John Lavery and Roderic O’Conor paintings for auction in London

Lavery’s ‘The Bathing Hour, Lido, Venice’ estimated at £200,000-£300,000


Next week’s art auctions in London feature some notable lots of Irish interest.

On Monday evening at Bonhams in New Bond Street, Paysage Breton, by Roderic O'Conor, is described as an "exceptional and rare Pont-Aven landscape", which has "never been offered at auction before nor indeed been seen in public for over half a century". Dated from 1894, the painting is estimated at £150,000- £200,000.

On Tuesday at Sotheby's auction of British and Irish art a watercolour, Irish Street Scene – a depiction of 1940s Dublin – by 20th century English artist Edward Burra is estimated at £200,000- £300,000.

At Christie's on Wednesday, The Bathing Hour, Lido, Venice, by John Lavery (£400,000-£600,000), which dates from 1912, depicts the bathing platform at the Moorish-style Excelsior Hotel in what was then a fashionable resort, popular with the aristocracy and, according to Christie's, "more fragrant than Venice with its negligible sewage system, occasional outbreaks of cholera, and plagues of mosquitoes".

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Lavery’s wife Hazel – holding a white and black- trimmed parasol – and her eight-year-old daughter Alice – are among the subjects.

A previously unknown painting by Jack B Yeats, dated 1948 and titled The Route, is described as "an exciting new discovery". It is estimated at £60,000-£80,000.