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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.
Louis le Brocquy HRHA, 1916-2012 – Milles Tetes Gris Noir Blanc
This Aubusson tapestry by Louis le Brocquy, hand made by Tabard Freres & Soeurs, was the top lot at de Veres outstanding Irish art a sculpture auction in Dublin this evening. It made a hammer price of 155,000. A portrait entitled Edith, Gypsy Girl by Sir William Orpen made 100,000, The Overflow of the Canal by Jack B Yeats and an Image of W B Yeats by Le Brocquy each made 70,000, a Still Life by Roderic O’Conor made 60,000, a landscape by John George Mulvany (1766-1838) and Game of Chance by Colin Middleton from the Wilderness series each made 40,000. The auction brought in €1.6 million and was 85% sold.
COLIN MIDDLETON – HALLOWEEN SOLD FOR €63,500
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.
Eden is the title of the 1952 tapestry by Louis le Brocquy from the sale of Important Irish Art at James Adam in Dublin this evening (September 27). Lot 12 is estimated at €25,000-€35,000. According to the catalogue note the artist was approached by Edinburgh Tapestry Weavers in 1948. They wanted him to design a tapestry. Interested in how colour could convey emotion and the pure colour of tapestry could convey this he complied. He created his own detailed, precisely colour-coded patterns, or linear templates, a pre-Renaissance technique learned from Jean Lurçat. Le Brocquy created several series of tapestries with Edinburgh and with Aubusson in France andthe Eden series spans both studios. The woman’s heel on the upper right refers to the divine pronouncement that the serpent, blamed by her for her fall from grace, will bruise her heel – though she will crush it.
In his catalogue note Aidan Dunne states: “The dazzling, twisting form of the snake suggests that the artist takes a more uplifting view of the possibilities presented by the tree of knowledge, and the dawning of human consciousness and imagination, than religious judgement might decree.” This tapestry is from an edition of nine by Atelier Tabard Frères & Soeurs.
A still life by the noted Limerick based botanical artist Geraldine M O’Brien and an arresting 1970 lithograph of Noisiu – lover of Deirdre of the Sorrows of Celtic mythology – by Louis le Brocquy are among the works at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current off the wall online Irish art auction. The evening sale on August 8 follows hard on the heels of a successful auction by Morgan O’Driscoll last Monday. This time around the offerings are more affordable. The le Brocquy is a lithograph, number 46 from an edition of 70, and is estimated at €1,500-€2,500. Though Geraldine O’Brien was a celebrated and popular artist her work remains affordable. Still Life – Vase of Flowers is estimated at just €700-€1,000. With a selection from Arthur Maderson and Graham Knuttel to Michael Hales and Annemarie Bourke this big sale has something to suit everyones taste. The catalogue is online.
