Keen appetite for Irish art as €5m worth of paintings auctioned
Road, Morgan Yeats At 'old Cahirciveen' By O'driscoll
The strength of the current market for Irish art is in plain view. Around €5 million worth of Irish art was auctioned at James Adam, Whyte's, de Veres and Morgan O'Driscoll in the past weeks.
The sale of the Hobart collection — mostly made up of Irish art — at Christie's in November realised more than €7 million. O'Connell Bridge by Jack B Yeats from the collection of Pyms Gallery founders Mary and Alan Hobart sold for £882,200 (€1,055,890) to become the most expensive piece of Irish art at auction in 2024.
At Sotheby's in London the previous week Sir William Orpen's dazzling portrait of Mrs Evelyn St George sold for £720,000 (€866,230).
There was excitement around the sale of the Jacqueline and Vincent O'Brien collection at James Adam at the beginning of the month. Horse paintings by Yeats from the collection of Ireland's greatest trainer seemed a seductive mix. Even though Adam's had plenty of interest at viewings in London, Belfast and Dublin the top lots failed to sell on the night.
What just happened? Had Yeats's horse paintings put a stop to the gallop of the market for Irish art? The market held its breath, for a long moment, until the announcement by James Adam the following day that the top paintings had been sold after the auction. They made a total of €1.3 million at hammer prices.
Horsemen and He Reads a Book each made €400,000. Two other works by Yeats, The Window with a View of the Town and Willie Reilly, made €250,000 and €100,000 respectively. And Orpen's Old John's Cottage from the O'Brien collection sold for €250,000.
There is a poignant story to the latter work, painted by Orpen in 1907 in the interior of the Connemara cabin of Sean and Maire Geoghegan. The grief they felt over the departure of their granddaughter for New York is evident. This is an American wake. She would enter domestic service and never be seen again.
Paul Henry's , made €210,000 at Whyte's this month, by Yeats made €160,000 at Morgan O'Driscoll and by Yeats made €100,000 at de Veres.
The top lot at Bonhams Irish sale last week was a South of France landscape by Mary Swanzy which made €43,520. by Norah McGuinness made €20,480 and the collection of 20 lots by the artist consigned by her family was entirely sold. Letitia Marion Hamilton's made €33,280 over a top estimate of €7,000.
These leading Irish artworks are finding buyers in a market where a lot of works by Yeats, Orpen, Lavery and Paul Henry have made recent appearances. It seems as if volume, rather than dampening demand, is stimulating it.
The market is expanding. Our economy is growing and Irish art is getting more international exposure than ever before. Collectors in England, the USA, Hong Kong, China, Italy and Spain were among the bidders at Whyte's most recent sale and there was worldwide interest in the O'Brien collection at Adam's. Our art market is relatively conservative and much more immune to the speed bumps that have hit the international contemporary art market. The indicators are all facing in the right direction.