Value at Irish art sales featuring Gerard Dillon, Jane O'Malley, Paul Henry and William Orpen

Estimates from under under €1,000 to €200,000 at summer evening auctions in Dublin by Whyte's, deVeres and James Adam

Sat, 23 May, 2026 - 02:53

Des O’Sullivan

Art by Paul Henry, Roderic O'Conor and Gerard Dillon will lead the respective evening sales by Whyte's, deVeres and James Adam in Dublin on 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 Whyte's, work by well-known artists like Philip Flanagan, Mark O'Neill, John Butler Yeats, James Brenan and Sir William Orpen is 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.

From €500 up to €1,000 at James Adam, 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 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, 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.

Victor Richardson's 'Nohoval Cove' at Whyte's.

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 lot from the Mnuchin collection by bidders from 24 countries.

The sales in Dublin are all on view this weekend, and catalogues are online too. The 1939 work The Mournes 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.

Louis le Brocquy's Travelling People, from 1945 (€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 deVeres is a Moonwalk screenprint by Andy Warhol (€200,000-€300,000), and the leading Irish lot in the sale is the c1892 Breton Farmstead with Haystack by Roderic O'Conor (€140,000-€180,000).

Gerard Dillon's 'Tea Party' at James Adam.

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 FE MacWilliam, Imogen Stuart, Eamon O'Doherty, John Behan and others.

Taken together, these auctions offer a feast for the eyes and will richly reward close scrutiny. They will not break the bank either.