The top lot of the auction held on September 2 was Hay Stooks with Cottages that overshot a €50,000-70,000 estimate and was knocked down at €100,000 (£90,910), while Henry’s smaller Connemara Landscape also drew competition and sold at €70,000 against a €30,000-50,000 estimate.
Island living
Another big name, if not the biggest name, in the Irish art market also drew significant interest. A late seascape by Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957) came to auction from a private Dublin vendor but had provenance to Mr and Mrs Nesbit Waddington who assembled an important collection of Irish art kept at their historic Beaulieu House residence in Co Louth.
Bound for the Islands, a 9 x 14in (23 x 36cm) signed oil on board, was painted in 1952 when Yeats was 80 and it depicted a sailor standing on a headland waving out to a boat on the sea. Like many of Yeats’ late subjects showing an isolated figure looking down at an expanse of water, it may have an element of self-portrait to it.
Very much a ‘known’ work, having appeared in at least two catalogue raisonnés of the artist’s works, it was estimated at €50,000-70,000 and was finally knocked down at €90,000 (£81,820) – a strong sum for a late work by Yeats and also a picture in this comparatively small size.
