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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.
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.
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’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.
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.
AFTER the bidding battle Orpen’s After the Ballwas knocked down for a hammer price of 310,000 at de Veres sale of outstanding Irish art in Dublin this evening. Lakeside Cottages by Paul Henry made 215,000 and a still life by Roderic O’Conor made 150,000. The Waterfall by Jack B Yeats made 135,000 but Fishing Boats, Dugort by Paul Henry was unsold. Night Rider by Basil Blackshaw made 90,000, Cottages Connemara by Paul Henry and Forgive us our trespasses by Gerard Dillon each made 75,000, Coastal Narrative III by Donald Teskey made 40,000, Winter Trees by Paul Henry made 80,000 and Roderic O’Conors Still Life with Cauliflower, vase of flowers and a platter made 65,000.
BREEZE by Roderic O’Conor will come up at Sotheby’s sale of 19th century European art in New York on January 31. The 1898 seascape is from the collection of J.E. Safra. It is estimated at $70,000-100,000.
With major works from Roderic O’Conor and Jack B. Yeats Irish art from Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale at the RDS in Dublin on October 21 goes on view in London on October 14 and 15. The venue is La Galleria on Pall Mall. Mr. O’Driscoll started London viewings for his most important sales of Irish and International Art in latter years and has found new buyers for Irish art as a result. The catalogue, which includes work by Andy Warhol, Bridget Riley, Tony Cragg, Alex Katz and Robert Motherwell, for the sale is online and London viewing gets underway at the RDS on October 18.
Breton Boy in Profile by Roderic O’Conor sold for £419,250 at Christie’s in London. This was more than three times the estimate of £120,000-180,000. The work, signed and dated O’Conor/’93, was from the collection of Drue Heinz which Christie’s has been offering in London and New York this year.
The top lot of the sale was The Family of Man by Dame Barbara Hepworth which made £3.8 million. There was a new world record for Dame Elisabeth Frink whose Running Man (Front Runner) sold for £1,091,250.
RODERIC O’CONOR
1860-1940 ‘ROMEO AND JULIET’
At Sotheby’s in London today Romeo and Juliet by Roderic O’Conor was the top lot in what was the most valuable sale of Irish art so far this year. It made £364,000 in the sale of the Brian P. Burns collection which brought in a total of £3,307,375, the highest total for a private collection of Irish art sold at auction. It was one of eleven lots from an auction of 100 Irish paintings which crashed through the £100,000 barrier.
Armistice Day, November 11th 1918, Grosvenor Place, London by Sir John Lavery
The others were Seascape, Orange and Red Rocks by Roderic O’Conor (£100,000) Red Rocks, Brittany by Roderic O’Connor (£100,000) Armistice Day, November 11th 1918 by Sir John Lavery (£250,000) Seated Boy and Sea by Walter Osborne (£137,500) Misty Morning by Jack B. Yeats (£286,000) St. Patrick’s Hall, Dublin Castle by F J Davis (£243,750) The Lonely Sea by Jack B. Yeats (£125,000) The Beach, Tangier by Sir John Lavery (£100,000) Harmsworth Interior Portrait by Sir William Orpen (£112,500) and The Laugh by Jack B Yeats (£225,000).
Sir John Lavery’s Armistice Day, November 11th 1918 was acquired by the Imperial War Museums. Self Portrait with Palette by Kathleen Fox was acquired by the National Self Portrait Collection at the University of Limerick.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland,com for November 17 and August 22, 2018).
