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.
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.
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.
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.
The first edition of the first book published by an Irish author.
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.
SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE P.R.A. (1769–1830) – Portrait of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, K.G., K.B., M.P. (1769-1852)
Sir Thomas Lawrence painted this celebrated portrait of the Duke of Wellington, Britain’s greatest military hero, following his defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Considered by Wellington himself to be ‘one of the best if not the best’ that Lawrence ever painted it will highlight Christie’s Old Masters evening sale on June 30 during Classic Week in London. The estimate is £8-£12 million. Begun in 1820, the year that Lawrence was elected President of the Royal Academy where the picture was later exhibited to great acclaim in 1822, the artist succeeded in penetrating Wellington’s aura of heroism and masterfully capturing the essence of the man. It was this portrait – of the eight that Lawrence executed of Wellington – that the sitter chose to gift to his friends and admirers in the form of a mezzotint by Samuel Cousins, thus establishing it as one of the best-known images of him.
This Aubusson tapestry by Louis le Brocquy, from an edition of nine, is at Adam’s evening sale of Important Irish Art on May 27. The estimate is €30,000-50,000. The live and online sale of 91 works spans the 19th century to the present day. The leading lots are by Gerard Dillon, two Yeats paintings from the 1920’s and two late works by the artist and a village landscape by Paul Henry. Viewing for the auction gets underway today in Dublin and the catalogue is online.
George Best (1946-2005) – considered one of the greatest footballers of all time – would have been 80 today. His European Cup Winners medal from 1968 comes up at an online sale of sports memorabilia at Bonhams from June 15-24. This is the only European cup winners medal Best received. In 1968 he was named European Footballer of the Year at just 22 years old. As Northern Ireland never qualified for a World Cup during Best’s career, the 1968 win is seen as the summit of the career of one of the most recognisable names in the history of football. The estimate is £150,000-£250,000.
Jack Butler Yeats RHA, 1871-1957 – Dusty Lane, Co. Kerry
This Kerry oil on board by Jack B Yeats dates to 1913 and comes up as lot number 17 at de Veres sale of outstanding Irish and international art, which runs until May 26. Estimated at €50,000-€70,000 it is one of about a dozen landscape paintings made by the artist after a visit to the county in 1913. These include views of Brandon Bay, Castlegregory and Tralee Bay. The auction offers art by Andy Warhol, Sir John Lavery, William Leech, Mary Swanzy, Mainie Jellett, Roderic O’Conor, Daniel O’Neill, Donald Teskey, Tony O’Malley, F E McWilliam, Rowan Gillespie and many more artists among a total of 104 lots. The catalogue is online.
The summer online auction of Irish paintings, rare whiskeys, French and English furniture by Dolan’s runs until the evening of May 25. Artists in the sale include Arthur Maderson, Charles Harper, Susan Cronin, Mark O’Neill, Maurice C. Wilks, Dermod O’Brien PPRHA, George Gillespie, Maurice C. Wilks, Manus Walsh, Norman Teeling, Robert Egginton, Mat Grogan, William Crozier, John Brobbel, James MacIntyre, Patrick Cashin, Douglas Hutton, Jennifer Maskell Packer, Paul Stephens, Dave West, Tom Nisbet, Desmond Carrick, Peter Curling, and more. Lot 50 is a lithograph by Miro. The sale features 52 Irish whiskeys, mostly very rare Midletons and the catalogue is online.
La Chaise lorraine by Henri Matisse soared past its estimate at Sotheby’s in New York last night to sell for $48.4 million, the second highest price for any Matisse sold at auction. Four bidders competed for ten minutes for the work from the Barbier Mueller Collection. The Modern evening auction brought in $304 million, up 63% on the equivalent sale last May. This was the highest total for a Modern various owner sale since 2022. Picasso’s Arlequin (Buste) made $42.6 million and Van Gogh’s La Moisson en Provence made $29.4 million. Bidders from 31 countries took part.
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE – INSIDE CLAM SHELL MADE $8.9 million
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) – Number 7A 1948 sold for $$181,185,000
Jackson Pollock, Constantin Brancusi and Mark Rothko propelled Christie’s to a record shattering sale in New York last night. Masterpieces: The Private Collection of S I Newhouse, co owner of Condé Nast, and the 20th Century evening sale totalled $1,121,126,500. The Newhouse collection made $631 million and sold 100% both by lot and value. The 20th Century sale made $490.3 million. After almost seven minutes of bidding, Pollock’s Number 7A, 1948 realised $181,185,000, nearly tripling the artist’s previous record. Brancusi’s Danaïde (circa 1913) inspired lively bidding before selling for $107,585,000. At the 20th Century evening sale Rothko’s No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) made $98,385,000 setting a new record for the artist.
With bidders from around the world the evening set eight new records, including artist records at auction for Constantin Brancusi, Joan Miró, Alice Neel, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Records in medium were set for Henri Matisse, Aleksandr Rodchenko and Remedios Varo.
Together with three prior sales from Mr. Newhouse’s collection sold at Christie’s in 2018, 2019 and 2023, the Newhouse Collection reached a cumulative total of $1.05 billion, becoming the second highest in history after the collection of Paul Allen in 2022 — the only other collection to exceed $1 billion, also at Christie’s.
Roy Lichtenstein – Anxious Girl 1964 sold for $46,060,000
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for May 2, 2026)
