Previously unsold Paul Henry painting among wealth of Irish art up for auction

Prospective art buyers will have plenty of choice with four auctions of Irish art featuring work by Walter Osbourne, Jack Butler Yeats, Paul Henry, Gerard Dillon, Mary Swanzy, Colin Middleton, Mildred Ann Butler, Letitia Marion Hamilton, Louis le Brocquy, and many more of Ireland’s best-known artists, over the next 10 days.

First up is the auction of Important Irish Art at Adam’s on Wednesday, November 18th, followed by Sheppard’s Irish and International Art on November 19th from 6pm. Whyte’s will hold its auction of Important Irish Art on Monday, November 23rd and, finally, deVeres’ auction of Outstanding Irish Art will take place on Tuesday, November 24th.

Adam’s auction includes paintings by Paul Henry, one of which is on the secondary art market for the first time. This painting of the Co Wexford town of New Ross, with an estimate of €70,000-€100,000, was purchased by the owner’s father at Paul Henry’s exhibition in Combridges Fine Art in 1945.

In the catalogue notes, Niamh Corcoran explains how Henry’s views of Irish towns were a result of a tour of Ireland in 1939 with writer Sean O’Faolain for his book, An Irish Journey. “Turning his attention to the towns and cities of the country required a different approach to his rural landscape scenes,” writes Corcoran. Yet, the palate is typical of Henry’s work with light blues, white and grey tones.

In contrast, Gerard Dillon’s 1950s painting, The Jockey (€150,000-€200,000), one of a series of paintings based on beach races on Omey Island in Connemara, is a much travelled painting. It was first shown in the Maxwell Galleries in San Francisco, and then in the George Waddington Gallery in Montreal, before being shown at the Ava Gallery on the Clandeboye Estate in Bangor, Co Down in 2010 and 2012. It was previously sold by Adam’s for €92,000 (hammer price) in 2013.

[ Mary Swanzy: From strait-laced girl to first Irish cubistOpens in new window ]

Anyone watching the prices fetched for paintings by Mary Swanzy of late might be intrigued by the estimate of €100,000-€150,000 for her cubist landscape, A Hilltop Town in the South of France at Adam’s. Considered to be one of Ireland’s first modernist painters, Swanzy spent most of her life abroad. She travelled extensively throughout Europe, Hawaii, the Balkans and the south Pacific Islands before settling in London. The Irish Museum of Modern Art’s Swanzy retrospective exhibition, Voyages, in 2018, which was shown in the Crawford Gallery Cork and Limerick City Gallery, brought national attention to her work.

La Cathédrale Engloutie (The Submerged Cathedral) at Whyte’s auction, with an estimate of €40,000-€60,000, is another example of Swanzy’s later more poetic work. And Sheppard’s auction also has an example of Mary Swanzy, in her strongly Cubist work in The Overture (€7,000-€10,000). It is believed that Swanzy gifted this piece to a hotel manager at the Grand Hotel Pupp, in the Czech Republic,, where she once stayed.

Adam’s auction has an interesting wooden sculpture by Hilary Heron, entitled Female Form (€4,000-€6,000), as well as ceramic and bronze sculptures by Sonya Landweer. Works by Landweer also feature in deVere’s Outstanding Irish art auction. Two still life paintings by Roderic O’Conor are significant pieces in this auction – in particular, the post-impressionist, Fleurs (€80,000-€120,000).

Standout pieces among the 150 or so lots at Whyte’s include Am I on the Right Road for the Sea by Jack Butler Yeats (€150,000-€200,000). Painted in 1950, it is one of the artist’s later paintings in his vibrant expressionist style. Writing in Whyte’s catalogue, Hilary Pyle suggests that in this work Yeats symbolises the allegory of life – the simple existence he experienced in childhood exchanged for a journey with questions.

With 230 lots of art ranging from the Victorian period to American pop art, Sheppard’s Irish and International art auction offers a free art history lesson for those who attend the preview at the Durrow showrooms daily, until the auction itself on November 19th.

Woman in a Striped Blouse by Mainie Jellett (€8,000-€12,000), is an early portrait painted while Jellett was studying in London. Works by Norah McGuinness include a gentle gouache of the Lakes of Marlay (€3,000-€5,000).

Although it may have no known link to Irish art, a trial proof for a series of silkscreens of Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean) by American pop artist Andy Warhol (€8,000-€12,000), is another eye-catching piece in Sheppard’s auction. Writing in the Sheppard’s catalogue, art critic Aidan Dunne says the Nicholas Ray film established Dean as a universal symbol of teenage angst and an enormously influential figure in popular culture. A Japanese poster for the film was the source for Warhol’s series of silkscreens.

Finally, there will be lots of affordable art for sale at Art Source which continues in the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin today and tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday, November 14th and 15th. With more than 10,000 artworks on show, from new artists to established artists represented by galleries, attendance will demand the visual equivalent of a marathon runner’s stamina and endurance.

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