DUBLIN.- Following a very successful auction in September, which grossed over €1.3 million, Whyte’s are including a further portion of The George and Maura McClelland Collection in their 28 November Important Irish Art sale at the RDS.

Whyte’s auction includes works from the McClelland collection by Tony O’Malley (lots 67 to 79), ranging in value from €1,000 to €20,000, William Conor (lots 16 to 23) with some superb drawings modestly estimated at about €2,000 to €3,000 and Colin Middleton paintings (lots 47 to 50) from €2,000 to €5,000 apiece.

Significant works from other private collections include Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958) WEST OF IRELAND LANDSCAPE 1925-1935, Mary Swanzy HRHA (1882-1978) SUR LE BORD DE LA FORET (lot 35), a beautiful delicate painting of a female nude with a slightly Cubist touch, estimated at €25,000 to €35,000, Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) RESTING (lot 51), an enigmatic and sensitive depiction of a young woman seated in a landscape, estimate €25,000 to €35,000, Basil Blackshaw HRHA RUA (1932-2016) TWO TREES (lot 82), a typical late but charming work with the artist’s trademark tongue in cheek title incorporated in the painting, estimate €15,000 to €20,000, and William Crozier HRHA (1930-2011) GARDEN AT NIGHT (lot 89), a very large and colourful painting, one of the best from his West Cork oeuvre, which would have made €70,000 in 2007, is offered here at a modest €20,000 to €30,000 – surely a good investment for the serious and shrewd collector.

Ian Whyte, managing director of Whyte’s, is pleased with his firm’s auction results this year, “reflecting as they do, continued confidence in the Irish art market, and sensible buying by informed collectors”.

George McClelland, born in Donegal, brought up in Omagh, left school at 14 as the educational system then did not cater for his dyslexia. He taught himself to pass exams including those for the RUC and became a detective. In the mid 1960s membership of the RUC was not comfortable for a Roman Catholic and he quit, intending to emigrate to Australia with his wife, Maura, and his young children. However when he saw the prices he got for his collection of antiques at auction he changed his mind and opened an art and antiques gallery in Belfast. He rapidly established himself as a leading dealer in contemporary Irish art, hosting major exhibitions for William Conor, Gerard Dillon, Colin Middleton, F. E. McWilliam, Louis le Brocquy, Dan O’Neill, Patrick Leonard and many others.

After suffering two bomb attacks on his Belfast galleries, George and Maura moved their family to a large house in Taney, Dublin, from where they conducted their art business. McClelland was instrumental, along with Brian Fallon, in bringing Tony O’Malley, then based in Cornwall, to the attention of the Irish art buying public in the 1970s.

When the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) opened in 1998 it was severely short of art works and relied upon collectors to lend them pictures and sculpture. The McClellands generously offered the pick of their collections for a long term loan. In 2003 they sold a large portion of their collection to Noel Smyth, with a proviso that Smyth would donate about 40% to IMMA under a tax relief scheme.

George died in 2014, his wife, Maura, having predeceased him in 2007. Whyte’s were appointed by the executors of the estate to auction the extensive collection of George and Maura’s most treasured works which they had kept for their own private collections, and which they displayed in their various residences in Dublin, Kerry, Isle of Man and London.