Edward McGuire Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Edward McGuire Art Value Price Guide

Jun. 11, 2024
Edward McGuire,
Est: £600 - £800
Edward McGuire, Irish 1932-1986 - Long eared Owl, 1971; watercolour on paper, signed with initials and dated lower right 'E.M. 71', 20.4 x 28.6 cm (ARR) Note: McGuire's work is held in the collections of the Ulster Museum, the National Gallery of Ireland, the Crawford Gallery, the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery and the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Roseberys
Dec. 06, 2023
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) Pearse Hutchinson Oil on canvas, 132 x 107cm (52 x 42) Signed and dated 1970 Provenance: Collection of John and Harden Jay; Private Collection, Dublin Literature: Brian Fallon and others, Edward McGuire p86,
Est: €15,000 - €25,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) Pearse Hutchinson Oil on canvas, 132 x 107cm (52 x 42) Signed and dated 1970 Provenance: Collection of John and Harden Jay; Private Collection, Dublin Literature: Brian Fallon and others, Edward McGuire p86, full page illustration, p.87, catalogue raisonne no. 45. Exhibited: Dublin, David Hendrick's Gallery, Claddagh Records' Group Exhibition 1970, cat. no. 24 Irish Exhibition of Living Art 1971, cat. no. 45; Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery The Irish Imagination, 1971, cat. no. 15 (also shown in Washington DC, Philadelphia and Boston) Artist's Choice, Ulster Museum, 1973, cat. no. 6, 6th Festival International, Cagnes-sur-Mer 1974, diploma award; Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, EnVisage: The Face in Contemporary Art, 9th October 2001 - 21st April 2002. This work featured in the 1977 RTE documentary on Edward McGuire. This work was on loan to the Irish Museum of Modern Art from 1993 to October 2008. A superb example of Edward McGuires portraiture at its finest, painted at the beginning of a decade in which he completed likenesses of a succession of major Irish literary figures, including Julia OFaolain, Michael Hartnett, Seamus Heaney, Anthony Cronin, Francis Stuart and Paul Durcan. Born in Glasgow to Irish parents who returned to Ireland and settled in Dublin when he was five years old, Pearse Hutchinson attended Synge St and studied Italian and Spanish at UCD. A friend of John Jordan, he was one of the mid-century Irish literary set and became a fixture in Irish cultural life. But there remained something elusive, even fugitive about him. The word unconventional has been used in relation to his talent and fortunes - although he occupied an academic position for a time, he was too restless a spirit to pursue a career as such. That restlessness led to travels and sojourns in Europe, especially Spain, and extended to a linguistic restlessness: he was enamoured of languages and liked to lose himself in the possibilities they opened up. That included his native tongue, for he also wrote in Irish, feeling able to express himself more directly in the language. And he was an enthusiastic translator. By the time he painted Hutchinsons portrait, McGuire was fully mature as an artist. To some extent he had to emerge from his fathers shadow: Edward McGuire senior was a high-profile public figure, a sportsman, senator and businessman (who owned Brown Thomas). His son, surviving the challenges of childhood infirmities, came late to art. Enthused by the painters of the Florentine Renaissance, he eventually developed a meticulous, highly realistic mode of painting, at some remove from the Post-Impressionism his father, who also painted, favoured. McGuires studio (its contents now in IMMA) was like a laboratory. Working from precise preparatory drawings he made his highly distinctive paintings there with the aid of an elaborate colour dictionary, many years in the devising. This extraordinary colour recipe book provided him with the formulae for a vast range of tonal colours: rather than shading colour with black or white, he drew on an exactly prescribed mixture of colours, often complementaries, to produce the desired tonality. This painstaking method largely accounts for the exceptionally lustrous, rich quality of his paint surfaces. His painting have all the impact of, especially, Northern Renaissance portraiture, while being thoroughly modern. Aidan Dunne, November 2023
Adam's
May. 31, 2023
***WITHDRAWN***Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) Paddy Moloney (Piper) Oil on board, 82 x 61cm (32¼ x 24) Signed with initials and dated 82; signed, inscribed and dated 1982 verso Provenance: Sale, these rooms, where purchased by the present ow
Est: €20,000 - €30,000
***WITHDRAWN***Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) Paddy Moloney (Piper) Oil on board, 82 x 61cm (32¼ x 24) Signed with initials and dated 82; signed, inscribed and dated 1982 verso Provenance: Sale, these rooms, where purchased by the present owners Paddy Moloney was a legendary musician, composer, and founder of the traditional Irish music group, The Chieftains. Born on August 1, 1938, in Donnycarney, Dublin, Moloney began his musical journey at a young age when he learned to play the tin whistle, flute, and uilleann pipes. Moloneys passion for traditional Irish music led him to form The Chieftains in 1962 with a group of talented musicians who shared his love for the genre. Initially, the band played in local pubs and clubs, but soon gained a reputation for their unique sound and exceptional musicianship. In 1968 and having recorded a number of albums with The Chieftains, Paddy decided to work full time in the music industry initially as the Managing Director of the Hon. Garech Brownes Claddagh Records. He ran the label for seven years until 1975 during which time he helped to develop Claddaghs catalogue and also a market for it. During this time he also produced, co-produced or supervised 45 albums for the Claddagh label in folk, traditional, classical, poetry and spoken word recordings. Over the years, The Chieftains went on to become one of the most successful and influential traditional Irish bands of all time. With Moloney at the helm, they released more than 40 albums, collaborated with artists from various genres, and won multiple Grammy awards. He also played a key role in the revival of the uilleann pipes, an Irish bagpipe instrument that was on the brink of extinction in the mid-20th century. Despite his success, Moloney remained humble and dedicated himself to preserving traditional Irish music for future generations. He inspired countless musicians around the world with his innovative approach to traditional music. In addition to his work with The Chieftains, Moloney has also composed music for films, including Barry Lyndon and The Grey Fox. In recognition of his contributions to music, Moloney was honoured with numerous awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Music Rights Organization and the National Concert Hall Lifetime Achievement Award. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin in 2019. Paddy Moloney died in October 2021.
Adam's
Apr. 18, 2023
Edward McGuire (1932-1986) Self-Portrait (1985)
Est: €1,000 - €1,500
Edward McGuire (1932-1986) Self-Portrait (1985) pen and ink on paper signed and dated 'Edward 1985' h:26 w:11 cm. Provenance: Private Collection
Morgan O'Driscoll
Mar. 01, 2023
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) John Jordan (1982) Oil on board, 60 x 44cm (23½ x 17¼) Signed with initials and dated (19)82 Also signed, inscribed and dated verso Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC John J
Est: €6,000 - €8,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) John Jordan (1982) Oil on board, 60 x 44cm (23½ x 17¼) Signed with initials and dated (19)82 Also signed, inscribed and dated verso Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC John Jordan, the poet, critic and short-story writer was born in Dublin in 1930 and was educated at Synge Street CBS, University College Dublin and Pembroke College, Oxford. He taught at UCD, Memorial University in Newfoundland and at Princeton. A member of Aosda?a, Jordan was described by MacDara Woods of Poetry Ireland When John Jordan died in 1988 he had forty years of literary endeavour and achievement behind him as editor, critic, story-teller, and poet, and as academic, broadcaster, and man of the Theatre. And the very variety of the disciplines makes it hard to achieve a clear view of any one of them: when you focus on any one thing another stands out.
Adam's
Mar. 01, 2023
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Dead Cat (1984) Oil on board, 60 x 90cm (23½ x 35½) Signed with initials and dated (19)'84 Also signed, inscribed and dated verso Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC Not just any dead cat
Est: €5,000 - €8,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Dead Cat (1984) Oil on board, 60 x 90cm (23½ x 35½) Signed with initials and dated (19)'84 Also signed, inscribed and dated verso Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC McGuire found this mummified feline in an old dairy on a farm in Co. Wicklow in 1980. There is a strong resemblance to the famous remains of Dublin’s Christchurch Cathedral cat who, in the 1850s, when chasing a rat, got caught in an organ pipe and being stuck, eventually died and became desiccated. The two animals were discovered when the organ was being restored and are now preserved, under glass, in the Crypt. In literature they appear as a simile in James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake when someone is described as being “…. as stuck as that cat to that mouse in that tube of that Christchurch organ ….”.
Adam's
Mar. 01, 2023
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Paul Durcan (1981) Oil on board, 39 x 29.5cm (15¼ x 11½) Signed with initials and dated (19)81 Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC Born in 1944, the contemporary poet, Paul Durcan w
Est: €4,000 - €6,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Paul Durcan (1981) Oil on board, 39 x 29.5cm (15¼ x 11½) Signed with initials and dated (19)81 Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC Born in 1944, the contemporary poet, Paul Durcan was born and grew up in Dublin and in Co. Mayo. Through his mother, Sheila MacBride Durcan, he is a great-nephew of both Maud Gonne and John MacBride, thus cousin of Sean MacBride. He studied law and economics at University College Dublin and after a hiatus due to ill-health he resumed his academic studies at UCC, studying Archaeology and Medieval History. A prolific, distinguished and popular poet, Durcans Daddy, Daddy (1990) was awarded the Whitbread Book Award for poetry and was joint winner of the 1995 Heinemann Award, among other important awards. Paul Durcan lives in Dublin.
Adam's
Mar. 01, 2023
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Sidney Bernard Smith (1983) Oil on board, 60 x 44cm (23½ x 17¼) Signed with initials and dated (19)83; also signed, inscribed and dated verso Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC Syd
Est: €4,000 - €6,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Sidney Bernard Smith (1983) Oil on board, 60 x 44cm (23½ x 17¼) Signed with initials and dated (19)83; also signed, inscribed and dated verso Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC Sydney Smith, the poet, dramatist, actor and novelist, was born in 1936 in Glasgow, the son of a Scottish father and a Co. Clare mother. He was brought up in Portstewart, on the north Derry coast and educated at Clongowes Wood College, Queens College, Oxford, and the University of Iowa. He worked as a teacher at his alma mater, Clongowes, and at Sandymount High School but also in Germany, Spain and the United States. A prolific poet he also wrote twelve plays, including How to Roast a Strasbourg Goose published in 1985. That same year he was listed by The Irish Times as one of the 100 key names in Irish literature. He died from cancer in 2008.
Adam's
Mar. 01, 2023
***THIS LOT IS WITHDRAWN***Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Dr. Sean MacBride (1984) Oil on board, 80 x 60cm (32 x 34) Signed with initials and dated 1984 Also signed, inscribed and dated verso Provenance: From the Collection of
Est: €8,000 - €12,000
***THIS LOT IS WITHDRAWN***Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Dr. Sean MacBride (1984) Oil on board, 80 x 60cm (32 x 34) Signed with initials and dated 1984 Also signed, inscribed and dated verso Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC
Adam's
Mar. 01, 2023
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Dr. Sean MacBride (1984) Pencil, 29 x 20cm (11½ x 8) Signed with initials, inscribed and dated 1984 Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC
Est: €400 - €600
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Dr. Sean MacBride (1984) Pencil, 29 x 20cm (11½ x 8) Signed with initials, inscribed and dated 1984 Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC
Adam's
Mar. 01, 2023
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Dr. Sean MacBride (1984) Oil on canvas, 35 x 25cm (13¾ x 9¾) Signed with initials Also signed, inscribed and dated 1984 verso Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC Nobel laureate, Se
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Dr. Sean MacBride (1984) Oil on canvas, 35 x 25cm (13¾ x 9¾) Signed with initials Also signed, inscribed and dated 1984 verso Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC Nobel laureate, Sean MacBride was born in Paris in 1904, the son of Major John MacBride and Maud Gonne. He remained in Paris until his fathers execution by the British for his involvement in the 1916 Rising. Returning to Ireland he was educated at Mount St. Benedicts in Wexford, and also briefly at Downside in Somerset. Later Chief of Staff of the IRA, he founded and led Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965, and served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951. Rising from a domestic Irish political career, he participated in many international organisations including the United Nations, the Council of Europe and Amnesty International. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974, the Lenin Peace Prize the following year and the UNESCO Silver Medal for Service in 1980. He died in 1988.
Adam's
Mar. 01, 2023
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Patrick Collins RHA (1983) Oil on board, 60 x 44cm (23½ x 17¼) Signed with initials and dated (19)83 Also signed, inscribed and dated verso Provenance: With Taylor Galleries, Dublin, label verso. From the Col
Est: €5,000 - €7,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Patrick Collins RHA (1983) Oil on board, 60 x 44cm (23½ x 17¼) Signed with initials and dated (19)83 Also signed, inscribed and dated verso Provenance: With Taylor Galleries, Dublin, label verso. From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC Born in Co Sligo in 1910, Collins was educated locally at the Mercy Convent and the Model School at Summerhill College. His childhood experiences of the countryside engendered a love of nature which was to be a vital source of inspiration for his painting. Though he attended classes at the National College of Art, he was largely self-taught, and by the mid 1940s he was working full-time as a painter. In 1950 Collins exhibited his work in public for the first time at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. His work was first exhibited in the RHA in 1962 and he continued to exhibit there until 1979. He showed regularly at the Oireachtas exhibitions from 1964 to 1973, winning the Irish landscape prize in 1971. He became a member of Aosdána in 1981 and was elected Saoi in 1987, the highest distinction in the arts in Ireland.
Adam's
Mar. 01, 2023
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Brian Fallon (1983) Oil on board, 60 x 44cm (23½ X 17¼) Signed with initials and dated 1983 Also signed, inscribed and dated verso Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC Brian Fa
Est: €6,000 - €8,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932 - 1986) Brian Fallon (1983) Oil on board, 60 x 44cm (23½ X 17¼) Signed with initials and dated 1983 Also signed, inscribed and dated verso Provenance: From the Collection of Patrick MacEntee SC Brian Fallon was born in 1933 and remains one of Irelands foremost art critics. From Cootehill in Co. Cavan the second son of the poet Padraic Fallon, he was educated at St Peters College, Wexford, and at Trinity College, Dublin. He was Chief Critic of The Irish Times for 35 years and its Literary Editor for 11 years (1977 to 1988). He has written numerous books on Irish art, most notably Irish Art 1830-1990, published by Appletree Press. He has also written monographs and contributions on artists Patrick Swift, Tony OMalley, Imogen Stuart, Charles Tyrrell, Martin Gale and Sean McSweeney. His 1991 book on Edward McGuire was published by Irish Academic Press and he is a frequent contributor to the Irish Arts Review.
Adam's
Jun. 01, 2022
*Edward McGuire (1932-1986) Michael Longley Oil on board, 40.5 x 30.5 (16 x 12) Signed with initials; signed, inscribed and dated 1983 verso Provenance: Taylor Galleries Label verso Painted in 1983, this is forty-four-year old poet Mic
Est: €6,000 - €10,000
*Edward McGuire (1932-1986) Michael Longley Oil on board, 40.5 x 30.5 (16 x 12) Signed with initials; signed, inscribed and dated 1983 verso Provenance: Taylor Galleries Label verso Painted in 1983, this is forty-four-year old poet Michael Longley and, unusually, for an Edward McGuire portrait, the focus in entirely on the figure. McGuire almost always included a background that featured windows, doors, shelves, foliage, birds but the background in this instance is a muted abstract mixture of brown and grey and blue. Longleys brown shirt and trousers and dark navy-blue jacket suggest a sombre tone. A neatly-combed and bearded Longley looks over the viewers left shoulder with an expression that is both calm and serious. This portrait of a contemplative, relaxed but alert poet was greatly appreciated by the sitter and in a letter written on Christmas Day, 1990, Longley wrote to Sally McGuire, McGuires widow, to say how he appreciates more and more that I am one of his subjects adding that McGuire was a superb painter and interpreter of human personality: a great man. He also noted that Eddie painted my eyes blue instead of brown! And in a couple of boozy phone calls refused to admit the mistake though, sober, he promised to rectify the error. Now, I wouldnt want the picture any other way the only portrait is one in which I have blue eyes! Longley in a poem called Sitting for Eddie in memory of Edward McGuire tells us that he had suggested a spray of beech leaves or a frieze of birds or a single carline-thistle for background but none of them made it into the painting. During the sittings Longley listened to jazz and watched in an enormous magnifying/ Glass our eyes out of all proportion: an artist looking at a poet; a poet looking at an artist. That McGuire got the eye colour wrong, and never changed it, is intriguing. Niall MacMonagle April 2022
Adam's
Jun. 01, 2022
*Edward McGuire (1932-1986) Michael Hartnett Oil on canvas, 76 x 61cm (30 x 24) Signed Provenance: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, USA, label verso. Exhibited: Irish Imagination, ROSC 1971, Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; Irish Imagination
Est: €25,000 - €35,000
*Edward McGuire (1932-1986) Michael Hartnett Oil on canvas, 76 x 61cm (30 x 24) Signed Provenance: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, USA, label verso. Exhibited: Irish Imagination, ROSC 1971, Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; Irish Imagination, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, Oct 20 - Nov 19, 1972, catalogue no. 42. Edward McGuire, according to Brian Fallon, was not only the finest portrait painter of his generation but possibly the finest portraitist since John Butler Yeats. Born in Dublin in 1932, to affluent parents, McGuire was unwell as a boy. A heart murmur meant he was educated at home by a private tutor. Then, aged twelve he went to St Conleths in Clyde Road and two years later he attended Downside School in Somerset run by the Benedictine order. McGuire left school in 1950, visited Italy with his father, a business man and amateur artist, and on seeing Italian art first hand he was determined to become an artist. In 1951 McGuire studied in Rome where he took lessons from Pietro Annigoni, whose 1950 portrait of Queen Elizabeth II had been highly praised. He also spent time in Florence and Positano. McGuire briefly joined his fathers successful business but it was not for him and in 1954, McGuire, though he found institutions challenging, enrolled at the Slade where Lucian Freud was one of his teachers. The story goes that Freud told McGuire that he would be better and happier painting alone. McGuire returned to Dublin and then spent a year living simply, in a small cottage with no running water, on Aranmore, the largest of the Aran Islands. That year, he collected sheep bones, skulls especially, and drew them and by doing so he understood and mastered bone structure. Back in Dublin he set up studio, first in the family home, and then on Leeson Street where he lived from 1959 to 1966. McGuires studios were always obsessively neat and tidy; one such studio was, according to Brian Fallon, as unwelcoming as a dentists surgery. Best known for his portraits of literary figures, including Patrick Kavanagh, Paul Durcan, Seamus Heaney, Anthony Cronin, John Montague, Francis Stuart and this one, from 1971, of Michael Hartnett. The Hartnett portrait was included in the Irish Imagination exhibition which was part of the 1971 Rosc Exhibition in Dublin and later travelled to America where an American buyer purchased it and where it has been ever since. This exceptional work, in private hands for fifty years, is now available again. For admirers of both McGuire and Hartnett, for discerning art collectors, here is a wonderful and unique opportunity. This classic McGuire work shows a thirty-year-old Hartnett by which time Hartnett had published Poems 1958-1970, Secular Prayers, Anatomy of a Cliché, Thirteen Sonnets and Notes on My Contemporaries. Hartnett, born 1941 in Croom Co Limerick, was educated locally and at UCD. He worked for a while as curator of Joyces tower at Sandycove, lived in Madrid and London, returned to Dublin where he worked at the international telephone exchange, as a house painter and as a lecturer in creative writing. He moved to Newcastle West in 1974 and died in 1999. Seamus Heaney said of Hartnett that He followed his own impulse and never had his eye on any audience. Small of stature and modest, McGuire does not have Hartnett fill or dominate the frame and yet Hartnetts deep intelligence is captured in his steady look. The formal collar and tie, the big overcoat lend him an appropriate gravitas and the window giving on to bird and foliage ivy leaves and lapwing or plover - is a characteristic McGuire touch. Brushing slowly, with fastidious skill is how John Montague described McGuires technique. Every detail is attended to: the wooden window frame, the folds and texture of the coat, the veins on the ivy leaves, the shadows cast. Its recognisably Michael Hartnett but it captures so much more than a realistic image and like McGuires finest portraits, and this is one of them, it contains what Brian Fallon calls their silence and strangeness, nearness and remoteness Signed, lower right, Edward McGuire 1971, this portrait was not commissioned. Significantly, McGuire chose to paint Hartnett whom he had sat with many times in Dublin pubs and whose poetry he admired. Hartnett, who had never sat for an artist before, wrote in 1987, a year after McGuires death [in Irish Arts Review, vol. 4, no. 4, Winter 1987] that he thinks that there were five sittings in McGuires studio, that McGuire worked from life and photographs, that they spoke about Andrew Wyeth and Francis Bacon and poetry, and that he had caught me, bitterness, warts and all, on canvas. Niall MacMonagle April 2022
Adam's
Dec. 08, 2021
Edward McGuire (1932-1986) Barn Owl Oil on board, 30 x 22cm (11¾ x 8¾'') Signed with initials and dated (19)'85; also signed, inscribed and dated 1985 verso Edward McGuire’s paintings are unmistakable for their slightly uncanny, surreal q
Est: €6,000 - €8,000
Edward McGuire (1932-1986) Barn Owl Oil on board, 30 x 22cm (11¾ x 8¾'') Signed with initials and dated (19)'85; also signed, inscribed and dated 1985 verso Edward McGuire’s paintings are unmistakable for their slightly uncanny, surreal quality. Their dreamlike character emerges, almost paradoxically, from the sense of heightened reality he achieves in his portrait and still life subjects. The latter consisted chiefly of taxidermal birds, particularly owls, and occasionally dead game birds. McGuire was a son of the charismatic Senator Edward McGuire, a high profile sportsman and at the time owner of Brown Thomas. Despite fragile health in his early years, the young Edward grew up to be a sports enthusiast himself. Half-hearted efforts to guide him towards the family business never gained traction. He studied art history, then painting, in Florence and Rome – with a subsequent spell at the Slade in London, where he came into contact with Lucian Freud. Freud and a good friend of his, the Irish painter Patrick Swift, were by far the most important influences on McGuire’s painting. Like Freud, he combined an often bohemian lifestyle with a focused commitment to his work and, again like Freud, he was a slow, painstaking worker: to complete four paintings a year was a good average, he reckoned. Many consider him to be the best Irish portrait painter yet. He had an affinity for poetry and poets (many, including Seamus Heaney, John Montague, Michael Longley, Michael Hartnett and Paul Durcan feature in his impressive roll-call of subjects). But it’s fair to say his heart was in his bird paintings. He was just 20 when he met the Natural History Museum’s venerable taxidermist and acquired three birds from him, an owl, a lapwing and a duck. That same owl is probably the bird in this and several other paintings. “I am not a genius…” McGuire wrote, “I know my limitations and that is why I lay so much stress on the technical side.” He painted with reference to his own colour dictionary and tonal scale, compiled over a ten-year period and, he noted, regardless of subject, each painting was for him a precise construction and an exploration of colour and tonal values. Aidan Dunne, October 2021
Adam's
Sep. 28, 2015
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) WATERHEN, 1976
Est: €8,000 - €12,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) WATERHEN, 1976 oil on canvas signed lower right; titled and dated on reverse h:36 w:24 in. Provenance: Dawson Gallery, Dublin; Private collection Exhibited: RHA, Dublin, 1976, catalogue no. 82 [NFS] Literature: Fallon, Brian, Edward McGuire, RHA with a catalogue by Sally McGuire and Poems & Memoirs, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1991, catalogue no. 81, p.123 (illustrated), p.124 (listed)
Whyte's
Mar. 26, 2014
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) Bird and Skull
Est: €1,500 - €2,500
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) Bird and Skull (1954) Oil on canvas, 33 x 23cm (13 x 9'') Exhibited: -IELA, 1955, Cat. No. 26 (£25) -Edward McGuire RHA Exhibition, RHA Gallery, Dublin Oct- Nov 1991, Cat. No. 5A Literature: Brian Fallon, Edward McGuire, page 115, No. 12
Adam's
Nov. 25, 2013
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) PORTRAIT OF ULICK O'CONNOR, 1975
Est: €8,000 - €10,000
signed with initials and dated lower right; with Dawson Gallery label on reverse; with retrospective exhibition details also inscribed on reverse
Whyte's
May. 14, 2013
EDWARD MCGUIRE RHA 1932-1986 DEAD BIRD Oil on
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
EDWARD MCGUIRE RHA 1932-1986 DEAD BIRD Oil on canvas, 14" x 12" (36 x 30.5cm), signed; dated 1959 label verso. Provenance: Dawson Gallery (label verso). Edward McGuire, former member of Aosdána, was the son of Edward McGuire senior, a senator and amateur artist. For this reason McGuire signed his name Edward Augustine initially but quickly found acclaim and dropped his middle name in his sig4nature. He underwent training in Florence, Rome and the Slade School in London and spent time living in France, as well as the Aran Islands off the coast of Galway. McGuire was a wellknown portraitist but the greatest section of his work was dedicated to his paintings of dead birds such as this one. On his colour, Dorothy Walker notes that he takes no specific pleasure in the use of colour and was influenced by Rene Magritte. This painting is typical of this restraint in colour with its narrow range of dull blues and greens. Upon being asked why he painted dead birds McGuire wittily replied "becausethey do not move" However, success in McGuire's paintings is, in part, due to the artist making these dead birds appear alive. (See Sailing to Byzantium: The Portraits of Edward McGuire by Dorothy Walker in Irish Arts Review Winter 1987)
deVeres
Nov. 28, 2011
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986)
Est: €12,000 - €15,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986). OWL II, 1972. oil on canvas. signed and dated lower right; with inscribed Dawson Gallery label and typed RHA labels on reverse. 91 by 64cm., 36 by 25in.
Whyte's
Sep. 28, 2011
EDWARD MCGUIRE RHA (1932-1986) Barn Owl Pencil on
Est: €1,000 - €1,500
EDWARD MCGUIRE RHA (1932-1986) Barn Owl Pencil on paper, 30.5 x 25.4cms (12 x 10") Signed with initials and dated '83
Adam's
Feb. 09, 2011
Edward McGuire (Irish, 1932-1986) Owl 2 86.5 x 61 cm. (34 x 24 in.)
Est: £15,000 - £20,000
Owl 2 signed and dated 'EDWARD/McGUIRE.72' (lower right), further signed and inscribed '"Owl 2"/Edward McGuire' (on a label attached to the frame) oil on canvas 86.5 x 61 cm. (34 x 24 in.)
Bonhams
Nov. 24, 2010
Senator Edward A. McGuire (1932-1986) Wooded
Est: €800 - €1,200
Senator Edward A. McGuire (1932-1986) Wooded Landscape Oil on canvas, 62 x 75cm (26.25 x 29.5) Signed
Adam's
Sep. 28, 2010
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) "Kestrel" Oil on
Est: €14,000 - €18,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) "Kestrel" Oil on canvas, 36" x 28" (91.5 x 71cm), signed and dated '73 Provenance: The Dawson Gallery , Dublin ( Label verso) Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) was a portrait and still life Artist who studied in Italy and in London where he became friendly with and was influenced by Lucien Freud. A meeting with a taxidermist in The Natural History Museum, Dublin, started his interest in stuffed birds. His technique was meticulous and meant that he only produced between four and six major works per year. In the period between 1973 -82 he painted twenty-six portraits and nine still lifes. He was appointed ARHA in 1973.[" Dictionary of Irish Artists" by Theo Snoddy]
deVeres
Jun. 02, 2010
Edward McGuire SNR (1901-1992) Figures in a
Est: €1,800 - €2,500
Edward McGuire SNR (1901-1992) Figures in a Landscape Oil on board, 24.5 x 35.5cm (9.5 x 14") Signed with initials and dated '70
Adam's
Jun. 02, 2010
Edward McGuire (1932-1986) Owl with Oak Leaves Oil
Est: €15,000 - €20,000
Edward McGuire (1932-1986) Owl with Oak Leaves Oil on canvas, 74 x 89cm (29.25 x 35") Signed and dated 1972, further signed, inscribed 'OWL', and dated 1972 FEB' verso Exhibited: Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1973, Cat. No. 98 N.F.S. Literature: Edward McGuire by Brian Fallon, catalogue no. 49 This was the first of a series of works using the long-eared owl as a motif
Adam's
Jun. 02, 2010
Edward McGuire (Irish, 1932-1986) Figures before a landscape 24.5 x 35.5 cm. (9 5/8 x 14 in.)
Est: £1,500 - £100,000
Figures before a landscape signed and dated 'E.A. McG 70' (lower right) oil on board 24.5 x 35.5 cm. (9 5/8 x 14 in.)
Bonhams
Jun. 02, 2010
Edward McGuire (Irish, 1932-1986) Owl 74 x 89 cm. (29 1/4 x 35 in.)
Est: £12,000 - £100,000
Owl signed and dated 'EDWARD McGUIRE. 1972.' (lower right), further signed, inscribed and dated 'OWL. EDWARD McGUIRE. OIL. 1972. FEB' (on the backboard) oil on canvas 74 x 89 cm. (29 1/4 x 35 in.)
Bonhams
May. 06, 2010
EDWARD MCGUIRE
Est: -
EDWARD MCGUIRE 1932 - 1986 DEAD WATERHEN signed with monogram l.r.; signed, titled and dated 1955 on the reverse oil on canvas 40.5 by 30.5cm.; 16 by 12in.
Sotheby's
Apr. 13, 2010
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) "Barn Owl" Oil on
Est: €10,000 - €12,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) "Barn Owl" Oil on board, 16" x 22" (40.7 x 56cm), signed with initials & dated 1984, inscribed, signed & dated verso.
deVeres
Dec. 03, 2008
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) Pearse Hutchinson
Est: €20,000 - €30,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) Pearse Hutchinson Oil on canvas, 132 x 107cm (52 x 42") Signed and dated 1970 Provenance: Collection of John and Harden Jay and thence by descent. Literature: "Edward McGuire" by Brian Fallon and others, memoir p 86, full page illustration, p.87, catalogue raisonne no. 45. Exhibited: Claddagh Records' Group Exhibition David Hendriks Gallery 1970, catalogue no. 24 Irish Exhibition of Living Art 1971, catalogue no 45 The Irish Imagination, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery 1971, catalogue no. 15 (also shown in Washington DC, Philadelphia and Boston) Artist's Choice, Ulster Museum, 1973, catalogue no. 6 6th Festival International, Cagnes-sur-Mer 1974, diploma award "EnVisage: The Face in Contemporary Art", Irish Museum of Modern Art, 9th October 2001 - 21st April 2002. This work featured in the 1977 RTE documentary on Edward McGuire. This work has been on loan to the Irish Museum of Modern Art from 1993 to October 2008. Edward McGuire is best known as a portrait painter with a unique style that is aesthetically reminiscent of photo-realism, and as one author has noted Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). In reality he work is closer to the latter which emerged in 1920s Germany, as an essentially realist style that captured the anxieties of a changing post WWI society. McGuire's paintings have a similar look to them not only as non-photographic based realist works but also in their frank and somewhat confrontational appeal. However his preference for painting literary and artistic figures in Ireland in the 1960s, 70s and 80s meant that part of his aim was to capture a sense of the individual within society rather than the generality of type seen in Neue Sachlichkeit. Born in Dublin, which was his home for the majority of his working life, McGuire trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome in the early 1950s, and then at the Slade School in London where his tutors included Lucian Freud. The academic training he received had a lasting resonance for his mode of painting. Although he abandoned the traditional colour theory he had been taught and developed his own which he recorded in his 'colour dictionary', he developed a laborious working method in terms of building up very thin layers of paint which could only be derived from academic teachings. Yet always an innovator, McGuire used an unconventional tool in the application of these layers - a razorblade. His painstaking method combined with his untimely death made for a small overall output, McGuire completed as little as four paintings a year. In 1970, at the peak of his career, McGuire set about painting Pearse Hutchinson. This was one of the artist's self chosen subjects, and the superior quality of these when compared to his commissioned pictures has been commented on by numerous writers. Poet and translator Hutchinson has received continual attention in the recent past, with a symposium celebrating his works held at Trinity College Dublin last year to coincide with his eightieth birthday, and his most recent publication, At Least for While, was published by The Gallery Press this year. McGuire's portrait of Hutchinson is striking, and the success of his self invented colour system is evident. The rich colours are centered to the middle of the composition, framed by neutral tones of the door to the right and the shelving and dried sunflower to the left which subtly contrast with the skin tones of the sitter, imbuing his with a life-like quality. This large work is dominated by tones of green and blue; the tiles and wall of the room are textured shades of dusty marine blue, yet on close inspection a layer of earthy red peeks through on the wall, setting off similar hues in the geometric rug. The emerald green of the delicate but confidently rendered cravat sets off the blue of Hutchinson's eyes, and is echoed in the seat of his chair but in a slightly muted tone. The intricate detail of the portrait is stunning, giving an overall high impact factor to the work. This is seen particularly in the cravat, the dried sunflower, and the facial ha r of the sitter, with the eyebrows so finely painted that individual hairs are identifiable. Considering this, it is an odd quirk of the painting that Hutchinson's shoes, perfectly rendered as they are, have been painted without laces. The purchase of this painting by John and Harden Jay has been noted by Brian Fallon in his monograph on the artist, as an example of a purchase that helped McGuire during a difficult time. It was not the first time that the Jays had helped him out, and Fallon has described solicitor John Jay as having been "well known for his good deeds to poets and artists and a man with a shrewd and resourceful mind."
Adam's
Dec. 03, 2008
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) Portrait of Anthony
Est: €20,000 - €40,000
Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986) Portrait of Anthony Cronin Oil on canvas, 60 x 72cm (23.6 x 28.3") Signed with initials and dated 1977 Provenance: From a Private Dublin Collection who purchased through The Dawson Gallery. Exhibited: RHA Annual Exhibition 1978, catalogue no. 103 (NFS). Also included in the 1977 RTE film on McGuire. Literature: "Edward McGuire" by Brian Fallon and others, p. 96, full page illulstration p.97. Catalogue raisonne no. 89. Anthony Cronin (born 1925 in County Wexford) is an Irish poet. He received the Marten Toonder Award (1983) for his contribution to Irish literature. He is a founding member of Aosdána, was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 2003 and is a member of its governing body, the Toscaireacht. He lives in Dublin. Anthony Cronin wrote of this painting: "Eddie first talked about doing a portrait of me in his studio in Leeson Street, where we sometimes went back to have another drink or a meal out of the pressure cooker which in those days was his solution to the eating question. H was then painting what I think was almost his first portrait in oils, the one of Garech de Brun. He had Garech's Aran pullover on a lay figure and he seemed to be months at it, painting it thread by thread. 'I want to do you next,' he would say. I would make a joke about not having any clothes to spare that he could work from in my absence and we would agree that I might manage to wear a shirt I could leave behind. In fact I was not next and he had begun to live in Sandycove and painted quite a series of literary figure before he got around to me. Every time we met he would talk about beginning immediately, and after he had done Francis Stuart he started to phone me late at night to say he wanted to do me in a white shirt like Francis, so that we could hang in the Municipal together. He even did a pen and ink drawing one day in McDaid's; but there was no painting and I am afraid that I had begun to make comments about others being preferred before me while he was still protesting his intent. I think he wanted to paint something freer than the very meticulous portraits he had done up to then, but he did not know quite how to go about it. Much of our conversation at the time was concerned with the necessity for an easier and less uptight approach. 'You should start tight and work loose', he would say. I finally got painted because he was the subject of a television programme and it would appear that after the first day he refused to talk any more to the television interviewers, declaring that he would talk to me while he painted me instead. So he had to begin and the first session was in front of the cameras while he did the charcoal drawing that formed the basis of the painting. He called the almost monochromatic result his 'brown study' and I think it was actually a new departure for him at the time, though the objects in the foreground were as tightly painted as ever. I don't know why he chose the cooking pot and the old fashioned iron. I suspect he just wanted to paint them, but maybe there is a faint adverten e to Leeson Street, the meals we had out of the pressure cooker and the shirt I never did leave behind." (This memoir is taken from the book "Edward McGuire" with the kind permission of Anthon Cronin.)
Adam's

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