Fine Art

Tender letters from artist Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones to the daughter of his patron reveal the “emotional support” he craved.

A rare opportunity to own a watercolour by Prince Charles (b.1948) presented itself when items belonging to the former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his wife Mary were put up for sale at Hansons (20% buyer’s premium).

This pastel portrait of a Singaporean merchant by Percy Carpenter (1820-95) is believed to have broken a 30-year auction record for the artist.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

An acrylic on paper of Timanfaya, the only active volcano on the Canary Island of Lanzarote, by British artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912-2004), is one of the highlights of the exhibition A Distant Isle.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales at £800 or under, including Bernard Finegan Gribble maritime work.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Characteristic etching is best-seller in appealing single-owner mix of works on paper.

Five oil paintings by the German artist Gabriele Münter, long-time companion and partner of Wassily Kandinsky, were very much at the centre of the action on May 8 in Stuttgart when Nagel (33% buyer’s premium) sold Modern and Contemporary art.

A watercolour of a thoroughbred racehorse auction appeared at Chorley’s (20% buyer’s premium) of Prinknash Abbey Park, Gloucestershire, on May 21 – 123 years to the day since it had itself last sold at auction.

A painting by the celebrated Chinese 20th century artist Zhang Da Qian (1899-1983) sold for £2.3m (plus premium) at Woolley & Wallis.

A portrait by Henry Lamb (1883-1960) making its first appearance at auction fetched a sale-topping £18,000 at Cambridge auction house Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) on May 9.

A bucolic Norfolk landscape by English artist John Alfred Arnesby-Brown (1866- 1953) emerged as one of the top sellers in an auction dedicated to East Anglian art at local Aylsham saleroom Keys (20% buyer’s premium).