The Pedlar’s Cart, Achill by Paul Henry at Sotheby’s.
Opportunity knocks for serious collectors at sales by Sotheby’s in London next Wednesday evening (October 14) and at Morgan O’Driscoll on October 20. A group of nine Irish paintings by Yeats, Orpen, O’Conor, Henry, Dillon and Lavery from a private collection at Sotheby’s have a combined estimate of £1.4 million (€1.6 million). Two more works are on offer for private sale. The Amateur Ventriloquist, September Gale and Galway by Jack B Yeats, Little Spanish Dancer girl in Red Shawl and Midday on the Beach by Sir William Orpen, Red Rocks and Foam by Roderic O’Conor, The Potato Harvest, Pedlar’s Cart Achill and A Winter Sea by Paul Henry, Boys Catching crabs in Connemara by Gerard Dillon and Tennis, Hotel Beau Site, Cannes by Sir John Lavery are all available.
The top seven lots at Morgan O’Driscolls sale, on view in Skibbereen until October 12 and at the RDS from next Friday until Monday October 19, have a combined top estimate of over €600,000. William Scott’s Two Pears (1977) is estimated at €80,000-€100,000. In the Market Place of Bruges by Walter Osborne, The Shower by Paul Henry and Untitled No. 9 (1982) by Sean Scully are each estimated at €70,000-€100,000. Abstract Composition by Evie Hone, Achill Cottages by Paul Henry and Reconstructed Head of a Child (1968) by Louis le Brocquy are each estimated at €50,000-€70,000. Among 172 lots on offer at Morgan O’Driscoll there is likely to be much local interest in a brilliant c1835 oil on canvas by Daniel Maclise entitled The Fortune Teller (€15,000-€25,000).
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
Louis le Brocquy (1916-2012) – Travelling People 1945. UPDATE: THIS MADE 105,000 AT HAMMER
This striking oil on hardboard by Louis le Brocquy is among the leading lots at Whyte’s sale of Important Irish Art on May 25. The estimate is €100,000-€150,000. The Traveller series which le Brocquy began in 1945 represented a breakthrough for the artist whose work over the decades involved a varied and deepening exploration of the human condition. For him, the Traveller group experienced exclusion based in prejudices for their difference from settled communities, and for their adherence to their nomadic way of life. Lot 45 at Whyte’s is one of the more significant examples from the series.
The auction, with works by Paul Henry, Jack Butler Yeats, Colin Middleton, Aloysius O’Kelly, Letitia Hamilton, John Luke, Kathleen Fox, Patrick Hennessy, Basil Blackshaw, Daniel O’Neill, John B. Vallely, Peter Curling, Cecil Maguire and many others, is now on view in Dublin.
Landscape with Trees by Roderic O’Conor made €340,000 at hammer at de Veres.
The innate conservatism of the Irish art market was apparent at the big winter sales in Dublin where the dominant artists were the bankable Roderic O’Conor and Paul Henry. Yes the market is developing and making room for modern, postmodern and contemporary Irish artists. Yet while Francis Bacon and Sean Scully will cut it abroad it is the old reliables like Yeats, Orpen, Lavery and Osborne who dominate at home. Who will bring home the Bacon?
Paintings by Irish turn of the 20th century and later artists are in short supply. The best are in public and private collections from which they emerge only rarely. The home market must evolve. At times like this it sometimes seems as if it is being dragged kicking and screaming towards essential evolution. The greatest Irish artists of the last hundred years are still mostly overlooked at the highest levels of the auction market on the home front.
A landscape by Roderic O’Conor topped the bill at the big winter auctions of Irish art in Dublin. Paysage aux Arbres, Landscape with Trees (1890) made a hammer price of €340,000 at de Veres. The Great Sugar Loaf by Paul Henry (1929-30) was the top lot at Whyte’s making €235,000 at hammer. A Coastal Landscape with Galway Hookers by Paul Henry (1930’s) was the most expensive artwork at Adam’s, making a hammer price of €170,000. In October Francis Bacon’s Portrait of a Dwarf made £13.1 million (€14.88 million) at Sotheby’s in London.
Mary Swanzy H.R.H.A. (1882-1978) South of France landscape
Some of the most significant female figures in Modernism in Ireland will feature in The Irish Sale: Vision & Voice online at Bonhams from November 26 to December 5. A collection of 20 works by Norah McGuinness will be offered without reserve and the auction features Mainie Jellett and Mary Swanzy who were among Ireland’s first abstract painters.
All three artists were pioneers of a national avant-garde and were strong supporters of modern art in Ireland. They all studied at Dublin’s Metropolitan School of Art and were widely travelled, influenced by the work of cubism, fauvism, symbolism and many of the modernist movements prevalent at that time. Their works are held in many prestigious collections both in Ireland and the UK. Jellett together with McGuiness co-founded the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1944 which was formed in opposition to the dominance of more traditional institutions such as the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) and the National College of Art in Ireland.
There is art by Sir John Lavery, Dan O’Neill and John Doherty along with historical artefacts, literature and design.
Kieran O’Boyle, Bonhams Head of Ireland and Northern Ireland commented: “We are delighted to be offering such a rich collection of works. Jellett, Swanzy and McGuiness were pioneers who blazed a trail for female artists and for Modernism in Ireland. Interest among collectors has increased significantly over the last 20 years for Irish women artists, reflecting the long-overdue recognition of their historical and cultural contribution to Irish art.”
Irish art at Sotheby’s Modern British and Irish evening and day sales in London on November 14 and 15 will be on display in Dublin this weekend. Viewing at the RHA Gallagher Gallery is from today until November 3. Aran Islanders, the oil on board by Gerard Dillon pictured here, is estimated at €30,000-€40,000. The sale will include art by Sir William Orpen, Nano Reid, Colin Middleton, George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson, Richard Hearns and many more.
GRACE HENRY HRHA (1868-1953) – ATTIC BEDROOM. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,600 AT HAMMER
Attic Bedroom by Grace Henry is lot 15 at Whyte’s sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on September 30. The oil on board is estimated at €1,500-€2,000. Included in the sale are major works by Jack Butler Yeats, Paul Henry, William Orpen, Seán Keating, Mildred Anne Butler, William Percy French, William Conor, Mary Swanzy, Colin Middleton, Daniel O’Neill, Nano Reid, Patrick Collins, Camille Souter, Norah McGuinness, Patrick Hennessy, Donald Teskey, Rowan Gillespie, Anthony Scott, Liam O’Neill, Rita Duffy and many others. Viewing for the sale of 149 lots gets underway in Dublin today.
An image of Samuel Beckett by Louis le Brocquy was the most expensive lot sold at Sotheby’s Irish art sale in Paris today. It made 88,900 against an estimate of 40,000-60,000 in a sale that brought in €529,463. Halloween by Colin Midleton made 63,500 against an estimate of 50,000-80,000 and an image of James Joyce by le Brocquy brought in 63,500 against an estimate of 50,000-70,000. Among the other top lots were A Shining Palace, Venice by William Leech (50,800), Tangier by Sir John Lavery (38,100), Two Clowns Fooling by Camille Souter (21,590), Later Love by Rowan Gillespie (19,050) and Head by Louis le Brocquy (19,050). A 1922 drawing of Michael Collins by Hazel Lavery made 13,970 against a top estimate of 5,000.
Nevill Johnson – Europe 1945. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 13,970
There is more than a sense of history repeating itself in this 1945 work by Nevill Johnson at Sotheby’s Irish Sale in Paris from April 25-May 2. The work was included in Johnson’s solo exhibition with Waddington in April 1950 and reflects his response to the inhumanity and destruction of war. The road sign acts as a signifier of the human figure, and also represents a modern civilisation that seems to have vanished, a road sign standing where no roads remain. A post-atomic cloud floats above a desert of stones, with hills in the distance; the skeletal, lizard-like form in the foreground is likely to be derived from a piece of the driftwood that Johnson collected. It comes up as lot 23 at Sotheby’s with an estimate of €7,000-€10,000. There is work by Roderic O’Conor, Louis le Brocquy, Colin Middleton, Patrick Scott, F E McWilliam, John Behan, Rowan Gillespie and others. The catalogue is online.
A Shining Palace by William Leech (1881-1968) is among the leading lots at Sotheby’s Irish Auction in Paris this year. Sales in 2022 and 2023 drew bidders from the UK, US, Canada, Australia, France, Austria and other European countries. In 2024 Sotheby’s will hold a third instalment of this sale from April 25-May 2 with a number of private tours and artists talks while the sale is on view in Paris. Work by Roderic O’Conor, Louis le Brocquy, Sir John Lavery, Gerard Dillon, FE McWilliam, Melissa O’Donnell, Rowan Gillespie, Orla de Bri, Gareth Reid, who was Sky’s Portrait Artist of the Decade and a group of works by Patrick Scott from the artist’s estate will feature. The auction remains open for consignments until the end of March. Highlights will be on view at Sotheby’s, Molesworth St., Dublin next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (March 26-29). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 50,800
