“Quality” is the word that comes to mind when describing Adam’s of St Stephen’s Green’s upcoming Important Irish Art sale. The live online sale, which will take place on December 7th at its saleroom, has “a fine selection of artworks by our blue-chip artists from four centuries but with one thing in common – quality,” according to managing director and curator of the sale James O’Halloran.
While blue chip describes the largest or oldest companies – especially industry leaders – whose value is universally accepted, in the art world it refers to widely recognised artists, whose standing in the secondary or auction market is marked by exceptional sales over the course of several years.
Top of the bill are two works by Jack B Yeats, who was, for years, overshadowed by his Nobel laureate brother WB Yeats. Jack’s place in the world of Irish art has been cemented over the past couple of years by record sales on the secondary market. If you haven’t seen the Verner brothers’ film The Man Who Painted Ireland, in which Colm Tóibín and others explore the legacy of one of Ireland’s best – if not the best – painters, check it out. It is still on the RTÉ Player, and very much worth 50 minutes of your time, as a panacea for the world’s woes.
The Sick Bed (€150,000-€200,000), in “which the surroundings serve as a haven of comfort, order and natural affection in contrast to the complexities of the world outside”, according to art critic Dr Róisín Kennedy, dates from 1950, not long before his last-ever work was painted, in 1955, two years before his death aged 85. Dating from 1945 is the vividly coloured, thick impastoed The Duet (€70,000-€100,000) evoking song and singing – a theme often featured in Yeats’s work.
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Although the work of George Barrett (1730-1784), faded into obscurity for a while despite his popularity as one of Ireland’s foremost landscape painters in the 18th century, for which he received some remarkable commissions, many of his larger identified views have recently sold for hundreds of thousands at auction. Wooded Landscape with Fishermen Hauling in their Nets achieved £512,000 (including premium) through Christie’s in 2005. So, there may well be interest in A Capriccio View of Tivoli (€15,000-€20,000) by Barrett, who was a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768. Despite being hailed as the greatest landscape painter in the British Isles for a time, he left his family destitute and was noted to be feckless with money.
Four works by Louis le Brocquy feature, including Fantail No 627, a painting from the artist’s time at Les Combes in the south of France, and one of his earliest tapestries, The Garlanded Goat, which derives from an earlier work, Goat in Snow, held in the Leeds City Art Gallery. Both are estimated at €40,000-€60,000.
Limerick’s best-known artist John Shinnors continues to intrigue with two works: Lighthouse, Man’s Twin Cats and Washing, an abstract puzzle listed at €30,000-€50,000. The monumental triptych Line (where each of the three panels measures 110x110cm) was painted in response to Domino! by Frank Bramley at the Crawford Gallery in Cork – a work that Shinnors himself describes as beautiful. According to Irish Arts Review columnist JP O’Sullivan, Shinnors’s Line “is one of his larger paintings and by any reckoning one of his best” (€60,000-€80,000).
Also featured are some wonderful works by John Doherty, Hughie O’Donoghue, Evie Hone and John Boyd. adams.ie
On the centenary of the publication of Ulysses by James Joyce, one of the most important and controversial books of the 20th century, Sotheby’s in New York will offer a scarce signed first edition of Joyce’s manuscript on November 29th. Number 41, of only 100 printed on Dutch handmade paper, in a sale that covers an array of material from Galileo to Ginsberg, the book is listed at $150,000-€250,000 (€146,159-€243,598). A signed first edition, Number 51 of 100, achieved $151,200 (€147,268), including fees, against a $70,000-$90,000 (€68,179-€87,659) reserve – also through Sotheby’s in January this year. sothebys.com
Also taking place on November 29th is Hegarty’s of Bandon’s live Interiors Auction, highlights of which include a pair of Qing Dynasty Chinese Famille Rose porcelain floor vases (€1,500-€2,500); a pair of French rosewood lockers (€1,400-€1,800); and a super vintage “Colomba” table lamp by Walter & Moretti from 1970 (€350-€450). hegartysantiques.com
Dolan’s online art sale is currently live, ending this Monday, November 28th. Highlights include some rare Midleton Whiskey, art, clocks, antiques and furniture. dolansart.com
This coming Monday and Tuesday, auctioneer Aidan Foley will hold a sale at the Sixmilebridge Auction Rooms, in which he has the “best silver collection I have ever seen”.
Dating from the 1750s, the 60 pieces come from a large country house in west Limerick, and highlights include a Limerick silver salver by Joseph Johns circa 1750, estimated at €1,200-€1,600. Also listed, along with art, furniture and Waterford chandeliers, is Memorials of Adare Manor by Caroline, Countess of Dunraven, a privately printed book from 1865 (€300-€500). irishcountryhome.com
