ADAM’S WILL hold a single-artist auction of work by Seán O’Sullivan next Wednesday at 6pm when 174 paintings, drawings and lithographs go under the hammer.
The archive collection has never been viewed publicly before and subjects include interiors, landscapes, still lives, figurative studies and portraits. Among his diverse sitters were Peig Sayers, Douglas Hyde, Peadar O’Donnell, Maurice MacGonigal, Brian Ó Nualláin (aka Myles Na gCopaleen/Flann O’Brien) and a rather Falstaffian-looking RM (Bertie) Smyllie – editor of The Irish Times from 1934 to 1954.
Seán O’Sullivan, born in Dublin in 1906, was a prolific artist who exhibited hundreds of works at the Royal Hibernian Academy and other venues in Ireland and overseas until his death, aged 58, in 1964. His output included book covers, advertisements, lithographs, commissioned portraits, caricatures and religious commissions. In a catalogue note Dr Éimear O’Connor, of the Irish Art Research Centre at Trinity College, said he “possessed an extraordinary talent, one that should be fully and properly evaluated in the context of the history of 20th-century Irish art”.
The sale features a very wide selection of pictures and prices – with estimates ranging from €200 up to €10,000. Viewing begins tomorrow at 2pm in the saleroom, 26 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2.
