Cream of Irish art on display ahead of auction

Stunning works by some of Ireland’s most celebrated artists are on display in Dublin just weeks before going under the hammer.

Sourced from private collections all over the world, almost 170 pieces will be auctioned at the annual Irish Sale at Christie’s in London on May 8.

Images by Le Brocquy, Lavery and Paul Henry, form part of a touring exhibition which opens to the public at Dublin’s Merrion Hotel tomorrow and Friday.

Valued at €10m, the display of 52 works also features highlights from the company’s forthcoming auctions of Old Master, British Impressionist, and Sporting art sales.

Among them is LS Lowry’s 'Manchester City v Sheffield United', which is expected to fetch €1.2m at British Art Week in June.

Bernard Williams, International Director of Irish Art at Christie’s, said this year’s annual auction offers an impressive selection of works representing 250 years of Irish art.

But he said with local sales rooms now putting pressure on international auction houses, more rare works are being sourced worldwide.

“Christie’s international leadership of the art market has once again seen us source works from around the world,” he said.

“There is a significant number of market-fresh consignments from America, Canada and Australia which are in Ireland for the first time in many years.”

Among the pieces on show in Dublin is Henry’s Showery Day on the Bog, which Mr Williams brought on a Greyhound bus and Amtrak passenger train from New Hampshire to New York, where a shortage of taxis then forced him to carry the painting on a rickshaw. The painting is due to fetch up to €1250,00.

Rare, early highlights include an important 18th century painting of Lieutenant-General the Hon. Philip Sherard and Captain William Tiffin at the Battle of Brucke Muhle at the end of the Seven Years War. The 8ft by 6ft painting by Nathaniel Hone has an estimated price tag of up to €435,000.

From the 19th century, When I First Saw Sweet Peggy by two English sporting artists, William Hopkins and Edmund Havell is being offered. First exhibited in London, then in France, the painting has adorned the dining room of a Scottish castle for the last 120 years.

Since Christie’s staged its first annual sale dedicated to Irish Art in 1996, world record prices have been paid at auction for a number of leading artists including George Barret, Gerard Dillon, JB Yeats, Henry, Lavery and Thomas Roberts.

The sale is expected to realise in excess of €4.5m.