An oil on board by Gerard Dillon soared above its estimate to sell for a record €1.1 million hammer at Adam’s sale of Important Irish Art on May 27. It had been estimated at €150,000-€200,000. The signed and inscribed work from 1955 was purchased by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland from the Dawson Gallery in Dublin. It was subsequently sold at Sotheby’s in 1993 to Reeta and Frank Hughes of Warrenpoint. Exhibited at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1955 it has since appeared in numerous exhibitions. It is understood that the work will remain in Ireland.
Among other top hammer prices were four works by Jack B Yeats as follows: The Dancer (Rosses Point) €280,000, The Paddock, Naas (€210,000), The Courthouse Steps (€115,000) and Through the Streets to the Hills (€110,000). Study for Riverrun, Procession with Lillies by Louis le Brocquy made €150,000 and Cuchulain IX by le Brocquy made €65,000, The Fair Day, Camlough, Co. Armagh by Frank McKelvey made €42,000, Sheep in a Field by Walter Osborne made €34,000 and The Princess by Colin Middleton made €32,000.
Louis le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012) – STATES OF BEING 2, 1964 (TRIPTYCH) made €26,000 at hammer
A total of €1.3 million was realised at Whyte’s Irish art sale in Dublin on May 25. The top lot was Dapping on Lough Mask by Paul Henry which made a hammer price of €230,000. Travelling People by Louis le Brocquy made €145,000. Mass in a Connemara Cabin by Aloysius O’Kelly made €40,000 at hammer over a top estimate of €30,000 and a portrait of Daniel O’Connell by Nicholas Joseph Crowley made €29,000 over a top estimate of €8,000. Art by Markey Robinson, Ciaran Clear and Derek Clarke all sold for above the top estimate. Whyte’s say their sale demonstrated a continuing strong demand for art of quality.
Lot 46, Portrait of Poet John Jordan 1958 by Pauline Bewick sold before the auction to a public gallery for €6,000. A number of lots sold after the auction including John Luke’s the Mournes 1939 at €50,000 and Basil Blackshaw’s The Morning Exercise which made €60,000.
The auction room, although sparse, as they all are these days, took over €500,000 worth of the art on offer. Telephone bidders took another €200,000, with on-line bidders taking the balance. There was a 70% selling rate.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for May 8, 14, 19 and 23, 2026)
Louis le Brocquy (1916-2012) Cuchulainn IX (1991). UPDATE: THIS MADE €65,000 at hammer
This Aubusson tapestry by Louis le Brocquy, from an edition of nine, is at Adam’s evening sale of Important Irish Art on May 27. The estimate is €30,000-50,000. The live and online sale of 91 works spans the 19th century to the present day. The leading lots are by Gerard Dillon, two Yeats paintings from the 1920’s and two late works by the artist and a village landscape by Paul Henry. Viewing for the auction gets underway today in Dublin and the catalogue is online.
Mainie Harriet Jellett (1897-1944) – Abstract Gouache. UPDATE: THIS MADE €7,000 AT HAMMER
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.
Louis Le Brocquy (1916-2012) – The Táin – Mare and Foal (1969). UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,700 AT HAMMER
This striking le Brocquy lithograph from 1969, numbered 61 from an edition of 70, is at Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall online art auction which runs until October 28. The estimate is €1,500-€2,500. An oil on board by Mark O’Neill – Outside the Basilica – is at €2,500-€3,500, the most expensively estimated lot. The auction offers more than 450 lots of affordable art and the catalogue is online.
Louis le Brocquy – Painting Figure. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This 1959 work by Louis le Brocquy is at Sotheby’s Modern British and Irish art sale in London on June 26 with an estimate of £30,000-50,000. It was acquired by the present owner at the Esther Robles Gallery in Los Angeles. The auction features important works by British and Irish artists and those working in the UK across the 20th century, including the St Ives Modernists, Scottish Colourists, Bloomsbury, Camden Town, Vorticist and Post-War groups, and it will span paintings, drawings, sculptures and ceramics. Among the Irish artists featured are Sir John Lavery, William Scott and Jack Coulter.
Cavanagh (1974) by Louis le Brocquy. UPDATE: THIS MADE 76,000 AT HAMMER
A large, colourful and unique tapestry by Louis le Brocquy, commissioned for Setanta House in Dublin in the mid 1970’s, is the leading lot at the James Adam evening sale of Important Irish Art on March 26. The Aubusson wool tapestry produced by Tabard Freres & Soeurs is estimated at €80,000-€120,000.
The catalogue cover lot is Pont du Gard by Mary Swanzy, an oil on canvas with a definite wow factor in which the artist painted a simplified Roman aqueduct with exceptional freedom. The estimate is €25,000-€35,000.
Pont du Gard by Mary Swanzy. UPDATE: THIS MADE 40,000 AT HAMMER
The Promised Land by Colin Middleton (€20,000-€30,000) was painted in 1947 when horrifying newsreel footage of the liberation of the concentration camps was widely viewed. Deeply deeply affected by these images Middleton here depicts two isolated and anonymous figures dispossessed by war caught up in swirling tides not of their own making and in search of a new land. Sadly this theme is as apposite now as it was in 1947. Plus ca change.
A c1886 Portrait Interior with Oriental Screen by Sir John Lavery is a chance discovery made when the vendor turned up at Adams looking for a valuation with no idea who the artist was. Adams had Lavery expert Professor Kenneth McConkey take a look and he confirmed the attribution. The oil on panel, measuring 42cm x 28cm, is estimated at €5,000-€8,000.
The Promised Land by Colin Middleton UPDATE: THIS MADE 22,000 AT HAMMER
Demand for George Russell (AE) is steady and consistent and there are a number of works by the artist in the sale, headed by An Apparition from 1921, an oil on canvas that reveals the influences of Symbolism (€8,000-€12,000).
The artist Gerard Dillon experiments with geometric forms, line and colour in Abstract by Night, a large scale work in an arresting palette of colours. The lot is estimated at €8,000-€12,000.
The auction offers art by John Doherty, Barrie Cooke, Camille Souter, Frank McKelvey, Lady Beatrice Glenavy, Sean Keating, Dan O’Neill, Hilary Heron, Tony O’Malley, John Shinnors, Cecil King, Felim Egan, Deborah Brown, Sarah Purser, James English, Pauline Bewick and many more artists among 145 lots. The sale is on view at Adams from March 21 and the catalogue is online.
Louis Le Brocquy (1916-2012) – Playboy of the Western World. UPDATE: THESE MADE 850 AT HAMMER
This set of six lithographs by Louis le Brocquy of The Playboy of the Western World comes up as lot 18 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current off the wall online art auction. Framed as one they are estimated at €700-€1,000. Synge’s Playboy of the Western World is one of a number of plays produced during the period of the Anglo-Irish revival which has as a theme the rejection by the people of a deliverer from oppression. It has been described as the most vigorous dialogue written for the stage since Shakespeare. The play met with a storm of protest culminating in the Playboy Riots which took place in Dublin in 1908 and received similar treatment in the theatres of New York and Philadelphia. The auction runs until March 10 and the catalogue is online.
Louis Le Brocquy (1916-2012) – Tain Series – Metamorphosis (1969). UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,800 AT HAMMER
This lithographic brush drawing from Louis le Brocquy’s Tain Series kicks off Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall online art auction which runs until the evening of January 13. Numbered 61/70 and from a private collection it is estimated at 1,500-2,500. The catalogue for the sale is online and bidding gets underway at 6.30 pm.
EXTREMELY RARE KINSALE TABLESPOON by John Wall c1720. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,200 AT HAMMER
Kinsale silver is desperately hard to come by so there is some excitement around this extremely rare c1720 tablespoon by John Wall. It comes up as lot 119 at a sale of four collections by de Veres in association with Aidan Foley in Dublin on September 24. The estimate is €1,000-€2,000. The auction is on view at Kildare St. from today and the catalogue is online. The 216 lots comprise four different collections of silver, stamps and coins, art and books. Among more than 120 lots of silver is this rare tablespoon and a 1701 Dublin tankard by Thomas Bolton. Coins and sovereigns include a 1943 Florin, there is a collection of stamps from 1949 to 2023 and a complete set of The Tain lithographs by Louis le Brocquy. UPDATE: An Irish William III silver tankard by Thomas Bolton made 6,000 at hammer and an Irish George I silver tankard by Joseph Walker made 8,000 at hammer. The Tain lithographs were unsold.
