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Irish Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett: Two Irish artist friends who rewrote the rules of 20th century art
Confronted with a room of glorious cubist colour, you can almost get a sense of what it must have been like when Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett first held an exhibition together, 101 years ago. The pair had already been exhibiting in Paris and Jellett had stunned Irish audiences the year before, when her composition Decoration went on display in a group show at the Society of Dublin Painters. Now considered to be the first abstract cubist work shown in Ireland, Decoration exercised the pens, if not the critical faculties, of reviewers at the time. George (AE) Russell wrote of Jellett's 'subhuman art' and described her as succumbing to the 'artistic malaria' of cubism. The Irish Times published a photograph of Decoration alongside an odd-looking onion, under the headline ' Two freak pictures '. What was so upsetting? The inherent capacity of art to surprise and challenge is part of its power, and not everybody is comfortable with that. New ways of seeing have always tended to take a while to catch on. Just like impressionism before it, cubism was originally coined as a term of disparagement. READ MORE The Art of Friendship: a three-fold screen by Mainie Jellett. Photograph: National Gallery of Ireland On show now, as part of Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone: The Art of Friendship, at the National Gallery of Ireland , Decoration, while definitively abstract, doesn't seem quite so freakish after all. It clearly shows the influence of Jellett and Hone's tutor Albert Gleizes, who had set out his method of abstraction in a text, La Peinture et Ses Lois (Painting and Its Laws), published the year Decoration was made. In a series of diagrams, Gleizes demonstrated his theories of translation and rotation, by which he pursued his abstractions. The method was to distil an image into a set of geometric elements, then move and layer these to create the artwork. His goal was to get away from art as imitation, to create an expression of unspoken emotion – or, as he put it, art that makes 'intersections between known images of the natural world and unknown images that reside within intuition'. Gleizes wanted abstract art to lead to a new way of thinking. No wonder people were so dismayed. This is undoubtedly part of the reason for the aggressive response to Decoration's first exhibition. For many, the experience of being presented with something for which there are no easy words can be deeply unsettling, especially when emotion gets involved. But Jellett's painting does more. Decoration's debt to the shapes and structures of religious art is clear, with blue and gold echoes of altarpieces and a haunting of the shapes of a Madonna and child, as she takes Gleizes's strict system and lets a little connection to the more easily perceived world back in, strengthening both in the process. The Art of Friendship: Achill Horses, by Mainie Jelllett. Photograph: National Gallery of Ireland The Art of Friendship: Daniel in the Lions' Den, by Evie Hone. Photograph © Geraldine Hone, Kate Hone and the FNCI/National Gallery of Ireland The works in The Art of Friendship continue in this vein: there are seascapes, landscapes, horses and a strikingly rich vein of religious-inspired work, all bringing Hone and Jellett back together in a shared exhibition for the first time in a century. Through it we discover the capacity their art retains to astonish. Both born in Dublin, to well-to-do families, the pair had met in 1917 in London, as students of Walter Sickert at Westminster School of Art. By 1921 Jellett had followed her friend to Paris, to study with André Lhote . A cubist painter, Lhote was a teacher with an eclectic mix of students, including Tamara de Lempicka, Elizabeth Rivers and Henri Cartier-Bresson . Hone and Jellett didn't stay long, instead persuading Gleizes to take them on later that year. Gleizes didn't typically accept students, so some persistence was involved, but it was a fruitful relationship of mutual respect, and Gleizes's own work and ideas would come to be influenced by theirs in return. The critical response to Hone and Jellett's two-person show in 1924 was much more nuanced than the explosions of derision that had greeted Decoration a year earlier. The Freeman's Journal reviewer was probably the most accurate, writing: 'A little introspection before condemning these pictures or dismissing them as inconsequential things will go a long way to a finer understanding of them, and incidentally, of one's self.' The Art of Friendship: A Landscape with a Tree, by Evie Hone. Photograph © Geraldine Hone, Kate Hone and the FNCI/National Gallery of Ireland The Art of Friendship: The Virgin of Éire, by Mainie Jellett. Photograph: National Gallery of Ireland That remains true 100 years later, in art as well as life. It reaches back to Gleizes's theory that abstract art can expand the limits of our thinking while giving us a window into the workings of our own thoughts and emotions. This doesn't make it better than representational art, just different, and Hone and Jellett would continue to paint representational work throughout their lives. Still, exploring the carefully restrained storms of colour and line in the first space of the National Gallery's magnificent exhibition, it is tempting to look for an origin. Where had these artists come from? What were their early works like? Were clues to their cubism embedded, say, in art from their time in London? Or earlier, when Jellett had received art lessons from Elizabeth Yeats , and then at Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, and Hone had been a day student at the National Gallery of Ireland? Brendan Rooney, who has curated the exhibition with his colleague Niamh MacNally, says that an imbalance in the pair's surviving early work influenced their decision to start with the full impact of that glorious burst of cubist colour. So much less of Hone's early work is today available. It is a small niggle but one that lingers through the exhibition, as a knowledge of Jellett's precubist work, from the 1991 show Mainie Jellett, at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, lent the brilliant sense of an artist searching for the limits of picture making. The Art of Friendship: The Cock and Pot, commonly known as The Betrayal, by Evie Hone. Photograph © Geraldine Hone, Kate Hone and the FNCI/National Gallery of Ireland The Art of Friendship: Resurrection, by Evie Hone. Photograph © Geraldine Hone, Kate Hone and the FNCI/National Gallery of Ireland Hone was the same, and while initially the pair's work was intriguingly similar, as the exhibition demonstrates, it soon diverged. Both were influenced by their religious convictions, as their cubism became a way to express some of their sense of the ineffable mysteries of the divine. Born Protestants, they had a fascination with medieval and renaissance religious art that was more Catholic in affect, and Hone would go on to convert to that latter religion later in life. By 1927 The Irish Times was describing Jellett as 'the only serious exponent in this country of the ultra-modernist school of painting.' The writer might have said 'in these islands', as Jellett was also years ahead of her celebrated UK counterpart Ben Nicholson. This demonstrates that Dublin in the 1920s and 1930s was not entirely the backward-looking place that later histories might like to imply. Ireland at the time was by no means a feminist paradise, but the young Irish Republic wasn't entirely a swamp of misogyny. That set in harder, later. Instead, the early ideals of the new State included space for the arts and culture, and for women in articulating the place of Ireland in the world. Jellett's The Bathers was selected to represent Ireland in the 1928 Olympics, back when there was a category for artworks depicting sports. In 1937 the government of Éamon de Valera commissioned Jellett to create murals for the Ireland pavilion at the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow in 1938, while Hone's stained glass My Four Green Fields, which was commissioned for the 1939 New York World's Fair, now hangs in the Department of the Taoiseach in Government Buildings in Dublin. Still, shocking headlines are always, unfortunately, preferable. Take the Guardian's coverage of the current exhibition, with its headline ''Freak pictures': Ireland's art revolutionaries who were treated so badly one fled to a nunnery.' The Art of Friendship: Resurrection, by Evie Hone. Photograph © Geraldine Hone, Kate Hone and the FNCI/National Gallery of Ireland In truth, Hone did enter a convent in Cornwall as a postulant in the year after the pair's joint exhibition, but was she run out of town by opprobrium, as the Guardian suggests? Or was it, as is more likely, that the quieter and more retiring of the pair, who had experienced a life of ill health after contracting polio at the age of 12, had had enough of public life for a while? Either way, it didn't last, and in 1927 Jellett went over to collect her. The pair went on to travel together, visiting Gleizes, painting and exhibiting. Jellett explored beyond the canvas, with screens, designs for carpets, advertising posters and theatre sets. Hone turned to stained glass. Originally rejected by Sarah Purser , when she applied to join An Túr Gloine – the Glass Tower, Purser's studio – in 1932, Hone went on to triumph in the field. [ Distinctively Irish, creatively modern: Roy Foster on Sarah Purser, the most successful portrait painter of her day Opens in new window ] Her major masterpiece is, sadly, not on general view unless you happen to be a student at Eton College , the English public school, where her East Window was made between 1949 and 1952. Sketches and studies for this, and other of her works, are shown in a dedicated space in this exhibition, and it is a joy to see the intricacies of her art at eye level. The Art of Friendship: the East Window at Eton College chapel, by Evie Hone. Photograph © Geraldine Hone, Kate Hone and the FNCI/National Gallery of Ireland The Art of Friendship: Heads of Two Apostles, by Evie Hone. Photograph © Geraldine Hone, Kate Hone and the FNCI/National Gallery of Ireland Some, such as Heads of Two Apostles, and Head of Christ (a study for the Eton window) show the influence of Georges Rouault, but their power belongs entirely to Hone. In the final room, representation comes back into the picture. The pair were always curious, always exploring, and I'm reminded of the arc of Picasso's career, where it is obvious that his restless genius was less concerned with dedication to form than to the enigmas of painting itself. Picasso's own work will be on show at the National Gallery later this year, when From the Studio opens, in October. Resisting the clumsy idea that abstract art must be superior because it can be difficult, this exhibition likewise demonstrates the power of a pair of artists who were intrigued by what imagemaking can do. Paintings of woodlands at Marlay, where Hone spent the final years of her life, are wonderfully mysterious, and there is also a lovely watercolour by her of a country house in St-Rémy-de-Provence that would have made Matisse very happy had he made it. The Art of Friendship: Snow at Marlay, by Evie Hone. Photograph: Geraldine Hone, Kate Hone and the FNCI/National Gallery of Ireland Dedicated to their work, Hone and Jellett continued to promote modernism in Ireland, through exhibition and also through their support of a younger generation of artists, including Louis le Brocquy, who would speak with fondness of them. They were founder members of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, and while Jellett was by nature more forceful, they both worked to spread the word on new ways of seeing. They were also entirely collegiate in their outlook, bringing people together no matter their own artistic styles or leanings. [ Caravaggio: The 'boozing, whoring, brawling and bisexual bad boy of baroque' Opens in new window ] Hone and Jellett remained friends throughout their lives. Hone was the last person to sit with Jellett on the evening before she died, from cancer, aged just 46, in 1944. And when Hone died, 11 years later, she left many of her own collection of Jellett's works to the State. Her bequest included Decoration, now described by the gallery's curators as arguably the most significant modernist painting in the history of Irish art. It is a powerful legacy. Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone: The Art of Friendship is at the National Gallery of Ireland , in Dublin, until August 10th
Irish Times
31-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Mainie Jellett painting fetches record price
There was great excitement at Whyte's art auction on Monday night when the Mainie Jellett painting Achill Horses, 1933, was sold to a private collector for €210,000. This is the highest price achieved for one of the Irish modernist painter's works to date, and the second-highest for a painting by an Irish woman. Sarah Purser's portrait of Constance and Eva Gore-Booth made €239,000 at the Lissadell House auction in 2003. The Jellett painting, which had an estimate of €70,000-€100,000, was one of a series of more representational works by the artist created in the 1930s. Previously, the highest price achieved for a Jellett painting was €110,000 for The Land Eire 1940, at Whyte's in 2019. This latter painting is part of the current National Gallery exhibition, Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone: The Art of Friendship . Garden calm Thoughtfully designed and thoroughly maintained gardens are more relaxing for the mind and body, according to a new Japanese study. The researchers found a correlation between rapid gaze shifts and a reduction in heart rate and improved mood among students interacting with Kyoto's famous Murin-an garden, compared with a garden in the University of Kyoto. READ MORE Visitors to Bloom , the annual gardening festival in the Phoenix Park this weekend will no doubt be seeking inspiration on how to create moments of calm when viewing the 21 show gardens on display. While many of the show gardens focus on naturalistic planting and biodiversity, there is also a nod to heritage. The Pot Gallery Garden's uses free standing and vertical pots to show how to create green spaces on terraces and balconies, and the Estate's Essence, a mini-walled garden inspired by garden designer Patrik Weisser's work on Abbeyleix House and Farm in Co Laois, are cases in point. Victor Mee's Summer Garden sale in Co Cavan on Tuesday, June 10th and 11th, has been timed to follow Bloom, with the expectation that gardening enthusiasts will be keen to create new areas of interest in their green spaces after their visit to the country's largest and most popular gardening festival. The 2025 Summer Garden sale at Mee's auction rooms has more than 1,000 lots. Outdoor sculptures are always of interest, but this year the bronze and cast-iron statuary features a range of wild and domesticated animals, including Irish hares, horses, sheep, ducks, pigs and red squirrels. Two life-size bronze pigs (€600-€1,200) at Victor Mee's Summer Garden sale Two bronze hares (€1,500-€2,500) Two bronze geese (€600-€1,200) Take for example, the two life-size bronze pigs (€600-€1,200), the two bronze hares (€1,500-€2,500), the two bronze geese (€600-€1,200) or the bronze galloping horse (€10,000-€20,000). Peter Dowdall of the Irish Gardener says animal sculptures can do something quite magical in a garden. 'They catch the eye, spark curiosity and often bring a sense of playfulness or nostalgia,' he says. There are also some larger pieces with the potential to become the centre pieces of a garden. These include a wrought-iron English Victorian-style glasshouse (€18,000-€22,000). And, then there is the usual mix of cast-iron tables, garden seats, bird baths, sundials and a good range of troughs in limestone and granite. The French wrought-iron entrance gates (€1,500-€2,500) might be exactly what a rural or urban homeowner requires to bring a dash of style to the entrance to their property. Irish sculptor Bob Quinn's Best Night Ever (€47,000) will feature on the grounds of Cork's Castlemartyr resort Irish sculptor Eamonn Ceannt's Happy Face III (€55,000) will feature on the grounds of Cork's five-star Castlemartyr resort The five-star Castlemartyr resort in Co Cork is the venue again this year for Art and Soul, the touring art and sculpture exhibition run by Gormleys Fine Art Gallery. This is the third time that Oliver Gormley has opted to use one of Cork's most luxurious hotels as the sumptuous setting for his art and sculpture sale. With more than 350 works for sale, including pieces by world famous artists such as Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Banksy and Salvador Dalí, the show is an opportunity for people to view works – even if they can't afford to buy. Ninety large sculptures and installations will be set throughout the 220-acre grounds of the 18th-century manor house estate. These include works by Irish sculptors Bob Quinn (Best Night Ever, €47,000) and Eamonn Ceannt (Happy Face III, €55,000). Both sculptors are renowned for their figurative work in bronze. Following a career as a commercial artist and designer, Quinn became a full-time sculptor in 2002. His works can be seen in the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin, the Newman House garden on St Stephen's Green and on the University College Dublin sculpture trail. Similarly, Eamonn Ceannt turned to sculpture later in life, after a long career in the private and public sector. His work can be seen at Blarney Castle, Co Cork; Sligo town; Bewley's Cafe on Grafton Street; and on the UCD sculpture trail. Art & Soul at Castlemartyr runs June 1st-29th, 11am-7pm daily, with guided tours at noon, 3pm and 5pm each day. There is also a series of talks by participating artists. Anyone keen to incorporate a visit into an overnight at the hotel can avail of the Art + Soul visit and stay package. Finally, the biggest Vintage and Antiques Fair, run by Robin O'Donnell of Hibernian Antiques Fairs, goes ahead next weekend, June 7th and 8th, 11am-6pm at Limerick Racecourse. Admission €5 for adults and children go free. Antique and vintage dealers will also gather to sell their wares in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dún Laoghaire, tomorrow (June 1st), 11am-5.30pm. Admission €3.50. And an Antiques, Vintage and Collectables fair will be held in the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel in Abbeyleix, Co Laois, on Sunday, June 8th, noon-5.30pm. , , , What did it sell for? West of Ireland Bog by Paul Henry West of Ireland Bog, Paul Henry Estimate €120,000-€180,000 Hammer price €125,000 Auction house Whyte's Anglesea Market, Dublin, 1933 by Harry Kernoff Anglesea Market, Harry Kernoff Estimate €30,000-€50,000 Hammer price €40,000 Auction house Whyte's Mid-18th-century limestone Medici lions Mid-18th-century Medici lions Estimate €50,000-€70,000 Hammer price €42,000 Auction house Adam's A life-size bronze horse by Anthony Scott. Bronze horse, Anthony Scott Estimate €30,000-€50,000 Hammer price €26,000 Auction house Sheppard's
Irish Examiner
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Art worth millions to change hands at Dublin sales
An array of exciting choices will come up at major sales of Irish art in Dublin by Whyte's, deVeres and James Adam on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Art worth a couple of million euro is set to change hands at sales headed by Paul Henry (Whyte's), Gerard Dillon (de Veres) and Roderic O'Conor (Adam's). All are on view this weekend. A spectacular 1933 oil, Achill Horses (€70,000-€100,000) by Mainie Jellett, will create interest among serious collectors. This modern abstract style was in marked contrast to the prevailing realist mode of her contemporaries like Paul Henry and Charles Lamb. Jellett was chosen to create murals of the life and people of Ireland for the Free State Pavilion at the Empire Exhibition, Scotland, of 1938 in Glasgow. Another version of Achill Horses is included in the Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone exhibition at the National Gallery until August 10. The most expensively estimated work at all three sales is West of Ireland Bog by Paul Henry (€120,000-180,000). It is one of three works by the artist at Whyte's, where Cottages, West of Ireland (€60,000-€80,000) and Keel Bay, Achill (€50,000-€70,000) also feature. In Hill Fair at Achill Island by Letitia Hamilton (€15,000-€20,000), the viewer joins the busy scene through an uneven path between two large limestone rocks. 'West of Ireland Bog' by Paul Henry at Whyte's. There is international art by John Atkinson Grimshaw, Ferdinand Roybet, Paula Rego, Bridget Riley and Maurice Poirson as well as a sketch of James Joyce by his close friend Frank Budgen. The auction offers major works by William Leech, Dan O'Neill, Colin Middleton and George Russell, Dublin scenes by Flora Mitchell, prints by Patrick Scott, William Scott and Louis le Brocquy, sculpture by Rowan Gillespie and John Behan and work by popular artists like Kenneth Webb, Graham Knuttel, Cecil Maguire and Arthur Maderson. 'Achill Horses' by Mainie Jellett at Whyte's. The piece Little Girl's Wonder by Gerard Dillon is the top lot at the art and sculpture sale by deVeres next Tuesday. In tune with the naive style and strong use of colour for which Dillon is known, it was shown in 1955 at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in Dublin, which was established in 1943 to promote modernism in Ireland. This work is estimated at €50,000-€80,000 The sale at deVeres offers art by Louis le Brocquy, Colin Middleton, Daniel O'Neill, Patrick Collins, John Shinnors, Peter Curling, Lillian Davidson, George Russell (AE), May Guinness and Mainie Jellett. The sculpture in the auction, on view in the garden of The Merrion Hotel, includes work by Rowan Gillespie, FE McWilliam, Patrick O'Reilly, Jason Ellis and Michael Warren. 'Black and White Scarecrows' by John Shinnors at Adams. A reclining nude and a night scene of a boat in a storm, both by Roderic O'Conor and estimated respectively at €40,000-€60,000 and €15,000-€25,000, lead the sale of Important Irish Art at James Adam on Wednesday evening. A dreamlike image by Hughie O'Donoghue, The Sea, The Sea from 2003, is estimated at €15,000-€20,000. Among 100 lots on offer is The Path of the Lamb (1966), an oil on canvas commissioned by the Dominican Order for St Saviour's Church on Dominick Street in Dublin (€10,000-€15,000). The work Figures Asleep by Mary Swanzy from the 1940s (€10,000-€15,000) shows a makeshift arrangement that possibly depicts neighbours sheltering during air raids. Two arresting and contrasting works by renowned artists are the dense and restrained Black and White Scarecrows by John Shinnors (€5,000-€8,000) and Silent Gardens, a colourful piece from 1985 by Tony O'Malley (€12,000-€15,000). A bronze by Rowan Gillespie, Convict Woman (€8,000-€12,000) is based on one of the life-size figures by the artist unveiled in Hobart, Tasmania in 2017, known as the footsteps-toward-freedom statues. It represents the 13,000 convict women and 2,000 of their children who were transported to Van Diemen's Land. A selection of sculptures by John Behan and Oisin Kelly is also on offer. Viewing is underway and all catalogues are online.
Irish Independent
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
In the salerooms: A record-breaking Kashmir sapphire, Jack B Yeats and more
A sapphire and diamond ring formerly estimated between €8,000 and €12,000 fetched a record-breaking €550,000 at Adam's on May 13. The estimate increased to €150,000 to €250,000 when the gemstone was found to be from Kashmir, where it was mined in the 19th century. See Whyte's Whyte's auction of Irish & International Art takes place Monday, May 26. The highest estimate in the sale is for Paul Henry's West of Ireland Bog (Lot 18: est €120,000 to €180,000). In contrast, Achill Horses, 1933, by Mainie Jellett (Lot 37: est €70,000 to €100,000), depicts the west of Ireland in an abstract style radically different to those of her peers, Paul Henry and Charles Lamb. See Dolan's The Summer Auction of Irish Art & Whiskeys closes at Dolan's on Monday, May 26. The highlight of the sale is an oil painting by Jack B Yeats, Man Running (1947) (est €100,000 to €150,000). 'It was painted in a period when Yeats was confronting his own mortality and his paintings often centred on elderly male figures wandering across an uncultivated but impressive terrain,' writes art critic Roisin Kennedy. See Hegarty Antiques The auction of The Kingsland Collection Part II takes place live online at Hegarty Antiques on Wednesday, May 28. Highlights include some rare provincial Irish silver: a set of 10 silver dessert spoons by Patrick Connell of Limerick, circa 1785 (Lot 6: est €4,000 to €5,000); and a silver sugar castor by Daniel McCarthy of Cork circa 1770 (est €2,200 to €3,200). See
Irish Times
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Pioneering modernists Jellett and Hone on view and on sale
The current National Gallery exhibition will undoubtedly bring more attention to works by two 20th-century trailblazers in Irish art. Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone – The Art of Friendship, is the spring/summer exhibition at the National Gallery , comprising of 90 works of paintings, stained glass and drawings by these pioneering modernists. The exhibition explores the 'early convergences and later divergencies in their styles', and their shared experiences of studying in Paris during the 1920s. Interestingly, many of the works on display are borrowed from private collections (it must be quite prestigious to loan your paintings to an exhibition in the National Gallery). Evie Hone piece at Morgan O'Driscoll's auction is entitled Abstract Composition with an estimate of €8,000-€12,000. Photograph: Phil Pound Coinciding with the exhibition, there are works by Evie Hone for sale at two upcoming auctions – Morgan O'Driscoll's Irish Art Auction, which closes on Monday from 6.30pm-9.45pm, and Sheppard's Irish and International Art auction on Wednesday, May 14th at 7pm online and in person. Evie Hone's cubist composition study for a stained glass window at Sheppard's Irish and International Art auction (€3,000-€5,000). The Evie Hone piece at Morgan O'Driscoll's auction is entitled Abstract Composition, and has an estimate of €8,000-€12,000. Her piece at Sheppard's is a cubist composition study for a stained glass window (€3,000-€5,000). There is also a Floral Study by Mainie Jellett at the O'Driscoll auction (€800-€1,200). READ MORE Floral Study by Mainie Jellett at Morgan O'Driscoll auction (€800-€1,200). Fans of Hone and Jellett may be interested in a talk by artists Susan Connolly and Brian Fay about the influence Jellett has had on their work. This will take place on Thursday, May 15th at 6.30 pm in the National Gallery. Meanwhile, coincidentally, aquatint etchings created by Irish artist Sean Scully appear in both the O'Driscoll auction, and the Lot 100 Contemporary Art sale, online until May 20th. Liliane #7 (O'Driscoll's) by Irish artist, Sean Scully has an estimate of €5,000-€7,000 at Morgan O'Driscoll's Irish Art online auction. Photograph: Phil Pound According to Ken Madden of Lot 100, this series of aquatints from 2010 were among the most personal works created by Scully, just after the birth of his son, Oisin. 'Named after his wife, artist Liliane Tomasko, they capture a new chapter in Scully's life and reflect the relationships, feelings and emotions… at this time,' says Madden. Liliane #1 (Lot 100) and Liliane #7 (O'Driscoll's) each have an estimate of €5,000-€7,000. Lot 100 is selling Dancing at Lismore Castle, Ireland by American artist, Dale Chihuly (€3,000-€5,000) in their upcoming Contemporary Art May Sale. The American artist, Dale Chihuly spent some time at Lismore Castle in Co Waterford in 1995, as part of his preparation for his ambitious project of glass chandeliers to be hung at 15 locations around Venice the following year. While in Ireland, Chihuly worked with local glassmakers at Waterford Crystal, adding colour to the Irish crystal glass. He also travelled to glass factories in Finland, Mexico and Italy, and his subsequent project, Chihuly Over Venice, was a striking three-dimensional addition to this already richly adorned city ( ). Now, Lot 100 is selling a Chihuly painting, Dancing at Lismore Castle, Ireland (€3,000-€5,000), which he completed during his stay in Lismore. The Sheppard and Morgan O'Driscoll auctions also have a wide range of works by established artists working during the turn of the 20th century, as well as the generation of artists which followed them. Contemporary pieces by sculptors such as Rowan Gillespie, John Behan, Catherine Delaney, Conor Fallon, and Markey Robinson – who is perhaps better known for his representational paintings than his sculptures – are also included. A life-size bronze horse by Anthony Scott (€30,000-€50,000) is perhaps one of the most stand-out piece of sculpture for sale at Sheppard's Irish and International Art auction. A life-size bronze horse by Anthony Scott (€30,000-€50,000) is one of the stand-out pieces of sculpture for sale at Sheppard's, while Morgan O'Driscoll says that the work of Taiwanese artist, Chiu Ya-tsai is very popular at the moment. His painting, Female Profile (€30,000-€50,000), is one of the 250 lots in O'Driscoll's auction. Taiwanese artist, Chiu Ya-tsai's painting, Female Profile (€30,000-€50,000) is one of the 250 lots in Morgan O'Driscoll's auction. Photograph: Phil Pound Finally, film prop rental companies and theatre set managers may be interested in Sheppard's auction of items from a former private museum dedicated to Irish transport and rural life on Tuesday, May 13th. The auction has everything from a 1949 Ford Anglia two-door car (€4,000-€6,000), to a Marston Landau carriage - circa 1908 – (€8,000-€12,000), to a 19th-century penny farthing bicycle (€4,000-€6,000). There is also a wide range of vintage household and gardening utensils and tools and 19th- and 20th-century vernacular Irish furniture – chairs, tables, cabinets, kitchen dressers, spongeware pottery, etc – which would fit well into many period dramas. The public can view the items from the Transport Museum Collection between Saturday, May 10th and Monday, May 12th from 11am-4pm across two locations, depending on lot number, in Rathcoole, Dublin (D24 XP52) and Durrow, Co Laois (R32 FN88). The sale itself will take place live and online at Sheppard's Durrow auction rooms, starting from 10am on Tuesday, May 13th. Vintage vehicle enthusiasts in Wexford, Wicklow and Carlow should also keep an eye out for the Rolls Royce Ghost Club tour from May 11th-16th, as Irish Georgian Society London members travel through these counties visiting country houses en route. ; ; ; What did it sell for? A letter written by Colonel Archibald Gracie, a first-class passenger and survivor of the Titanic. The letter has sold for £300,000 at auction. Photograph: Henry Aldridge & Son/PA Wire Letter from Titanic survivor Estimate £60,000 Hammer price £300,000 (€352,000) Auction house Henry Aldridge and Son Co Kerry by Henri Cartier-Bresson, which sold at auction for nearly €8,000. Co Kerry, Henri Cartier-Bresson Estimate $6,000 - 8,000 Hammer price $8,890 (€7,840) Auction house Phillips Going to the Mill, by LS Lowry, sold at auction in the UK. Photograph: David Parry/Lyon and Turnbull/PA Wire Going to the Mill, LS Lowry Estimate £700,000-£1 million Hammer price £805,200 (€912,000) Auction house Lyon and Turnbull Longines. Longines chrome watch Hammer price €8,320 Auction house Bonham's Paris
