The Christie’s sale of British and Irish art at King St. in London on November 11 features two works
by Jack B. Yeats from the collection of the novelist Graham Greene. The estimate for A horseman enters a town at night is, at £300,00-£500,000, perhaps a little on the ambitious side. It is a dark work painted in 1948, the year after the death of the artists wife Cottie. A horseman enters a town at night shows a weary traveller, slumped on his steed, walking through an empty street perhaps in search of an inn before continuing his journey in the morning. It was sold through Leo Smith in 1949 to Graham Greene in Paris.
The second Yeats work in the sale, Man in a Room Thinking, dates from 1947. It is estimated at £30,000-£50,000. According to a note in Christie’s catalogue the Model Museum, Sligo, requests that the purchaser of this work allow its inclusion in a major exhibition of the artist’s work to take place between February and April 2011.
The 143 lot sale, headlined by works by L.S. Lowry, a much loved British artist whose parents were Irish, features works by Augustus John, William Scott, Sean Scully, Markey Robinson, Sir John Lavery and George Campbell.
The sale realised £9,897,625 and was 93% sold by value and 79% sold by lot. The top lot was a 1928 work by L.S. Lowry which realised £713,250.