RARE CORK ARTIST’S WORK FEATURED AT WHYTE’S SEPTEMBER AUCTION

Aug. 31 , 2007

A rare genre scene – one of only ten recorded works – by the Irish Impressionist, William Gerard Barry, will feature at Whyte’s auction on 17 September.  Barry, who hailed from Carrigtwohill, Co. Cork, is best known for his painting, Time Flies, which is a perennial favourite among visitors to the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork.  The painting up for sale is a three foot wide canvas, An Old Woman and Children in a Cottage Interior, and comes from a descendant of the artist’s.  It is estimated to fetch between €60,000-€80,000 (lot 102). 

Another highlight is Cottages by a Bog Lake, West of Ireland, a classic landscape by Paul Henry (lot 78; €80,000-€100,000).  This newly discovered work was bought by the present owner’s uncle from the Waddington Galleries, Dublin, around 1937.  Whyte’s have two other Paul Henry paintings in the sale.  A Bog by the Sea (lot 81; €60,000-€80,000) is a dramatic composition – the sky filled with heavy, rain-filled clouds while light shines off the mauve mountain range in the distance.  It has been in a private collection in the Scottish Isles for the past seventy years.  Evening in the West of Ireland (lot 80; €20,000-€30,000) is a charming, post-card sized work that was last sold in the mid-1980s and has also come from a private collection in Scotland. 

Harry Kernoff is well represented in the sale with two oil paintings and three watercolours.  Kilbride, Co. Wicklow (lot 69; €25,000-€35,000) was painted in 1933 and acquired by the present owner during the 1950s – a gift from the renowned Dublin collector, Rose Black.  The second oil is inspired by James Stephens’ book of Irish fairytales, The Crock of Gold.  The painting was featured on the front cover of Kernoff’s solo exhibition at the Gieves Gallery, London, in 1932, and was exhibited again in 1966, towards the end of Kernoff’s life, at the RHA, where the present owner’s father purchased it (lot 74; €8,000-€10,000). 

Print collecting is a field finally coming into its own, with modern prints regularly fetching five and six figure sums at specialist print sales in London and New York.  Whyte’s offer a superb triptych of lithographs by Francis Bacon, Three Studies for a Self Portrait, printed in 1979 in an edition of 150 prints.  The set of three is estimated to fetch €20,000-€30,000 (lot 34).  They also offer a set of eight lithograph portraits of Irish writers by Louis le Brocquy, printed in 1981 in an edition of 100 (estimate €15,000-€20,000; lot 33), two large woodcuts by Sean Scully (lots 3 and 32, ranging in estimates from €6,000-€9,000) and a monotype – or unique etching – by the young rising star Mark Francis (lot 2, €1,500-€2,000). 

Other modern highlights include two works by Camille Souter, both painted in the late 1950s or early ‘60s and featured in Garrett Cormican’s monograph on Souter, published by Whyte’s last year.  Achill Inland (lot 37; €12,000-€15,000) is essentially an aerial view of the small stone-walled fields of Achill Island, whilst Achill Volcanic (lot 41; €8,000-€10,000) is a small dynamic composition inspired by the red volcanic rock found near the artist’s home.  Donald Teskey is represented with an oil on paper from 1993, titled Street Corner at Palmerston Road (lot 21; €8,000-€10,000). Louis le Brocquy’s early watercolour, Summer Tree, Wiltshire, 1949, given by the artist to the present owner, is bound to attract plenty of interest (lot 52; €10,000-€12,000). 

British artists are represented in the sale alongside Irish.  Best-known among these is Jack Vettriano.  Woman on Empty Beach, 1994, is the first painting by Vettriano to come up for public auction in Ireland.    With echoes of Vettriano’s The Singing Butler – a painting that has been reproduced and sold more copies than any other poster in the UK in recent years – this should generate great interest among collectors both side of the Irish Sea.  It is estimated at €25,000-€35,000 (lot 155).   

Other artists represented in this select sale include Charles Brady, George Campbell, Patrick Collins, Gerard Dillon, Percy French, Lady Glenavy, Mainie Jellett, Frances Judy Kelly, William John Leech, Ciarán Lennon, Norah McGuinness, Frank McKelvey, Flora Mitchell, Sir William Orpen, Nano Reid, John Noel Smith, Mary Swanzy, and Corban Walker. 

Live online and absentee bids can be placed at LiveAuctioneers.com. For further information or a catalog listing of items to be sold at the auction, visit www.LiveAuctioneers.com.