Barbara Hepworth Sculpture

Is Among the Highlights of Christie’s

Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale

on 25 June

 London – Christie’s is pleased to announce details of the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale which will take place on 25 June, 2015. Featuring 40 lots, the auction presents stellar examples of 20^th century British sculpture and painting including Dame Barbara Hepworth’s Two Forms with White (Greek) (estimate: £1.3 -1.8 million), Going to Work by L.S. Lowry (estimate: £700,000-1 million), and Sir Stanley Spencer’s Hilda and I at Burghclere which is considered to be the artist’s most important family portrait to come to the market (estimate: £1.2-1.8 million). There is a strong selection of modernist works, led by Ben Nicholson’s 1945 (off green) (estimate: £700,000-900,000), as well as examples of British Pop, including paintings by Sir Peter Blake and Patrick Caulfield. The sale also comprises a selection of artworks formerly in the outstanding private collection of the late Edgar Astaire, featuring seven works by Mark Gertler, (please click here for the separate press release). The Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale as a whole features works with estimates ranging from £20,000 to £1.3 million and is followed by the Day Sale on 26 June, which comprises 146 works starting at just £1,500.  

 André Zlattinger, Senior Director, Head of Modern British Art, Christie’s London and Rachel Hidderley, International Specialist and Director, Modern British Art: “We are pleased to present some important and monumental pieces of Modern British art, including a wide range of sculpture by revered artists Hepworth, Moore, Gill and Flanagan. This sale, which spans over 100 years, is defined by offering masterpieces from leading collections that celebrate the harmony and revolutionary spirit of the art of the British Isles. The sale will provide a rich array of opportunities for new and established collectors at a wide range of price levels, encouraging active engagement in this dynamic and inspiring category.”

In June 2014, Christie’s Modern British & Irish Art Evening Sale set a new world record price for Dame Barbara Hepworth with Figure for Landscape realising £4.1 million. Following this success, Christie’s is pleased to present three works by the artist in this sale, led by Two Forms with White (Greek) (estimate: £1.3 -1.8 million). One of the most powerful forces that lie within Hepworth’s work is the duality between abstraction and naturalism. This is exemplified in Two Forms with White (Greek), which combines the symbolic and abstract, the non-representational and naturalistic. Hepworth’s continued interest in the abstraction of forms and the search for a purity of style and clarity within her work can be seen to be, in part, resultant of her life with Ben Nicholson, whom she was married to from 1938-1953, and whose clean, harmonious aesthetic resonated with her own.

Further important and monumental pieces of modern British sculpture include Henry Moore’s Rocking Chair No. 2 (estimate: £800,000-1,200,000). This work was previously in the prestigious collection of Aimée Goldberg and by descent to the present owner. Moore’s prolific career saw the theme of the union between mother and child develop to include his Rocking Chair series, for which he modelled four sculptures in 1950. Moore captures the tender bond between mother and child which was made all the more pertinent with the arrival of his own daughter. Rocking Chair No. 2 featured in the first ever documentary film about a living artist made for British Television, Henry Moore, which was produced by John Reid and broadcast on 30 April 1951.

Among the works of differing dimensions and media is Eric Gill’s St Joan of Arc, which is considered to be the artist’s most important work to come to the market. Purchased by Mona Anderson for £80 at Gill’s 1936 exhibition at the French Gallery, the work has come by descent to the current owner (estimate: £300,000-500,000). Joan of Arc (c.1412 -1431) was a young peasant woman who had visions and advised the French army to great success. When captured by the English, she was tried for witchcraft and burned at the stake at Rouen. Nearly all sculptures of Joan, of which there are many, depict her in armour with a raised sword, but Gill chose to present her very differently.

 Sir Stanley Spencer’s Hilda and I at Burghclere is one of only two oils by the artist to portray Hilda, Stanley and their daughters (estimate: £1,200,000-1,800,000). In 1950, Spencer’s first wife Hilda Carline tragically passed away from cancer. The artist had hoped to remarry Hilda following their divorce and in place of this now saddened desire, Spencer turned his attention to producing a series of paintings that celebrated events from their actual lives and his imagined ideal of a perfect marriage. Painted in 1955, and exhibited at the Royal Academy that summer, the present work celebrates a time when Spencer and Hilda were enjoying a period of domestic bliss. Coming to auction for the first time is Wisteria at Englefeld, depicting a house in Cookham overgrown with wisteria (estimate: £500,000-800,000). Spencer rarely accepted requests for specific landscapes or garden subjects, but painted this work as part of a series commissioned by Gerard Shiel. It has come by descent from Mr Shiel, who bought the work from Spencer in 1954.

The June sales feature a strong selection of works by the St Ives School, including one of the finest works by Ben Nicholson, entitled 1945 (off green) (estimate: £700,000-900,000). Nicholson began painting this work at the end of the Second World War, a time which marked the beginning of an exciting and experimental period of the artist’s painting. Patrick Heron’s Red Verticals: March 1957, is an important example of the artist’s move to pure colour abstraction and was a swap with the artist William Scott (estimate: £400,000-600,000).  It is being sold to benefit The William Scott Foundation.

 Contemporary works by Frank Auerbach include an impressive portrait of William Feaver, the former Observer art critic and the author of Frank Auerbach, a monograph. Feaver began to sit for Auerbach in 2003 and this vivid and expressive portrait depicts the artist’s confident brushstrokes and instinctual approach to colour (estimate: £250,000-350,000). Auerbach has said of his commitment to the patient and repetitive scrutiny of his subjects, ‘to paint the same head over and over leads to unfamiliarity; eventually you get near the raw truth about it, just as … in the middle of a family quarrel’. Julia Yardley Mills was the first person to be painted in Auerbach’s Mornington Crescent studio and is represented in this sale in Figure on a Bed III, one of a series of paintings completed between 1967 and 1970 (estimate: £400,000-600,000).

There is a continued demand for British Pop Art and the Evening Sale comprises Sir Peter Blake’s Boys with New Ties (estimate: £250,000-350,000). This detailed but eerily faceless triple portrait typifies the early figurative work of Blake informed by intimate childhood memories and personal experience. This work anticipates the major autobiographical paintings made by Blake in his twenties, notably The Preparation for the Entry into Jerusalem 1955-56 (Royal College of Art Collection), On The Balcony 1955-57 (Tate) and the culminating Self-Portrait with Badges 1961 (Tate). These paintings are deeply rooted in Blake’s working-class upbringing and in the deprivations he experienced as a child twice evacuated from the family home during the War. The present owner purchased Boys with New Ties directly from Blake in 1960, for £30. In Blake’s recycled frame (which still bears Leon Underwood labels on the reverse), she paid him in ten instalments of £3 a week every Saturday in a pub in Notting Hill.

Christie’s is honoured to present a masterpiece by revered Scottish colourist Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, entitled Negro (Pensive) (estimate: £300,000-500,000). Gifted by the Cadells to the Peploe family, and by descent to the present owner, Negro (Pensive) was first seen in public when it was selected for exhibition in 2000 by the Scottish National Gallery of Art at the Scottish Colourists show at the Royal Academy. The picture caused a sensation and was recognised as not only a very significant work in the artist’s oeuvre, but in British painting in general. Other important Colourists works include S.J. Peploe’s Melon and Pears, unseen publically since the late 1960s (estimate: £200,000-300,000), and G.L. Hunter’s Still Life with Roses and Fruit which was acquired direct from the artist by the present owner’s grandfather, who was Hunter’s doctor during the 1920s (estimate: £150,000-250,000).

A highlight of the sale is an important group of paintings by L.S. Lowry, including the iconic, new discovery, Going to Work, which has not been seen publicly since it was acquired by the previous owner soon after it was painted (estimate: £700,000-1,000,000). In this previously unrecorded composition from his mature period, Lowry has captured the morning’s energy to perfection. The artist had a unique way of making the ordinary spectacular and this highly evocative industrial composition captures the purposeful stride of the mass of factory workers. Lowry’s fascination with the human interactions of urban life is further exemplified in this sale by An Old Street, previously sold by Christie’s from Lord Forte’s Collection sale in November 2011 (estimate: £600,000-800,000).

The Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale will feature Recumbent Figure by Henry Moore (estimate: £100,000-150,000), a maquette for the Tate’s Hornton stone piece of the same title. Further highlights include Girl with a Parrot by Dod Procter (estimate: £50,000-80,000), which is arguably the best Procter to come to the market. Eduardo Paolozzi is well represented in this sale with two collages, including Improved Beans (estimate: £8,000-12,000). Both works were used by the artist for his infamous ‘Bunk!’ lecture for the Independent Group, held at the ICA in 1952. Paolozzi produced a series of 45 collages, using popular imagery taken from comics and magazines, and projected them during the lecture. These two are among the few which remain in private hands.

PRESS CONTACT: Katie Carder | +44(0)207 389 2283 | kcarder@christies.com

Please click here to view the e-catalogue for Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale

MODERN BRITISH AND IRISH ART EVENING SALE

MODERN BRITISH AND IRISH ART DAY SALE

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Christie’s, the world's leading art business, had global auction and private sales in 2014 that totalled £5.1 billion / $8.4 billion, making it the highest annual total in Christie’s history. Christie’s is a name and place that speaks of extraordinary art, unparalleled service and expertise, as well as international glamour. Founded in 1766 by James Christie, Christie's has since conducted the greatest and most celebrated auctions through the centuries providing a popular showcase for the unique and the beautiful. Christie’s offers around 450 auctions annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, photographs, collectibles, wine, and more. Prices range from $200 to over $100 million. Christie's also has a long and successful history conducting private sales for its clients in all categories, with emphasis on Post-War & Contemporary, Impressionist & Modern, Old Masters and Jewellery. Private sales totalled £916.1 million ($1.5 billion). Christie’s has a global presence with 53 offices in 32 countries and 12 salerooms around the world including in London, New York, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Dubai, Zürich, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Mumbai. More recently, Christie’s has led the market with expanded initiatives in growth markets such as Russia, China, India and the United Arab Emirates, with successful sales and exhibitions in Beijing, New Delhi, Mumbai and Dubai.

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium. Sales totals are hammer price plus buyer’s premium and do not reflect costs, financing fees or application of buyer’s or seller’s credits.

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