View of Mallorca by Frederick Gore, £14,000 at Dreweatts.
Making a lesser sum but also attracting interest at the Newbury auction was a richly textured view of Mallorca by Frederick Gore (1913- 2009). In the 1960s, the artist visited the Mediterranean island each summer, frequenting the village of Fornalutx under the Puig Major mountain which was the setting of this 2ft 5in x 3ft (74 x 93cm) signed oil on canvas.
The artist was the son of Spencer Frederick Gore (1878-1914), who founded the Camden Town Group in 1911 alongside Walter Sickert. Gore Jr studied at the Ruskin School and later at the Slade. After the war he was represented by the Redfern Gallery which held five oneman exhibitions. During the 1950s he took up a teaching post at St Martin’s School of Art and later became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1964 and an Academician in 1973.
As well as his views of the French landscape, Frederick’s Mallorcan pictures are deemed an attractive part of his oeuvre, capturing the terrain with their use of warm pink, orange and yellow colours contrasting to the cool blue of the shadows and sky.
Pitched at £6000-8000, it sold at £14,000, a good sum for the artist. Although it was some way behind an equally bright view of the southern French alps from the collection of Mrs Henry Ford II that made a record £42,000 at Christie’s last year, it was within the top five prices for the artist at auction.
