PAUL HENRY, R.H.A. (1876-1958) – The Fairy Thorn (1925). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd. 2026. UPDATE: THIS MADE £200,000 AT HAMMER (£256,000).
The Fairy Thorn by Paul Henry, Landline Crimson by Sean Scully, The Clown of Ocean by Jack B Yeats and Table with Still Life, No. 2 by William Scott will come under the hammer at Christie’s Modern British and Irish art evening sale in London on October 21. They are among the 39 lots on offer. Art by Yeats, Gerard Dillon, Roderic O’Conor and William Scott will feature in the day sale on October 22.
The Fairy Thorn was first exhibited in New York in 1929 as part of the landmark Contemporary Irish Art: First American Exhibition. There it was acquired by Mr and Mrs John J. Raskob and has been in the same collection since. Rather than depicting the hawthorn in its spring bloom, its branches filled with feathery leaves and delicate white flowers, Henry portrays the bare branches of winter, emphasising the dramatic, dynamic bent of the tree, the result of years spent bracing itself against the buffeting winds and strong gales along the Atlantic coast. The estimate is £100,000-£150,000. There is a similar estimate on The Clown of Ocean by Yeats.
The Cottage Window by Gerard Dillon at the day sale on October 23 has been in the same collection since 1950 and is estimated at £70,000-£100,000.
GERARD DILLON, R.H.A (1916-1971) – The Cottage Window, painted c1950. UPDATE: THIS MADE £256,000
Evie Hone – Abstract Composition c1931. UPDATE: THIS MADE 52,000 AT HAMMER
Scott, Osborne, Henry, Scully, Hone and Le Brocquy head an impressive roll call of Irish artists at the Irish and international art auction by Morgan O’Driscoll’s which ends from 6.30 pm next Tuesday evening (October 20). This sale of great interest to collectors seeking top quality Irish works by some of the country’s most enduringly popular artists is on view at the RDS this weekend.
The catalogue cover lot is a c1931 Abstract Composition by Evie Hone (€50,000-€70,000) once in the collection of the French composer César Geoffray. Walter Osborne’s In the Market Place, Bruges (1882) (€70,000-€100,000) is an important early work. There is a similar estimate on Untitled No. 9 (1982), an oil, oil stick and acrylic on paper by Sean Scully. Two Pears (1977) by William Scott is, at €80,000-€100,000, the most expensively estimated lot in the auction.
Even if it helps art collectors do not need to be monied and along with highly prized expensive art the auction offers some very affordable pieces with estimates from €300 up. Among the lots at the other end of the scale is a watercolour by Frank McKelvey (€600-€900), a pencil drawing by John Butler Yeats (€500-€700), a gouache of Daffodils by Mainie Jellett (€800-€1,200) and a Havana photograph by John Minihane (€300-€500).
The numerous highlights on offer include art by Jack B Yeats, Mary Swanzy, Sir John Lavery, Donald Teskey, William Crozier, John Doherty, Colin Middleton, Dan O’Neill, Tony O’Malley and Daniel MacLise. All of them feature in an online catalogue that is brimful of interest.
John Doherty – Fruit and Fanta, McCarthy’s Bar, Dingle (2006) UPDATE: THIS MADE 19,000 AT HAMMER
The Pedlar’s Cart, Achill by Paul Henry at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Opportunity knocks for serious collectors at sales by Sotheby’s in London next Wednesday evening (October 14) and at Morgan O’Driscoll on October 20. A group of nine Irish paintings by Yeats, Orpen, O’Conor, Henry, Dillon and Lavery from a private collection at Sotheby’s have a combined estimate of £1.4 million (€1.6 million). Two more works are on offer for private sale. The Amateur Ventriloquist, September Gale and Galway by Jack B Yeats, Little Spanish Dancer girl in Red Shawl and Midday on the Beach by Sir William Orpen, Red Rocks and Foam by Roderic O’Conor, The Potato Harvest, Pedlar’s Cart Achill and A Winter Sea by Paul Henry, Boys Catching crabs in Connemara by Gerard Dillon and Tennis, Hotel Beau Site, Cannes by Sir John Lavery are all available.
The top seven lots at Morgan O’Driscolls sale, on view in Skibbereen until October 12 and at the RDS from next Friday until Monday October 19, have a combined top estimate of over €600,000. William Scott’s Two Pears (1977) is estimated at €80,000-€100,000. In the Market Place of Bruges by Walter Osborne, The Shower by Paul Henry and Untitled No. 9 (1982) by Sean Scully are each estimated at €70,000-€100,000. Abstract Composition by Evie Hone, Achill Cottages by Paul Henry and Reconstructed Head of a Child (1968) by Louis le Brocquy are each estimated at €50,000-€70,000. Among 172 lots on offer at Morgan O’Driscoll there is likely to be much local interest in a brilliant c1835 oil on canvas by Daniel Maclise entitled The Fortune Teller (€15,000-€25,000).
Two Pears by William Scott at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
William Scott – Still Life on White with Beans UPDATE: THIS MADE 150,000 AT HAMMER
Green beans on a white plate inspired William Scott in 1978, a red pumpkin was all world renowned Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama needed. These are revolutionary artworks while the subject of a 1922 drawing by Hazel Lavery is a revolutionary. Her pencil portrait of Michael Collins was made in May of 1922, just a few months before his assassination at Beal na mBlath.
All these works feature at Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale of Irish and International Art on April 21 on view in Skibbereen until April 13 and at the RDS in Dublin from April 17-20. The catalogue cover lot is William Scott’s Still Life on White with Beans (€120,000-€180,000). In a note about the painting Peter Murray remarks that since the 1930’s, perhaps more than any other Irish artist of the 20th century apart from Jack Yeats, Scott’s work has been exhibited worldwide.
Still Life on White with Beans contains the essential elements of abstraction for which he became renowned, Murray writes: “The square format suited his search for simplicity. Colour has been reduced to the simple monochrome tones of grey, white and green”. First shown at Gallery Moos in Toronto in 1978 the oil on canvas measures 24″ x 24″.
There are two other works by William Scott in the auction, Pear and Grapes and Table Top Still Life. Each gouache of paper dates to 1975 and each is estimated at €15,000-€25,000.
Yayoi Kusama – Red Pumpkins. UPDATE: THIS MADE 850 AT HAMMER
Kusama’s Red Pumpkin is a playful painted cast resin piece published by Benesse Holdings, Naoshima, Japan. Stamped on the base and in a box it is estimated at €400-€600.
Hazel Lavery is best known nowadays as the subject of numerous portraits painted by her husband John Lavery. She too was a talented artist who had studied in America and France. It is not known when the Lavery’s first met Michael Collins, who moved to London in 1906. After the Easter Rising the Lavery’s used their social connections and friendship with Collins to facilitate negotiations between Ireland and Britain. Hazel Lavery made this head and shoulders portrait with Collins in three quarter profile when he was leading the Irish delegation negotiating the Treaty. It is signed and dated May 1922.
Hazel Lavery – Portrait of Michael Collins (1922) UPDATE: THIS MADE 10,000 AT HAMMER
The sale offers 156 lots of great variety. Mrs. Harrington’s Horses by Peter Curling (€7,000-€10,000) shows six chestnut racehorses from Jessica Harrington’s Commonstown Stud near Moone in Co. Kildare being exercised. The focus of Still Life (1984) by William Crozier (€3,000-€5,000) is flowers in a vase against an arresting blue and yellow background. Cottages in a Landscape by Paul Henry (€25,000-€35,000) is a small, spirited oil on panel probably painted on Achill and P2.05 (2005) by Charles Tyrrell (€1,000-€1,500) is an abstract rectangular oil on aluminium.
There is a selection of sculpture by John Behan, Patrick O’Reilly, Rowan Gillespie, Ana Duncan, Imogen Stuart and others. Many of Ireland’s favourite painters including artists Percy French, Arthur Maderson, Sean Scully, Sean MacSweeney, Hughie O’Donoghue, Jack B Yeats, Colin Middleton, Letitia Hamilton, Donald Teskey, Louis le Brocquy, John Shinnors, Richard Gorman, Dan O’Neill, Mainie Jellett, William Leech, Graham Knuttel and Roderic O’Conor are in the auction.
On the international side Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Mr. Brainwash, Damien Hirst, Jacob Epstein, Salvador Dali all feature in a catalogue that is brimful of interest and online too. Lots from Morgan O’Driscoll’s upcoming auction of jewellery on April 22 will also be on view at the RDS.
William Crozier – Still Life (1984). UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,800 AT HAMMER
WILLIAM SCOTT, R.A. (1913-1989) – Orange Still Life with Figure. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £247,650
William Scott’s Orange Still Life with Figure dates to 1956/7 and comes up at Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art evening sale in London on March 18. The oil on canvas is from an American collection and estimated at £50,000-£350,000. The auction is led by Frank Auerbach’s Christmas Tree at Mornington Crescent (2004–05) described as a triumphant celebration of paint’s power to capture a landscape rich in memory. The estimate is £1.5 million – £2 million. There are 26 lots in the sale.
Enrico Prampolini – Compoizione Speziale B,1950-1951 UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
An abstract by Italian Futurist Enrico Prampolini, a lithograph by William Scott, three classic Andy Warhol Marilyn’s and a collection of mobile works on paper by Alexander Calder feature at the online modern and contemporary art sale by Lismore based Lot 100 which runs from January 29 to February 10.
Prampolini’s Compoizione Speziale B was exhibited at Italy’s National Gallery of Modern Art in 1961. The tempura on paper dates to 1950-51 and is estimated at €6,000-€8,000. Italian Futurists do not feature regularly at auction in Ireland and this work highlights how Lot 100, now in its second year of operation, is bringing a different set of offerings. Warhol’s Marilyn’s, from the Sunday B. Morning screenprint series are each estimated at €800-€1,000. There are mobile lithographs by Alexander Calder (€250-€600) who will be the subject of a solo show at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris from April 15 to August 16. A screenprint triptych of skateboards by Basquiat is estimated at €600-€800 and William Scott’s Dead Fish, a lithograph from 1970, is estimated at €800-€1,000.
Among the artists in the auction are Matisse, Sean Keating, Charles Tyrrell, Joan Miro, Norman McCaig,, Maurice MacGonigal, Patricia Jorgensen and Henry Moore.
William Scott (1913-1989) – Arran 1960. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This lithograph by William Scott, number 32 from an edition of 50, is at Whyte’s Spring online art sale which runs until March 24. Printed at the Curwen Studio and published by Johanna Schiessel Abstracta-Verlag, Freiberg it is estimated at €2,500-€3,500. Among the artists represented are William Orpen, Mary Swanzy, George Campbell, Gerard Dillon, Patrick Collins, William Scott, Robert Ballagh, Louise Mansfield, Harry Kernoff, John ffrench and Auguste Edouart. A set of four silhouettes by Edouart is estimated at €1,000-€1,500. The sale is on view at Whyte’s in Dublin from March 18.
Auguste Edouart (French 1789-1861) – A set of four silhouettes, three signed and dated. UPDATE: THIS LOT WAS UNSOLD
WILLIAM SCOTT, R.A. (1913-1989) – Blue Cup and Pears sold for £289,000 over a top estimate of £180,000
The Modern British and Irish Art evening sale at Christie’s in London realised a total of £23,781,300 / $30,226,032 / €27,776,558, a 23% increase year on year. Registered bidders from 15 countries highlighted the global appeal of Modern British and Irish artists. The sale was led by L.S. Lowry’s masterpiece Sunday Afternoon, which sold for £6,290,000, the second highest price achieved for a work by Lowry at auction. The painting was presented from the Collection of Sir Keith and Lady Showering and had not been exhibited publicly for 57 years.
The appeal of female artists continued as Women’s History Month is celebrated. Pauline Boty’s powerful tribute to Marilyn Monroe, Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give realised a world auction record for the artist (£1,310,500). Barbara Hepworth’s Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red, a unique hand-carved work that fuses the constructivist principles Hepworth had pioneered in the late-1930s and a newly awakened sensibility towards her local landscape in Cornwall, achieved £3,549,000.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for February 9, February 21 and March 13, 2024)
PAUL HENRY RHA (1876-1958) – COTTAGES BY A LAKE, ACHILL, CONNEMARA MADE 220,000 AT HAMMER
Paul Henry’s Cottages by a Lake, Achill, Connemara was the top lot at Whyte’s sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin this evening. It made a hammer price of €220,000. Jug and Pear 1983 by William Scott made €120,000 at hammer, Waves at Bowmore, Rosses Point 1936 by Jack B Yeats made 85,000 and The Last General Absolution of the Munsters at Rue du Bois by Fortunino Matania made 61,000. Among the other leading prices A Professional Man by Jack B Yeats made 34,000, Little Waves, Achill by Grace Henry made 30,000, Tide Coming In, Ballycastle, Co. Mayo made 28,000, Fair Day, Roundstone 1959 by Frank McKelvey made 26,000, Autumn Coastline by Donald Teskey made 18,000, Sunshower by Dan O’Neill made 18,000, Wild Cherry by Norah McGuinness made 14,000, Like a Dream by Barbara Warren made 12,500, Beyond the Bog by Patrick Collins made 11,500, Captive Man of ’83 from 1983 by Rowan Gillespie made 11,500, Surface, 1995 by Linda Brunker made 9,500 and a Facsimile of the Book of Kells made 18,000.
In the catalogue note to Barbara Warren’s Like a Dream estimated at €4,000-€6,000 (pictured below) Adelle Hughes of Whyte’s pointed out that the work feels distinctly Modern and European yet the feeling it inspires also sits comfortably within the traditional West of Ireland scene. Warren’s death at the age of 91 in 2017 marked the end of a living connection to a generation of pioneering Irish female artists like Mainie Jellett, Evie Hone, May Guinness, Norah McGuinness and Elizabeth Rivers who, like Warren, studied in Paris with Andre Lhote.
UPDATE: THE AUCTION REALISED 1.2 MILLION
BARBARA WARREN – LIKE A DREAM MADE 12,500 AT HAMMER
WILLIAM SCOTT CBE RA (1913-1989) – JUG AND PEAR, 1983 UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 120,000 AT HAMMER
Jug and Pear, an oil on canvas by William Scott, is among the highlights at Whyte’s sale of Important Irish Art on March 11. Signed and dated, and with exhibition labels on the reverse, it is estimated at €120,000-€180,000. The catalogue for the sale is online and it includes work by Paul Henry, Jack Butler Yeats, Lilian Lucy Davidson, Frank McKelvey, Grace Henry, Harry Kernoff, Nano Reid, Norah McGuinness, George Campbell, Daniel O’Neill, Barbara Warren, Patrick Collins, William Scott, Louis le Brocquy, Donald Teskey, Linda Brunker and many more well known artists.
