The Thinker on the Butte de Warlencourt by Sir William Orpen. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £756,000
The private collection of Mary and Alan Hobart, founders of the Pyms Gallery, comes up at Christie’s in London on November 19. From premises in Belgravia and Mayfair the Hobarts mounted pioneering exhibitions at the Pyms Gallery, founded in 1974, which championed Irish art in Britain for the first time since Sir Hugh Lane at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Key artists included in Christie’s sale are William Orpen, Jack Butler Yeats, Mary Swanzy, F. E. McWilliam, Jerome Connor, William Crozier, Rita Duffy, Micheal Farrell, Cecil King, Charles Tyrrell, William Scott, Sean Scully, Grace Henry, Gerard Dillon, Augustus John, Bridget Riley, Patrick Heron, John Tunnard and Eileen Agar. The Hobarts collection was showcased at an exhibition at IMMA in Dublin last year.
The Poet by Orpen made £504,000 and his Changing Billets, Picardy made £441,000. An Afternoon in Dorset by Augustus John made £214,200, a world record for an oil on panel by the artist. There was a world record for Grace Henry when The Rosary sold for £47,880 and one for Rita Duffy when Crossroads Dancing made £14,490.
UPDATE: THE COLLECTION REALISED £5,979,204
O’Connell Bridge by Jack Butler Yeats. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £882,000
