Rather than investing in contemporary artists whose work is currently selling well, what if you decided instead to take a longer-term view and invest in the work of artists whose paintings aren’t making high prices at the moment?

There are a number of Irish artists born in the 19th century whose work is currently selling for a fraction of the price of works by more contemporary artists. Their somewhat romantic representation of the landscape is in stark contrast to more abstract landscape paintings of contemporary artists; but this gentleness has an appeal all of its own.

Arabella Bishop, independent art adviser, says there is a lot of good value in the period. “There were a lot of very talented Irish artists painting in the 19thth century who are often overlooked now,” she says. She mentions artists such as Sir Frederick Burton, Richard Thomas Moynan, Bartholomew Watkins, Andrew Nicholl and Daniel Maclise – all of whom have pieces in the National Gallery of Ireland.

In terms of work for sale at auctions, paintings by William Percy French (1854-1920) often come up. Roscommon-born Percy French began songwriting while studying engineering at Trinity College Dublin. He also became a prolific painter of landscapes in watercolour and considered art to be his true vocation, according the Cavan County Museum, which has a Percy French gallery. His painting Peat Stacks, Connemara (€1,500-€2,500) is for sale in Morgan O’Driscoll’s current online art auction.

Mildred Anne Butler (1858-1941) is another artist worth considering for anyone starting an art collection. One of Ireland’s first professional female artists, who exhibited widely, she sold well throughout her career. The gardens and fields of her family home in Kilmurray, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny were the inspiration for a lot of her paintings. Butler’s Garden at Kilmurray (€2,500-€3,500) is also in Morgan O’Driscoll’s current online art auction.

Roscommon- born artist Seamus Coleman, who died in January 2025, is a more contemporary artist who also focused on landscapes and countryside scenes, albeit with a more vibrant palette. Cutting Turf, Connemara (€600-€900), will appeal to anyone who remembers the back-breaking work of cutting turf for winter fuel, a common activity for decades in this country.

Dublin-born and Sligo based artist Sean McSweeney (1935-2018) was a self-taught artist influenced by artists including Jack B Yeats. His abstract landscape painting entitled Evening Bogland (2004) – also for sale at Morgan O’Driscoll’s art auction – is in stark contrast to the aforementioned more representational works by French, Butler and Coleman.

Letitia Marion Hamilton (1878-1964) is an Irish artist who worked and exhibited internationally. As with several artists from the period, landscapes, market and hunting scenes were the focus of her work. A small framed print, entitled Fair Day at Castlepollard, has an estimate of €100 to €150, and the sale includes two other prints at Lot 100’s current online auction of 20th and 21st century art.

The Lot 100 auction house, based in Lismore, Co Waterford, specifically aims to attract new collectors with its wide range of prints and affordable paintings.

The current online auction – which ends on September 15th – also has some fascinating pieces by Felix Faulkner, who is based in Cappoquin, Co Waterford. Faulkner’s vibrant work offers buyers a much more modern take on rural Ireland where tractors, sheds, containers and other paraphernalia are elevated simply by being chosen as objects for her landscape paintings. The piece, Clontarf St, Cork, with an estimate of €400-€600 is one such entry-level piece.

Finally, collectors of rare and vintage books should take some time to check the catalogue for Purcell’s upcoming books auction on September 16th.

The WB Yeats sale is mainly made up of the libraries of the late Prof Warwick Gould and his wife Deirdre Toomey, both of whom were prominent Yeats scholars. Australian-born Gould was the founding director of the Institute of English Studies at the University of London, and an internationally renowned scholar of Irish and English literature. He is best known for his work on the Irish Literary Revival and WB Yeats in particular. Toomey, also a Yeats scholar, co-edited The Collected Letters of WB Yeats Volume 2 1896-1900 with Gould and John Kelly. The couple were both frequent visitors to the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo.

As well as a vast collection of various editions of Yeats poetry books (some of which are signed by the poet), and two striking photographic portraits of WB Yeats by Alexander Robert Hogg from 1931 (€400-€800 each), the auction has other gems. These include the complete volume of the Letters of Virginia Woolf; a book on Irish lace-making by Eileen O’Connor (with pattern sheets); and the lesser known collection of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales, A House of Pomegranates (1891) for €600-€900.

Book auctions such as this one are also excellent places to buy books to fill a new library. Purcell’s has up to 20 lots of mixed book collections, with estimates of €60-€120 per lot.

Morganodriscoll.com; lot100.ie; purcellauctioneers.ie

What did it sell for?

Diamond rivière necklace

Estimate: €45,000-€55,000

Hammer price: €44,000

Auction house: John Weldon

Rolex Explorer wrist watch

Estimate: €4,500-€5,500

Hammer price: €4,600

Auction house: John Weldon

Irish George IV silver tea set

Estimate: €2,500-€3,500

Hammer price: €2,600

Auction house: Adam’s

Silver entrée dish

Estimate: €1,200-€1,800

Hammer price: €1,500

Auction house: Adam’s