Auctions & Fairs – Triptych by Francis Bacon goes for £10m at Christie’s

Auction Results

Tuesday (March 6th)

Christie's, London: Auction of Post-War & Contemporary Art. Three Studies for a Portrait (1976), a triptych (three-panel) painting by Francis Bacon (inspired by Henrietta Moraes, a British artists' model who lived in Ireland during the late 1970s and early 1980s at Roundwood House, Mountrath, Co Laois), sold for £10 million (€11.2m)(£10million-£15 million) [see pic].

‘Hellelil and Hildebrand, The Meeting on the Turret Stairs’ (in the National Gallery of Ireland) by Sir Frederic William Burton

Wednesday (March 7th)

Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers, Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny: "The Chatsworth Spring Fine Art Sale". 82 per cent of lots sold. Lot 367, a preparatory watercolour study for the very famous Hellelil and Hildebrand, The Meeting on the Turret Stairs (in the National Gallery of Ireland) by Sir Frederic William Burton €24,000 – three times the median estimate (€7,000-€10,000); Lot 494 Golgotha, The Crucifixion on Mount Calvary described as "Flemish School / 16th or 17th century" €12,000 (€10,000-€15,000); Lot 369, On the Road described as by "a Follower of Peter Paul Rubens", Dutch (1577-1640) €8,500 (€5,000-€7,000); Lot 364, a painting of King Billy at the Battle of the Boyne attributed to Dirk Maes, Dutch (1659-1717) €7,500 (€5,000- €7,000); Lot 442, an early 19th century Killarney wood arbutus and marquetry Davenport Desk €6,700 (€6,000-€8,000); Lot 571, a late 19th century African rhinoceros horn "knobkerrie" (club) once owned by Victorian adventurer AJ Mounteney Jephson of Mallow Castle, Co Cork, €6,500 – over five times the top estimate (€800-€1,200); Lot 507, The Ascension, a 19th-century Russian School silver gilt Triptych with assay marks for Russia, 1837 €6,500 (€6,000-€8,000); Lot 371, Portrait of Daniel O'Connell, The Liberator by Thomas Heathfield Carrick €4,000 (€4,000-€6,000); Lot 72, a late 18th/early 19th-century carved ivory Corpus Christi, Franco-Flemish, mounted on an ebonised crucifix €1,000 (€1,000-€1,500); Lot 225A, a large American "Hartmann" "Pathfinder" model folding brass-mounted and leather-bound "Trunk Wardrobe", on a turn-table, with the original label €340 (€600-€800);and, Lot 94, an opium weighing scales, modelled as a crocodile €50 (€80-€120). For more results see fonsiemealy.ie