AUCTIONEER John de Vere White will have been following the form closely at last Wednesday's sale of Irish pictures at Adam's because his own such event is scheduled for next week. This time, Mr de Vere White will be holding the auction on Monday rather than the more usual Tuesday, but as before the venue is the National Concert Hall at 6 p.m.
And as with his last sale, he is including a section of contemporary Irish art, which includes a number of very fine examples of Tony O'Malley's work. The largest of these (measuring 4ft x 6ft) is Bahamas Inscape from 1987, a typically brilliant hued example of his Bahamian style, which carries an estimate of £8,000-£10,000. Other O'Malley pictures are more modestly priced - Mr de Vere White is laying great emphasis on the large number of paintings in his sale which should sell for just a few hundred pounds - such as Spring Rooks and Two Winter Areas (Callan, Kilkenny), both of which are expected to make £4,000-£5,000. A small oil on paper called Bahamas 1982 is estimated at just £500-£700.
Other contemporary work represented here include two Barrie Cooke watercolours (£250-£350 and £100-£200 respectively), an oil by singer Gavin Friday (£1,500-£2,000), an oil by Cecil King (£300-£500), an oil by Michael Mulcahy (£400-£600) and several pieces by Louis Le Brocquy, ranging in price from £100 to £1,800, depending on size and medium.
Le Brocquy is also featured in the main body of the auction by three tapestries dating from circa 1951, when they were commissioned by the late Mrs S.H. Stead Ellis. The Aubusson tapestry, Woman's Heel, is expected to make £6,000-£9,000, a four panel tapestry mounted in a mahogany screen, called Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, has an estimate of £8,000-£10,000 and Cherub, which is mounted in a 19th century walnut firescreen, should make £3,000- £5,000.
This enormously wide ranging sale runs from Paul Henry, whose archetypal oil The Village by the Roadside, Connemara was bought by the vendor's family from Combridge's Gallery in 1931 for £60 (estimate £15,000-£20,000) to Gerard Dillon. There are a number of works by the latter in Monday's auction, such as a very fine Bride in a Grotto (estimate £4,000-£6,000), which was included in this artist's 1973 retrospective in Dublin, and Yellow Nude with Pierrot & Tree (£5,000-£7,000).
Dillon's charming watercolour Portrait of Arthur Armstrong (£250-£350) is one of several portraits in the sale, also included is George Campbell's watercolour Study of Gerard Dillon (£400-£600) and Daniel O'Neill's pen and ink study of Gerard Dillon & Various other artists (£300-£500).
