Roderic O’Conor (1860-1940) – Reclining Nude (1921). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Reclining Nude by Roderic O’Conor leads the evening sale of Important Irish Art at James Adam in Dublin on May 28. Painted in 1921 the oil on canvas is estimated at €40,000-€60,000. A total of 100 lots will come under the hammer including work by Tony O’Malley, Basil Blackshaw, John Shinnors, Letitia Marion Hamilton, Barrie Cooke, Oisin Kelly, John Behan and Nathaniel Hone will come under the hammer. The catalogue is online.
Roderic O’Connor – Paysage, Pont Aven, 1892. UPDATE: THIS MADE £378,000
Paysage, Pont Aven, an important and vibrant example of Roderic O’Conor’s stripe pictures, comes up at Christie’s Modern British and Irish art evening sale in London on March 19. It was exhibited in Paris at the 1892 Salon des Indépendents demonstrating its avant-garde approach and technique. The stripe pictures are generally accepted as the artist’s most desirable period. The estimate is £200,000-£300,000.
The auction features an interior by Sir John Lavery, The Hall, Argyll House, A summer’s day (1925). Argyll House on the King’s Road was home to Sybil Colefax and her husband Arthur in 1925. Known for her exceptional taste, she founded her business in the 1930’s and in 1938 was joined by John Fowler. Her business became known as Colefax & Fowler. The estimate is £100,000-£150,000.
Sir John Lavery – The Hall, Argyll House – A Summer Day, 1925. UPDATE: THIS MADE £157,500.
Roderic O’Conor, 1860-1940 – Breton Farmstead with Haystack, c1892 (€180,000-220,000). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Breton Farmstead with Haystack, a c1892 work by Roderic O’Conor, will highlight the Outstanding Irish Art evening auction at de Veres in Dublin on November 26. It is one of three oils by the artist in the sale, which also features leading lots by Walter Osborne, Jack B. Yeats, William Leech and Louis le Brocquy. There are important examples of work by Irish female artists Norah McGuinness, Mary Swanzy, Camille Souter, Grace Henry, Rose Barton, Letitia Hamilton, Nano Reid and Anne Madden. This will be the first in-room auction by de Veres since 2019 and it will be live online too.
Mary Swanzy HRHA, 1882-1978 – Cubist Still Life with Yellow Jug (€40,000-60,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 48,000 AT HAMMER
RODERIC O’CONOR (1860-1940) – MONTAGNE SAINTE-VICTOIRE. UPDATE: THIS MADE 12,500 AT HAMMER
Montagne Sainte-Victoire is a signature motif of Cezanne. This painting of the same mountain from a different vantage point by Roderic O’Conor is at Whyte’s sale of Important Irish Art on May 27. O’Conor, who was an early admirer of Cezanne, was in Cassis just 50 kilometres north Aix-en-Provence in 1913. The Irish artist has chosen to view the 1,000 metre-high limestone ridge from the south – departing from his hero’s unvarying profile view from the west. The small painting is estimated at 6,000-8,000. Whyte’s sale is now on view in Dublin and the catalogue is online.
RODERIC O’CONOR (1860-1940) – Marée Montante. UPDATE: THIS MADE £126,000
Marée Montante by Roderic O’Conor comes up at Christie’s Modern British and Irish art evening sale in London on March 20. The composition employs an unconventional perspective with an unusually high horizon line and a lack of traditional recession, reminiscent of the aesthetic language of Japanese wood-block prints so fascinating to fellow artistic pioneers around Pont-Aven at the time. This departure from the typical expansive landscape format plunges the viewer into a vertiginous exploration of vertical depth, evoking an awe-inspiring portrayal of the sea as a living, breathing entity. The work was exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1906 and it is estimated at £100,000-£150,000.
Le Loing at Sundown by Roderic O’Conor at Chorley’s of Cheltenham.
A spectacular work by Roderic O’Conor, Le Loing at Sundown, comes up at auctioneers Chorley’s of Cheltenham on October 18. From the collection of connoisseur Lt Colonel Murray Victor Burrow Hill, DSO, MC (1887-1986) and his descendants it is estimated at £40,000-£60,000 (€45,490-€68,230). It was sold at the O’Conor studio sale at Hotel Drouot in Paris in 1956 and exhibited in London in 1957, 1971 and 1994.
Landscape with Trees by Roderic O’Conor was the top lot at de Veres auction of art and sculpture in Dublin on May 14. It made a hammer price of €300,000. The Breaking Wave by Roderic O’Conor sold for €230,000 and Sea and Rocks made €70,000. Among the other hammer prices were: Moorland Water by Patrick Collins (€38,000); Rhapsody on a theme of Bird Houses and Ash Tree by Tony O’Malley (€36,000); The Catalan Mousetrap by Colin Middleton (€34,000); High Street, Rye by Walter Osborne (€30,000); Reclining Nude by Dan O’Neill (€28,500); River Sanctuary by Donald Teskey (€23,000) and Roadside Grasses, Donegal by Norah McGuinness (€20,000). There was plenty of interest in sculpture. Dialogue by Sonja Landweer made €15,000, Birdwatcher by F E McWilliam and Two Horses by Anthony Scott each made €14,500 and Surfer by Patrick O’Reilly made €10,500.
Roderic O’Conor – Rocks and Foam, St. Guenole, 1893. UPDATE: THIS MADE 352,800
A May celebration of Ireland by Sotheby’s in Paris will introduce Irish art to new European audiences and mark an important centenary. Bidding on Ireland / France: Art and Literature opens May 9. The online sale runs until May 16 and will be on view in the French capital from May 11 until May 14. The newly founded Irish state took part in a week long international conference in Paris in 1922 titled The World Congress of the Irish Race. Irish politicians, diaspora delegates, writers, artists and musicians all turned up with the intention of promoting Ireland on the world stage and highlighting our artistic and cultural uniqueness. The auction this month – staged in addition to the annual sale of Irish Art by Sotheby’s to be held in London next November – coincides with the centenary of that congress.
In 1922 the then capital of the art world was witness to a major, month long Irish art exhibition of three hundred works at Galeries Barbazanges.Sotheby’s will avail of the viewing to exhibit three works on loan from private collections. Two of them, The Rosary by Grace Henry and Market Day Mayo / The Long Car by Jack B Yeats, painted respectively in 1910 and 1920, were exhibited at l’Exposition d’Art Irlandais at Galeries Barbazanges. The third, The Bridge at the River Grez, was painted by John Lavery in 1883. Among the literary offerings are copies of Ulysses (first published in Paris in 1922) and Dubliners by James Joyce; Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnameable by Samuel Beckett and Stories of Red Hanrahan by William Butler Yeats. There is a death mask of James Joyce by Victor McCaughan.
William Scott – Bottle Still Life, 1958. UPDATE: THIS MADE 50,400
Irish art on offer at this auction spans different generations and styles. There are paintings by Jack B Yeats and Louis le Brocquy, Sir John Lavery and William Scott. Among our leading contemporary artists there is sculpture by Dorothy Cross, Rowan Gillespie and Patrick O’Reilly with painting by Hughie O’Donoghue and John Noel Smith. Cow up a Tree by the west Cork based Australian artist John Kelly is estimated at €24,000-€35,000. A French cafe scene from 1937 by Harry Kernoff – Sunday Evening, Place du Combat, Paris – is estimated at €40,000-€60,000. Head of a Breton boy by Roderic O’Conor dates to 1883 and is estimated at €60,000-€80,000. Work by Evie Hone, Mainie Jellett, Charles Lamb, Sean Keating, Sean O’Sullivan, Aloysius O’Kelly, Sean O’Sullivan, Sarah Purser, Mary Swanzy, William Orpen and Leo Whelan features too.Among the most expensively estimated lots are Rocks and Foam, St. Guenole, 1883 by Roderic O’Conor (€300,000-€500,000), A Stranger by Sir John Lavery and Quatre Poires by Roderic O’Conor each estimated at €120,000-€180,000 and Statue of the Fragonard, Grasse, 1920’s by William Leech (€30,000-€50,000). There is much here to interest the French, the Irish and members of the Irish diaspora and their descendants located right around the globe.
Roderic O’Conor (1860-1940) – Marine, au Clair de Lune
Roderic O’Conor’s Marine, au Clair de Lune made a hammer price of 160,000 euro at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin this evening. It had been estimated at 150,000-200,000. The Boat by Jack Butler Yeats made a hammer price of 150,000 over an estimate of 80,000-120,000. Wooded Defile with figures and distant castle by James Arthur O’Connor made 50,000 on the hammer, Girl with a Flower by Dan O’Neill made 38,000, a pen, ink and watercolour titled Porter by Yeats made 30,000 and so did Being by Louis le Brocquy.
Roderic O’Conor (1860-1940) Marine, au Clair de Lune. UPDATE: THIS MADE 160,000 AT HAMMER
This marine painting by Roderic O’Conor will highlight the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on March 30. It is estimated at €150,000-200,000. Another highlight is The Boat by Jack B. Yeats, a 1948 oil with an estimate of €80,000-120,000. The sale offers a rich selection of fine paintings and sculpture from some remarkable Dublin collections and includes many works that have not been seen on the art market in a very long time. There are works from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. The catalogue is online and in person viewing gets underway on March 25.
