Adams Important Irish Art Auction 22nd November 2017

Est1887
Est1887
Auction Wednesday 22th
November 2017
IMPORTANT IRISH ART

Front Cover Jack B. Yeats Lot 49
Inside front cover William Scott Lot 35
Page 1 (Opposite) Louis le Brocquy Lot 22
Pages 2 & 3 Basil Blackshaw Lot 36
Page 6 Sean Keating Lot 76
Inside back cover Paul Henry Lot 45

27th
September2017
Important Irish Art
Est1887
ImportantIrishArt
IMPORTANT IRISH ART
Auction Wednesday 22nd November, 2017, at 6pm
Including pictures from the estates of P.J. Mara and Cyril Murray and
the Collection of Eamonn Mallie and other Important Private Clients

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www.adams.ie Important Irish Art | 22nd November 2017

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Brian Coyle FSCSI FRICS
CHAIRMAN
James O’Halloran BA FSCSI FRICS
MANAGING DIRECTOR
j.ohalloran@adams.ie
Stuart Cole MSCSI MRICS
DIRECTOR
s.cole@adams.ie
Katie McGale BComm Intl MPhil
FINE ART DEPARTMENT
katie@adams.ie
David Britton BBS ACA
DIRECTOR
d.britton@adams.ie
Amy McNamara BA
FINE ART DEPARTMENT
amymcnamara@adams.ie
Eamon O’Connor BA
DIRECTOR
e.oconnor@adams.ie
Adam Pearson BA
FINE ART DEPARTMENT
a.pearson@adams.ie
Helena Carlyle
ADMINISTRATOR
h.carlyle@adams.ie
Niamh Corcoran
ADMINISTRATOR
niamh@adams.ie
Ronan Flanagan
FINE ART DEPARTMENT
r.ﬂanagan@adams.ie
Nick Nicholson
CONSULTANT
n.nicholson@adams.ie
CONTACTS

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AUCTION
Wednesday 22nd November 2017 at 6pm
VENUE
Adam’s Salerooms,
26 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin D02 X665,
Ireland
VIEWING NOVEMBER 19TH - 22ND

Adam’s, 26 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin D02 X665

Sunday 19th November 2.00pm - 5. 00pm
Monday 20th November 10.00am - 5 .00pm
Tuesday 21st November 10.00am - 5 .00pm
Wednesday 22nd November 10.00am - 5 .00pm

ADAM’S
Est.1887
26 St. Stephen’s Green
Dublin D02 X665
Tel +353 1 6760261
info@adams.ie
www.adams.ie
IMPORTANT IRISH ART

9
“We always had fine art on our walls during my childhood at home on the side of a hill in South
Armagh. We had a triptych print of ‘The Pope, John F Kennedy and De Valera’ as well as a print of
‘The Hay Wain’ by John Constable. You realise now fine art was not the normal topic of conversa-
tion chez Mallie.
Art and my passion for it came much later. Again accident played a big part in this development.
I had the good fortune to fall under the influence of Professor Nigel Glendinning who was my
Spanish lecturer in Trinity College Dublin in the Seventies. He was a visionary teacher who rarely
looked at literature in isolation choosing to place it in a broader context which embraced the hu-
mour, architecture, the music and the art of the period in question. My old Professor, husband of
the celebrated biographer Victoria Glendinning, lit a spark which became a fire in my life over the
last thirty five years. I have been obsessing about my family, my work and my art for over three
decades.
Of course finding a balance between one’s selfishness as a collector necessitated compromises
with Lady M in the haute couture arena. A fellow art collector once explained to me how he was
always involved in trade offs with his late wife at times when he was being simply selfish .... he
told me he opted to adopt the French principle many times of ‘reculer pour mieux sauter’ - which
means ‘to back off to have a better go or run at it.’ “I would suggest to my lady” he explained “it is
time for a visit to Brown Thomas with a lot of winter functions on the horizon. “We’d go there and
I’d buy two or three outfits for her and then I didn’t feel so guilty about my next art purchase” he
said.
I am sure many of my fellow art collectors will identify with this approach. The late Vincent Fergu-
son, an avid collector and friend who once violated his own vow not to buy another picture, told
me “you don’t get cured that easily.” My interest in art introduced me to extraordinary people
from Syria to the US and back, many of these, artists who are household names on this island
today. Art has made me feel a fuller person. As a collector I always loved the chase, the adventure
in pursuing the next painting.
Naturally I got to know Northern Ireland painters better for geographical reasons but over time
I came to admire the works of Sean McSweeney, William Crozier, Patrick Collins, Robert Ballagh,
John Shinnors and sculptors like Patrick O’ Reilly and Rowan Gillespie. I worked in a very dark
world for decades, one of killings, bombings, maimings and kidnappings. Art and colour were my
escape when I returned home.
We dragged our children through galleries and museums in London, Paris, Dublin and further
afield despite their protests at time. Guess what - those children are now building their own little
collections of art. For what more could we ask as the years roll past? “
Eamonn Mallie.
EAMONN MALLIE – A LIFE COLLECTING.
Illustration: Portrait of Eamonn Mallie by Basil Blackshaw

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PURCHASERS
1. ESTIMATES AND RESERVES
These are shown below each lot in this sale. All amounts shown are in Euro. The figures shown are provided merely as a guide to pro-
spective purchasers. They are approximate prices which are expected, are not definitive and are subject to revision. Reserves, if any, will
not be any higher than the lower estimate.
2. PADDLE BIDDING
All intending purchasers must register for a paddle number before the auction. Please allow time for registration. Potential purchasers
are recommended to register on viewing days.
3. PAYMENT, DELIVERY AND PURCHASERS PREMIUM
Thursday 23rd November 2017. Under no circumstances will delivery of purchases be given whilst the auction is in progress. All
purchases must be paid for and removed from the premises not later than Thursday 23rd November 2017 at the purchaser’s risk and
expense. After this time all uncollected lots will be removed to commercial storage and additional charges will apply.
Auctioneers commission on purchases is charged at the rate of 20% (exclusive of VAT). Terms: Strictly cash, bankers draft or cheque
drawn on an Irish bank. Cheques will take a minimum of five workings days to clear the bank, unless they have been vouched to our
satisfaction prior to the sale, or you have a previous cheque payment history with Adam’s. Purchasers wishing to pay by credit card
(Visa & MasterCard) may do so, however, it should be noted that such payments will be subject to an administrative fee of 1.5% on the
invoice total. American Express is subject to a charge of 3.65% on the invoice total. Debit cards including laser card payments are not
subject to a surcharge, there are however daily limits on Laser card payments. Bank Transfer details on request. Please ensure all bank
charges are paid in addition to the invoice total, in order to avoid delays in the release of items.
Goods will only be released upon clearance through the bank of all monies due. Artists Resale Rights (Droit de Suite) is NOT payable by
purchasers.
4. VAT REGULATIONS
All lots are sold within the auctioneers VAT margin scheme. Revenue Regulations require that the buyers premium must be invoiced at a
rate which is inclusive of VAT. This is not recoverable by any VAT registered buyer.
5. It is up to the bidder to satisfy themselves prior to buying as to the condition of a lot. Whilst we make certain observations on
the lot, which are intended to be as helpful as possible, references in the condition report to damage or restoration are for guidance
only and should be evaluated by personal inspection by the bidder or a knowledgeable representative. The absence of such a reference
does not imply that an item is free from defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of any
others. The condition report is an expression of opinion only and must not be treated as a statement of fact.
Please ensure that condition report requests are submitted before 12 noon on Saturday 18th November as we cannot guarantee that
they will be dealt with after this time.
6. ABSENTEE BIDS
We are happy to execute absentee or written bids for bidders who are unable to attend and can arrange for bidding to be conducted
by telephone. However, these services are subject to special conditions (see conditions of sale in this catalogue). All arrangements for
absentee and telephone bidding must be made before 5pm on the day prior to sale. Cancellation of bids must be confirmed before this
time and cannot be guaranteed after the auction as commenced.
Bidding by telephone may be booked on lots with a minimum estimate of €500. Early booking is advisable as availability of lines cannot
be guaranteed.
7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to acknowledge, with thanks, the assistance of Denise Ferran, Karen Reihill, Dr. Róisín Kennedy, Dr. S.B. Kennedy,
Medb Ruane, Marianne O’Kane Boal, Catherine Marshall, Hilary Pyle, Philip Flanagan, Dr Éimear O’Connor, Sile Connaughton-Deeny,
Dr. Claudia Kinmonth, Tracy Fahey and Declan Carty.
8. ALL LOTS ARE BEING SOLD UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF SALE AS PRINTED IN THIS CATALOGUE AND
ON DISPLAY IN THE SALEROOMS.

11
1 FR. JACK P. HANLON (1913 - 1968)
Marche au poids (Flower Market)
Oil on board, 54 x 44.5cm (21¼ x 17½”)
Signed, inscribed with title on label verso
€ 3,000 - 5,000

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2 MAY GUINNESS RHA (1863 - 1955)
The Turf Donkey
Oil on panel, 36.5 x 45cm (14¼ x 17¾’’)
Signed with initials.
Exhibited: ‘May Guinness Memorial Exhibition’, The Dawson Hall, April 1956, Catalogue No.45, where
purchased by current owners. Label verso
€ 1,000 - 2,000

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3 EVA HENRIETTA HAMILTON (1876-1960)
Haymaking
Oil on canvas, 35.5 x 45.5cm (14 x 18’’)
Signed and inscribed with title verso
Exhibited: ‘Summer Exhibition 2000’, The Frederick Gallery, Catalogue No.11, where purchased by
current owner.
€ 2,000 - 3,000

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4 LETITIA MARION HAMILTON RHA (1878-1964)
Polo in the Phoenix Park
Oil on board, 19 x 24cm (7½ x 9½’’)
Signed with initials; inscribed with title verso
€ 2,000 - 3,000
Cafe - Valdemosa
Oil on canvas board, 12.5 x 17.5cm (5 x 7’’)
Signed with initials
Title inscribed on Dawson Gallery ‘Letitia Hamilton’
catalogue cover verso
€ 1,200 - 1,600

15
Wet Day on the Guidecco (Venice)
Oil on canvas, 50 x 61cm (19¾ x 24’’)
Signed with initials; also signed with initials verso
and signed and inscribed on a label verso
€ 3,000 - 4,000

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Ireland’s Eye
Oil on canvas board, 12.5 x 17.5cm (5 x 7’’)
Signed with initials; title inscribed verso
€ 1,000 - 2,000
Mountain Landscape
Oil on board, 12 x 16.5cm (4¾ x 6½’’)
€ 1,000 - 2,000

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Venetian Canal scene
Oil on canvas, 49.5 x 62.5cm (19½ x 24½’’)
€ 5,000 - 7,000

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10 EVIE HONE HRHA (1894-1955)
Abstract Composition
Oil on canvas, 100 x 65cm (39¼ x 25½’’)
Signed and dated 1928
Provenance: From the collection of the late Dr Michael Wynne, former keeper of The National Gallery of Ireland
and his sale in these rooms May 2005, Lot 88, where purchased by current owners.
Exhibited: ‘The Abstract Eye: Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone’, The Derek Hill Glebe Gallery, Donegal June -
September 2009.
‘The Moderns’, IMMA, October 2010 - February 2011 Cat. No. 37.
‘Analysing Cubism’, IMMA, February - May 2013, The Crawford Gallery Cork June - September
2013, The FE Mc William Gallery, Banbridge September - November 2013.
‘Irish Women Artists 1870 - 1970’, Adam’s, Dublin - July 2014, The Ava Gallery, Clandeboye Estate,
August - September 2014, Cat. No. 73.
Literature: ‘The Moderns’, IMMA, October 2010 - February 2011, full page illustration p.67.
‘Analysing Cubism’, The Crawford Gallery Cork, full page illustration p.63.
‘Irish Women Artists 1870 - 1970’, Adam’s, full page illustration p.89.
Evie Hone studied with the Cubist painter André Lhote in Paris in 1920-1921. She and Mainie Jellett sub-
sequently collaborated with Albert Gleizes, which resulted in the first exhibition of abstract art in Ireland in
1923. This used a Cubist aesthetic developed in Gleizes’s studio which the French artist called ‘translation –
rotation’. As described in Gleizes’s 1923 book, La Peinture et ses Lois the artist begins with the basic shape
of the support and paints its surface in one colour, proceeding to select colours and shapes which echo
the form of the canvas. This is the static element of translation. In rotation, the Cubist element, the artist
rotates these basic forms to create a dynamic composition which introduces the idea of time and move-
ment into the work.
This method was used by Hone in the construction of her abstract art throughout the 1920s and is evident
in Abstract Composition, 1928. Against a mauve base Hone has created a geometric framework of greens
and blues the angular forms of which mutate as they move towards the centre of the composition into
more fluid and organic lines. These suggest the shape of a figure, akin to that of a religious icon. Gleizes,
Jellett and Hone were all devoutly religious and shared a reverence for medieval sacred art and a commit-
ment to an art practice that would offer a meaningful aesthetic to the wider community. At one level their
abstract art was concerned with creating a spiritual art for the twentieth century. Unlike Jellett whose work
was developing along similar proto-figurative lines in the late 1920s, Hone did not adopt religious titles for
her work, sticking instead to neutral terms like Composition. This terminology discourages the viewer from
looking for representational elements in the work and stresses instead its aesthetic components.
Hone’s version of translation-rotation, while very close to that of Jellett’s, is considered to be ‘more intuitive,
spontaneous and less rigidly theoretical’. One gets some sense of this in those parts of Abstract Composi-
tion where the lines end suddenly or mutate into a different colour. The reinforcement of the green in the
upper right part of the composition also indicates Hone’s willingness to play with the limits of this style and
its relationship to figurative art. The subtle repetition of rectangular floating forms of blue and bright green
adds a note of dynamism and movement.
Unusually Hone made a gouache version of Abstract Composition and a pochoir or stencil print of its de-
sign. This indicates the artist’s high regard for the work. It demonstrates Hone’s mastery of abstract art and
her status as a pioneer of this kind of modernist painting in Europe in the 1920s.
Dr. Róisín Kennedy
€ 15,000 - 20,000

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11 MARY SWANZY HRHA (1882-1978)
The Storm
Oil on canvas, 63 x 76cm (24¾ x 30’’)
Signed
Provenance: Originally in the collection of Pat and Antoinette Murphy and sold by them at their inaugural
exhibition at the Peppercanister Gallery in October 1999 . The artist told Pat Murphy that the two
figures in the maze represented the artist and her sister. From the Estate of PJ Mara
Exhibited :’Opening Exhibition of Irish Art’ The Peppercannister Gallery October/November 1999 Cat. No. 1 where
purchased . (Illustrated front cover of the catalogue) .
‘Analysing Cubism Exhibition’, IMMA Feb/May 2013, The Crawford Gallery,Cork June/Sept 2013, The
FE McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge, Sept/Nov 2013.
Literature: ‘Analysing Cubism’, The Crawford Gallery, Full page illustration p.96.
Julian Campbell has linked the large constructions in The Storm including to that of Semur-en-Auxois, a town in
Burgundy. This is, according to Campbell, the equivalent to Pablo Picasso’s Horta de Ebro, the Spanish mountain
top town that inspired several of his key cubist landscape paintings. Semur is a medieval city built on an outcrop
of pink granite and famous for its ramparts and towers. It is dominated by an imposing fortress, whose features
can be detected in The Storm.
The centre of the painting is made of a series of vortexes made of geometric configurations of light. These swirl-
ing forms swirl over the battlemented city flattening and fragmenting its solidity into facets of radiance and colour.
These create a sense of speed and movement akin to the experimental style of the Italian Futurists, whose work
Swanzy would have seen in Florence where she lived briefly before the World War One. The centre of the city
struck by stylized rods of lightning which can be seen darting across the surrounding hills. This dramatic vision of
a storm is presented as seen from above as though from an airplane or some celestial vantage point.
Fascination with force and speed and the aeronautical perspective became fashionable amongst avant-garde
artists in the 1910s and 1920s through the influence of futurism and Orphic Cubism, the colourful style associ-
ated with the work of Robert Delaunay and Sonya Terk. Their work was shown at the Salon des Independants in
Paris before the war at a time when Swanzy also participated in the exhibitions. Many of Swanzy’s cubist inspired
works of the late 1920s and 1930s reveal her keen understanding of this aesthetic which sought to transmit the
energy and sensation of living and seeing in the modern age in images of flight and of the city. In this work Swanzy
replaces the ubiquitous symbol of the Eiffel Tower, preferred by Delaunay, with the medieval town.
The Storm also takes a slightly different perspective to that of Orphic Cubism in its inclusion of tiny figures. Two
figures can be seen in the bottom centre of the composition, struggling to keep their balance on the rampart
walkway. These signal the future direction of Swanzy’s work which be the 1940s was moving away from Cubism
towards more imaginary themes. As early as 1934, roughly around the time this work was painted, a review of an
exhibition of her work in London, described Swanzy as a ‘Surrealist working in a Cubist convention’. In The Storm
the Surrealist aspect is most notable in the large arrow that lies embedded in the centre of the cylindrical forms
of the city. This play on proportion and scale adds a dimension of mystery to the painting suggesting the destruc-
tion of the citadel and the terror of its citizens.
€ 25,000 - 35,000

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THE PJ MARA COLLECTION

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12 MARY SWANZY HRHA (1882-1978)
La Cathédrale Engloutie
Oil on board, 50.5 x 61cm (19¾ x 24’’)
Signed
Provenance: Jorgensen Fine Art, where purchased.
Exhibited: ‘Mary Swanzy’, The Dawson Gallery, 1971, Catalogue No.14.
La Cathedrale Engloutie is an example of Mary Swanzy’s later poetic work which reveals her concern with myth
and fantasy. The style is influenced by the work of William Blake and Marc Chagall and that of artists whose work
she encountered in London where she was based from 1926. La Cathedrale Engloutie (The Submerged Cathedral)
was inspired by the Breton legend of the drowned city of Ys, said to lie in the bay of Douarnenez. According to
legend the daughter of the ancient king of Cornouaille, under the influence of Satan, unlocked the floodgates
and allowed the city to be flooded (1) La Cathedrale Engloutie, inspired by the same source, is also the title of a
1910 piano prelude by Claude Debussy, a central part of which evokes the slow and temporary emergence of the
cathedral from the water.
In the foreground of the composition there is a still-life of caged birds, doves, fruit and books scattered across a
wooden quayside. A cliff edge with fishing boats and nets and a trellis draped in a red cloth frame a view of the
bay. Soaring waves crash around the sinking façade of the church. These forms are made out of a cacophony of
bright colours that appear to be almost translucent. They suggest a dreamtime scene rather than the horror of a
devastating torrent.
The use of birds, a common motif in Swanzy’s later work, has been read ‘as an expression of her desire for free-
dom from the world of educated reason’ (2). In this painting many of the trappings of civilisation are shown to be
at risk. She addressed similar themes on the destruction of the world in The Message, (Dublin City Gallery, Hugh
Lane, 1945) and The Day of Judgement (Private Collection). Swanzy’s interest in this kind of apocalyptic subject
matter may have been inspired by her experience of the London blitz which forced the artist to flee temporarily
back to her sister’s home in Dublin.
The choice of subject and the way in which it is painted marks La Cathedrale Engloutie out as the work of an inter-
national artist. Swanzy, as Fionnuala Brennan has written ‘is an original painter. She is truly a European painter’.
(3) Having lived and worked for long periods in Paris and London, and spent time in Italy, Czechoslovakia, Samoa,
Hawaii and California, Swanzy’s view of the world was that of a cosmopolitan seeking universal themes and ideas.
€ 20,000 - 30,000
(1) Sile Connaughton-Deeny, ‘A Century of Irish Women Artists’, Jorgensen Gallery, 2007, quoted in Liz Cullinane, Mary Swanzy 1882-1978: An Evaluation
of her Career ‘This Our Gift, Our Portion Apart, MA thesis, CIT, 2010, p.139.
(2) Cullinane, Mary Swanzy 1882-1978: An Evaluation of her Career ‘This Our Gift, Our Portion Apart, p.137.
(3) Fionnuala Brennan, An Exhibition of Paintings by Mary Swanzy HRHA (1882-1978), Pyms Gallery, London, 1989, n.p.

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13 NORAH MCGUINNESS HRHA (1901-1980)
Above the Bay
Oil on canvas, 51 x 89cm (20 x 30’’)
Signed
Provenance: From the collection of the artist’s sister, Rhoda and bequeathed to the current owner.
Exhibited: ‘Norah McGuinness’, The Leicester Galleries, London, 1963, Cat No. 25, where purchased by
the artist’s sister Rhoda;
‘Norah McGuinness’, The Frederick Gallery, April - May 1996, catalogue No.18, on loan from Rhoda
McGuinness.
“Norah McGuinness Centenary Loan Exhibition’, Dalkey Castle Heritage Centre, 2002. Cat No. 19, under
the title ‘From Bray Head’
Norah McGuinness painted the east coast of Ireland extensively. Living in Dun Laoghaire, she developed a
passionate interest in the seashore, its birdlife and the patterns of the water, the sand and the mud flats of
Dublin Bay. This work is a panoramic view of a coastal town in Co. Wicklow, possibly Greystones. A solitary
figure in a white dress stands on the crest of the hill giving perspective and scale to the surrounding vista.
Her isolation contrasts with that of the groups of figures on the strand behind her.
Above the Bay, like many of McGuinness’s other works, is strongly influenced by her close but increasingly
flexible understanding of cubism which she learned in Paris with the Cubist artist André Lhote in the 1920s.
She had earlier studied design with Harry Clarke in the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin and she worked
extensively as an illustrator and window designer in London, New York and from 1939 in Dublin. She brings
this experience to bear in her treatment of the landscape in this work. The vagaries of nature are trans-
formed into a rich densely coloured and patterned surface. The land and distant mountains are presented
like a tapestry of differing green and brown squares. The sky is blocked out into larger geometric shapes of
greys and white. The sea is composed of broad brushstrokes of turquoise, blue, grey and white. In contrast
the town appears like a series of childlike blocks that enable bright green, pink and yellow to be introduced
into the painting. There is a distinctive and decidedly cosmopolitan quality to this rendition of the land-
scape. The skilful blocking of form and colour makes the view appears consciously modern and stylized.
McGuinness’s assured understanding of form, as seen in this work, has enabled her to construct a vivid and
graceful painting that succeeds independently of reality.
€ 20,000 - 30,000

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26
A Golden Evening
Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 51cm (16 x 20’’)
Signed
Provenance: From the Estate of Mr. J.H.D. Ryan and his sale these rooms, December 2009, lot 29,
where purchased by the current owner.
Exhibited: Norah McGuinness, Dawson Gallery, June/July 1972, catalogue no. 6 where purchased
by Mr J.H.D. Ryan
€ 6,000 - 8,000

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The Frozen Lake, Stephen’s Green
Oil on canvas, 41 x 51cm ( 16 x 20’’)
Provenance: From the Estate of Rhoda McGuinness MBE, the artist’s sister and her sale these rooms
December 2008, Cat No 134, where purchased by current owner.
Síle Connaughton-Deeny has written of this work:
‘In a sense, this work is on the cusp of her trademark style yet still anchored in her earlier lyrical and, even earlier still, il-
lustrative styles. The background is observational whilst the frozen body of water in the foreground is tending towards her
modiﬁed, ﬂight-of-fancy approach which will eventually result in her renowned bird’s-eye view compositions.’
€ 8,000 - 12,000

28
New York Skyline
Gouache, 38 x 50cm (15 x 19¾’’)
Signed and dated (19)‘38
€ 1,500 - 2,500
Still Life of Summer Flowers
Watercolour, 40 x 28.5cm (15¾ x 11¼’’)
Signed
Norah McGuinness studio stamp attached verso
€ 2,000 - 3,000

29

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18 KITTY WILMER O’BRIEN RHA (1910-1982)
Arran Quay, Dublin
Oil on board, 37 x 60cm (14¼ x 14¾’’)
Signed
Artist’s label verso. Inscribed with title
€ 1,000 - 2,000
19 MARGARET STOKES (1915-1996)
Figures Bathing
Oil on canvas, 39.5 x 34.5cm (15½ x 13½’’)
€ 800 - 1,200

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20 BARBARA WARREN RHA (1925-2017)
Beach from Memory, Connemara
Oil on canvas, 37 x 55.5cm (14½ x 21¾’’)
Signed
Inscribed with title on stretcher verso
€ 1,000 - 2,000
21 STELLA STEYN (1907-1987)
Portrait of a Woman, Three-quarter Length, Wear-
ing a Hat
Oil on canvas, 75 x 50cm (29½ x 19¾’’), Atelier
stamp verso on stretcher and canvas and dated
June 1952
Provenance; From the Estate of PJ Mara

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THE PJ MARA COLLECTION

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22 LOUIS LE BROCQUY HRHA (1916-2012)
Madonna and Child
Oil on gesso primed hardboard, 39.5 x 51cm (15½ x 20’’)
Signed and dated 1945. Signed again, inscribed with title and dated, ‘Dublin, June ‘45’ verso
Provenance - Sold in these rooms at the first Irish Art Sale, December 1973. Cat No. 71
Louis le Brocquy painted Madonna and Child in 1945 just as World War II was coming to an end. The world needed
mothering and Le Brocquy reflected much of the despair and austerity of the period in the colour scheme of this
1945 Madonna. Nearly sixty years later, in 2000, Dorothy Walker remarked on the tenderness of the mother child
relationship in this painting but did not relate it to the state of Europe at the time. She could also have mentioned
that the painting relates closely to socially committed work that Le Brocquy was then making, paintings of con-
demned prisoners, refugees, and Irish travellers, all of which employ the same simplicity, clarity of line, and strong
focus on a single theme that is so evident here. The subdued colours, a clear rejection of the comforting blues,
whites and reds conventionally used for this subject refer very specifically to the state of war weary Europe, where
Le Brocquy had educated himself as an artist. They were to be taken up a few years later, in 1951, in his more
widely known series A Family which was shown to international acclaim in the Venice Biennale in 1956.
Madonna and Child, 1945, represents an important transitional moment in le Brocquy’s career. In the early 1940s
his paintings, notably The Spanish Shawl, 1941, reflected the pale, grey and white palette of John McNeil Whistler
and that artist’s figurative style. By 1945 however, under the influence of Picasso, Le Brocquy was moving towards
a more Cubist-inspired approach to form and ground. The delicate profile of the baby’s face, set into a fully round-
ed head, marks a very tentative step towards the kind of faceting that Picasso had introduced some years before
and which was to become a hallmark of le Brocquy’s portraits of celebrity figures from the early 1970s onward.
Here those influences are only to be noted as interesting art historical facts. The overriding importance of this
painting is what is represented by the two figures in it; the vulnerability of the child, made especially evident in the
blank eye on the near side of his face and the tiny hand on his mother’s arm, which is in strongly contrasted to her
enveloping bulk and her absolute attention to him.
Le Brocquy had good reason to value mothers. When as a young man he chose to reject a career in the family
business, it was his mother Sybil who encouraged and supported him. And when, at a crucial moment, in his
young career, The Spanish Shawl, despite its relative conventionality and conservatism, was rejected by the Royal
Hibernian Academy it was in order to ensure that such rejections would not carry such destructive power in the
future, that his mother and others, including Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone founded the Irish Exhibition of Living Art,
changing the history of Irish art forever. Furthermore in 1945 he had recently become a father himself with his first
wife, Jean Stoney.
Catherine Marshall, October 2017
€ 50,000 - 80,000

35

36
Girl in a Summer Field
Watercolour, 9 x 10cm (3½ x 4’’)
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1944 on backing
board verso
€ 800 - 1,200
Study of Two Apples
Watercolour, 6 x 9.25cm (2.5 x 3.75”)
Signed and dated 1944; signed again and inscribed
with title verso
€ 700 - 1,000

37
Fruit
Coloured pencil, 22.5 x 16cm (9 x 6¼’’)
Signed; signed again, inscribed with title and dated 1945 on old backing
board verso
Provenance: ‘Important Irish Art Sale’ these rooms, September 2000, Catalogue
No.123, where purchased by the current owner.
Exhibited: Oireachtas Exhibition 1945, Catalogue No.174.
€ 3,000 - 5,000

38
Pigeon Landing (1984)
Oil on canvas, 50 x 50cm (19¾ x 19¾’’)
Signed with initials; signed and dated (19)’84 verso
Inscribed with title on stretcher (AR 515)
Exhibited: ‘Louis le Brocquy: Procession of Lilies and Other Work’, The Taylor Galleries, Dublin, March/April 1985,
Catalogue No.29, where purchased; ‘Louis le Brocquy, Image, Single and Multiple 1957-1990’, Japan
touring exhibition, The Museum of Modern Art Kamakura, January/February 1991, Itami City Museum
of Art, Hyogo, February/March 1991, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, April/May 1991, in
association with the Irish Embassy.
Literature: ‘Louis le Brocquy, Image, Single and Multiple 1957-1990’, illustrated p.74.
Pablo Picasso’s globular, iconic spirit was preoccupying Louis le Brocquy when in 1984 he took time out to paint this
lyrical Fantail Pigeon - Pigeon Landing. While Picasso was ‘’a being in whom the power and joy of life were uniquely
personified’’ for the artist. Here is sheer, effervescent pleasure in life and liveliness hovering at the moment of
landing. Unguenty swathes of oil, applied as though breathlessly, must achieve the almost impossible task of pic-
turing fluttering, feathery being. Slow, laborious matter - the heavy oil - meets rapid, gestural action. The art is in
the moment.
The very delightfulness of the image and the sight that inspired it draw attention away from the challenge at stake.
How can oil paint make movement appear? Viewers may wonder how such flickering, flirtatious fantails seem to
scatter lines of movement in internally-mirrored arcs, using painted marks that echo the moving pictures of twen-
tieth-century cinema as well as Duchamp’s early experiments in capturing motion and velocity in two dimensions.
‘’Perhaps this is simply a temporary release from the heads and their rather intense reflective consciousness, their
tragic aspect,’’ le Brocquy thought aloud to an interviewer that year, ‘’a return to a simple state of being, emerging
in its own nature, filling out its little volume of reality with the various natural possibilities of its form. Picasso’s own
painted doves had worked allegorically as a way of picturing peace and love, of imaging aspirations beyond every-
day limitations. Not for nothing did the cliché speak of being ‘free as a bird’. The birds signalled wonder.”
Yet Le Brocquy’s pigeons reached further back into the decaying Georgian streets of his Dublin childhood as well
to the Parisian boulevards he would stroll later. An early dove painting appeared in 1955. Then in 1956, le Brocquy
found himself feeding a flock of white doves who deigned to reside in the courtyard of Casa Pezzoli, his lodgings
while staying in Foggia-Ischia. He sketched them and made images in oil.
At Les Combes, Le Brocquy’s French home, his house and studio hung on a vine-clad valley where fantail pigeons
soared and dived by day, gliding back to their dovecotes each evening for an interlude of billing and cooing. Here
began the specific series to which this painting belongs.
Our thanks to Medb Ruane whose previous writings on the artist formed the basis of this catalogue entry.
€ 30,000 - 50,000

39

40
Study of Fruit (1993)
Oil on canvas, 27 x 35cm (10½ x 13¾’’)
Signed with initials; signed and dated (19)’93 and AR 622 verso
Exhibited: ‘Louis le Brocquy: Studies of Fruit’, The Taylor Galleries, Dublin, December 1993 - January 1994,
Catalogue No.22, where purchased.
Louis le Brocquy was 77 years old when he painted Study of Fruit, and had already been painting for over fifty
years, yet there is no diminution of energy or observational powers to be found in it. Instead the apples are
painted with a vivacity and lightness of touch that radiates exuberance and joy in the moment.
He had been painting still life subjects from time to time since the 1960s. His paintings of lemons, usually
single fruits, sometimes in pairs, might be thought of as studies for the composition and lighting of the an-
cestral heads and portrait images that he produced so prolifically during the same decades. Yet when asked
why he painted his still life and bird pictures, he said, “[p]erhaps this is simply a temporary release from the
heads and their rather intense, reflective consciousness, their tragic aspect. A return to a simple state of
being, emerging in its own nature, filling out its little volume of reality with the natural possibilities of its form.”
In contrast to those paintings of lemons, where the form is isolated and still against a white ground, the fruits
in this painting are brimming with life, the lightning flashes of colour, the sculptural handling of the fruits in
the foreground and the deft, almost transparent treatment of the less-defined fruits to the rear. Despite le
Brocquy’s typical white tonality, the painting bubbles with colour. For a simple, little painting of a simple sub-
ject, this is le Brocquy at his most baroque.
Our thanks to Catherine Marshall whose previous writings on the artist formed the basis of this catalogue
entry.
€ 20,000 - 30,000

41

42
Study towards an Image of W.B. Yeats
Watercolour, 22 x 17.5cm (8¾ x 7’’)
Signed with initials and dated (19)’75
Exhibited: The Dawson Gallery (Label verso)
‘Louis le Brocquy’ Arts Council of Northern Ireland Belfast Jan/Feb 1976 where purchased by the
current owners.
‘Louis le Brocquy ‘ A Recherche de Yeats’ Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Oct/Nov 1976
Etude 73
‘Louis le Brocquy : Edinburgh Festival Exhibition’ 1977 Richard Demarco Gallery
Yeats, the most varied mind of the Irish race, the last - and perhaps the only - Romantic poet in English to
manage a full career. Le Brocquy, the most dedicated Irish painter since Yeats’ brother died, with an intuitive
sympathy for literature and mythology, an increasingly rare reverence before the human. Their meeting has
an aspect of inevitability. In the last decade le Brocquy has reinvented for himself the idea of portraiture,
moving through family and friends to contemplate master spirits of his country, like Joyce and Beckett. As he
says ‘’simply because by their works I know them, and am drawn to peer through their familiar, ambiguous
faces which mask and at the same time embody - the great worlds of their vision’’.
And now Yeats, whom le Brocquy knew as a boy. Fascinatingly, the ideals and techniques of the two artists
have much in common. One of the foolishnesses of modern psychology is to believe that we have only a few,
usually warring, selves. But a Prospero, like Yeats, may live many lives, inhabit many faces, while achieving a
unity in variety. At an early stage, he began to play with his doctrine of the Mask, the anti-self, as a discipline
for spiritual or physical plenitude. ‘’I call to my own opposite’’, he says, ‘’all / That I have least looked upon’’.
Let us examine his selves, as they pass before us, in slow procession. There is the dreamy young man who
pressed himself to the earth of Sligo and Howth, like a lover. He wanted to go and live on an island, or in a
cave, like Shelley’s Alastor, a young man burdened with dreams.
But dreams can be harnessed and that young romantic, a cowslick of hair carefully plastered over his brow,
is a more wily customer that he seems. George Moore might wickedly compare his cawing voice to a crow’s,
his solemn poet’s robes to an umbrella left behind at a picnic, but he also testified to his intellectual strength.
It took a masterful man to found and manage the Abbey Theatre, to propagandise for an Irish Literary Re-
naissance. So the tuneless crow becomes a sacerdotal heron, a high priest of the arts. And the gaunt celibate
becomes a great lover, who kneels before Maud Gonne, the English army captain’s daughter who was his
personification of Ireland, as Petrarch did before Laura, Homer before Helen. Love has as many allotropes as
carbon - from soot to diamond - and Yeats weathered all the stages, crying out in frustration for the bosom
of his ‘’faery bride’’, swearing friendship with Olivia Shakespeare, collaborating with Lady Gregory, achieving a
profoundly psychic exchange in his marriage with his medium wife.
For Yeats was a trained mystic, a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn, who did not play with, but actu-
ally practised magic. Technically, le Brocquy’s method is akin to that of certain noble poems of Yeats where
he names and numbers his friends, living and dead, or sets different aspects of himself to dialogue, even to
dance. So the painter invokes faces of the poet, public and private, to challenge and exchange.
Compare earlier and later visages. The short-sighted sighing inventor of the Celtic Twilight is now a ‘’smiling
public man’’ (No. 5). The right eye sharp, the left hooded, he exudes a satisfied power, like a replete bird of
prey, ‘’the lidless eye that loves the sun’’. The cowslick becomes a crest, a ruffled plumage, and the wide black
riband, falling from the tortoise-shell- rimmed glasses, is set like a bar across his face. Significantly le Brocquy
moves towards whiteness, the full majesty of paint, as the poet moves towards wholeness, definition. But
with friends, Yeats could still display the full battery of his moods, changing from rage to affection, from so-
lemnity to boyishness, in a single instant, like sun chasing shadow across a West of Ireland field.
For behind the silver-haired Senator, the majestic black hatted Nobel Prize winner, with his carefully re-
hearsed gestures, is still the young poet, the spiritual fanatic in search of truth. Crow, heron, eagle, scare-
crow, le Brocquy dwells with wonder on the changing roles of Yeats; but my supreme favourite among these
psychic portraits, these attempts to show how the spirit speaks and shines through the casket of the brain,
the exposed or retreated eye, the chosen regalia, is one which combines the earlier and later selves (No. 3).
The eyes are lifted triumphantly above the glasses, the lips are widening to smile, the hair is in disarray; this
man has lived a strenuous life of achievement, has glimpsed truth and is not afraid of death: his ‘’ancient
glittering eyes are gay’’.
We acknowledge our thanks to the late John Montague who had granted us permission to reproduce his
preface to catalogue ‘Louis le Brocquy. A Ia Recherche de Yeats’ which had included this piece.
€ 6,000 - 8,000

43

44
29 BASIL BLACKSHAW HRHA RUA (1932-2016)
Portrait of the Poet Michael Longley (1989)
Oil on canvas, 58 x 58cm (22½ x 22½”)
Signed
Provenance; The Eamonn Mallie Collection
Exhibited : The Kenny Gallery Galway where purchased; ‘Basil Blackshaw - Painter’ touring exhibition, Ormeau
Baths 1995, Model Arts, Sligo 1996, RHA Gallery, Dublin 1997;
‘Basil Blackshaw at 80’ Retrospective Exhibition, The F.E McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge, May - October
2012, The RHA Gallery, Dublin, January, February 2013.
Literature: ‘Basil Blackshaw - Painter” by Brian Ferran, illustrated page 110; ‘Basil Blackshaw’ by Eamonn Mallie,
illustrated Plate 84, p.207;
‘Basil Blackshaw at 80’, F.E Mc William Gallery, Fig 10.
‘My acquiring this portrait of poet Michael Longley was as much an accident as the fact that it was painted in
the first place. In the late Eighties my wife and I were heading West on our holidays and were passing through
Monaghan town when we halted at a famous fashion house called ‘Panache’. An hour later Mrs M emerged with
a little Escada outfit which put quite a hole in my pocket.
My first port of call in Galway down the years was always Kenny’s Bookshop and Gallery. I fell at the first hurdle
buying an oil portrait of poet Michael Longley at a very considerable figure not feeling too guilty though, against
the backdrop of my largesse towards my wife in Monaghan and the procurement of her little Escada number. I
was acting out the games played out between many husbands and wives all over the country who are art aficio-
nados. In marriage there has to be give and take! It is not the painting one has but the next one for which one
lusts. Several portraits attracted my attention in Kenny’s that August day including a wonderful image of Brian
Friel by Blackshaw, but Longley is my neighbour and he won the day. I met a friend in the street outside Kenny’s
and I recommended he should go into the gallery and buy Blackshaw’s portrait of Friel. He did just that, happy to
be the owner of Blackshaw’s portrait of the Donegal based playwright, with whom he was friendly for decades.
I spoke above of the accident which led to my coming across the Longley portrait in Galway and again it was hap-
penstance which actually led to the painting being made by Blackshaw in the first instance. Michael had gone to
Blackshaw’s studio out in Antrim to sit for him but Basil struggled to get a handle on the sitter for a considerable
time deciding the undertaking wasn’t working.
In fact he thought he had totally lost it. After some further observation Blackshaw told me he pulled the portrait
together rather quickly to his surprise, and simply stopped, knowing to continue might result in his losing what
he had achieved. What he captured in so little activity on the canvas is very revealing. The approach is minimalist,
deploying thin oil paint while allowing the canvas to do a lot of the work for him. Clearly some rubbing, sponging
and use of a rag took place.
The work is a big favourite of Longley’s who talked affectionately and liberally about it in the BBC documentary
I made on the life of Basil Blackshaw. Blackshaw’s peers hold him in high esteem when it comes to making por-
traits. The one of former Irish Times editor Douglas Gageby is considered to be a master piece. Before heading
to Dublin to paint former President Mary Robinson, Blackshaw told me he had a vision of how he wanted to paint
her. When she walked into his studio and sat down she assumed the pose automatically to which he had aspired
- her hands resting on her lap to the side as you will observe if you get a chance to see the portrait. Brian Friel
proudly showed me Blackshaw’s portrait of him in his Donegal home. He had been painted by many artists but
up until that moment he considered Blackshaw’s painting of him as the jewel in the crown.
You can make up your own mind about Blackshaw’s image of the author of these words. That is your prerogative
as a viewer.’ (See page 7)
Eamonn Mallie
€ 10,000 - 15,000

45
THE EAMONN MALLIE COLLECTION

46
30 PHILIP FLANAGAN (B.1960)
Portrait Bust of Seamus Heaney (1990)
Bronze on Limestone base, H 31.5cm (12.5”) Overall 57cm (22.5”)
Signed with artist’s device and signed AC (Artist’s Copy) edition of 9.
Signed also by the poet Seamus Heaney, and dated 1990 on plaque inside
Provenance; The Eamonn Mallie Collection. Bought from the Shambles Gallery, Hillsborough. Co Down
‘If knowing your sitter as a sculptor stands for anything then there was no excuse for Philip Flanagan not un-
locking the soul of Seamus Heaney. TP Flanagan, Sheelagh his wife, Seamus Heaney and his wife Marie had
been friends for over half a century. Terry responded to Heaney’s poems in paint and vice versa, and TP’s
son Philip, who trained as a sculptor at Camberwell College in England, would have known Seamus Heaney
from childhood. I purchased this Heaney (AP) head from Sheelagh Flanagan in the early Nineties. I had no
reticence in parting with my money. I had met Heaney several times down the years and despite the fact that
our legs hung out of the same nest in many ways, we did not get beyond a passing acquaintance. I loved the
way Flanagan latched onto Heaney’s rural ruggedness and his unruly head of hair. The artist didn’t play at nicy
nicy.....He went rural.
I had a discussion with the Irish sculptor Rowan GIllespie about when is the right time to paint or sculpture a
head. He contends this is a matter of judgement. Gillespie lamented he had not the opportunity to paint Pol-
ish Pope John Paul II, not as the handsome fatherly figure he was when he surfaced firstly, but as he was dying
in public wracked with disease. Over the years I have seen some very poor sculptural attempts at winning the
essence of Heaney. Flanagan left me with no doubts in his choice of timing to capture Heaney.
For some time Heaney’s head has faced motionlessly out into our street as its maker Flanagan walks by. I won-
der what thoughts go through Philip’s head? Perhaps he will share those thoughts with me one day. I will not
have that luxury in the case of Heaney. My neighbour who went to Annahorish Primary School, attended by
Heaney, told me “The day Seamus Heaney was leaving our school our teacher Mrs Murphy told us ‘a genius’ is
leaving our school today.” I still find it hard to believe, having penned the words ‘Noli timere’ the book closed
on this genius son of a South Derry farmer’.
Eamonn Mallie
Philip Flanagan explains the making of this piece :-
This head of Seamus Heaney was made in the cottage at Roughra in August 1990. Seamus Heaney
agreed to sit with me and we made it up in Donegal. There were three sittings for the head, each sitting
lasting two hours. I decided that, because I had such a limited time to make the head, I would make it
more like a large charcoal drawing, in that I would keep everything very general – very loose kind of mod-
elling, but at the same time a tight framework of measurement under the surface, so that the head would
not sway away from my intentions to get a likeness and to express Seamus Heaney’s personality.
In Seamus Heaney’s head, I am particularly pleased with the modelling of the hair. As this head was
sculpted in 1990, this was a kind of breakthrough for me in terms of the way I was modelling. Before that,
I had been tutored in a very academic kind of way, but the Heaney head was a departure in that I really
buttered the clay on, giving a casual feeling to the hair, but at the same time strong directional lines so
that it is quite a forceful piece of modelling. The way that the clay is modelled also reminds me of bog
cuts. Around the cottage in Donegal, we are surrounded by bog and it gives me great pleasure to walk
in the bog and let the feeling of that dark solid earth take over. I find it very sculptural. This head has a
classical feel to it and I hope it gives the impression of Heaney as a bog king.
€ 5,000 - 7,000

47

48
31 ROSS WILSON (B.1957)
Poet of the Spanish Moons - Lorca
Oil on board, 20 x 12cm (8 x 4¾”)
Signed with initials; inscribed with title and with personal inscription verso
Provenance: The Eamonn Mallie Collection
‘My art collecting was central to my life’s journey. I fell in love with Spanish poet Garcia Lorca as a student in Abbey Grammar
School, Newry, only to continue this odyssey in Trinity College, Dublin, under the guidance of Professor Nigel Glendinning,
an authority on Goya. Glendinning stimulated my interest in art as a student, choosing to lace his charming lectures on
literature, with references to architecture, art, humour, satire, historical events, etc. Years later I learned from Coleraine
based artist Ross Wilson, that he had been commissioned to do a posthumous portrait of Lorca. His very reference to Lorca
prompted me to start reciting the great man as I outlined my love aﬀair with his work.
Some time later a parcel arrived to our home and within, rested this image of Garcia Lorca. I am sure all my TCD contempo-
raries, and Lorca aﬁcionados, will rejoice in seeing this elegant portrait by Ross Wilson.’
Eamonn Mallie
€ 800 - 1,200

49
32 HARRY KERNOFF RHA (1900-1974)
Portrait of Brinsley MacNamara. Writer, Playwright, and Registrar of the National Gallery of Ireland
Oil on panel, 48 x 35cm (19 x 13¾”)
Signed. Inscribed with title and dated verso
Exhibited; The RHA Annual Exhibition, 1932. Cat no. 112:
‘A Century of Progress; Exhibition of Irish Art’, Chicago World Fair, 1933/4 (label verso).
See Lot 76 which was also at that Exhibition
€ 700 - 1,000

50
33 COLIN DAVIDSON PPRUA
(B.1968)
Study for a Portrait of Basil
Blackshaw
Charcoal, 27 x 35cm (10¾ x
13¾”)
Signed
Provenance; The Eamonn Mallie
Collection. Acquired directly from
the artist
€ 1,000 - 2,000
34 TOM CARR ARHA HRUA ARWS (1909-1999)
Portrait of the Artist T.P. Flanagan
Oil on canvas laid on board, 31.5 x 21.5 (12½ x 8½”)
Signed
Provenance; The Eamonn Mallie Collection. Purchased at the Arches Gallery, Belfast
Tom Carr, a South Belfast man was almost two decades older than Fermanagh born artist Terry Flanagan, familiarly known as
TP Flanagan. Both men shared a mutual respect for each other’s work, both being water-colourists with oils beings more of
an obsession as emerging painters. Carr was sent to England for his education in Oundle in Northamptonshire and then he
made his way to the Slade College of Art in London.
The present portrait is proof positive of Carr’s empathy and familiarity with his sitter Terry Flanagan, a gentle soul. While this
is not a big head of Flanagan it provides adequate space for Carr to demonstrate his scholarship with insouciance in the
execution of his task. By the time Carr got around to painting Flanagan, Terry was already a very familiar figure not just in art
circles but as a distinguished lecturer in one of Belfast’s leading teacher training colleges and as a regular exponent of the
virtues and merits of sculptor FE McWilliam and fellow Fermanagh artist William Scott, both personal friends. This portrait of
TP Flanagan was partnered at one stage by a portrait of his wife Sheelagh - that painting rests with the Flanagan family.
I became acquainted with Carr’s portrait of TP in the Arches Art Gallery in East Belfast about fifteen years ago, and through
knowing Carr and Flanagan, I had an instant empathy with the work, and I bought it. I always enjoyed the warm glow issuing
from the gentle colours - a hallmark of Carr’s painting. The painting in its own right is of historical relevance because Flanagan
would have influenced possibly thousands of art students over the decades. The fact too that Tom Carr’s hand is behind
the portrait is also significant. Carr won the gold medal for his work in the Slade. He fell under the spell of Professor Henry
Tonks. Tonks is a familiar figure in collections in museums such as ‘The Ashmolean’ in Oxford. While Tom Carr trained in the
very forensic manner of Tonks in the ‘drawing room’ at the Slade, he ultimately gravitated towards the more comprehensive
open style of Walter Sickert who was more preoccupied with placing a sitter or an object in a setting which blended into its
environment as opposed to being the total focus of the painting.
Eamonn Mallie
€ 2,000 - 3,000

51

52
35 WILLIAM SCOTT OBE RA (1913-1989)
Blue and White (1964)
Oil on canvas, 44 x 44cm (17¼ x 17¼’’)
Signed
Provenance: From the collection of the architect Michael Scott and his sale, Christies Dublin, May 1989, Lot No. 89.
Exhibited: ‘William Scott: Recent Paintings’, The Hanover Gallery, London, September - October 1965, Catalogue No.6;
‘William Scott’, The Dawson Gallery, January - February 1967, Cat. No. 14, where purchased;
‘Modern Irish Painting’, Major European Touring Exhibition which started in Helsinki October 1969 and travelled to
Goteborg, Norrkoping, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Bielefeld, Bonn, Saarbrücken, London, Leeds, Glasgow, Dublin,
Donegal and Mayo.
Literature: ‘William Scott: Catalogue Raisonne of Oil Paintings’, Catalogue No.570., illustrated.
When the late Anne Crookshank, as a young curator of visual art at The Ulster Museum in Belfast in 1958, appealed to local
pride and begged her fiscal overlords to agree to purchase a painting by William Scott – a local man, if not actually born in Ul-
ster, at least raised and educated there, she played up the considerable fame he had just acquired as Britain’s highly acclaimed
representative in the Venice Biennale of that year. However, despite his fame and the fact that one of his Venice paintings had
immediately been purchased and donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York, she still felt it necessary to
ask her colleagues at the Arts Council in England to include it in a travelling exhibition they were organizing of his work, so that
by the time her trustees had a chance to view their new acquisition, they would have adjusted to its modernity. Her strategy
paid off.
While the painting was touring Scott was commissioned to paint the biggest mural painting in Ireland at Derry’s Altnagelvin
Hospital, a great reassurance to her trustees. The purchase went on to raise the profile of contemporary art at the Ulster Mu-
seum to the level that under Anne Crookshank the collection there led the field in Ireland for buying good contemporary art.
Blue and White was painted in 1964, just 6 years after the Ulster Museum’s purchase. In many respects, it can be seen as a
continuation of the abstract formal language of the hospital mural but, perhaps more importantly, it connects Irish art directly
to the greatest precursors of International Modernism. The irregular white rectangle that floats upon the square white ground
pays a discreet homage to Malevich’s ground breaking White on White in the early days of twentieth century modernism, while
the luscious blue triangle thrusts itself outward towards the viewer, just as Franz Klein’s blue paintings had thrust themselves
at Scott when he first encountered that artist’s work in New York a decade earlier.
Anne Crookshank, who maintained her regard for him over the decades remarked that ‘He handles blue with the greatest skill
and achieves superbly luminous passages.’ In this painting that is augmented by the textural impact of the paint itself, applied
in thick downward strokes.
The painting does exactly what Scott intended it to do; it presents a dialogue between the elements of painting itself, between
the formal thrust of the blue triangle and the two levels of white ground from which it emerges, without recourse to any nar-
rative or literary qualities. The drama of space, light, texture and colour are all manifested through the artist’s manipulation of
them in a way that is coherent and self-contained, and utterly compelling. Scott was quoted as saying about his work that ‘what
matters to me is the indefinable’. He achieves that in this painting through the elements of the medium itself, which in his use of
them, offer more than the sum of their various parts. It is no surprise that the architect, Michael Scott, that guru of Modernism
in Ireland was one of the owners of this work in its earlier life.
Catherine Marshall, October 2017
€ 30,000 - 50,000

53

54
Night Rider (2001)
Acrylic on canvas, 152.5 x 213.5cm (60 x 84”)
Signed
Provenance: The Eamonn Mallie Collection. Purchased directly from the Artist
Exhibited: ‘Basil Blackshaw - Paintings 2000-2002’, The Ulster Museum, December 2002 - May 2003, Cat. No. 5;
‘Basil Blackshaw at 80’ Retrospective, The FE McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge, May - October 2012, The
RHA Gallery Dublin January - February 2013. The Gordon Gallery, March 2013, as part of the City of
Culture
Literature: ‘Basil Blackshaw - Paintings 2000 - 2002’, Ulster Museum, illustrated p.22;
Irish Arts Review Front Cover illustration, Winter 2002, inside article by Brian McAvera, picture
illustrated again p.59;
‘Basil Blackshaw’ by Eamonn Mallie, 2003, illustrated Plate 16, p.365;
‘Basil Blackshaw at 80’, FE Mc William Gallery,2012, Fig 25. ‘Basil at 80’, The Gordon Gallery, 2013,
illustrated P.25
‘It was not uncommon for Basil Blackshaw to carry an image about in his head for over half a century. He was a con-
summate romantic, passionate about everything about which he was passionate - women, horses, dogs, markets
people, edge of the town people, travellers, horse racing, boxing, cockfighting, ‘rare characters,’ the craic, politics,
poetry, the countryside, giving to the poor and so on.
Among his favourite ‘Pictures’ in the cinema were Westerns and he loved cowboy novels when he was young. Enter
Night Rider from Blackshaw’s fantasy world. More often than not his images were of himself playing out his fantasy.
He worked and owned horses all his life. Such is the control of the rider in Night Rider here that we know Basil is
in charge. Night Rider fits into what would be his ‘late period’ - always returning to earlier themes and subjects but
much more psychological in interpretation. The rider’s eyes speak volumes about his character ... he emits danger
signals. He is ‘a down looking thief’ who would not take prisoners. One senses a gun is but one hand movement
away.
What is remarkable about this work is Blackshaw’s choice of colours. They convey a sense of menace.
My recollection of Western’s way in the distant past, is one of the sound of distant drums, the pounding of horses’
hooves on sun drenched plains above deep river sunlit valleys. We are however dealing with Blackshaw here - the
art delinquent - the re-maker of images seeking out the otherness of an event or happening. One can image the
muscularity which the artist brought to this large painting. I can still see him stabbing the canvas with a lick of paint
- retreating only to attack another area with the same brío. This was war on a canvas.
Blackshaw often compared his picture making to boxing - throwing punches, stepping back, all the time ducking,
diving and contorting his wiry frame in pursuit of his dream in paint. My own experience of sitting for my portrait
bore testimony to this extraordinary ritual of picture making by Blackshaw.
As to the presence of the large yellow cross-like mark to the left of the canvas - Blackshaw regularly explained to
me the composition needed that mark to give the work balance. “The painting wouldn’t be right without that mark”
he protested. Blackshaw’s Spanish contemporary - Tapiès regularly uses a cross-mark too, in his oeuvre. I can’t
help thinking that that ‘cross’ notation invokes the notion of death. Blackshaw unashamedly claimed “I steal ideas
from good artists and bad artists but what you do with the theft is what matters.”
He asked me to establish if it would be possible to get a look at a large collection of Lucian Freuds on this island. I
managed to arrange this. Observing Blackshaw scrutinising the Freuds was instructive. I thought he was going to
lick the canvasses. He appeared to be in a trance, his eyes fixed on every square inch of the paintings. A year or
two after the execution of ‘Night Rider’ Blackshaw told me “do you see that grey triangle of paint on the side of the
horse’s neck - I stole that idea from one of Freud’s paintings that morning you took me to see the works.”
It was what he did with the theft that mattered. It helped him resolve a problem.’
Eamonn Mallie
€ 100,000 - 150,000

55

56
Standing Nude
Mixed Media, 27 x 19cm, (10¾ x 7½”)
Signed
Provenance; The Eamonn Mallie Collection. Acquired directly
from the Artist
€ 800 - 1,200
Portrait of Jude (1989)
Pastel and oil on paper, 61 x 61cm, (24 x 24”)
Dated Jan ‘89
Provenance; The Eamonn Mallie Collection. Acquired Exhibition of Irish Art, Narrow Water Castle
Exhibited: ‘Basil Blackshaw - Painter’ touring exhibition, Ormeau Baths 1995, Model Arts, Sligo 1996, RHA Gallery, Dublin
1997.
Literature: ‘Basil Blackshaw - Painter” by Brian Ferran, illustrated plate 63, p.66;
‘Basil Blackshaw’ by Eamonn Mallie illustrated Plate 92, p.222
‘Basil Blackshaw’s model Jude Stephenson is almost as well known as Basil himself. A trained anthropologist, Jude sat for
Blackshaw for more than three decades. In her own words “I loved Basil but not in the conventional sense.” She loved his
wildness, his unpredictability, his challenge whether walking the shore line on the North West coast during which once, he
challenged her to pose nude hanging from the rocks. She dutifully did and I will not disclose the details of the sequel in the
pub to which Basil and Jude retired and where Basil unveiled some of his coastline drawings to some of the unsuspecting
male patrons of the establishment.
A gifted lady in so many ways Jude shared so many of Blackshaw’s passions, for dogs, the countryside, art and ‘quare boys’ as
they say in the countryside to describe characters. A lot of collectors are more familiar with Jude without her clothes than with
her clothes. The ‘Jude’ illustrated here, by consensus of opinion encapsulates the sheer beauty of the lady adorned with won-
derful flashes of pink and blue in her hair by the artist this time using charcoal. The pouting mouth is exquisite in execution.
One senses the celerity with which Blackshaw tackled his subject to win that immediacy and freshness. I sense Blackshaw
felt an urgency about bringing the work to fruition knowing that he had to get it right there and then. He knew there was no
going back as was the experience of Degas.
Jude floated into my life in January 1989 as annotated on the surface of the work, (viewed by the artist as very much as an
inseparable part of the image) when I walked into an exhibition of Irish art hosted by Maeve Hall, of Narrowater Castle in
Warrenpoint. The minute I spotted the painting in a corridor I called out “Maeve put a red dot on this for me.” I found out the
price later. My old friend Vincent Ferguson of Sligo, another Blackshaw aficionado, later persuaded me to let him have Jude in
a transaction. Jude’s absence from our home was much lamented by my wife, deemed her favourite work and several years
later in another happy exchange with Vincent, Jude like a favourite pet, made her way back to our Myrtlefield home where
she has dwelled for many years with a very happy lady of the house.’
Eamonn Mallie
€ 10,000 - 15,000

57

58
Nude
Oil on canvas, 87 x 103cm (34 x 41“)
Signed
Provenance; The Eamonn Mallie Collection. Acquired directly from the Artist
Literature: “One Hundred Years of Irish Art”, edited by Eamonn Mallie, illustrated to represent Basil Blackshaw’s
work p.77
‘Blackshaw painted two of these large nude works of his model Jude Stephens around the same period in the
early Nineties. They are both powerful statements breaking so many rules of composition and art.
The positioning of Jude, his model, horizontally against a background of rows of perpendicular strong marks
sends one message - absolute conﬁdence and sure-footedness - no compromise.
This painting has echoes of the art practice of German artist Baselitz (no relation of Basil’s by the way) in the
placing of the nude.
Looking at a photograph of this painting the viewer is tempted to spin the image around which is not the case
when looking at the original which is portrait shape.
What is immediately striking are the mere marks Blackshaw deploys to tilt at ﬁlling in the physiognomy ..... very
European in tendency with a suggestion of a gash for a mouth. The raw femininity of the sitter is undisguised
with a total commitment through use of bold brush strokes to work out the geometry of the female form. What
Basil calls ‘the white bits’ (breasts) amount to the playfulness of the artist. Jude had been abroad on holidays
and being the shy retiring lady (my eye she is !) she didn’t go topless hence the contrast in her tan. Basil re-
peated this theme in a much larger work in the Ferguson estate also called The White Bits.
This painting in a domestic setting has a powerful presence and is one of Blackshaw’s statements of absolute
courage in the vein of Lucian Freud whom he greatly admired.’
Eamonn Mallie
€ 25,000 - 35,000

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60
40 MAURICE C. WILKS ARHA RUA (1910-1984)
Silver Light, Killary, Connemara
Oil on canvas, 39 x 49cm (15¼ x 19¼’’)
Signed
€ 800 - 1,200
41 MAURICE C. WILKS RUA ARHA (1910-1984)
At Ballyconneely, Connemara
Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 61cm (16 x 24”)
signed, Inscribed with title verso
€ 1,500 - 2,500

61
42 FRANK MCKELVEY RHA RUA (1895-1974)
Cattle Grazing by the River Bann
Signed; inscribed in pencil ‘River Bann’ on stretcher
€ 1,500 - 2,500

62
Cows in a Western Landscape
Oil on canvas, 51 x 68.5cm (20 x 27’’)
Signed
€ 2,000 - 4,000

63
Driving home the Cattle
Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 51cm (16 x 20”)
Signed
€ 4,000 - 6,000

64
45 PAUL HENRY RHA (1877-1958)
A Kerry Lake, Dingle Peninsula
Oil on canvas, 35.5 x 40.5cm (14 x 16”)
Signed; inscribed with title verso
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist, thought to have been a gift, by Dr Robert Donnelly who was
the doctor on Achill and thence by family descent.
Paul liked the Dingle Peninsula and was always happy there. ‘It is lovely. Wherever one turns there
is material for dozens of pictures’, he wrote to James Healy, his dealer in America. He explored the
whole area (Mabel, his second wife, had a motor car) which reminded him of Cape Cod, ‘very lonely
& wild but not very paintable...nicer at a distance’, he ventured to Healy. But he made numerous
sketches which later, in the studio, were turned into paintings. This painting may have been made
from one of those sketches.
The painting has never been oﬀered for sale before.
A Kerry Lake, Dingle Peninsula is numbered 1333 in Dr. S.B. Kennedy’s on-going Catalogue Raisonné
of Paul Henry’s work.
€ 60,000 - 80,000

65

66
46 CHARLES VINCENT LAMB RHA RUA (1893 - 1964)
Coastal landscape Carraroe
Oil on board, 25 x 36cm (10 x 14”)
Signed
€ 2,000 - 3,000

67
47 CHARLES VINCENT LAMB RHA RUA (1893-1964)
The Road Home
Oil on board, 25.5 x 35.5cm (10 x 14’’)
Signed
Provenance: The artist’s family by descent.
€ 2,000 - 3,000

68
48 JACK BUTLER YEATS RHA (1871-1957)
The Boat Builder (1923)
Oil on board, 23 x 35.5cm (9 x 14’’)
Signed
Provenance: Sold by the artist to Alfred R. De Lury, University of Toronto, August 1923.
Exhibited: ‘Jack B. Yeats’ ‘’Drawings and Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland’’, Stephen’s Green Gallery, April/May 1923.
Catalogue No. 5;
‘’Paintings by Homer Watson and a Collection of Paintings by Contemporary Irish Artists’’, Group Exhibition,
Toronto Art Gallery, Catalogue No. 44.
Literature: 1930 Exhibition Catalogue, Toronto Art Gallery, illustrated; ‘’Jack B. Yeats - A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil
Paintings’’ by Hilary Pyle, London 1922, Catalogue No. 199.
A man seated in a súgán chair watches two men building a boat. A young woman in a red skirt stands looking on. It is a
bright summer’s day with views of the islands and coastlines of Connemara extending into the background. A traditional
whitewashed cottage, evidently the home of the man and his companion, completes the scene. Yeats was fascinated by
boats and boat building.
In 1905 he visited Carna, Co. Galway with the writer J.M. Synge when the two men collaborated on a series of articles for
the Manchester Guardian. Synge was also interested in boats and sailing and he devoted a section of one of his articles
to the subject of boat building in the West of Ireland. Yeats supplied an illustration depicting the boat yard at Carna with
a similar scene of two men working on the hull of a traditional local boat. The Boat Builder painted nearly twenty years
later clearly recalls part of that memorable visit. Synge describes the process of boat building in this remote region. The
timber was purchased in Galway and brought by hooker to the commissioner’s homestead. A carpenter, a highly skilled
craftsman, was employed to build the boat, a task that usually took six weeks to two months and for which he was paid
two pounds. The carpenter or boat builder was assisted by a helper who ‘must stand holding boards and handing nails,
and if he doesn’t do it smart enough you’ll hear the carpenter scolding him and making a row’. The boat builder in this
painting is clearly not the one described by Synge and depicted in Yeats’s earlier drawing for he ‘was rather remarkable
in appearance, with sharply formed features and an extraordinarily hairy chest showing through the open neck of his
shirt’. The boat builder in this painting is nonetheless presented as absorbed in his work, planning a wooden plank of the
hull. His masterful pose is contrasted by that of his companion who stands with a board at the ready. The intricacies and
skill of their task is a source of great curiosity as Yeats shows through the engrossed expressions of their patron and the
young woman.
The painting is an intriguing vignette into the social structure of Connemara life which was already vanishing in the 1920s
when the work was painted. The detail of landscape and the simplicity of the setting add to the poignancy of the subject.
1. J. M. Synge, Complete works of J.M. Synge, Wordsworth edition, 2008, p.209. 2. Ibid, p.210.
€ 70,000 - 100,000

69

70
By Merrion Strand (1929)
Signed
Provenance: From the collection of Richard McGonigal SC who purchased it at The Contemporary Picture Galleries, 1940;
Later in the collection of Aer Lingus, purchased circa 1965 and their sale, Dublin, November 2001, where
purchased by current owners.
Exhibited: ‘Jack B. Yeats’, The Alpine Club Gallery, London, February 1929, Cat. No. 15;
‘Jack B. Yeats’, Engineers Hall, Dublin, October 1929, Cat. No. 13;
‘Jack B. Yeats’, Contemporary Picture Galleries, Dublin, October - November 1940, Cat. No. 6;
‘Jack B. Yeats National Loan Exhibition’, NCAD Dublin June - July 1945, Cat. No. 70;
‘Jack B. Yeats’, Waddington Galleries, London, February - March 1965, Cat. No. 7;
‘Irish Art 1900 - 1950”, ROSC Chorcaí, The Crawford Gallery, Cork, December 1975 - January 1976, Cat.
No. 155;
‘Jack B. Yeats’, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin, June - October 1988, Cat. No. 60 (Label verso);
‘Art Inc Exhibition of Art from Corporate Collections’, Cothú Guinness Hop Store, Dublin, April - May
1991, Cat. No. 6.
By Merrion Strand is a wonderfully freshly coloured work painted in the late 1920s in the period in which Jack Yeats
was moving into his later more expressionist style of painting. It depicts a young woman standing at a stall with a
view of Dublin bay behind her. The purple of the Wicklow mountains, possible the Sugar Loaf, can be deciphered
beyond her left shoulder. On her right another woman sits on a wooden deck-chair with a large bouquet of flow-
ers in her arms. The two figures are women who have come to sell flowers and fruit to the pleasure seekers and
holiday makers who flocked to beach at this time. The outline of several of these day trippers can be deciphered
on the sand and in the waters behind. Some stride across the blue of the sea, a reference to the nature of the
current at Merrion strand which is notable for its expanses of shallow waters at low tide.
The subject of working class women recurs in many of Yeats’s paintings of the 1920s revealing both a sentimen-
tal and sympathetic interest in them. Among the most notable are Paper Bags for Hats (1925, Private Collection)
and Flower Girl, Dublin (1926, National Gallery of Ireland). Like By Merrion Strand these bring some of the most
impoverished and overlooked citizens of Dublin into focus. The composition of the woman silhouetted against the
sea and sky is also very similar to that of By Drumcliffe, Long Ago, (1923, Private Collection), a work that is based on
a memory of County Sligo.
The pale blues and touches of white and yellow in the work produce the effect of sunlight on a bright summer’s
day. The white of the central figure’s arms and neck compared to the darker tones of her face subtly suggest the
demarcation of her tan line. This intimates that this is one of the first hot days of the year. As in Yeats’s other late
work the loose application of paint evokes movement of light, air and the figures most notably in the stall holder
herself whose head is turned to look back towards the viewer’s space.
The painting was included in an important one-man exhibition of Yeats’s work in 1940, the first solo exhibition
of his work at the Contemporary Picture Galleries in Dublin. It was bought at this show by Richard MacGonigal, a
notable collector of his work. The exhibition encouraged the development of Yeats’s reputation as one of Ireland’s
foremost modern artists leading to his adoption by Victor Waddington during the war years, in whose gallery
Yeats’s status continued to flourish.
€ 300,000 - 500,000

71

73

74
Flowing Tide, Inishbeg, Near Skibbereen (1919)
Oil on panel, 23 x 35.5cms (9 x 14’’)
Signed
Provenance: Purchased from Victor Waddington Galleries, 21st Jan 1942, costing £15.00 by Mr J.P. Reihill Snr,
Deepwell, and thence by descent to his son and his sale Adam’s 4th December 2012 Lot No. 51, where
purchased by current owner.
Exhibited: 1920 Mills Hall, Dublin ‘’Jack B. Yeats - Drawings and Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland’’ Cat. No. 18.
Literature: ‘’Jack B. Yeats - A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil paintings’’, Hilary Pyle 1992, Vol 1 Cat. No. 119, p105.
Also illustrated Vol III p50.
This work is one of a series of paintings of West Cork painted by Jack Yeats in 1919. It shows the island of
Inishbeg in the distance with some of its houses visible. One of the Carbery Hundred Islands, Inishbeg lies in the
estuary of the Ilen River not far from Skibbereen. Yeats stresses the movement of the tide in the way in which
he has painted the surface of the water using short strokes of grey, blue and brown pigment ﬂecked with white.
In contrast the sky is smoothly painted giving a ﬂat opaque background to the scene. Yeats was clearly taken
by the region’s numerous islands and undulating coastline which are broadly reminiscent of parts of the West.
Islands recur in his later paintings as a symbol of creative possibility and change. Their interim position between
the sea and the mainland lent them and their inhabitants a particularly special quality in Yeats’s imagination.
This work is a forerunner of these later explorations. But in this early work the overcast sky and earthy colours
of the islands highlight the real physical appearance of the scene, making the sensation of being there almost
tangible.
Dr. Roisin Kennedy
€ 25,000 - 35,000

75

76
Jack Butler Yeats’ Painting Cabinet, an oak cabinet
with three drawers, the folding top opening to reveal
a metal lined interior paint box, bearing the maker’s
label ‘Robinson & Co, Longacre, London’
Provenance: The Estate of Jack Butler Yeats; bequeathed
to his niece Anne Yeats (1919-2001); Anne Yeats’ Sale,
HOK, RDS November 2002, Lot No.506A (ex catalogue);
private collection.
Exhibited: ‘Jack B. Yeats Master of Ceremonies’, Hunt
Museum, Limerick, 16th June - 26th September
2004.
Literature: ‘Jack B. Yeats Master of Ceremonies’,
2004, illustrated p.48.
€ 10,000 - 15,000
52 WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS (1865-1939)
Two Girls and a Dog in the Wood
Pastel, 33.8 x 23.8cm (13¼ x 9¼’’)
Provenance: The Estate of Poet’s daughter, Anne Yeats
(1919-2001), her sale HOK, 19th November 2002, Lot 587,
where purchased; later sold at Whytes, February 2007, where
purchased; private collection.
As a young man W. B. Yeats studied at the Dublin Metro-
politan School of Art (1884-85) and at the RHA painting
schools (1886) before turning to writing as a fulltime
occupation. A number of his pastel drawings and oils are
in institutional collections, and several others were sold
with the contents of his daughter Anne Yeats’ estate, in
2002. The present example is thought to be a depiction
of the two Gore-Booth sisters, Eva and Constance.
€ 8,000 - 12,000

77

78
A Pub in Devon (1890)
Indian ink, 37 x 53.3cm (14½ x 21’’)
Signed and dated (18)90
Provenance: Previously with Theo Waddington Fine Art, London (label verso).
A young man, smartly dressed in riding breeches, is being confronted by a stern pub landlord. Yeats provides clues
to the nature of the dispute. Two prominent signs above the bar refer to payment and to the rules of the establish-
ment in this regard, based on past experience. ‘Chalk is useful say what you will. But it don’t pay ....’ and ‘Old Trust
is Dead. Bad Pay Killed Him’. Clearly the naive young man has not paid his account and the fact that his hands are
thrust deep into his pockets suggests that he is not in a position to do so.
Above the wide gap between the two men, hanging over the fireplace, is a large picture of a volcano erupting. This
indicates that the barman’s calm exterior will not last long. The fact that the regular clients have retreated outside
the door from where they can safely observe the proceedings also suggests that an outbreak of temper is expected.
This inclusion of onlookers is a typical trope of Yeats. It alleviates the tension and allows the viewer to participate
in the drama by empathising with these figures. The final confirmation of a showdown comes from the two large
settees which have been turned inwards to the fireplace, barricading those seated on them off from the inevitable
tirade.
This detailed drawing alludes to Yeats’s time in Devon where he bought a house in 1895, and where he sketched the
antics of local farmers and labourers. Carefully scrutinized, it conveys his ability to extract drama and humour from
his observations of contemporary life. Similar to the type of wit displayed in his cartoons, the complexity of the detail
makes this a more ambitious work, in which many of the themes of his later art is evident. It is an early exploration
of the world of consumerism that he was to develop in later works such as the Country Shop (1912, National Gallery
of Ireland) and in several oil paintings. It is also a delightful representation of an encounter between youth and age
and between different social classes in which the arrogance of youth clearly does not know what it has let itself in
for.
€ 8,000 - 12,000
“Jack B. Yeats: A catalogue Raisonné of the oil paintings”
by Hilary Pyle London: André Deutsch, 1992. Three
volumes, 1856pp with 1822 illustrations, 111 in colour.
Cloth in a slipcase fine unopened condition. Definitive
catalogue raisonné of Ireland’s greatest painter, bringing
together every known oil painting by Yeats, providing
further documentary illustrations where appropriate
and citing all relevant sources and influences. No. 506
from an edition limited to 1500, a must have for anyone
interested in the history of Irish art and work of Jack B.
Yeats. Mint unopened condition.
€ 300 - 500

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80
55 SARAH PURSER HRHA (1848-1943)
Self Portrait
Pencil 13 x 22cm (5¼ x 8½’’)
Signed and inscribed ‘19 Wellington Road’
Exhibited: ‘Sarah Purser Drawings and Watercolours’, The Gorry Gallery, May/June 1993, catalogue
No. 14C, illustrated front cover of the catalogue.
In 1876 Sarah Purser’s mother took a lease on 19 Wellington Road and Sarah and her brother lived
there for a number of years. This was later to become the home of PJ and Breda Mara and thus their
interest in the artist as part of the history of the house.
€ 800 - 1,200
Portrait of a Young Girl with Flower
Oil on canvas, 35 x 25cm (13¾ x 9¾’’)
Signed
This would appear to be the same model who featured on the front cover of Adam’s ‘Sarah Purser
Sale’ catalogue, December 2006, ‘Young Girl with Daisy’.
€ 4,000 - 6,000
THE P J MARA COLLECTION

81

82
The Artist’s Mother Sewing (1882/6)
Pencil, 16 x 12cm (6¼ x 4¾’’)
Signed
Exhibited: ‘Sarah Purser Drawings and Watercolours’, The Gorry Gallery, May/June 1993, catalogue No.
91D, illustrated in the catalogue p.11.
€ 500 - 700
Portrait of a Woman against Foliage
Oval oil on canvas, 40 x 34cm (15¾ x 13½’’)
Signed
Exhibited: ‘Spring Exhibition of Irish Art’, The Frederick Gallery, March 1996, Cat. No.13, where purchased by PJ
and Breda Mara.
€ 5,000 - 7,000

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84
59 LEO WHELAN RHA (1892-1956)
Portrait of a lady, seated in a white dress,
Oil on canvas, 124.5 x 102cm wide (49 x40’’)
Signed
Provenance: Oriel Gallery, Dublin; Vincent Hendron col-
lection, Hamilton Osborne King, October 1987, Lot 177
€ 1,000 - 1,500
60 LEO WHELAN RHA (1892-1956)
The Kerry Fiddler
Oil on canvas laid on board, 39.5 x 31cm (15½ x 12¼’’)
Dedicated by the artist ‘To Tim Mulhull from Leo Whelan’
Like many of Whelan’s genre pieces, this is a blunt yet sympa-
thetic look at the poverty that characterised rural life at the
turn of the century. The subject of the old countryman is one
which crops up again and again in Whelan’s early paintings,
many of which were based on character sketches executed in
Kerry in the 1920s. Genre studies were Whelan’s forte, often
painted featuring studio props. An example of this would be
the violin hanging in the background which not only alludes
to the strong Irish tradition of folk music, but also appears in
other works, most memorably in ‘The Fiddler’ (coll. Crawford
Art Gallery).
In this work, the bare country cottage interior is permeat-
ed with a cold blue light, illuminating its stark interior. The
subdued palette is enlivened by touches of dark crimson
and blue. This is a typical example of Whelan’s early work, an
unobtrusive but well-executed genre study.
Our thanks to Tracy Fahey whose previous writings formed the
basis of this catalogue entry.
€ 4,000 - 6,000

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86
61 HOWARD HELMICK (1845 - 1907)
Woman by the Hearth
Oil on canvas, 48.2 x 43.5cm (19 x 17¼’’)
Signed and dated (18)’75
One of the most accomplished of the socio-realist painters to work in Ireland, Howard Helmick
brought the sharp interest of an outsider into his images of Irish interiors.
Born into a farming family in Ohio, he graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and
then studied under Cabanel at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Throughout the 1870s and 80s, he
exhibited Irish paintings from his addresses in London and Galway, often working in Kinsale, Co Cork
in the winter months. Both prolific and talented, he exhibited widely, not only at Dublin’s Royal Acad-
emy, but in London’s Royal Academy, as well as in Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham.
During his lifetime his paintings ‘were popular because they bridged the gap between the traditional
demands of the Academy clientele and the need felt by artists for a more factual approach.’ Adept at
working in a broad range of media, his narrative oil paintings provide a beautifully detailed, reliable
insight into objects, interiors, costumes and social situations which have long since vanished.
In this portrait of a woman in traditional rural clothing, warming her hands beside a floor level fire,
the viewer is coaxed to read the symbols and interpret suggested narratives for her detached,
distant gaze. This picture is reminiscent of Helmick’s subsequent painting The Bachelor (1880), where
a man sits alone in the same pose, on a similarly low seat, with his hands spread to catch the heat
from the fire. However, this sitter averts her eyes from the fire and gazes in contemplation beyond
the viewer. We know she is (or was) married as denoted by her white bonnet, and that she is clearly
Catholic. The symbolic objects of her religion hang prominently on the wall, her rosary, a black cru-
cifix and an aspersorium, a little pail to hold holy water, inscribed IHS. Known as a Christogram ‘IHS’
represents the first three letters of the name Jesus from the Greek spelling. In the background, an
indistinct unframed picture on the wall probably represents one of many popularly available religious
prints, of a Madonna with her blue robes. The absence of a companion (or any sign of one), seems as
significant as the heightened presence of her faith.
Although the room is neat and clean, the fire shows merely as a glimmer of light, and the painted
render around it is worn away, revealing brick underneath. It is distinctly sparse compared to the
grander interiors Helmick painted of the clergy. As was customary until comparatively recent times,
the woman smokes a clay pipe, commonly referred to as a dudeen (from Irish dúidín), and apart
from her tiny teapot and bottle on the stake-legged ‘creepie’ stool, and a striped hearthrug, there is
nothing in the way of luxurious comforts. Behind the distinctive corner-post of her fireside bed can
just be seen a red painted corner cabinet displaying a few ornaments.
Dr. Claudia Kinmonth M.A. (R.C.A.)
€ 4,000 - 6,000

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88
62 ESTELLA FRANCES SOLOMONS HRHA (1882-1968)
Girl on Beach, Co. Kerry
Oil on canvasboard, 25.5 x 41cm (10 x 16”)
Provenance: From the Artist’s Studio and thence from the
estate of the late Geoﬀrey O’Connor, Kerry
€ 600 - 1,000
63 ESTELLA FRANCES SOLOMONS HRHA (1882-1968)
On Parole, 1920
Oil on canvas, 52 x 44cm
Signed with initials and inscribed with title
Exhibited: ‘Estella Solomons Retrospective’, The Crawford Gallery, Cork May/June 1986, Cat. No. 87 - illustrated in the cata-
logue; ‘Estella Solomons’, The Frederick Gallery, November 1999, Cat. No. 48, where purchased by PJ and Breda Mara - illus-
trated in the catalogue. Breda Mara was a regular, and welcome, visitor to The Frederick Gallery on route to her special dress
maker, Richard Lewis, whose salon was next door.
This is a rare survivor of many portraits that Estella Solomons painted of the insurgents on the run who used her studio on
Great Brunswick Street as a ‘safe house’. Most of the other portraits had to be destroyed as they would identify and betray
the whereabouts of the sitters. Estella was a member of Cumann na mBan where she was well versed in signalling and pre-
pared for administering ﬁrst aid during the rising and hiding arms in her parents’ garden. She was at the centre of a Dublin
swaying on a political precipice. Her husband, Seamus O’Sullivan later writing in ‘The Rose and bottle and other essays’ de-
scribed her studio “as a place of refuge for many whose political and national activities had brought them a very undesirable
amount of notice in ‘the bad times’.
Our thanks to Hilary Pyle whose writings on the artist formed the basis for this catalogue entry.
€ 3,000 - 5,000

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90
64 GEORGE RUSSELL ‘AE’ (1867-1935)
Children in a Coastal Landscape
Signed with monogram
€ 5,000 - 7,000

91
65 THOMAS ROSE MILES (1844-1916)
Clew Bay
Signed; also signed and inscribed verso
€ 2,500 - 3,500

92
66 HENRY ALLAN RHA (1865-1912)
Chickens by a Cottage
Signed
€ 1,000 - 2,000
67 MILDRED ANNE BUTLER RWS FRSA RUA (1858-1941)
A Hampshire Cottage
Watercolour, 12.5 x 17.5cm (5 x 7’’)
Signed with initials; title inscribed on original artist’s label
verso
€ 800 - 1,200

93
68 MILDRED ANNE BUTLER RWS FRSA RUA (1858-1941)
Cattle in a Woodland
Watercolour, 17.5 x 25cm (6¾ x 9¾’’)
Signed
€ 1,500 - 2,500

94
69 ANDREW NICHOLL RHA (1804-1886)
The Boyne Obelisk, with Cattle Watering
Watercolour, 44 x 60cm (17¼ x 23½’’)
Signed
The Boyne Obelisk was erected in 1736 to commemorate King William of Orange’s defeat of King James the
Second at the Battle of the Boyne, July 1st, 1690. The foundation stone was laid by Lionel Sackville, Duke of
Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of the Kingdom of Ireland, following contributions from, what were described on
an inscription on the monument as, ‘several Protestants of Great Britain and Ireland’. It was a tall tapering
stone monument and stood on a square plinth of 20 feet and was about 150 feet high and was located
thirty feet from the water’s edge. For almost two centuries the monument was painted and sketched from
all angles, including the present work by Andrew Nicholl, and used in the tourist brochures of the day until
it was blown up in 1923, the dynamite used apparently having been procured from a nearby army camp. All
that remains of the Obelisk today is an ivy-covered stump.
€ 1,500 - 2,500
THE FOLLOWING SEVEN LOTS COME FROM A DISTINGUISHED BELFAST COLLECTOR

95
The Giant’s Causeway, Co. Antrim
Watercolour, 46 x 46cm (18’4 x 22’)
Signed
Provenance: With The Bell Gallery, Belfast; with the Fine Art Society, London,
May 1970.
€ 2,000 - 4,000

96
Doe Castle, Donegal at Sundown with Cattle Watering
Watercolour, 33 x 51cm (13 x 20’’)
Signed
€ 1,000 - 2,000

97
Cave Hill from Newtownbreda, with an Extensive View
of Belfast
Watercolour, 47 x 61cm (18½ x 24’’)
€ 1,200 - 1,800

98
Holywood near Belfast, Cattle on a River Bank towards
Sunset
Watercolour, 32 x 49cm (12½ x 19¼’’)
Signed
€ 1,000 - 1,500
Ducks Rising from the Reeds
Watercolour, 35 x 51cm (13¾ x 20’’)
Signed
€ 1,000 - 2,000

99
Castle and Village of Glenarm, Co. Antrim
Watercolour, 33 x 48cm (13 x 19’’)
Signed
€ 1,000 - 2,000

100
76 SEÁN KEATING PPRHA RSA RA (1889-1977)
Homo Sapiens: An Allegory of Democracy (1929-30)
Oil on canvas, 115 x 95cm (45.25 X 37.25”) signed, inscribed with title ‘Homo Sapiens’ on label verso.
Exhibited; Waddington Gallery 1930: RA London 1932: Oldham Art Gallery 1932: Atkinson Art Gallery,
Southport 1932: Usher Art Gallery, Lincoln 1932: Exhibition of Irish Art, Chicago World’s Fair
1933: RHA 1934: Waddington Gallery 1940, 1941: Contemporary Irish Art, National Library of
Wales, Aberystwyth 1953: Seán Keating Retrospective Exhibition, Hugh Lane Gallery 1963:
RHA 1966.
Unlike earlier depictions of Ireland’s heroic citizens, Seán Keating’s Homo Sapiens: An Allegory of Democ-
racy presents universal man estranged from self-created modernity. The painting was Keating’s only
submission to the Royal Academy Exhibition, London, in 1930, where it was described by one critic as a
‘cry of despair in paint, an acidly truthful satire on human progress’. Begun as the Wall Street Crash laid
the vagaries of capitalism bare, the artist deliberately depicted his model as ill at ease, confused, and
unstable, as if to represent the state of the world at the time. His personal notes on the painting reveal
the true meaning:
‘In all ages and cultures, dress, particularly the hat, has played an important part as a means of arousing
emotion, enthusiasm, and fear. So that today an inherited instinct enables us subconsciously to classify
men according to their hats … Homo Sapiens revolves around the repulsive gas mask, and the idiotic
tin hat … The picture might be described as a criticism of the soundness of man’s claim to sapience,
expressed in terms of hats, or it might be called a portrait of the hat-fearing animal’. (1)
Moreover, and with sceptical reference to manufactured modernity, Keating further commented that
the painting represented a ‘universal’ depiction of man as singularly unimproved in ‘mind or body’ by
the nature and extent of his activities over time. By activities, the artist meant ‘deification of the law,
jurisprudence and academia’, ‘imperialist aggression’, ‘brute force’, and ‘the hounding of the common
man by dignitaries of all churches’, symbolised in the painting by the presence of attendant hats. Homo
Sapiens: An Allegory of Democracy was reproduced as poster by Victor Waddington in 1930, and later that
year, as if to underscore his opinion of the modern human condition, the artist had the image made
into a Christmas card for family and friends. Painted before the Second World War, and exhibited by the
artist in various shows until 1963, the allegorical meaning in the work has as much relevance in today’s
contemporary world has it had in 1930.
Dr Éimear O’Connor, October, 2017
Author of Seán Keating: Art, Politics and Building the Irish Nation (Irish Academic Press: Kildare, 2013)
1. Reproduced in Éimear O’Connor, Seán Keating: Art, Politics and Building the Irish Nation (Irish Academic Press: Kildare, 2013), pp. 144-45,
and fn 60 and 61.
€ 60,000 - 80,000

101

Adams Important Irish Art Auction 22nd November 2017

Adams Important Irish Art Auction 22nd November 2017

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Adams Important Irish Art Auction 22nd November 2017