Fine Art

While the Japanese woodblock print artist Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764) is credited with the first use of one-point perspective in the depiction of interior spaces, a technique previously known only in Western art, his colleague Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814) achieved even greater fame when he mastered the creation of perspective prints of outdoor scenes, known as Uki-e.

Painting went through lengthy ownership saga before being returned to family and then sold.

One of the central attractions in Rome is the Piazza Navona and the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers). It was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1650 at the behest of Pope Innocent X.

A group of portrait miniatures sold recently by John Nicholson’s (30/25% buyer’s premium) in Haslemere, Surrey included this English school image, c.1700, of William Fermor, 1st Baron Leominster.

This pastel of Venice by Leonard Squirrell (1893-1979) forms part of an online exhibition that features him and two other contemporaries also from Suffolk, Harry Becker (1865-1928) and George Thomas Rope (1846-1929).

'Composition bleue' (1940-42), an oil by French artist Georges Folmer (1895-1977), is on offer at Waterhouse & Dodd’s online retrospective 'Il n’y a pas de hasard en Art'.

Turning heads at Bonhams Knightsbridge’s sale of Modern British art was a group of 22 pen and ink drawings by Cecil Beaton (1904-80) which formed part of the photographer’s 'The Book of Beauty' published in 1930.

Work on paper outperforms more traditional works at Bonhams Knightsbridge lockdown sale of Modern British art

One New York saleroom that has been notably active in the book market during the Covid restrictions is Doyle (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium). A recent sale included original illustrations for some well-known English children’s books.

In 2017, this lost portrait miniature of a young Dickens emerged at an auction in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa where it sold together with some household goods for the equivalent of £27.

The migration to online sales that has occurred during the lockdown has brought about some noticeable changes to the art market. These include, not least, the profile of buyers at auctions.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales including a landscape by French artist Pierre de Clausades that sold over estimate.

This portrait that emerged at the March 18 auction at Halls (20% buyer’s premium) of Shrewsbury appears to be closely based on Sir Peter Lely’s (1618-80) portrait of Mary II as a young girl that now resides in the Royal Collection.