Composition by Evie Hone made a hammer price of €125,000 over a top estimate of €70,000 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International Art sale on April 9. It was the top lot at the sale. At the centre of Hone’s richly-coloured composition, framed within arcs and segments of yellow, green, light brown and red, is an intricately juxtaposed colour pattern that suggests a Madonna and Child. Villas near the Sea (Cassis) by Roderic O’Conor made €70,000, Dock St., Belfast by L.S, Lowry made €46,000, Master of Money and Mirrors by Conor Harrington made €40,000, Estuary Forms by John Shinnors and Portrait of Mrs. Jessie Wertheimer by Sir William Orpen each made €32,000 at hammer, The Final Furlong by Liam O’Neill made €30,000 and Portrait of a Lady by Genieve Figgis and Union Hall, West Cork by Donald Teskey each made €29,000.
See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for April 5, March 30 and March 29, 2024
LAURENCE STEPHEN LOWRY (1887-1976) – DOCK STREET, BELFAST (1964). UPDATE: THIS MADE 46,000 AT HAMMER
The painter L.S. Lowry was proud of his Irish heritage and visited regularly from the mid 1950’s. He painted scenes in Dublin, Skerries, Drogheda and Belfast. This drawing of Dock St., Belfast from 1964 comes up as lot 16 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International art sale which runs until April 9. The estimate is €15,000-€20,000. Viewing for the sale gets underway at the Minerva Suite at the RDS today and continues until Monday. The catalogue is online.
Primrose Hill by Frank Auerbach UPDATE: THIS MADE 21,000 AT HAMMER
With signed Andy Warhol and Joan Miro screenprints, contrasting approaches to landscape in views of Primrose Hill by Frank Auerbach and Union Hall by Donald Teskey, an oil on canvas by Conor Harrington, still lifes, interiors and a bravura portrait by Genieve Figgis the April 9 Irish and International sale by Morgan O’Driscoll is characterised by great variety.
The first two artworks of the 164 lots on offer, a pen drawing by Jack B Yeats redolent of an Ireland long vanished and a fairly abstract lithograph entitled Coloured Wall by Sean Scully, illustrate this diversity very well. The most expensively estimated lot is Villas near the Sea, Cassis (1913) by Roderic O’Conor (€70,000-€100,000). At the other end of the cost scale is a 1980 photograph of Samuel Beckett by John Minihan (€300-€500) and an oil on board of The Rosses, Co. Donegal by Estella Solomons (€500-€750).
Artists are often fascinated by the unformed drawings of the very young. At first glance Primrose Hill by Frank Auerbach – a series of crayon squiggles on a page – looks like something your average two or three year old might have produced. The clue is in the title. Look more closely and an image of Hampstead Heath on a summer day emerges, complete with winding path, trees, blue sky and approaching dark clouds. The colour range is precise. In his catalogue entry Peter Murray notes: “Much of the drawing’s zest and energy is created by this understanding of colour theory translated into action that underpins the seemingly random and chaotic marks and results in an impressive work of art created from the simplest materials”. Auerbach’s Primrose Hill (€15,000-€25,000) is indeed fascinating and no, you could not do it yourself.
Union Hall, West Cork by Donald Teskey. UPDATE: THIS MADE 29,000 AT HAMMER
Union Hall by Donald Teskey presents a beguiling picture of the charming west Cork fishing village and is estimated at €20,000-€30,000.
The catalogue cover lot is a screenprint by Andy Warhol titled Ladies and Gentlemen II.135 (1975). The estimate is €7,000-€9,000. A William Scott screenprint, Still Life with Frying Pan and Eggs, is estimated at €5,000-€7,000 and there are etchings and prints by Georges Braque, Damien Hirst, Mr. Brainwash and Joan Miro whose La Megere et La Lune (1973) was published by Maeght Paris and numbered 36 from an edition of 50. A pencil drawing of Dock St., Belfast by L.S. Lowry dates to 1964 and is estimated at €15,000-€20,000.
Master of Money and Mirrors by Conor Harrington. UPDATE: THIS MADE 40,000 AT HAMMER
Master of Money and Mirrors is an oil on canvas by the Cork artist Conor Harrington whose street art propelled him to fame. He is now represented in a growing number of collections and this piece is estimated at €40,000-€60,000. Portrait of a Lady by Dublin born Genieve Figgis, whose use of Twitter propelled her to the international stage, is estimated at €30,000-€50,000.
A portrait of a lady in a white dress by Cork born Adam Buck (1759-1833) is estimated at €2,000-€3,000 and a unique 3D wood relief by Maser has an estimate of €4,000-€6,000. There is sculpture by, among others, John Behan, Rowan Gillespie, Helen Walsh, Patrick O’Reilly, Siobhan Bulfin and Mark Rode.
Viewing takes place in Skibbereen on today, tomorrow and Monday and in Dublin at the RDS from April 5 to April 8. The auction will begin to close at 6.30 pm on April 9.
No to War by Patrick O’Reilly. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,400 AT HAMMER
EVIE HONE (1894-1955) – SKETCH FOR THE PENAL DAYS (c1936-37). UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
Evie Hone’s design for a small stained glass window made in the 1930’s for An Túr Gloine (The Tower of Glass) comes up at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current Irish and International Art online auction which runs until April 9. The gouache on paper is based on her studies of medieval stone carvings in Ireland. The lunette, which featured at Hone’s retrospective in Dublin in 1958, is now housed the Chapel of Rest at Tallaght University Hospital. The estimate on the sketch is 3,000-5,000.
The sale is on view in Skibbereen on March 29. 30, 31 and on April 1 and at the RDS in Dublin from April 5-8. The catalogue is online.
The first exhibition dedicated to the pioneering stained glass studio An Túr Gloine (The Tower of Glass), founded in 1903 by Sarah Purser is now open at The National Gallery and continues until January 12, 2025. Featured artists include Wilhelmina Geddes, Michael Healy, Catherine O’Brien, Alfred E. Child, Hubert McGoldrick, Ethel Rhind and Evie Hone.
KENNETH WEBB (B.1927) – CONNEMARA BOUQUET. UPDATE: THIS MADE 6,800 AT HAMMER
Connemara Bouquet by Kenneth Webb is among the top lots at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current Off the Wall online auction which runs until March 4. It is estimated at €3,000-€5,000. This auction offers a wide selection of affordable art from artists including Norman McCaig, Margaret Egan, Cecil Maguire, Mr. Brainwash, Majella O’Neill Collins, Arthur Maderson, Maurice Wilks, Pauline Bewick, Alicia Boyle and sculptors including Oisin Kelly, Michael Foley and Ray Delaney. The catalogue is online.
NANO REID (1905-1981) – Men of Drogheda. UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,200 AT HAMMER
Men of Drogheda by Nano Reid kicks off Morgan O’Driscoll’s current Irish art online auction which runs until February 26. Estimated at €1,000-€1,500 it has already attracted nine bids and exceeded the top estimate. Last July another watercolour by Reid, Sailing on the Boyne, made a hammer price of €48,000 at a Morgan O’Driscoll sale. The auction of 225 lots offers a wide variety of artists including Kenneth Webb, John Behan, James Humbert Craig, Moyra Barry, Markey Robinson, Graham Knuttel, Sandra Bell, Basil Blackshaw, Evie Hone, Dan O’Neill, Maurice Wilks, Mainie Jellett, Frank McKelvey, Brigid Ganly and Constance Gore-Booth.
MARTIN GALE (B.1949) – Owl (1978). UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,400 AT HAMMER
This watercolour by Martin Gale comes up at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current off the wall online art auction which runs until January 29. The auction of affordable art features work by a wide variety of practitioners including Peter Collis, Oisin Kelly, Elizabeth Magill, Markey Robinson, Alan Kenny, Thomas Rose Miles, Felim Egan, Cecil King, William Crozier, Peter Collis, Pauline Bewick and many more. The catalogue is online.
FELIM EGAN – Untitled (2004) UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,200 AT HAMMER
This small untitled work by Felim Egan kicks off Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online auction which runs until January 22. The estimate for the oil on board is just 400-600 but so far it has attracted 18 bids and will go higher. When he died in 2020 Egan was regarded as one of Ireland’s leading contemporary artists. He represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in France in 1981 and the Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil in 1985 and won the Unesco international prize for painting in Paris in its inaugural year of 1993. He exhibited widely in Europe and his work is held in many international collections including the European Parliament and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The catalogue for the sale is online.
The most expensive painting sold in Ireland in 2023 was Sean Scully’s Raval Rojo. It made a hammer price of €580,000 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art sale last April. At Whyte’s total sales were just under €6 million, there was a new world record for a work on paper by Harry Clarke at James Adam and in 2023 Bonhams recorded the best every turnover in their 230 year history. Sotheby’s continued their Irish sales in Paris, along with London and Christie’s reported projected global sales for art and luxury goods in 2023 of €5.8 billion and say their is a promising pipeline of consignments already in motion for 2024.
As we leave 2023 behind there is every reason to be optimistic about the coming year in the art, luxury and collectible end of things. At Christie’s last year there was a strong influx of new buyers (35%) and a growing participation of Millennials and Generation Z. Much of this is driven by popular culture. Think Freddie Mercury at Sotheby’s and Lady Diana’s dress at Julien’s.
Whyte’s achieved the highest prices in Ireland in 2023 for Jack Yeats (€290,00), Sir John Lavery (€230,000) and Paul Henry (€155,000) – excluding buyers’ premium and VAT. A Seán Keating painting, The Goose Girl, made €62,000 in December. Adams sold over €500,000 worth of paintings by Paul Henry and Harry Clarke’s The Colloquy of Monos and Una, a 1923 illustration for Edgar Allen Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination, made a record €70,000 and joined the collection of the Crawford Gallery in Cork, where it is now on display.
DAMIEN HIRST (B.1965) BRITISH – Butterfly Spin. UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,000 AT HAMMER
Butterfly Spin by Damien Hirst comes up at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current off the wall online art auction which runs until January 8. The estimate for the acrylic on paper is €3,000-€5,000 and it is among the most expensively estimated works on offer in this sale. The catalogue is online now and there will be viewing in Skibbereen from January 4.
