antiquesandartireland.com

Information about Art, Antiques and Auctions in Ireland and around the world
  • ABOUT
  • About Des
  • Contact

    • Posts Tagged ‘Irish art’

    SIGNS OF RECOVERY IN IRISH ART MARKET EVIDENT AT SOTHEBY’S

    Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

    Roderic O'Conor's Landscape, Cassis made £337,250. (click on image to enlarge)

    There are signs of a recovery in the appeal of the Irish art market to an international audience in the results from Sotheby’s annual Irish sale today.  On the face of it a sale that was 63.4 per cent sold by lot and 74.5 per cent sold by value might not seem great news.  But the grand total of £1,907,475 sterling, (2,171,849 euro) was the highest by far of any Irish art auction worldwide for the past two years.

    The top lot, Roderic O’Conor’s Landscape, Cassis made  £337,250 over a conservative estimate of £120,000-£180,000.  It went to an Irish private buyer.  Eight of the next nine lots in order of value all went to UK  buyers.  Grant Ford, Sotheby’s Head of Irish Pictures, said afterwards:  “We saw a fabulous price for the O’Conor and a resurgence of interest in Yeats. Of notice is the fact that we witnessed an influx of new buyers and bidders from Ireland, the UK, the US as well as China”.
    He also commented on the reappearance of certain buyers from Sotheby’s Irish sales during the 1990’s.  In fact this has been a feature of all latter day Irish art auctions.  Various auction houses have remarked on the reappearance of serious collectors and art lovers who had been driven out by skyrocketing prices during the boom.
    In all 45 of the 71 lots on offer found buyers and most of the main pictures got away.  There is much post sale negotiation over many of the unsold lots and some of them will definitely get away as well.
    Jack Butler Yeats’ The Child of the Sea made £229,250 over a top estimate of £150,000 while Sir John Lavery’s A Lady in Brown made £121,250, well within the estimate of £100,000-£150,000.  William Scott’s Double Grey Fish Still Life made £99,250 and Mary Swanzy’s Sunlit Landscape made £91,250.  Each of these works had been estimated at £60,000-£80,000.  The Swanzy went to an Irish private buyer.  Works by Louis le Brocquy (two),  Sir William Orpen, William Scott and Paul Henry made up the remainder of the top ten lots sold.
    Among the artists whose works remained unsold were William Ashford, Aloysius O’Kelly, George Russell, Norah McGuinness, George Campbell, Daniel O’Neill, Gerard Dillon, Patrick Swift, John Shinnors and Tony O’Malley.
    See antiquesandartireland.com posts for March 26, March 6, February 16 and February 2.

    Tags: ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | Comments Off on SIGNS OF RECOVERY IN IRISH ART MARKET EVIDENT AT SOTHEBY’S

    VALUE FOR COLLECTORS AT SOTHEBY’S IRISH ART SALE

    Saturday, March 26th, 2011

    John Shinnors at the Irish sale at Sotheby's. (Click to enlarge) UPDATE: THIS WAS ONE OF THE UNSOLD PIECES.

    The annual Irish sale at Sotheby’s in London on March 29 offers real value for collectors.  It features 71 quality lots with low estimates.
    This is a sale that will tell much about the state of the Irish art market in recession. It contains a carefully chosen selection of interesting Irish art, much of it at estimates that would have seemed laughably low a couple of years ago.
    Whether this will bring collectors back to the market, or deliver new buyers for Irish art to Sotheby’s, will become clear on Tuesday.
    See antiquesandartireland.com posts for March 6, February 16 and February 2.

    Tags: ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | Comments Off on VALUE FOR COLLECTORS AT SOTHEBY’S IRISH ART SALE

    EARLY OSBORNE PONT-AVEN OIL AT ADAMS

    Sunday, March 13th, 2011

    The Pont-Aven work by Walter Osborne.

    AN early oil on panel by Walter Frederick Osborne is included in the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art on Wednesday, April 6.  It was painted when the artist was visiting Pont Aven in Brittany in 1883.

    The work is from the family of Dublin solicitor F.X. Murray, who was a significant collector in the 1940’s/’50’s.  This is the first time it has been on the market.  The estimate is 10,000-15,000.

    Tags: , ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | Comments Off on EARLY OSBORNE PONT-AVEN OIL AT ADAMS

    VIEWING FOR SOTHEBY’S IRISH SALE MOVES TO DUBLIN, BELFAST AND LONDON

    Sunday, March 6th, 2011

    Sunlit Landscape by Mary Swanzy at Sotheby's Irish sale on March 29. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE £91,250.

    FRESH from a successful view which drew hundreds of people to Lismore Castle Arts this weekend Sotheby’s 17th annual Irish sale now goes on view in Dublin, Belfast and London.

    Highlights will be on view at Sotheby’s in Molesworth St., Dublin from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 8 and 9.

    The paintings will be seen at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 11 and 12.

    Viewing in London gets underway at Bond St. on March 24 and the sale is on March 29.

    Among the exceptional masterpieces on offer is this one by Mary Swanzy, one of the most important female Irish artists. Sunlit Landscape is a dazzling modernist painting by one of the first artists in Ireland to embrace the experimental and innovative cubist style. It is estimated at £60,000-80,000 (€70,000-93,500).

    See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for February 23, February 16 and February 2.

    Tags: ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | Comments Off on VIEWING FOR SOTHEBY’S IRISH SALE MOVES TO DUBLIN, BELFAST AND LONDON

    EMIGRATION THEME OF JAMES BRENAN WORK AT WHYTE’S

    Saturday, March 5th, 2011

    The Finishing Touch by James Brenan. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE; IT MADE 22,000

    James Brenan RHA (1837-1907) was headmaster at the School of Art in Cork. Emigration – one again a timely issue in recession torn Ireland – was a subject that captured his imagination in the 19th century. It is the theme of this 1876 work in a farmhouse setting.
    Entitled The Finishing Touch, it tells the story of a young woman on the eve of her departure for America. Her father takes centre stage. The title refers not only to his hand on the emigrant’s box, but also to the painter completing work on the green box on which the words O’Connor, New York can be deciphered.
    This picture was exhibited in the year it was painted at the Royal Hibernian Academy. It features at Whyte’s Irish and British art sale at the RDS in Dublin on March 14.  The work is estimated at 15,000-20,000.
    UPDATE  IT SOLD FOR 22,000

    Tags: , ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | Comments Off on EMIGRATION THEME OF JAMES BRENAN WORK AT WHYTE’S

    GEORGE CAMPBELL AT WHYTE’S IRISH ART SALE

    Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
    Woman and Bag is the title of this work by George Campbell.  It comes under the hammer at Whyte’s Irish art sale in Dublin on March 14 at 6 p.m. The sale includes a Waterford collection put together from the 1950’s to the 1970’s.  These will comprise the first 40 lots of this 290 lots sale.
    The range of Irish art on offer is broad and estimates are realistic  The catalogue is now on-line and on-line bidding is also available.
    See antiquesandartireland.com posts for February 23 and January 27.
    UPDATE:  IT SOLD FOR 10,500

    Tags: ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | Comments Off on GEORGE CAMPBELL AT WHYTE’S IRISH ART SALE

    DEATH OF ARTIST T.P. FLANAGAN

    Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

    This 2009 watercolour by T.P. Flanagan is entitled "A Fermanagh Field". (click on image to enlarge)

    The death has taken place of the artist T. P. Flanagan. Born in Enniskillen in 1929 he was one of the most important and influential landscape painters of his generation. He once commented that, as a young man, he had hesitated to paint the Irish landscape because so many artists such as Paul Henry, J. H. Craig and Frank McKelvey had put such an indelible stamp upon it that there was nothing more to be said. Yet he put his own stamp on the landscapes of counties Fermanagh and Sligo.

    Flanagan worked thematically, a device that enabled him to present his subjects from more than one point of view.  This gives an image not just of his subjects but of his relationship to them and his feelings. In 1995 the Ulster Museum held a retrospective exhibition of Flanagan’s career.  That show  travelled to the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin and Fermanagh County Museum in Enniskillen.

    He studied painting and etching at the then Belfast College of Art from 1949 to 1953 alongside fellow students like Basil Blackshaw and Kenneth Jamison.  He worked both as a teacher and a painter for many years. His work has been exhibited widely in one-man and group exhibitions in Ireland and abroad.  He was an academician of the Royal Hibernian Academy and a Past President of the Royal Ulster Academy.  T.P. Flanagan is represented by the Taylor Galleries in Dublin.

    Tags: ,
    Posted in ART | Comments Off on DEATH OF ARTIST T.P. FLANAGAN

    STELLAR LINE UP AT SOTHEBY’S IRISH SALE

    Monday, February 21st, 2011

    Beckett by le Brocquy at Sotheby's. (Click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: It made £75,650

    THERE is a stellar line up at Sotheby’s Irish Sale in London on March 29. It features rare works never seen on the market before by artists like Sir John Lavery, Roderic O’Conor and Mary Swanzy.  There are 13 works by Louis le Brocquy and the sale includes Basil Blackshaw,  John Shinnors, William Scott, Colin Middleton and Sean Scully.

    John Lavery’s portrait of Lady Gwendoline Churchill, A Lady in Brown, is at auction for the first time.  It is believed the painting was probably executed in the summer of 1915. O’Conor’s Landscape, Cassis, has re-surfaced from a private American collection and features one of the smaller peaks of the limestone cliffs of Le Cap Canail.
    Sunlit Landscape by Mary Swanzy is a dazzling modernist piece.   It is  part  of  a  series  of  lyrical  Provencal  cubist  landscapes produced following a stay at Grasse in the South of France in the winter of 1926-1927 and is estimated at £60,000-80,000.
    Daniel  O’Neill  is  represented  in  the  sale  with  one  of  the  most expressive  and  affecting  works  by  the  artist  to  ever  appear  at auction.  On  Reading  Dear  Theo  is  a  portrait  of  Vincent  van
    Gogh.  The  composition  and  treatment  clearly  reference  van  Gogh’s landscapes.  It is estimated  at  £30,000-50,000.  Headlining the le Brocquy works is an image of Samuel Beckett (Opus  473),  an
    oil  on  canvas  estimated  at  £60,000-80,000.
    There is a group of four still lives by William Scott and the art auction offers a strong selection of contemporary works.
    See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for February 16 and February 2.

    Tags: ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | Comments Off on STELLAR LINE UP AT SOTHEBY’S IRISH SALE

    CONTRASTING LANDSCAPES AT SOTHEBY’S IRISH SALE

    Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

    Paul Henry's Achill Village at Sotheby's Irish sale on March 29. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE £58,850

    Roderic O'Conor, Landscape at Cassis at Sotheby's Irish sale on March 29. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE; IT MADE £337,250

    Roderic O’Conor and Paul Henry sought inspiration from landscapes in different though beautiful locations.

    O’Conor favoured in France while Henry is most noted for his art in the west of Ireland.

    Each one features at Sotheby’s annual Irish sale in London on March 29.  Roderic O’Conor’s Landscape, Cassis is estimated at £120,000-180,000 (€140,000-210,000) while Paul Henry’s Achill Village is estimated at £30,000-50,000 (€36,300-60,500)

    Tags: , , ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | Comments Off on CONTRASTING LANDSCAPES AT SOTHEBY’S IRISH SALE

    YEATS AND LE BROCQUY FAIL TO FIND BUYERS AT BONHAMS

    Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

    A Sunlit Farmyard by Frank McKelvey made £18,000 at Bonhams. (Click on image to enlarge)

    The top lots by Yeats and le Brocquy failed to get away at Bonhams first Irish sale on February 9.  Insiders suggested that the timing of the sale, so early in the season and slap bang in the middle of London’s Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art selling season, was wrong.
    Only about half the 108 works on offer found buyers in an auction that brought in around £195,000 including buyer’s premium.  The top lot sold was an oil on canvas entitled A Sunlit Farmyard by Frank McKelvey (1895-1974).  It made £18,000 inclusive of buyer’s premium.
    See antiquesandartireland.com posts for January 4 and September 15.

    Tags: ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | Comments Off on YEATS AND LE BROCQUY FAIL TO FIND BUYERS AT BONHAMS

    « Older Entries
    Newer Entries »