Irish pictures for sale abound next week and since they are being offered by both the James Adam salerooms and Adams of Blackrock, potential purchasers need to take care where they place their bids.
The James Adam auction on Wednesday afternoon is the bigger event and should act as a warm-up for that house's important Irish art sale in conjunction with Bonhams of London in late May. Many of the major names who will, no doubt, turn up then also feature here, although two notable absences from this roll-call are Jack B. Yeats and Sir John Lavery. Instead, Adam's next week are offering three examples of Walter Osborne's work, one of which is a sketchbook with 13 pencil drawings from 1890 and 1891 (estimate £3,000-£4,000). The other two Osborne entries are oils showing the same scene, the pump of St Nicholas in Antwerp, where the artist once lived during the early 1880s.
While the smaller of these paintings, although charming, is more of a sketch, the larger has been meticulously finished in a manner reminiscent of 17th century Flemish masters; both show water being drawn from the pump in the centre of the square and they are estimated to sell for £25,000-£30,000 and £70,000-£100,000 respectively. An almost contemporaneous picture showing two Breton girls kneeling at the entrance to a chapel is attributed to Augustus Nicholas Burke; another picture by this artist showing an almost identical doorway was sold at the James Adam rooms in May 1991 for £5,000. Burke, who died in 1891, was the brother of Thomas Henry Burke, the Under-Secretary for Ireland who was assassinated in the Phoenix Park in 1882. This attributed work carries an estimate of £6,000-£10,000.
Another picture with French associations is Roderic O'Conor's Femme Assise, which dates from around 1920 and, as the title suggests, shows a female figure lounging on a divan, the paint heavy and the tones predominantly red and white. It is expected to make £50,000-£70,000.
Like Osborne, Paul Henry is represented by three lots, two west of Ireland oils which are very typical of his style, while the third - a watercolour of the Cornish Riviera (£5,000-£7,000) - most definitely is not. The single Leech work is also a watercolour, a sunny view of St Jeannet near Nice (£3,000-£3,500).
There are a pair of equally delightful oils showing Achill Island, one by Grace Henry (£7,000-£9,000), the other by Harry Epworth Allen (£7,000-£10,000). And three lots come from the hand of the too little-known Joseph Malachy Kavanagh: a Boudin-like view of cockle pickers on the strand (£4,000-£5,000); On the Banks of the Laita, Finistere (£5,000-£8,000); and a pastoral landscape showing sheep placidly grazing (£5,000-£6,000).
Otherwise, there is an abundance of familiar artists, such as James Humbert Craig, Harry Kernoff, Norah McGuinness, Maurice MacGonigal and Mildred Anne Butler. And a last lot worthy of mention from this sale is a long embroidered panel for hanging over the fireplace. Designed and executed by Lily Yeats, it carries a text by her brother, William Butler. In Paul Larmour's 1992 The Arts and Crafts Movement in Ireland, a photograph of Lily Yeats at Dun Emer with the panel behind her is reproduced. It carries the relatively modest estimate of £800-£1,000.
On Monday at Adams of Blackrock both Irish and continental European pictures are being offered for sale. Among the domestic offerings is a pair of watercolours by Micheal Mac Liammoir (£500-£700) and an oil of Flesk Bridge, Killarney, Co Kerry, by Harry Kernoff (£5,000-£7,000). Flora Mitchell's watercolour of a Dublin doorway is expected to go for £500-£600, Mildred Anne Butler's view of Clonmel in the same medium has an estimate of £300-£400 and another watercolour, this time by Percy French and showing a west of Ireland landscape, has a price of £1,500-£2,000.
There are a number of oils by Jack Hanlon, such as his Madonna and Child (£1,000-£1,500) and Communion Lunch (£600-£800). By far the highest estimate is £30,000-£40,000 for Paul Henry's The End of the Day, but £600-£1,000 could secure a far more unusual lot. This is a framed letter written to George III recounting the injuries received by Nelson during sea battles between February and July 1795.
