Prominent Irish art from collection of former postman for sale at deVeres

The late art collector Alan Conroy had a good eye – an innate ability to discern quality.

“It’s amazing how few people can distinguish a great painting from a good one, and how many people enthusiastically buy poor ones,” writes Dr Frances Ruane in a catalogue essay about him.

The former postman, who lived in a relatively small house filled with art, art books and catalogues, regularly visited art galleries and auction rooms. He collected the work of prominent Irish artists from the 1970s onwards including Nano Reid, Sean McSweeney, Barrie Cooke, Colin Middleton, John Shinnors, Charles Tyrrell and Patrick Scott.

“His acquisitions suggest that he was drawn specifically to the painterly, semi-abstract tendency that dominated Irish art of that period,” writes Dr Ruane in the deVeres catalogue for an upcoming sale of part of his collection.

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Conroy bequeathed several paintings to the National Gallery and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Now, the remaining 60 paintings in his collection are included in the Irish Art & Sculpture auction at deVeres on Tuesday, May 27th, at 6pm.

One painting of note in the auction is Summer Inscape, Callan by Tony O’Malley (€15,000-€20,000). Dr Ruane describes O’Malley as “a kingpin of the poetic genre that dominated the second half of the 20th century” – more upbeat than Louis le Brocquy and Patrick Collins, and more positively enraptured by his subjects and by certain places such as his birthplace, Callan, Co Kilkenny. O’Malley often drew from memory, capturing the “inscape” of the place. Interestingly, Head of Tony O’Malley by Brian Bourke (€2,000-€3,000) is one of several pieces of sculpture in the deVeres auction. The sculptures will be exhibited in the garden of the Merrion Hotel, Dublin 2, May 19th-26th, while the art is on view at deVeres showrooms at 35 Kildare Street, Dublin 2.

Meanwhile, just around the corner, Whyte’s auction rooms on Molesworth Street is also hosting an Irish and international art auction next week, on Monday, May 26th at 6pm in the Freemasons Hall, 17 Molesworth Street. The auction includes many impressive paintings by some of Ireland’s best-known 20th-century artists, including Wiliam Percy French, Mildred Anne Butler, Grace Henry and Willian Leech.

Anglesea Market, Dublin 1933 by Harry Kernoff (€30,000-€50,000) at Whyte's Irish and International Art auction

Anglesea Market, Dublin, 1933 by Harry Kernoff (€30,000-€50,000), a painting purchased directly from the artist and for sale for the first time since then, is one piece of note. Viewing of all works in Whyte’s galleries is May 19th-26th.

Also at 31 Molesworth Street, Bonhams will hold a showcase of paintings, prints, furniture and sculpture in their forthcoming summer London sales, May 22nd-28th.

Roderic O’Conor: A Woman Seated, Holding Two Roses

These include highly collectable pieces by Paul Henry (The Milk Cart £120,000-£180,000/€140,000-€210,000), Jack B Yeats (Crossing the City, £100,000-£150,000/€120,000-€170,000) and Roderic O’Conor (A Woman Seated, Holding Two Roses, £50,000-£70,000/€58,000-€81,000) all of which will be for sale in Bonhams’ Modern British and Irish Art auction on New Bond Street, London, on June 18th. Prints by Andy Warhol, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein and others to be sold at Bonhams Print sale on New Bond Street, London, on June 25th, will also be on show.

Finally, Adam’s online auction of architectural salvage and garden statuary on Tuesday, May 20th, is on view at their auction partner The Store Yard in Portlaoise, Co Laois, today, tomorrow and Monday. The Store Yard – which was recently featured in this column – is a treasure trove of antiques and collectables.

This auction has a wide selection of stone statues and busts from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, as well as garden urns, cast iron gates, seats and fountains. In a catalogue essay, garden designer Diarmuid Gavin writes poetically that “statues softened by time, urns that have held the weight of trailing roses, sundials once surrounded by lavender and bees” bring a “quiet grandeur” to gardens.

As Ireland has basked in early summer sun this year, garden owners will no doubt be seeking out striking pieces to enrich their verdant surroundings. Gavin continues, “as a garden designer, I believe that beauty in a garden lies as much in its ornamentation and craft as in its growth – and these pieces offer that rare stillness, anchoring a space in both history and imagination.”

The top lot in the Adam’s Home to Garden auction is a pair of mid-18th-century limestone Medici Lions (€50,000-€70,000)

The top lot in the Adam’s House to Garden auction is a pair of mid 18th century limestone Medici lions (€50,000-€70,000). Inspired by a second-century Roman marble statue and a later work carved by Roman sculptor Flaminio Vacca for Villa Medici in Rome (later moved to Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence), carved stone versions of the Medici lions became widely adopted ornaments in 18th-century gardens in Britain and Ireland. Another standout piece is a cast-iron fountain of the Three Graces (daughters of Zeus) (€8,000-€12,000), made in 19th-century Paris, inspired by one commissioned by Catherine de Medici to house the ashes of her husband, King Henri II of France.

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