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Paul Henry (1876-1958) – A Grey Day on the Bog (1928). UPDATE: THIS MADE 44,000 AT HAMMER
This oil on board by Paul Henry leads Morgan O’Driscoll’s current Irish art auction which runs online until January 12. It was acquired by the original owner from the 1928 exhibition in London. The estimate is €50,000-€70,000. A total of 288 lots of art are on the catalogue including work by Yeats, Stephen McKenna, Mr. Brainwash, Markey Robinson, James Humbert Craig, Patrick Collins and Frank McKelvey.
Majella O’Neill Collins (b.1964) – North of Sherkin Island (2024). UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,700 AT HAMMER
This oil on canvas by the Sherkin based artist Majella O’Neill Collins comes up at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online off the wall auction of affordable Irish art which runs until December 2. The estimate is €1,500-€2,500. More than 450 lots from a wide variety of artists will come under the hammer. Among them are Graham Knuttel, Eileen Meaghar, Desmond Carrick, Sean Scully, James Brohan, William Crozier, Tony O’Malley, Markey Robinson, Elizabeth Cope, Louis le Brocquy and Mr. Brainwash.
Cubist Landscape by Mary Swanzy at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE €38,000 AT HAMMER
Yeats, Henry, O’Conor, Clarke, O’Malley, Teskey, Jellett, Swanzy, Luke and other acclaimed Irish artists offer Ireland’s growing band of collectors an array of tempting choices at auction in the run up to Christmas.
The major winter sales of Irish art get underway in earnest next week with evening auctions by Morgan O’Driscoll on November 24, de Veres and Gormley’s on November 25 and Adam’s on the following evening. The sale of Important Irish Art at Whyte’s is on December 1.
There is something for all levels of the market at auctions where estimates range from €200 to €300,000. It is all art – teasing, lovely, intriguing, home and life enhancing. Even if the important c1890 Paysage aux Arbes (Landscape with Trees) by Roderic O’Conor at de Veres (€200,000-€300,000) is beyond the budget these sales offer plenty of options at price points within the range of many of us. O’Conor made this work at a key turning point in his career. The suggestion of striping in the foliage is a precursor to this feature in many of his later paintings..
A Coastal landscape with Galway Hookers by Paul Henry at Adams (€150,000-€200,000) was in the collection of late Taoiseach John A Costello. Believed to have been purchased directly from the artist in the 1930’s it is making its first every appearance at auction.
Still Life with Frying Pan and Eggs (1973) by William Scott at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,200 AT HAMMER
An oil on canvas board by Yeats, Low Water, Spring Tide, Clifden (1906) leads Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale. The estimate is €40,000-€60,000. Morning Painting, Bahamas from 1983 by Tony O’Malley (€30,000-€50,000), Untitled by Sean Scully (€35,000-€45,000), Cardboard Leaves by Basil Blackshaw and St. Jean d’Acre entering Cork Harbour in 1853 by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson are among the top lots in an online sale with 271 lots.
The collection of former government minister Gemma Hussey and her husband Derry will form part of the offering of 132 lots at de Veres. Bad News by the Dublin artist Patrick Tuohy (1894-1930) from their collection is estimated at €14,000-€18,000. The artist was educated at St. Enda’s School, established by Padraig Pearse, and did illustrations for the school magazine. Distant Bird Song (€15,000-€25,000) and Self Portrait, Physicianstown (€1,500-€2,000) both by Tony O’Malley, Fair Day, Slovakia by Mary Swanzy (€10,000-€15,000) and Portrait of a Woman by Mainie Jellett (€2,000-€4,000) are all from the Hussey collection.
White Wings and White Water by Norah McGuinness at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE 34,000 AT HAMMER
Provence by William Crozier (€15,000-€25,000), Morons by Banksy (€15,000-€20,000) and Le Marche Flottant and Evening Drag by Arthur Maderson (€12,000-€18,000) are the leading lots at Gormley’s.
The 150 lots at James Adam on Wednesday range from the late 19th century to the present day. In a Dublin Waxworks by Yeats (€70,000-€100,000) dated 1912 was previously in the collection of Garech Browne at Luggala. The Dublin Waxworks on Henry St. opened in 1893 and was a popular venue until it was burnt down during the 1916 Rising. An illustration by Harry Clarke from the 1925 publication of Goethe’s Faust (€30,000-€50,000) is one of 90 illustrations the artist made for the publishers George Harrap and Co. There is a similar estimate on Lighthouse by Donald Teskey which dates to 2017.
An Aubusson tapestry of Cuchulainn in Warp Spasm by Louis le Brocquy at Adams is estimated at €25,000-€35,000, as is Training Five Souls on Board, an oil on paper by Camille Souter (1929-2023). The artist had learned to fly aeroplanes and produced some of her best work on this theme. A Cublst Landscape by Mary Swanzy, Night Cargo by Hughie O’Donoghue and a bronze by Rowan Gillespie are all estimated at €20,000-€30,000. Night Cargo is the catalogue cover lot.
The sale of important Irish art at Whyte’s on December 1 will be led by The Great Sugarloaf, Co. Wicklow by Paul Henry and The Dead Tree by John Luke. Each is estimated at €100,000-€150,000.
Provence by William Crozier at Gormleys. UPDATE: THIS MADE 23,000 AT HAMMER
Two 90 Gun Ships of the Line entering Cork Harbour by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson at Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale on November 24 should arouse much interest. It adorned the cover of Peter Murray’s book Maritime Paintings of Cork written to coincide with a popular exhibition of the same name at the Port of Cork hq in 2005 and is one of Atkinson’s more ambitious works. With three masts, steam engines and single funnels these are an early manifestation of steam driven warships. As they enter the harbour following another steamship a frigate with sails unfurled is leaving. It is flying the Blue Peter, known as the departure flag. A cutter in the foreground is possibly the Cork pilot boat.
UPDATE: THIS MADE 25,000 AT HAMMER
The White Sail, Crosshaven by Annemarie Bourke at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online sale. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,000 AT HAMMER
Big ticket art is a headline grabber even in a year like this when the top end of the market is relatively slim. Sales with estimates of up to €5,000 do not grab the same level of attention and often operate under the radar.
Auctions with art of lower monetary value have become a very important part of the art market in Ireland and right around the world. Interest in art has grown exponentially as more and more people collect and enjoy an enduring fascination with art.
The online ‘Off the Wall’ sale by Morgan O’Driscoll which runs until October 28 follows on from his sale of Irish and international art earlier this week with important lots by Paul Henry, Louis le Brocquy, Sir John Lavery, Andy Warhol and many others. Off the Wall sales of affordable art are a regular part of Skibbereen based Morgan O’Driscoll’s calendar and often feature big names.
Pink Flowers by Jack Donovan at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online sale. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,500 AT HAMMER
Lower value sales reflect the fact that artists make work all the time. Not everything is major. Highly desirable atchings, drawings, preparatory works, maquettes and small pieces galore are available. Nearly everyone who ends up as a big collector starts as a small collector. A sale with plenty of pickings at prices that won’t break the bank is as good a place as any to start.
Pink Flowers by the late Jack Donovan, former head of the Limerick School of Art, is at Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale on Tuesday with an estimate of just €600-€800. A pastel on board by Victor Richardson of Drake’s Pool near Crosshaven is similarly estimated. An oil on canvas of Crosshaven by Annemarie Bourke is estimated at €1,000-€1,500, Outside the Basilica by Mark O’Neill is estimated at €2,500-€3,500 and The Red Door by John Verling has an estimate of €1,200-€1,800. The catalogue, with several hundred lots, is online.
Meantime over in Lismore a new art auction business is gaining traction. Lot 100 was founded earlier this year by Ken Madden and Beth Ann Smith, creators of the highly successful Lismore Food Company. They have held four art sales to date and the latest auction – with 80 lots of painting, prints, sculpture, vintage posters and photography – is online until November 4.
La Tristesse du Roi, a poster by Henri Matisse, from the online sale by Lot 100. UPDATE; THIS WAS UNSOLD
There is work by Irish abstract expressionist Anne Harkin-Petersen, British pop artist Richard Smith and Italian sculptor Virginio Pessina. Among those featured are William Scott, Damien Hirst, Katherine Boucher Beug, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Patrick Scott, Charles Tyrrell and John Behan. The sales offer art for €10,000 and under and most of the work is €1,500 and under.
The aim is to achieve broad art market appeal and already the founders have noticed that people who previously bought art are interested in trading up.
With its distinctive packaging the Lismore Food Company was well known and renowned and this has proved an advantage in setting up the new art auction business countrywide, as is the Dublin collection and drop off point offered by this Co. Waterford enterprise. The catalogue for the sale is online and the auction will be on view at Chapel St., Lismore on October 31 and November 1 and 2 from noon to 4 pm.
Woman with Horse by Virginio Passina at Lot 100. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
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.
John Behan (b.1938) – Bantry Famine Ship
On the face of it you might think the invisible people represented in this powerful and unique bronze sculpture by John Behan did not have much to be grateful for. But at least the downtrodden, starving migrants represented in the ragged, torn and limping Bantry Famine Ship arrived in the 19th century and not the 21st in Europe or the United States. If they made it into Ireland or any other country now they might have to run a gauntlet of attack by social media organised anti immigrant thugs with petrol bombs and other handy implements in a world where basic humanity is in dwindling supply. The sculpture made a hammer price of €14,000 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International art sale.
Paul Henry’s Cottages on Achill Sound was the top lot of the sale. It made €120,000 at hammer. Other top hammer prices were achieved by Andy Warhol for screenprints of Ingrid Bergman (€70,000) and Jane Fonda (€28,000) and an oil by Donald Teskey (€32,000).
Flowers by the Window by Norah McGuinness. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,600 AT HAMMER
From Patrick Collins and Donald Teskey to Andy Warhol and John Behan the sale by Morgan O’Driscoll which runs until October 21 is brimful of colourful interest. This Irish and International online art auction kicks off with a Percy French watercolour of a bog landscape with gorse (€1,500-€2,500) and has an estimate range from €500 to €120,000-€160,000 for Cottages on Achill Sound, an oil on canvas by Paul Henry.
There are 1980’s screenprints of Ingrid Bergman and Jane Fonda by Andy Warhol and a study towards an image of Federico Garcia Lorca by Louis le Brocquy among the leading lots. A View of Fez by Sir John Lavery dates to 1919 and is estimated at €70,000-€100,000. The selection of sculpture is headed by John Behan’s Bantry Famine Ship (€15,000-€25,000) and offers work by Jacob Epstein, Ian Pollock, Michael Foley, Rory Breslin and Liam Flynn. The sale, with 155 lots in total, is on view at the RDS in Dublin on today, tomorrow and Monday and the catalogue is online.
Jane Fonda (1982) by Andy Warhol. UPDATE: THIS MADE 28,000 AT HAMMER
Paul Henry (1876-1958) – Cottages on Achill Sound. UPDATE: THIS MADE 120,000 AT HAMMER
Cottages on Achill Sound by Paul Henry is the leading lot at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art sale which runs until October 21. From a private Dublin collection it is estimated at €120,000-€160,000. Viewing for this auction with 155 lots gets underway today at the Minerva Suite at the RDS in Dublin and continues until October 20. The catalogue is online.
Andy Warhol (1928-1987) American – With Hat, from Ingrid Bergman (1983). UPDATE: THIS MADE 70,000 AT HAMMER
Andy Warhol’s image of Ingrid Bergman with hat is among the leading lots at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art auction which runs until October 21. The screenprint is hand signed, numbered 47/250 and estimated at 50,000-70,000. The most expensively estimated lot is Cottages on Achill Sound by Paul Henry (€120,000-€160,000) and there are leading lots by Louis le Brocquy, John Shinnors and Sir John Lavery. The auction is on view in Skibbereen from October 10-13 and at the Minerva Suite at the RDS from October 17-20. The catalogue is online.
