Oil, Acrylic paintings & Mixed Media

Providing a major boost to Bonhams’ first sale in London with room bidding since the lockdown, a portrait of the writer EM Forster by Roger Fry (1866-1934) set an auction record both for the artist and any Bloomsbury Group picture.

On July 23 Stair of Hudson, New York, will be offering paintings, works on paper and sculpture from the collection of art consultant and adviser Matthew Rutenberg (1956-2019).

As might be expected, local scenes were an important feature of David Lay’s Cornish art sale on June 11. Among them was a view of Penzance’s Market Jew Street by Norman Garstin (1847-1926) that depicted a location only a 10-minute walk from the saleroom.

It is thought that the German artist Adelheid Dietrich (1827-91), renowned for her incredibly detailed still-lifes of fruit and flowers, completed only 50 paintings during her career.

For 300 years, from the 1520s to the 1820s, the great Gothic cathedral in Cologne remained unfinished – the building overshadowed by a large crane, which for centuries dominated the panorama on the banks of the Rhine.

A trio of oils by Venetian artist Antonio Ermolao Paoletti (1834-1912) were consigned to Dawsons (23% buyer’s premium) of Maidenhead from a private London collection.

London auction of dealer's works follows similar 2013 sale and Rafael Valls offering held this April

Thomaston Place Auction Galleries in Maine will be holding a two-day weekend auction of more than 1000 lots on July 18-19.

A portrait of a famous couturier offered by a descendant and Old Master drawings from a single-owner estate collection were stand-out features at Doyle's (25/20/12.5%) latest art sale.

Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of the Nile was the 'Vanguard'. An oil on canvas coming up at Charles Miller’s July 7 auction in west London features a very unusual portrayal of this vessel.

The lockdown may have reduced the number of UK auctions taking place but buyers have been looking more eagerly for opportunities at those events that have been staged.

Outside Paris auctions have also started up as lockdown eases.

Sotheby’s Paris (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) reported a cumulative total of €5.4m for the five online sales it held over two weeks in mid May through to early June. The initiative attracted new buyers, said the auction house, with 35% in the jewellery sale and 27% in the Contemporary art auction.

This painting of Madame de Saint-Maurice is one of five works by Edouard Vuillard spanning the years 1900-18 from the Georges and Jacqueline Herbin collection on offer at Artcurial in Paris.

A portrait of a 16th century Protestant theologian and reformer surfaced at a sale at Ginhart (23% buyer’s premium) in Tegernsee, some 35 miles south of the Bavarian capital Munich.

Shortly before the UK lockdown, Cumbrian saleroom Thomson Roddick (17.5% buyer’s premium inc VAT) offered works from the collection of The Shorthorn Society, a body that promotes the famous breed of cattle in the UK and Ireland.

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

Sir Oswald Birley (1880-1952) is among the artists most represented in UK public collections. Art UK records 173 works in national museums and institutions, National Trust properties and local museums.