A Jack B. Yeats masterpiece, The Wild Ones, was auctioned for a record £1,233,500 sterling yesterday. It was bought at Sotheby's fifth Irish art sale by Mr Simon Dickinson, a London-based dealer, after a fierce bidding war. Sotheby's said they had expected the painting to sell for about £600,000.
An oil painting dating from 1947, The Wild Ones was part of the Vickerman Collection for more than 50 years and is widely believed to be one of Yeats's finest. It surpassed the previous record auction price set for a Yeats painting, also at Sotheby's, when Singing `Oh had I the Wings of a Swallow' was sold for £881,500 sterling last year.
The sale included two further Yeats pictures from the Vickerman Collection which also sold for more than their reserves. Sunday Evening in September sold for £265,500 sterling and Let 'em go and take care of yourselves was sold for £551,500 sterling.
Work by other Irish painters also achieved outstanding prices. Paul Henry's The Bog-Workers was sold for £210,500 sterling, a record auction price, and Sir John Lavery's The Garden at Ardilea sold for £232,500 sterling.