Christie's has announced details of its third Irish art sale, which will be held on Friday, May 22nd. Last year, the auction house realised four world records for works by artists from Ireland: John Luke, Harry Clarke, William Turner de Lond and Louis Le Brocquy. In an attempt to encourage interest both here and abroad, a selection of the pictures on offer will be touring Ireland, England and the US.
These viewings began in Christie's's New York and Boston premises earlier this week, and will move to Cultra Manor, Belfast, at the end of the month.
They will go on show at the Hotel Conrad, Dublin, on May 4th and 5th before travelling back to London, where the previews include an Ireland Fund dinner on the eve of the sale. As usual, all the major late 19th and 20th century Irish artists will be represented, with a particularly emphasis on Sir William Orpen. Christie's is especially pleased with an Orpen canvas called A Mere Fracture, the first of his pictures to be shown outside these isles when it was exhibited in the US in 1904. Although widely exhibited since then, it has been in the same family for more than 80 years. The picture illustrates an episode from Thackeray's novel The Newcomes, in which a character has a riding accident and injures his leg; Orpen shows the doctor examining this wound, which proves to be a mere fracture. The model for the doctor was William Crampton Gore, in whose rooms in Fitzroy Street, London, the work was painted early in 1901. Very much a bravado piece, particularly in its bold contrasts of dark and light, A Mere Fracture carries a pre-sale estimate of £100,000-£150,000.
Another Orpen painting included in the auction is believed to represent the 17th birthday celebrations of Albert Rothenstein on December 5th, 1898. The Old Circus: The Three Musketeers (£60,000-£100,000) shows Orpen, Rothenstein and Augustus John all looking rather dishevelled and standing in front of the statue of Eros in London's Piccadilly Circus.
Jack B. Yeats, of course, also features strongly, thanks among other pictures to his The Proud Galloper (£150,000-£250,000), painted in 1945 and purchased the same year by the present vendors. As the title implies, this shows a large grey horse racing across the canvas, while the same artist's Halt (80,000-£120,000) depicts a confrontation between two characters. Yeats's The Tinker's Fire has a higher estimate of £100,000-£150,000. Walter Osborne has been performing well at sales recently and there are likely to be high expectations for one of the oils painted during his formative years in Belgium. Beneath St Jacques, Antwerp, once in the ownership of the Jesuit order in Dublin, dates from 1882 and has been given a £180,000-£220,000 estimate by Christie's. The artist's The Thornbush (£150,000-£250,000), painted in Foxrock, was described by Bodkin as "Osborne's masterpiece. I cannot think of any landscape by which he might be more fitly represented".
Both Leech and Lavery are to have works in this sale, too. The former's Blue Shop, Quimper is a relatively early picture, dating from 1917; a sun-drenched street scene, it has a rather high estimate of £120,000-£180,000. A figure of £150,000-£250,000 is expected for the prolific Sir John Lavery's self-explanatory Skating at Wengen. Roderic O'Conor, William Scott and Rose Barton are just three of the other Irish artists with pictures in the same Christie's sale.
