A LONDON auction house hopes to raise £1million when lots by Ireland’s leading artists go under the hammer next month.
William Orpen’s Portrait of Mrs Oscar Lewisohn is the headline piece in Sotheby’s annual auction of British and Irish Art, which will be on temporary display in Dublin next week before bidding commences at the auction house’s London headquarters on May 22.
The 1915 painting is expected to fetch up to £180,000 on the day, alongside a second Orpen piece, Life Class on the Beach, which is estimated to bring in up to £120,000.
Elsewhere among the 33 lots up for grabs, works by John Lavery, Paul Henry and Jack Butler Yeats are all expected to raise tens of thousands of pounds as art fans worldwide bid in person, on the phone or via email.
Sotheby’s will exhibit the Irish artworks at their Dublin offices in Molesworth Street from Thursday, May 7 until Sunday, May 11. The auction takes place in Sotheby’s London on May 22.
For further information visit www.sothebys.com
Paul Henry’s Landscape, a new discovery in the artist’s oeuvre (estimate £25,000-35,000 / €30,300-42,400)
William Orpen’s Portrait of Mrs Oscar Lewisohn, formerly Miss Edna May, a compelling study of personality, temperament, demeanour and style, painted in 1915 (estimate £120,000-180,000 / €146,000-218,000)
The Morning Ride by John Lavery, painted during one of the artist’s annual winter pilgrimages to Tangier (estimate £100,000-150,000 / €121,000-182,000)
Life Class on the Beach, a highly finished drawing from 1910 by Orpen (estimate £80,000-120,000 / €97,000-146,000)
Gerald Dillon’s Cleaning the Boat depicting Roundstone harbour in Connemara (estimate £30,000-50,000 / €36,300-60,500)
William Scott’s Quiet Ochre, painted in 1973, which appears on the auction market for the first time (estimate £100,000-150,000 / €121,000-182,000)
Uccello by Louis le Brocquy, a sublime distillation of the artist’s achievements in tapestry (estimate £30,000-50,000 / €36,300-60,500)
