Reverie by Jack Butler Yeats

A PAINTING BY renowned Irish artist Jack Butler Yeats has sold for €1.7 million at auction.

Reverie by Jack Butler Yeats had a guide price of up to €700,000 and was auctioned by Dublin’s Whyte’s auctioneers ahead of the sale.

Whyte’s, in association with Christie’s auction house, offered works from the Irish revolutionary, The Ernie O’Malley Collection, highlighted by five paintings by Jack Butler Yeats.

Comprised of 100 lots, also including early sketches by Yeats and work by the artists Mainie Jellett, Evie Hone, Louis le Brocquy, Colin Middleton and Norah McGuinness, the auction formed an anthology of Irish art from the early 1900s to the 1950s.

Ernie O’Malley was a leading political activist in Ireland from 1916-22 who went on to publish two books detailing his experiences.

A spokesperson for Whyte’s said: “The auction grossed over €5.5 million. Every single lot sold, making it a “white glove sale”, the term to define a 100% sold rate at auction.

“The sale and international exhibitions provided an opportunity to discover his private passion for art and the relationships he developed with artists he encountered in America and Ireland.”

The 24” by 36” oil painting depicts a man reclining in a railway carriage. His head rests on his hand in a melancholic pose. O’Malley acquired the painting from Yeats in 1945.

Yeats travelled by rail across Ireland extensively throughout his career. It is a major subject in his paintings and in his writings.

Meanwhile, a Ferrari driven by F1 star and former world champion Michael Schumacher is set to go on auction by Sotheby’s, at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday and is guiding at a price of €6.8 million.

The Ferrari F2002, was driven by the world champion seven times and clinched victory for him in the Italian, Austrian and French Grand Prix during the 2002 season.

The legendary racing ace also secured his fifth World Drivers Championship title in the same car.

Since its iconic run in 2002, the Ferrari F2002 has retired after it was used as a test car for the remainder of that year’s season.

Funds from the auction of the car will also be donated to the Keep Fighting foundation, formed by Schumacher’s family.

Schumacher has been in a medically induced coma after a skiing accident back in December 2013.

He is currently receiving medical treatment and care at his home in Lake Geneva.

His son Mick, also a successful racing driver, said of the car in a promotional video: “It was always a dream for me to drive the car. It was also the first time to drive it on a Formula 1 track so it was very special.”