DUBLIN.- Whyte’s auction of Irish & International art promises to deliver another exciting opportunity for collectors to acquire rare artworks of outstanding quality and enduring value. On Monday 9 March 2026 the auction will include 129 lots of Irish & International art valued at €1 million.

The live auction will take place at the Freemasons Hall, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2 and online at bid.whytes.ie. Viewing takes place at Whyte’s Galleries in Molesworth Street from Monday 2 March to Friday 6 March, 10am to 5pm, Saturday and Sunday 7 & 8 March, 1pm to 5pm and Monday 9 March – day of sale - 10am to 4pm. Bidders and browsers can avail of useful auction features on Whytes.ie such as extra photographs of each work, including in domestic settings, as well the free Art Realizer App allowing you to project pictures to scale on walls to see if a work will suit your home or office; frame sizes and condition notes for every lot are published on our website, and, most importantly, Whyte’s provide a lifetime guarantee for every lot in the sale.

Museum Worthy: Le Loing at Sundown, c.1902 (lot 14, €150,000-200,000) by Roderic O’Conor is the cover lot and top lot by value. In autumn 1902 O’Conor revisited Montigny, a small town on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau, and it was here that he captured the mysterious half light with the sun sitting low on the horizon. O’Conor author Jonathan Benington describes how the works executed at this time were “…characterised by a highly painterly handling of the oil medium, from translucent stains to textured scumblings and thicker calligraphic strokes.” He continues, “…Whilst this radical technique would have shocked many in 1902, its derivation can be traced back to the artist’s precocious allegiances with Van Gogh (via his brother Theo) and Gauguin (via personal friendship) in the early 1890s.”

By the early 1930s, Paul Henry had settled into life in Carrigoona Cottage in Enniskerry County Wicklow with his partner, and later his second wife, the artist Mabel Young RHA whom he had first met in 1924. The mid-1920s had been fraught with both marital and financial troubles for Henry but life with Young in Enniskerry reinvigorated the artist. 'Henry's palette, like his mood, lightened as his financial and domestic problems faded.' By September 1934 he was legally separated and it would appear his thirst for inspiration had returned following a holiday in County Kerry. Landscape, Connemara, 1932-5 (lot 17, €120,000-€150,000) would certainly seem to reflect a renewed passion in his surroundings. The dramatic movement of the clouds in the upper third of the composition evokes a sense of enthusiasm and joy, calling to mind Sean O'Faolain's words 'special drama of mobile light' again.

In the mid 1940s and early 1950s William Conor exhibited a series of works depicting children at play and The Shuggleshoo, 1951, (lot 21, €18,000-€22,000) which was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1951 dates to this body of work. On this series Brendan Rooney writes, 'The carefree, excited play of children on a see-saw on a bright summer's day can be seen as a kind of pictorial antidote to some of the harsher realities - illness, physical work, penury and unemployment - of life in working-class Belfast in the 1920s and 1930s, and a counterpoint to the daily toils of artisans and the lower middle-class. Significantly, and notwithstanding the complexity of Conor's identity, these pictures, including those of children at play, transcend the sectarianism that had crept with increasing virulence into Belfast from the late nineteenth century onwards.'

Child Playing with Dice by Daniel O’Neill (lot 38, €12,000-€18,000) depicts the solitary figure of a girl standing with her arms folded and leaning against what appears to be a craps table; a pair of dice are cast before her. Through his use of earthy tones and a muted palette O'Neill evokes the smoky atmosphere of a bar with its stale air and dim lighting and, although artificially lit, injects that romantic quality one would associate with his moonlight scenes into this interior. The high ceilings and tall columns add to the sense of isolation and melancholy in the figure. Child Playing with Dice was acquired from the George Waddington Galleries in Montreal, Canada. Daniel O'Neill's relationship with that gallery began with the inclusion of his work in their 'Inaugural Exhibition' in 1956. The gallery hosted solo exhibitions of O'Neill's work in 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1965.

Aloysius O'Kelly was among the first Irish artists to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1874, under the tutelage of Jean-Léon Gérôme. He was also the first Irish artist to discover Brittany in the 1870s, and was influential in drawing other Irish artists there. He executed a series of tavern and kitchen scenes set in Brittany. Breton Scene (lot 12, €8,000-€12,000) is one of these examples and according to Prof Niamh O’Sullivan was likely painted around 1910 in Pont-Aven, to which he returned regularly.

In 1902 William Orpen returned to the Life Room. For three weeks, in the spring of that year, he found gainful employment at his alma mater, the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, as a teacher of anatomy. It was a subject that would become core curriculum when in January 1904 he and Augustus John opened their short-lived art school in Chelsea, and the classes would be repeated thereafter in annual summer sessions in Dublin. The Rebel, 1902 (lot 13, €30,000-€40,000) dates from this time and, when exhibited, not for the first or last time was the young artist's unflinching realism the subject of comment. Like Courbet and Manet before him, he would not pander to public taste. It was indeed the case that Orpen was setting a standard of attainment, with no overlay of false sentiment.

INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS

Pool Made with Paper and Blue Ink for Book, 1980 (lot 64, €25,000-€35,000) by David Hockney uses simplified lines and fluid forms to evoke the movement and shimmer of water through economical, expressive mark-making. The work reflects his long-standing fascination with pools, light, and the California lifestyle, transforming an everyday subject into a striking study of color, surface, and perception. From an edition of 1000 this hand-signed lithograph is a highly sought after example from the artist. There are two fine signed L. S. Lowry prints on offer too. The Cart, 1959 (lot 30, €4,000-€6,000) depicts a possible memory of a jaunting car during one of his vists to Ireland. Lowry's great grandfather, Jacob Lowry, was a bootmaker from Belfast and Lowry was proud of his Irish roots. The Level Crossing, 1973 (lot 29, €1,500-€2,000) depicts a bustling, industrial scene with a train passing through a now-vanished High Street level crossing in Burton-on-Trent. Sir Frank Bowling has been described as 'one of Britain’s greatest living abstract painters', as 'one of the most distinguished black artists to emerge from post-war British art schools' and as a 'modern master'. Swan c.1960s (lot 63, €10,000-€15,000), comes from the Swan series, inspired by the artist’s experience of seeing a dying swan on the banks of the Thames. Other international artists represented in the sale include Mr. Brainwash, Maurice Poirson and Josef Herman.

Watch out for… a collection of William Percy French watercolours (lots 1-8, estimates range from €1,500 to €7,000). Also included are major works by Walter Osborne (lot 11, €12,000-€18,000), Maurice MacGonigal (lot 20, €5,000-€7,000), Patrick Hennessy (lot 41, €5,000-€7,000) and Tony O’Malley. A rare artist’s proof set of John Lavery prints of Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith are listed in the sale (lot 27, €8,000-€10,000). They have a strong provenance having being gifted to the previous owner by Arthur Griffith. A quirky Jack Yeats drawing ‘Our Railway System (And a Very Bad One Two) (lot 25, €6,000-€8,000) was published in the magazize Pick-Me-Up in December 1893 and is sure to attract good interest. There is a sculpture section including fine examples from Rowan Gillespie. It also includes a rare bust of Irish artist James Barry by Italian artist Joseph Panzetta (lot 84, €5,000-€7,000). The work is one of four busts, others being held by St. Paul's Cathedral, London and the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. Auction favourites include Kenneth Webb, Liam O’Neill, Cecil Maguire, Elizabeth Cope and Arthur Maderson.