12/12/2001

The Dublin auctioneers James Adam was the venue for the joint auction of Irish art held in conjunction with Bonhams, London on the 5th of December. The 134 lot sale saw strong bidding with 69% of lots offered finding buyers to raise a total of $ 2.9 million (€ 3.3 million). Top lot of the sale was Walter Frederick Osborne’s (1859-1903) In the Garden, Castlewood Avenue a signed oil on canvas measuring a diminutive 51 x 61 cm and which sold for $ 735,460 (€ 825,830) against a top-end estimate of $ 452,580 (€ 507,890). The work was painted two years before the artist’s death in 1903, and shows the artist’s backgarden at Castlewood Avenue in Rathmines, Dublin with the children seated under the trees, being the artist’s next-door neighbours. Another high seller was Roderic O'Conor’s (1860-1940) La Toilette, an oil on canvas measuring 54 x 64.8 cm, which trebled its top-end estimate of $ 248,870 (€ 278,390) to sell for $ 622,060 (€ 698,350). Other high sellers included landscapes by Nathaniel Hone (1831-1917) and Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957). (Andrew Moore)