In the early 1960’s Andy Warhol pioneered a new kind of celebrity portraiture with subjects like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Elizabeth Taylor. The Ingrid Bergman portfolio revisited the series in the 1980’s. When Warhol was commissioned by Galerie Borjeson in Malmo, Sweden to portray Bergman he made a suite of three silkscreen portraits and one trial proof of the Academy Award winning actress and one of Sweden’s most celebrated film icons. It was completed in 1983, one year after the death of Bergman. Two works from the series, Herself and The Nun, each number 55 from an edition of 250, are at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art auction on the evening of April 21, each estimated at €30,000-€50,000. The auction is on view until April 20 at the RDS. Pictured here is Herself, from: Three Portraits of Ingrid Bergman (1983).
William Scott – Still Life on White with Beans UPDATE: THIS MADE 150,000 AT HAMMER
Green beans on a white plate inspired William Scott in 1978, a red pumpkin was all world renowned Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama needed. These are revolutionary artworks while the subject of a 1922 drawing by Hazel Lavery is a revolutionary. Her pencil portrait of Michael Collins was made in May of 1922, just a few months before his assassination at Beal na mBlath.
All these works feature at Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale of Irish and International Art on April 21 on view in Skibbereen until April 13 and at the RDS in Dublin from April 17-20. The catalogue cover lot is William Scott’s Still Life on White with Beans (€120,000-€180,000). In a note about the painting Peter Murray remarks that since the 1930’s, perhaps more than any other Irish artist of the 20th century apart from Jack Yeats, Scott’s work has been exhibited worldwide.
Still Life on White with Beans contains the essential elements of abstraction for which he became renowned, Murray writes: “The square format suited his search for simplicity. Colour has been reduced to the simple monochrome tones of grey, white and green”. First shown at Gallery Moos in Toronto in 1978 the oil on canvas measures 24″ x 24″.
There are two other works by William Scott in the auction, Pear and Grapes and Table Top Still Life. Each gouache of paper dates to 1975 and each is estimated at €15,000-€25,000.
Yayoi Kusama – Red Pumpkins. UPDATE: THIS MADE 850 AT HAMMER
Kusama’s Red Pumpkin is a playful painted cast resin piece published by Benesse Holdings, Naoshima, Japan. Stamped on the base and in a box it is estimated at €400-€600.
Hazel Lavery is best known nowadays as the subject of numerous portraits painted by her husband John Lavery. She too was a talented artist who had studied in America and France. It is not known when the Lavery’s first met Michael Collins, who moved to London in 1906. After the Easter Rising the Lavery’s used their social connections and friendship with Collins to facilitate negotiations between Ireland and Britain. Hazel Lavery made this head and shoulders portrait with Collins in three quarter profile when he was leading the Irish delegation negotiating the Treaty. It is signed and dated May 1922.
Hazel Lavery – Portrait of Michael Collins (1922) UPDATE: THIS MADE 10,000 AT HAMMER
The sale offers 156 lots of great variety. Mrs. Harrington’s Horses by Peter Curling (€7,000-€10,000) shows six chestnut racehorses from Jessica Harrington’s Commonstown Stud near Moone in Co. Kildare being exercised. The focus of Still Life (1984) by William Crozier (€3,000-€5,000) is flowers in a vase against an arresting blue and yellow background. Cottages in a Landscape by Paul Henry (€25,000-€35,000) is a small, spirited oil on panel probably painted on Achill and P2.05 (2005) by Charles Tyrrell (€1,000-€1,500) is an abstract rectangular oil on aluminium.
There is a selection of sculpture by John Behan, Patrick O’Reilly, Rowan Gillespie, Ana Duncan, Imogen Stuart and others. Many of Ireland’s favourite painters including artists Percy French, Arthur Maderson, Sean Scully, Sean MacSweeney, Hughie O’Donoghue, Jack B Yeats, Colin Middleton, Letitia Hamilton, Donald Teskey, Louis le Brocquy, John Shinnors, Richard Gorman, Dan O’Neill, Mainie Jellett, William Leech, Graham Knuttel and Roderic O’Conor are in the auction.
On the international side Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Mr. Brainwash, Damien Hirst, Jacob Epstein, Salvador Dali all feature in a catalogue that is brimful of interest and online too. Lots from Morgan O’Driscoll’s upcoming auction of jewellery on April 22 will also be on view at the RDS.
William Crozier – Still Life (1984). UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,800 AT HAMMER
Markey Robinson (1918-1999) – Sailing on a Sunny Afternoon. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,400 AT HAMMER
This unusually colourful work by Markey Robinson is lot 44 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall art auction which runs online until March 2. The gouache on wallpaper is estimated at €1,500-€2,500. It is a big sale with 465 lots in total. There is art by Graham Knuttel, William Crozier, Majella O’Neill Collins, Sean Scully, Jack Butler Yeats, John Morris, Elizabeth Brophy, Annemarie Bourke, Liam Treacy, Mildred Anne Butler, Brian Ballard, Louis le Brocquy, Michael Hales, William Conor and many more artists. The catalogue is online.
John Bellany – Masquerade at Sheppards. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
At this time of year with its focus on the newest interior fashions and the latest colour trends what is overlooked is that beloved paintings changed around at home almost always end up being looked at anew. Try it. If your favourite painting has been hanging in the same place for so long that it is practically part of the furniture it is almost certainly no longer appreciated as it deserves to be. Real art is about looking, not background decoration.
Nothing promotes a refresh so much as an addition to the collection which necessitates a re-hang. Which is where auctions in Ireland next week come into play.
Peter Curling – Neck and Neck at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
How about a fast paced horse racing painting from Peter Curling? A luminous oil of evening light from the final years of artist Joseph Malachy Kavanagh in Brittany, or perhaps something more abstract, modern, post modern, contemporary or now? There is ample opportunity for collectors to spring into action at art sales by Morgan O’Driscoll on the evening of February 23 and Sheppards in Durrow on the following day. Both catalogues are online and will richly reward a long, slow perusal.
Morgan O’Driscoll kicks off with Birds of a Feather, a pastel on paper by Graham Knuttel who proved his popularity at Adam’s highly successful Graham Knuttel Part II sale in Dublin last week where his work sold like hot cakes.
Damien Hirst – Circle Spin at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS MADE €3,400 AT HAMMER
Variety is a hallmark at O’Driscoll’s sale with everything from a highly colourful abstract landscape by Colin Middleton and a 1969 litho by Louis le Brocquy entitled Death of Fraech from the Tain series to an appetising still life by William Crozier, Equinox 2016 by Felim Egan and a famine ship by John Behan. On the international side the sale offers work by Damien Hirst, Mr Brainwash and Andy Warhol.
Willam Scott, Basil Blackshaw, John Butler Yeats, Countess Markievicz, Liam O’Neill, Frank McKelvey, Pauline Bewick and Rowan Gillespie are all included in the online catalogue of 246 lots.
The 310 lot auction at Sheppards is anchored by the collection of Gerry Cuddy in Co. Antrim and a curated group of works from the studios of Barrie Cooke and Sonja Landweer. The auction offers what Peter Murray describes as one of the “finest landscape paintings” by Grace Henry. It is of Achill Island, painted between 1912 and 1919 and estimated at €12,000-€15,000. This makes it the second highest estimate of the auction, after John Bellany’s Masquerade with an estimate of €25,000-€35,000. Bellany was one of the most influential Scottish artists of the post World War 2 era and David Bowie was among those who collected his work.
George Mullins – Animated River Landscape, Homestead and Castle Beyond at Sheppards. UPDATE: THIS MADE 8,500 AT HAMMER
Animated Landscape by George Mullins (€10,000-€15,000) at Sheppards is one of the very few fully authenticated paintings by the artist that is known. Shaped Form, a bronze by Sonja Landweer, is estimated at €5,000-€8,000 and there is a strong representation by Northern Irish artists like William Conor, Dan O’Neill, James Humbert Craig, Markey Robinson and Maurice Wilks.
The auction offers a breadth of materials across many price ranges with art by Letitia Marion Hamilton, Rose Barton, Albert Hartland, Arthur Maderson, Eoin MacLochlainn, John Shinnors, Kenneth Webb, Ian Pollock, Rory Breslin, Fr. Jack Hanlon, Mildred Anne Butler and many others.
Liam O’Neill (b.1954) – Turf Cutters. UPDATE: THIS MADE €16,000 AT HAMMER
Turf Cutters by Liam O’Neill is at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online Irish art auction which ends on February 23. Once a source of fuel for home heating and cooking that was widely used in Ireland turf cutting has been banned or restricted on specific bogs. It can no longer be sold commercially, though gifting or exchanging turf between neighbours is permitted. This oil on canvas, which dates to 1994, is estimated at €8,000-€10,000. The catalogue for the auction is online.
Tony O’Malley (1913-2003) – Untitled. UPDATE: THIS MADE 950 AT HAMMER
This carborundum print by Tony O’Malley is lot 7 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Off the Wall online art auction which runs until January 19. It is signed with the artists initials and numbered 22/40. The estimate is €400-€600. More than 450 lots will come under the hammer in a sale that features artists like Graham Knuttel, Markey Robinson, Cecil Maguire, Elizabeth Cope, Majella O’Neill Collins, Louis le Brocquy, Elizabeth Brophy, Maurice Wilks, Jane O’Malley, Frank McKelvey and many more. The catalogue is online.
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.
