The market for his works is pretty consistent even though the supply is abundant. The Lyon & Turnbull sale on April 16 suggested that this remains largely unaffected by the current circumstances as all bar one of the 11 works on offer sold to a number of different buyers for a combined £25,900.
Uppermost among them was Rose of Sharon, a 3ft (92cm) square oil on canvas that was a typically styled work with familiar human and animal forms harking back to his childhood spent in the fishing communities along the east coast of Scotland.
Estimated at £4000-6000, it was knocked down at £6500 – a sum that was the third highest for the artist at an auction in Scotland this year (the top-selling example being the larger Sea People that made £10,000 at L&T in January).
Decent interest
Still-life by John Bellany – £4200 at Lyon & Turnbull.
Still-lifes by the artist are rarer but they tend to generate decent interest when they do appear. Among the lots on offer at the April sale was a large example, again with typical colouring.
The 3ft 4in x 2ft 6in (1.02m x 76cm) oil on canvas was pitched at £3000-5000 and it was knocked down at £4200, an above-average sum for a still-life sold north of the border in the past two years.
