Art Market

A flurry of bids emerged for this late-17th century canine study at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood of Exeter (23% buyer’s premium).

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales including a Graham Sutherland watercolour.

The growing demand in recent years to own pictures by women artists has brought this long-overlooked area of the art market to the fore. In an auction at Cirencester auction house Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) two works by women painters stood out.

A crayon portrait by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82) surfaced at Oxford saleroom Mallams (22.5% buyer’s premium) together with another of the sitter’s father.

Focus on one of only two notable women painters to be associated with the Norwich School.

Like John Constable before him, the 19th century painter John Arnesby Brown (1866-1955) found endless inspiration in the low horizons and expansive skies of East Anglia. He was also interested in light and atmosphere and the effect of sunshine and shadow on the landscape.

Morris record takes the headlines but his pupil is also in demand at same sale.

The year after Cedric Morris painted his verdant Foxgloves in 1932, a severe drought cut through much of southern Britain. The parched soil and the hardship it brought were a source of artistic inspiration for those who painted the form and the character of the rural landscape.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales including a Stanley Spencer sketch.

A 1940s view of Swansea described as ‘historically important’ by the auction house which sold it featured among some good results for 20th century Welsh art in the regions.

Simple still-life of flowers showcases the Mod Brit artist’s love of colour and luminosity

The old-fashioned country house sale hardly ever fails to cause excitement. The on-the-premises sale of contents from Athelhampton House, a Tudor manor house in Puddletown, Dorset, was no exception.

Dominating a grand lecture hall of one of France’s oldest universities is a classical fresco of the god Apollo and the Muses on Parnasses, created at the turn of the 20th century by French artist Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret (1852-1929).

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales for under £3000 including an unusual Peter Blake work printed on tin.

Classic summer scene by artist known for neighbourhood views makes rare appearance

Cubist work by often-overlooked artist fuels keen bidding before heading to California.

Two modestly estimated watercolours by the Victorian ornithological painter Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935) emerged as the star sellers in an auction in South Yorkshire.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales for £3000 or under, including a Francis Bacon lithograph.

Much of Paula Rego’s (b.1935) work is concerned with narrative, as seen in this limited-edition lithograph of a girl reading a book.

Views of processions, pageants and parades tend to attract special interest at auction, such as this view of an Indian procession bid to £6800 in Gloucestershire.