World record price for Royle

A NEW WORLD record price for a painting by English artist Stanley Royle has been announced by de Veres.

The Kildare Street-based fine art auctioneers said the €62,000 achieved for Driving Out The Flock at last month’s auction had established “a world record price at auction for a Stanley Royle, Sheffield’s greatest artist”.

The painting made over three times its highest estimate and was bought by “an Irish client”.

De Veres said the under-bidder was “a very disappointed UK client” and claimed the sale demonstrated that “there is plenty of life in the Irish market for works of real quality”.

Driving Out The Flock, dated 1923, was sold by the family of a late collector in the south Dublin suburb of Churchtown. The painting shows a woman tending a flock of ducks in an English farmyard.

Stanley Royle (1888-1961) is best known for his somewhat similar painting The Goose Girl – one of the best known exhibits in the National Gallery of Ireland.

The Goose Girl was acquired for the gallery in 1970, reputedly for just £50.

It was originally thought to have been the work of Irish artist William John Leech but the subsequent discovery that it was painted by Royle has had no effect on its popularity among the Irish public. - MP