134
John Francis Kavanagh RBS (1903-1984)
Currency:EUR
Category:Everything Else / Other
Start Price:NA
Auction Date:2004 Sep 21 @ 18:00 (UTC)
Location:Ireland
John Francis Kavanagh RBS (1903-1984)
CORA ANN: THE SPIRIT OF YOUTH
signed and dated [1936] on fore-edge of base
cast bronze (unique)
76cm., 30in. high
Provenance:
Commissioned as a memorial to a retiring headmistress at Roundhay Girls’ High School, Leeds;
Private collection, Cumbria
Exhibited:
Royal Academy, London, 1936 (maquette for the present work);
‘John F. Kavanagh, Sculptor: An Exhibition of Sculpture and Models from the Collection of the Artist’, Auckland City Art Gallery, New Zealand, August - October 1979, catalogue no. 5 (another maquette)
Literature:
Theo Snoddy, Dictionary of Irish Artists 20th Century, Merlin Publishing, Dublin, 2003 (2nd edition), p. 296
Born in Birr, Co. Offaly, and educated at the Christian Brothers’ College in Cork, Kavanagh began modelling in clay at the age of sixteen following a fall into a quarry which left him bed-ridden for three years. Discovering he had a talent for such work, he enrolled at the Cork School of Art and, in 1920-1921, at the Liverpool School of Art. He returned to Cork, only to win a scholarship in 1925 which enabled him to enrol in the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London. There he studied under William Rothenstein, A. Ernest Cole, Gilbert Ledward and Henry Moore. In 1928, whilst still a student, he was appointed assistant to sculptor Charles Sargeant Jagger and was responsible two years later for completing one of Jagger’s commissions: the cast elephants outside the New Residence in Delhi, India.
In 1929 Kavanagh won the RCA travelling scholarship, with which he studied in Berlin, Munich, Vienna and Paris. The following year he enrolled at the British School in Rome and there won the Rome Prize in Sculpture. The Royal Academy subsidised a third year of study in Rome, so that between 1931-1933 Kavanagh was able to absorb the lessons of classical Greek and Italian art. He soon began exhibiting at the RA in London and at the Paris Salon, winning medals and honourable mentions.
On his return from Rome in 1934 he was appointed Head of the Department of Sculpture and Modelling at the Leeds College of Art, a position he held for six years. During this period he completed numerous public commissions including the present work, which Snoddy (op. cit.) describes thus: "Dated 1936, and placed on top of a granite plinth some 140cm high [since lost], is a bronze 76cm high of a classical female athlete carrying a torch and set on a diamond shaped base at Roundhay School in Leeds".
Further successes followed. The Chantrey Bequest purchased his Head of a Russian Peasant in 1943 (now in the Tate Gallery, London). His eleven foot high statue of the Dominican preacher Father Burke stands in Galway, at the junction of the Grattan and Father Griffin Roads. In 1950 he won a competition to design a monument to those who died in the 1916 Easter Rising, to be situated outside the Customs House in Dublin. Sadly, he could not complete the commission, having been appointed Senior Lecturer in Sculpture at the Elam School of Fine Art in the University of Auckland, New Zealand. There he was to spend the rest of his years, with the Auckland City Art Gallery according him a retrospective towards the end of his career, in 1979.
€4000-€6000 (£2700-£4000 sterling approx.)
Auction Location:
Ireland
Previewing Details:
Saturday & Sunday, 18 & 19, 10am-6pm
Monday September 20, 10am to 9pm
Tuesday September 21 (day of sale) 10am to 2pm
Additional Fees:
Shipping Details:
No Info Available
Payment Details:
No Info Available
Accepted Payment Methods:
Whyte & Sons Auctioneers Limited, trading as Whyte's, hereinafter called "the auctioneer" exercises all reasonable care to ensure that all descriptions are reliable and accurate, and that each item is genuine unless the contrary is indicated. However, the descriptions are not intended to be, are not and are not to be taken to be, statements of fact or representations of fact in relation to the lot. They are statements of the opinion of the auctioneers, and attention is particularly drawn to clause 5 set out below. Comments and opinions, which may be found in or on lots as labels, notes, lists, catalogue prices, or any other means of expression, do not constitute part of lot descriptions and are not to be taken as such unless they are made or specifically verified by the auctioneers.
<p>Clause 1 (a) Each lot is put up subject to any reserve price imposed by the vendor
(b) Subject to sub-clause (a) of this clause, the highest bidder for each lot shall be the purchaser thereof
(c) If any dispute arises as to the highest bidder the auctioneer shall have absolute discretion to determine the dispute and may put up again and re-sell the lot in respect of which the dispute arises
Clause 2 (a) The bidding and advances shall be regulated by and at the absolute discretion of the auctioneer and he shall have the right to refuse any bid or bids. NOTE: Where an agent bids, even on behalf of a disclosed client, the auctioneer nevertheless has the right at his discretion to refuse any such bid.
(b) The purchaser of each lot shall immediately on its sale, if required by the auctioneer, give him the name and address of the purchaser and pay to the auctioneer at his discretion the whole or part of the purchase money. If the purchaser of any lot fails to comply with any such requirement the auctioneer may put up again and re-sell the lot; if upon such re-sale a lower price is obtained than was obtained on the first sale the purchaser in default on the first sale shall make good the difference in price and expenses of re-sale which shall become a debt due from him.
(c) Where an agent purchases on behalf of an undisclosed client such agent shall be personally liable for payment of the purchase money to the auctioneer and for safe delivery of the lot to the said client.
Clause 3 (a) The auctioneer reserves the rights to bid on behalf of clients including vendors, but shall not be liable for errors or omissions in executing instructions to bid.
(b) The auctioneer reserves the rights, before or during a sale, to group together lots belonging to the same vendor, to split up and to withdraw any lot or lots at the auctioneer's absolute discretion and without giving any reason in any case.
(c) The auctioneer acts as agent only, and therefore shall not be liable for any default of the purchaser or vendor.
Clause 4 (a) Each lot shall be at the purchaser's risk from the fall of the hammer and shall be paid for in full before delivery and taken away at his expense within one day of the sale. The buyer will be responsible for all removal, storage and insurance charges in respect of any lot which has not been collected within one day of the date of sale. (b) If any purchaser fails to pay in full for any lot within 21 days of the date of sale such lot may at any time thereafter at the auctioneer's discretion be put up for sale by auction again or sold privately; if upon such re-sale a lower price is obtained than was obtained on the first sale the purchaser in default on the first sale shall make good the difference in price and the expenses of re-sale which shall become debt due from him. (c) Interest at 2 per cent per month and legal costs (if any) for recovery of monies due shall be payable by the purchaser on any overdue account.
Clause 5 (a) All lots are made available for inspection before each sale and each buyer, by making a bid, acknowledges that he has satisfied himself as to the physical condition, age and catalogue description of each lot (including but not restricted to whether the lot is damaged or has been repaired or restored).
(b) All lots are sold with all faults and imperfections and errors of description and the Auctioneer and its employees, servants or agents shall not be responsible for any error of description or for the condition or authenticity of any lot, save for Clause 5 (c) below. Written or verbal condition reports may be supplied by the Auctioneer on request but these are merely statements of opinion, and any error or omission in these reports may not be taken as grounds for a cancellation of sale or refund of any part of the purchase price or the cost of any repairs to the lot or lots reported on
(c) A purchaser shall be at liberty to reject any lot if he - (i) gives the auctioneer written notice of intention to question the genuineness of the lot within seven days from the date of sale; AND (ii) proves that the lot is a deliberate forgery and (iii) returns to the auctioneer within 20 days from the date of sale the lot in the same condition as it was at the time of sale; provided that the auctioneer may, at his discretion, on receiving a request in writing from the purchaser, extend for a reasonable period the time for return of the lot to enable it to be submitted to expertisation. NOTE: The onus of proving a lot to be a deliberate forgery is on the purchaser.
(d) Where a lot has been submitted to expertisation, all costs of such expertisation shall be paid by the person who retains the certificate of expertisation and item or items to which the certificate relates.
(e) Where the purchaser of a lot discharges the onus and acts in accordance with sub-clause (b) of this clause, the auctioneer shall rescind the sale and repay to the purchaser the purchase money paid by him in respect of the lot.
(f) No lot shall be rejected if, subsequent to the sale, it has been marked by an expert committee or treated by any other process unless the auctioneer's permission to subject the lot to such treatment has first been obtained in writing.
(g) Any lot listed as a "collection, range, portfolio etc." or stated to comprise or contain a collection or range of items which are not described shall be put up for sale not subject to rejection and shall be taken by the purchaser with all (if any) faults, lack of genuineness and errors of description and numbers of items in the lot, and the purchaser shall have no right to reject the lot; except that, notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this sub-clause, where before a sale a person intending to bid at the sale gives notice in writing to, and satisfies the auctioneer that any such lot contains any item or items undescribed in the sale catalogue and that person specifically describes that item or those items in that notice, then that item or those items shall, as between the auctioneer and that person, to be taken to form part of the description of the lot. Clause 6 The respective rights and obligations of the parties shall be governed and interpreted by Irish law, and the buyer hereby submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Irish Courts.
<p>SPECIAL CONDITIONS
(a) The buyer shall pay the Auctioneer a commission at the rate of 15% (which includes VAT at 21% under The Margin Scheme and which is not reclaimable) of the purchase price of the first €40,000 of any one lot and 12.5% (which includes VAT at 21% under The Margin Scheme and which is not reclaimable) of the excess above €40,000.
(b) The Auctioneer or its employees, servants or agents may, on request organise packing and shipping of lots purchased or may order on the buyer's behalf third parties to pack or ship purchases. Under no circumstances does the Auctioneer accept any liability whatsoever for any loss or damage howsoever occasioned in the course of such service.
(c) The buyer authorises the Auctioneer to use any photographs or illustrations of any lot purchased for any or all purposes as the Auctioneer may require. The placing of a bid will be taken as full agreement to all the above conditions.
<p>
WHYTE & SONS AUCTIONEERS LIMITED 38 Molesworth Street, Dublin 2