Today Sotheby’s celebrates the diversity and innovative spirit of British Art with the fourth instalment of its much-anticipated Made in Britain sale, with pieces ranging in price from just £200 to £60,000 and spanning fine art, prints, sculpture, photography, studio ceramics and design
Encompassing almost 250 artworks, the sale illustrates the very significant role that Britain played in the development of modernism internationally, and is the ideal opportunity for buyers, old and new, to collect works by some of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century, from L.S. Lowry, Damien Hirst, Patrick Heron and Norman Parkinson to Frank Auerbach, Mary Fedden (pictured top) and David Hockney.
ART, LIFE & LITERATURE: THE COLLECTION OF MARTYN GOFF
Nineteen works from the collection of the late Martyn Goff, the much-loved writer and driving force behind the Booker prize, will be offered in the sale – each piece carrying a strong Neo-Romantic theme. A highlight from the collection is a maquette for Henry Moore’s screen (below) created for the iconic Time-Life building in Mayfair (est. £15,000-£20,000). Conceived in 1952, Moore discussed that his commission was brought about because ‘Architecture is the poorer for the absence of sculpture and… the sculptor, by not collaborating with the architect, misses opportunities of his work being used socially and being seen by a wider public.’
Christopher Wood’s On the Quay (below, est. £40,000-60,000) was painted in 1926 when the artist was at the height of his career, just four years before his tragic suicide. The little cameo of a fisherman and his wife cradling a baby is strongly reminiscent of one of Wood’s most famous paintings, The Fisherman’s Farewell, which depicts Ben and Winifred Nicholson and their baby son Jake and is on view at The Tate. A major retrospective on Wood opens at Pallant House Gallery this summer, the first in over 35 years to provide a comprehensive overview of the artist’s career.
Garden of Gethsemane (below) by David Bomberg (est. £30,000-50,000) was painted in the 1920s, the most desirable period of the artist’s career. Following his experiences as a private soldier in the trenches, Bomberg travelled widely through the Middles East and Europe – moving his art to a more figurative style dominated by landscapes drawn from nature.
Three works by Keith Vaughn (below) also form part of the collection. The poetry of Rimbaud formed a central part of Vaughan’s literary diet and, being fluent in French, he read the prose poems in their original language. Mauvis Sang: An Illustration to Une Saison en Enfer (est. £6,000-8,000) is one of his very first attempts at visualising the young poet’s work and was made in 1949. A highly evocative drawing, it sums up both the style and the imagery associated with British Neo-Romanticism with its dark, brooding, monochromatic landscape and desolate atmosphere.
PAINTINGS
‘For a very long time now, I have realised that my overriding interest is colour. Colour is both the subject and the means; the form and the content; the images and the meaning’. The early 1960s saw a sharp change in Patrick Heron’s visual language and Violet Painting with Orange, Lemon and Black (est. £40,000-60,000) encapsulates the use of colour in explosive fashion. Shown at the 1965 São Paulo Biennale, as well as the artist’s 1967 Retrospective in Oslo, this work epitomises Heron’s position as one of the most important voices in abstraction at the time.
‘You see these people in the street.. they stand at street corners and they are staring at something and you wonder what they are thinking when they are staring. Have you ever noticed them’. L.S. Lowry’s Three Children (below, est. £40,000-60,000) is a charming, small-scale figure painting by one of Britain’s best-known and best-loved artists.
The sale also offers a wonderfully characterful painting by Gary Bunt – the artist’s debut at auction. Parsnips, Sprouts and Greens (est. £4,000-6,000) is painted in the artist’s typically naïve style. He describes the scene, ‘he’s picking the veg for Christmas lunch… but it’s sausages wrapped in bacon that fill my doggy dreams’.
ICONIC PHOTOGRAPHS
The selection of photographs in the auction bring to life the glamorous worlds of British film, photography and fashion. Terence Donovan came to prominence in the 1960s as part of the era of ‘Swinging London’ and along with David Bailey and Brian Duffy revolutionised the world of magazine photography. Donovan socialised with musicians, royalty and actors becoming the first real celebrity photographers. Featured in the sale are photographs he took of Sean Connery (below) during an advertising shoot for Smirnoff in 1962 (est. £2,500-3,500), Julie Christie (est. £1,500-2,000) and Twiggy in 1962 (est. £1,500-2,000).
Photographs by Norman Parkinson include a series of model Jerry Hall in Russia – whose career he launched (est. £4,000-6,000). The images are from 1975, when Vogue was one of the first fashion magazines to be invited to carry out fashion shoots in Russia.
Terry O’Neill photographed Faye Dunaway (main image and below) in 1977 (est. £6,000-8,000) in the early morning light, surrounded by newspaper headlines detailing her Oscar night win, as she sits in a daze beside the pool and dines on the Beverly Hills Hotel breakfast. O’Neill had met her just the week before and would go on to marry and then divorce her over the coming decade. He recalls that he was aiming to capture ‘that state of utter shock that Oscar winners enter, where they go to bed thrilled, then overnight, it dawns on them that they’ve changed, that they’ve just become a star.’
A vintage Christmas card titled Darling, We Must Be in the Battersea Park (est. £3,000-5,000) by Angus McBean will be offered from the collection of the artist’s biographer, Adrian Woodhouse. The photograph is of a bust of Zeus, purchased by McBean in 1948 for £30 – the very same bust selling for $3.13 million at Sotheby’s New York in June 2015.
WORKS ON PAPER
An impressive group of works on paper is led by Henry Moore’s Seated Nude in a Wicker Chair, 1934, above (est. £20,000 – 30,000), providing a fascinating insight to Moore’s impeccable skill as a draughtsman. Further affordable works on paper by the likes of Eduardo Paolozzi (below) est. £400 – 600), L.S. Lowry (est. from £3,000) will also be presented in the sale.
Four original drawings by Frank Auerbach (below), given to the artist’s muse J.Y.M on envelopes over a period of 30 years, are being offered directly from the sitter’s family with an estimate of £1,000-1,500.
CERAMICS
Responding to the recent insatiable demand in the market, the sale also features an impressive collection of British studio ceramics noted for their sculptural qualities – including works by Lucie Rie, Edmund de Waal and Gordon Baldwin.
Commissioned directly from the artist by the present owners in 1987, this brilliant Emerald Green Bowl with Oxide Decoration by Lucie Rie (above) will be offered with an estimate of £12,000-18,000. Rie used a fascinating technique, and raw-glazed her stoneware pieces, giving them only one firing – allowing the body and glaze to mature at the same time, achieving wonderful fusion and captivatingly rich colours. Part of an impressive Private Collection of ceramics all acquired directly from the makers by the present owners, including pieces by John Ward, Rupert Spira and Michael Cardew, with estimates ranging from £200.
PRINTS
And finally, the exciting group of British prints included in the sale is led by Lucian Freud’s Garden in Winter (est. £30,000-50,000) – a beautifully made etching, which engulfs the viewer with its intense depiction of nature. One of four prints by the artist included in the sale.
Two butterfly screenprints with diamond dust by Damien Hirst (above) will be offered with an estimate of £15,000-20,000. A number of stunning prints by the celebrated proponent of optical art Bridget Riley will also be represented in the sale, with estimates starting at £1,000.
MADE IN BRITAIN is at Sotheby’s London, 16 March 2016
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