Latest News Articles by Alex Capon
Sotheby’s shakes up its Old Masters and Fine Art teams
10 May 2021Sotheby’s has made changes to its Old Master department in London.
Printing money: wall power and connoisseurship on a budget
10 May 2021Modern prints can offer the chance to own interesting and eye-catching works, including those by well-known artists, without needing to invest large sums of money. This makes prints a viable option for collectors on a smaller budget as well as those just starting out.
Learning the market for Grosvenor School
10 May 2021The linocuts produced by artists from the Grosvenor School in London, which ran from 1925-40, have been one of the liveliest areas of the Modern British prints market in the last 15-20 years.
A Polish printmaker in a Welsh mining village
10 May 2021Most prints are closely connected with an artist’s wider oeuvre. A few good Welsh examples were on offer at Rogers Jones (22% buyer’s premium) in Cardiff on April 17.
The Curwen Studio archive dispersed
10 May 2021Among the publishing houses that helped put Modern British prints on the map was The Curwen Studio.
A prime period Nicholson print sells at Dawsons
10 May 2021'Five Circles' first appeared as part of Ben Nicholson’s (1894-1982) publication 23 Gravures in 1934 and was then released as a limited-edition print. The initial run of approximately 30 signed copies was followed by various reprintings.
Benin plaque withdrawn from auction after curator raises provenance questions
03 May 2021The increasingly contentious issue of selling Benin works of art at auction raised its head again last week after an ancestral plaque catalogued as 16th or 17th century was withdrawn from an East Sussex sale.
Edward Seago: the artist favoured by the royal family
03 May 2021Edward Seago was a favourite of the establishment, royals in particular, but has a wider appeal such as his views of Hong Kong
Old Masters impress in Berkshire
03 May 2021The best competition at a recent mixed-category sale came for two Old Masters.
Ostrich ruffles feathers at £1.41m
26 April 2021A bronze sculpture of an ostrich catalogued as from the workshop of Mannerist sculptor Giambologna drew an extraordinary competition in Cambridge.
Pick of the week: Gainsborough back in dealer’s hands
26 April 2021A work thought to be one of Thomas Gainsborough’s (1727-88) earliest attempts at oil painting as well as his earliest-known self-portrait was one of a number of lots drawing considerable attention at Cheffins.
Collection fit to take centre stage
26 April 2021Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt was one of the stand-out lots in a 300-lot white-glove auction.
Cloudy landscape gives a nod to Constable
26 April 2021A Constable-esque landscape turned a few heads at Chorley’s (22.5% buyer’s premium) latest fine art and antiques sale.
Another white glove in the frame
26 April 2021Another white-glove group of items featured at Parker Fine Art earlier this year when all 300 picture frame lots sold in its first sale of 2021, raising a hammer total of £38,400.
Bidders go head to head in Cambridge as bronze ostrich sells for £1.41m
22 April 2021A bronze sculpture of an ostrich catalogued as from the workshop of Mannerist sculptor Giambologna drew an extraordinary competition at Cheffins in Cambridge today.
Loppé pays homage to Mont Blanc
19 April 2021Two studies by the climber/artist/photographer are bought by London dealer Mitchell
Bidders sense a Schlesinger saleroom opportunity
19 April 2021Five paintings representing the five senses by Henri Guillaume Schlesinger offered by Bonhams boasted a French royal provenance.
View of the Thames by Victorian artist stuns market with six-figure sum at Bonhams
12 April 2021Lesser-known painter Alice Boyd emerges via Cheyne Walk at London auction
Sister act – Augustus John portraits
12 April 2021Depiction of one McNeill sister sets a record while portrait of her sibling also appears at another auction
Top sum for a van Gogh drawing at Christie's
12 April 2021An eight-lot sale in New York titled A Family Collection: Works on Paper, Van Gogh to Freud raised a premium-inclusive total of $25.3m (£18.2m).