JACK B YEATS – SHOUTING UPDATE: THIS MADE €1.4 MILLION AT HAMMER
Viewing gets underway at the RDS today for Whyte’s sale of Important Irish art on November 29. The most expensively estimated Irish artwork ever to come to auction is the leading lot at the sale. Shouting, an epic large scale work by Jack B Yeats, is estimated at €1.5 million – €2 million. Painted in 1950 it was described by Hilary Pyle, author of the Yeats Catalogue Raisonne, as one of the artists finest achievements in these late visionary paintings. With three boisterous companions, a seaman, a jockey and a ballad singer, on an open bogland it brings together diverse memories and motifs from earlier paintings and illustrations.
There is art by Dan O’Neill, Grace Henry, Percy French, Letitia Hamilton, Cecil Maguire, Patrick Collins, Louis le Brocquy, Evie Hone, Tony O’Malley and John Shinnors among the 154 lots on offer. The catalogue is online.
Meantime bidding on Morgan O’Driscoll’s current online auction of Irish art runs until next Tuesday at 6.30 pm. The sale is on view in Skibbereen today and on Monday and Tuesday. There is art by Donald Teskey, Cecil Maguire, Yeats, Arthur Maderson, Kenneth Webb and many more.
Should it make or exceed the top estimate Shouting, an epic large scale 1950 work by Jack B. Yeats at Whyte’s on November 29, will become the most expensive Irish painting ever sold at auction. Already the estimate of €1.5-€2 million makes this late work the most expensively estimated Irish artwork ever to appear in the saleroom. It has been on loan to the University of Limerick Art Gallery since 2009.
JACK B YEATS – SHOUTING. UPDATE: THIS MADE €1.4 MILLION AT HAMMER
There is art by Daniel O’Neill, Grace Henry, Percy French, Letitia Hamilton, Cecil Maguire, Patrick Collins, Louis le Brocquy, Evie Hone, Tony O’Malley, John Shinnors, Anthony Scott and others. The venue for this evening sale is the RDS, and viewing is from 10 am to 5 pm daily from November 27.
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.
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.
Whyte’s will encourage new entrants to the art market as well as existing collectors with a timed online autumn art auction of 291 lots which runs to October 18. There are artworks with estimates of from €80 to €5,000. Stalwarts like Louis le Brocquy, Norah McGuinness, Norman McCaig, Gretta O’Brien, Liam Treacy, Arthur Maderson, Markey Robinson, Robert Ballagh, Damien Hirst, Albert Irvin, Hughie O’Donoghue, Donald Teskey, Anita Shelbourne, John Kingerlee, Brian Maguire, Michael Cullen, Camille Souter and many more celebrated artists are all represented.
Boat to Inishbofin by Norman McCaig (1929-2001). UPDATE: THIS MADE 750 AT HAMMER
This 1943 painting of Loughshinny Harbour, Co. Dublin by Patrick Leonard made a hammer price of €34,000 at Whyte’s Irish and International Art auction on May 31. It had been estimated at €12,000-€18,000 and was a new record for an oil by the artist (a pastel made €40,000 in 2006). The sale grossed just under €900,000 with 80% of the 160 lots sold. The top price was €160,000 for a Jack Yeats oil depicting a horse and jockey – Muldoon and Rattlesnake, €10,000 above the top estimate. Seán Keating’s Thinking Out Gobnet – including a portrait of Harry Clarke in the scene – made €58,000 while an ink drawn illustration by Harry Clarke sold for over twice its pre-sale estimate at €12,500.
Yellow Red (1994), an etching 18/30 by Sean Scully at Whyte’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE 7,000 AT HAMMER
Encompassing everything from genre paintings, still life, abstract art, landscapes and Saint Gobnait to an original copy of the Irish Proclamation and a large bronze plaque made for An Tostal in 1953 the art sales at Whyte’s on Monday and Adams next Wednesday are brimful of interest. Given that collectors have adjusted remarkably well to the online model it seems safe to predict that there will be no shortage of competitive bidding for the 160 works on offer at Whyte’s and the 149 at Adams. In a welcome move towards normality the easing of Covid restrictions allows viewing for these sales by appointment. Online or in person there is much to see and appreciate. Whyte’s kicks off online on May 31 at 6 pm. Sean Keating painted his friend Harry Clarke thinking about St. Gobnait on the Aran Islands while working on a commission for his series of eleven windows at the Honan Chapel in Cork. The acclaimed windows were installed in 1916. Gobnait is traditionally associated with Ballyvourney in Co. Cork and with the Aran Islands. The resultant oil painting by Keating – exhibited at the RHA in 1918 – is lot 45 at Whyte’s, with an estimate of €50,000-€70,000.Along with Yeats and Keating, Whyte’s has work by artists including Cedil Maguire, Nathaniel Hone, Walter Osborne, Charlotte MacCausland, Harry Kernoff, Patrick Leonard, William Leech, Mary Swanzy, Maurice MacGonigal, Dan O’Neill, Tony O’Malley, Louis le Brocquy, Sean Scully, Donald Teskey and many others. A bronze An Tostal commemorative plaque celebrating Irish life by the sculptor Gabriel Hayes (1909-1978) is estimated at €3,000-€4,000 and there are prints by Bob Dylan and David Bowie with estimates from €1,200 to €3,000.
Over the Estuary by John Shinnors at James Adam. UPDATE: THIS MADE 30,000 AT HAMMER
Original copies of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic are always much sought after. The one at Adams next Wednesday evening, signed by the printer Christopher Brady and obtained in Sackville St. on Easter Monday, 1916, has an estimate of €150,000. The sky and sea are made of blues, blacks and purples in William Croziers’ structural landscape The Inlet which Adams estimate at €20,000-€30,000. There is a more traditional approach in Cottages in Achill by Paul Henry (€140,000-€160,000) while the acclaimed Limerick artist John Shinnors took inspiration from the River Shannon for his magnificent and dynamic oil on canvas diptych Over the Estuary (€30,000-€50,000). Camille Souters’ Cycling to Chioggia, a little town south of Venice, is a memory painting from 1961 that was once in the collection of Sir Basil Goulding. It is estimated at €15,000-€25,000. Another memory jogger is an Elkington and Co. bronze of Oliver Goldsmith after John Henry Foley RA RHA (1818-1874). The estimate here is €3,000-€4,000. In a Dublin Waxworks by Jack B Yeats (€60,000-€100,000) once in the collection of the late Garech Browne at Luggala, recalls a popular attraction in the capital until it was burnt down during the 1916 Rising.
A White Star Line illustrated promotional booklet from 1911 showing Olympic and Titanic was the sleeper lot at Whyte’s Eclectic Collector sale in Dublin. The 72 page booklet made €5,800 over a top estimate of €300. The auction grossed €600,000 with over 90% of lots sold. More than 1,000 bidders registered online.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for May 8, 2021)
In the Scorsese film The Irishman hitman Frank Sheehan, played by Robert de Niro, says he “paints houses”. This is Mafia slang for killing people. The phrase was also used by the IRA in Ireland’s War of Independence. One of their favourite weapons was a Mauser pistol nicknamed “Peter the Painter”. A fine example of this deadly weapon, now deactivated, comes up at Whyte’s timed online Eclectic Collector sale on May 15 and 16. Bidding is now open. The Mauser at Whyte’s has a history of ownership going back to an IRA Volunteer in Co. Kildare. Lot 168 is estimated at €4,000-€6,000.
This annual sale, which attracts collectors from around the world, offers a mix of historical artefacts, manuscripts, books, maps, militaria, coins, banknotes, tribal objects and even rare whiskies.
A Mauser pistol at Whyte’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE €6,000 AT HAMMER
Waiting for the Ferry, low tide by Jack B. Yeats UPDATE: THIS MADE 135,000 AT HAMMER
A lone figure stands at the waters edge in Waiting for the Ferry, Low Tide, 1946. This enigmatic Yeats work is the catalogue cover lot at Whyte’s evening sale of Important Irish and International Art in Dublin on March 22. It was acquired by American sculptor Helen Hooker O’Malley in the same year that she sought a divorce from the Irish revolutionary Ernie O’Malley. The O’Malleys were important collectors of Yeats in the 1930’s and ’40’s. His collection, sold by Whyte’s and Christie’s in Dublin in 1919, grossed €5.5 million. She bought it from Leo Smith, who had been co-director of the Waddington Gallery in Dublin before setting up the Dawson Gallery in 1944. Helen gifted it to Liam Redmond, with whom she founded the Dublin Players Theatre in 1944, and it is now estimated at €100,000-€150,000. Redmond was married to Barbara MacDonagh, daughter of poet Thomas MacDonagh who was executed after the 1916 Rising.
Share the Feeling by John Behan. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,500 AT HAMMER
The virtual auction of 153 lots features work by sculptors John Behan and Rowan Gillespie, paintings by Louis le Brocquy, Paul Henry, Patrick Scott, Camille Souter, William Crozier, James Humbert Craig, Gladys Maccabe, Dan O’Neill and international artists Tracey Emin, Bob Dylan and Damien Hirst.Francis Bacon and Louis le Brocquy met in the 1940’s in London and remained friends until Bacon’s death in 1992. Bacon penned the introduction to a le Brocquy retrospective in 1966. It was not until 1979 that le Brocquy created an image of Bacon and it was one of the few portraits of people he knew personally. His oil of canvas Image of Francis Bacon is estimated at €120,000-€150,000. A watercolour image of Beckett, estimated at €15,000-€20,000, is one of a number of works by le Brocquy in this sale. Spring in Wicklow, a 1920’s landscape by Paul Henry is estimated at €150,000-€200,000. There is much Irish work to choose from with art by Tony O’Malley, Donald Teskey, John Shinnors, William Crozier, John Kingerlee and others. Among these is a still life by Christy Brown with an estimate of €2,000-3,000.A small oil on canvas of ships in moonlight by the noted Dutch artist Johnan Barthold Jongkind (1819-1891) is estimated at €8,000-€12,000. A 2019 lithograph by Tracey Emin (75/200) entitled I Loved my Innocence has an estimate of €3,000-€4,000 and two unnumbered etchings by Damien Hirst from an edition of 68 are each estimated at €1,000-€1,500. Bob Dylan’s are has proved popular in Ireland at past sales and this auction offers three prints by the American singer songwriter at estimates ranging from €1,200 to €5,000.
