Private collection of ‘art whisperers’ Mary and Alan Hobart comes to market

In 2023, the Irish Museum of Modern Art held an exhibition, Championing Irish Art: The Mary and Alan Hobart Collection. The show had a selection of Irish works, from first World War artists (William Orpen, John Lavery) to modernist pieces by Mary Swanzy and Jack B Yeats and abstractions of the 1960s and 1970s by Michael Farrell and Charles Tyrell. Works responding to the conflict in Northern Ireland by Rita Duffy, William Crozier and FE McWilliams also featured.
Mary Hobart (nee McKenna), who was originally from Monaghan but grew up in London and her Devon-born husband, Alan, promoted Irish art internationally through their Pyms Gallery in London. An introductory essay to the aforementioned show at Imma noted how crucial the gallery was in the development of a market for Irish art. “Against the background of the conflict in Northern Ireland, London in the early 1980s was a hostile environment to fly the flag for Irish culture, but the Hobarts succeeded in dramatically raising the reputation – and value – of Irish art,” it noted.
Now, international fine art auctioneers Christie’s are handling the executor sale of the private collection of Mary and Alan Hobart in their London office on November 19th at 1pm. Mary Hobart died in 2023 and her husband predeceased her in 2021.
[ Irish art by Hughie O’Donoghue, Jack B Yeats, Paul Henry, William Orpen and Louis le Brocquy hits the marketOpens in new window ]
Many of the 200 lots – 75 per cent of which are paintings, drawings and sculptures, with the remaining lots made up of furniture and decorative objects from the Hobarts’ homes in London and Cap Ferrat in the south of France – will be exhibited in the Irish Georgian Society’s headquarters at City Assembly House, 58 South William Street, Dublin 2, October 23rd-24th at 10am-5pm each day.
The Hobarts first opened Pyms Gallery on the Brompton Road in Knightsbridge in 1975. It was named after their favourite drink, Pimms. They moved their gallery to Belgravia in 1980, and then in 1994 to Mount Street in Mayfair, near their home on Farm Street. In 2013 they closed their gallery but continued to see clients in their home for a number of years. They were patrons of the Royal Academy and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and were also involved in the London chapter of the Irish Georgian Society.
Neither had formal training as artists or art historians, but they had an instinctive commercial flair and a desire to promote Irish and British artists who had not yet been discovered. Alan noted how a country’s art market took off once its economy did, and they took a gamble that the same would be the case for Ireland, and that the newly wealthy Irish would be patriotic in their purchases.
He was right.
Prominent successful Irish people, including Ryanair founder Tony Ryan; businessman Martin Naughton and his wife, Carmel; Irish bookmaker and boxing promoter Barney Eastwood; and members of U2, were all frequent visitors to the gallery.
As one writer put it, “the Hobarts became tastemakers and art whisperers, advising the National Gallery of Ireland as well as private collectors”.
Elizabeth Comba, the curator of the Christie’s auction, says the Hobarts were particularly keen on promoting female artists. “Soon after they opened their gallery, they took on the estate of Mary Swanzy (1882-1978), with many pieces not stretched or framed,” says Comba. “Then they went on to make a market for her work – so much so that they sold her painting Propellers to the National Gallery of Ireland in 2006.”
[ Mary Swanzy: From strait-laced girl to first Irish cubistOpens in new window ]
The Hobarts also discovered the Argentina-born British surrealist painter, photographer and object-maker, Eileen Agar (1899-1991), whose work was celebrated in the retrospective exhibition Angel of Anarchy at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in 2021. They sold art and sculptures from all eras to museums across the world.
Some of the highlights from the forthcoming Christie’s auction include O’Connell Bridge by Jack B Yeats (£500,000 (€600,000); Crossroads Dancing by Rita Duffy (£5,000-£8,000); Female Nudes with Horse and Viaduct by Mary Swanzy (£30,000-£50,000); and All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix (£20-000-£30,000) by Eileen Agar.
Meanwhile, the Potomack Company auction house in Alexandria, Virginia, is keen to highlight some Irish paintings for auction on October 8th and 9th that were part of the Irish art collection of the late American appeals court judge Hon Francis D Murnaghan jnr.
Murnaghan, who lived in Baltimore, was the nephew of James Augustine Murnaghan (1881-1973), who served on the Supreme Court of Ireland and was a trustee of the National Gallery of Ireland.
Paintings of note for auction include a portrait of Grace Orpen (nee Knewstub) by her husband, the artist William Orpen. The painting, Grace Orpen Reading by a Window circa 1901, was gifted by the artist to his daughter, Kit Casey, who sold it at auction in 1982. It was then that the painting was purchased by Murnaghan. It is now for sale for an estimate of $40,000-$60,000 (€35,800-€53,750). Another painting in the sale is Woman with Vase of Flowers by Colin Middleton (estimate $10,000-$20,000).
christies.com, potomackco.com
Estimate €8,000-€12,000
Hammer price €13,000
Auction house Whyte’s
Estimate €15,000-€20,000
Hammer price Not sold
Auction house Whyte’s
Estimate €20,000
Hammer price €18,000
Auction house Adams
Estimate €30,000-€50,000
Hammer price Unsold
Auction house Adams