Sotheby's seeks to draw Irish art lovers away from domestic scene

Sotheby's one-day exhibition of Impressionist and Modern Art from its forthcoming London auctions attracted a stream of visitors at its Dublin offices in Molesworth Street yesterday.

Alongside the paintings by Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Fernand Léger, Salvador Dalí and others, Sotheby's director Sophie Camu and other experts were on hand to talk to the public.

The auction house decided to bring the paintings to Dublin, Ms Camu said, "because the Irish market has become increasingly active, and we wanted to let people see the works at first hand." Beside each piece, its pre-sale estimate was displayed.

"I think people are surprised at how reasonable they are."

Relatively speaking, of course. If it attains its upper estimate, the most expensive piece on view, Léger's fine Un Arbre sur un Fond Rouge, will set you back €630,000. The upper estimate on a beautiful flower study by the Post-Impressionist Edouard Vuillard is €350,000, and an impressive work on paper by Dalí is set at €210,000.

It features a palm tree and the towering figure of a giraffe with flames issuing from its neck, a trademark image for Dalí. The work formed part of a design by the artist for a projected nightclub in Acapulco. As Ms Camu puts it: "You get a lot of Dalí for your money."

The quality of this and other works is high. Auguste Herbin may not be as famous as Monet or Picasso, but his boldly patterned painting Du Port de Bastia, depicting harbour-front buildings and their distorted reflection, is a very good Fauve work by any standard, and its upper estimate is €280,000.

The lots on view in Dublin form just a small proportion of the forthcoming sales. "I tried to surprise people a little," Ms Camu says. In relation to a sensitive and realistic drawing of a child by Picasso, she notes that: "Several people have said to me that they just didn't expect to find this was by Picasso. They think of him more in terms of Cubism and abstraction."

She has also catered to specifically Irish taste with the inclusion of a study of a race at Longchamp. "We find that a lot of Irish buyers are interested in horseracing subjects, and this is a beautiful piece."

Sotheby's has been particularly enterprising in catering to the growing Irish art market, pioneering highly successful sales of Irish art. Irish buyers have been intensely loyal to their own, and the market for late-19th and early-to mid-20th century Irish art at auction has grown exponentially.

Ms Camu is perhaps too tactful to say so, but the exhibition is one way of pointing out to buyers that they can move into the big-name international arena for much the same money they are paying for less well-known Irish artists.

While Irish sales in London attract large numbers of Irish bidders, Sotheby's clearly aims to encourage them to broaden their taste. Ms Camu contends that that is already happening.

Last year, the National Gallery of Ireland acquired its first painting by Vincent Van Gogh, View of Paris, for €900,000, part of its strategic development of its collection of Post-Impressionist and European Modernist works. It may have its sights set on one or more of these works.

Despite the economic climate, the art market has so far remained buoyant. We will see whether Sotheby's initiative bears fruit when its sales take place on February 5th and 6th.