Ireland-inspired art by Lucian Freud and John Lavery comes into the spotlight

Work by John Lavery and Lucian Freud takes centre stage in Dublin and London

Evening Tangiers by John Lavery. 

Lucian Freud's Donegal Man and John Lavery's travels are thrust into the spotlight this week. The two artists might seem poles apart artistically but each was influenced by Ireland and the Irish.

Freud's Profile Donegal Man will be offered by Dickinson at Frieze in London next week with a price tag of £15 million (€17.28 million). Lavery on Location opens in Dublin on Saturday as the highlight of the autumn programme at the National Gallery.

Profile Donegal Man by Lucian Freud at Frieze Masters in London.

Lavery was friendly with Michael Collins, his wife graced our currency and we claim him as our own. Freud knocked about with Brendan Behan in Dublin in the 1950s, was married to the Guinness heir Lady Caroline Blackwood, spent a lot of time with Francis Bacon and hundreds of hours painting the Donegal billionaire Pat Doherty, founder of Harcourt Developments.

On the market for the first time Freud's Profile Donegal Man, considered to be one of his greatest late portraits, will highlight the exhibition Artists in SOHO, Lawrence to Freud by London gallery Dickinson at Frieze Masters. Freud met Doherty through mutual friend Andrew Parker-Bowles, another Freud subject. "I used to go round to him every Saturday morning from 8.30 to 11.30," Doherty recalled. "He'd spend about two-thirds of the time talking".

Lady Lavery in an Evening Cloak by Sir John Lavery.

The painting, one of three separate portraits of Doherty by Freud, was acquired by Doherty directly from the artist. The first involved 100 sittings, the second 85 and the third, a sketch, took 35 sittings. Each sitting lasted for about three hours.

Frieze London, running from October 11-15 at Regent's Park, will bring together emerging and leading galleries spanning 46 countries.

Doherty owns developments including shopping centres and hotels in Ireland, Britain, Europe and the US, gave the painting on loan to the Irish Museum of Modern Art from 2016 to 2021 before putting it up for sale.

The Greyhound by John Lavery.

Lavery on Location, organised by the National Gallery of Ireland in collaboration with National Museums, Northern Ireland and National Galleries, Scotland, will focus on key destinations in Lavery's art. These range from Scotland to Palm Springs, France and Tangier. There are studies from Switzerland, Spain, Ireland and Italy and depictions of cities from Glasgow to London, Venice, Cannes and New York.

The not-to-be-missed exhibition at the National Gallery runs until January 14 next.