Norah McGuiness Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Norah McGuiness Art Value Price Guide

Sep. 30, 2024
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) THE SUGAR LOAF, COUNTY WICKLOW, 1956
Est: €8,000 - €12,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) THE SUGAR LOAF, COUNTY WICKLOW, 1956 oil on board signed and dated lower right h:17.50 w:23.75 in. Provenance: Whyte's, 29 May 2017, lot 45; Private collection
Whyte's
Sep. 25, 2024
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) The Cineraria (1955) Watercolour, 28 x 22cm (11 x 8.75) Signed and dated (19)'55
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) The Cineraria (1955) Watercolour, 28 x 22cm (11 x 8.75) Signed and dated (19)'55
Adam's
Sep. 25, 2024
NORAH MCGUINNESS
Est: €5,000 - €7,000
Swans Over The Bay. Oil on canvas. Framed. PICTURES AND PRINTS Wednesday 25th September 2024 Approximate Time 10:30:00
Sheppards
Jul. 27, 2024
Norah McGuinness (Irish, 1901-1986), Boats in a Harbor, Signed and dated '49 in pencil lower left, Watercolor on paper, Image-7 1/4" x 10", Framed-15" x 16 1/2"
Est: $600 - $800
Norah McGuinness (Irish, 1901-1986), Boats in a Harbor, Signed and dated '49 in pencil lower left, Watercolor on paper, Image-7 1/4" x 10", Framed-15" x 16 1/2"
Auction Gallery of the Palm Beaches
May. 29, 2024
Norah McGuinness (1901-1980) The Urn at Newtown Park House Watercolour, 30 x 46cm (11¾ x 18'') Signed with artists studio stamp
Est: €1,000 - €1,500
Norah McGuinness (1901-1980) The Urn at Newtown Park House Watercolour, 30 x 46cm (11¾ x 18'') Signed with artists studio stamp
Adam's
May. 29, 2024
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 - 1980) Kitchen Lamp Oil on canvas, 61 x 30.4cm (24 x 12) Signed Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery Dublin, label verso
Est: €4,000 - €6,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 - 1980) Kitchen Lamp Oil on canvas, 61 x 30.4cm (24 x 12) Signed Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery Dublin, label verso
Adam's
May. 12, 2024
IRISH LANDSCAPE GOUACHE PAINTING BY NORA MCGUINNESS
Est: $100 - $150
Nora Norah McGuinness, Irish, English, American, 1901 to 1980, gouache painting on paper depicting a rural landscape. Signed lower left. Framed. Nora McGuinness is known for Modernist, abstract landscape and still life painting, graphics, illustration. The Irish landscape artist, graphic designer and illustrator Nora McGuinness was born in County Derry, Northern Ireland. She studied drawing and fine art painting at the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin now the National College of Art and Design, the Chelsea Polytechnic, London, and then under the French artist Andre lHote, in Paris. From France, McGuiness moved to London, becoming a member of the avant-garde London Group, and from 1937 to 1939 she lived in New York. After America, she returned to settle in Dublin in 1940. She was elected an honorary member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1957. Nora McGuinness executed vivid, highly coloured, flattened landscape paintings, as well as still life and portrait art in a spontaneous style influenced in part by the colourist Fauvist movement and the artist Lhote. English and American Fine Art, Landscape Paintings, Wall Art, and Collectibles. One of a kind artwork.
Antique Arena Inc
Mar. 27, 2024
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 - 1980) Interior with still life Watercolour, 46 x 38cm (18 x 15) Signed
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 - 1980) Interior with still life Watercolour, 46 x 38cm (18 x 15) Signed
Adam's
Mar. 11, 2024
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) WILD CHERRY, 1961
Est: €6,000 - €8,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) WILD CHERRY, 1961 oil on canvas signed and dated lower right; titled and with Dawson Gallery label on reverse h:16 w:20 in. Provenance: Dawson Gallery, Dublin; Private collection
Whyte's
Mar. 11, 2024
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) LANDSCAPE
Est: €1,200 - €1,800
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) LANDSCAPE pastel and gouache with artist's stamp lower right h:10 w:14 in. Provenance: de Veres, 10 March 1998, lot 169; Private collection
Whyte's
Dec. 04, 2023
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) ANNA LIVIA
Est: €1,500 - €2,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) ANNA LIVIA watercolour and gouache with artist's studio stamp lower right; inscribed on reverse h:11 w:14.50 in.
Whyte's
Nov. 07, 2023
NORAH ALLISON MCGUINNESS (1901-1980)
Est: €12,000 - €18,000
Still life of fruit. Signed bottom right. Oil on canvas. Dawson Gallery label verso. Framed. Provenance: The Dr. Kevin Moynihan Collection, Macroom, Co. Cork. Approximate Time: 12:53 Lot No: 237
Sheppards
Oct. 02, 2023
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) BRENT GEESE ON THE SALT FLATS
Est: €20,000 - €30,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) BRENT GEESE ON THE SALT FLATS oil on canvas signed lower right; titled on reverse h:20 w:36 in. Provenance: Taylor deVere's, 11 October 1994, lot 95; Private collection The composition, style and colouring of Brent Geese on the Salt Flats channels various aspects of the life of the artist Norah McGuinness. By the 1960s - when the present work is likely to have been painted - Norah McGuinness' reputation in the Irish arts scene was impressive. She had received solid training in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art in 1921, complemented by subsequent accolades and her first exhibition in the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1924. She later developed her skills abroad, first, in London at the Chelsea Polytechnic and later in Paris from 1929 to 1931 under André L'Hôte. In 1943 McGuinness was one of the founding members of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA). She later became President of the IELA following the death of Mainie Jellett in 1944 and retained this position until 1972. In 1950 she was selected alongside Nano Reid to represent Ireland at the Venice Biennale and in 1957 she was made an Honorary Member of the RHA. By the end of the decade a major retrospective exhibition of her work was held at Trinity College, Dublin in 1968. Through the years, in tandem with all these achievements, McGuinness supported herself financially through her illustration - with Vogue and Harper's Bazaar - as well as working in costume and set design for the Abbey and Peacock theatres in Dublin and window dressing for Altman's department store on Fifth Avenue, New York and for Brown Thomas in Dublin. The black outlines and limited, muted palette lends a graphic quality to the work and recall the textile designs of mid-century giants such as David Whitehead. The composition has a stage like quality to it and there is a theatricality in the broad sweeping lines and the animated movement provided by the geese. Brent geese are found in Ireland between October and April, feeding mostly on eel-grass that grows on muddy estuaries and grasslands, before departing for breeding grounds beginning in late April. In this scene the winter migrants are executed in sharper focus, drawing the eye into the scene, each bird looking in a different direction while a smaller flock appears to exit stage left. The distortion of perspective, the segmenting of the picture plane and the lozenge motif are all familiar elements of McGuinness' style from this period also. A number of examples of her work from the 1960s can be found in the permanent collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin including Shore Pools (1965) and Path to the Sun (1962). McGuinness' work featured in IMMA's highly-acclaimed 2013 Analysing Cubism exhibition alongside Mainie Jellett, Evie Hone, Mary Swanzy, Fr Jack Hanlon and European painters such as Georges Braque, Albert Gleizes, Juan Gris, Henri Hayden, André L'hote and Pablo Picasso. Adelle Hughes, September 2023
Whyte's
Sep. 27, 2023
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) At L'hote's Paris Oil on paper, 51 x 36cm (20 x 14¼) Signed with initials indistinctly Exhibited: Dublin IMMA; Cork Crawford Gallery of Art and Banbridge, F. E McWilliam Gallery, 'Analysing Cubism' tourin
Est: €5,000 - €8,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) At L'hote's Paris Oil on paper, 51 x 36cm (20 x 14¼) Signed with initials indistinctly Exhibited: Dublin IMMA; Cork Crawford Gallery of Art and Banbridge, F. E McWilliam Gallery, 'Analysing Cubism' touring exhibition Literature: Analysing Cubism, illustrated page 33
Adam's
Sep. 27, 2023
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Donegal Gouache, 31.5 x 48.5cm (12½ x 19) Signed Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin
Est: €2,000 - €4,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Donegal Gouache, 31.5 x 48.5cm (12½ x 19) Signed Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin
Adam's
May. 10, 2023
Donegal Stream
Est: €9,000 - €12,000
Norah McGuinness, H.R.H.A. 1901 - 1980 Donegal Stream signed N McGuinness (lower right); titled (on the reverse) oil on canvas unframed: 45.5 by 56cm.; 18 by 22in. framed: 63.5 by 74cm.; 25 by 29in. Executed circa 1967. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Norah McGuinness, H.R.H.A. 1901 - 1980 Donegal Stream signé N McGuinness (en bas a droit); titré (au revers) huile sur toile sans cadre: 45.5 by 56cm.; 18 by 22in. avec cadre: 63.5 by 74cm.; 25 by 29in. Executé vers 1967.
Sotheby's
Apr. 18, 2023
Norah Allison McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Flowers in a Vase (1960)
Est: €6,000 - €9,000
Norah Allison McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Flowers in a Vase (1960) oil on canvas signed and dated 'N McGUINNESS 60' lower right h:46 w:35.70 cm. Provenance: Whyte's, Dublin, 29th February 2016, lot no 50; Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin; Private Collection
Morgan O'Driscoll
Apr. 18, 2023
Norah Allison McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Kells (c.1960)
Est: €1,000 - €1,500
Norah Allison McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Kells (c.1960) mixed media on paper signed 'NMG' lower right and titled h:24 w:17 cm. Provenance: Private Collection A light, fresh sketch of trees and the river Boyne at Kells in Co. Meath, this work on paper sums up Norah McGuinness's ability to capture a scene in a few quick strokes of pen and brush. Probably intended as a preparatory sketch for a painting, it is nonetheless a tightly-contained composition, with the river Boyne at the centre. The colouring is minimal; blue water, green riverbank, brown foliage and a yellow house on the left. Born in Derry, McGuinness trained at the Metropolitan School of Art, and later in Paris, where she studied with André Lhote. Having begun her career as an illustrator, she turned to painting, adopting a semi-Fauvist style that later evolved into a polished version of Cubism. Living in London in the 1930s McGuinness was a member of the avant garde "7 & 5 Society" and also became part of Lucy Wertheim's 'Twenties Group'--also in the group were Kenneth Hall, Elizabeth Rivers, Victor Pasmore, Barbara Hepworth, Roger Hilton and Christopher Wood. Returning to Ireland in 1939, McGuinness continued working as an artist through the war years and was a founding member, and chairman, of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. Peter Murray, March 2023
Morgan O'Driscoll
Apr. 18, 2023
Norah Allison McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) The Black Swan
Est: €15,000 - €25,000
Norah Allison McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) The Black Swan oil on canvas signed 'N McGUINNESS' lower right h:58.50 w:76.30 cm. Provenance: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin (label verso); deVere's, Dublin, 2nd December 2014 lot 9; These Rooms, 14th April 2020 lot 80; Private Collection One of Norah McGuinness's most accomplished landscape paintings, with a semi-abstract composition characterised by straight and diagonal lines, and strong contrasts between light and dark, Black Swan probably dates from the early 1950's. Beneath the high horizon line, a black swan is silhouetted against the white water of an estuary or lake. A second horizontal line marks the boundary between the light waters of the estuary and a dark rocky foreshore. Below this line, in the foreground, the rocks been translated into semi-abstract shapes, outlined in dark brown and black. The centre of the painting is dominated by a pool of water, white, with blue highlights. Black Swan is an essay in colour harmonies, with the browns, ochres, ivories and black enlivened with patches of mauve and blue. Having studied at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin under Patrick Tuohy and Harry Clarke, and also at the Chelsea Polytechnic in London, in 1929 McGuinness travelled to Paris, enrolling at the school of Cubist painter Andre Lhote. She had begun her career as an illustrator, but now turned to painting, adopting a semi-Fauvist style that later evolved into a polished version of Cubism. In the 1930s McGuinness was living in London, and exhibiting at the Wertheim Gallery. When war broke out, she returned to Ireland, and in Dublin, played a leading role in the founding, in 1943, of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. The following year she was elected president of the IELA, a post she occupied until 1970. The IELA represented artists working outside the Academic Realist tradition, and initial exhibitions included Nano Reid, Louis le Brocquy, Mainie Jellett, Patrick Scott and Gerard Dillon. McGuinness liked to travel, visiting India in 1930 (after the break-up of her marriage the previous year), and also spending two years in the United States, between 1937 and 1939. In the 1950s and '60s she travelled in Italy and Portugal. In Dublin, she was noted for her creative window displays for the Brown Thomas department store on Grafton Street. Throughout her career, McGuinness's paintings, based on strong compositions and a confident use of colour, were influenced by what became known as the 'School of Paris'. Peter Murray, March 2023
Morgan O'Driscoll
Apr. 18, 2023
Norah Allison McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) New York Dockland (1948)
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Norah Allison McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) New York Dockland (1948) watercolour on paper signed and dated 'NM Guinness 48' lower right h:43 w:58.50 cm. Provenance: Private Collection
Morgan O'Driscoll
Mar. 14, 2023
Norah McGuinness, Irish 1901-1980 - Moonlight bog landscape; gouache on paper, signed lower rig
Est: £800 - £1,200
Norah McGuinness, Irish 1901-1980 - Moonlight bog landscape; gouache on paper, signed lower right 'N McGuiness', 32.8 x 44.3 cm (ARR)
Roseberys
Mar. 06, 2023
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) SELF-PORTRAIT, 1942
Est: €5,000 - €7,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) SELF-PORTRAIT, 1942 gouache inscribed with artist, title, date and medium on Taylor Galleries exhibition label on reverse h:15 w:18 in. Provenance: Taylor Galleries, Dublin; Private collection Exhibited: Taylor Galleries, Dublin, 9-27 November 1982, catalogue no. 30
Whyte's
Mar. 06, 2023
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) NOVEMBER ON THE LIFFEY, DUBLIN, 1948
Est: €8,000 - €12,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) NOVEMBER ON THE LIFFEY, DUBLIN, 1948 watercolour and gouache signed and dated lower right; titled on Dawson Gallery label on reverse h:17 w:23 in. Provenance: Dawson Gallery, Dublin; Private collection Norah McGuinness was born in Lawrence Hill, County Derry, in 1901 and died in Dún Laoghaire, in south county Dublin in 1980. Having acquired a solid training in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art in 1921, complemented by subsequent accolades and her first exhibition in the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1924, McGuinness later developed her skills abroad, first, in London at the Chelsea Polytechnic. In 1925 she married Wicklow librarian Geoffrey Phibbs (Geoffrey Taylor, the poet) but the marriage broke up in 1929 and she moved to Paris the same year until 1931 to study under André Lhote. In 1943 Norah McGuinness was one of the founding members of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA), of which she later became President, following the death of Mainie Jellett in 1944. She retained her presidency until 1972. In 1950 she was selected alongside Nano Reid to represent Ireland at the Venice Biennale and in 1957 she was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy but resigned in 1969. As an artist McGuinness' technique was in constant flux, frequently absorbing new techniques and assimilating them to suit her own intuitive style. During her long career she found a balance between her design work and her painting and brought influences from each field into the other. Living in London during the 1930s, she exhibited with the London Group and the Seven and Five Society, as well as creating fashion illustrations for Vogue and the Bystander and working in theatre. In 1937 she went to New York where she exhibited her paintings, created illustrations for Harper's Bazaar and designed windows for Altman's department store on Fifth Avenue. While back in Dublin she designed windows for Brown Thomas for over thirty years as well as working as a book illustrator and with the Abbey and Gaiety Theatres. Books she illustrated include Laurence Sternes, A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1925) and titles by W. B. Yeats. Unlike her contemporaries, Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone, who also studied under André Lhote, McGuinness did not fully adopt the Cubist approach but rather fashioned elements of it with a Fauvist appreciation of colour to create her own unique reading of her subject. From the 1940s to 1960s she held her own in the arts scene as evidenced in her recurring and highly successful solo exhibitions with the Victor Waddington Galleries and Dawson Gallery Dublin and the Leicester Gallery, London. A major retrospective of her work took place in the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College Dublin, in 1968 and in 1973 the College awarded her an honorary doctorate.
Whyte's
Mar. 06, 2023
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) HALL TABLE STILL LIFE
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) HALL TABLE STILL LIFE watercolour signed lower right; inscribed [090203] on artist's studio label on reverse h:15.75 w:21.75 in. Provenance: The artist's family by descent; Adam's, 8 December 2009, lot 21; Private collection
Whyte's
Mar. 06, 2023
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) IDA MCGUINNESS, 1930
Est: €4,000 - €6,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) IDA MCGUINNESS, 1930 gouache signed lower right; with Taylor Galleries label on reverse h:19.50 w:12.75 in. Provenance: Taylor Galleries, Dublin; Private collection Exhibited: Taylor Galleries, Dublin, 9-27 November 1982, catalogue no. 6
Whyte's
Mar. 06, 2023
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) COASTAL TOWN BY MOONLIGHT, 1962
Est: €7,000 - €9,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) COASTAL TOWN BY MOONLIGHT, 1962 oil on canvas signed and dated lower right; with newspaper clipping of artist's obituary affixed on reverse h:20 w:28 in. Provenance: Whyte's, 26 September 2016, lot 97; Private collection Norah McGuinness was born in Lawrence Hill, County Derry, in 1901 and died in Dún Laoghaire, in south county Dublin in 1980. Having acquired a solid training in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art in 1921, complemented by subsequent accolades and her first exhibition in the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1924, McGuinness later developed her skills abroad, first, in London at the Chelsea Polytechnic. In 1925 she married Wicklow librarian Geoffrey Phibbs (Geoffrey Taylor, the poet) but the marriage broke up in 1929 and she moved to Paris the same year until 1931 to study under André Lhote. In 1943 Norah McGuinness was one of the founding members of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA), of which she later became President, following the death of Mainie Jellett in 1944. She retained her presidency until 1972. In 1950 she was selected alongside Nano Reid to represent Ireland at the Venice Biennale and in 1957 she was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy but resigned in 1969. As an artist McGuinness' technique was in constant flux, frequently absorbing new techniques and assimilating them to suit her own intuitive style. During her long career she found a balance between her design work and her painting and brought influences from each field into the other. Living in London during the 1930s, she exhibited with the London Group and the Seven and Five Society, as well as creating fashion illustrations for Vogue and the Bystander and working in theatre. In 1937 she went to New York where she exhibited her paintings, created illustrations for Harper's Bazaar and designed windows for Altman's department store on Fifth Avenue. While back in Dublin she designed windows for Brown Thomas for over thirty years as well as working as a book illustrator and with the Abbey and Gaiety Theatres. Books she illustrated include Laurence Sternes, A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1925) and titles by W. B. Yeats. Unlike her contemporaries, Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone, who also studied under André Lhote, McGuinness did not fully adopt the Cubist approach but rather fashioned elements of it with a Fauvist appreciation of colour to create her own unique reading of her subject. From the 1940s to 1960s she held her own in the arts scene as evidenced in her recurring and highly successful solo exhibitions with the Victor Waddington Galleries and Dawson Gallery Dublin and the Leicester Gallery, London. A major retrospective of her work took place in the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College Dublin, in 1968 and in 1973 the College awarded her an honorary doctorate.
Whyte's
Mar. 06, 2023
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) FIGURE IN A LANDSCAPE
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) FIGURE IN A LANDSCAPE watercolour signed with initials lower right h:11 w:13.50 in.
Whyte's
Mar. 06, 2023
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) THE GARDEN, ROCKBROOK
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) THE GARDEN, ROCKBROOK watercolour and gouache signed lower right; inscribed [090204] on artist's studio label on reverse h:10.50 w:15 in. Provenance: The artist's family by descent; Adam's, 8 December 2009, lot 22; Private collection Rockbrook, Co. Sligo was the ancestral home of the artist's husband, Geoffrey Basil Phibbs. They were divorced in 1930.
Whyte's
Dec. 07, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 - 1980) The Red Bog Oil on canvas, 51 x 76cm (20 x 30) Signed and dated (19)67
Est: €15,000 - €25,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 - 1980) The Red Bog Oil on canvas, 51 x 76cm (20 x 30) Signed and dated (19)67
Adam's
Dec. 07, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Country Landscape Watercolour, 41 x 55cm (16¼ x 21¾'') Signed and dated 1946
Est: €5,000 - €7,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Country Landscape Watercolour, 41 x 55cm (16¼ x 21¾'') Signed and dated 1946
Adam's
Dec. 07, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) On a Full Tide Watercolour and gouache, 35 x 48cm (13¾ x 19'') Signed and dated (19)'38 Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin, label verso.
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) On a Full Tide Watercolour and gouache, 35 x 48cm (13¾ x 19'') Signed and dated (19)'38 Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin, label verso.
Adam's
Dec. 07, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Curlew Oil on canvas, 45 x 56cm (17¾ x 22) Signed Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, label verso. Collection of the late President Erskine Childers; thence by descent
Est: €12,000 - €16,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Curlew Oil on canvas, 45 x 56cm (17¾ x 22) Signed Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, label verso. Collection of the late President Erskine Childers; thence by descent
Adam's
Nov. 28, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) BOG, COTTON AND HEATHER
Est: €10,000 - €15,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) BOG, COTTON AND HEATHER oil on canvas signed lower right; with Dawson Gallery label on reverse h:16 w:20 in. Provenance: Dawson Gallery, Dublin; Private collection
Whyte's
Sep. 28, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 - 1980) Days End on Dublin Bay Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 122 (35¾ x 48) Signed Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin, label verso Norah McGuinness was one of a number of remarkable women who, in essence,
Est: €30,000 - €40,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 - 1980) Days End on Dublin Bay Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 122 (35¾ x 48) Signed Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin, label verso Norah McGuinness was one of a number of remarkable women who, in essence, transformed Irish art in the first half of the 20th century. They did so not only on the basis of gender, though they certainly did secure a central role for women in the Irish visual arts, but also their varied though unmistakable commitment to aspects of modernism - and modernity. Born in Derry, McGuinness was from early on a notably independent spirit (her family disapproved of her art studies, but she quickly became financially self-sufficient). A three-year scholarship brought her to the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, where Harry Clarke, who became a good friend, saw her potential and nudged her towards illustration. She proved to be a fine illustrator, but her sights were set on painting, and after enjoying a year studying in London, a year that opened her eyes to the possibilities of contemporary painting, she established herself in Wicklow; painting, illustrating and doing stage and costume designs for the Abbey and the Peacock. She also married the flighty literary figure Geoffrey Phibbs (later Geoffrey Taylor), hence finding herself an unwitting participant in the emotional melodrama of his involvement with the ménage à trios comprising Laura Riding, Robert Graves and Nancy Nicholson, initiating a scandal that inevitably ended their marriage in 1930 (when she rebuffed Phibbss attempt at reconciliation). Mainie Jellett had encouraged her to study Cubism with André Lhote, which she did. Technically adept, she easily accommodated elements of Cubism in her own work, warming to Braque particularly, but also to the Post-Impressionism of Raoul Dufy and the Fauvism of Maurice de Vlaminck. After time in Paris, London and New York she settled in Dublin. Productive as an artist, she also designed window displays for Brown Thomas and was a founder-member of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, serving as chair for many years. She and Nano Reid were the first Irish artists to represent Ireland at the Venice Biennale, in 1950. This audaciously spare work featuring a landmark location encapsulates her flair for pictorial design in a composition hinging on a dynamic arrangement of interlocking planes and forms, a beautifully engineered light-and-dark tonal scheme and a minimal palette of black and white plus mauve-greys and yellows (and steering clear of her customary greens and browns). She had, over the years, become expert at implying a wealth of detail with elegant economy of means. Aidan Dunne, August 2022
Adam's
Sep. 28, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 1980) Waterfall in the Woods Watercolour, 30 x 40cm (11¾ x 15¾) Signed and dated (19)42 Provenance: Sold, Christies, South Kensington , 17th May, 2001 (lot 376)
Est: €2,000 - €4,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 1980) Waterfall in the Woods Watercolour, 30 x 40cm (11¾ x 15¾) Signed and dated (19)42 Provenance: Sold, Christies, South Kensington , 17th May, 2001 (lot 376)
Adam's
Sep. 28, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Bar Scene Ink and wash, 24.5 x 20cm (9¾ x 7½) Signed
Est: €400 - €600
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Bar Scene Ink and wash, 24.5 x 20cm (9¾ x 7½) Signed
Adam's
Sep. 28, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Country Life Ink and watercolour, 24 x 36cm (9½ x 14¼) Signed
Est: €700 - €1,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Country Life Ink and watercolour, 24 x 36cm (9½ x 14¼) Signed
Adam's
Sep. 28, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 - 1980) Waterweeds Oil on canvas, 122 x 91.5cm (48 x 35¾) Signed; inscribed with title and dated 1968 verso Though this Norah McGuinness painting is clearly of water, weeds and three ducks, its brilliance belo
Est: €30,000 - €40,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 - 1980) Waterweeds Oil on canvas, 122 x 91.5cm (48 x 35¾) Signed; inscribed with title and dated 1968 verso Though this Norah McGuinness painting is clearly of water, weeds and three ducks, its brilliance belongs to its handling of colour and its structure and composition which includes abstract as well as representational qualities. In Waterweeds, the subject matter is familiar but there is nothing everyday about this stunningly beautiful work. Dated, verso, 1968, McGuinness painted this when she was sixty-seven. Her palette frequently features blues and greens and browns, her subject matter favoured landscape, shorelines, bogland and in well-known works such as her early 1930s painting, The Thames, browns predominate, Garden Green, dated 1962, celebrates several shades of green and Flight, also from 1962, contains different and harmonious blues. Waterweeds not only combines all three of these strong colours but, unusual for McGuinness, the chosen shape here is portrait not landscape and the focus is close-up. Many of McGuinnesss shorescape and landscapes are broad in scope and are bright, light-filled works. This painting has a unique atmosphere and depth. At the centre of the painting, a pair of ducks, behind them a solitary one. They could be, they look like, common male scooter ducks with their black plumage but McGuinness is more interested in capturing their quiet lives rather than offering an ornithological study. Using blocks of colour the water is patterned and the decorative ovoid-like shapes in dark purplebrown and pale green on the water could represent nesting spots. Her strong lines and bold colours resemble stained glass. The varying and speckled tall, strong, green weeds on the right, asymmetrical and striking, add a luxuriantly lush detail. They reach upwards and McGuinness paints some stalks reaching beyond the edge of the painting. Their powerful presence gives the painting its title. The varying brown shape that dominates the top third of Waterweeds could be a stylised shoreline with small pools of water reflecting the sky Clearly non-representational, what matters is its striking effect, contrasting as it does with the expanse of blue water and those touches of white pick up on the whites in the floating stylised shape lower down as does the use of white at the very top of the painting. This aspect of Waterweeds, with its irregular blue shapes and patches of white and the bold lines, give the painting an abstract quality. At the very top of the canvas the light grey suggests something beyond. Though every detail is not always recognisable in this Cubist influenced work, this does not prevent the work from being a magnificent mood piece. Cubism allows for different perspectives and what McGuinnes achieves here is in keeping with McGuinnesss view that Cubism gets rids of things that are not essential. It is a great simplifying aid and I think in that way its influence is apparent in my work as part of an overall simplification process [quoted by Karen E. Brown in her essay Norah McGuinness, W.B. Yeats and the Illustrated Book] Born in Derry in 1901, McGuinness, against her familys wishes, chose art and, aged eighteen, attended the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art where she studied under Patrick Tuohy, Oswald Reeves and Harry Clarke and, later, with André Lhote in Paris. In 1923 she was awarded an RDS gold medal and exhibited for the first time at the RHA in 1924. She lived in London and New York her paintings New York Skyline and East River date from that time and when she returned to Dublin, in 1937, she worked as a book illustrator, illustrating books by, among others, Laurence Sterne, W.B. Yeats, Elizabeth Bowen and Maria Edgeworth. McGuinness also worked for Vogue and Harpers Bazaar and inspired by Salvador Dali, who did a window design for Bonwit Telller on Fifth Avenue, she got herself a job designing and dressing New York windows. On returning to Dublin McGuinness decorated Brown Thomas windows for over twenty years. She also designed theatre sets and costumes for Abbey and Peacock productions. In 1950 she and Nano Reid represented Ireland, when Ireland participated in the Venice Biennale for the first time. Her work is held in many important collections including The National Gallery of Ireland, IMMA, the Hugh Lane, the Ulster Museum and the Crawford Gallery. Niall MacMonagle, August 2022
Adam's
Sep. 26, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) BLACK SEAWEED, 1969
Est: €10,000 - €15,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) BLACK SEAWEED, 1969 oil on canvas signed with initials lower right; titled and dated on reverse h:18 w:26 in. During the late 1950s Norah McGuinness had returned to live in Ireland and resided at a cottage in the Dublin Mountains. It was from this location she would travel to the shores of Sandymount Strand to paint scenes such as the present work. Black Seaweed, 1969 is typical of her work at this time and brings together a number of recurring elements in her work in both subject, colour tone and technique. Having been formally trained at the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin, the Chelsea Polytechnic, London, and on Mainie Jellett's advice, under André l'Hôte in Paris, McGuinness, who was originally from Derry, proved to be a rounded, well travelled and informed artist at this point in her career. The present works brims with this confidence from the fluid brushwork to the carefully constructed perspective. The lozenge shaped pools of water - also a familiar motif - lend a romantic quality to the work while the upright rocks anchor the composition and link its different elements together. McGuinness expertly uses dashes of white in her palette to 'lift' the canvas and create movement through the composition from the swirling pools to the bright bills of what appear to be three oystercatchers. The black outlines lend a textile quality and a theatricality to the present work which is unsurprising given the artist's expertise in these disciplines. McGuinness created illustrations for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar and designed windows for Altman's department store on Fifth Avenue, New York as well as for Brown Thomas in Dublin. A major retrospective exhibition of the artist's work was held in Trinity College in Dublin in 1968 and the show travelled to the Crawford in Cork and later Brooke Park Gallery in Londonderry in 1969 the year Blackseaweed was painted. Adelle Hughes, August 2022
Whyte's
Sep. 26, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) KITTIWAKES, DUNMORE, COUNTY WATERFORD
Est: €20,000 - €30,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) KITTIWAKES, DUNMORE, COUNTY WATERFORD oil on canvas titled on reverse; also with artist's studio label and Irish Exhibition of Living Art label on reverse h:18 w:24 in. Provenance: Family of the artist; Thence by descent; Adam's, 5 December 2006, lot 99; Private collection Exhibited: 'Irish Exhibition of Living Art' ,1948, catalogue no. 3 Norah McGuinness visited County Waterford numerous times during her life and frequently stayed with her artist friend Joan Jameson (1892-1953). Jameson was born in London - the eldest daughter of Sir Richard John Musgrave, 5th Baronet - and studied in Paris, at the Académie Julian. In 1920 she married Tom Jameson of Rock House, Ardmore, County Waterford and together they relocated from London to Tourin, Waterford in 1929 and were part of a large social and artistic network of the time which included McGuinness. A record of her time spent in Waterford in Jameson's home vividly captures her enthusiasm for the county's landscape, "Norah often stayed at Rock House. Working with immediate perception of all that Ardmore showed her, she filled notebooks with charcoal, pencil and watercolour sketches; no passing cloud or sun-hot rock went unnoticed; these records formed the basis for some of her best paintings. She worked with delight and energy, seeing the bones of her picture develop. An early riser, she was out every summer morning for a swim off the Boatcove. Hardly out of the water and dry before her eye had seen and retained some angle of a gull's flight or the structural perfection of a pile of lobster pots. "(1) It was perhaps on one of these trips that McGuinness ventured further along the coastline to the fishery port of Dunmore East which lies at the mouth of Waterford Harbour. The area boasts three main Kittiwake colonies, the Outer Harbour being the largest where the birds can be viewed from a number of vantage points at Badger's Cove and Men's Cove. It is possible that one of these locations was the inspiration for the present work. McGuinness was evidently pleased with the oil which she submitted to the Irish Exhibition of Living Art for exhibition in 1948. She was a founding member of the IELA five years previous alongside Mainie Jellett, Evie Hone, Fr Jack Hanlon, Louis le Brocquy and Margaret Clarke, having been conceived as an annual forum for those artists whose work was considered too Modernist for the more traditional venues such as the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA). Contemporary critics at this juncture in her career described her work as "'At its best... forthright, spontaneous and dramatic" (Dublin Magazine, 1949) while on the occasion of her first solo exhibition at the Leicester Galleries, The Studio spoke of, "courage, coupled with hidden knowledge, a looseness of technique completely free of sloppiness and a richness of colour unusual in its mature balance". Two years after Kittiwakes, Dunmore was painted, this progressive artist, together with Nano Reid were the first Irish artists chosen to represent Ireland at the Venice Biennale. Both female, Modernist and pioneering, this was a significant choice by the fledgling Republic to showcase their country on an international stage. Adelle Hughes, August 2022 Footnote: 1 https://www.waterfordmuseum.ie/exhibit/web/Display/article/331/3/The_Ardmore_Journal_Joan_Jameson__Norah_McGuinness__Two_Painters_In_Ardmore.html
Whyte's
Sep. 21, 2022
Nora (Norah) McGuinness (1901 - 1980) Irish
Est: $800 - $1,500
Nora (Norah) McGuinness (1901 - 1980) Gouache on Paper , Signed , measures 7" x 10" , w/ 14.5 " x 16"
Cutler Bay Auctions
Jul. 27, 2022
Nora (Norah) McGuinness (1901 - 1980) Irish
Est: $1,000 - $2,000
Nora (Norah) McGuinness (1901 - 1980) Gouache on Paper , Signed , measures 7" x 10" , w/ 14.5 " x 16"
Cutler Bay Auctions
Jun. 06, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) COASTAL TOWN BY MOONLIGHT, 1962
Est: €10,000 - €15,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) COASTAL TOWN BY MOONLIGHT, 1962 oil on canvas signed and dated lower right; with newspaper clipping of artist's obituary affixed on reverse h:20 w:28 in. Provenance: Whyte's, 26 September 2016, lot 97; Private collection Norah McGuinness was born in Lawrence Hill, County Derry, in 1901 and died in Dún Laoghaire, in south county Dublin in 1980. Having acquired a solid training in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art in 1921, complemented by subsequent accolades and her first exhibition in the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1924, McGuinness later developed her skills abroad, first, in London at the Chelsea Polytechnic. In 1925 she married Wicklow librarian Geoffrey Phibbs (Geoffrey Taylor, the poet) but the marriage broke up in 1929 and she moved to Paris the same year until 1931 to study under André Lhote. In 1943 Norah McGuinness was one of the founding members of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA), of which she later became President, following the death of Mainie Jellett in 1944. She retained her presidency until 1972. In 1950 she was selected alongside Nano Reid to represent Ireland at the Venice Biennale and in 1957 she was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy but resigned in 1969. As an artist McGuinness' technique was in constant flux, frequently absorbing new techniques and assimilating them to suit her own intuitive style. During her long career she found a balance between her design work and her painting and brought influences from each field into the other. Living in London during the 1930s, she exhibited with the London Group and the Seven and Five Society, as well as creating fashion illustrations for Vogue and the Bystander and working in theatre. In 1937 she went to New York where she exhibited her paintings, created illustrations for Harper's Bazaar and designed windows for Altman's department store on Fifth Avenue. While back in Dublin she designed windows for Brown Thomas for over thirty years as well as working as a book illustrator and with the Abbey and Gaiety Theatres. Books she illustrated include Laurence Sternes, A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1925) and titles by W. B. Yeats. Unlike her contemporaries, Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone, who also studied under André Lhote, McGuinness did not fully adopt the Cubist approach but rather fashioned elements of it with a Fauvist appreciation of colour to create her own unique reading of her subject. From the 1940s to 1960s she held her own in the arts scene as evidenced in her recurring and highly successful solo exhibitions with the Victor Waddington Galleries and Dawson Gallery Dublin and the Leicester Gallery, London. A major retrospective of her work took place in the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College Dublin, in 1968 and in 1973 the College awarded her an honorary doctorate.
Whyte's
Jun. 06, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) RED CASTLE, PORTSTEWART, 1945
Est: €7,000 - €10,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) RED CASTLE, PORTSTEWART, 1945 oil on canvas signed and dated lower right; signed, titled, dated and with Associated American Artists label on reverse h:15 w:20 in. Provenance: Gift from a former AAA gallery director to an employee upon her marriage; Thence by descent; Skinner, USA, 7 February 2013, lot 551; Private collection
Whyte's
Jun. 01, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Model in L'Hote's Studio Oil on canvas, 45 x 60.5cm (18 x 24'') Provenance: With Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin.
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Model in L'Hote's Studio Oil on canvas, 45 x 60.5cm (18 x 24'') Provenance: With Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin.
Adam's
Jun. 01, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Country Landscape Watercolour, 41 x 55cm (16¼ x 21¾'') Signed and dated 1946
Est: €4,000 - €6,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Country Landscape Watercolour, 41 x 55cm (16¼ x 21¾'') Signed and dated 1946
Adam's
Apr. 26, 2022
Norah Allison McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Crete
Est: €800 - €1,200
Norah Allison McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) Crete mixed media on paper titled with studio stamp lower right h:21 w:30 cm. Provenance: Private Collection
Morgan O'Driscoll
Mar. 30, 2022
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) The Coastguard Station Gouache, 35 x 49cm (13¾ x 19¼'') Signed with initials and impressed studio stamp Provenance: The artist's studio; sale, these rooms, 1/10/2008, lot no.17. Private Collection.
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980) The Coastguard Station Gouache, 35 x 49cm (13¾ x 19¼'') Signed with initials and impressed studio stamp Provenance: The artist's studio; sale, these rooms, 1/10/2008, lot no.17. Private Collection.
Adam's