Art Market

“It is something, at the age of 31, to be among the most discussed, most successful, most promising, most admired and most hated British artists.” So wrote the critic Charles Lewis Hind about the war artist CRW Nevinson (1889-1946) in 1920.

Another work by CRW Nevinson (1889-1946) in the form of an aerial wartime print was offered in Gorringe’s (23% buyer’s premium) June 27 sale.

Over the last four months, a steady trickle of coaching scenes has been making its way onto the market via John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium).

A “jewel-like” painting of a young girl reading by Edward Frampton (1870-1932) starred in Dominic Winter’s (19.5% buyer’s premium) June 15 sale.

A London street view by the northern English artist Harry Rutherford (1903-85) led the sale at Chiswick Auctions (22% buyer’s premium) on June 13.

Exactly a week before Harry Rutherford’s ‘Camden Town’ painting sold in London (see separate Art Market story this edition), a small undated sketch, Female Nude, by his prolific mentor and tutor Walter Sickert (1860-1942) cropped up in Kent.

It is tempting to write off 19th century pictures as passé. A field relegated to the dusty corners of the art market, while contemporary art reigns supreme.

More 19th century pictures will go under the hammer this summer at auction houses in London. Christie’s dedicated sale in King Street on July 13 is led by a collection of 46 Orientalist works.

Consigned from a deceased estate, a 19th century oil of a popular Venetian view topped Mitchells’ (20% buyer’s premium) June 1 auction in Cockermouth, Cumbria.

Leading regional salerooms are reaping the rewards of the bullish Modern British art market with more robust results.

A still-life by Dora Carrington (1893-1932) starred in Mallams’ (20% buyer’s premium) Design & Modern British & Post-War Art sale, selling just shy of the artist’s record.

A tiny 19th century Venetian oil by Frederico del Campo (1837- 1923) went under the hammer for the first time in a century at Catherine Southon (18% buyer’s premium).

A small vibrant work by Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957) from the collection of Irish art assembled by the late businesswoman Gillian Bowler topped Adam’s sale on May 31.

Mirroring Whyte’s recent auction and its own Irish sale back in April, de Veres’ top performer on May 21 was another work by William Scott.

Spring sale results provide promising upturn as Irish art market shows signs of recovery.

“In the 19th century, before football came along, it was all about field sports,” says Iain Byatt-Smith of Bonhams’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) Scottish picture department.

A painting by equine artist Lucy Kemp-Welch (1869-1958) sold for four times its top guide at Bellmans (20% buyer’s premium).

A Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-78) painting that had been in the same private collection since 1963 topped Nesbits’ (19% buyer’s premium) sale in Portsmouth on May 17.

This depiction of a 16th century bullfight in Siena’s Piazza del Campo starred in Christie’s (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of the collection of the late Lord Weidenfeld.

Seventy years ago, councils around the UK launched Pictures for Schools, a scheme to bring original works of art into the classroom.