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| Lot: 1 |
| Elizabeth Rivers, (1903-1964) |
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| HORSES GRAZING ON ARAN, c. 1947 |
| with estate sale label on reverse |
| oil on canvas board |
| 41 by 51cm., 16 by 20in. |
| Provenance: The artist's estate; Ross's, Belfast, 2 December 1998, lot 91; McKee collection |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: |
| Notes:Elizabeth Rivers first visited the Aran Islands in 1935 and returned in 1936 for seven years. Works from this Aran period are highly prized among collectors. |
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| Estimate: € 1500-1800 |
Price Realised: € 800 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 2 |
| John Luke, RUA (1906-1975) |
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| PARTHENON HORSE |
| signed lower right |
| watercolour |
| 51 by 69cm., 20 by 27in. |
| Provenance: Arches Gallery, Belfast; Whence purchased by Dr McKee in 1988 |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: |
| Notes:This exceptionally fine work most likely dates from the artist’s student days at the Slade. Painted in delicate sepia wash, it depicts a detail from the east pediment of the Parthenon (437-432 BC), acquired by the British Museum from Lord Elgin in 1816. The horse depicted is one of four leading the goddess Selene’s chariot, signifying the break of day. Photographs of the original marble are included with the lot. Luke most probably studied the Selene horse whilst in London, although plaster casts are also found in many academic collections, including that of the Crawford College of Art in Cork.
Dickon Hall,
Killinchy, Co. Down |
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| Estimate: € 5000-7000 |
Price Realised: € 4600 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 3 |
| Edward Montgomery O'Rorke Dickey, CBE HRUA HRCA (1894-1977) |
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| LOUGHISLANDREAVY,COUNTY DOWN, 1921 |
| signed lower right; inscribed and dated on reverse |
| oil on canvas |
| 41 by 51cm., 16 by 20in. |
| Provenance: Rodney Baker Antiques, Co. Armagh; Whence purchased by Dr McKee in 2000 |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: |
| Notes:Dickey lived in Antrim for a short while after World War I and painted landscapes there and in Counties Down and Donegal. At the time he was one of only a tiny minority of artists working in Northern Ireland who might be considered part of the wider European avant-garde. The present landscape, from this post-war period, depicts the Mourne Mountains in the distance. Dickey was the son of a Belfast solicitor and studied at the Westminster School of Art. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, as well as with the London Group, the New English Art Club and Leicester Galleries. Two paintings of his are in the collection of the Ulster Museum.
Dickon Hall,
Killinchy, Co. Down |
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| Estimate: € 2000-3000 |
Price Realised: € 0 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 4 |
| Romeo Charles Toogood, RUA ARCA (1902-1966) |
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| THE MINNOWBURN,COUNTY DOWN, 1965 |
| signed lower right |
| oil on canvas |
| 51 by 61cm., 20 by 24in. |
| Provenance: Bell Gallery, Belfast; McKee collection |
| Exhibited: Retrospective exhibition, Bell Gallery, Belfast, August 1989, catalogue no. 36 |
| Literature: |
| Notes:This is a painting of the well known Minnowburn Beeches, where the Minnowburn runs into the river Lagan, just upstream of Shaw’s Bridge in Belfast. The carefully arranged figures fishing in the Minnowburn are reflected in the water, in what is now a National Trust listed site. Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the artist’s wife, Ann Toogood.
Dickon Hall,
Killinchy, Co. Down |
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| Estimate: € 1800-2200 |
Price Realised: € 1900 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 5 |
| Patrick Hennessy, RHA (1915-1980) |
Click for larger image |
| THE LEGEND AND THE SEA, c.1956 |
| original inscribed label on reverse |
| oil on canvas laid on board |
| 105 by 204cm., 41.5 by 80.5in. |
| Provenance: The artist's estate; `Pictures by Patrick Hennessy RHA and Henry Robertson Craig RHA', Christie's, South Kensington, 10 July 1986, lot 35; Fine Irish Paintings and Drawings, Christie's, Belfast, 31 May 1989, lot 491; Whence purchased by Dr McKee |
| Exhibited: Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, 10 October to 3 November 1956, catalogue no. 22; `Patrick Hennessy', Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, 9 November to 2 December 1972, catalogue no 18. |
| Literature: |
| Notes:The year The Legend and the Sea was painted, 1956, was a major year in Patrick Hennessy’s life. He, along with Harry Robertson Craig, was a major player in the opening of Ritchie Hendrik’s Gallery, he visited France on painting trips, in London he had a solo exhibition at Agnew’s of Bond Street and he exhibited a painting at the summer exhibition of the Royal Academy, London. He was certainly reaching the heights of his profession.
The Legend and the Sea contains two of the artist’s favourite motifs that reappear in his works: the dead tree and conch shells. In this painting, with the low horizon and great dramatic sky, the beached conch shells lead us along the sunlit beach to the lighthouse in the deep centre ground, in direct contrast with the darker right hand side, where the clump of trees painted in a dramatic brooding style gives a strong illusion of depth to the whole composition and at the same time depicts a salient example of coastal erosion.
This mysterious moody work dates from a period in Hennessy’s career when he was collecting the various labels imposed by the critics and consequently in the thoughts of the general public: Surrealism, Photo Realism, and Magic Realism. Each label surfaced at various times in an attempt to slot Hennessy into a category, but they never seemed to stay with him. He continued to complete highly finished paintings on an array of subject matter for a loyal group of collectors. However, few of his paintings in his latter years up to his death in 1980 were as dramatic in size or content as The Legend and the Sea.
Kevin A. Rutledge
September 2008 |
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| Estimate: € 20000-30000 |
Price Realised: € 32000 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 6 |
| Duncan Grant, (1885-1978) |
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| PORTRAIT OF LINDY GUINNESS, c.1965 |
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| oil on board |
| 61 by 51cm., 24 by 20in. |
| Provenance: Purchased from Christie's by Jonathan Riley, Emscote Lawn; Private collection, Dublin; Dickon Hall Fine Art, Belfast; Whence purchased by Dr McKee in 1998 |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: Francis Spalding, Duncan Grant: A Biography, Chatto and Windus, London, 1997, page 434 |
| Notes:Accompanied by a manuscript card from the sitter, Lindy Guinness, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, who notes, “It is a portrait of me and I can remember him painting it in London in the 1960s”. Lindy Guinness, known as Lady Dufferin, was born in 1941, the daughter of Loel Guinness and his second wife, Lady Isabel Manners. She first met Duncan Grant when she was seventeen and was encouraged by him to paint, subsequently studying at Chelsea School of Art and the Slade, and with Oskar Kokoschka in Salzburg. Lindy continued to visit Charleston regularly to paint with Grant until his death in 1978. She and Grant painted each other regularly and she was instrumental in encouraging the important 1964 retrospective exhibition of his work at Wildenstein, London. Lindy Guinness now exhibits regularly at the Ava Gallery on the grounds of her home at Clandeboye, Bangor.
Duncan Grant was a central figure in the Bloomsbury Group and along with his partner, Vanessa Bell, her sister Virginia Woolf and his brief loves Maynard Keynes and Lytton Strachey, defined the British arts world of the pre-war period. This mantel was taken up by a younger generation of post-war Pop artists, including David Hockney, who was given early support and encouragement from Sheridan Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 5th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, and husband of Lindy Guinness. Lord Dufferin was co-owner of the Kasmin Gallery, which opened in 1963 and showed the works of Hockney and Lucien Freud, who was married briefly to Lord Dufferin’s sister, Caroline Blackwood. After their own marriage in 1964, Lord and Lady Dufferin became central figures of the London art scene in the 1960s. |
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| Estimate: € 5000-7000 |
Price Realised: € 0 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 7 |
| Terence P. Flanagan, RHA PPRUA (b.1929) |
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| MORNING 2, 1981 |
| signed lower right; original exhibition label on reverse |
| oil on canvas |
| 25 by 30cm., 10 by 12in. |
| Provenance: Hendriks Gallery, Dublin; Whence purchased by the Earl of Belmore, September 1981; Christie's, Belfast, 28 October 1988, lot 351A; McKee collection |
| Exhibited: 'T. P. Flanagan', Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, 12 September to 3 October 1981, catalogue no. 13 |
| Literature: |
| Notes:T. P. Flanagan was commissioned by the Earl of Belmore at Castlecoole to record his family home through a series of paintings and purchased many paintings from the artist as a consequence. This is one of those paintings from the Roughra series of 1981. The artist writes of this in a letter, a copy of which accompanies the painting: “Morning 2 is not of County Fermanagh, but of an area in the hills above Killybegs in Co. Donegal. I have a studio there, which I had added on to an old cottage / farmhouse which we bought in 1967 and where I painted a lot of my pictures and still do. In the ‘80s I turned my attention to the immediate surroundings of moor and bog land – fortunately as it turned out since most of the country in Morning 2 is now in government afforestation. The few sheep farmers living near me have started selling off for such schemes... The picture is part of a series in oils and watercolours most of which is now in private collections. The actual town land is called Roughra. One other called Roughra Morning is in one of the banks’ collections”. |
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| Estimate: € 1800-2500 |
Price Realised: € 2000 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 8 |
| Tom Carr, HRHA HRUA ARWS (1909-1999) |
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| A DAY AT THE SEASIDE |
| signed lower left; exhibition label on reverse signed lower left; exhibition label on reverse |
| oil on canvas |
| 30 by 46cm., 12 by 18in. |
| Provenance: Eakin Gallery, Belfast; Private collection; Frederick Gallery, Dublin; Whence purchased by Dr McKee |
| Exhibited: Spring Exhibition, Frederick Gallery, Dublin, 23 April to 2 May 2002, catalogue no. 45 |
| Literature: |
| Notes:Tom Carr was a close personal friend of Dr McKee’s and his family, who would often visit the artist in his studio. |
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| Estimate: € 4000-6000 |
Price Realised: € 2900 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 9 |
| Martin Gale, RHA (b.1949) |
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| A FIRE IN THE LAND (BLAZE), 1981 |
| signed lower centre; inscribed, dated and signed again on reverse; also with original exhibition label on reverse |
| oil on canvas |
| 86 by 91cm., 34 by 36in. |
| Provenance: Taylor Galleries, Dublin; Whyte's, 19 February 2002, lot 86; Whence purchased by Dr McKee |
| Exhibited: 'Martin Gale', Taylor Galleries, Dublin, 5-21 November 1981, catalogue no. 6 |
| Literature: |
| Notes: |
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| Estimate: € 8000-10000 |
Price Realised: € 7000 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 10 |
| John B. Vallely, (b.1941) |
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| THE EIGHT FIDDLERS |
| signed with initials lower right |
| oil on canvas |
| 61 by 76cm., 24 by 30in. |
| Provenance: Ross's, Belfast, 12 June 2002, lot 202; Whence purchased by Dr McKee |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: |
| Notes:John B. Vallely was born in Armagh 1941 and is now the city’s most acclaimed resident artist. In 1959 he enrolled at the Belfast College of Art, where his teacher, the late Tom Carr, was greatly impressed: “He was the most remarkable student I ever had. He drew with such assurance and maturity. His sketch-book was such quality on outings that I wanted to take a few pages out of it and keep them for myself”. Vallely went on to further study at Edinburgh Art College, and during his early years travelled widely in search of subjects. However, his work has returned time and again to those local subjects that have most engaged him: traditional Irish culture, in particular sport and music. He is a skilled musician himself and forty years ago founded the Armagh Pipers Club, still in existence today. However, it is his paintings for which he is most renowned, and which are highly sought after by collectors at home and abroad. In the words of one of his earliest patrons, Gladys MacCabe, Vallely “has conquered his idiom and enriched it with all the technical means which his instinct suggests; thick impasto, mixtures of tones, glazing, shading. Often his colours emit vivid glows – his canvases drip with light and are encrusted with warmth” (1966). His work has regularly been exhibited throughout Ireland and in Britain, Italy and the USA. |
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| Estimate: € 18000-22000 |
Price Realised: € 21000 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 11 |
| Colin Middleton, MBE RHA (1910-1983) |
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| ACROBATS, 1972 |
| signed in monogram lower right; inscribed, dated and signed again on reverse |
| pen and ink with watercolour |
| 77 by 58cm., 30.5 by 23in. |
| Provenance: Caldwell Gallery, Belfast; Irish Paintings and Drawings, Christies, Belfast, 27 October 1989, lot 233; Whence purchased by Dr McKee. |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: |
| Notes:This unusually large and ambitious drawing, relating closely to a painting of the same title, epitomises many of Middleton’s concerns in the early 1970s. His reconciliation of the images of the landscape with the female form, both visually and symbolically, became wittier and more sexually charged around this period. One could view it as a shift away from Middleton’s interest in Henry Moore and towards a renewed looking at Picasso. The conceit of the acrobats encourages Middleton’s selective re-arrangement and distortion of the human form, with the two acrobats’ bodies rising layered and suggesting the rising of a landscape towards the sun.
Dickon Hall
Killinchy, Co. Down |
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| Estimate: € 3000-5000 |
Price Realised: € 2300 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 12 |
| Rita Duffy, PRUA (b.1959) |
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| PORTRAIT OF RAYMOND STONE, 1989 |
| signed and dated lower right; signed by sitter on reverse |
| oil, watercolour and pastel on paper |
| 47 by 39cm., 18.5 by 15.5in. |
| Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist by Dr McKee in 1989 |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: |
| Notes:This image was commissioned by the Lyric Theatre in Belfast for their production of Stewart Parker’s play, Spokesong, and was used on the accompanying posters and programmes. It depicts one of the real life inspirations for the play, Raymond Stone, proprietor of Stone’s bicycle shop, which was originally situated in Cromac Square and later moved to the Lower Ormeau Road. Raymond was the last generation of a famous Belfast bicycle family, whose most famous bicycle was the ‘Stone Special’ – a bicycle with exaggerated angles on its frame. Another relative, ‘Pebble’ Stone, had a shop in East Belfast. The portrait of Raymond was painted from life in his shop. He died shortly after it was completed. |
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| Estimate: € 1500-2000 |
Price Realised: € 0 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 13 |
| Louis le Brocquy, HRHA (b.1916) |
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| STUDY TOWARDS AN IMAGE OF W. B. YEATS, 1975 |
| signed and numbered lower left |
| aquatint with drypoint on Arches paper (no. 73 from an edition of 100) |
| 50 by 44cm., 19.5 by 17.5in. |
| Provenance: |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: Dorothy Walker, Louis le Brocquy, Ward River Press, Dublin, 1981, page 56 and illustrated on page 113 |
| Notes:Sheet size: 30 by 22 inches. Commissioned by Swedish gallery owner Per-Olov Börgenson for a portfolio of portraits of thirty-three Nobel Prize winners by thirty-three artists. Le Brocquy chose to depict W. B. Yeats, whom he met as a young boy, and the project initiated a long series of Yeats studies. |
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| Estimate: € 2500-3500 |
Price Realised: € 3800 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 14 |
| Louis le Brocquy, HRHA (b.1916) |
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| HUMAN IMAGE I, 2005 |
| signed and numbered lower right; label on reverse |
| serigraph on Velin on d'Arches (no. 48 from an edition of 75) |
| 86 by 64cm., 34 by 25in. |
| Provenance: Fenton Gallery, Cork; Private collection |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: |
| Notes:Sheet size: 40 by 30 inches. |
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| Estimate: € 5000-7000 |
Price Realised: € 0 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 15 |
| Michael Craig-Martin, RA (b.1941) |
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| DISTANT RELATIONS, 1996 |
| signed and dated lower right; numbered lower left |
| screenprint (no. 7 from an edition of 40) |
| 96 by 76cm., 37.7 5 by 30in. |
| Provenance: Alan Cristea Gallery, London; Private collection |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: |
| Notes:Published by the Alan Cristea Gallery, London, 1996. Born in Dublin, Michael Craig-Martin grew up in the USA and studied at Yale. On completion of his studies in 1966 he moved to Britain, where he has spent most of his working life. He had his first solo exhibition in 1969 at the Rowan Gallery in London and since then has exhibited extensively in international solo and group exhibitions. From 1974 to 1988 he taught at Goldsmiths College, London, where he had a significant impact on the emerging Young British Artists Group, including Damien Hirst. His first retrospective took place at in the Whitechapel Gallery in London in 1989. In 2006 the Irish Museum of Modern Art presented ‘Michael Craig-Martin: Works 1964-2006’, which incorporated works from his early use of ready-mades, inspired by Duchamp, to his later stylised depictions of everyday household objects. Craig-Martin has served as a trustee of the Tate Gallery and has done installations for the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1991) and the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1994). In 1998 he represented Britain at the XXIV Bienal de São Paulo in Brazil. |
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| Estimate: € 1500-2000 |
Price Realised: € 1400 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 16 |
| Michael Craig-Martin, RA (b.1941) |
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| PIANO AND METRONOME, 1997 |
| signed and dated lower right; numbered lower left |
| screenprint (no. 24 from an edition of 25) |
| 88 by 46cm., 34.7 5 by 18in. |
| Provenance: Alan Cristea Gallery, London; Private collection |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: |
| Notes:Published by the Alan Cristea Gallery, London, 1997. |
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| Estimate: € 1500-2000 |
Price Realised: € 0 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 17 |
| Julian Opie, (b.1955) |
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| IMAGINE YOU ARE DRIVING, 1998-9 |
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| screenprint (edition of 40) |
| 61 by 85cm., 24 by 33.5in. |
| Provenance: Lemonstreet Gallery, Dublin; Private collection |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: |
| Notes:Printed by Advanced Graphics, London, and published by Alan Cristea Gallery, London. This is from a series of works inspired by a road trip Opie took across Europe in 1993. He recorded the view from the car with photographs, which he later used to create simplified images analogous to computer games, wherein the viewer is encouraged to imagine themselves, as in a virtual world. Another print from this edition is in the collection of the Tate (P78311). |
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| Estimate: € 4000-6000 |
Price Realised: € 0 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 18 |
| Cecil King, (1921-1986) |
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| INTRUSION |
| signed lower right; original label on reverse |
| oil on paper |
| 37 by 49cm., 14.5 by 19.2 5in. |
| Provenance: |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: |
| Notes:In the original frame of the Hendriks Gallery, Dublin. |
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| Estimate: € 2000-3000 |
Price Realised: € 0 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 19 |
| Makiko Nakamura, (b.1951) |
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| EMBERS, 2004 |
| singed, inscribed and dated on reverse; also with exhibition label on reverse |
| oil on canvas over panel |
| 61 by 61cm., 24 by 24in. |
| Provenance: |
| Exhibited: Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin, 2004 |
| Literature: |
| Notes:Born in Gifu, Japan, Makiko Nakamura studied art in Kyoto and Nagoya. She worked initially in film editing before concentrating on painting. In 1996 she moved to Paris, where she studied print making at Atelier Contre Point and the following year took up a residency at Cite International Des Arts. From 1997-98 she was artist in residence in the fine art department, University of Pennsylvania. In 1999, attracted by the prospect of visiting the home town of Samuel Beckett, whose writings have greatly influenced her work, Nakamura came to Dublin. Since then she has had solo exhibitions at the Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast, Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin and the Ashford Gallery at the RHA, Dublin. Aidan Dunne has written of her work: “The smoky, burnished, metallic surfaces of her paintings bear traces of overall grid patterns and other methodical markings, half there, half already gone. The absolute precision of her method and the sureness of her instinct, plus the sombre presence of her work, mark her out as an artist of exceptional quality”. |
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| Estimate: € 2000-3000 |
Price Realised: € 0 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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| Lot: 20 |
| Patrick Scott, HRHA (b.1921) |
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| TANGRAM IV, 2005 |
| signed and dated lower right; numbered lower left |
| etching with gold leaf (no.25 from an edition of 75) |
| 47 by 62cm., 18.5 by 24.2 5in. |
| Provenance: |
| Exhibited: |
| Literature: |
| Notes:Sheet size: 25.5 by 30 inches. Published by the Lemonstreet Gallery, Dublin. |
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| Estimate: € 2000-3000 |
Price Realised: € 1900 |
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| Date of Sale: 29 September 2008 |
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