Harry Clarke is revered as one of Ireland’s greatest stained-glass artists. He completed both secular and religious works in Ireland, the UK, the United States and Australia during his relatively short working life. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 41, in 1931.
Among his best-known works are the six striking stained-glass windows, created in 1927 for Bewley’s Oriental Café on Grafton Street, Dublin, and installed the following year.
Other examples of Clarke’s stained-glass windows can be seen in churches throughout Ireland, the UK, the USA and Australia.
Clarke studied at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art from 1910-1913 and then studied medieval stained glass in France in 1914.
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Nineteenth-century French symbolism; art nouveau; the emerging art-deco movement; and the Ballets Russes, a touring ballet company based in Paris, were his chief influences.
Although best-known for his stained-glass work, Clarke was also a prolific graphic designer and illustrator. And it is some of these original works, which private collectors are now putting up for sale – with notably high estimates – at Adam’s Important Irish Art auction on September 24th.
The works include The Lady of the Decoration (€60,000-€80,000), an ink and watercolour image created by Clarke for a promotional calendar for the Glasgow paint supplier John Duthie. This illustration was later deemed to be a precursor of some of Clarke’s secular work in stained glass, including the windows for Bewley’s.
Clarke also created many illustrations for classic books published by the London firm George G Harrap & Co. These included more than 90 illustrations for John Anster’s translation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust. At the time a reviewer described Clarke’s perversely fertile inventiveness as “the world of the psychoanalyst made visible”, with their inversions of religious imagery and eerie menagerie of grotesque, composite and sexually ambiguous figures.
The illustration for sale – which depicts the book’s protagonist in a garden with his female companion – was not included in the 1925 edition of the book. It has an estimate of €40,000-€60,000.
Another Clarke illustration – an unfinished black-and-white drawing from The Playboy of the Western World (1915) – has an estimate of €20,000-€30,000.
The Adam’s auction also includes signed limited-edition books illustrated by Clarke, and a 1910 pair of stained-glass panels depicting Dante and Beatrice (€4,000-€6,000) made in the Clarke Stained Glass Studio on North Frederick Street, Dublin. Harry ran the studio with his brother Walter, following his father Joshua Clarke’s death in 1921.
Adam’s auction also has 32 art works from the personal collection of gallerist Ib Jorgensen, who recently turned 90. The Danish-born fashion designer turned gallerist sold antique and modern furniture, paintings and decorative art objects with Adam’s in 2020.
Now, five years later, he is selling several paintings, including two inexpensive still-life oil paintings by Dublin-born artist Niccolo d’Ardia Caracciolo: Still Life with Peppers (€1,000-€1,500) and Still Life with Cheese and Vegetables (€2,000-€3,000).
An enigmatic sculpture, Love (€12,000-€18,000), by Rowan Gillespie is among the several sculptural works for sale in the Adam’s auction.
Sculpture enthusiasts keen to keep an eye on latest works by contemporary Irish sculptors should make their way to the Sculpture in Context exhibition, on show at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, some time between now and October 10th.
This 40th-anniversary exhibition includes works by more than 80 artists spread throughout the public gardens. The exhibition is the largest dedicated sculpture exhibition in Ireland. Admission is free, with special guided tours for adults on Friday, September 19th, 7pm-8pm, as part of Culture Night.
Meanwhile, the Dublin Painting & Sketching Club’s 147th annual exhibition opens to the public on Monday, September 15th, at Townhall, 1 Windmill Lane, Dublin 2. With more than 150 paintings by contemporary Irish artists, it’s always worth having a look – or even purchasing a piece. Kildare-based self-taught botanical artist Kathrine Geoghegan is the featured artist this year.
In total, the Dublin Painting & Sketching Club has about 90 artist members, most of whom are Dublin based. However, each year the exhibition includes an open submission section for non-members with a prize for the best entry. The exhibition is open Monday to Saturday, 10.30am-4.30pm; Sundays noon–4pm and until 8pm on Culture Night.
Finally, a reminder to collectors of art and artefacts that many museums will have extended opening hours on Friday for Culture Night. Visitors to the National Gallery of Ireland can enjoy a free guided tour of the Maurice Marinot exhibition, On Paper, In Glass, at 5pm on Friday, September 19th. Marinot was a French artist who, according to the gallery, “infused the intense colours of his earlier paintings into stunning glass objects ... earning him the title Le Fauve de Verre (The Wild Beast of Glass). The works on display have never been exhibited before.
adams.ie, sculptureincontext.ie, dublinpaintingandsketchingclub.ie, culturenight.ie
What did it sell for?
20th century brooch with Kashmir sapphire
Estimate €200,000-€300,000
Hammer price €550,000
Auction house Adam’s
Cushion-shaped Kashmir sapphire brooch
Estimate €150,000-€250,00
Hammer price €540,000
Auction house Adam’s
Emerald and diamond cluster ring
Estimate €20,000-€25,000
Hammer price €17,000
Auction house Morgan O’Driscoll
17th-century stomacher
Estimate €30,000-€40,000
Hammer price Not sold
Auction house Morgan O’Driscoll
