OBVIOUSLY hoping to repeat the success enjoyed by de Vere's Irish art sale in the National Concert Hall last week, the James Adam salesroom hosts its own similar auction next Wednesday from 2.15 p.m. In this case, the centrepiece is a large oil by Leech showing a tennis court from the oblique angle of an upstairs window.
Leech, of course, has been the subject of an exhibition at the National Gallery last year and a monograph by Denise Ferran; she will be giving a free talk on the artist in the Adam salesrooms tomorrow at 2 p.m. The Leech exhibition itself opens in the Ulster Museum next week. All this attention should do no harm to the oil on sale, which carries an estimate of £30,000-£40,000.
Although no other painting is likely to approach this price, there are plenty of other well-known names in this auction, including Paul Henry - the best-seller at the de Vere sale - who is represented by a typical Connemara view of stacked turf and cottages (estimate £14,000-£18,000); there is also a charming work by Grace Henry, with the more modest estimate of £500-£800.
Another low estimate - £800-£1,200 - is attached to a Lavery watercolour, but prices are certain to rise for a pair of oils by George Russell (£1,000-£1,500 and £4,500-£6,000 respectively), as well as for a Norah McGuinness gouache view of Limerick (£2,500-£4,000) and a large Colin Middleton canvas called The Power and the Glory and inscribed to art dealer Victor Waddington (£10,000-£15,000).
The artist Paul Nietsche, who died in 1950 but seems to be coming back into favour at the moment, is represented by two pictures, one a rather sombre view of the Mountains of Mourne (£2,000-£3,000), the other a sunnier work, called In the Glens of Antrim (£1,500-£2,500). Other paintings which will attract plenty of interest include a Nano Reid female portrait (£2,500-£3,500), a Frank McKelvey work of chickens feeding in the snow (£6,000-£8,000), a James Humbert Craig painting of two men playing golf (£4,000-£6,000) and an early (1903) Jack B. Yeats of a cock in a wood (£5,000-£7,900).
