CHRISTIE’S MODERN BRITISH ART EVENING AND DAY SALES - 19 AND 20 NOVEMBER 2018

FULL CATALOGUE NOW AVAILABLE

London – Christie’s Modern British Art Evening Sale will be held on 19 November 2018. The sale comprises major works by British painters and the Scottish Colourists, as well as equestrian and figurative sculptures. Icons of British painting of the century will be led by Stanley Spencer’s Caulking (1940, estimate: £1,500,000-2,500,000), being offered for the first time, together with L. S. Lowry’s A Northern Race Meeting (1956, estimate: £1,500,000-2,500,000), which has remained in the same family for over half a century, having been purchased the year the work was completed. 

“We have outstanding examples of great work by Stanley Spencer, L. S. Lowry and Samuel John Peploe, all of which we bring to auction for the first time, something that we expect will spark a strong response from our international clients. Alongside these are major examples from the 1950s and 60s by the leading artists of the day, including Allen Jones, Peter Lanyon, Patrick Heron and Leon Kossoff. The finest examples of equestrian sculpture from Elisabeth Frink and William Turnbull will also be showcased alongside figurative sculptures by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Lynn Chadwick, Eric Gill and others.” commented Nick Orchard, Head of Department, Modern British.

The Modern British Art Day Sale will follow on 20 November. Highlights of the sale include Howard Hodgkin’s IMAX Cinema (1999, estimate: £40,000-60,000) and Samuel John Peploe’s Apples and Pewter Pot (mid 1920s, estimate: £150,000-250,000), never before seen at auction.  An online Modern/British & Irish Art sale will accompany the two live sales from 16 to 23 November. Estimates in the Modern British Art season range from £800 to £2,500,000.

BRITISH PAINTING

Part of the Shipbuilding series commissioned by the War Artist’s Advisory Committee in 1940, Caulking by Stanley Spencer is the only work from the series that remains in a private collection. The series was commissioned to illustrate the valuable contribution made by the British shipbuilding industry and its workers to the war effort. Marriage Medal by Allen Jones (1963, estimate: £300,000-500,000) can be regarded as a trailblazer of what became common practice, with Jones among the first painters in Britain to explore the expressive possibilities of ‘shaped’ canvases and use it as an animating force. The whit and visual impact of Marriage Medal immediately appealed to Shirley Schneer, wife of Hollywood producer Charles Schneer, who bought the painting in 1964 having attended the opening of Jones’s show at the Tooth Gallery. Painted between 1968 and 1970, Rumbold: 10 December 1968 - 5 October 1970 by Patrick Heron (1968-70, estimate: £150,000-250,000) is the first from a series of paintings completed in Rumbold Street, West London. This vibrant phase of Heron’s oeuvre was a profound departure from the broader, more spontaneous painting of the early sixties. Orpheus by Peter Lanyon (1961, estimate: £500,000-700,000) visualises the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Willesden Junction - Autumn Afternoon by Leon Kossoff (1971, estimate: £900,000-1,200,000) is one of the most dynamic renderings of Kossoff’s favourite London scene, the station, depicted in two swathes of thick impasto paint and vivid colours.

SCOTTISH COLOURISTS

Samuel John Peploe is regarded as the master of the Scottish Colourists, highly celebrated for his mastery of tone. The Bénédictine Bottle (circa 1914-18, estimate: £500,000-800,000) illustrates the impact living in Paris had on Peploe’s aesthetic, together with the highly experimental turn his art took during the period immediately following his return to Edinburgh. Red and White Tulips (early 1920s, estimate: £200,000-300,000) is a vivid statement of modernity, in which he combines forms, saturated colours and balance. Painted in 1929 The Pink Box; a Portrait of Margaret Morris by John Duncan Fergusson (1929, estimate: £400,000-600,000) is one of Fergusson’s most important and erotically charged paintings and is emblematic of his artistic interests at the time. Invigorated by the lively artistic atmosphere, the picture was one of the largest and most complete works painted at Fergusson’s new studio in the Montparnasse district of Paris at Parc Montsouris.

SCULPTURE

Leading the group of important British sculpture, Reclining Figure: Open Pose by Henry Moore (1982, estimate: £1,200,000-1,800,000) is one of the final reclining figures the artist created, with a cast of the work owned by the Henry Moore Foundation selected to be displayed in No. 10 Downing Street in the late 1980s. Figure (1932, estimate: £600,000-800,000) is the culmination of a period of re-education and reflection Moore independently underwent in the 1920s and 1930s after moving to London. It was during this time Moore made his first visit to London’s British Museum where he encountered African and Central American art. Two Piece Sculpture No. 7: Pipe (1966, estimate: £600,000-800,000) with its polished surface, is a compelling example of the artist’s decision to divide the reclining form into two parts to create an infinite variety of viewpoints. Menhirs by Barbara Hepworth (1964, estimate: £800,000-1,200,000) evokes the grandeur and power of the standing human figure, a fundamental constituent in Hepworth's oeuvre. The title refers to the numerous prehistoric stone monoliths, which Hepworth encountered whilst living in St. Ives.

Horse (1980, estimate: £500,000-800,000) is one of the finest equestrian sculptures that Elisabeth Frink created within her oeuvre. Initially commissioned by the Earl of March for Goodwood Racecourse, Sussex, a further cast is also in the collection of the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Commissioned by Sir Basil Spence, the architect of the new Coventry Cathedral, Eagle Lectern (1962, estimate: £200,000-300,000) was an opportunity for Frink to create an artwork for a landmark preserving the memory of the Second World War, with this cast having been given by the artist to the architect. Horse 5 by William Turnbull (1988, estimate: £120,000-180,000) reduces the form of the horse to two interlocking shapes; the head a flat mask-like palette, interposed with two central apertures evocative of eyes, which connects to an arch of striated bronze, shaped to resemble a horse neck and mane.

L.S. LOWRY

A Northern Race Meeting by L. S. Lowry is a unique painting in the artist’s oeuvre depicting a day out at the races, painted in 1956 and purchased by the present owner’s father in the same year. The painting was included in Lowry’s centenary exhibition in 1987 and has been on long term loan to Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, for forty years. St Luke’s Church, Old Street (1945, estimate: £400,000-600,000) is one of only a handful of paintings in which Lowry portrays London. Though less familiar with London landmarks than those in industrial Manchester, Lowry still chose a scene where small communities come together.