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Top Auction Results
First and only living Irish artist to break the £ million barrier


RECORDS ACHIEVED AT AUCTION
PAINTING: 1.158, 000 GBP - €1.741,722
WORK ON PAPER: 131,200 GBP - €229,000
TAPESTRY:130,297 GBP - €205,014
PRINT €10,997



Travelling Woman with Newspaper
sells for 1.15 million GBP - 1.741, 722

SOTHEBY'S PRESS RELEASE:SOTHEBY'S SETS NEW WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR IRELAND'S FOREMOST CONTEMPORARY ARTIST

A PAINTING by Louis le Brocquy, Ireland's foremost contemporary artist, sold for £1.2 million at Sotheby's in London on May 18, 2000. The price represents a new world auction record for the artist and places him within a very select group of artists whose works have commanded prices in excess of £1 million during their lifetimes. Among British and Irish painters, only Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and David Hockney have equalled this feat. Travelling Woman with Newspaper, a masterpiece by the man acknowledged as the greatest painter working in Ireland today and certainly the most important Irish Modernist painting ever to appear at auction, sold for a staggering £1,158,500. Mark Adams, Sotheby's specialist in charge of the sale, said: 'In these days the £1 million barrier is increasingly seen as the surest test of an artist's international importance and it is a very rare event for a living painter to break it. Le Brocquy's achievement marks him out as one of the painters, like Freud and Hockney, who will come to symbolise this age'.
Sothebys, London, 2000. Read more

 

Travelling Woman with Newspaper, 1947 - 48
Sold 1.158,000 GBP - 1.741, 722 - US$1.557,675
Sotheby's, London, The Irish Sale, 18 May 2000

Travelling Woman with Newspaper, 1947 - 48
oil on gesso-primed board, 83 by 115 cm


 

Sick Tinker Child, 1946
Sold 963,000
Adam's - in association with Bonham's, London, Important Irish Art, 5 December 2006

Sick Tinker Child, 1946
oil on gesso-primed hardboard, 60 by 90 cm



A Family, 1951
Sold €793,260
Whyte's Important Irish Art, 30 April 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Family, 1951
30 by 40cm., 11.75 by 15.75in.


 

Image of Samuel Beckett, 1979
Sold 400,800.00 GBP - 590,576.87
Sotheby's, London, The Irish Sale,
9 May 2007

Image of Samuel Beckett (detail), 1979
oil on canvas, 80 x 80 cm, A.R.442


 

Travellers making twig sign, 1946
Sold 300,500 GBP - 440,000
Sotheby's, London, The Irish Sale, 18 May 2001

Travellers making twig sign, 1946
oil on gesso - primed board, 46 by 54 cm




Codemned Man, 1945
Sold 299,200 GBP - 438,000
Christie's London, The Irish Sale, 12 May 2005

Codemned Man, 1945
oil on gesso-primed hardboard, 91 x 70 cm


 

Image of W. B. Yeats, 1981
Sold 364,000
Adam's (in association with Bonham's, London), Important Irish Art, 5 December 2006

Image of W. B. Yeats, 1981
oil on canvas, 80 x 80 cm


 

Image of Samuel Beckett, 1980
Sold £220,800 - 324,195
Christie's, london, The Irish Sale, 12 May 2006

Image of Samuel Beckett (detail), 1980
oil on canvas, 80 x 80 cm, A.R.450


 

Fantail Pigeons, 1984
Sold 329,000
Adam's (in association with Bonham's, London), Important Irish Art, 5 December 2006

Fantail Pigeons, 1984
oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm


 

Lazarus, 1954
Sold 201,000 GBP - 295,000
Sotheby's, London, The Irish Sale, 18 May 2000

Lazarus, 1954
oil on canvas, 175 by 120 cm


Man Writing, 1951
Sold 133,500 GBP - 195,000

Christies, London, The Irish Sale, 21 May 1997

Man Writing, 1951
Oil on canvas, 64 by 76 cm


Riverrun. Procession with Lilies, 1984
Sold 122,500 GBP - 179,500
Christies, London, The Irish Sale, 20 May 1999

Riverrun. Procession with Lilies, 1984
oil on canvas, 54 x 73 cm


RECORD FOR A WORK ON PAPER BY THE ARTIST

 

Image of Francis Bacon, 1979
Sold 229,000
Sotheby's, London, Post War and Contemporary Irish Art, 13 May 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




Image of Francis Bacon, 1979
watercolour, 61 x 46 cm


 

Lovers, 1951
sold 131,200 GBP - 194,983
Euro 190,000
Sotheby's, London, The Irish Sale, 13 May 2005


Lovers, 1951
Coloured chalks and washes
71 x 50 cm


RECORD FOR A TAPESTRY BY THE ARTIST


Allegory, 1950
Sold 205,014 - 130,297 GBP - US$ 197,419
James Adam & Bonhams, Dublin, Important Irish Art, 31 May 2000



Allegory, 1950
Aubusson tapestry, 152 by 181 cm'
The price achieved for this tapestry, makes it probably the most expensive tapestry by a contemporary artist anywhere.'
James O'Halloran, James Adam & Sons.



FURTHER RESULTS ACHIEVED FOR TAPESTRIES AT AUCTION

 

Travellers, 1948
Sold 140,400
Mealy's, Cork, The Goldberg Collection, 5 October 2004

 

Travellers, 1948
Aubusson Tapestry, 180 x 100


Adam and Eve in the Garden, 1952
Sold 75,250 GBP - 110,000
Christies, London, Important British & Irish Art, 30 November 2000

Adam and Eve in the Garden, 1952
Aubusson tapestry, 136 x 270 cm


The Garlanded Goat, 1949-50
Sold 62,000 GBP- 91, 500
Sotheby's, London, The Irish Sale, 21 May 1999

The Garlanded Goat, 1949-50
Aubusson wool tapestry, 158 by 130 cm