Already certain to be one of the highlights of the autumn Irish art season, details have now been announced of the Murnaghan auction scheduled for Thursday, October 14th. Jointly handled by Mealy's and Christie's, the sale will see the disposal of an extraordinary collection amassed by the late Supreme Court Judge James Murnaghan and his wife, Alice.
Mr Murnaghan died in November 1973 and some of the pieces he had collected subsequently left his Dublin home at 25 Upper Fitzwilliam Street: a number of pictures were given to family members, 14 were presented to an American art gallery and a large group were offered through the James Adam salerooms in June 1974 when they made in the region of £170,000. Then, in December 1988, James Murnaghan's home was raided by a gang run by Martin Cahill. Paintings, silverware and porcelain totalling £288,000 in value were stolen. About half the items were subsequently recovered.
In March 1994, Alice Murnaghan presented Murillo's The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel to the National Gallery of Ireland in memory of her late husband. It might be thought that as a result of these events there was not a lot left to sell since Mrs Murnaghan's death earlier this year. However, the couple were such passionate collectors that the catalogue for October's sale is an impressive affair of 472 lots, 150 of these being paintings. The latter seem to have been James Murnaghan's greatest pleasure; according to his nephew, Francis Murnaghan, in 1973 the Fitzwilliam Street house held no less than 1,200 pictures. Few of these are from Ireland because, it seems, "this was regarded by my uncle as simple being `English art' and not in the same league as the works of northern Europe, Italy and Spain, which really interested him. James Murnaghan was obviously something of an amateur sleuth when it came to buying pictures and he liked to make his own attributions. Under these circumstances, it is worth noting that he did not realise the painting presented to the National Gallery after his death was by Murillo. However, its religious theme obviously appealed to his tastes, a theme shared by a great many other works being sold in October's sale.
He was fortunate in being able to start collecting during the early decades of the present century when a great many Irish country houses were being sold and their contents released onto the market, often at relatively low prices. The works to be sold are frequently attributed to a school, follower or circle of well-known artists, including Rogier van der Weyden, van Ruisdael, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Pontormo, Titian, Tintoretto and Romney. Among the handful of Irish pictures is a 1903 Walter Osborne portrait (Lot 468) of a woman, estimated to fetch £10,000-£15,000, and a panoramic view of Dublin with Aldborough House in the foreground (Lot 472, estimate £25,000-£35,000), painted by John Henry Campbell in 1818. Among the other picture highlights is Lot 394, a tempera fragment showing four saints, part of a larger work showing the Assumption of the Virgin by the 15th-century Sienese painter, Pietro de Francesco degli Orioli, (Lot 404, £25,000-£35,000) and a Madonna and Child oil on panel by the 16th-century artist Michele di Ridolfi Tosini.
The considerable selection of 17th-century Dutch portraits includes Lot 367, showing a bearded man, painted by Jan Albertsz Rootius (£12,000-£18,000), and Lot 362, a family group from the circle of Jan de Bray (£18,000-£24,000). This sale is likely to excite considerable interest both at home and overseas, so it is not surprising the catalogue has been produced so far in advance.
