Oil painting

Provenance of the Duke of Gloucester adds extra appeal to single-owner collection

The collection of pictures formerly owned by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, offered at Bellmans included 42 lots relating to the 10th Royal Hussars.

A work by the Orientalist artist Alphonse Etienne Dinet (1861-1929) was the object of keen competition at Drouot Estimations (24% buyer’s premium) in Paris.

Two works by Fred Stead (1863-1940) drew strong interest at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) in West Sussex thanks, in part, to here-to-be-sold estimates. They were being consigned from a deceased estate.

In his autobiography Georg Schrimpf described how he originally lacked the courage to become a painter and spent several years as a baker, a waiter and a coalman until he finally found the conviction to devote himself exclusively to art.

Among the most important clients of the 18th century artist Pompeo Batoni was Domenico Orsini, Duke of Gravina, who went on to become Cardinal Domenico Amedeo Orsini d’Arago.

Paris Enchères Collin du Bocage will be holding a single-lot sale on July 22 in Paris of a painting by Nicolas de Staël (1914-55).

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.

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.

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.

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.

Outside Paris auctions have also started up as lockdown eases.

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.

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.

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.

MADAM – Because I am so old my hen-pecking children have had me in lockdown since the beginning of March.

'Portrait of a Young Girl with a Cigarette' was a high-flyer in a sale at Wendl (21% buyer’s premium) in Rudolstadt held before open auctions were prohibited by the German authorities.