Yeats's oils lead the way for sale of Irish art

Anticipating a rush of auctions before the end of this month, John de Vere White is conducting an Irish picture sale next Tuesday evening in the National Concert Hall. He predicts particular interest in two Yeats oils, A Son of the Claddagh and Dublin Newsboys, both on the market for the first time since they were first exhibited during the 1920s. Claddagh depicts a single Galway fisherman against a fairly desolate landscape, while the more overtly charming Newsboys shows two children inside a Dublin pub. These pictures are expected to fetch £100,000-£150,000 and £60,000-£90,000 respectively. The sale also offers a very typical example of Paul Henry's work, West of Ireland Village (£30,000-£40,000), in which a handful of thatched cottages huddle together beneath a looming blue mountain. Then there is one of Roderic O'Conor's Pont-Aven oils, Attic Interior, featuring a young Breton woman sitting and staring glumly at the viewer, while behind her is shown a still life of fruit, jugs and linen. Not perhaps the most immediately appealing of O'Conor's pictures, it carries a presale estimate of £25,000-£35,000.

Andrew Nicholl's depiction of poppies and other flowers, with Killiney Bay and other well-known landmarks behind, is, by contrast, a more instantly winning work; this pencil, pen, ink and watercolour painting is expected to fetch £10,000-£15,000, the same figure as a Leech oil. May Reading in a Chair was painted in 1929 and shows May Botterell, with whom the artist was in love for many years. Other lots worthy of notice in this sale include Gerard Dillon's The Jockey (£20,000-£30,000), in which the figure of the title holds the reins of his horse carrying two young girls, and Portrait of a Young Girl holding a Muff (£6,000-£9,000) by Mary Swanzy, believed to be the first painting this artist exhibited at the RHA in 1905.

Two further Irish women artists showing during the first half of this century are also represented at the de Vere sale. Sitting in the Garden (Portrait painted in the Open Air) by Sarah Purser (£15,000-£20,000) actually featured in the 1883 RHA exhibition, while from the hand of Sarah Cecilia Harrison comes Portrait Study of Ernest (£5,000-£7,000).