There was high drama at Whyte’s art auction on Monday evening (26 May) when a battle between two telephone bidders started at €50,000 and ended with a private collector with the winning bid of €210,000 for Mainie Jellett’s Achill Horses, 1933. This is a new world record for the artist; the previous record of €110,000 was for The Land Éire 1940 at Whyte’s on 25 November 2019. The latter can be seen at the National Gallery of Ireland’s current exhibition, Mainie Jellett Evie Hone. The Art of Friendship.

It is the second highest price for a painting by an Irishwoman, the highest being €240,000 for a Sarah Purser portrait of Constance and Eva Gore Booth, in the Lissadell House auction in 2003.

Whyte’s auction demonstrated the continuing confidence in the market for Irish works of rarity and quality. Paul Henry’s West of Ireland Bog sold for €125,000, while Anglesea Market, Dublin, 1933 by Harry Kernoff was hammered for its top estimate of €40,000.

William John Leech’s Gardeners Joy nearly doubled its lower estimate of €15,000 to sell at €28,000, and a Louis le Brocquy watercolour Image of Francis Bacon, 1980, made double its lower estimate of €12,000.


  

Other remarkable results included: Evie Hone watercolour Abstract Composition estimated €2,000 to €3,000 which made €5,400, Charles Vincent Lamb oil West of Ireland Landscape, estimate €1,500 to €2,000 which sold for €3,600, Bridget Riley Magenta And Blue, 2002 lithograph, estimate €8,000 to €12,000 took €14,500.

About 40% of the lots sold for higher than the lower estimates. Overall 80% of the works offered sold for a total of €1.1 million.