At the Railway Station by Harry Kernoff and Mercury’s Orbit by Mary Swanzy are two utterly different 1920’s paintings at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online auction which runs until the evening of June 2. The young Kernoff’s theme is downright Victorian, Swanzy’s semi abstract study demonstrates her skillful grasp of the Modernist movement. At 21 Kernoff became the first night student at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art to win the Taylor scholarship with this watercolour featuring a woman and child and an older woman on the spiral staircase of a railway station. It depicts popular Victorian and Edwardian themes of childhood, adulthood and old age.
Mercury’s Orbit by Swanzy stands in sharp contrast, depicting as it does the eccentric route of a planet which orbits the sun every 88 days and rotates on its axis every 59 days. Einstein explained it all with his Theory of Relativity and the painting is inspired by advances in astronomy and physics in the 20th century. There are 239 lots in a sale with an estimate range of €25- €40,0000. The catalogue is online.
Katherine Boucher Beug – Topple (2020-2026) from her exhibition in Lismore.
Flowers and Sound is the title of an exhibition by Katherine Boucher Beug at Lot 100, Chapel St., Lismore this weekend. The exhibition brings together for the first time the artist’s large-scale works, revealing the weave between abstraction and representation. Her deep study of colour and drawing underpins this fluid movement between genres. Smaller works on paper, including written pieces, offer insight into her process. Coinciding with Blackwater Valley Opera Festival it is open from 11 am to 4 pm until Bank Holiday Monday on June 1. The Lismore antiques, art and vintage fair is at the GAA Community Hall on May 31. The one day fair gets underway at 11 am.
JOHN CONSTABLE RA (EAST BERGHOLT 1776 – 1837 HAMPSTEAD) – Sketch – Cottage in the Wood (1832)
This sketch by John Constable is the leading lot at Sheppards Irish and international art sale in Durrow on June 10. It is one of only five known examples painted on envelop by the artist. The oil on paper is painted en plein air with the pinhole for pinning to the paintbox still visible. According to art historian Dr Peter Murray: ‘the scene is most likely Dedham Vale’ and the cottage ‘May well be Willy Lott’s Cottage on the banks of the Stour, near Flatford Mill’. This is the cottage that features in Constable’s most famous work The Hay Wain. The estimate is €30,000-50,000.
An oil on board by Gerard Dillon soared above its estimate to sell for a record €1.1 million hammer at Adam’s sale of Important Irish Art on May 27. It had been estimated at €150,000-€200,000. The signed and inscribed work from 1955 was purchased by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland from the Dawson Gallery in Dublin. It was subsequently sold at Sotheby’s in 1993 to Reeta and Frank Hughes of Warrenpoint. Exhibited at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1955 it has since appeared in numerous exhibitions. It is understood that the work will remain in Ireland.
Among other top hammer prices were four works by Jack B Yeats as follows: The Dancer (Rosses Point) €280,000, The Paddock, Naas (€210,000), The Courthouse Steps (€115,000) and Through the Streets to the Hills (€110,000). Study for Riverrun, Procession with Lillies by Louis le Brocquy made €150,000 and Cuchulain IX by le Brocquy made €65,000, The Fair Day, Camlough, Co. Armagh by Frank McKelvey made €42,000, Sheep in a Field by Walter Osborne made €34,000 and The Princess by Colin Middleton made €32,000.
A rare smaller scale version of Sir John Lavery’s celebrated Belfast “Madonna of the Lakes” triptych discovered in the former Sisters of Mercy Convent in Newry will be auctioned in June by Victor Mee. A copy or study for Lavery’s triptych in St. Patrick’s Church, Belfast, is believed to have been presented by the artist to Fr. John O’Neill.
The provenance has been significantly strengthened by a report published in the Belfast Gazette on June 17 , 1960, following the death of Fr. O’Neill, which records among charitable legacies a bequest of “Sir John Lavery’s presentation copy of ‘The Madonna of the Lakes’ to the Sisters of Mercy, Crumlin Road, Belfast. A dedication along the lower edge of the work reads: “To Fr. O’Neill. From John Lavery, 1919,” while an inscription on the reverse reads: “Received Oct 21 st , 1919. J. O’Neill.”
Victor Mee will conduct a three day convent sale in Newry on June 9, 10 and 11. Believed to be one of the largest such sales ever held in Ireland it will include contents sourced from several former Convent of Mercy properties together with a substantial selection of fine furniture, decorative arts, silver, sculpture and garden pieces. The sale will be on view at the historic convent location on Catherine St., Newry from June 5-8.
Moonwalk by Andy Warhol, a screenprint in a unique colour configuration, was the top lot at de Veres sale of outstanding art in Dublin on May 26. The Moonwalk prints are among the last works that the artist created before his death in February 1987. It made a hammer price of €190,000. Other top hammer prices were as follows: Roderic O’Conor – Breton Farmstead with Haystacks (€155,000), Paul Henry – Evening on the Upper Lake, Killarney (€115,000), Jack Butler Yeats – Dusty Lane, Co. Kerry (€95,000), William John Leech – Cemetery of St. Jeannet (€75,000), Sir John Lavery – Schooling the Pony (€70,000) and Mary Swanzy – Cubist Trees (€70,000).
Louis le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012) – STATES OF BEING 2, 1964 (TRIPTYCH) made €26,000 at hammer
A total of €1.3 million was realised at Whyte’s Irish art sale in Dublin on May 25. The top lot was Dapping on Lough Mask by Paul Henry which made a hammer price of €230,000. Travelling People by Louis le Brocquy made €145,000. Mass in a Connemara Cabin by Aloysius O’Kelly made €40,000 at hammer over a top estimate of €30,000 and a portrait of Daniel O’Connell by Nicholas Joseph Crowley made €29,000 over a top estimate of €8,000. Art by Markey Robinson, Ciaran Clear and Derek Clarke all sold for above the top estimate. Whyte’s say their sale demonstrated a continuing strong demand for art of quality.
Lot 46, Portrait of Poet John Jordan 1958 by Pauline Bewick sold before the auction to a public gallery for €6,000. A number of lots sold after the auction including John Luke’s the Mournes 1939 at €50,000 and Basil Blackshaw’s The Morning Exercise which made €60,000.
The auction room, although sparse, as they all are these days, took over €500,000 worth of the art on offer. Telephone bidders took another €200,000, with on-line bidders taking the balance. There was a 70% selling rate.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for May 8, 14, 19 and 23, 2026)
ATTRIBUTED TO DOMÉNIKOS THEOTOKÓPOULOS, CALLED EL GRECO (CRETE 1541-1614 TOLEDO) Portrait of a man, bust-length Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2026
This portrait of a man attributed to El Greco is at Christie’s Old Masters and 19th century paintings in New York on June 2. The estimate is $300,000-500,000. The live auction spans half a millennium of western art including a selection of 15 trompe l’oeil works dating from the 15th to the 17th centuries. There are early Renaissance Northern works, Baroque Italian pictures, decorative arts and a selection of 19th century paintings in the sale.
John Luke – The Mournes at Whyte’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD AFTER THE AUCTION FOR €50,000.
Art by Paul Henry, Roderic O’Conor and Gerard Dillon will lead the respective evening sales by Whyte’s, de Veres and Adams in Dublin next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. They carry top estimates of up to €200,000. This might create an incorrect impression that collecting Irish art is an exclusive pastime for the rich. In reality nothing could be further from the truth.
What these auctions demonstrate in spades is that art is for everyone and art collecting is too. A quick look at the lowest estimates reveals all. At Whytes work by well known artists like Philip Flanagan, Mark O’Neill, John Butler Yeats, James Brenan and Sir William Orpen are estimated at under €1,000.
A painted plaster female head by Brian Bourke is, at €300-€500, the lowest estimate at de Veres. You can take an under €1,000 pick here from artists like Henry Healy, Sean O’Sullivan, Michael Cullen, Jane O’Malley, Maureen Bushe, Flora Mitchell and internationally renowned Cork ceramicist Sarah Flynn.
Jane O’Malley – Still life by the Sea 2007 at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE €3,400 AT HAMMER
From €500 up to €1,000 at Adams there is art by Frank Egginton, Anita Shelbourne, Harry Kernoff, Imogen Stuart, Sir William Orpen, Martin Gale, Sean McSweeney and plenty more. Work by any of the above mentioned artists will reward study and is capable of setting in motion a lifelong, life enhancing and enriching interest.
Compared to other years estimates at the top end of the scale at these summer art sales are on the low side. Various reasons for this exist. There is in the Irish art market an innate caution. It looks now as if sellers are holding back in the hope of less uncertain times to come. We remain conservative in our approach to art collection, suspicious of the avant garde. A new generation of collectors might forge a change in approach that is long overdue.
On the international side the art market, which is performing strongly this year, is driven by collections like the Mnuchin collection at Sotheby’s which made $163.3 million (€143 million) in New York this month. It was headed by Rothko’s Brown and Blacks in Reds which made $85.8 million (€73.8 million). The sale of the collection of the late investment banker at Goldman Sachs who subsequently became an art dealer was characterised by deep bidding. There was an average of twelve bids per lots from the Mnuchin collection by bidders from 24 countries.
Gerard Dillon – Tea Party at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE €1,100,000 at hammer
The sales in Dublin are all on view this weekend and catalogues are online too. The Mournes (1939) by John Luke at Whyte’s must have been on the avant garde side when first shown at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery in 1946. This colourful landscape is estimated now at €60,000-€80,000. Travelling People from 1945 by Louis le Brocquy (€100,000-€150,000) is one of the more significant works from his Traveller series in which he takes a Modernist approach to an Irish theme. In sharp contrast is Paul Henry’s Dapping on Lough Mask, Co. Mayo, 1928-1936 with an estimate of €150,000-€200,000.
The top lot at de Veres is a Moonwalk screenprint by Andy Warhol (€200,000-€300,000) and the leading Irish lot in the sale is a c1892 Breton Farmstead with Haystack by Roderic O’Conor (€140,000-€180,000).
Set in a cottage in Roundstone Tea Party (1955) by Gerard Dillon leads the auction at Adam’s on Wednesday with an estimate of €150,000-€200,000. Art by Jack B Yeats features prominently in the sale and there is sculpture by F E MacWilliam, Imogen Stuart, Eamon O’Doherty, John Behan and others.
Taken together these auctions – all now on view in Dublin – offer a feast for the eyes and will richly reward close scrutiny. They will not break the bank either.
Victor Richardson – Nohoval Cove at Whyte’s. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
The first edition of the first book published by an Irish author. UPDATE: THIS MADE €10,000 AT HAMMER
A landmark in Irish bibliography will lead the sale by Purcell Auctioneers in Birr on May 27. The first edition of the first book by an Irish author to write for the printing press rather than the scriptorum is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. Maurice O’Fehily: Questiones Subtilisme Scoti Metaphysicam Aristotelis (Most Subtle Questions of Duns Scotus on the Metaphysics of Aristotle) was published in Venice on November 20, 1497. It is thus an inculabula, the term which refers to the earliest printed works up to the year 1500. Maurice O’Fehily was born in Baltimore, Co. Cork. The Franciscan friar, theologian and author was appointed Archbishop of Tuam in 1506 and died in 1513.
A 15th century medieval legal manuscript written in middle French or law French from the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792 – 1872) made €36,000 and original ordnance survey maps of Co. Louth from 1835 made €10,500.
