Uniting two giants of the Mod Brit scene
05 October 2023 A bronze bust that unites two titans of British 20th century art - the sculptor Jacob Epstein and the painter Lucien Freud - comes for sale at Sworders this month. Epstein’s 2ft 3in (68cm) high portrait of Freud is expected to bring £50,000-70,000 as part of an auction of Modern British and Contemporary Art on October 17.
Gilt bronze portrait bust of Lucien Freud by Jacob Epstein. Estimate £50,000-70,000 at Sworders.
The full bust portrait of Freud was created in 1947, the same year the young artist married Epstein's daughter, Kitty Garman. Epstein's focus on the eyes and the intensity of the gaze echoes Freud's own portraits of Kitty at that time. The plaster version is in the collection of the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio but this is thought to be a unique cast in gilded bronze.
Sworders seller, who bought the bronze in 2012, reunited it with another Epstein bronze of Kitty of the same period. Offered with an estimate of £6000-7000, this represents a rare opportunity to purchase both Kitty and Lucian together.
Both pieces come for sale as part of the contents of Colne Priory in Essex. The £7m Georgian red-brick country house built on the grounds of a medieval priory, set in 24 acres of immaculate garden was recently judged one of the region’s best addresses by Country Life magazine.
Works by Ed Ruscha, giant of the international contemporary art market, are rarely offered for sale outside of London. However, one is included here.
The five-fold lacquered wood standing screen is from an edition created in 1986. Depicting the beauty of a Los Angeles sunset to one side and a cloudscape to the other, the words 'Remember and Forget' in Ruscha’s familiar upper-case font are ones he used in other works done in the 1980s. The phrase is thought to be a deliberate misquote from the Elvis Presley song I Forgot to Remember to Forget.
The work, proposed as an edition of 12 with two artist's proofs but Ruscha closed the edition at seven works and two artist's proofs. It has an estimate of £80,000-120,000.
The sale includes 16 lots by Edward Bawden from several different periods in his career. Estimated at £5000-8000 is a second edition impression of the artist's famous linocut of Brighton Pier.
Some 20 years apart, in 1958 and in 1977, Bawden produced two editions of the distinctive scene which shows the seaside town framed by the domes of the Royal Pavilion. Measuring 22in x 4ft 9in (55cm x 1.47m), the prints were too large for a studio press, so he made them on the floor using his feet. In 2011, Bonhams sold a well-preserved first edition Brighton Pier for £13,000, the auction record for a Bawden print.
Certain to appeal to collectors are a series of six original watercolours made by Bawden towards the end of his career as part of an abortive project to make textiles with the Dovecot Tapestry Works in Edinburgh.
These watercolours over pencil depicting colourful Middle Eastern subjects were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1986 and come for sale directly from the artist’s family. They are estimated at £3000-5000 each.
Brighton Pier, a 1977 linocut by Edward Bawden. Estimate £5000-8000 at Sworders.
First portrait of Kitty (with curls), a bronze by Jacob Epstein. Estimate £6000-8000 at Sworders.
Remember and Forget, a five-fold lacquered wood standing screen by Ed Ruscha. Estimate £80,000-120,000 at Sworders.
Project for Tapestry III – Abydos, a watercolour design by Edward Bawden. Estimate £3000-5000 at Sworders.