The sale topper, as discussed and pictured in ATG No 2276, was the £54,000 Spencer Gore landscape of the artist’s garden, framed by a window and curtains.
The painting was followed by an unframed sunlit landscape, similarly composed through an open window, by one of the greats of early 20th century Russian art and consigned from a Russian family living in Cambridgeshire.
Dated 29 and indistinctly signed KS Somov in Cyrillic, it was catalogued as ‘Circle of’ Konstantin Somov (1869- 1939). Almost certainly by Somov himself, the small 11 x 9in (27 x 22cm) oil on board was pursued above the £200-300 estimate to £7000, where it was hammered down to one of three Russian bidders on the phone.
Leading the portraits in the sale was an archetypal pair of 1930s oils by Bertram Priestman (1868-1951), the landscapist and Edward Seago’s first tutor. The 2ft 11in x 2ft 8in (90 x 83cm) portraits depict Kathleen Bell, the daughter of George EJ Bell of Petworth, Sussex, and were consigned directly from her family.
The earlier portrait, painted in 1933 and pictured here, depicts the sitter in a fashionable green dress and pearls. It was pursued to £6000 against a £1000-1200 estimate.
The portrait, dated three years later, of the sitter sitting in profile in another green dress fetched £3000 against the same estimate. Both sold privately.
