Rare Irish art goes on display in Dublin ahead of auction

A collection of rare Irish art will go on display in Dublin as part of a three-day exhibition.

Some of the artwork on sale will fetch up to €570,000 when it goes for auction next month.

Pax by John Luke is on view as part of auction house's Sotheby's exhibition of Irish art at the Royal Hibernian Academy. Photo: Charles McQuillan/Sotheby's/PA Wire

The show at the Royal Hibernian Academy will display 100 works from famous artists including Jack B Yeats, Roderic O'Conor and Paul Henry.

Work from a number of modern artists, including Louis Le Brocquy and Patrick Scott, will also feature in the display.

Most of the art has been sourced from private collections and will be on display to the public for the first time.

It features 30 pieces from Brian P Burns, an Irish-American entrepreneur and philanthropist, who has collected work from artists spanning the 18th century to the present day.

The exhibition will feature Yeats' A Misty Morning with an estimated value of €170,000-€280,000 and O'Conor's Romeo And Juliet which has an estimated value of between €340,000-€570,000.

Sotheby's Irish Art specialist Charlie Minter said the collection focuses on some of the country's greatest names including Henry, John Lavery and Gerard Dillon.

He explained that the collection is being led by the Calihans, an American couple who have 16 pieces which they collected during the 1990s.

"It's very special for us handling something of this calibre," Mr Minter said.

"There are pictures by Roderic O'Conor which have never been on the market before.

"The majority are pictures which would never have been seen before by the public, so it's really nice to give them their first public airing.

"Even if people aren't buying and they just want to see some really good pictures it's a really fantastic overview of Irish art over a 200-year period.

"It's a free exhibition and people will get to see all sorts of things before they disappear into a private collection."

"People in Ireland can relate to these pictures."

Irish-Americans are among some of the art broker's biggest buyers.

The work will go on display in London for a final time before they disappear into private hands when the pieces are auctioned on September 11.

PA