DUBLIN.- Whyte’s auction of Important Irish Art promises to deliver another exciting opportunity for collectors to acquire rare artworks of outstanding quality and enduring value. On Monday 1 December 2025 the auction has 143 lots of Important Irish art valued at €1.2 million.

John Luke was a north Belfast native and spent his early years in a small, relatively confined area between York Street and the Antrim Road. Leaving school after he turned twelve, he worked in the nearby shipyard and later in a textile mill before attending Belfast School of Art. The Dead Tree, 1934, (lot 34, estimate €100,000-€150,000) was his first submission to the Ulster Academy of Arts in October 1934 and one reviewer drew attention to Luke's 'modern technique' and further added, 'it is a painting that cannot be neglected with its brilliant colour contrasts, its angularised figures, and houses of architectural solidity, and its rhythmically humped background.’ This rarely seen and little-known painting is one of Luke's most beautiful and important early works.

Lot 38 (Estimate €50,000-€70,000) is John Luke’s first known representation of Shaw's Bridge in south Belfast. When the artist returned to Belfast, without a studio, he spent much time working outdoors. Between 1931 and 1933 he made several sketching trips along the Lagan. This painting of Shaw's Bridge from the south bank of the river shows the Lagan Valley as a kind of pastoral scene. However, the modern geometry of the bridge's architecture cuts through the lush landscape.

In 1929, Paul Henry moved in with Mabel Young at Carrigoona Cottage, near Kilmacanogue, County Wicklow, and the artist also built a studio there. Lot 26, The Great Sugar Loaf, County Wicklow (€100,000-€150,000) dates from that time and depicts describes a windswept tree and stone wall set starkly against the distant, misty mountain. In the painting, executed when he had gained recognition at home and internationally, the foreground is well defined with neutral objects such as the trees and stones unlike the early works in which they were less well defined. The sense of movement contained in the tree opposes the static calm of the nonerosive quartzite Sugar Loaf which came originally from the deep seabed.

Like his mentor, Sir William Orpen KBE RA RI RHA (1878-1931), Leo Whelan gravitated towards portraiture and was highly sought after from an early age. On The Moors (lot 21, estimate €15,000-€20,000) is a striking three-quarter length portrait depicting the artist’s sister Helena dressed in hunting attire carrying a shotgun over her right arm and holding tight to the leash of a spaniel that spans the breadth of the foreground. The composition of the painting, giving dominance to an abstract style skyscape, owes much to William Orpen. Even the long white scarf recalls numerous Orpen self-portraits where it is either neatly wound round the neck, as seen here, or employed as a device to bring movement to the composition as it billows in the wind.

At least one related drawing of the same model depicted in Roderic O’Conor’s A Woman Seated, Holding Two Roses (lot 17, estimate €40,000-€60,000) survives, and although her identity is unknown, the measured approach that the artist took to the development of this composition indicates his determination to produce an arresting image. Using a limited palette of colours – white, pink, red, violet and two shades of blue – and a brush that alternated between rich impasto and loose, wristy gestures, O'Conor has melded the classical with the contemporary, riveting the viewer's gaze on the model's head where all lines converge. Even the walls, windows and doors of the studio have been removed from the background in order to intensify the focus.

Woman Feeding Hens, 1921 (lot 22, estimate €30,000-€50,000) is one of Frank McKelvey’s earliest farmyard scenes, a genre for which he became highly regarded and greatly sought after. The loose Impressionist manner of its execution - indeed the composition, with the light falling dappled through the foliage, has a distinct French feeling. It was almost certainly painted at the Maze, a cottage rented by the artist near Hillsborough, Co. Down. The sense of spontaneity for the moment, of fresh air, tranquillity, of life operating on a human scale, are all typical characteristics of McKelvey’s oeuvre. The size of the picture, and its obvious importance amongst McKelvey’s early works, suggests that it is likely the composition titled A Poultry Yard that he exhibited at the RHA in 1923, priced at £25-0-0, a considerable sum at that time. The present work fetched €88,000 at Whyte’s in 2004, an Irish record at the time.

Daniel O’Neill’s Spanish Dancers at the Gaiety, Dublin (lot 39, €20,000-€30,000) is a theatrical oil painting depicting two dancers immersed in their performance which appears to have reached a climactic conclusion. The stage curtains frame the composition while the moody backdrop, reminiscent of the artist’s landscape paintings - including the full moon leitmotif - create an atmosphere that is simultaneously romantic and dramatic. O’Neill’s fascination with surface texture can be seen to great effect in this painting. Here the dazzling nature of the costumes under the spotlights are communicated through the impastoed drizzle, dotting and scraping of white, grey and pink paint. Flamenco was brought to Irish audiences at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin in the late 1940s and 1950s when it was under the ownership of Louis Elliman and his family. Elliman brought lavish productions to the capital city among them Luisillo and his Spanish Dance Theatre, Antonio Gades and the celebrated duo of Pilar López and José Greco.

Reclining Female Figure (lot 76, estimate €15,000-€20,000) is a large and unusually louche painting by John Shinnors. It was commissioned by Michael Fagan the manager of the fabled Glentworth Hotel in the centre of Limerick. At one time this hotel was one of Limerick's most popular hotels and nightspots. Fagan was opening a new night club in the hotel, and he wanted some artwork that would complement his vision for a space where nighthawks gather. The model was a local who had posed for him regularly. The Glentworth Hotel is sadly long gone. It became Pery's Hotel for a period before being sold for apartments in 2024.

The eldest of the famous Hamilton sisters of Hamwood, Dunboyne, Eva Hamilton was educated at Alexandra College, Dublin and began exhibiting at the age of 22 with the WCSI. In 1904 she showed two portraits of her sisters at the RHA, at which institute she was to eventually exhibit 121 works in total. This self-portrait (lot 13, estimate €3,500-€4,500) kindly authenticated in 2009 by the artist's family, shows her sitting upright, poised and directly engaging with the viewer. The confident artist, depicted here in her early thirties, holds her artist's tools naturally in her right hand. Eva Hamilton was an accomplished portrait artist, and her sitters included such renowned figures as Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory and Lord Frederick Fitzgerald among others.

Watch out for… a collection of William Percy French watercolours (lots 1-6, estimates range from €1,500 to €4,000. An exquisite watercolour portrait of Oliver ‘Noll’ Gogarty, son of Oliver St. John Gogarty is on offer in the sale (lot 16, estimate €6,000-€8,000). Gogarty commissioned the work from English artist Gerald Brockhurst. He later commissioned Brockhurst once more for a portrait of him for use as a frontispiece for his book, Elbow Room, Cuala Press, Dublin (1934).

There is a small selection of important works from international artists including Children Playing at the Seaside (lot 33, estimate €12,000-€18,000) by Dorethea Sharp and an interesting work by Australian artist William Dobell. Study for the Thatchers (lot 61, estimate €10,000-€15,000) is a preliminary oil sketch for the artist’s well- renowned Thatchers series. The work was purchased directly from the artist’s estate. There are major works on offer from other important Irish artists such as Patrick Collins, Donald Teskey and John Doherty (illustrated above). There is also a substantial sculpture section including some of Ireland’s best-known artists such as Rowan Gillespie, John Behan and Michael Warren.