THE LAST sketch by artist Jack B Yeats, drawn while he lay dying in a Dublin nursing home, sold at auction in London yesterday for £5,760.
Roundabout Poniesfar exceeded its estimate of £1,500- £2,000 at the inaugural Irish Sale at Bonhams, the New Bond Street fine art auctioneers.
The pen-and-ink drawing on writing paper, which measures just over 5in by 4in, was sold by a family who had inherited it from the matron of the Portobello Nursing Home.
The artist had presented the sketch to Teresa O’Sullivan, with whom he had become friendly, two days before he died on March 28th, 1957.
Bonhams said the picture had attracted considerable interest because it was the last work done by Yeats and described it as “a little gem [which] exhibits the unique artistic vitality he had right to the end.”
It was bought by an un-named “private London buyer”. Yesterday’s auction was the first test of the international demand for Irish art in 2011 and the overall results were disappointing.
Among the unsold works were the two highest-priced paintings: The Cat Among the Stars, an oil-on-board, also by Jack B Yeats, and Image of Francis Bacon No 18, a watercolour by Louis le Brocquy.
Commenting afterwards, Penny Day, the Co Laois-born head of Irish Art at Bonhams, said: “We have made a start in the toughest time imaginable and have had mixed results, but I am pretty confident we will be able to sell all the pictures that did not sell in the auction with post-sale deals.”
