Fine Art

Paris saleroom Artcurial will offer a group of 20 works from the family of Camille Claudel (1864-1943) for sale on November 27.

Since the Celtic Tiger’s demise a decade ago and the tailspin that ensued, the Irish art market has evolved into a more cautious and less speculative beast. The latest round of sales held towards the end of September and into October showed steady (if not spectacular) demand, especially for the big, bankable names.

Adam’s mammoth annual Country House Collections auction is designed to cater to those with spacious, preferably period, abodes.

The Emerald Isle was not the only place selling Irish art recently. In London on September 27, Sotheby’s (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) offered a collection of paintings and personal effects belonging to the family of Irish poet WB Yeats and his brother, artist Jack Butler Yeats.

A double-sided drawing by Alberto Giacometti of his classic elongated head and figure designs has been sold at auction in Cambridge for £130,000.

During his nights spent ‘fire-spotting’ for flying bombs during the Blitz, it is said the artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare (1888-1956) would while away the hours filling sketchbooks.

More than 400 objects from Howard Hodgkin’s (1932-2017) London home and studio will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s on October 24 in New Bond Street.

In 1937, artist Lotte Laserstein’s (1898-1993) promising career in Berlin came to a halt.

The third and final exhibition of Brian Stonehouse’s (1918-98) fashion illustrations at Abbott and Holder opens this month, running from October 19-December 22.

MADAM – Some years ago, when I had a gallery in the King’s Road, a sculpture came up at auction which I missed, but shortly afterwards discovered to have been important.

Half a dozen works by the obscure British artist Valentine Dobrée (1891-1974) sold for multi-estimate sums at Reeman Dansie (20% buyer’s premium) in Colchester on September 26-27.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi will more than double the Old Master auction record when it is offered at Christie’s New York next month.

As part of a fifth anniversary auction at Farleigh Court Golf Club on November 1, Catherine Southon is offering the first part of an archive consigned by the family of the commercial artist and cartoonist Francis Wilford-Smith (1927-2009).