Fine Art

A record for a female Old Master and a Rubens with a royal connection was not quite enough to heat up bidding across the latest Old Master auction series in New York this winter.

Julian Trevelyan’s (1910-88) final oil painting, depicting Strawberry Hill against a pink sky, sold in the first hours of Connect – The Independent Art Fair’s inaugural staging on January 29.

A painting by Scottish artist Dorothy Johnstone (1892-1980), executed near the peak of her career in 1921 made £3250 at Edinburgh saleroom Franklin Browns (15% buyer’s premium).

This inter-war ‘English school’ portrait of a seated gentleman wearing a bow tie, bought for around £150 three decades ago, sold for an unexpected £7600 at Charterhouse (21% buyer’s premium) on January 17. The unfinished 4ft 2in x 3ft 4in (1.27 x 1.01m) oil was dated 1922 but unsigned.

Three modestly valued works in regional sales.

A small but select auction of just 44 lots of paintings spanning 500 years from Old Masters to 20th century works will go under the hammer at Freeman’s on February 27.

A collection of 18 bronzes of thoroughbred racing horses by major French animalier sculptors is to be offered at Drouot on February 22 by Beaussant-Lefėvre. They include examples by Isadore Bonheur, Pierre-Jules Mène and Emmanuel Fremiet.

“There’s no money around in January” is the refrain you often hear from businesses in the new year. But, as we know, the auction world behaves differently from other commercial markets.

The £140,000 record-breaking Cedric Morris lower painting at Chichester saleroom Henry Adams (plus 20% buyer’s premium) was not the only work by an artist-plantsman to feature in the January 17 sale (see ATG No 2377 for more on that Morris result).

Modern British pictures by female artists made a major contribution to the bottom line at Sworders’ (23% buyer’s premium) dispersal of the Barbara Holliday Collection.

An unusual Chinese School picture of a 17th century Dutch missionary scene led Christie’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) £2m sale of topographical pictures in London.

British art specialist Patricia Jordan Evans rounds off more than four decades in the trade with her next show called 'The Last Hurrah! 45 Years at Bohun Gallery'.

Three modestly valued works sold in regional sales.

An English School painting depicting one of the earliest venues in cricket was knocked down at £14,000 in a Winchester auction.