A PAINTING by Jack B. Yeats formerly in the collection of the late John Huston more than doubled its presale estimate to make £408,500 sterling at Sotheby's in London yesterday.
The 1927 canvas called Lingering Sun, O'Connell Bridge, Dublin was bought by the American film director during the 18 years he lived at St Cleran's, Co Galway.
It was bought yesterday by Mr Alan Hobart of London's Pyms Gallery which specialises in Irish art. The painting had been expected to make £150,000-£200,000.
Last year, another Yeats canvas with similarly glamorous associations set a new world record for this artist; A Farewell to Mayo, originally bought by Laurence Olivier for his wife, Vivien Leigh, sold for £730,000.
Although no picture came near this figure yesterday, the work by Yeats was better received at Sotheby's than had been the case on Wednesday at Christie's, where a similar sale of Irish art was held.
Among other Yeats paintings in the Sotheby's auction, a late canvas called The Expected went far past the top estimate of £200,000 to go for £595,500. It was sold to a London dealer, Mr Theo Waddington, whose father had acted for Yeats, while Mr Hobart paid £540,000 for The Face in the Shadow dating from 1946 and a private Irish buyer bought Wind from the Sea for £243,500.
An early Yeats watercolour, The Pig Buyer Returns from the Fair, expected to go for £20,000-30,000 was another purchase of Mr Hobart, who paid £133,500.
This is the third successive year Sotheby's has held an auction specifically devoted to Irish art and, in addition to Jack B. Yeats, a number of other painters fared particularly well. A mid19th century view of Donnybrook Fair by Samuel Watson, which had a top estimate of £70,000, eventually sold for £166,500.
A portrait of Chileanborn socialite Eugenia Errazuriz, by Sir William Orpen, sold to a private Irish collector for £221,500, Sir John Lavery's Mrs Adam at Dinner went for £166,500 and Roderic O'Conor's Marine au Clair de Lune fetched £155,500.
After the excitement of Wednesday, when a set of nine panels by Harry Clarke set a new world record for the stained glass artist, there was also keen interest in another example of his work.
Titania Enchanting Bottom, a single piece encased in a mahogany light box and dating from 1922 surpassed its estimate of £10,000-£15,000 to go for £25,300.
Although no new records were set, the 310 lots sold yesterday came to just under £4.8 million compared with over £4.2 million for 417 lots at Sotheby's Irish art auction last year.