New European audience for giants of Irish art and literature

Sotheby’s sale recalls an important centenary celebration of Irish culture in Paris

Roderic O'Conor - Rocks and Foam, St. Guenole, 1893 at Sotheby's in Paris.

A MAY celebration of Ireland by Sotheby’s in Paris will introduce Irish art to new European audiences and mark an important centenary. Bidding on Ireland/France: Art and Literature opens next Monday. The online sale runs until May 16 and will be on view in the French capital from next Wednesday until this day week.

The newly founded Irish State took part in a week-long international conference in Paris in 1922 titled the World Congress of the Irish Race. Irish politicians, diaspora delegates, writers, artists, and musicians all turned up with the intention of promoting Ireland on the world stage and highlighting our artistic and cultural uniqueness. The auction, staged in addition to the annual sale of Irish Art by Sotheby’s to be held in London next November, coincides with the centenary of that congress. In 1922 the then capital of the art world was witness to a major, month long Irish art exhibition of 300 works at Galeries Barbazanges.

Jack B Yeats, A Sandhill near Tralee Bay at Sotheby's in Paris.

Sotheby’s will avail of the viewing to exhibit three works on loan from private collections. Two of them, The Rosary by Grace Henry and Market Day Mayo/The Long Car by Jack B Yeats, painted respectively in 1910 and 1920, were exhibited at l’Exposition d’Art Irlandais at Galeries Barbazanges. The third, The Bridge at the River Grez, was painted by John Lavery in 1883.

Among the literary offerings are copies of Ulysses (first published in Paris in 1922) and Dubliners by James Joyce; Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnameable by Samuel Beckett and Stories of Red Hanrahan by William Butler Yeats. There is a death mask of James Joyce by Victor McCaughan.

William Scott -Bottle Still Life, 1958 at Sotheby's in Paris.

Irish art on offer at this auction spans different generations and styles. There are paintings by Jack B Yeats and Louis le Brocquy, Sir John Lavery and William Scott. Among our leading contemporary artists there is sculpture by Dorothy Cross, Rowan Gillespie and Patrick O’Reilly with paintings by Hughie O’Donoghue and John Noel Smith. Cow up a Tree by the West Cork-based Australian artist John Kelly is estimated at €24,000-€35,000.

A French cafe scene from 1937 by Harry Kernoff, Sunday Evening, Place du Combat, Paris, is estimated at €40,000-€60,000. Head of a Breton Boy, by Roderic O’Conor, dates to 1883 and is estimated at €60,000-€80,000. Work by Evie Hone, Mainie Jellett, Charles Lamb, Sean Keating, Sean O’Sullivan, Aloysius O’Kelly, Sean O’Sullivan, Sarah Purser, Mary Swanzy, William Orpen and Leo Whelan also features.

John Noel Smith- Multipolar (Homage to H.M.) 2019 at Sotheby's in Paris.

Among the most expensively estimated lots are Rocks and Foam, St. Guenole, 1883 by Roderic O’Conor (€300,000-€500,000), A Stranger by Sir John Lavery and Quatre Poires by Roderic O’Conor each estimated at €120,000-€180,000 and Statue of the Fragonard, Grasse, 1920s by William Leech (€30,000-€50,000).

There is much here to interest French and Irish including members of the Irish diaspora and descendants around the globe. The exhibition and sale is part of a wider programme of international events paying homage to this significant centenary year, including Trinity College, Dublin; The Snite Museum of Art and Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, US, and the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris.