A brace of €1m sales in an Irish art market enjoying a period of rude good health

Antiques 2026: Art price records tumbled in a solid market during a very positive year for antiques and fine art

The Potato Harvest by Paul Henry sold for £883,200 (€1,043,290) broke the million euro barrier at Sotheby's.

In 2026, Gerard Dillon and Paul Henry joined an elite list of Irish artists - Bacon, Yeats, le Brocquy, Scully and Orpen - whose work has sold for over one million euro.

Given that all the major winter sales of Irish art are due to take place in the coming weeks results like that are important benchmarks.

Big sales can give a misleading impression in a market where around 85% of transactions are under €5,000. What is beyond doubt is that the Irish art market is enjoying a period of rude, good health. Art price records tumbled this year in a solid market.

This surge in sales is happening against a background where more and more Irish auction houses are selling more and more art.

Sales like The Tea Party by Gerard Dillon which soared above its top estimate of €200,000 at Adam's in May to sell for a hammer price of €1.1 million give the overall market an important shot in the arm in a rising tide lifting all boats sort of way. The Tea Party had a significant track record. It was exhibited at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1955, the year it was painted, it was once in the collection of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland before being sold at Sotheby's in 1993 to Reeta and Frank Hughes of Warrenpoint. After breaking records in May this year it is understood the work stayed in Ireland.

On October 14, the Potato Harvest by Paul Henry sold for £883,200 (€1,043,920) in a stellar night for Irish art at Sotheby's in London. Other examples from the series are in public collections like the Ulster Museum. First exhibited in 1919 this work introduced many of the defining features of Henry's mature style like the low horizon, dramatic coastal atmosphere and careful balance between figure and landscape. It had been estimated at £250,000-£350,000 (€290,000-€400,000). Six Irish paintings, by Paul Henry (2), Jack B Yeats, Sir William Orpen, Roderic O'Conor and Gerard Dillon made a combined total of €2.4 million that evening. Three others failed to sell.

Nude by the Sea by Mainie Jellett made €120,000 at hammer at Whyte's.

There is an interesting unpredictability about the art market. Nothing about it is certain. The work of Irish artists with a proven auction track record is usually, not always, a safe bet. Artists like Yeats, O'Conor, Dillon, le Brocquy, Jellett, Henry, Swanzy, William Scott Orpen, Lavery, Hone and Osborne fit that category well. Le Loing at Sunset by O'Conor made a hammer price of €245,000 at Whytes in March.

William Scott's Still Life with Beans made €150,000 at hammer at Morgan O'Driscoll, Breton Farmstead with Haystacks by Roderic O'Conor made €115,000 at de Veres, Reflections by Paul Henry made €150,000 at hammer at Adams. But just last week Uccello, a large tapestry by Louis le Brocquy with an estimate of €100,000-€150,000, failed to find a buyer at de Veres. An image of Samuel Beckett by le Brocquy made €70,000 at the same sale. 

Still Life with Beans by William Scott made €150,000 at hammer at Morgan O'Driscoll.

In 2026, Mainie Jellett's Nude by the Sea made €120,000 at hammer at Whyte's, Cathedral Samur by Mary Swanzy made €40,000 at Adams, Dapping on Lough Mask by Paul Henry made €230,000 at Whyte's, Boys Catching Crabs, Connemara by Gerard Dillon made €333,655 at Sotheby's, Cubist Trees by Mary Swanzy made €70,000 at de Veres, In the Market Place Bruges by Walter Osborne made €75,000 at hammer at Morgan O'Driscoll, Little Spanish Dancer (Girl in Red Shawl) by Sir William Orpen made €424,652 at Sotheby's, The Cottage Window by Gerard Dillon made €305,690 at Christie's, Abstract Composition by Evie Hone made €52,000 at Morgan O'Driscoll, The Fairy Thorn by Paul Henry made €305,000 at Christie's, Red Rocks and Foam by Roderic O'Conor made €288,156 at Sotheby's and Orange Still Life with Figures by William Scott made €295,598 at Christie's.

At Sheppards a landscape composition by William Ashford made €18,000 and Cottage in a Wood, a rare landscape sketch by John Constable made €26,000 at hammer. Moonwalk by Andy Warhol made a hammer price of €190,000 at de Veres. A full length portrait of Col. Hugh O'Donel by Hugh Douglas Hamilton made €77,000 at Fonsie Mealy's Newport House sale and a pair of 17th/18th century Italian paintings of saints with a provenance to the Ponsonby's of Ballynatray, Co. Waterford made €73,000.

Victor Mee sold a triptych by Sir John Lavery, the Madonna of the Lakes, for €9,000 at hammer at the auction of contents from the Convent of Mercy in Newry.

At Lynes and Lynes in April some highly collectible Cork silhouettes by Stephen O'Driscoll made a hammer price of €4,400. The number of Irish auction houses holding sales of affordable art in an expanding market is increasing.

At the top end of the scale Sean Scully and Francis Bacon are the most truly international of Irish artists. At Christie's in London in October Wall of Light Reef by Scully, painted in 2012, sold for €611,130 and Francis Bacon's Figure in Movement from the Monsoon collection of Peter Simon made €20.31 million.

Against figures like this it is hardly surprising that at auctions up and down the country the top lots are often works of Irish art.