Six pictures by Cambridge painter Lewis Todd are being offered for sale at Ewbank Clarke Gammon Wellers in Woking, Surrey, on March 20. However, the greater interest in these works is what can be found on the reverse – the brushwork of Francis Bacon.
Bacon is known to have painted on the
unprimed reverse of canvases and often mutilated anything with
which he was not satisfied. These examples were apparently given to
Todd by the manager of the Heffer Gallery in Cambridge, although it
is not known how Bacon's used canvases came to be there in the
first place.
Todd, who produced caricatures for the
Cambridge Daily News, painted his own pictures on the
front and then sold them at the city's All Saints Craft Market.
Five of these canvases have now been
examined and authenticated by the Francis Bacon Authentication
Committee and Ewbank's have estimated them at around £100,000 in
all.
A sixth canvas from the same source is
estimated at £5000-10,000, although, having recently returned from
America, this has not been examined by the vetting committee.
Contact: 01483 223 101.
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