Patrick (1910) Collins Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Patrick (1910) Collins Art Value Price Guide

Nov. 26, 2024
Â§ PATRICK COLLINS (IRISH, 1911-1994)
Est: £3,000 - £5,000
Â§ PATRICK COLLINS (IRISH, 1911-1994) PATRICK COLLINS (IRISH, 1911-1994) Irelands Eye from Howth Castle signed 'P.Collins' (lower left) oil on board 35.5 x 29.5 cm. (14 x 11 5/8 in) Provenance With Apollo Gallery, Dublin, 9 July 2011, where purchased by the present owner
Chiswick Auctions
Sep. 30, 2024
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) BOATS PULLED UP, 1978
Est: €5,000 - €7,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) BOATS PULLED UP, 1978 oil on board signed and dated lower right; titled and with Tom Caldwell Gallery label on reverse h:12 w:16 in. Provenance: Tom Caldwell Gallery, Belfast; Private collection
Whyte's
Sep. 30, 2024
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) UNTITLED, 1984
Est: €6,000 - €8,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) UNTITLED, 1984 oil on canvas laid on board signed and dated lower right h:16 w:20 in.
Whyte's
Sep. 30, 2024
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) LAKE RIVER, c.1967
Est: €7,000 - €9,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) LAKE RIVER, c.1967 oil on board signed lower right; with Ritchie Hendriks Gallery label on reverse h:13.50 w:19 in. Provenance: Ritchie Hendricks Gallery, Dublin; Collection of W. Brown Esq.; Private collection
Whyte's
Sep. 25, 2024
Patrick Collins RHA (1911-1994) Still Life Oil on canvas, 52 x 60cm (20_ x 23_) Signed
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
Patrick Collins RHA (1911-1994) Still Life Oil on canvas, 52 x 60cm (20_ x 23_) Signed
Adam's
May. 27, 2024
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) DESERTED COTTAGES, c.1973
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) DESERTED COTTAGES, c.1973 oil on board signed lower right; with David Hendriks Gallery label on reverse h:8 w:12 in. Provenance: David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin; Collection of John Montague; Gifted to the mother of the present owner
Whyte's
May. 27, 2024
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) RELEASE MONA LISA, 1986
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) RELEASE MONA LISA, 1986 oil on canvas; (irregular) signed, titled and dated lower centre h:24 w:27 in.
Whyte's
Mar. 27, 2024
Patrick Collins HRHA, (1911-1994) Spring Morning (1957) Oil on board, 91.5 x 122cm (36 x 48) Signed Provenance: Collection of Sir Basil Goulding, thence by descent to the current owner. Exhibited: Dublin, IELA 1957, cat. no. 6; Dubli
Est: €30,000 - €50,000
Patrick Collins HRHA, (1911-1994) Spring Morning (1957) Oil on board, 91.5 x 122cm (36 x 48) Signed Provenance: Collection of Sir Basil Goulding, thence by descent to the current owner. Exhibited: Dublin, IELA 1957, cat. no. 6; Dublin, Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, April 1959, Patrick Collins, cat. no. 18; New York, Wollman Hall, Twelve Irish Painters, Oct/Nov 1963, cat. no.18; Dublin, ROSC 1971, Irish Imagination, cat. no.18; Dublin, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Patrick Collins Retrospective, 1982, cat. no. 9, later touring to The Ulster Museum, Belfast and The Crawford Gallery, Cork. Patrick Collins is recognised as being a key figure in the semi-abstract poetic genre that characterised post-war Irish art. Spring Morning has the soft grey light, the atmospheric quality, and the feeling of moisture that we associate with this artist and which is completely compatible with the Irish countryside. The painting marked a significant leap in Collinss developmentthe composition is more complex, and the brushstrokes bolder and more gestural. His use of colour is also more varied, with pale lemons and creams, interspersed with slivers of pink, set against the subdued blues and greys that previously dominated his work . Here he infused the surface with new found energy and liveliness. Like its companion piece, Moorland Water, Collins pushed abstraction to much greater limits than ever before. Spring Morning is a buoyant, fresh, light-filled vision of spring, with gusts of wind seeming to blow through the picture, setting the forms in motion. The cottage fuses with the surrounding countryside like so many parts of a jigsaw puzzle locking together on the surface. However, the visual excitement of the piece comes with the composition seeming to explode outwardly, threatening to break out of the rectangle. There is a dramatic U-shape which runs down the right side of the cottage, breaking out of the rectangles lower edge, and then bending upward. Although Collins has embraced abstraction, the subject of the picture remains unmistakable. The artist avoided an obviously picturesque view as he tried, instead, to get closer to capturing the sensations inspired by nature. Within this protective womb-like shape we find a place imbued with life. We can sense the freedom Collins experienced as a young boy who explored the rivers, lakes, fields and woods around Sligo. Typical of Collins, the motif doesnt extend to the edges of the canvas but floats within a painted frame that deliberately separates it from the present. The artist draws on memory, where details are isolated, condensed, merged and blurred, but where the essence of the recollection is communicated. Collinss vigorous brushwork, the deliberately flattened picture space, and his movement towards increased abstraction suggest that he was influenced by Abstract Expressionism, which dominated the international art world of the 1950s. However, like his Irish contemporaries, he was reluctant to embrace total abstraction. He loved his trees and stones, believing that you lose something important if you completely let go of the seen world. He once said to Brian Lynch: Naturenature is an awful word but what the hell can you saytheres so much outside that if you dont use it youre a fool. Dr Frances Ruane HRHA, February 2024
Adam's
Mar. 11, 2024
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) BEYOND THE BOG, 1970
Est: €15,000 - €20,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) BEYOND THE BOG, 1970 oil on board signed lower right; inscribed with artist, title, medium and dimensions on Tom Caldwell Galleries label on reverse h:36 w:48 in. Provenance: Caldwell Galleries, Dublin; Where purchased by Vincent Ferguson; Thence by descent; de Veres, 22 June 2021, lot 59; Private collection Exhibited: 'Patrick Collins', Tom Caldwell Galleries, Dublin & Belfast, July, 1979 Worried that his paintings began to suffer from sentimentality, Patrick Collins retreated from Dublin to Connemara at the end of the 1960s in a conscious effort to refresh his approach. Working for nine months in 1970 digging drainage ditches was the stimulus he needed, directly resulting in an important series of bog paintings, like this one. And because bogs are so closely associated with Ireland, they appealed to Collins as part of his search for subject matter that was truly indigenous. The renewed vigour found in this series came at a critical point in his development. He used a few strong shapes to anchor these austere compositions, stripping away inessentials with exceptional boldness. Beyond the Bog shows clearly how Collins returned to an elemental absorption with the land. The painting is focused on the bog, without a trace of trees, cows, or people. We feel its moisture, the wet density of it, the light and reflection of sky bouncing off the surface. The composition of Beyond the Bog is simple and powerful: a few strong bars set against empty space. A strong directional pull is established between the two verticals at either side and between the horizontal bars top and bottom, animating the space in between. The central 'swish' sets the composition in motion. Collins began his initial exploration of empty, or 'negative', space in the early 1960s but in the Bog paintings voids are used for even greater emotional effect. Collins wanted his empty spaces to "speak." They certainly do that in Beyond the Bog, where loneliness and isolation are expressed with a touching poignancy. Dr Frances Ruane, HRHA February 2024
Whyte's
Oct. 02, 2023
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) NORMANDY LANDSCAPE WITH DESERTED BARN, 1974
Est: €10,000 - €15,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) NORMANDY LANDSCAPE WITH DESERTED BARN, 1974 oil on canvas signed and dated lower right; titled and with Tom Caldwell Gallery label on reverse h:21 w:25 in. Provenance: Tom Caldwell Gallery, Belfast; Private collection At a certain point, Paris loomed large in the imagination of Patrick Collins. In many ways the most quintessentially Irish of painters, with a profound sympathy for the rural landscape - bogland, smallholdings, lakes - and even for the watery Irish light, his first love had been literature. Having come through unhappy years in St Vincent's Orphanage he worked as a clerk in Dublin, lived in a bedsit and read voraciously. Joyce particularly impressed him. Moving to a tower in Howth Castle, he began trying to write but, the more he visited galleries, the more he found he was becoming increasingly interested in painting. From 1950 he began to exhibit his work and his first, extremely successful, solo show was at the Ritchie Hendrik's Gallery in 1956. Despite being well established and highly regarded in Ireland, he felt a little hemmed in by the insularity of the local scene and, in 1971, thought he would try Paris, an international creative hub, which he had previously visited. He wasn't particularly looking for anything, it was more to get away for a while, "and look at things from outside," as he put it to Des Moore. In the event, his time in Paris was tough and unproductive. He later recounted how he would trek across the city to call on poet John Montague, hoping he'd be at home and would offer him a meal. Then, in 1973, he moved on to live in a farmhouse in Orne, Normandy, a rural setting more to his taste, and began to paint steadily again. This painting dates from that relatively contented period. The barn became his studio. Sligo was his idealised notion of home from childhood on, and that sense, of home and belonging in the landscape, carries through strongly here. The band of trees seem to enfold and protect the barn and, particularly, the distant farmhouse. Aidan Dunne, September 2023
Whyte's
Oct. 02, 2023
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) MOON OVER THE LAKE
Est: €5,000 - €7,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) MOON OVER THE LAKE oil on board signed lower right; with Tom Caldwell Gallery label on reverse h:11 w:14 in. Provenance: Tom Caldwell Gallery, Belfast; Private collection A beautiful, dreamy view of a moonlit lake, compact but with tremendous sense of scale and airiness. Collins excelled at distilling the essence of the Irish landscape, misty, amorphous spaces, watery grey light and the emblematic recurrence of certain motifs: stones, rushes and reeds, boundary walls, isolated homesteads. With just a few basic elements, he conjures up a whole atmospheric world. Aidan Dunne, September 2023
Whyte's
Oct. 02, 2023
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) CLOUD ON THE HILL, DONEGAL
Est: €6,000 - €8,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) CLOUD ON THE HILL, DONEGAL oil on board signed lower right; titled on reverse h:12 w:14 in. A glittering, transient vision of a landscape at a moment in time, animated by darts of fast-changing, alternating patches of brightness and rain as the weather moves briskly over the scene, typical of the quicksilver quality of light on the western coast. The whole surface of the painting is lively and energetic. Aidan Dunne, September 2023
Whyte's
May. 29, 2023
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) RELEASE MONA LISA, 1986
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) RELEASE MONA LISA, 1986 oil on canvas; (irregular) signed, titled and dated lower centre h:24 w:27 in.
Whyte's
May. 29, 2023
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) FLOWERPIECE NO. 1, c.1967
Est: €4,000 - €6,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) FLOWERPIECE NO. 1, c.1967 oil on board signed lower right; with Ritchie Hendriks Gallery label on reverse h:9 w:12 in. Provenance: Ritchie Hendricks Gallery, Dublin; Whence purchased, May 1967, by M. Erlanger; Art Collection of David Erlanger and Jean Wilter, Litchfield Auctions, 28 February 2023, lot 26; Private collection
Whyte's
Mar. 06, 2023
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) MOONRISE ON THE LAKE
Est: €12,000 - €18,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) MOONRISE ON THE LAKE oil on canvas signed lower left; titled on reverse h:26 w:37 in. Patrick Collins occupies a singular position in 20th century Irish art. On the one hand, his work is exceptionally, undeniably Irish. He was fond of using the term Celtic as a general description, without strictly defining it or getting hung up about it. On the other hand, while his paintings reflect aspects of the Irish landscape, environment and character, he was a man apart, who didn't identify with any school or movement. But his instincts were infallibly attuned to the atmospherics of the moisture-laden Irish light, endless tracts of bogland and stony hillsides, and the stark, existential plight of those, human and animal, on rural small-holdings. What he managed to do was to paint an almost mythical Ireland, but one rooted in the real. His colours are muddied, misty, dreamy. Motifs assert themselves with a stubborn, rugged presence. A roll-call of those motifs incudes, variously, stones, pools, a bird, an animal, a cottage and, as here, the moon. Usually, compositions occupy a kind of frame with a frame, as though the painting is a vision conjured up from a primordial mist. That is subtly the case in this painting, in which the light of the rising moon has a stark, definitive clarity to it. Born in Dromore West in Sligo, Collins ran wild in nature as a child and then, in his teens, had to cope with life in an orphanage. While the regime was not, by his own account, harsh, he felt imprisoned, and remained ever after resistant to institutional authority. Working as a clerk, he lived in a tower in Howth Castle and aspired to be a writer, only gradually coming around to painting. In his later work he became increasingly interested in the use of line, largely, he explained, because of his growing respect for traditional Chinese painting. Aidan Dunne, February 2023
Whyte's
Feb. 28, 2023
PATRICK COLLINS - FLOWERPIECE - O/B
Est: $5,000 - $8,000
Patrick Collins, Ireland, 1910/11-1994, Flowerpiece no. 01, oil on panel, signed lower right, Verso labeled The Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, May 1967
Litchfield Auctions
Sep. 28, 2022
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Old lady in window Oil on Canvas, 25.5 x 30.5cm (10 x 12) Signed Provenance: With Tom Caldwell Gallery, label verso.
Est: €2,500 - €3,500
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Old lady in window Oil on Canvas, 25.5 x 30.5cm (10 x 12) Signed Provenance: With Tom Caldwell Gallery, label verso.
Adam's
Jun. 01, 2022
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Mallard Oil on canvas, 20 x 25cm (7¾ x 9¾'') Signed lower right
Est: €1,500 - €2,500
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Mallard Oil on canvas, 20 x 25cm (7¾ x 9¾'') Signed lower right
Adam's
Jun. 01, 2022
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910 - 1994) Vase of flowers Mixed media, 19.5 x 15cm (7½ x 6) Signed and dated (19)'90
Est: €800 - €1,200
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910 - 1994) Vase of flowers Mixed media, 19.5 x 15cm (7½ x 6) Signed and dated (19)'90
Adam's
Mar. 30, 2022
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Fig Tree 1 Crayon 18 x 20cm (7¼ x 7¾) Signed Provenance: with the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, Private Collection
Est: €750 - €1,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Fig Tree 1 Crayon 18 x 20cm (7¼ x 7¾) Signed Provenance: with the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, Private Collection
Adam's
Mar. 30, 2022
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994) Mountainside, Wicklow Oil on board, 30 x 40cm (11¾ x 15¾'') Signed
Est: €5,000 - €7,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994) Mountainside, Wicklow Oil on board, 30 x 40cm (11¾ x 15¾'') Signed
Adam's
Mar. 07, 2022
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) TEA THINGS, 1977
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) TEA THINGS, 1977 oil on canvas signed and dated lower left; with Tom Caldwell Gallery label on reverse h:10 w:9 in.
Whyte's
Dec. 08, 2021
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Water Lilies Oil on canvas, 40 x 43cm (15¾ x 17'') Signed Provenance: Sale, Whyte's, Dublin, 21/09/2004, lot 115.
Est: €10,000 - €15,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Water Lilies Oil on canvas, 40 x 43cm (15¾ x 17'') Signed Provenance: Sale, Whyte's, Dublin, 21/09/2004, lot 115.
Adam's
Nov. 29, 2021
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) OLD LADY IN THE WINDOW
Est: €3,000 - €4,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) OLD LADY IN THE WINDOW oil on canvas signed lower right; with Tom Caldwell Gallery label on reverse h:10 w:12 in.
Whyte's
Nov. 29, 2021
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) DUBLIN BAY, 1963
Est: €15,000 - €20,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) DUBLIN BAY, 1963 oil on board signed lower right h:24 w:30 in. Provenance: Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, 1964; Private collection Exhibited: Possibly in the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, 1963, under the title Summer's Evening, Dublin Bay); Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, 1964; Patrick Collins Retrospective, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, 1982 This is a striking, atmospheric painting that captures a significant shift in the work of Patrick Collins, one of the foremost Irish artists of the 20th century. The composition is close to that of Bridge and Trees, painted a year earlier, a notably more expressionist, agitated and, as Dr Frances Ruane noted, 'Yeatsian' painting. In Dublin Bay, Collins has moved decisively towards a calm, atmospheric evocation of space - a hallmark of his mature style. The impressively rugged-looking mounds of the trees dominate the dark foreground and partly obscure the distant north shore of the bay, sparkling with lights in the encroaching dusk, evident in the subtle grey halo that frames the composition. Mist from the sea softens the outline of Howth Head and merges sea and sky. The use of intractable sculptural masses, together with layered expanses of generally muted colour charged with a degree of luminosity, comprise the essence of Collins' approach from this point onwards. Born in Dromore West in Sligo, Collins was substantially formed by his early years of freedom running wild in the rural landscape. He felt understandably constrained as a teenage boarder at St Vincent's Orphanage in Glasnevin and subsequently, working as a clerk in Dublin, and he gravitated towards literature and art, idolising Joyce. Living for a time in a tower in Howth Castle, he aspired to write and took art lessons. By the early 1950s he felt he was finding his voice through painting and his first solo show at the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery in 1956 was very successful. In his paintings he managed, without a hint of nostalgia, to convey the essence of an Ireland mythical and real, ancient and modern. He was instinctively attuned to the atmospherics of bogland and ocean, and the misty, watery Irish light. A private, even reclusive man, he almost shunned publicity during his lifetime but has long been recognised as a major Irish painter. Aidan Dunne, November 2021
Whyte's
Nov. 29, 2021
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) TEA THINGS, 1977
Est: €3,000 - €4,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) TEA THINGS, 1977 oil on canvas signed and dated lower left; with Tom Caldwell Gallery label on reverse h:10 w:9 in.
Whyte's
Sep. 27, 2021
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) APPLES, 1961
Est: €10,000 - €15,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) APPLES, 1961 oil on board with Ritchie Hendriks Gallery and Arts Council labels on reverse h:15.25 w:19.75 in. Provenance: Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, 1961; Collection of Sir Basil Goulding; Tom Caldwell Galleries, Dublin, 1982; Private collection Exhibited: Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, August 1971, catalogue no. 7; 'Irish Imagination', ROSC 1971, catalogue no. 14; ’Patrick Collins: Retrospective Exhibition’, Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, touring exhibition, Cork, Dublin and Belfast, 1982, catalogue no. 12 Sir William Basil Goulding (1909–1982) was an Irish cricketer, squash player, art collector and prominent businessman. Goulding was the founding Chairperson of the Contemporary Irish Art Society in 1962, along with Gordon Lambert, Cecil King, Stanley Mosse, James White and Michael Scott. The enthusiasm and vision of these founding members of the society was the catalyst which led to the development of many important art collections in Ireland. The purpose of the society was to encourage a greater level of patronage of living Irish artists which, at the time, was extremely low. This was mainly achieved by raising funds to purchase artworks by living artists, which were then donated to public collections. The first purchase in 1962 was an important painting by Patrick Scott, donated to the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art. Over the following 12 years the society purchased 37 works for the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, until in 1974, Dublin Corporation started to provide an annual purchasing fund for the gallery. Following a trip to Brittany, Patrick Collins exhibited his first paintings based on Bronze Age standing stones, menhirs, at the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery in 1961. They became a staple subject for him in the following years in a long, intermittent series of paintings. Given the nature and development of his work one can see why he was drawn to such durable stone presences in the landscape. This exceptional still life also featured in that show, from which it was purchased by Basil Goulding. Audaciously simple in its format, the stark, unadorned study of two apples is atmospherically rich in a way that is characteristic of Collins at his best. It has often been noted that he did not so much paint objects as the aura and spaces around them. Here, the overlapping central forms have a monumental, rugged density that complements the fruits' fragile transience, indicated by the flush of light and colour. Typically, the light seems to radiate from them, rather than falling upon them. As Collins paints them, they are as heroic and timeless as megaliths. Born in Dromore West in Sligo, Collins forever identified with his early years of freedom in the wild rural landscape. He was temperamentally unsuited to be a teenage boarder at St Vincent's Orphanage in Glasnevin. Later, working as a clerk in Dublin he gravitated towards the world of art and literature. Living in a tower in Howth Castle, he thought of writing and took art lessons. As he recalled, by the beginning of the 1950s he began to find his way in painting and had work accepted by the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. His first, very successful solo show at Ritchie Hendriks Gallery came in 1956. A quintessentially Irish artist, from early on his painting seems to evoke an Ireland both mythical and real, romanticised but rigorously unsentimental. Isolated subjects - from human figures to dwellings, fields to birds - emerge as if from a primordeal mist, stubbornly asserting themselves. A painting can visualise a whole world. A private, even reclusive man, Collins almost shunned publicity during his lifetime but has long been recognised as a central figure in 20th century Irish art.
Whyte's
Jun. 02, 2021
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) - Boat Standing on the Lake
Est: €12,000 - €14,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Boat Standing on the Lake Oil on canvas, 51 x 59cm (20 x 23¼'') Signed Provenance: With Tom Caldwell Gallery, Belfast, label verso. Born in Dromore West, Co Sligo Patrick Collins' early childhood years were, despite his family's relative poverty and practical setbacks, redeemed by the freedom he found in the natural world around him. Alas, he was dispatched to St Vincent's Orphanage in Glasnevin around 1925, and felt imprisoned. There followed 20 years as an insurance clerk in Dublin, during which time he read voraciously - he initially aspired to be a writer - and found himself fascinated by art, attending lectures and classes. From the mid-1940s he lived in a tower at Howth Castle, and began to exhibit paintings annually at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art from 1950, with solo shows at the then Ritchie Hendriks Gallery from 1956 and later with Tom Caldwell Galleries. The writer Aidan Higgins, a close friend during those years, recalled in 1982: He painted the shadows of things, avoiding the direct face... In truth he excelled at evoking the spaces between and around things, capturing the watery, palpable texture of Irish light wrapped around stubborn presences in the boggy landscape or the vast ocean: lone trees, stone walls and monuments, smallholdings, farm animals, birds, people, boats and islands, including Hy-Brazil, a shimmering vision in the distance. All imbued with an epic, mythic, elegiac character. Several years in France did not weaken his links to this terrain, though when he returned to Ireland, in the later 1970s, there was perhaps, as in Boat Standing on the Lake, an enhanced luminosity to the light, a willingness to touch on a brighter palette, and a renewed interest in the use of line. Of this period, Frances Ruane has noted his liking for pivoting a composition around a central point.' He does so in this painting (closely related to Little Harbour, exhibited at Tom Caldwell Galleries in 1979) to great effect. The boat in the centre, concisely indicated by the horizontal and vertical accents of its hull and mast, is static, but the energy of the painting is generated by its irresistible link to the sweeping upwards curve of the shore on the right, a curve that loops around the top to bring the eye back down the left of the picture and the foreground accents along the base of the composition. Collins' subtle management of tonality at every stage of this process is masterly. Always an individualist, he never courted official approval, but his reputation never wavered among his peers and he is generally regarded as one of the country's finest 20th century painters, whose contribution to Irish art was immense. A major touring retrospective organised by the Arts Council in 1982 consolidated his reputation. Aiden Dunne, May 2021 Starting Bid: € 8400
Adam's
Jun. 02, 2021
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) - Standing Stone, Dingle Peninsula
Est: €800 - €1,200
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Standing Stone, Dingle Peninsula Oil on board, 25 x 17cm (9¾ x 6¾'') Signed Provenance: With Tom Caldwell Galleries, Dublin, label verso. Starting Bid: € 560
Adam's
Apr. 11, 2021
PATRICK COLLINS (IRISH, 1910/11-1994).
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
Oil on board. Man with Cello. Signed lower right. From a Port Washington, NY collection.
Clarke Auction Gallery
Dec. 09, 2020
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Sea and Rain Oil on canvas, 51 x 61cm (20 x 24'') Signed and dated (19)'79 Provenance: With Tom Caldwell Gallery, Belfast, label verso.
Est: €6,000 - €10,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Sea and Rain Oil on canvas, 51 x 61cm (20 x 24'') Signed and dated (19)'79 Provenance: With Tom Caldwell Gallery, Belfast, label verso.
Adam's
Dec. 09, 2020
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Moon on the Lake Oil on canvas, 37 x 43cm (14½ x 17'') Signed
Est: €4,000 - €6,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Moon on the Lake Oil on canvas, 37 x 43cm (14½ x 17'') Signed
Adam's
Oct. 27, 2020
Patrick Collins RHA (1911-1994) Potato Patch (AKA Lazy Beds) (1981)
Est: €10,000 - €15,000
Patrick Collins RHA (1911-1994) Potato Patch (AKA Lazy Beds) (1981) oil on canvas signed lower right and dated '81 h:69 w:81 cm. Provenance: Collection of Gillian Bowler; Adam's Dublin, 31st May 2017, Lot 51; Private Collection Exhibited: Patrick Collins Retrospective, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin 1992, Catalogue No. 85, later travelling to the Ulster Museum Belfast and The Crawford Gallery, Cork Like Jack B Yeats, Patrick Collins was, throughout his life, influenced by his idyllic childhood years in Co Sligo. Although he was educated in Dublin and began working as an insurance clerk there, he remained attuned to the natural world and, inspired more by the literature than the visual art of his time (he greatly admired Joyce), aspired to become a writer. Gradually, however, he was attracted to the possibilities of painting. A fiercely independent spirit, he always pursued his own path and, although resolutely non-academic in style and substance, his work was consistently infused with a lyrical, romantic quality that set it apart from the Modernism of his contemporaries. He was attached to what he saw as Celtic rather than specifically Irish qualities, though he had a genius for capturing the hazy, shifting, watery character of light and space in the Irish landscape, especially on the boglands of the Midlands and the Western Seaboard. Often he focused on single motifs such as, here, the ridges of the lazy beds in an expansive landscape, or an isolated animal in a field, or isolated smallholdings, or ancient standing stones. In each case the motif is a striking index of the human engagement with place, a subtle manifestation of a long history. Even when he spent some years in France, where he settled in the early 1970s, he remained haunted by the light, textures and ambience of the Irish landscape, and eventually he returned home. His last great artistic adventure was his assimilation of an approach to landscape characteristic of classic Chinese painting. Aidan Dunne, October 2020
Morgan O'Driscoll
Sep. 02, 2020
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Foul TideOil on board, 63 x 74cm (24¾ x 29'')Signed and dated (19)'78Provenance: With Tom Caldwell Gallery, label verso.
Est: €6,000 - €10,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Foul TideOil on board, 63 x 74cm (24¾ x 29'')Signed and dated (19)'78Provenance: With Tom Caldwell Gallery, label verso.
Adam's
Sep. 02, 2020
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Moonrise on the LakeOil on canvas, 65 x 92cm (25½ x 36¼'')SignedIn Patrick Collins: A View on Painting, broadcast on RTÉ in 1985, Collins speaks of how The title is nearly always a clue to a picture and its the
Est: €15,000 - €20,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Moonrise on the LakeOil on canvas, 65 x 92cm (25½ x 36¼'')SignedIn Patrick Collins: A View on Painting, broadcast on RTÉ in 1985, Collins speaks of how The title is nearly always a clue to a picture and its the only effort the artist can make to give you some literary statement that helps you with a picture. Its called something so therefore you look for something. Its called A Valley at Sunset or The Lakes of Killarney, A Street Scene, Still Life. All these things will help you look for this. But again theres the contradiction. If you just look for what the title suggests, youre going to miss the subtlety of the picture which goes beyond that.Moonrise on the Lake conjures up a romantic, lyrical image but, as Collins himself, suggests it goes beyond a rising moon and lakescape. Look for the lake, look for the moon and they are there but as Collins himself observes the painting goes beyond that. It can be admired for what it is and for what it suggests. Asked, in 1973, about being called an abstract expressionist Collins replied its true in a way. When Im into a picture, Ill always forget the subject . . . . because its the whole flow that important.Moonrise on the Lake is both representational and abstract. What you see is what you get does not apply here. The more you engage with this work, the more rewarding it is. Peter Murray says The painting can mean different things to different people, a vagueness Collins encouraged; his deliberate use of indistinct forms, engulfed or surrounded by an almost tangible atmosphere, freed the art work from the specific and the everyday. This composition features a grey-blue lake at night and in the distance, white and pale yellow bands of light shine out against a darker background. But in Collinss work colour is never a single colour. His palette brilliantly combines different colours and in this instance soft brushstrokes create a quiet movement in the water. In the foreground the brighter, different shapes, the use of strong blacks and whites and the block of colour, with its yellow, greens and reddish-orange give the paining a fine power. Is this the moons reflection Is it the artist going beyond that and celebrating form and colour It is both. You dont believe in the thing that youre painting, you believe in the thing behind what youre painting said Collins in 1985Opening a Patrick Collins Exhibition in Cork in 1972, poet John Montague spoke of Collinss work as a dialogue in colour, a mystical experience of light, effecting a bedreamer vision of paint. Oil paint and canvas, [t]he old materials, says Collins, are very simple. Your paint, your canvas - it hasnt begun to be exhausted.Collins always painted in artificial light but that never diminished the work. Moonrise on the Lake captures a wonderful, quiet energy. The moons reflection glows bright, shines bright on a calm, muted lake.In an Irish Times interview, 1973, he told Harriet Cooke: I dont think it matters a damn. A good play is never better because it is put on in the open air. Plein air, al fresco, it doesnt matter at all adding that [a]rt explains humanity; its outside nature. Its a necessity, an impetus, a force.When Patrick Collins died, Aidan Dunne rightly recognised him as one of the finest Irish painters of the century and one of the select few to have contributed to an Irish artistic identity.Niall MacMonagle, February 2020
Adam's
Sep. 02, 2020
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994)Lake Swan FeedingOil on board, 35 x 50cm (13¾ x 19½)SignedProvenance: Hendriks Gallery, label verso.Born Dromore West, County Sligo, in 1910, Patrick Collins grew up in Riverstown and, later, in Sligo town but h
Est: €10,000 - €15,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994)Lake Swan FeedingOil on board, 35 x 50cm (13¾ x 19½)SignedProvenance: Hendriks Gallery, label verso.Born Dromore West, County Sligo, in 1910, Patrick Collins grew up in Riverstown and, later, in Sligo town but his father, an RIC constable, contracted tuberculosis, was unable to work, and died when Collins was twelve. Patrick Collinss younger sister also died and his mother, widowed when Collins was thirteen, ran a little grocery shop until her health also failed. Collins was sent at fourteen to St Vincents Orphanage in Glasnevin and having done well at school worked in an insurance company in Dublin for twenty years. Looking back on those years, Collins told Harriet Cooke, in 1973, that he lived near Stephens Green, and every morning Id walk through it around nine, and every day it was different, and every day the whole thing has a new scene. The birds and trees, when I look at them I read them like a book. When youre interested in birds, you see bits of difference.He read widely, attended evening art classes at the National College of Art but was mainly self-taught and, in his mid-thirties, he became a full-time artist. He had his first solo show in 1956. Collinss west-of-Ireland background not only influenced his subject matter, landscape, lakes, birds, but his sympathy for the marginalised, as seen in a masterpiece such as Travelling Tinkers [1968], can be understood in the light of Collinss own family challenges and difficulties. But what is most distinctive about Collinss work is his palette of blues and grey and grey blues and his use of a framing device or border within the work, a window, as it were, into another world. Fionna Barber in Art in Ireland [2013] sees the indication of a frame within a frame as a device that amplifies a sense of displacement and the perception of another reality within the painting.For Collins, It is the aura of an object which interests me, more than the object. I see a few bottles on a table and I feel there is more than a few bottles. It is the something more I try to paint. So, too, with this swan on a lake. It is both swan and aura and swans in Irish mythology, what Collins called the Celtic thing, perhaps resonate here. In Lake Swan Feeding the swan is centre, its pure white presence, amid a misty grey, blue, green lake, is recognisable, as is a group of swans, background, top right. The single swan is alone, yes. Is that swan lonely Thats up to the viewer. As Peter Murray observes, Collins preferred to leave the interpretation to the observer, acknowledging that the viewer creates the work of art at the moment of apprehension. Other bird paintings, Bird against the Window from 1963, for example, could be seen as an image of longing, escape and Collins himself said that his The Rook: Bird in a Tree, captured his lonely years in the orphanage. Not for Collins, Yeatss nine-and-fifty swan. This feeding swan is on its own but the feeding detail in the title suggests a swan at ease and being nourished. When Patrick Collins died in 1994 his ashes were scattered on the shore of Lough Gill. Ciara Ferguson who was at the ceremony remembered how We gathered at the side of Lough Gill, at the place where he played as a boy, and, as the ashes scattered, the only sound was a lone piper. Tony Cronin gave the oration. Then, suddenly, everyone turned to the sound of a frantic beating of snow-white wings as a single swan took to the air with all the drama and poignancy of, well, the free spirit of Paddy.In 1958 Collins won a Guggenheim Award for his Liffey Quayside, won the Irish landscape prize in 1971, was elected HRHA in 1980, a member of Aosdána in 1981 and Saoi in 1987, the first visual artist so honoured. He was conferred with an honorary doctorate by Trinity College in 1988 and his work is in every major Irish collection.Niall MacMonagle, February 2020
Adam's
Dec. 04, 2019
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Mallard Oil on canvas, 20 x 25cm (7¾ x 9¾'')Signed lower right
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) Mallard Oil on canvas, 20 x 25cm (7¾ x 9¾'')Signed lower right
Adam's
Oct. 23, 2019
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Bogland (1970)Oil on board, 60 x 93cm (23¾ x 36¾)SignedProvenance: With the Tom Caldwell Gallery, Belfast.Exhibited: David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin June 1970, Catalogue No. 12; Tom Caldwell Gallery, Dublin July
Est: €15,000 - €20,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Bogland (1970)Oil on board, 60 x 93cm (23¾ x 36¾)SignedProvenance: With the Tom Caldwell Gallery, Belfast.Exhibited: David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin June 1970, Catalogue No. 12; Tom Caldwell Gallery, Dublin July 1979, Catalogue No.2; Belltable Gallery, Limerick April 1981, No. 37; 'Patrick Collins Retrospective', Douglas Hyde Gallery, Crawford Gallery, Ulster Museum, 1982, Cat. 58.Literature: Frances Ruane, 'Patrick Collins', Arts Councils of Ireland, 1980, p.54 (illus), p. 110.Following a brief period at the end of the 1960s when his paintings began to suffer from a fuzzy formlessness and sentimentality, Patrick Collins retreated to Connemara, working for nine months in 1970 digging drainage ditches. This resulted in a remarkable series of bog paintings, their renewed vigour coming at a critical point in his development. Collins used a few strong shapes to anchor these austere compositions, stripping away inessentials with exceptional boldness. Bogland shows clearly how Collins returned to an elemental absorption with the land. Because its so closely associated with Ireland, the bog would have appealed to Collins as subject matter. An evocative aspect of these pictures is that, given the subject, how he managed to paint such a strong presence of moisture and light into the animated surface. These compositions focus on the bog, without a trace of sky, buildings, trees, cows or people. The subject matter is unrelenting, inevitably leading us to contemplate the ultimate return of all living matter to the earth. The composition of Bogland is simple and powerful: a few strong bars set against empty space. A strong directional pull between the two verticals is established, animating the space in between. Collins began his initial exploration of empty, or negative, space in the early 1960s but in the Bog paintings voids are used for even greater emotional effect. Collins wanted his empty spaces to speak. They certainly do that in Bogland, where loneliness and isolation are expressed with a touching poignancy.Dr Frances Ruane HRHA, July 2019
Adam's
Oct. 23, 2019
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Pony Running Wild on ErrisbegOil on board, 60 x 75cm (23¾ x 29¾)SignedExhibited: Tom Caldwell Gallery, Dublin, solo exhibition; Arts Council of Ireland, 'The Delighted Eye', Catalogue No.13; Sligo Art Gallery, 'Pat
Est: €15,000 - €20,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Pony Running Wild on ErrisbegOil on board, 60 x 75cm (23¾ x 29¾)SignedExhibited: Tom Caldwell Gallery, Dublin, solo exhibition; Arts Council of Ireland, 'The Delighted Eye', Catalogue No.13; Sligo Art Gallery, 'Patrick Collins Retrospective', 1985; David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin June 1970, Catalogue No. 1; Cork Arts Society, March 1973, Catalogue No. 28; Belltable Gallery, Limerick, April 1981, Catalogue No. 36.Literature: 'Contemporary Irish Art' by Roderic Knowles, 1982, colour plate p.107; Frances Ruane, 'The Delighted Eye', Arts Councils of Ireland, 1980, illustrated; Frances Ruane, 'Patrick Collins', Arts Councils of Ireland, 1982, pp. 55, 57 (illus), 59, 110.Like most of his works, Ponies Running Wild on Errisbeg was painted from the artists memory because he wanted the physical appearance of the subject to give way to his poetic interpretation, distilled over time. The initial subject is the starting point for a semi-abstract composition that is an independent entity with an internal logic and meaning all its own. Ponies, buildings, boundary walls and mountaintop are fragments of the environment that float on the surface. They are nearly abstract, crusty, staccato surface notations set against an unbounded space. Collins is drawn to subdued colours, with edges softened by the diffused light of an overcast Irish day. The dominant earth tones of this painting are electrified by shafts of pink and yellow-green and by a large patch of watery blue that reflects the sky. In true Collins style, light emanates from somewhere deep under the translucent surface. While some shapes are aligned with the perimeter, others seem to be pulled towards an imaginary central magnetic point. This opposition between edge and centre gives the composition a dynamic rotating movement. Collins is a rare artist who has combined a desire to paint something truly indigenous, romantic subjects at the very heart of rural Ireland, with a sophisticated international approach to abstract picture making. Unlike most Irish landscape painters, Collins consciously avoided depicting the picturesque. Rather than landscape, works like this one are more about the land, with implicit references to use and ownership. Here we can see in the defined edges of the painting, the familiar boundary walls that define a rural holding. This frame within a frame also serves to separate the scene from the observed world, reminding us that Collins has brought it into the timeless realm of poetic imagination. He takes all the intimate furniture of the landscape, all those walls and sheds, and obscures them with mist and light. They become nearly forgotten images from his memory, lost through time in a lonely and desolate landscape.Dr Frances Ruane HRHA, July 2019
Adam's
Oct. 23, 2019
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Menhirs on the PlainOil on board, 34 x 50cm (13¼ x 19½)SignedProvenance: With Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Dublin; with Tom Caldwell Gallery, Dublin.Exhibited: Limerick, Belltable Arts Centre, 'Towards the World's
Est: €8,000 - €12,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Menhirs on the PlainOil on board, 34 x 50cm (13¼ x 19½)SignedProvenance: With Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Dublin; with Tom Caldwell Gallery, Dublin.Exhibited: Limerick, Belltable Arts Centre, 'Towards the World's Edge', 1981, Catalogue No.34.
Adam's
Oct. 23, 2019
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Japanese Flower PieceOil on board, 23 x 37cm (9 x 14½)SignedExhibited: David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, solo exhibition, 1970; Limerick Belltable Arts Centre, 'Towards the World's Edge', 1981, Catalogue No.38.
Est: €5,000 - €7,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Japanese Flower PieceOil on board, 23 x 37cm (9 x 14½)SignedExhibited: David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, solo exhibition, 1970; Limerick Belltable Arts Centre, 'Towards the World's Edge', 1981, Catalogue No.38.
Adam's
Oct. 23, 2019
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Sligo Landscape (1965-67)Oil on canvas 69.5 x 90cm (27¼ x 35½)SignedExhibited: Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, 'Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art', April-July 2019; Edinburgh Open Exhibition, c.1968.
Est: €20,000 - €30,000
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)Sligo Landscape (1965-67)Oil on canvas 69.5 x 90cm (27¼ x 35½)SignedExhibited: Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, 'Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art', April-July 2019; Edinburgh Open Exhibition, c.1968.Literature: NGI, Donal Maguire Ed., Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art, 2019, illustrated p.29.Collins was born in Dromore West, County Sligo, growing up at the edge of Sligo town. He said that his life was shaped by the local countryside far more than by family, friends or school. His complete identification with those rural surroundings consistently formed the foundation of his painting. He turned again and again to painting his youthful memories of roaming the fields near Sligo but was more interested in conjuring up the feelings he experienced when confronting nature rather than picturesque views. In doing so, he created paintings with haunting emotional intensity. Literature also nurtured Collins childhood imagination, with the works of modern Irish writers like W.B. Yeats, Synge and Joyce (particularly Joyce) stimulating him as a young man. He particularly admired Joyce for the way he embraced indigenous Irish subject matter, while he stylistically broke new literary ground internationally. Collins wanted to do the same with painting, which one can see in his approach to Sligo Landscape. The subject springs directly from rural Ireland, where colours are softened by the diffused silvery grey light of an overcast day, with edges softened as if veiled by mist. Although there is the suggestion of hills in the far distance, some bogland, a small stream, divided fields and some cultivation in the foreground, Collins deliberately avoids depicting his subject in a literal way. He identified with what he called the Celtic imagination, where by steering clear of precise representation an artist reveals the essence of a place that hovers beneath the seen surface. Here, he condenses the elemental character of the isolated West-the cold, the wind, the silvery light, the wetness of the atmosphere, the contained fields and the loneliness. However, like Joyce, Collins wanted to express this vision in contemporary terms. In tune with new aesthetic thinking of the mid-1960s he accepts the inherent flatness of the picture surface, reducing the subject to a few nearly abstract lines. These lines are the framework on which Collins can hang the voids, and its in these empty spaces that we find the poetry, the nuances of light and texture, the delicate touch of the brush, the modulations of colour.Sligo Landscape expresses a romantic view of Ireland that grew out of Collins direct experience of a pre-industrialised rural existence, a view nurtured on poetry and ballads. A comment in a review of his very first one man show in 1956 is as pertinent now as then, that Collins stimulates the imagination like the aroma of a forgotten place, calling back the most startling memories.Dr Frances Ruane HRHA, July 2019
Adam's
Oct. 21, 2019
Patrick Collins RHA (1911-1994) The Penitent Thief (1989)
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Patrick Collins RHA (1911-1994) The Penitent Thief (1989) oil on canvas signed and dated h:73.50 w:62 cm. Provenance: Private Collection Patrick Collins is best known for his lyrical treatments of the Irish landscape as a realm both mythical and down to earth: ancient monuments in vast tracts of bog, smallholdings on which farmers eke out a tenuous living, all enlivened by a luminous, watery light. Late in his life, his work took an unexpected turn. He became interested in classical Chinese painting with its disregard for Western perspective, setting off on a journey of exploration that led him to use irregularly shaped canvases. Biblical subjects are a rarity for him. He brings his sensitive feeling for colour to this boldly composed figurative study of the thief who appealed to Christ on the cross.
Morgan O'Driscoll
Apr. 29, 2019
Patrick Collins RHA (1911-1994) Onward Way (1986)
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
Patrick Collins RHA (1911-1994) Onward Way (1986) oil on canvas signed lower right and dated 1986 h:60 w:73 cm. Provenance: Private Collection Celebrated for the dreamy intensity of his lyrical Irish landscapes, Patrick Collins was fascinated by the way that the landscape - bogland, ragged pasture, ancient monuments, smallholdings, the Atlantic shore - was imbued with a mystical, Celtic aura. In the 1980s he became interested in Chinese painting, admiring the way it transcended Western perspective and he began to experiment with freeing himself from traditional perspective. The result was a series of cut-out canvases, works that allowed him to figuratively soar above the landscape, like a bird.
Morgan O'Driscoll
Dec. 05, 2018
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)CrucifixionOil on board, 32 x 25cm (12½ x 9¾'')SignedProvenance: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin (label verso)
Est: €1,500 - €2,500
Patrick Collins HRHA (1911-1994)CrucifixionOil on board, 32 x 25cm (12½ x 9¾'')SignedProvenance: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin (label verso)
Adam's
Nov. 26, 2018
Patrick Collins HRHA (1910-1994) THE QUEEN'S BATHING PLACE
Est: €10,000 - €15,000
signed lower right
Whyte's
Nov. 13, 2018
Patrick Collins Untitled
Est: £2,000 - £3,000
Patrick Collins Untitled Oil on Board 18" x 22"
Gormleys Art Auctions
Nov. 12, 2018
Patrick Collins RHA (1911-1994) Still Life
Est: €5,000 - €7,000
Patrick Collins RHA (1911-1994) Still Life oil on canvas signed lower left h:52 w:61 cm. Provenance: Tom Caldwell Gallery, Belfast (label verso); Collection of the late Vincent Ferguson; Thence by Descent Late in life, Patrick Collins developed an interest in and respect for classical Chinese painting. This led him to move away from the conventional compositional rectangle and experiment with shaped canvases. It was a controversial move that unsettled many of those familiar with his earlier work. The late Vincent Ferguson was in tune with Collins' artistic vision and was one of his few patrons to realise the significance of this late development in his style.
Morgan O'Driscoll