London – Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale achieved a total £11,522,800 / €13,251,220 / $14,034,770. Barbara Hepworth’s monumental sculpture Three Obliques (Walk In) led the sale, realising a top price of £5,830,000. The work was part of a series intended to be set in open-air surroundings and invoke a new understanding of landscape.

Ben Nicholson’s dynamic and complex abstraction, painting 1938 (red circle), formerly in The Distinguished Collection of Kate and Allan Emil, sold for £1,371,000, while from the same collection, Nicholson's 1943 (painted relief), which reflects the light and colour of the Cornish landscape, achieved £201,600.

Robyn Denny’s The Austin Reed Mural set a new world auction record for the artist of £352,800 (previous record: £51,650). The painting was commissioned for Austin Reed’s clothing store on Regent Street and was charged with encapsulating the spirit of optimism and confidence in London at the end of the 1950s.

Lynn Chadwick’s towering bronze sculpture portraying a Teddy Boy and his girlfriend, Teddy Boy and Girl, in the startling form of a twinned monument sold for £819,000. Additional sculptural highlights include Chadwick’s Maquette Jubilee II (£441,000) and Henry Moore’s Mother and Child Against Open Wall, which realised £201,600.

Further highlights included:

• Allen Jones’s Untitled (self portrait) (£163,800) depicts the artist peering out from a bus window (estimate: £50,000-80,000)
• Howard Hodgkin’s A Small Henry Moore at the Bottom of the Garden (£478,800)
• William Turnbull’s large and vibrant canvas, 12-1960 (Expanding Red), sold for £107,100
• Edward Wadsworth’s Self Portrait in a Turban (£75,600) was sold by the artist’s family
• Cedric Morris’s Richard Chopping (£239,400)
• S. Lowry’s Bandstand, Peel Park, depicting city dwellers in a moment of brief refuge from the urban industrial landscape, sold for £604,800
• Leon Kossoff’s Fidelma No. 1 (£138,600) is a poignant portrait of one of the artist’s most important models, Fidelma Kavanagh

This is London. Everchanging. Forever Captivating.

This October, Christie’s celebrates ‘This is London’, reflecting the unique energy of the British capital, aligning with the 20th anniversary of Frieze London. London is, and always has been, a city of change, evolution, inclusion, dynamism, tradition and modernity. Christie’s explores the infinite ways artists draw inspiration from the everchanging, yet forever captivating London, and at the heart of this is our 20/21 sale series.

Sales continue with The Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale on 19 October.