A study of Tower Bridge in London from c.1946 drew 25 bids against a £7000-10,000 estimate.
It appeared to be a rapidly executed work but the 19¾in x 2ft 1in (50 x 63cm) charcoal drawing was a sizeable example of a work on paper by the artist and it duly commanded significant wall power, especially when viewed from a distance. After a good contest, it eventually sold at £38,000 to a UK private buyer.
The second work was an earlier oil on canvas from 1923 depicting the Hospital of the Knights of St John in Jerusalem. It dated from not long after Bomberg was appointed as an official artist of the newly formed Zionist Organisation to Palestine and worked in a studio located above the roof-tops of the city.
'The Hospital of the Knights of St John, Bethlehem Road, Jerusalem: Moonlight' by David Bomberg – £32,000 at the Daniel Katz sale at Sotheby’s.
Bomberg was particularly inspired by the Middle Eastern light – not only by the sun, which shone with an intensity he had never previously known, but also by the more subtle hues of moolight that he attempted to convey in this picture.
Measuring 16 x 20¼in (41 x 52cm), it was a relatively small signed work but it drew a number of admirers against a pitch of £20,000-30,000, selling again to a UK private buyer at £32,000.
