Paul Henry leads Whyte’s art auction

The top lot in Whyte's auction of Irish & International Art in the RDS, Dublin on Monday evening was Landscape, Connemara by Paul Henry which sold for €68,000 (within the estimate of €60,000-€70,000).

Reading The News by Richard Staunton Cahill, a 19th century painting depicting a group of people gathered in west of Ireland cabin listening to a man reading a newspaper made €14,000 (€8,000-€10,000) a "new world record" price for this artist at auction.

An urban garden scene by William Leech titled The Terrace made €9,500 (€8,000-€10,000).

Paintings of North African seaside scenes by Cork artist Patrick Hennessy and two of his oil paintings from the mid 1970s – Kassim By The Sea made €4,200 and Atlas Beach €4,000 – were estimated at €4,000-€6,000.

A painting made in 1981 in the Bahamas by Tony O'Malley titled The Autumn Painting (I) made €9,500 (€10,000- €15,000). A painting dated 1988 inspired by the Northern Ireland Troubles by Belfast artist Dermot Seymour titled The Queen's Own Scottish Borderers Observe The King Of Jews Appearing Behind Seán McGuigan's Sheep On The Fourth Sunday After Epiphany sold for €4,700 more than double the top estimate (€1,500-€2,000). Among the International Art lots, a print of Still Life With Lobster by Roy Lichtenstein sold for €21,000 (€12,000-€15,000). The original painting sold at Sotheby's in New York five years ago for $5.9 million.

Commenting after the sale, auctioneer Ian Whyte said that 91 per cent of the lots had sold, the “ highest in recent years and a good start to 2015”.