Around €5 million worth of Irish art changed hands at Sotheby’s successful day of sales of Modern British and Irish Art and online Irish art today. The top Irish lot was Early Morning, Tangier by Sir John Lavery which made £340,000. The most expensively estimated Yeats of the sale, A Nor’ Western Town, estimated at £350,000-£550,000 and from the collection of Sir Michael Smurfit, failed to find a buyer. A Welcome by Yeats by £226,800 and Paul Henry’s West of Ireland Landscape made £327,600. The Village by the Lake by Paul Henry sold for £277,200.
At the online Irish art sale Lavery’s portrait of Mrs. Charles Baker made £214,000 and his Study for St. Patrick’s Purgatory, Lough Derg made £113,400. The Face of Victory by Yeats made £100,800, and Engravings by Yeats made £88,200. A Woman Thinking by Sir William Orpen made £81,500 and The Great Blasket by Paul Henry made £75,600. Are You There by Rowan Gillespie made £107,200, Eruption by Cian McLoughlin made £52,920, Heaven is a Place on Earth by Jack Coulter made £42,329 and Cook Shack by Leah Hewson made £8,190.
An important group of 17 paintings from the collection of Sir Michael Smurfit is at the core of Sotheby’s sales of Modern British and Irish Art and Irish Art online in London on November 23. Then 17 works carry a pre-sale estimate of €1.3 million – €2 million. Overall Sotheby’s estimate that more than 70 Irish works, from the 19th century to the present day and ranging from paintings to sculpture to ceramics, will make €3 million – €4.6 million. Sotheby’s has run a global campaign in support of these sales which feature Ireland’s most famous painters, Jack B. Yeats, Sir John Lavery, Sir William Orpen, Paul Henry, Louis le Brocquy and Gerard Dillon as well as contemporary artists like Jack Coulter. Most of these works have emerged from private collections and many are making their first appearance at auction. The most expensively estimated Irish painting in the auction is a 1936 oil on canvas by Yeats entitled A Nor’ Western Town (€412,000-€650,000). From a private collection in Ireland it was exhibited at a Yeats one man show in London in 1936 and at the National Gallery in 1942. Two Paul Henry’s, Connemara Landscape (€177,000-€236,000) and West of Ireland Landscape (€142,000-€212,000) are from a private US collection.A Welcome and South Pacific, both by Yeats and from the Smurfit collection, are estimated respectively at €177,000-€295,000 and €236,000-€354,000. Other highlights from Smurfit include Morning Tangier by Sir John Lavery and Image of W.B. Yeats by Louis le Brocquy. An oil on board by Gerard Dillon from a private collection in Northern Ireland is entitled Across from Inishlacken and estimated at €94,500-€142,000.The online sale features a 1949 Yeats entitled The Face of Victory (€83,000-€119,000) and The Newly Married Man by Sean Keaing from 1919 (€71,000-€95,000), both from a UK collection. The Artist’s Studio by Roderic O’Conor (€95,000-142,000) and Sir William Orpen’s Portrait of Grace (€59,000-€83,000). are both from the Smurfit collection. On the contemporary side there is a bronze by Rowan Gillespie entitled Are You There? (€47,300-€71,000) and Heaven is a Place on Earth by the Belfast artist Jack Coulter. Both of these works were made this year.
Rowan Gillespie – Are You There? at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE €107,100
Outstanding Irish art at de Veres will come under the hammer next Tuesday evening. This is a very good sale with top lots by Paul Henry estimated at €200,000-€300,000 and works by Roderic O’Conor and William Orpen each estimated at €150,000-€250,000. At Bonhams sale of Important British and Irish art at Bond St. in London on November 24 there are important works by William Scott, Paul Henry and John Luke. Bonhams Modern British and Irish art sale in Knightsbridge on Tuesday features a number of Irish artists as well.
On November 29 Whyte’s may yet steal the show this art selling season with a large scale late Yeats painting. Shouting, at €1.5 million – €2 million, is the most expensively estimated Irish artwork ever to come to auction. And James Adam will have a great sale on December 8.
THIS extremely rare copy of the First Printing of the Final Text of the United States Constitution sold for $43.2 million at Sotheby’s in New York last night. Making more than double the $20 million high estimate it set a world auction record for any book, manuscript, historical document, or printed text. The sale followed an eight minute bidding battle. The underbidder was Constitution DAO, a group of more than 17,000 people from around the world who banded together through social media within the last week to raise money to acquire the document, marking this cryptocurrency effort as the largest crowdfunding initiative ever put together. It is one of just 13 known copies of the official printing produced for the delegates to Constitutional Convention and for the Continental Congress, and only two copies of the first printing of the Constitution that remains in private hands. Full proceeds from the sale will benefit The Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation, whose mission is to further the understanding of the constitutional principles and how the acts of all citizens can impact our democracy.
**The previous world auction record for any printed text was $14,165,000 for the Bay Psalm Book sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2013
**The previous world auction record for any book and manuscript was $30,802,500 for The Codex Leicester sold at Christie’s in 1994
**The previous world auction record for any historical document was $21.3 million for the 1297 Magna Carta sold at Sotheby’s in 2007.
Nice to See You Again by Yoshitomo Nara made $15.4 million and was the top lot at Sotheby’s Now evening auction in New York last night. The monumental work epitomises the artist’s career-long exploration of themes of innocence, adolescence, and universal angst. Ostensibly innocuous, the rosy-cheeked, wide-eyed, kawaii girl peers toward the viewer with startling intensity; as one notices her chubby fist brandishing a knife however, any assumptions of vulnerability are undermined. Set against a vibrant periwinkle background Nara’s archetypal child is concurrently innocent and violent, docile and unruly, illustrating the radical potential of subversive and anarchic youth. The Now Evening Auction focussed on art executed in the last 20 years and brought in $71.8 million.
Sean Scully – Untitled (1993). UPDATE: THIS MADE £37,800
Untitled (1993) by Sean Scully comes up at Sotheby’s online auction of Irish art which opens today and runs until November 23. The watercolour and pencil on paper is estimated at £25,000-£35,000. The sale features a selection of works by contemporary artists in Ireland across paintings, sculpture, ceramics and pottery.
THE Modern evening auction at Sotheby’s in New York totalled $282.9 million. Claude Monet’s Coin du bassin aux nympheas was the top lot of the evening. It made $50.8 million. Frida Kahlo’s Diego y yo made $35.5 million, a new record both for the artist and for Latin American art.
The Macklowe Collection made a total $676.1 million at a white glove sale at Sotheby’s in New York last night. Highlights included Mark Rothko’s No. 7 which sold for $82.5 million, Albert Giacometti’s Le Nez which achieved $78.4 million, Jackson Pollock’s Number 17, 1951 which more than doubled its low estimate to achieve $61.2 million, a new artist record, and Cy Twombly’s monumental Untitledwhich sold for $58.9 million. The 35 pieces belonged to real estate mogul Harry Macklowe and his former wife Linda. The pair were told to sell the collection and split the proceeds during their 2018 divorce trial.
Major works by Jack Yeats, Paul Henry, Roderic O’Conor, Sir William Orpen, Louis le Brocquy and Colin Middleton at de Veres on November 23 will kick off a sizzling winter season of Irish art auctions in Dublin and London. A very fine sale has been put together by de Veres with works they claim could grace any national collection. Viewing gets underway at Kildare St. on November 18 and the full catalogue is online now. A still life by Roderic O’Conor is signed and dated 1921 in which year it was exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in Paris. O’Conor still lives from these years were well received and were acquired by the French State (now the Musee d’Orsay), Roger Fry, Clive Bell, Somerset Maugham, Alden Brooks, Charles Hall Thorndike and the Contemporary Art Society. This one is estimated at €150,000-€250,000. Another highlight with a similar estimate is William Orpen’s After the Ball, a work of imagination based on the Venice Carnivale.
There are four oils by Paul Henry with Lakeside Cottages and Fishing Boats, Dugort each estimated at €200,000-€300,000. The auction features an across the board selection at varying price points.
A Welcome by Jack B Yeats at Sothebys. UPDATE: THIS MADE £226,800
A Welcome by Jack B Yeats will highlight Sotheby’s offerings at their flagship Modern British and Irish art sale in London on November 23. Paintings of horses by Yeats, like this one, are particularly sought after. The auction will be followed by an online sale of Irish art on the same day. Over 70 works from Sotheby’s upcoming Irish art auction are on view at the RHA in Dublin this weekend. Viewing times are from 10 am to 5 pm today and 10 am to 3 pm tomorrow. The sale at Sotheby’s – supported by a global marketing campaign – will include property from the collection of Sir Michael Smurfit.
Four Pears by William Scott (1913-1989) from 1976 leads a strong selection of work by Irish artists at Bonhams Modern British and Irish art sale at New Bond St., London on November 24. Estimated at €180,000-€290,000 it has not been seen in public since 1980 when it was exhibited at Irish Art in the Seventies: The International Connection. Kieran O’Boyle, Bonhams representative in Ireland said: “This sale has a great representation of high quality works by Irish artists – from William Scott’s exquisite and subtle Four Pears to an archetypal Paul Henry and John Luke’s nostalgia filled Mountain Composition. Meantime Bonhams Modern British and Irish art sale in Knightsbridge on November 23 offers works by Patrick Hennessy, Pauline Bewick, Arthur Maderson, Graham Knuttel, Norah McGuinness, Markey Robinson and Augustus John. Whyte’s sale of Important Irish Art takes place in Dublin on November 29. The James Adam winter sale of Important Irish Art takes place on December 8.
HERE is a video on Monet’s Coin de basin aux nympheas from 1918 which will lead Sotheby’s Modern evening sale in New York on November 16. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $50,820,000
Banksy’s Trolley Hunters – a typically powerful, witty and prophetic critique of society’s often irrational predilection for processed and packaged products – will make its auction debut at Sotheby’s Now evening sale in New York on November 18. It is estimated at $5-7 million. Painted over 15 years ago as an indictment against the excesses of consumerist society, the painting has arguably never been as relevant as it is today, with the disruption to the global supply chain having exposed the fragility of our fast-paced consumerist eco-system. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $6.6 MILLION
