WHYTE'S THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR SATURDAY & SUNDAY 25 & 26 July 2020

144 History 265 1921 (November) A rare drawing of Michael Collins during the Irish Treaty negotiations in London and a 1922 drawing of Arthur Griffith The drawings are by Frank Leah (1886-1972) . The portrait of Collins is inscribed “Jermyn Court Hotel London” and is a unique depiction during the negotiations - in fact there are very few original professional portraits of Collins from life. The Griffith drawing is inscribed “President Griffith sketched in Govt. Buildings a month before he died” Private collection; Whyte’s, 29 November 2005, lot 56; Apollo Gallery, Dublin; Private collection, Dublin Condition: Framed and glazed, no apparent faults, fine. The Griffith drawing measures 13.5 by 10 inches. Frank Leah, born in Stockport, was the eldest child of a large working class family and left home aged 15, making his home in Dublin. He worked as a cartoonist and caricaturist for Dublin newspapers. He was the art editor for five Dublin journals including the Weekly Freeman, contributed cartoons to the Dublin Evening Telegraph, and was an illustrator for The Irish Limelight, a short-lived Dublin periodical devoted to cinema and theatre. His portraits of Irish theatrical personalities were collected by Joseph Holloway and later donated to the National Library of Ireland. In 1917 he was the animator of the first Irish animated film, Ten Days’ Leave, directed by Jack Warren, the editor of The Irish Limelight. He later moved to London, where he became a psychic artist, painting the “spirits” he perceived accompanying his sitters, and his paintings apparently sometimes bore a striking resemblance to deceased relatives and friends of the sitter, whom he had not met. He featured regularly in Psychic News over forty years. Estimate €3000-€5000 (approx £2,730-£4,550) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot 265