Irish art from private collections of former politicians at deVeres and Adam’s

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A rich and varied selection of paintings by prominent Irish artists from the late 19^th and 20^thcenturies are for sale in Dublin this month.

Mary Swanzy, Mainie Jellett, Camille Souter, Paul Henry, Jack B Yeats and Edward McGuire are among the artists whose work will be for sale at deVeres’ Irish Art online auction, which will close on Tuesday, November 25th, and at Adam’s Irish Art live and online auction on Wednesday, November 26th at 6pm.

The paintings at deVeres are from various private collections, including works owned by the late Gemma and Derry Hussey from Ballsbridge, Dublin.

Gemma Hussey was a Fine Gael politician who in 1982 became Ireland’s first woman minister for education and Fine Gael’s first woman cabinet minister. Derry Hussey was a businessman and Fine Gael stalwart. Their painting collection includes works by William Leech, Mainie Jellett, Mary Swanzy, Sarah Purser, Grace Henry, Edward McGuire and Tony O’Malley.

Meanwhile, one of the paintings in the Adam’s Irish art auction is a Paul Henry painting originally owned by former taoiseach John A Costello. It was thought to have been purchased directly from the artist and not previously shown at exhibition. The 1930s painting Coastal Landscape with Galway Hookers (€150,000-€200,000) was bequeathed to one of Costello’s children who is now selling the piece.

Coastal Landscape with Galway Hookers by Paul Henry (€150,000), believed to have been purchased directly from the artist by former taoiseach John A Costello

But it is the painting Paysages aux Arbres (Landscape with Trees) by Roderic O’Conor (€200,000-€300,000) that deVeres’ managing director, Rory Guthrie, selects as the most significant painting for sale in the auction.

“I would regard Paysages aux Arbres as one of the great Irish Impressionist paintings, that could hang in any gallery in the world,” says Guthrie.

O’Conor was an outstanding Irish artist, who spent most of his adult life in France, including in the artists’ colonies in Grez-sur-Loing in Seine-et-Marne, and in Pont Aven in Brittany. Inspired by the work of Van Gogh and Cézanne, he was a contemporary and friend of Paul Gauguin. His painting style evolved from plein air naturalism to impressionism and postimpressionism. In his latter years, from his Paris studio, he moved from a focus on Breton characters to still-life paintings and female nudes. Nature Morte aux vases Fleuris (€50,000-€70,000) and Nature Morte (€100,000-€150,000) are two other O’Conor paintings in the deVeres auction.

Dundrum, Co Down by Belfast-based artist Colin Middleton (€14,000-€18,000) at deVeres Irish art auction

A landscape entitled Dundrum, Co Down, by Belfast-based artist Colin Middleton (€14,000-€18,000), is another eye-catching work. Best known for his portrait painting, Middleton made several landscape paintings in the 1960s during regular visits to Newcastle and the Mourne Mountains in Co Down.

An early Jack Butler Yeats painting entitled Roaring Water, Low Tide, County Cork (€60,000-€90,000) was inspired by visits by the artist to Roaring Water Bay between Skibbereen and Schull. The subtle colours in the painting show Yeats’s work before his move towards a more expressionist style of emotionally intense work in primary colours.

Training Five Souls on Board by Camille Souter (€25,000-€35,000) at Adam’s Irish art auction

The work of English-born artist Camille Souter (1929-2023), who spent most of her life on Achill Island, is represented at both deVeres and Adam’s. The former has a piece entitled On the Bog (€6,000-€9,000) while the latter’s piece, Training Five Souls on Board (€25,000-€35,000) is from her flight series.

In 1979, Souter visited Shannon Airport where she took flying lessons and later created a series of works inspired by the airport and aeroplanes. The Irish Museum of Modern Art has another painting in the series in its collection. Its catalogue essay describes how these paintings “explore aerial divisions of the landscape viewed through the drama of local weather conditions, the grid of the airport’s perimeters and runways and the curved aluminium forms of the jets”. The paintings emanate a calm – something we no longer associate with airports and planes landing and taking off. Souter later travelled to Kuwait in 1999 to view the desert and oilfields after the Gulf War.

Also at Adam’s, Night Cargo by Hughie O’Donoghue (€20,000-€30,000), an English-born painter who divides his time between north Mayo and London, is another very striking painting for our times. Inspired by the wreck of a freight ship which ran aground on Inis Óirr in 1960, it brings forth thoughts of wartime maritime manoeuvres as well of the precariousness of modern-day migration.

Night Cargo by Hughie O’Donoghue (€20,000-€30,000) at Adam’s Irish Art auction

Totem Mars in bronze by Sonja Landweer (€3,000-€5,000) at deVeres.

The work of Dutch-born, Ireland-based artist and ceramicist Sonja Landweer (1933-2019) features in both deVeres and Adam’s art auctions. Totem Mars in bronze (€3,000-€5,000), is for sale at deVeres.

Finally, Ross’s in Belfast is hosting an online auction of works by the artist Patrick Coogan (1935-2025) which ends on Wednesday, November 19th. Coogan attended the Ulster College of Art and Design as a mature student in the 1960s and his work has been described as a “personal response by a Belfast artist living through the Troubles”. A solo show in the Cavehill Gallery in Belfast in 1987 was of the few public exhibitions of his work during his lifetime.