# Frank McKelvey artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/frank-mckelvey/
Profile generated: 2026-08-19T17:26:08.265Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: Irish
- Common media: Painting

## About Frank McKelvey

Frank McKelvey (1895–1974) was an Irish painter associated with Belfast. Library authority records consistently identify him as a painter, while Art UK catalogs him under the same life dates. Available public evidence connects his practice particularly with landscape and portrait painting. One documented work, A Large Curragh of the Aran Island Type, West of Ireland, depicts figures in a traditional boat beside the Irish coast and illustrates the western landscape subjects associated with his work. Collectors encounter McKelvey primarily through paintings, with auction records also grouping some works under works on paper and prints. His identity is supported by linked records from VIAF, Getty ULAN, Wikidata, the Library of Congress, RKD, and Art UK. The collected sources do not establish a specific formal movement or complete career chronology, so the most reliable description is that of a twentieth-century Irish landscape and portrait painter.

## Common works and media

McKelvey is chiefly encountered as a painter. Available public documentation associates him with Irish landscapes and portraiture, including western coastal subjects such as boats, figures, cliffs, and shoreline settings. Auction records may also classify some entries as works on paper or prints. Medium, support, dimensions, signature, inscriptions, condition, and attribution should be verified for each object rather than inferred from its subject alone.

## Market and appraisal context

Frank McKelvey's market should be assessed through closely comparable works rather than a single headline result. The available Appraisily record set includes public sales across multiple decades and reports paintings as the principal auction category, with some works on paper and prints also represented. Relevant comparisons should align medium, dimensions, subject, date, condition, restoration history, provenance, and attribution confidence. Signatures, inscriptions, exhibition history, and catalogue references may provide additional context. Realized prices can differ in whether buyer's premiums or fees are included, and public records do not capture every private transaction. A current appraisal should therefore verify the object itself and compare it with recent, genuinely similar lots.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist-identity research with matched public auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Private sales, incomplete feeds, fee-reporting differences, and later attribution changes may not be fully represented.

## Sources

- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/74658087/
- Art UK: https://artuk.org/discover/artists/mckelvey-frank-18951974
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500099440
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5488325
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_McKelvey
- Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Large_Curragh_of_the_Aran_Island_Type,_West_of_Ireland_RMG_BHC1661.tiff
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/frank-mckelvey/