Given the jittery nature of global economics at the moment - and the possible consequences for this country - there should be keen interest in how the first important Irish art auction of the autumn season performs. The occasion is scheduled for next Wednesday at the James Adam salerooms, which had lined up a strong list of familiar names before the current financial crisis began. This should be to the company's advantage, as when times are tough collectors traditionally like to fall back on artists whose work they already know.
It can be proposed with some confidence, therefore, that the three paintings by Walter Osborne at Adam's will be among those fetching the highest prices. One of these, lot 96, is intensely representative of Osborne's Antwerp period. This is hardly surprising, since it was produced in 1882 when he was a student at the city's AcadΘmie Royale. A Market Stall is a small oil, measuring 29 cm by 34.5 cm, but delightful in the freshness and brilliancy of its colouring. It would seem to be a study for another larger and more detailed work, Market Stall with Figures; but that Osborne was happy with the results here can be attested by the fact that he signed and dated the canvas. Shown in the large retrospective devoted to this artist held at the National Gallery of Ireland, in the accompanying catalogue Ms Jeanne Sheehy declared that: "Each part of the picture is perfectly realised." The lot carries a pre-sale estimate of £60,000-£80,000.
Although the other two Osborne works in the Adam's sale are smaller, darker in tone and have lower estimates, they are in many respects even more interesting than the Antwerp painting, since both show scenes in Galway which the artist visited on a couple of occasions in the early 1890s. Lot 29, Galway Fair, is worthy of study because here Osborne has boldly concentrated the entire line of figures in the upper section of the canvas, leaving the lower area to represent bare soil or sand. The expectation is that this will sell for £50,000-£70,000, while lot 66, The Fowl Market, Galway, has an estimate of £40,000-£50,000. The colours here are from the deeper end of the palette with lots of browns and ochres relieved by small outbreaks of red representing the traditional petticoats of local women.
While these Osbornes are significant, they should not be allowed to overshadow other lots in the sale, especially an interesting group of pictures by Nano Reid. These were formerly in the collection of the late William O'Sullivan, former keeper of manuscripts at Trinity College Dublin. Reid, who died in 1981, was one of that fascinating group of women artists responsible for first introducing many of the tenets of modernism to Ireland during the first half of the last century. She tended to specialise in landscapes but rendered in bold colours and an expressionist manner. Nine of her pictures once owned by O'Sullivan are to be sold by Adam's, as well as a truly delightful pencil drawing of the artist by Hilda Roberts (lot 73, £1,000-£1,500). The estimates for the Reid works vary from £600-£800 for lot 74, a watercolour called Bird in Abstract, to £5,000-£6,000 for lot 80, Making a Rick, a fairly substantial oil on board.
More familiar interpretations of the Irish countryside can be found elsewhere in the sale, thanks to pictures such as lot 50, Glenveigh Hills, Co Donegal by James Humbert Craig (£15,000-£20,000); lot 34, Cottages under Trees in a Mountain Landscape by Paul Henry (£30,000-£40,000) - one of two pictures by this artist; and lot 39, Letitia Marion Hamilton's Farm Cottages by the Coast (£4,000-£5,000). Look out also for examples of art by the likes of Lavery, Yeats, Middleton, Kernoff, Hone and Dillon. This sale is due to start at 2.15 p.m.
