Adams THE ANTOINETTE & PATRICK J. MURPHY COLLECTION AUCTION 23rd october 2019

Est1887
THE ANTOINETTE AND
PATRICK J.MURPHY COLLECTION
Auction Wednesday 23rd
October 2019

Front cover : Lot 17 Breon O’Casey
Back cover : Lot 94 William Scott
Inside front : Lot 56 Mainie Jellett
Inside back : Lot 83 Barrie Cooke
Opposite : Lot 113 Louis le Brocquy

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CONTACTS
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
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
FINE ART DEPARTMENT
h.carlyle@adams.ie
Niamh Corcoran
FINE ART DEPARTMENT
niamh@adams.ie
Nick Nicholson
CONSULTANT
n.nicholson@adams.ie
Nicholas Gore Grimes
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
nicholas@adams.ie
Ronan Flanagan
FINE ART DEPARTMENT
r.flanagan@adams.ie
Claire-Laurence Mestrallet BA, G.G
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
HEAD OF JEWELLERY & WATCHES
claire@adams.ie
CONTACTS

AUCTION
Wednesday 23rd October 2019 at 6pm
VENUE
Adam’s Salerooms,
26 St. Stephen’s Green,
Dublin
D02 X665,
Ireland
SALE VIEWING
ADAM’S
Est.1887
26 St. Stephen’s Green
Dublin D02 X665
Tel +353 1 6760261
THE ANTOINETTE & PATRICK J. MURPHY
COLLECTION
ADAM’S
Est.1887
18TH
- 23RD
OCTOBER

Friday 18th
October 10.00am - 5.00pm
Saturday 19th
October 2.00pm - 5.00pm
Sunday 20th
October 2.00pm - 5.00pm
Monday 21st
Tuesday 22nd
Wednesday 23rd

Lunchtime Gallery Tour - Walk and Talk
Monday 21st at 1.00pm
Patrick J. Murphy, in conversation with James
O’Halloran, will talk about some of the high-
lights of his and Antoinette’s collection. This
will be a standing, walk-through event and will
last for about 45 minutes.
All are welcome.

9
www.adams.ie The Antoinette & Patrick J. Murphy Collection | 23rd October2019
Patrick J. Murphy, Collector
Invariably smiling, outgoing, charismatic and en-
thusiastic, Patrick J. Murphy is a familiar figure to
anyone involved in art in Ireland over the past fifty
years. Apart from his private activities as a col-
lector of modern Irish art, he has served on many
art committees and organisations, including the
Cultural Relations Committee, as Chair of Rosc 84
and Rosc 88, as Trustee of the National Self-Por-
trait Collection, as Chair of Contemporary Irish
Art Society, (1991-2000), as a member and then
Chair of the Arts Council of Ireland (2002-03), and
in retirement, as Art Advisor for the Office of Pub-
lic Works (2000-09).
His successful career in the brewing industry ben-
efited his knowledge of art, not just financially,
but in allowing him to live in London, Ghana and
Malaysia and to travel widely, developing connec-
tions with collectors, galleries and artists inter-
nationally. His business acumen has been valued
in a culture that requires the corporate sector to
give long-standing support to the arts. It is clear,
however, from reading his memoir A Passion for
Collecting that art provided an escape from the
pressures of work and was never just a hobby nor
a reason for financial speculation1
. Pat recognises
that art is a separate and distinct sphere of activity that rewards the viewer in profound ways. Over the past five
decades, he has researched, studied and invested considerable time and energy into art, curating, writing and
fund-raising as well as building his own collection. It became a central preoccupation for his wife, Antoinette also.
She trained and exhibited as an artist, studied art history and set up the Peppercanister Gallery, with their son,
Bryan in 19992
.
The collection shows a deep understanding and appreciation of painting, with a highly intuitive perception of
colour and form. It is anchored by outstanding examples of works by leading Irish artists such as Jack B. Yeats,
Paul Henry, Mainie Jellett, Evie Hone, May Guinness, Mary Swanzy, Nano Reid and Grace Henry. Work by the next
generation of artists, Louis le Brocquy, Barrie Cooke, Camille Souter, Basil Blackshaw, Seán McSweeney, Tony
O’Malley, Brian Bourke and Patrick Collins also feature large in the collection, as well as abstract paintings by
Cecil King and Patrick Scott. Pat chooses the best examples of an artist’s work, deaccessioning when necessary,
giving the collection an organic quality, enabling it to be updated and subtly altered over the years.
Pat is also a significant collector of sculpture, procuring work by the leading sculptors of 20th century Ireland
such as Jerome Connor, Conor Fallon, Melanie le Brocquy, Imogen Stuart, Hilary Heron, Sonja Landweer, John
Behan, James McKenna, Graham Gingles and Brian King. The sculpture is usually, although not always, suited
to an intimate, domestic context where the material can be carefully scrutinised and the textures and surfaces
enjoyed at close proximity. Frequently colourful, exotic and humorous, it adds a three dimensional counterpoint
to the paintings that surround it. Pat’s appreciation of sculptural form has been enhanced by his time in Asia
and Africa, where, for example, when living in Kumasi in Ghana in the early 1970s, he collected Ashanti figures.
Guided by his discerning eye, Pat has ventured into acquiring work by progressively younger figures which keeps
the collection energized. These include very different types of work by highly regarded artists such as Francis
Tansey, Richard Gorman, Cecily Brennan, Conor Walton, Michael Warren, Janet Mullarney, Deirdre McLoughlin,
and Kathy Prendergast.
Pat began collecting when he was in his early twenties, around the time of his marriage in 1964 when it seems, in
part, to have been led by his desire to possess works of art that could be displayed in his and Antoinette’s home.
(The first work he acquired was a painting by Desmond Carrick, with wedding present money.) Brought up in New
Ross, Co Wexford, Pat admits that there was nothing in his background that would have encouraged an interest in
the visual arts. But upon getting a job in the Central Bank of Ireland and then in Guinness’s Brewery, he found him-

10
self being surreptitiously exposed to very fine examples of Irish painting. John Lavery’s Portrait of Hazel as Kathleen
Ni Houlihan hung in the office of the Governor of the Bank at that time. The board room of Guinness’s had paintings
by William Ashford and a fine view of the Pheonix Park by William Sadler on its walls. Paintings by Nathaniel Hone also
graced the building. Pat found his curiosity aroused.
The 1960s was an exciting time for visual art in Ireland. The economy was expanding dramatically and there was a
sense of optimism and faith in the future that sparked a flourishing of art production. Pat Murphy was very much a
product of this era. His early enthusiasm for collecting art drove him to seek out paintings in museums, auction houses
and galleries, and wherever he could find them. The art market was still nascent at that time. It was possible to buy fine
historical works for relatively little money and the contemporary art world was dominated by just two galleries, the
Hendriks and the Dawson Gallery. On his early visits to the Dawson Gallery in the early 1960s, Pat was the youngest
person present, surrounded by a small number of what seemed to him elderly people. He discovered a world where
one could speculate financially but equally acquire, see and learn about the then largely overlooked world of Irish
visual art. Part of the attraction was authenticating works, finding paintings of quality that had been missed by the
experts and the thrill of acquiring a work of art at a good price. In the end, however, the desire to collect good quality
art outshone financial prudence. As Pat later put, collecting requires courage, ‘Only the brave deserve art. Buy now,
I say, not in the future’. 3
Pat’s taste was initially honed by almost daily visits to the Dawson Gallery, where he became close to Leo Smith. There
he saw and acquired work by Brian Bourke, Evie Hone and Nano Reid. It was also the venue where Michael Farrell,
Seán McSweeney and Louis le Brocquy showed. The collection is underlined by a keen but perhaps unconscious
sense of the history of Irish art which Pat learnt through looking at work and by talking to everyone he met connected
to this world, especially leading dealers and artists. He was a co-student of Michael Wynne, former assistant director
of the National Gallery of Ireland, at Trinity College and clearly absorbed much about art from their discussions and
collaborative buying ventures. Later Pat’s travels abroad and his increasingly prominent role in ROSC and the Arts
Council ensured that he continued to be open towards new forms of contemporary art.
Pat’s collecting was driven by passion, as he himself has written but there was also a genuine desire for knowledge
about the process of painting and the history of art. As a young man he read one of the only books on 20th century
Irish art history then available although out of print, Thomas Bodkin’s Four Irish Painters. This encouraged him to
seek out works by historical painters such as James Arthur O’Connor, Walter Osborne and Nathaniel Hone in auction
houses on the quays and in Adam’s Salerooms. His need to fill in the historical gaps in his collection may explain his
acquisition of works by Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett’s mentor, Albert Gleizes, and the inspiration for Nano Reid’s ma-
ture work, the Belgian painter, Marie Howet.
There is something of the detective about how Pat seeks out artworks. From studying the development of an artist’s
oeuvre, by looking closely at the physical construction of their work, he has trained himself to be a connoisseur. He is
also knowledgeable and curious about the life and connections that artists make. From 1967, when be acquired his
painting, The Strand near Arklow, he became fascinated by the life of the largely forgotten artist, Patrick Tuohy, later
publishing an important monograph on the artist4
. Speaking with living artists, visiting their studios and developing
friendships with them has also been central to how the collection has developed. When living in London in the late
1960s, he made contact with two elderly and neglected Irish artists, W.J. Leech and Mary Swanzy. After seeing the
latter’s retrospective exhibition at the Hugh Lane Gallery in 1968, Pat took the opportunity of visiting the artist, en-
couraging her to revive her career in her nineties and to exhibit at the Dawson Gallery in 1974. Although ‘absolute
opposites’ the two enjoyed each other’s company and had a high regard for each other. Pat and Antoinette also de-
veloped friendships with younger artists, such as Seán McSweeney and his wife, Barrie Cooke and Sonja Landweer,
Breon O’Casey, Louis le Brocquy and Anne Madden, Liam Belton, Basil and Helen Blackshaw and Patrick Collins. Nano
Reid, who thought that Pat had ‘a good eye’, was a visitor to their home in Stepaside, as was Richard Long who created
a land art piece in situ. These personal connections are central to the distinctiveness of Pat’s collection, deepening his
desire and curiosity to understand their work and making him keenly aware of the role and responsibility of the collec-
tor to support and nurture great art and those who produce it. His is one of the most extensive and diverse collections
of modern Irish painting and sculpture in existence. It is a tribute to his judgement and abiding devotion to art.
Dr. Róisín Kennedy, Summer 2019
1 Patrick J. Murphy, A Passion for Collecting. A Memoir by Patrick J. Murphy, Hinds, 2012.
2 Antoinette curated and co-wrote the catalogue for The Paintings of Paul and Grace Henry, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, 1991.
3 Vera Ryan, Movers and Shapers. Irish Art since 1960, Collins Press, 2003.
4 Patrick J. Murphy, Patrick Tuohy, Conversations with his Friends, Town House Publishing, 2004.

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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 prospective
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 24th October 2019. 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 Friday 25th October 2019 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 25% (inclusive of VAT).
Terms: Strictly cash, card, bankers draft or cheque drawn on an Irish bank. Cheques will take a minimum of eight 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. We
accept all major debit and credit cards, please not however American Express is subject to a charge of 2.8% on the invoice total.
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. Condition
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 Tuesday 22th October 2019 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 tele-
phone. 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 Dr. Frances Ruane, Dr. Riann Coulter, Liz Cullinan, Pádraic E. Moore, Gar-
rett Cormican, Aiden Dunne, Dickon Hall, Bryan Murphy, Helena Carlyle, Niamh Corcoran, Niall MacMonagle, Dr Roisin Kennedy, Dr.
S.B.Kennedy, Brian McAvera and Dr Roy Johnston.
8. All lots are being sold under the Conditions of Sale as printed in this catalogue and on display in
the salerooms.

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1 COLIN MIDDLETON RHA RUA MBE
(1910-1983)
July, Kildare
Oil on board, 15 x 15cm (6 x 6“)
Signed and dated 1971
Provenance: With David Hendriks, Dublin, 1972.
Exhibited: Limerick, Belltable Arts Centre, ‘Towards the World’s Edge’, 1981, Catalogue No.41.
€ 1,000 - 1,500

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2 CHARLES BRADY HRHA
(1926-1997)
Leeks
Oil on linen, 33 x 38cm (13 x15“)
Signed
Provenance: With Taylor Galleries, Dublin, label verso.
€ 2,000 - 3,000

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3 GRACE HENRY HRHA
(1868-1953)
Achill Cottages
Oil on panel, 19 x 24.8cm (7.4 x 9.7“)
Signed
Provenance: Ex Collection of Kenneth Jameson, former Director of ACNI; Ross’s Auctioneers,
Belfast c.1999, where purchased.
Exhibited: National Gallery of Ireland, ‘Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art’, Dublin April-July 2019.
Literature: NGI, Donal Maguire Ed., Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art, 2019, Illus p.48.
€ 5,000 - 7,000
Grace Henry (nee Mitchell) was born in 1868 near Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was here that she spent
the next thirty years of her life, dabbling in an artistic talent that would later name her as one of Ireland’s great female
artists of the 20th century. In 1896, Henry is listed, under her maiden name, as exhibiting with the Aberdeen Artists’
Society and this marks her first known transition into life as a professional artist.
In the early 1900s, Henry studied at Blanc Garrins Academy in Brussels and Delécluse Academy in Paris, engaging with
the light, impressionistic style that was sweeping the continent. In Paris, Henry met her future husband and fellow
artist, Paul, and, after three years, the couple moved to London where they married. Whilst in England, Henry exhib-
ited regularly at the Royal Academy and, from 1910 onwards, she began to send pieces to Dublin to show in the Royal
Hibernian Academy also.
1912 saw the Henrys removing themselves from the city and finding the antithesis of hectic London life in the Achill
Islands. Spending nearly a decade there, this period marked a dynamic time for the couple in which each found a way
to respond to the scenes around them. Whilst Paul Henry found himself at ease in this rural land and opted for an
idyllic romanticisation of his surroundings, Grace found herself empathising with the community and the hardship
that prevailed there. We see this in Achill Cottages where Grace has chosen to portray a scene not far removed from
the views provided in her husband’s quintessential works. The whitewashed cottages stand before an impressive
background of mountains but, unlike Paul’s depictions which suggest an easy serenity, Grace’s rough brushstrokes
belie the adversity felt by each household. The buildings look battered from years of wind and the rolling clouds evoke
a dynamism that tell of an approaching storm. As the smoke curls from the chimneys, we can imagine the occupants
inside huddling close to a fire in the hopes of coaxing warmth into their bodies.
With the approach of the 1920s, the Henrys returned to the city and established themselves in Dublin, an artistically
enriched but otherwise broken couple. In 1920, they banded together with Letitia Hamilton, Mary Swanzy and Jack
B. Yeats to form the Dublin Painters’ Society before going their separate ways a few years later. Leaving her now es-
tranged husband in Ireland, Grace once again sought ambition in mainland Europe and travelled through France and
Italy, soaking up the influence of a stronger sun. It is in this period that we see a new injection of colour entering Hen-
ry’s works. Gone are the earthy tones of Achill and, in their place, her palette becomes infused with delicate peaches,
welcoming yellows and vibrant greens, capturing the vitality of this warmer climate. In On the Terrace (lot 5), this altered
tonal approach distinctly picks out the hazy heat of a Mediterranean morning, inviting us to relax in its ambience.
Sadly, the outbreak of WWII forced Henry to return to Ireland. Here, she continued to exhibit at the RHA and was
elected an Honorary Member in 1949, just three years before her death. A somewhat overshadowed artist, Grace
Henry’s work emits a modernism and bravery that cries out for celebration, her vast ability laid bare within the
Murphy Collection.
Helena Carlyle, September 2019

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4 GRACE HENRY HRHA
(1868-1953)
Sails on River
Oil on board, 25.5 x 34cm (10 x 13.3“)
Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin, label verso.
Exhibited: University of Limerick, ‘Familiar Faces’, 2008; Limerick, Belltable Arts Centre, ‘Towards the
World’s Edge’, 1981, Catalogue No.2.
€ 2,500 - 3,500

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5 GRACE HENRY HRHA
(1868-1953)
On the Terrace
Oil on board, 26 x 34cm (10.2 x 13.3“)
Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin.
Exhibited: Clifden Arts Week, 1981; University of Limerick, ‘Familiar Faces’, 2008;
Limerick, Belltable Arts Centre,’Towards the World’s Edge’, 1981, Catalogue No.3.
€ 3,000 - 5,000

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7 GRACE HENRY HRHA
(1868-1953)
The Gypsy Girl
Oil on board, 40 x 32cm (15.7 x 12.5“)
Signed; inscribed with title verso
Provenance: Adam’s, c.1988, where purchased.
€ 4,000 - 6,000
6 GRACE HENRY HRHA
(1868-1953)
The Falls, Ennistymon
Oil on board, 14 x 17.5cm (5.5 x 6.8“)
Signed
Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery,
Dublin; Adam’s, where purchased.
€ 2,000 - 3,000

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8 EVIE HONE HRHA
(1894-1955)
Composition
Gouache, 11.5 x 14cm (4½ x 5½’’)
Provenance: With The Dawson
Gallery, Dublin, label verso.
€ 2,000 - 3,000
9 EVIE HONE HRHA
(1894-1955)
Landscape
Gouache, 35 x 25cm (13.7 x 9.8“)
Gallery, Dublin.
€ 2,000 - 3,000

21
10 NORAH MCGUINNESS HRHA
(1901-1980)
Night in Fitzwilliam Square (1949)
Gouache, 53 x 41cm (20.8 x 16“)
Signed; dated 1949 on gallery label verso
Provenance: With Taylor Galleries, Dublin, label verso.
Exhibited: University of Limerick, ‘Familiar Faces’, 2008.
€ 4,000 - 6,000

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11 EVIE HONE HRHA
(1894-1955)
Painting (c.1928)
Gouache on paper, 54 x 42cm (21 x 16.5“)
Signed
Provenance: Miss Hosford Collection; with The Dawson Gallery, Dublin.
Exhibited: Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, ‘Evie Hone: A Pioneering Artist’, 2005/6, Catalogue No.5;
University of Limerick, ‘Familiar Faces’, 2008; IMMA, Dublin 2013, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork and F.E. McWilliam
Gallery, Banbridge, ‘Analysing Cubism’.
Literature: ‘Analysing Cubism’, illustrated with full colour plate p.133.
€ 8,000 - 12,000
While Evie Hone is more well-known for her work in the medium of stained glass, an area to which she devoted
much of the remainder of her career, it is her early paintings such as this example which were the influence for
these later glazed creations. The expression of pure colour within a single plane, delineated in black in her early
compositions, later became panes of glass with their integral soldering outlines. Her paintings have a graphic
quality and she developed a distinct and immediately recognisable style.
Her time spent working with both cubist painters André Lhote and Alber Gleizes in Paris, alongside her friend
and fellow artist Mainie Jellett, expresses the most concerted engagement on the part of Irish artists with this
modernist international movement. The teachings, particularly of Gleizes, had an inedible and long-lasting
mark on her artistic output. Cubist painting is, amongst other things, an outward reflection of the dynamic
environment in which we exist, a multiple view-point perspective. The traditional single-point perspective of
the Renaissance becomes, in a cubist painting, as John Berger explains in “a field of vision which is the picture
itself.” (John Berger, ‘The Moment of Cubism’, New Left Review, 1/42 March - April 1967) Fittingly, similar to other
European abstract painters of the period, Hone did not give titles to her paintings, preferring instead to use the
neutral terms of ‘Composition’ or in the case of this work simply ‘Painting’. The work is an expression of itself, a
visual manifestation of Hone’s artistic process.
Against a dark green background Hone has created a geometric framework of turquoise and blues. These forms
spin and rotate at angles from the static background, with their angular forms blending as they revolve towards
the centre of the composition into more fluid and organic lines. These suggest possibly a figural shape, which
is often akin to that of a religious icon. The circular forms in the top right and left of the painting reflect the
position saints would often occupy in religious iconography. Hone was a devout Catholic and along with Gleizes
and Jellett, she shared a belief that abstract painting could reach a higher or purer level of expression. She
was deeply interested in medieval sacred art, an aesthetic which became increasingly important to her artistic
language. Even in this early work there are hints towards religious overtones. In particular the hierarchical struc-
ture of the composition, the upper section supported on what seems to an altar like structure below.
As was the belief of many of her early 20th century counterparts, the role of the artist was to create work which
offered a more meaningful contribution to society. On one level, they understood abstract art -forms expressed
through pure colour - to be a vehicle for spiritual enhancement.
Niamh Corcoran, September 2019

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12 EVIE HONE HRHA
(1894-1955)
Spring
Oil on canvas, 153 x 51cm (60 x 20“)
€ 5,000 - 8,000

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13 EVIE HONE HRHA
(1894-1955)
Autumn
€ 5,000 - 8,000

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14 CAMILLE SOUTER HRHA
(B.1929)
The Slaughtered Cow Ten Minutes Dead
Oil on paper, 76 x 58.5cm (30 x 23“)
Signed, inscribed and dated 1973
Provenance: With Taylor Galleries, Dublin, label verso; Collection Basil Goulding.
Exhibited: ROSC, Cork, 1980; ‘Six Artists from Ireland’, European touring exhibition, colour illustra-
tion in catalogue; University of Limerick, ‘Familiar Faces’, 2008, colour illustration in catalogue;
Drogheda and Castlebar ‘Camille Souter/Nano Reid Retrospective’, 1999, full page colour illustra-
tion.
This image used as a Christmas card by Irish Malt Exports Ltd.
€ 15,000 - 25,000
This work was the last and largest of a series of around 22 paintings inspired by a visit to Les
Halles in Paris in the early 1970s. At the time, some of Paris’s best known abattoirs operated in
the area, though they were moved out of it in 1971. Souter was particularly struck by the beauty
and colour of the hanging meat. She had been interested in biology since childhood and had
painted a series of works based on dead basking sharks in Achill during the 1960s so it is per-
haps not surprising she would be drawn to the subject.
Souter’s take on meat is markedly different to that of many of the other artists that have ad-
dressed the subject. Unlike Rembrandt’s Slaughtered Ox, or Chaim Soutine’s paintings of meat,
for example, there are no obvious allusions to religion. Most of the works in the Meat series are
relatively small. They are also awash with blood. The paint is generally applied thinly, emphasis-
ing the fluid properties of the blood present rather than the tactility of the flesh. The black paint
of the cows back in this work does however have real weight. The title, tells us that the cow has
only recently been slaughtered but signs of life can take time to dissipate. The flesh and blood
may still be warm. Its right eye still seems to be open. We can only wonder if it realised or realis-
es what has happened to it.
Garrett Cormican, August 2019

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15 CAMILLE SOUTER HRHA
(B.1929)
Fooling in the Tent
Oil on board, 58.5 x 79cm (23 x 31“)
Provenance: Collection Sir Basil Goulding; with The Dawson Gallery, Dublin; with Taylor Galleries, Dublin, Decem-
ber 1982, Catalogue No.81.
Exhibited: University of Limerick, ‘Familiar Faces’, 2008; Drogheda and Castlebar ‘Camille Souter/Nano Reid Ret-
rospective’ exhibition, 1999, full colour plate in catalogue; Dublin, IMMA, ‘SIAR 50’, 50 Years of Irish Art from the
Collections of the Contemporary Irish Art Society, 2006.
Literature: Garrett Cormican, ‘Camille Souter: The Mirror in the Sea’, 2006, illustrated.
€ 15,000 - 20,000
Camille Souter has worked in series from the beginning of her career in 1955. She has an insatiable curiosity and
when a subject interests her, she will usually address it in a number of works.
Fooling in the Tent is one of a series of paintings based on Clowns and Clowning that Souter produced in the
1950s and early 1960s. At the time she was bringing her young children to the Circus in Bray and Booterstown.
This work recalls one such experience. As with her earliest monotypes of the Circus from 1955, the scene is
highly abstracted. The figures are represented through symbols in a fashion reminiscent of psychic automatism.
The two triangles on the upper right are a clearly a short hand for the peaked hats of the clowns who could
be juggling on a high wire. Equally, the vertical lines on either side of the work may call to mind a trapeze. The
gelatinous dribbles of cream enamel paint and arcing grey lines have been applied with enormous urgency. One
never gets the feeling we are looking at something static or lifeless as one might had the scene been captured
in painstaking, photographic, detail. There is a joyous vitality to the paint application that is perfectly tailored to
the subject and very direct.
Garrett Cormican, August 2019

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16 BARRIE COOKE HRHA
(1931-2014)
The Bather
Oil on canvas board, 25.5 x 30.5cm (10 x 12“)
Signed and dated (19)’97 and inscribed verso
€ 2,000 - 3,000
(1931-2014)
Study for Hazel Clump II
Oil on board, 25.5 x 30.5cm (10 x 12“)
Signed, inscribed and dated ‘84 verso
Provenance: With Hendriks Gallery,
Dublin.
€ 1,500 - 2,000

31
(1931-2014)
Mullough Mor (1979)
Oil on canvas, 75 x 75cm (29.5 x 29.5“)
Signed and dated verso
Provenance: With David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin 1979, where purchased.
Exhibited: Limerick, Belltable Arts Centre, ‘Towards the World’s Edge’, 1981, Catalogue No.54;
Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, ‘Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art’, April-July 2019.
Literature: NGI, Donal Maguire Ed., Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art, 2019, Illus p.27.
€ 6,000 - 10,000

32
19 PATRICK COLLINS HRHA
(1911-1994)
Sligo Landscape (1965-67)
Oil on canvas 69.5 x 90cm (27.3 x 35.4“)
Signed
Exhibited: Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, ‘Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art’, April-July 2019;
Edinburgh Open Exhibition, c.1968.
Literature: NGI, Donal Maguire Ed., Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art, 2019, illustrated p.29.
€ 20,000 - 30,000
Collins was born in Dromore West, County Sligo, growing up at the edge of Sligo town. He said that his life
was shaped by the local countryside far more than by family, friends or school. His complete identifica-
tion with those rural surroundings consistently formed the foundation of his painting. He turned again
and again to painting his youthful memories of roaming the fields near Sligo but was more interested
in conjuring up the feelings he experienced when confronting nature rather than picturesque views. In
doing so, he created paintings with haunting emotional intensity.
Literature also nurtured Collins’ childhood imagination, with the works of modern Irish writers like W.B.
Yeats, Synge and Joyce (particularly Joyce) stimulating him as a young man. He particularly admired Joyce
for the way he embraced indigenous Irish subject matter, while he stylistically broke new literary ground
internationally. Collins wanted to do the same with painting, which one can see in his approach to Sligo
Landscape. The subject springs directly from rural Ireland, where colours are softened by the diffused
silvery grey light of an overcast day, with edges softened as if veiled by mist. Although there is the sug-
gestion of hills in the far distance, some bogland, a small stream, divided fields and some cultivation in
the foreground, Collins deliberately avoids depicting his subject in a literal way. He identified with what
he called the ‘Celtic imagination’, where by steering clear of precise representation an artist reveals the
essence of a place that hovers beneath the seen surface. Here, he condenses the elemental character
of the isolated West-the cold, the wind, the silvery light, the wetness of the atmosphere, the contained
fields and the loneliness. However, like Joyce, Collins wanted to express this vision in contemporary
terms. In tune with new aesthetic thinking of the mid-1960s he accepts the inherent flatness of the pic-
ture surface, reducing the subject to a few nearly abstract lines. These lines are the framework on which
Collins can hang the voids, and it’s in these empty spaces that we find the poetry, the nuances of light
and texture, the delicate touch of the brush, the modulations of colour.
Sligo Landscape expresses a romantic view of Ireland that grew out of Collins’ direct experience of a
pre-industrialised rural existence, a view nurtured on poetry and ballads. A comment in a review of his
very first one man show in 1956 is as pertinent now as then, that Collins “stimulates the imagination like
the aroma of a forgotten place, calling back the most startling memories.”
Dr Frances Ruane HRHA, July 2019

33

34
(1911-1994)
Japanese Flower Piece
Oil on board, 23 x 37cm (9 x 14.5“)
Signed
Exhibited: David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, solo exhibition, 1970;
Limerick, Belltable Arts Centre, ‘Towards the World’s Edge’, 1981, Catalogue No.38.
€ 5,000 - 7,000

35
(1911-1994)
Menhirs on the Plain
Oil on board, 34 x 50cm (13.3 x 19.6“)
Signed
Provenance: With Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Dublin; with Tom Caldwell Gallery, Dublin.
€ 8,000 - 12,000

36
22 BASIL BLACKSHAW HRHA RUA
(1932-2016)
Wild Flowers
Oil on canvas, 30 x 22.5cm (11.8 x 8.8“)
Signed; inscribed with title on stretcher
verso
Unframed
€ 2,000 - 3,000
(1932-2016)
Wall
Oil on card, 14 x 16cm (5.5 x 6.2“)
Signed and inscribed
€ 1,000 - 1,500

37
(1932-2016)
Still Life - Cardboard Flowers
Signed twice and inscribed on artist’s label verso
Provenance: With the Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin.
€ 5,000 - 8,000

38
25 LOUIS LE BROCQUY HRHA
(1916-2012)
Iris
Watercolour, 17 x 25cm (6.6 x 9.8“)
Signed and dated (19)’91
Provenance: With the Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin, label verso.
Literature: Patrick J. Murphy, ‘A Passion for Collecting: A Memoir’, 2012, illustrated in colour.
€ 5,000 - 8,000

39
26 LOUIS LE BROCQUY HRHA
(1916-2012)
Lemon in the Hand
Oil on board with pencil, 34.5 x 38cm (13.5 x 15“)
Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin, label verso.
Literature: Patrick J. Murphy, ‘An Art Lover’s Guide to the French Riviera’, full page colour illustration,
p.134.
€ 10,000 - 15,000

40
27 MARY SWANZY HRHA
(1882-1978)
Cubist Landscape
Oil on canvas, 39.5 x 60cm (15.5 x 23.6“)
Signed
This landscape belongs to the school of Synthetic Cubism where vision becomes the subject of the
painting. The fracturing of the subject, a small harbor of boats on the left, framed by the artificial
walls on one side and the natural landscape in the distance is achieved using narrow elliptical forms
that mirror the contours of the boats. Swanzy defies the conventions of cubism by continuing to
create perspective within the painting and using the splitting of the image to assist her in this exer-
cise. Her palette is controlled in a complex study where the vertical arcs adopt neutral tones while
the oranges and yellows flattened the plane. Her technical articulation of colour in this manner is
unlike any other of the Irish cubist painters.
Liz Cullinane, September 2019
€ 15,000 - 20,000

41

42
28 MARY SWANZY HRHA
(1882-1978)
Olive Trees and Landscape
Oil on board, 21 x 29cm (8.2 x 11.4“)
Signed
€ 4,000 - 6,000
Swanzy maintained her engagement with landscape painting throughout her life traveling to visit Italy
and France into old age. The modeling of the church with the outlined overlapping forms of the trees in
Churchyard suggest the influence of Cézanne, the father of modernism, as does the linking of the distant
mountains with the tree in the foreground using distinctive brushstrokes in Olive Trees and Landscape.
Liz Cullinan

43
29 MARY SWANZY HRHA
(1882-1978)
St. Doulough’s Church, Coolock
Oil on board, 19.5 x 24.5cm (7.6 x 9.6“)
Provenance: Ms. Mary St. Clair Swanzy Tullo.
€ 2,000 - 3,000

44
30 PAUL HENRY RHA
(1877-1958)
The Bog Cutting (1919)
Oil on canvas, 51 x 54.5cm (20 x 21.4“)
Signed
Provenance: Mabel Henry; Phillips, London, sale 23.11.1993, lot 13, where acquired by Jorgensen
Fine Art, Dublin; deVeres, Dublin, sale 16.04.2002, lot 224; with the Peppercanister Gallery,
Dublin c.2000.
Exhibited: London 1930; Dublin and Belfast 1973, lent by Mabel Henry (as An Irish Bog);
Dublin, March 1994 (as Bog Cutting, Connemara);
Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, ‘Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art’, April-July 2019;
Literature: S.B.Kennedy, Paul Henry, Paintings, Drawings, Illustrations, Yale University Press, 2007,
cat. no. 528; NGI, Donal Maguire Ed., Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art, 2019, illustrated
p.92.
Brian Kennedy writes : ‘A similar composition to An Antrim Bog (CR 525) and A Western Landscape
(CR 527). Almost certainly a scene in Co. Antrim, painted in the spring of 1919 when Henry visit-
ed Cushendun. A label on the reverse reads ‘TCD 9’, presumably referring to Henry’s 1973 Dublin
& Belfast exhibition.’
€ 80,000 - 120,000

45

46
31 PAUL HENRY RHA
(1877-1958)
Out of the North Cometh Golden Splendour (c.1917/18)
Oil on board, 28 x 35cm (10.5 x 13.7”)
Signed
Provenance: Samuel Waddell (Ruthford Mayne) by descent to his daughter Ginette
Waddell, thence by descent. Adam’s, 23rd March, 2005, where purchased.
Literature: S.B.Kennedy, Paul Henry, Paintings, Drawings, Illustrations, Yale University
Press, 2007, cat. no. 479
€ 30,000 - 50,000
Samuel Waddell (1878 - 1967) was an actor and playwright. Born in Japan, son of
the Rev. Hugh Waddell, a presbyterian minister, he was brought back to Ireland and
educated at the RBAI and Queen’s College, Belfast graduating in Engineering. Under
the psydonym ‘Rutherford Mayne’ he wrote a number of plays, dealing with social and
political themes, relating to his experiences of working with the Land Commission. His
plays include ‘The Drone’ first performed in 1908 in the Abbey Theatre and ‘Bridgehead’,
1934. He was a friend of Paul Henry’s and a great admirer of his paintings. He left the
painting to his daughter Ginette Waddell who was a well known actress, working main-
ly on radio plays for Radio Eireann and RTE.
Dr S.B. Kennedy writes:- This is almost certainly the picture entitled ‘Out of the North
Cometh Golden Splendour’ which Henry first exhibited in his 1918 Belfast exhibition and
in which the setting is Achill Sound in the early morning. The composition is similar to,
and is probably the same venue as Sunrise over Achill Sound, which dates from 1915-
1916. The muted and closely calibrated blue tones employed here illustrate the influ-
ence of Henry’s Parisian teacher, Whistler, which surfaced from time to time during
his career and which was particularily strong in the years around 1915-1920. It was a
phase of development that culminated in Henry’s magisterial Dawn, Killary Harbour of
1920 (Ulster Museum), one of the most important landscapes painted by an Irish artist
in the twentieth century.

47

48
32 NATHANIEL HONE RHA
(1831-1917)
The Stream to the Sea (Malahide)
Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin, label verso; Christies, London,
where purchased c.1975.
Literature: Thomas Bodkin, Four Irish Landscape Painters, Appendix No.140.
€ 8,000 - 12,000

49
33 NATHANIEL HONE RHA
(1831-1917)
Shadows Cast from Trees
€ 10,000 - 15,000

50
37 JOHN BUTLER YEATS RHA
(1839-1922)
Portrait of George Moore
Pencil, 17 x 12.5cm (6.6 x 5“)
Inscribed
Provenance: With The Dawson Gal-
lery, Dublin.
This portrait was drawn in the Kil-
dare Street Club in Dublin and was a
study for an oil now in the National
Gallery of Ireland.
€ 800 - 1,200
34 WILLIAM JOHN LEECH RHA ROI
(1881-1968)
Little Girl (Study for ‘Twas Brillig’)
Pencil, 33 x 25cm (13 x 9.8“)
Signed
Provenance: With the Peppercanister
Gallery, Dublin; The Dawson Gallery,
Dublin.
€ 600 - 800
35 WALTER FREDERICK OSBORNE
RHA ROI
(1859-1903)
Market Sellers Sketch
Pencil, 24 x 17cm (9.4 x 6.6“)
Dated 1892 indistinctly
Provenance: Violet Stockley; Prof.
Doyle ‘Trentham’, Foxrock, Contents
Sale, July 1977.
€ 800 - 1,200
36 SIR WILLIAM ORPEN RA RWS RHA
(1878-1931)
Figure Study - Male Nude
Pencil, 22 x 16cm (8.6 x 6.2“)
Provenance: With The Neptune
Gallery,
Dublin,1968, from whom purchased.
€ 400 - 600

51
38 JACK BUTLER YEATS RHA
(1871-1957)
The Edge of the Valley Wood (1900)
Watercolour, 36 x 25cm (14 x 9.8“)
Signed
Provenance: Sir Robert and Lady Mayer, London; with The Dawson Gallery, Dublin.
Exhibited: Dublin 1962; Derry/Belfast 1964; Dublin 1971-1972; New York, The New York Cultural Center, No.16.
Literature: Hilary Pyle, ‘Jack B. Yeats, His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels’, Catalogue No.208, illustrated; W. St J. Joyce, ‘The
Neighbourhood of Dublin’, 1921, page 101-102.
The Valley Wood is the entrance to the Rocky Valley which rises to the Great Sugar Loaf beyond
Enniskerry. The view is of fields and hedges on the hillside above the wood, beneath a cloudy sky.
€ 8,000 - 12,000

52
39 RODERIC O’CONOR
(1860-1940)
Femme Lisant or ‘Woman Reading’ (c.1907/8)
Oil on canvas, 54.6 x 45.7cm (21.4 x 18“)
Stamped verso with atelier stamp
Provenance: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente O’Conor, 07.02.1956; Browse and Darby, London 1982; Sotheby’s, London,
19.05.1982, No.73; Private Collection.
Exhibited: Browse and Darby, ‘French Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture 19th & 20th Century’, London 1982, Catalogue No.19;
Browse and Darby, Roderic O’Conor 1860-1940, London 1994.
Literature: Jonathan Benington, Roderic O’Conor, Irish Academic Press 1992, Catalogue No.120, p.204; Patrick J. Murphy, ‘A
Passion for Collecting: A Memoir’, 2012, illustrated in colour.
€ 30,000 - 50,000
This painting by Roderic O’Conor, circa 1907-08, with its remarkably simple compositional format, perfectly captures
that mood of concentration associated with the private activity of reading. It was painted by O’Conor in his rue du
Cherche-Midi studio in Paris, in the popular artist quartier of Montparnasse on the left bank of the river Seine. He lived
there for many years after his association with Paul Gauguin’s group of artists in Brittany, a province in northwest France.
The young woman who is the subject of this painting is most likely to be Renée Honta, who was initially O’Conor’s model in
Paris, subsequently his mistress, and the woman he eventually married in 1933.
O’Conor chose to place his subject on a wooden chair with her back to the large studio windows so that the incident light
entering the dark interior emphasized the coiffed style into which her red hair has been lifted and pinned. The same light
source also establishes a rich tonal contrast between her white chemise and the dark background beyond the figure. The
vigorous brush strokes defining the forms are typical of O’Conor’s studio paintings in his post-Brittany years. The light
which falls on her right forearm is also cleverly used in the composition to direct our vision to the book she is reading, and
from there back to the model’s face.
This work is reminiscent of O’Conor’s painting, “Girl Mending,” in the collection of the Art Galleries and Museums, Bradford,
England.
Dr. Roy Johnston, September 2019

53

54
40 RODERIC O’CONOR
(1860-1940)
Nu Brun, Assis of ‘Dark-Haired Nude Seated’ (1913)
Oil on canvas, 65 x 54cm (25.5 x 21“)
Signed and dated (19)13
Atelier stamp verso
Provenance: Hotel Drouot, Paris ‘Vente O’Conor’ Feb 1956; Sotheby’s London 2/11/1983 Lot 72 where
purchased by previous owners; Adam’s, Important Irish Art, 23.03.2016, Lot No.69, where purchased by
current owners.
Exhibited: Paris in the 11e. Salon d’Automne in 1913 as No.1596 in a group of six works by O’Conor with the
title Jeune Femme Assise, works by Matisse and Bonnard were also in the same exhibition.
Limerick, The Hunt Museum, ‘Roderic O’Conor - Shades of a Master’, June - Aug 2003, Cat No. 19;
Literature: Jonathan Benington, Roderic O’Conor, 1992, Cat. No. 164; Shades of a Master, Hunt Museum
2003, illustrated.
€ 30,000 - 40,000
Dr.Roy Johnston tells us that this work was painted in O’Conor’s Paris studio before the summer which he
spent in Cassis in the south of France.
Nora Hickey writing in “Shades of a Master” (2003) said of this picture:-
“The influence of Gauguin and the Fauves is apparent in the accentuated outline of this studio nude and
the broad directional brushstrokes of the background, which recall O’Conor’s earlier feathered brushwork
and striped paintings. The sorrowful expression, a common feature of O’Conor’s nudes and sympathetic
treatment of the subject invite the viewer to empathise with the sitter.”
O’Conor was friendly with Gauguin and included a work called “Te nave nave fenua” (Delightful land)
amongst his important art collection which also included works by Renoir, Derain, Bonnard, Manet, Tou-
louse-Lautrec and Modigliani amongst many of the other greats. He was not only a great collector but “he
was an innovator who had significant influence on his contemporaries and a younger generation of English
artists in Paris such as the painter Matthew Smith who referred to O’Conor as his master”.

55

56
41 BRIAN KING
(B.1942)
Anthropocentric
Bronze, 51 x 46 x 20cm (20 X 18 x 7.8“)
Edition 1/4, 1996
Exhibited: Brussels, ‘Innovation from Tradition’, 1996, illustrated in catalogue; Solomon Gallery, ‘Cast 25’ celebra-
tion exhibition, Dublin 2011.
€ 5,000 - 8,000
Born in Dublin in 1942, Brian King studied at the National College of Art and Design and graduated in 1963. Fol-
lowing his studies King spent formative periods in London and New York, both of which were then epicentres
of cutting edge-art and countercultural activity. In 1968 King returned to Ireland and presented his first solo
exhibition at Dublin’s Dawson Gallery. The decade that followed was an incredibly fruitful and frenetic period
for King. It was during this phase that he espoused and experimented with a variety of different approaches
and methods, all of which demonstrated his awareness of developments taking place in the visual arts interna-
tionally.
In 1969 King represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale and became the first Irish artist to win the major
individual prize. The modular geometric work exhibited by King in Paris demonstrated his proclivity toward
the vocabulary of Minimalism, which he would have undoubtedly encountered first hand during his time in
New York. The propensity toward angular, lustrous and industrial surfaces is evidenced in Galway Yellow, the
large-scale steel sculpture made by King in the seventies for the grounds of University College Galway. This is
one of several monumental works King produced for public spaces. Other notable examples may be viewed at
Farmleigh House, Trinity College and Merrion Square, Dublin
Aside from Minimalism, King was also one of the few Irish artists to espouse Land Art. His fascination with the
landscape of Ireland is evidenced in several projects, the most ambitious of which was conceived for Cloon,
Co. Wicklow in the late seventies. Although land art is anchored in a desire to relocate artistic activity outside
the confines of the museum or gallery, it is usually exhibited in these aforementioned environments via maps
and photo documentation. The IMMA collection contains a piece comprising of a montage of diagrams and
photographs documenting the project at Cloon.
The later decades of King’s career saw him cultivate a striking sculptural language comprised of elemental
forms which - although ostensibly abstract- stemmed from an engagement with ideas gleaned from physics
and philosophy. Libration III (lot 43) exemplifies King’s ability to combine traditional materials with timeless, uni-
versal forms and symbolism. A libration is a term used in astronomy to refer to an oscillation of a celestial body
(such as the moon) which allows it to be viewed from a variety of angles. King’s interest in the timeless rhythms
and divine order of nature is also evident in the work Anthropocentric (lot 41), the title of which refers to a world
view that places human life at the centre of the cosmos.
Aside from his significant contribution as an artist King contributed to contemporary art in Ireland in a variety
of other ways. This is demonstrated in his position of President of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art from 1972
to1982 and also as head of the sculpture department at NCAD from 1984 and 2004. Notable works by the
artist may be seen in collections throughout Ireland including Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane Municipal
Gallery of Modern Art; the Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork; RTÉ; the Bank of Ireland; Allied Irish Banks; the
University of Ulster and University College Dublin.
Pádraic E. Moore, August 2019.

57

58
42 BRIAN KING
(B.1942)
Head of James Joyce (Study from the Death Mask)
Bronze, 43cm high (17”) (including base)
Signed
Edition 6/11
Formerly on loan to the OPW, Farmleigh House, Phoenix Park, Dublin, for circa
twenty years.
€ 1,000 - 1,500
The portrait of James Joyce featured here demonstrates King’s prolonged interest
in the work of the author. This was first manifest in an exhibition that took place in
Dublin’s Project Arts Centre in 1981 entitled Riverrun, the title of which was taken
from the first line of Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. The following year, King produced a wall-
based work into which he incorporated soil taken from Joyce’s grave in Zürich.
Pádraic E. Moore, August 2019.

59
43 BRIAN KING
(B.1942)
Libration III
Bronze, 44cm high x 19 x 19cm (17.3 x 7.4 x 7.4“)
€ 2,000 - 3,000

60
44 MICHAEL WARREN
(B. 1950)
Untitled
Bronze, 12cm high x 26 x 22cm (4.7 x 10.2 x 8.6“)
Cast by Bronze Art Dublin, stamped with initials ‘MW’
Unique
€ 1,500 - 2,000
45 MICHAEL WARREN
(B.1950)
Maquette
Bronze, 12cm high x 31.5 x 31.5cm
(4.7 x 12.4 x 12.4“)
Provenance: With the Peppercanister Gallery,
Dublin.
€ 1,500 - 2,000

61
46 MICHAEL WARREN
(B. 1950)
Her Hair II
Bronze, 88cm high x 8 x 8cm (34.6 x 3 x 3“)
Signed with initials and dated (20) ‘03
Exhibited: The Peppercanister Gallery, ‘Wall and Plinth’ exhibition, Dublin 2008, with full page
illustration in the catalogue.
€ 3,000 - 5,000
Michael Warren was born in Gorey,
Co. Wexford and followed a founda-
tion course at Bath Academy of Art in
1969-70 before attending Trinity College
Dublin. Afterwards he spent some years
studying at the Accademia de Belle Arti
de Brera in Milan before embarking on a
fulltime career as a professional sculptor.
Since then he has had spectacular
success as a minimalist Irish artist, being
invited to participate in many prestigious
international sculpture exhibitions in Ja-
pan, Spain, Andorra, Israel and Ecuador.
He was the recipient of many awards
for outstanding merit and was elected a
member of Aosdána in 1981. In 1984 he
was included in the Rosc International
Exhibition in Dublin. Major sculptures in
both wood and stone by the artist can
be seen at RTE, IMMA, Trinity College,
Dublin and the Offices of Dublin Port
and Docks, as well as at many other
public venues throughout the country.
In recent years he has begun to have
his sculptures cast in bronze. He had a
most impressive mid-career retrospec-
tive exhibition at the Royal Hibernian
Academy and was elected an associate
member of the Academy thereafter. He
has exhibited widely and lives and works
in County Wexford.

62
47 EILIS O’CONNELL
(B.1953)
The Square within the Box
Resin, 14 x 17 x 17cm (5.5 x 6.6 x 6.6“)
€ 700 - 1,000
Eilis O’Connell was born in Derry in 1953. She studied at the Crawford School of Art in
Cork from 1970 to 1974 before spending a year at the Massachusetts College of Art in
Boston. She quickly rose to prominence as one of Ireland’s outstanding young artists
and won a succession of awards including a GPA Award for Emerging Artists 1981, a
fellowship in Rome 1983-84, a fellowship at PSI in New York in 1987-8 and subsequent
residencies in France and Spain. Her work was purchased for many public and private
collections and her sculptures were exhibited in the Rosc 84 International Exhibition in
Dublin. Thereafter she resided for some time in the UK and won many major sculpture
commissions including ‘Secret Station’, a bronze, fibre optics and steam configuration
for Cardiff Bay Art Trust in 1992. She now lives and works in Co. Cork and continues to
explore a range of materials and processes from which she creates her most imagina-
tive avant-garde art. She has shown widely at Irish art galleries and her sculptures and
mixed media works of art are in many private and public collections.
48 LIAM BELTON RHA
(B.1947)
Tower
Plaster, 72.5cm high x 29 x 29cm
(28.5 x 11.4 x 11.4“)
Signed
Edition 2/3
€ 1,500 - 2,000

63
49 KATHY PRENDERGAST
(B.1958)
Night Ship
Bronze, 29cm high x 65cm long x 23cm wide (11.4 x 25.5 x 9“)
Unique
Exhibited: ROSC ‘88; IMMA, ‘SIAR 50’, 50 Years of Irish Art from the Collections of the
Contemporary Irish Art Society, 2006, illustrated in catalogue (page 43); University of Limerick,
‘Familiar Faces’, 2008, illustrated in catalogue.
€ 3,000 - 5,000

50 NANO REID
(1900-1981)
Artist in the Country (1973)
Oil on board, 50 x 60cm (19.6 x 23.6“)
Signed
Exhibited: The Dawson Gallery, solo exhibition, Dublin 1973, Catalogue No.10; ‘Nano Reid Retrospective’, Dublin and Belfast
1974/5, Catalogue No.94, illustrated p.22; Arts Council of Ireland, ‘The Delighted Eye’, 1980, Catalogue No.72; Belltable Arts
Centre, ‘Towards the World’s Edge’, Limerick 1981, Catalogue No.29.
€ 6,000 - 8,000
In his memoir A Passion for Collecting, Patrick Murphy recalls that in 1973 he wandered into a solo exhibition of Nano Reid’s at the Dawson
Gallery and was ‘greatly smitten by the exceptional quality of these late paintings’ (1). He quickly sold some shares in order to buy two
paintings, one of which was Artist in the Country (2). Murphy recalls that these purchases marked the beginning of his relationship with
the Dawson Gallery and its proprietor Leo Smith who told him ‘At last, you have discovered where to find the best pictures in Ireland’ (3).
Anne Margaret (Nano) Reid (1900-1981) was born in Drogheda, the daughter of a publican. She attended the Sienna Convent in the town
before winning a scholarship to the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin, where she was taught by Sean Keating and Patrick Tuohy. The artist
Hilda van Stockum, who befriended Reid at art school in Dublin, recalled her as ‘a fierce red-head, staring with keen green eyes behind
spectacles, she was uncompromising, blunt and desperately looking for truth’ (4).
Reid furthered her art education in Paris at the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere and in London at the Central School of Art and Chelsea
Polytechnic before returning to Dublin. From 1934, she exhibited regularly with the Dublin Society of Painters and began to establish a
reputation particularly for her portraits many of which featured her friends from Dublin’s literary circles. Despite finding critical success
and, along with Norah McGuinness, representing Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 1950, as Brian Fallon has recently argued, Reid is not
as well-known as she deserves to be largely because she was an innovator and ahead of her time: ‘Nano Reid is a major Irish painter, a
thorough-going original and innovator, and that it is precisely this originality which has worked against her in certain quarters’ (5).
As works such as Artist in the Country and Boyne Fishing suggest, Reid often flouted the traditional laws of perspective and depicted some
elements of the composition from above while other parts, particularly figures, are illustrated more conventionally. Today we can see her
approach to perspective as a direct legacy of Cubism which she would have encountered both in Paris in the 1920s and through the work
of Irish artists including Jellett, Hone and Swanzy.
Reid’s handling of paint and her preference in works such as Boyne Fishing and Farm Hand (lot 51) to render her subjects in loose, energetic
brush strokes that deposited thin layers of paint in a distinctive earthy palette of olive green, grey, umber and ochre, also sets her apart
from her Irish contemporaries and suggests the influence of expressionism as manifested in Germany and particularly France.
Patrick Murphy recalls that Artist in the Country is a portrait of painter Kit Elliot in her kitchen. The figure of the artist bent over her work
occupies the left hand corner of the canvas, a black cat on a chair sits in the centre and three red hens can be seen in the garden outside.
Cats often appear in Reid’s work and Brian Fallon argues that the ‘airborn animals’ that feature in her work ‘probably derive from Chagall’
(6). While the painting is primarily green, unusually flashes of cobalt blue and areas of light pink and mauve help to define the forms and
suggest a domestic interior.
Although her influences were international, Reid’s subject matter was often personal and linked to her home in Drogheda and the Boyne
Valley. James White, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, (1964-1980) believed that ‘the surroundings of Drogheda had a big
influence on Nano.’ She told the journalist Martin Dillon in 1974 , ‘What started me off was an interest in the prehistoric Irish remains. An
interest grew up around all that and the natural thing was to paint it. … I looked around me more and painted what appealed to me in an
emotional way. The thing is I have to have a subject that I feel about and the only ones I feel about are those places (Boyne Valley). There is
no use in trying to paint a place I have no feeling for. The essence of a place is very important to me’ (7). Although Reid’s images of Droghe-
da and the Boyne Valley were not intended to be documentary, paintings such as Boyne Fishing constitute a valuable record of the town
and its inhabitants and record and preserve customs ways of life that are long gone.
Murphy bought Boyne Fishing directly from Reid during a visit to Drogheda at the invitation of Nano and her sister. It appealed to him for its
‘anarchic energy and subtle execution.’ (8) Boyne Fishing shares its subject matter with the earlier work Salmon Fishing in the Boyne which is
more representational and clearly depicts the fisher men, their currachs and nets. In Farm Hand Reid, depicts another image of everyday
work in the rural landscape. Despite being loosely sketched, in both Farm Hand and Boyne Fishing, Reid has captured the effort, focus and
strain in the men’s limbs and stance. Although her family ran a pub in town, the sight of men and women working in the fields would have
been familiar to Reid and she enjoyed elevating these manual labourers to heroic figures rooted in the landscape.
The Boyne Valley was of central importance to Reid but she also painted other areas of Ireland including Connemara, where she stayed on
the island of Inishlacken with her friend Gerard Dillon, and West Cork. In West Cork Mountains (1949) Reid has captured the barely tamed
vegetation of the Ireland’s south west coast where the verdant green flora is punctuated by dark pink Fucshia and the vibrant yellow of
buttercups and whins.
Patrick Murphy recalls first seeing West Cork Mountains (1949) at Reid’s retrospective organised by the Arts Council in 1974 and that the
‘stroke of searing yellow paint atop the mountains smote me to the heart’ (9). The work belonged to William O’Sullivan, librarian of Trinity
College Dublin, but Murphy vowed then that if it ever came up for sale, he would try to buy it. In 2001 he realised that ambition and ac-
quired this work which he thought ‘had magic its makeup’ (10).
Dr. Riann Coulter

65
(1) Patrick Murphy, A Passion for Collecting: A Memoir by Patrick J Murphy, Hinds, Dublin, 2012, p. 113.
(2) Murphy, A passion for Collecting, 2012, p. 69-70.
(3) Murphy, A passion for Collecting, 2012, p.115.
(4) Hilda van Stockum, Dublin art school in the 1920s (part 1), Irish Times, 6 March 1985)
(5) Brian Fallon, ‘Sophisticated Primitive’ Irish Arts Review, Autumn 2019 Vol. 36., No. 3 , p. 75.
(6) Fallon, p. 76.
(7) Nano Reid interviewed by Martin Dillon, BBC Northern Ireland, 1974, hand written transcript in Reid Archives, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda.
(8) Murphy, p. 166-167.
(9) Murphy, p. 331-332.
(10) Murphy, p. 331-332.

66
51 NANO REID
(1900-1981)
Farm Hand (1973)
Oil on board, 60 x 73cm (23.6 x 28.7“)
Signed; inscribed with title on artist’s label verso
Exhibited: The Dawson Gallery, solo exhibition, Dublin 1973; Adam’s sale 1978, Lot 42;
Limerick, Belltable Arts Centre, ‘Towards the World’s Edge, 1981, Catalogue No.30.
€ 6,000 - 10,000

67
52 NANO REID
(1900-1981)
Secluded Mansion (1973)
Signed
Exhibited: The Dawson Gallery, solo exhibition, Dublin 1973; University of Limerick, Familiar Faces,
2008; Arts Council of Ireland, ‘The Delighted Eye’, 1980, Catalogue No.70; Limerick, Belltable Arts Centre,
‘Towards the World’s Edge’, 1981, Catalogue No.31; Drogheda/Castlebar ‘Camille Souter/Nano Reid Retro-
spective’, 1999, Catalogue No.60.
€ 8,000 - 12,000

68
54 MAY GUINNESS
(1863-1955)
Site of Crucifixion
Pastel, 22 x 30cm (8.6 x 11.8“)
Gallery, Dublin.
€ 800 - 1,200
53 HARRY PHELAN GIBB
(1870-1948)
Six Horses in a Landscape (1945)
Oil on board, 24 x 28cm (9.4 x 11“)
Exhibited: The Peppercanister Gal-
lery,Dublin solo exhibition
‘An Irish Fauve Discovered’, 2011,
illustrated.
€ 1,000 - 1,500

69
55 EVIE HONE HRHA
(1894-1955)
Mother and Child
Pouchoir, 44 x 27cm (17.3 x 10.6“)
Signed
Provenance: Collection Gerald Shanahan, collector and musician, purchased these rooms c.1975.
€ 3,000 - 4,000

70
56 MAINIE JELLETT
(1897-1944)
Abstract Composition with Three Elements (1925)
Provenance: Stanley Mosse Collection; With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin.
Exhibited: Dublin IMMA, ‘Mainie Jellett’, December 1991 / March 1992, Catalogue No.77; Dublin IMMA, ‘Analysing Cubism’,
2013, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork and F.E. McWilliam Gallery & Studio, Banbridge.
Literature: Albert Gleize’s book on Cubism, illustrated; ‘Analysing Cubism’, IMMA 2013, Dublin, Cork and Banbridge,
illustrated p.55 & 116.
€ 50,000 - 80,000
Mainie Jellett is a towering figure in the history of Irish art. She is acknowledged as the first native artist to exhibit pure abstraction in
Ireland and for two decades, from 1923 to her premature death in January 1944, she was as Bruce Arnold has written, ‘the acknowledged
leader of the modern art movement in Ireland’ (1). Patrick Murphy’s interest in Jellett began in 1964 when he bought a small watercolour
landscape from an auction at Adams. Although the work was signed and dated 1921, it had been catalogued simply as ‘Irish watercolour’
and so Murphy, who was the only bidder, got a bargain! (2)
Born in Dublin into a prominent Protestant family of Huguenot descent, Jellett took art lessons with Sarah Cecilia Harrison and May Man-
ning before enrolling at Dublin Metropolitan School of Art in 1914 where she was taught by William Orpen. She later studied under Walter
Sickert at Westminster Art School in London and it was there that Jellett met fellow Dubliner, Evie Hone, who was to become her life-long
friend and collaborator.
In 1920 Jellett was awarded the Taylor Scholarship which enabled her to travel to Paris, then the centre of the art world. Hone was already
in Paris and working in the studio of the Cubist André Lhote. Jellett joined her and together they learnt from Lhote how to abstract from
nature while always maintaining an element of representation. After a period with Lhote, Hone and Jellett decided that they wanted to
move further towards truly non-representational art. They approached the Cubist Albert Gleizes and asked if they could study with him.
Gleizes did not take pupils but Jellett and Hone convinced him to make an exception. Thus began a long and fruitful collaboration between
Gleizes, Jellett and Hone through which they explored both abstraction and the expression of spirituality through art.
Despite the political and social turbulence that was engulfing Ireland during this period, Jellett decided to return to Dublin and introduce
Irish audiences to abstraction. In pursing this goal, Jellett became both the greatest advocate of modernism in Ireland, and the prime
target for those forces that rallied against it.
In the autumn of 1923, Irish audiences were exposed to abstraction for the first time when Jellett exhibited a small abstract composition
titled Decoration in the Society of Dublin Painters exhibition. The critical response to Decoration in 1923 reveals the hostility towards
modernism in Ireland. While the Irish Times compared the painting to a malformed onion (3), utilising language reminiscent of continental
attacks on modernism, the artist George Russell, described Jellett as ‘a late victim to Cubism in some sub-section of this artistic malaria’
(4).
Despite Russell’s criticism, Jellett continued to paint and exhibit abstract works, including Composition with Three Elements. This accom-
plished work demonstrates, in both scale and ambition, the confidence that Jellett had in her ability to produce fully resolved abstract
compositions. Bruce Arnold illustrates this work in his monograph on Jellett under the title Abstract Composition and notes that Albert
Gleizes also illustrated it in his book Kubismus in 1928 ‘to demonstrate the third Stage of Cubism (Epic Cubism)’ (5). The palette of grey,
green, blue, ochre, brown and pink is distinctly Art Deco, the design movement also known as Art Moderne, which was fashionable in
France and throughout Western Europe during the 1920s and 1930s.
Composition with Three Elements, represents the zenith of Jellett’s experiments with pure abstraction. By 1928, she had begun to rein-
troduce figuration into her cubist work and in paintings such as Homage to Fra Angelico (1928) explicit references to both art history and
Christian iconography are present. This return to representation aided the reception of Jellett’s art by the Irish public but also signalled
the end of her avant-garde pursuit of pure abstraction.
Dr Riann Coulter
(1) Bruce Arnold, Mainie Jellett and the Modern Movement in Ireland, New Haven & London, 1991, p. vii.
(2) Patrick Murphy, A Passion for Collecting: A Memoir by Patrick J Murphy, Dublin, 2012, 32-33.
(3) ‘Two Freak Pictures: Art and Nature’, Irish Times, 23 October 1923.
(4) George Russell, Irish Statesman, 27 October 1923.
(5) Arnold, p. 90.

71

72
57 MAINIE JELLETT
(1897-1944)
Composition
Pencil, 24 x 28.5cm (9.4 x 11.2“)
Provenance: With The Frederick Gallery, Dublin.
€ 800 - 1,200
58 MAINIE JELLETT
(1897-1944)
Three Elements (1925)
Pencil, 20.5 x 26.5cm (8 x 10.4“)
Provenance: With The Frederick Gallery,
Dublin.
Study for Abstract Composition with Three
Elements (Lot 56 in this sale).
€ 800 - 1,200

73
59 MAINIE JELLETT
(1897-1944)
Composition
Gouache on paper, 29 x 35cm (11.4 x 13.7“)
Exhibited: University of Limerick, ‘Familiar Faces’, 2008.
€ 3,000 - 5,000

74
60 MARY SWANZY HRHA
(1882-1978)
The White Tower (c.1926)
Signed
Exhibited: IMMA, ‘Mary Swanzy - Voyages’, Dublin Oct 2018 - Feb 2019; Dublin, IMMA, ‘Analysing Cubism’, 2013,
Cork, Banbridge; Limerick, Belltable Arts Centre, ‘Towards the World’s Edge’, 1981; University of Limerick, ‘Famil-
iar Faces’, 2008; Clifden Arts Week.
Literature: S.B. Kennedy, ‘Irish Art and Modernism’, illustrated with colour plate; ‘Analysing Cubism’, IMMA, illus.
p.85; ‘Mary Swanzy - Voyages’, IMMA, illustrated p.121 and 211.
€ 80,000 - 100,000
White Tower combines architecture and environment in a powerful example of Swanzy’s interpretation of cub-
ism, perhaps the only Irish cubist painter of landscape, Swanzy is not one of the students of Lhote or Gleizes
that dominate the later modernist school in Dublin. She slowly develops her singular interpretation of the
emerging trend on a study trip to Paris in 1906 where she witnessed Picasso’s unframed portrait of Gertrude
Stein in her apartment. Swanzy first exhibited at The Salon des Indépendants in 1914 when Robert and Sonia
Turk Delaunay were both strongly represented with their influential lyrical style of Salon Cubism known as
Orphism.
Her visit to New York in 1925, returning from Samoa and Hawaii, produced many drawings of skyscrapers and
she is also known to have visited the Italian town of San Gemignano with its skyline of medieval towers; this
painting is perhaps a layering of those historical and modernist concerns.
The portrait format heightens the scale of the towers while Swanzy anchors the viewpoint with natural forms
and an earthy palette in the foreground. The airy brushwork of the blues framed by the white geometrics al-
lows the subject to soar. Her use of perspective goes against the strict cubist concern of flattening of the pic-
ture plane however it illustrates Swanzy’s independence of vision and ability to see things from her own point
of view. The circular motif she adopts has something of the dynamism of futurist concerns with movement
while also containing an element of Celtic interlace in the swooping elliptical lines she employs. Her economy
of colour and the use of pinks and violets to balance the palette is Swanzy at her most confident. The use of
flowers is somewhat reminiscent of her contemporary, Georgia O Keefe (1887-1986).

75

76
61 MARY SWANZY HRHA
(1882-1978)
Market Place, Czechoslovakia
Coloured Pencil, 20 x 25cm (7.8 x
9.8“)
Provenance: With The Peppercanis-
ter Gallery, Dublin.
€ 1,000 - 1,500
62 MARY SWANZY HRHA
(1882-1978)
Street Parade, Czechoslovakia
Coloured pencil, 19.5 x 25cm (7.6 x
9.8“)
Provenance: The Artist’s Studio.
€ 1,000 - 1,500

77
63 MARY SWANZY HRHA
(1882-1978)
Townscape with Palm Trees
Coloured pencil, 25.5 x 17cm (10 x 6.6“)
Provenance: The Artist’s Studio.
€ 1,500 - 2,000
64 MARY SWANZY HRHA
(1882-1978)
Abstract Compositions
Pastel, 26 x 19cm (10.2 x 7.4“)
€ 600 - 800

78
65 MARY SWANZY HRHA
(1882-1978)
The Three Ages of Woman (c.1970)
Exhibited: Taylor Galleries, Dublin, solo exhibition, 1986, from where purchased.
This was the last painting on the artist’s easel before her death.
€ 20,000 - 30,000
Mary Swanzy’s facility for drawing with her brush and extensive understanding of colour sings of the three ages of
woman in this work; it is likely to refer to her own life given she was in her late eighties when it was completed. Titled
by the current owner with Miss Swanzy’s knowledge, as she disliked naming her work preferring to see what others
would make of the paintings.
The central Pierrot figure, a clown or everyman character whose main characteristic is of naïveté is dressed in white,
a reference to death perhaps in this case as Swanzy contemplates her own end of life. It echoes a number of earlier
works that feature Chinese or Japanese figures. Swanzy revered Chinese painting and her interest in world religions is
in evidence from as early as the 1920s.
As she became more limited in her ability to travel so her immediate surroundings feature more heavily in her later
paintings. The shed was in the garden of the Blackheath home and the little green cat, a porcelain figure from her
collection. Her use of the fox may be a reference to her regular use of the term “as cute as a fox” to describe charac-
ters in her knowledge. She remained astute and observant all through her life. The use of animal imagery is a common
feature in her paintings from the 1940s; she uses them to build metaphors in the narrative. Her father is recorded
as having used animal metaphors in his speech so perhaps a lifelong habit of indirect speech continued in Swanzy’s
painting. The lively handling of the paint and directional strokes of pure pigment has a freshness and immediacy akin
to watercolour in the hands of a master.
Swanzy died in 1978 in her nineties painting right up to her death despite arthritis requiring her to tape her brushes to
her fingers.

79

80
66 DEIRDRE MCLOUGHLIN
(20TH/21ST CENTURY)
Kuai (1996)
Ceramic, 32 x 24 x 14cm (12.5 x 9.4 x 5.5“)
Exhibited: ‘Innovation from Tradition’, Brussels 1996.
€ 1,500 - 2,000
Deirdre McLoughlin, the Dublin born ceramicist studied at Trinity College before relocating
to Amsterdam to work in the studio of Rosemary Andrews where she developed her skill and
passion for working with clay. Unlike other materials used by sculptors, such as stone or timber,
which is cut from a shape that is already existing, with clay the artist can approach it without
the restrictions of any predetermined form. McLoughlin remarked of her work ‘‘I begin from the
empty space in my mind and I work into the empty space before me.’ This image of her pouring
herself and her ideas into the material and moulding it from the inside out, is reflected in the
abundance of vessel-like forms in her work.
Japanese ceramics have a significant influence in McLoughlin’s work and she spent a number of
years in Kyoto working under the tutelage of the Sōdeisha Group. She set up a studio there in
1984. A strong adherence to form is a predominant feature of Sōdeisha’s work and in turn this
has been keenly adopted by McLoughlin in her own practice. Her making process is exacting.
She uses subtle glazes, which surprise the viewer, having the appearance of clay but the texture
of stone. While her sculptures often have a simple, recognisable shape, they can extend at odd
and unexpected angles. And yet there is an inherent flow and dynamism to their form.
Now based full-time in Holland, she is represented by the Galerie Franzis Engels in Amsterdam
and exhibits extensively in Europe. In 2004 and again 2014 she was awarded the prestigious
Westerwald Prize, Ceramics of Europe and most recently was amongst the finalist for the Loewe
Craft Prize, 2018. Her work is part of numerous collections in Ireland including the Hunt Museum
in Limerick and the Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin.
Niamh Corcoran, September 2019

81

82
(20TH/21ST CENTURY)
Love Knot
Ceramic, 59cm high (23”)
Exhibited: Arts Council exhibition, Dublin c.2000.
€ 1,000 - 1,500
(20TH/21ST CENTURY)
Black Heart
Ceramic, 16 x 33 x 34cm (6.2 x 13 x 13.3“)
Literature: Patrick J. Murphy, ‘A Passion for Collecting: A
Memoir’, 2012, illustrated p.282.
€ 800 - 1,200

83
(20TH/21ST CENTURY)
Kiss Silence (1998)
Ceramic, 20cm high x 53 x 33cm (7.8 x 20 x 13“)
Raised on a rectangular steel table base
Literature: Betty Blandino, ‘The Figure in Fired Clay’, illustrated.
€ 800 - 1,200

84
70 SONJA LANDWEER
(B.1933)
Elongated Ovoid
Ceramic, 23cm high x 35 x 20cm (9 x 13.7 x 7.8“)
Inscribed on artist’s label to base
€ 1,500 - 2,000
Sonja Landweer was born in Holland and trained
there as a ceramic artist, achieving early international
renown as one of the finest artist-potters of her gen-
eration, before being recruited to come to the Kilkenny
Design Workshops in the 1960s as an art expert.
Prior to that, she had shown her ceramics in Holland,
Japan, West Germany, Argentina, USA, Italy, Yugoslavia
and Ireland and had been featured in publications on
the top contemporary ceramic artists of the world.
She also had a keen interest in ethnic art from many
cultures and collected fine examples, as well as diver-
sifying her art practice to make avant-garde jewellery
and sculpture using indigenous materials. With painter
Barrie Cooke she was central in organising fascinat-
ing exhibitions of international applied arts as part
of the Kilkenny Art Festival for many years. In recent
years, she has begun to cast her ceramic sculptures
in bronze. Her forms are inspired by natural shapes
such as exotic seeds and organic objects and she is
celebrated for her innovatory glazes and subtle pati-
nas. She has shown her art worldwide and is included
in many prestigious private and public collections,
including the Stedelijk van Abbe-Museum in Eindhoven,
the National Self-Portrait Collection in Limerick and the
Ulster Museum in Belfast. She is a member of Aosdána
since its inception and has shown regularly at the Hen-
driks Gallery and the Peppercanister Gallery in Dublin,
as well as in many group and museum exhibitions
internationally.
71 SONJA LANDWEER
(B.1933)
Conker
Bronze on limestone base, 22cm high
overall, 17 x 19cm (6.6 x 7.4“)
Provenance: With the Peppercanister
Gallery, Dublin.
€ 1,200 - 1,600

85
72 CAROLYN MULHOLLAND RHA
(B.1944)
Little Fat Figure
Bronze, 67cm high (26.3“)
Signed with initials and dated 1995
Edition 9/9
Literature: Another cast of this piece was illustrated in ‘Artists Century’ catalogue, 2000,
Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast.
€ 3,000 - 5,000
Carolyn Mulholland was born in Lurgan, Co.
Armagh in 1944 and studied at the Belfast College
of Art before embarking on her career as a noted
bronze sculptor. One of her earliest commissions
came from the young poet Seamus Heaney with
whom she became close friends. Since then she
has completed many major sculpture commis-
sions in both the North and South of Ireland and
some of her outstanding recent portrait com-
missions include a posthumous bust of Sir Alfred
Chester Beatty and the official portrait of Presi-
dent Mary McAleese. She has exhibited widely at
home and abroad, including the European Com-
mission in Brussels, Jorgensen Fine Art and the
Peppercanister Gallery in Dublin. She was elected
a member of Aosdána in 1990 and was awarded
the Irish-American Cultural Institute O’Malley
Award in 1992. Since then she has carried out
numerous commissions and exhibits regularly
at the annual exhibition of the Royal Hibernian
Academy, of which she is a member. She now lives
and works in Dublin.

86
73 BREON O’CASEY
(1928-2011)
Bather
Bronze, 77cm high (30“)
Signed with initials
Edition I/V
Dublin
€ 8,000 - 12,000
74 BREON O’CASEY
(1928-2011)
Dark Bird
Bronze, 63cm high x 53cm wide x 26cm deep, (24.8
x 20.8 x 10.2“) on a stone plinth
Edition of 4
Provenance: With the Peppercanister Gallery.
€ 6,000 - 10,000
Breon O’Casey was born in London in 1928, the son of famous Irish playwright Seán O’Casey and actress Eileen O’Casey.
He studied art at the Anglo-French centre from 1948 to 1950 and then helped support himself as an artist by working as
an assistant to sculptors Denis Mitchell and Dame Barbara Hepworth at St Ives in Cornwall for a few years. The famous
American-born sculptor Jacob Epstein was one of his teachers and he never forgot his advice which was to ‘persevere – it’s
the only way’. Since then, Breon O’Casey has persevered, at painting, sculpting and jewellery making – the latter activity to
subsidise his art practice and to keep food on the table when rearing his family. He has since emerged as both an abstract
and figurative painter of distinction with an individual colour sense, derived from patterns and forms in the landscape
beside his rural home in Penzance. He has also come to the fore as a sculptor in bronze of real imaginative power and
originality, shaking off early inspiration from ethnic art to forge a unique vision that has grown more distinctive with age.
He has been the subject of a number of books by art critics and has shown extensively in Britain, Ireland and the USA.
His major bronze sculpture ‘Ean Mór’ was purchased by the Office of Public Works and placed in the grounds of Farmleigh
House in the Phoenix Park.

87

88
75 NEIL SHAWCROSS RHA RUA
(B.1940)
Still Life
Mixed media, 73 x 72cm (28.7 x 28.3“)
€ 1,500 - 2,000
(B.1940)
Still Life with Apples
Mixed media, 42 x 48cm (16.5 x 18.8“)
€ 1,000 - 1,500

89
(B.1940)
Chairs, Recent Work #14
Mixed media on paper, 130 x 94cm (51 x 37“)
Exhibited: The Peppercanister Gallery, solo exhibition, Dublin, label verso.
€ 3,000 - 5,000

90
(1932-2016)
Seated Figure (Jude)
Signed and inscribed April 2000; also signed and inscribed with title verso
€ 15,000 - 20,000
For over three decades, Jude Stephens’ form filled the canvases that marched from Basil Blackshaw’s
studio, her tell-tale dark hair and pink skin delighting his brush and engaging his inspiration. A trained
anthropologist, Jude clicked with Basil not on account of her ability for art but, instead, over a mutual
love of the countryside and the animals that reside there. This shared interest laid the foundations for a
bond that was to define the latter part of Blackshaw’s artistic career.
A Northern Irish artist, Basil Blackshaw studied in Belfast and learned his trade at a time when British
and Irish art was relatively constrained. Blackshaw’s scruffy and seemingly careless style was not to be
applauded and he was often told by his tutor to pay more attention to lines. Thankfully, in his defiant
manner, Blackshaw ignored this advice and went on to produce such pieces as the current lot.
Seated Figure comes to us from a part of Blackshaw’s oeuvre when, from the 1980s onwards, he took a
keen interest in the human form and, in particular, the female nude. With his characteristically messy
brushstrokes, Blackshaw blends his figure with that of her surroundings, focussing his piece not on the
anatomical form of his subject matter but rather on the presence and sense of self that it commands.
Hunched over in thought, we are invited to witness a personal moment in which the sitter seems una-
ware of her audience. As a private man, Blackshaw often deliberately sought to shun the limelight and,
here, the viewer sees this side of the artist projected onto his model. Finding solitude behind a curtain
of hair, this portrayal of Jude reminds us of a time when Blackshaw attended one of his own exhibitions
masked by a paper bag, a desperate attempt to highlight the unwanted scrutiny under which great talent
often falls.
Blackshaw’s mindset is further laid bare in the hurried, almost frantic brushstrokes that assault his can-
vas. As someone who saw his artistic inclination as a gift which had been granted, Blackshaw lived with
the fear that one day it might be taken away. We can see this prevalent anxiety behind each mark as the
artist fights to realise his muse before it is too late.
Through a feverous outpouring of emotion, Blackshaw has transformed Jude’s naked body into a bold
statement of the human psyche. Looking at the image, the viewer is confronted by the intangible and
forced to empathise with the complex nature of the human condition. When asked about Basil, Jude
once replied that ‘he was a man who found wonder in ordinary things and transformed them into some-
thing extraordinary that will live on’. Seated Figure is a physical testament to that statement, proof that
Blackshaw could take an unassuming form and relay it in a manner that was anything but expected.
Helena Carlyle, September 2019

91

92
(1932-2016)
American Girl I
Mixed media on paper, 35 x 27.5cm (13.7 x 10.8“)
Signed and inscribed on artist’s label verso
Dublin.
€ 1,000 - 1,500
(1932-2016)
The River Field
Mixed media on paper, 18 x 15cm (7 x 5.9“)
Signed, inscribed, dated (19)’94
€ 500 - 800
(1932-2016)
Through the Trees
Oil on canvas board, 23 x 27cm (9 x 10.6“)
Signed
Dublin 2000.
€ 1,500 - 2,000

93
(1932-2016)
Head for Heaney
Mixed media collage on canvas, 57.5 x 47.5cm (22.6 x 18.7“)
Signed; also signed and inscribed verso
€ 4,000 - 6,000

94
(1931-2014)
Nude with Night Painting
Exhibited: Touring Exhibition, ‘Six Artists from Ireland’, Catalogue No.26; Hendriks Gallery, solo exhibition, Dublin
1978, where purchased; Clifden Arts Week.
€ 15,000 - 25,000
Barrie Cooke always painted the women ‘I have shared my life with’, adding that ‘I’ve always painted the people
I’ve been sexually involved with.’ In this powerful, intimate painting the woman is not named but her relaxed
pose suggests an extraordinarily private relationship between artist and subject, between man and woman,
between him and her.
If being naked suggests being vulnerable and being belittled, being what Shakespeare calls ‘the thing itself
. . . . a poor, bare forked animal’, nude suggests a dignified elegance, a beauty, a confidence, a feeling in this
instance, especially, of being at ease with oneself.
A nude is also a portrait but Cooke has said that to think about the character before you is a disaster: ‘You have
a fact in front of you which is like a mountain, a series of hills. Ideally you forget that you’re looking at the per-
son and you empathise not with the personality but with the shapes.’ This female, Rubensesque, relaxed nude,
diagonally positioned, dominates the canvas.
It is night time, the black background with streaks of light, a painting within a painting, captures that mood but
the figure itself is rendered with a luminous touch. Behind her head, a detail catches the light and light is found
all through the foreground especially in patches of unpainted canvas. The artist’s every gesture is physical in
this oil on canvas; it has the fluidity of watercolour. Barrie Cooke ‘never liked acrylic, partly because it’s terribly
difficult to get off once it’s dry, and you can dissolve oil paint.’ Here, Cooke, who said ‘I work on most of my
paintings a long time’, dissolves the oil paint resulting in a work that seems spontaneous, a figurative composi-
tion that contains abstract, expressionist elements. This nude is in harmony with Cooke’s idea that ‘all good art
is abstract and all good abstract art is figurative.’
As for spontaneity, a hallmark in his work, ‘That’s the problem’ says Cooke. ‘To keep them at a point where
you can surprise yourself all the way along.’ And that watercolour look? ‘That’s because it’s thin over white. I’m
quite conscious of that. Rubens did it. I like his luminosity.’ For Cooke, Rubens is a great painter. ‘He’s not the fat
bottoms and slobbery that most people think of.’
Kenneth Clark, in his major 1956 study The Nude, argues that ‘the nude does not simply represent the body’,
but is related to ‘all structures that have become part of our imaginative experience’. Clark explores how for
Greek sculptors the nude related to their geometry’ and in the twentieth century ‘man, with his vastly extended
experience of physical life, and his more elaborate patterns of mathematical symbols, must have at the back
of his mind analogies of far greater complexity’. Today’s viewer brings those complexities to Nude with Night
Painting and by doing so the painting’s depth is revealed, the viewer’s experience is enhanced.
This major work, from the prestigious Pat and Antoinette Murphy Collection, proves that Barrie Cooke is a cel-
ebrator and a Romantic. ‘When I’ve painted nudes it’s in celebration of their bodies and their personalities’ and
Cooke when he says ‘I’m Romantic in the real sense, an empathist’ that Romanticism and empathy can be seen
here in a painting that gathers together what the Italian philosopher, Mario Rossi, identifies as the three great
interests of man: ‘air and light, the joy of having a body, the voluptuousness of looking’.
Niall MacMonagle 2019

95

97
(1931-2014)
Five Part Cycle (1974)
Signed and dated 1970; also signed and in-
scribed in pencil on stretcher
Provenance: Purchased at Kilkenny Arts Week
c.1979.
Exhibited: Touring exhibition, ‘Six Artists from
Ireland’, Catalogue No.19.
€ 6,000 - 10,000
(1931-2014)
Quinalt Rocks No.1
Oil on canvas, 51 x 56cm (20 x 22’’)
Signed, inscribed and dated ‘96 verso
Provenance: With Fenderesky Gallery,
Belfast.
€ 4,000 - 6,000

98
88 PATRICK SCOTT HRHA
(1921-2014)
Bog Cotton (1962)
Tempera on linen, 122 x 83cm (48 x
32.6“)
Inscribed ‘Painting’ and dated (19)’62 on
stretcher verso
Provenance: Cecil King Collection.
Exhibited: IMMA, Patrick Scott Retrospec-
tive, illustrated in catalogue.
Literature: Aidan Dunne, ‘Patrick Scott’,
Liberties Press 2008, illustrated p.80.
€ 6,000 - 10,000
86 THEO MCNAB
(B.1940)
Passage 54, 1976
Oil on canvas board, 46 x 46cm (18 x 18“)
€ 500 - 700
87 MICHAEL COLEMAN
(B.1951)
Black Emerging (1977)
Charcoal and collage, 78 x 56cm (30 x
22“)
Provenance: with Oliver Dowling Gallery,
Dublin.
€ 800 - 1,200

99

100
89 HILARY HERON
(1923-1976)
Celtic Spirals
Copper wire, 110 x 33cm (43.3 x 13“)
Provenance: The Artist’s Studio Contents auction.
Exhibited: University of Limerick, ‘Familiar Faces’,
2008.
€ 1,000 - 1,500
90 HILARY HERON
(1923-1976)
Drawing
Copper, 85 x 48cm (33.4 x 18.8“)
Provenance: The Artist’s Studio contents auction.
Exhibited: University of Limerick, ‘Familiar Faces’,
2008.
€ 800 - 1,200

101
91 ALEXANDRA WEJCHERT RHA
(1921-1995)
Untitled Abstract Form
Coloured perspex/plexiglass, 19 x 57 x 14cm (7.4 x 22.4 x 5.5“)
€ 600 - 1,000

102
92 COLIN MIDDLETON RHA RUA MBE
(1910-1983)
The Catalan Mousetrap (1975)
Oil on board, 60 x 60cm (23.6 x 23.6“)
Signed; also signed, inscribed and dated 1975 verso
Provenance: With David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, 1975.
Literature: Patrick J. Murphy, ‘A Passion for Collecting: A Memoir’, illustrated p.190.
€ 15,000 - 20,000
The bright colours and visual inventiveness of Colin Middleton’s painting in the 1970s appear pri-
marily to have been sparked by the various journeys he was able to take during this decade, first to
Australia, where he stopped to work for a month, as the culmination of a round-the-world sea voyage,
and then to Spain, where his daughter, Jane, was living.
The Catalan Mousetrap was part of the Barcelona Quartet included in Middleton’s 1976 exhibition at
the David Hendriks Gallery (the Quartet also included Bon Voyage, now in the collection of the Irish
Museum of Modern Art). Middleton’s time in Spain became increasingly influential in this heightened
palette and the discovery of a new landscape and local culture, and also in reigniting Middleton’s
early interest in Surrealism, visiting museums devoted to Dali and Miro.
As with his earlier surrealist works, abstract elements of pattern and design also began to be
integrated into Middleton’s paintings in the 1970s, although often more overtly than in the wartime
period when he was still working as a designer for the linen industry. Within the present painting this
creates repeated or connected series of shapes and colours across the canvas, uniting an unexpect-
ed and impenetrable association of objects and characters. Beginning in 1972 with the Wilderness
Series, Middleton began to develop a particular style and iconography within his work, still related
to earlier periods, often playing with our sense of perspective and physical logic to evoke a height-
ened mood that can be simultaneously joyous, mysterious and unsettling. Middleton noted that the
incongruous advertising hoardings placed in the middle of an empty landscape that he saw in Spain
had influenced him and, despite the visual unity of The Catalan Mousetrap, there is also a sense of
disjuncture between its various elements which is perhaps reflective of this unexpected source.
Dickon Hall, 2019

103

Adams THE ANTOINETTE & PATRICK J. MURPHY COLLECTION AUCTION 23rd october 2019

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Adams THE ANTOINETTE & PATRICK J. MURPHY COLLECTION AUCTION 23rd october 2019