Lavery’s portrait of The Lady Parmoor is lot 18 at Whyte’s sale of Irish and International Art in Dublin on September 26. According to the catalogue note by Professor Kenneth McConkey the sitter, Marion Emily Ellis became the second Baroness Parmoor in July of that year. The portrait may have been painted as a wedding gift from Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor. They were both staunch anti-war Liberals. Her mother, Maria Rowntree, was of a Quaker philanthropic York family and Marion had been an implacable campaigner against conscription, narrowly escaping imprisonment for her convictions. During the twenties she and her husband veered increasingly towards the Labour Party, he becoming Leader of the House of Lords and a supporter of Ramsay MacDonald. The portrait is estimated at 40,000-60,000.
Artists in the sale include Jack Butler Yeats, Roderic O’Conor, John Lavery, Seán Keating, Norah McGuinness, Harry Kernoff, Mainie Jellett, Colin Middleton, Grace Henry, William Scott, Pauline Bewick, Louis le Brocquy, John Shinnors, Donald Teskey, Joseph Edward Southall and Bob Dylan. Viewing gets underway today at Whyte’s on Molesworth St., Dublin and the sale is at 6 pm next Monday at Freemason’s Hall. In person, online, telephone and absentee bidding is available.
