ALTHOUGH Christie's is holding the earlier of this month's two major Irish sales in London Sotheby's was the first to hold a preview of what will be in store.
A selection of paintings from the New Bond Street auction on Thursday, May 22nd, has been hung in Newman House in Dublin, where it may still be seen until 4 p.m. today.
Although by no means all of the 374 lots are on show, there is enough there to give a very good idea of what will do particularly well in the auction.
Last year's Irish sale at Sotheby's included a Jack B Yeats painting, A Farewell to Mayo, which at £730,000 set a new world record for this artist, helped perhaps by the knowledge that it had been bought in the 1940s by Laurence Olivier for his then-wife Vivien Leigh.
While it is unlikely this price will be matched, one work by Yeats in the forthcoming sale should benefit from similar associations. Lingering Sun, O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, and dating from 1927, was for many years owned by the late film director John Huston during the time he lived in St Cleran's, Co Galway. It is not a particularly large canvas (2ft x 3ft) but it is boldly and darkly painted and carries an estimate of £1 50,000-£200,000.
Another Yeats, The Face in the Shadow, has the same dimensions but carries double the estimate; a glowing, relatively late work (1946), it should make the sale's highest price, although a couple of other Yeats canvases (Wind from the Sea and The Expected) ought also to perform well.
Jack B Yeats is not the only artist to be heavily represented at the Sotheby's sale. There are no less than nine pictures by Gerard Dillon, his The Evening Star carrying the highest estimate of £8,000-£12,000. Colin Middleton also has nine pictures in the sale, while the prolific Sir John Lavery has 10, the best of them a handsome portrait of Katherine Juliette Felicite Vulliamy (estimate £40,000-£60,000) and a seascape called Where the Atlantic and Mediterranean Meet (£30,000-£40,000).
Of the Orpen works in this sale, undoubtedly the most attractive is a portrait of Chilean-born socialite Eugenia Errazuriz called The Green Lady (£120,000-£160,000), a dashing picture reminiscent of Sir Thomas Lawrence's work. Equally fine are two Roderic O'Conor paintings, Marine au Clair de Tune, a seascape (£140,000-£180,000) and Etude (Femme a Contre-Jaur), with an estimate of £50,000-70,000.
In addition, there is an identical version of Walter Osborne's The Tustre Jug to that in the National Gallery of Ireland (£60,000 £80,000), an interesting Mary Swanzy oil from 1929 called Levanto on the Italian Riviera (£10,000 £15,000), William Leech's The Fish-Market, Concarneau (£50,000-£70,000) and a dainty glass panel, Titania Enchanting Bottom by Harry Clarke (£10,000-£15,000).
As before, the Sotheby's sale also contains some glass (a pair of vases and covers, circa 1820, £800-£1,200), silver (a George II strawberry dish by John Hamilton of Dublin (£6,000-£8,000) and Belleek (a pair of rare first period Turnip vases - £500-£700 each).
And the auction will open with a small selection of furniture. The 47 lots include a mid-19th century carved teak and oak console table, which may have been commissioned for Castletown House, Co Kildare (£800-£1,200); an oak library bookcase, the design attributed to Thomas Hopper (£15,000-£20,000); a carved giltwood and gesso looking glass dating from circa 1760 (also £15,000-£20,000), and a mahogany secretaire cabinet from circa 1750 that is being sold by the Hon Desmond Guinness (£30,000-£40,000).
