’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD AFTER THE AUCTION FOR €50,000.
Art by Paul Henry, Roderic O’Conor and Gerard Dillon will lead the respective evening sales by Whyte’s, de Veres and Adams in Dublin next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. They carry top estimates of up to €200,000. This might create an incorrect impression that collecting Irish art is an exclusive pastime for the rich. In reality nothing could be further from the truth.
What these auctions demonstrate in spades is that art is for everyone and art collecting is too. A quick look at the lowest estimates reveals all. At Whytes work by well known artists like Philip Flanagan, Mark O’Neill, John Butler Yeats, James Brenan and Sir William Orpen are estimated at under €1,000.
A painted plaster female head by Brian Bourke is, at €300-€500, the lowest estimate at de Veres. You can take an under €1,000 pick here from artists like Henry Healy, Sean O’Sullivan, Michael Cullen, Jane O’Malley, Maureen Bushe, Flora Mitchell and internationally renowned Cork ceramicist Sarah Flynn.
Jane O’Malley – Still life by the Sea 2007 at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE €3,400 AT HAMMER
From €500 up to €1,000 at Adams there is art by Frank Egginton, Anita Shelbourne, Harry Kernoff, Imogen Stuart, Sir William Orpen, Martin Gale, Sean McSweeney and plenty more. Work by any of the above mentioned artists will reward study and is capable of setting in motion a lifelong, life enhancing and enriching interest.
Compared to other years estimates at the top end of the scale at these summer art sales are on the low side. Various reasons for this exist. There is in the Irish art market an innate caution. It looks now as if sellers are holding back in the hope of less uncertain times to come. We remain conservative in our approach to art collection, suspicious of the avant garde. A new generation of collectors might forge a change in approach that is long overdue.
On the international side the art market, which is performing strongly this year, is driven by collections like the Mnuchin collection at Sotheby’s which made $163.3 million (€143 million) in New York this month. It was headed by Rothko’s Brown and Blacks in Reds which made $85.8 million (€73.8 million). The sale of the collection of the late investment banker at Goldman Sachs who subsequently became an art dealer was characterised by deep bidding. There was an average of twelve bids per lots from the Mnuchin collection by bidders from 24 countries.
Gerard Dillon – Tea Party at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE €1,100,000 at hammer
The sales in Dublin are all on view this weekend and catalogues are online too. The Mournes (1939) by John Luke at Whyte’s must have been on the avant garde side when first shown at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery in 1946. This colourful landscape is estimated now at €60,000-€80,000. Travelling People from 1945 by Louis le Brocquy (€100,000-€150,000) is one of the more significant works from his Traveller series in which he takes a Modernist approach to an Irish theme. In sharp contrast is Paul Henry’s Dapping on Lough Mask, Co. Mayo, 1928-1936 with an estimate of €150,000-€200,000.
The top lot at de Veres is a Moonwalk screenprint by Andy Warhol (€200,000-€300,000) and the leading Irish lot in the sale is a c1892 Breton Farmstead with Haystack by Roderic O’Conor (€140,000-€180,000).
Set in a cottage in Roundstone Tea Party (1955) by Gerard Dillon leads the auction at Adam’s on Wednesday with an estimate of €150,000-€200,000. Art by Jack B Yeats features prominently in the sale and there is sculpture by F E MacWilliam, Imogen Stuart, Eamon O’Doherty, John Behan and others.
Taken together these auctions – all now on view in Dublin – offer a feast for the eyes and will richly reward close scrutiny. They will not break the bank either.
Victor Richardson – Nohoval Cove at Whyte’s. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Jack Butler Yeats RHA, 1871-1957 – Dusty Lane, Co. Kerry. UPDATE: THIS MADE €95,000 AT HAMMER
This Kerry oil on board by Jack B Yeats dates to 1913 and comes up as lot number 17 at de Veres sale of outstanding Irish and international art, which runs until May 26. Estimated at €50,000-€70,000 it is one of about a dozen landscape paintings made by the artist after a visit to the county in 1913. These include views of Brandon Bay, Castlegregory and Tralee Bay. The auction offers art by Andy Warhol, Sir John Lavery, William Leech, Mary Swanzy, Mainie Jellett, Roderic O’Conor, Daniel O’Neill, Donald Teskey, Tony O’Malley, F E McWilliam, Rowan Gillespie and many more artists among a total of 104 lots. The catalogue is online.
Elijah and the Ravens by Sean Keating UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,500 AT HAMMER
Elijah and the Ravens by Sean Keating (€10,000-€15,000) dates to 1940. It is a particular take on the Biblical story where Elijah was supposed to be protected and fed by ravens. In this work it seems as if Elijah is being attacked by the ravens. It is in fact a metaphor for the new Irish State which had offered so much protection and promise and had, in Keating’s view, achieved the exact opposite by its lack of support for the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. This painting was lent by its then New York owner to the major Keating retrospective at the Municipal Gallery in Dublin opened by Eamon de Valera in 1963.
It is at the online Irish Art Auction at de Veres on March 24, on view now at Kildare St. in Dublin. There is art by Gerard Dillon, Dan O’Neill, Peter Curling, Barbara Warren, Liam O’Neill, Kenneth Webb and Mary Swanzy.
Peter Curling – Irish Weather. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Punters who get lucky at Cheltenham this week could do worse that put their winnings into art. How about this painting by Peter Curling called Irish Weather which is based on a Point to Point? The oil on canvas comes up at de Veres sale of Irish art on March 24 with an estimate of €20,000-€30,000. The Final Furlong by Liam O’Neill has an estimate of €12,000-€18,000. These two paintings lead an auction of more than 200 lots. The catalogue is online.
Liam O’Neill – The Final Furlong. UPDATE: THIS MADE 16,500 AT HAMMER
Chess pieces created by Graham Knuttel. UPDATE: THE TABLE AND CHESS SET MADE €40,000
Affordable art and one expensive rarity feature at online sales ending at Adam’s and de Veres in Dublin next week. A collector wishing to enhance their holding or someone wanting to dip their toe into the market will find these sales a great place to uncover the unending joy and discovery of a journey into art. First get the eye in shape, then learn how to look. Who knows where it will lead?
The expensive rarity that is lot five at the timed online Graham Knuttel II sale at Adam’s which ends from 2 pm on February 10 is a limited edition chess table with a silver and bronze chess set from around 2003. One of an edition of 12 it was designed by artist Graham Knuttel (1954-2023) and furniture maker David Linley, first cousin of King Charles III. The square table with marquetry chess board top is by Linley, the black and white silver and bronze chess pieces by Knuttel. The estimate is €50,000-€80,000.
Everything else in this auction of 123 lots is more affordable. Estimates are from €300 up and most works are to be sold without reserve. There is a large selection of signed prints by the popular Dublin artist whose striking and distinctive art was collected by various celebrities and who designed stamps for An Post to commemorate the Beijing summer olympics of 2008.
His themes have become familiar and his colourful art features cats, fish, birds, sheep, chefs, portraits and sculpture.
The Sinking of the Titanic by Graham Knuttel UPDATE: THIS MADE €14,000 at hammer
The most expensively estimated painting is a relatively cheerful (under the adverse circumstances) work titled The Sinking of the Titanic with a deep blue sea, four calm characters in lifebuoy rings with bottles of some sort of hooch, circling sharks, a distant iceberg and the elevated stern of doomed ship. The estimate for this oil on canvas with disaster everywhere is €10,000-€15,000.
William Crozier, Elizabeth Brophy, Richard Croft, Michael Farrell, George Campbell, Brian Bourke, Hilda Van Stockum, Sean McSweeney and Barbara Warren are all featured at the timed online auction at de Veres which ends from 2 pm on February 11. Estimates range from €100 to €3,000.
It is an interesting selection with work by artists who might not be as well known as they deserve to be. Still Life, Red Teapot and Apples by Richard Croft (1935-2025), President of the Royal Ulster Academy from 1997-2000, is estimated at €600-€900. En Andeche et la Ruche from the Paris Press Series by Michael Farrell (1940-2000) is at €2,000-€3,000 the most expensively estimated work in the auction. It dates to 1977-78. Farrell represented Ireland at the Biennale de Paris in 1967 and there was a retrospective of his work at the Crawford in 2013-14.
The catalogue, which is online, will reward a slow trawl. Art which makes gazillions grabs headlines and can create the incorrect impression that the art market is the preserve of the rich. These two sales demonstrate that this is not the case. Get the eye in and good art can be acquired for little more than the cost of a night out in 2026.
Still Life, Red Teapot and Apples by Richard Croft at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE 650 AT HAMMER