IMPORTANT IRISH ART 1 DECEMBER 2025

110 76 John Shinnors (b.1950) RECLINING FEMALE FIGURE, c. 1985 oil on panel signed lower right 36 by 57in. (91.4 by 144.8cm) Frame Size: 37 by 58in. (94 by 147.3cm) Provenance: Commissioned by Michael Fagan, Glentworth Hotel, Limerick, c.1985; Private collection Reclining Female Figure is a large and unusually louche painting by John Shinnors. His occasional nudes tend to be semi- abstract exercises in chiaroscuro with the female form an almost ethereal presence. While many of his early paintings owed something to his close friend and mentor Jack Donovan, this was usually the surrealist flavour rather than any erotic focus. Much of Donovan’s oeuvre was a celebration of the female form - including a phase in the Seventies where he used collage sourced in soft-porn magazines. This Shinnors work is unusual then in that it also carries a suggestion of those naughty days when Penthouse and Mayfair were considered subversive of the nation’s morals. However, it was not painted for a living room on the Ennis Road but rather to cater to the tastes of those who liked to stay out late and keep the party going. It was commissioned by Michael Fagan the manager of the fabled Glentworth Hotel in the centre of Limerick. At one time this hotel was one of Limerick’s most popular hotels and nightspots. Fagan was opening a new night club in the hotel, and he wanted some artwork that would complement his vision for a space where nighthawks gather. It was one of a set of three paintings. Shinnors couldn’t recall the exact date he painted them, when I spoke to him recently, but he estimated it as being around 1985. The closest to this painting in style was another commission done by Shinnors, Picture of Christine Keeler (1980), (sold through these rooms as lot 63, 2 October, 2023), which also featured a woman with a sexual swagger. The model was a local who had posed for him regularly, but he declined (gallantly perhaps) to name her. The Glentworth Hotel is sadly long gone. It became Pery’s Hotel for a period before being sold for apartments in 2024. This Shinnors painting may soon be all that remains of it. John P. O’Sullivan, October 2025 €15,000-€20,000 (£13,160-£17,540 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot76