Detail from A Meeting by Harry Clarke at the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Dublin
Cork’s loss is Dublin’s temporary gain as an exhibition of Harry Clarke stained glass windows from the closed for refurbishment Crawford Gallery are on show at the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History at Collins Barracks, Dublin for at least the next two years. Harry Clarke’s Stained Glass brings together six panels – three from the Crawford – which have not been previously shown together. On display are: The Consecration of St. Mel, Bishop of Longford by St. Patrick; The Meeting of St. Brendan with the Unhappy Judas: The Godhead Enthroned; The Unhappy Judas: A Meeting and Richard Mulcahy.
The most expensive painting sold in Ireland in 2023 was Sean Scully’s Raval Rojo. It made a hammer price of €580,000 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art sale last April. At Whyte’s total sales were just under €6 million, there was a new world record for a work on paper by Harry Clarke at James Adam and in 2023 Bonhams recorded the best every turnover in their 230 year history. Sotheby’s continued their Irish sales in Paris, along with London and Christie’s reported projected global sales for art and luxury goods in 2023 of €5.8 billion and say their is a promising pipeline of consignments already in motion for 2024.
As we leave 2023 behind there is every reason to be optimistic about the coming year in the art, luxury and collectible end of things. At Christie’s last year there was a strong influx of new buyers (35%) and a growing participation of Millennials and Generation Z. Much of this is driven by popular culture. Think Freddie Mercury at Sotheby’s and Lady Diana’s dress at Julien’s.
Whyte’s achieved the highest prices in Ireland in 2023 for Jack Yeats (€290,00), Sir John Lavery (€230,000) and Paul Henry (€155,000) – excluding buyers’ premium and VAT. A Seán Keating painting, The Goose Girl, made €62,000 in December. Adams sold over €500,000 worth of paintings by Paul Henry and Harry Clarke’s The Colloquy of Monos and Una, a 1923 illustration for Edgar Allen Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination, made a record €70,000 and joined the collection of the Crawford Gallery in Cork, where it is now on display.
The Crawford Art Gallery in Cork has acquired The Colloquy of Monus and Una, a pencil, ink and watercolour by Harry Clarke, which made €70,000 at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin earlier this month. The colour plate illustration for a 1923 edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination is the first addition to the popular Harry Clarke collection at the Gallery in almost a century. Two other illustrations from the same series, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ and ‘Marie Rogêt’, were purchased in 1924 alongside over 20 other pieces by Clarke. The acquisition brings to 27 the number of Clarke artworks in Crawford Art Gallery’s collection, including the three earliest examples of his stained glass work, which were conserved in 2023 with Heritage Council support. It is now on display at the Crawford.
This is the second Harry Clarke piece brought into public ownership in weeks. The National Gallery announced this month that it had acquired a rare Clarke stained glass piece, Titania Enchanting Bottom (1922). It is undergoing conservation treatment and will be on display in the New Year. The luminous stained glass panel was sold by Morgan O’Driscoll last October 24 for a hammer price of €160,000.
The National Gallery of Ireland announced today that it had acquired Titania Enchanting Bottom by Harry Clarke. It is undergoing conservation treatment and will be on display in the New Year. The luminous stained glass panel was sold by Morgan O’Driscoll last October 24 for a hammer price of €160,000. The acquisition was supported by the Patrons of Irish Art of the National Gallery of Ireland. Born in Dublin on St Patrick’s Day in 1889, Harry Clarke is one of Ireland’s best known and most beloved artists. He achieved significant acclaim in his short lifetime, working across different media including book illustration. His principal career was in the production of stained glass windows, mainly for churches and religious houses across Ireland, as well as in the UK, US and Australia. He also produced a small number of secular works in glass.
Titania Enchanting Bottom is the only glass work by Clarke that is inspired by Shakespeare. It depicts Act IV, Scene I, from Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Featuring characters from the play including Bottom, Puck, Titania, Peaseblossom, Cobweb and Moth, the work is adorned with botanical elements – a detail typical of Clarke’s work. From 1917 to 1922, Clarke made a unique series of miniature panels inspired by literature – including this one – adapting his talent and passion for book illustration to the medium of stained glass. These panels were set into bespoke cabinets, of which several, including this example, were designed by Dublin-born furniture maker James Hicks (1866-1936). Titania Enchanting Bottom is one of just five panels that survive. At the National Gallery of Ireland, it joins The Song of the Mad Prince (1917) which is on display in Room 20 and was acquired by the Gallery in 1987. These panels are significant to the understanding of Harry Clarke as an artist. They are the forerunners to the The Eve of St Agnes based on the Keats poem and The Geneva Window now at the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami.
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) – The Captain (1948)
The Captain by Jack B Yeats was the top lot at the James Adam sale of important Irish Art in Dublin tonight. It made €95,000 at hammer. Near Leenane by Paul Henry made €80,000, Aran Harbour by Sean Keating made €75,000, The Colloquy of Monus and Una, a pencil, ink and watercolour by Harry Clarke made €70,000, Keem Bay by Paul Henry made €65,000 and Paysage Sinistre by Henry made €60,000.
Harry Clarke RHA (1889 – 1931) – The Colloquy of Monos and Una (1923)
Titania and Bottom, a 1922 stained glass panel by Harry Clarke. UPDATE: THIS MADE 160,000 AT HAMMER
Harry Clarke, Paul Henry, Sir John Lavery and Sean Scully are among the leading Irish artists heading up Morgan O’Driscoll’s online art auction which gets underway on the evening of October 24. Major art of this calibre by established artists does not come cheap and estimates for these four range from €50,000 to €150,000. Any one of them would enormously enhance a serious collection of Irish art.
Secret Garden, Ballinaboy by Kenneth Webb. UPDATE: THIS MADE 19,000 AT HAMMER
In a dazzling and vivid stained glass panel Clarke delves into a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream featuring Titania and Bottom dated 1922. In a walnut and tortoiseshell cabinet by James Hicks it recreates a strange and marvellous world composed of fragments of transformed reality. Once in the collection of Ann and Gordon Getty, which realised more than $150 million (€143 million) across ten auctions at Christie’s last year, it is estimated at €100,000-€150,000.
There is a similar estimate on Paul Henry’s atmospheric Cottages on Achill Sound which depicts three traditional thatched cottages in a path leading towards the seashore. Most of Henry’s work around Connemara and Mayo includes mountains. in this one the artist has turned away from the land and faces towards the ocean. The Beach, Evening Tangier by Sir John Lavery dates to 1920 and is estimated at €80,000-€120,000. Scully’s Barcelona dates to 1998. The estimate for this watercolour on paper is €50,000-€70,000. These are atmospheric works with their own aura. So is Three Figures by Dan O’Neill, an evocative moonlit scene with three women, their heads covered by scarves, and estimated at €25,000-€35,000. Moonlight features in Connemara by George Campbell, a nightime view, and in Full by Elizabeth Magill.
Studio Table by William Crozier. UPDATE: THIS MADE 14,000 AT HAMMER
In sharp contrast is Studio Table by William Crozier, bright with the artist’s palette of colours, and Harry Kernoff’s Madonna with Faun and Doves, inspired by religious icons. Louis le Brocquy, Jack B Yeats, Evie Hone, Peter Curling, Pauline Bewick, Letitia M Hamilton, Kenneth Webb, John Shinnors and Colin Middleton are among the artists featured in an online catalogue that is brimful of interest. The sale is on view at the RDS today, tomorrow and Monday and gets underway online at 6.30 pm next Tuesday.
Harry Clarke (1889-1931) Bluebeard’s last wife. UPDATE: THIS MADE 165,000 AT HAMMER
A lost lamented old Cork public interior and a tour de force of Irish stained glass artistry are among the lots on offer at the online James Adam evening sale of important Irish art on March 24. Harry Clarke’s intricate depiction of Bluebeard’s Last Wife is the catalogue cover lot. When she discovered the bodies of his previous wives Bluebeard’s last wife orchestrated his downfall. The vivid miniature in an inlaid cabinet by James Hicks – made up of two glass panels intricately worked together to provide a scene of astounding detail and gruesome foreboding – is estimated at €80,000-€120,000. A large 1852 watercolour by James Mahony offers a fascinating interior view of the Benson building on Albert Quay where Cork City Hall now stands. The National Exhibition of the Arts, Manufactures and Products of Ireland was officially opened here on June 10, 1852 by the Lord Lieutenant Archilbald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton. Mahony depicts a long line of eminent citizens waiting to be introduced in a detailed work estimated at €6,000-€10,000. The semi circular wood trusses and large skylights depicted were designed by engineer John Benson, architect for the exhibition. The much loved building was dismantled and re-erected in Emmet Place where it was used for lectures and exhibitions and known as The Atheneum. It was re-named the Cork Opera House in 1877. Among Benson’s other buildings in Cork are the Firkin Crane, the English Market and St. Patrick’s Bridge. Because they were made of wood nearly all his Cork buildings have been destroyed or lost their original roof trusses. Survivors include the tower over the main door of the North Cathedral and the old waterworks on the Lee Road. The Belle of Chinatown, a 1943 oil by Jack B. Yeats, is estimated at €120,000-€160,000 while Serving Dinner, an 1890 work by Katherine MacCausland has an estimate of €25,000-€35,000. There is art by Walter Osborne and Sir John Lavery, Louis le Brocquy and Anne Madden, Hughie O’Donoghue, Michael Farrell and Patrick Collins among 138 lots on offer.
James Mahony (1810-1879) The official opening of the National Exhibition of the Art, Manufacturers and Products of Ireland, Cork 1852. UPDATE: THIS MADE 13,000 AT HAMMER
