AN AUCTION next Tuesday in Bandon, Co Cork features the previously unseen archive of a prominent west Cork clan, the Keyes McDonnell family of Castlelack.
Hegarty auctioneers said the papers include a sketchbook of drawings by Irish Impressionist artist Walter Frederick Osborne which “came to light at a routine valuation and has not been publicly seen”. It was given by Osborne’s son-in-law, Prof Stockley to William Keyes McDonnell in 1935 and contains 10 pencil drawings and is estimated at €1,500-€3,000.
Walter Frederick Osborne (1859-1903) is one of the best-known Irish artists and his most famous painting, Apple Gathering, Quimperlé hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland. The highest price ever paid for a work by Osborne was achieved at Adam’s in Dublin in December, 2001 when his painting In the Garden, Castlewood Avenue fetched £748,000.
The Keyes McDonnell collection also includes photograpahs, letters and medals of historical significance from 1916-1921 – to be sold individually – including correspondence from Terence McSwiney, the Sinn Féin mayor of Cork who died in Brixton Prison in England in 1920 after a 74-day hunger strike which he undertook to draw attention to the struggle for Irish Independence. – MP
The collection will be on view at the Imperial Hotel in Cork city on Monday, October 15th from 11am-8pm. Auction at Hegarty’s saleroom, Bandon at 7pm, October 16th.
