Orpen painting to top bill at major Irish sale

COLLECTOR: Works by leading Irish artists go under the hammer at Sotheby's Irish sale next week, while on the same day it is…

COLLECTOR: Works by leading Irish artists go under the hammer at Sotheby's Irish sale next week, while on the same day it is holding a sale of Irish Belleek porcelain, glass and silver

Sir William Orpen, Derek Hill, Louis le Brocquy, Walter Osborne, and Jack B. Yeats highlight next week's Sotheby's Irish sale. Last year's auction totalled a record £7,013,746 sterling (€11,244,000), the highest ever for a sale of Irish art. A Sotheby's sale of Irish Belleek porcelain, glass and silver takes place the same day.

The Sotheby's Irish sale takes place next Thursday, May 16th, (the day before Christie's Irish sale). Major highlights of the sale include Interior at Clonsilla with Mrs St. George by Sir William Orpen, R.A. (1978-1931), and an unpublished archive of letters dating from 1907 to 1912 by Orpen to Evelyn St. George.

Interior at Clonsilla with Mrs St. George is expected to realise £800,000 to £1,200,000. It portrays Evelyn relaxing in a chair, with her four-poster bed behind her, the walls of the bedroom - in which she held court - hung with Orpen's work.

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According to Vivien, her fifth and last child, while some admired Evelyn's disregard for conventions, "many frowned" on her entertaining all except casual acquaintances in her bedroom. Vivien defends her, saying that wherever they lived she would tear down a wall or raise a ceiling until her bedroom became "the grandest room in any house she occupied, and it was here that my mother hung her favourite pictures".

As well as being his patron, Evelyn and Orpen were lovers from 1908, and she inspired Orpen's art and life. Some 45 illustrated letters between the two are being auctioned, which record their friendship and developing relationship. Expected to realise £150,000, they chart their trivial banter, concern over each other's health, professional matters, Evelyn's children and their missing each other. Two letters refer to the bed depicted in Interior at Clonsilla with Mrs. St. George. In one, Orpen depicts himself floating mid-air over the bed.

Sotheby's suggest that the marked references to wine glasses and a bottle could indicate that the artist is suffering from the effects of alcohol and possibly confessing to a growing dependence on drink. This letter is expected to fetch £15,000 to £20,000.

A three-page letter with an illustration on each shows Orpen pouring out his heart to Evelyn, who has taken a holiday without him. The humorous pictures of the departure, five, and 10 minutes later, conclude with a figure of the artist consoling himself with a drink.

Last year, a portrait by Orpen of Evelyn's daughter, Gardenia St. George with a Riding-Crop, made £1,983,500, a world record for any Irish painting. This year's letters include a sketch of that portrait of Gardenia, inscribed "Wishing you a Very Happy Christmas Poppy, from Woppy", expected to fetch £12,000 to £15,000.

Two works by Louis le Brocquy, H.R.A, (born 1916), feature in the sale. Travelling People, the earliest of the so-called "tinker" series, is expected to fetch £150,000 to £200,000. Image of Samuel Beckett from his series of Irish cultural and historical figures, is estimated at £70,000-£100,000.

A collection of works from Derek Hill's private collection features in the auction, comprising pictures that Hill chose not to sell while he was alive. Born in 1916 in Southampton, he established a name for himself as a portrait artist, with sitters including Prince Charles, Noel Coward and Lord Mountbatten. But in 1954 he moved to Donegal where he specialised in landscape painting, creating evocative works for 30 years from Tory Island.

Works by Hill in the auction include From my hut, Tory Island, Co.Donegal, expected to realise £6,000 to £8,000, and Achill Island, View from Gubmore, estimated at £1,200 to £1,800.

The Belleek porcelain, Irish glass and silver sale includes a Belleek figure of The Crouching Venus, naked except for armlets and a flower in her hair, expected to realise €6,500 to €9,700.