Category Archives: Contemporary Art

What is an NFT?

Posted on by
Will they stand the test of time? Non-fungible tokens explained. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) seem to have come out of nowhere, however the technology has been around since at least 2014 if not before. The catalyst seems to have been Lockdown, if you can’t go to the saleroom then let the saleroom come to you, albeit virtually. Auctioneers, Galleries and Artists transformed their web presence almost overnight in order to offer NFTs that take the form of art and music and everything in between and are selling like hotcakes, some for a few £ and others for millions and millions of £, sometimes it feels like ‘Tulip Fever’ has re-visited us from the 17th-century… What is an NFT? An NFT is a digital asset recorded on the ‘Blockchain’ that represents actual objects such as art, music, in-game items and videos. An NFT is created, or “minted” from digital objects that represent both tangible and intangible items. They are bought and sold online, mainly using cryptocurrencies and are generally encoded with the same or similar software to that used by many crypto currencies. I think it’s best to assume that to be involved with buying NFTs you will have to embrace crypto currencies, the most common one used in NFTs is Ethereum. The value of Crypto currencies changes minute to minute day to day, before Christmas one Etheruem was worth around £3,000 to 1 Ethereum today its down to nearer to £2,200 to E1. Ethereum’s value is not only affected by the usual world events and demand but also by the sale of significant numbers of NFTs. Just like the Stock market, a collector offloading significant numbers of NFT’s creates downward price pressure on both crypto currency and the value of NFTs. New NFTs are announced as ‘Drops’ and are either unique one off pieces or part of a limited edition exactly like limited edition prints, which interestingly were all the rage exactly 100 years ago back in 1922! NFT ‘editions’ can be one off unique works or one from of a very limited run, large or small and each will have a unique identifying codes or features. Similar to Banksy print editions that are produced in total numbers of either 150 or 500, each print is individually numbered and carries formal certification and the ownerships changes are recorded, the smaller edition of 150 is also signed, typically numbered by hand in pencil, 7/150 the larger 150/500 etc. What does fungible mean? Physical money and cryptocurrencies are “fungible,” meaning they can be traded or exchanged for one another. For example I give you a fiver you give me one back and we are quits, i.e. they are fungible and equal in value – one dollar is always worth another dollar; one Bitcoin is always equal to another Bitcoin. Crypto’s fungibility makes it a trusted means of conducting transactions on the Blockchain. What is Blockchain? NFTs exist on a blockchain, which is a public ledger that records transactions and ownership. If you are already familiar with Crypto currency then blockchain is the same underlying process that makes cryptocurrencies possible. Specifically, NFTs are typically held on the Ethereum blockchain, although there are other blockchains that support them as well. Each individual unique NFT is different. Each one has a digital signature that makes it impossible for NFTs to be exchanged for or equal to one another (hence, non-fungible). NFTs can have only ever have one owner at a time their unique data verifies their ownership and transfers ownership to new owners and artists can sign their artwork by including their signature in an NFT’s metadata. Are NFTs here to stay? I think yes, and they offer new opportunities and life enhancements. For example artists can now cut out the gallery and sell direct to the public and also engage with them face to face and online. Owners form communities who join together to discuss the artists they collect and follow. The discussions are not just about money, the NFT is very inclusive and no longer the exclusive domain of the mega wealthy collector and in buying NFT’s you support artists and get the inside track on the latest news and drops. Also its all virtual you don’t have to worry about where to hang your piece, it lives in the secure ‘wallet’ on your phone and you can look at it anytime you like. Who are the big names in NFT’s and why do collectors spend such huge sums of money on them? The most famous and valuable digital artist is Mike Winklemann, better known as “Beeple” he made a composite of 5,000 daily drawings he made over five years to create perhaps the most famous NFT of the moment, “EVERYDAYS: The First 5000 Days,” which sold at Christies New York in March 2021 for £69 million. However you don’t have to own the Beeple NFT to see it, anyone can view the individual images—or even the entire collage of images online for free. So why are people willing to spend millions on something they could easily screenshot or download? Owning the NFT allows the buyer to own the original item. Blockchain offers authentication and provenance which offers proof of ownership. Artists can also program in future royalties so they can receive a percentage of sales whenever their art is sold to a new owner. This is an attractive feature for artists as generally they don’t always receive future proceeds after their art is first sold. How do I Buy NFTs First, you’ll need to get a digital wallet that allows you to store your new NFTs and cryptocurrencies. You’ll need to purchase some cryptocurrency like Ethereum, which you can buy using a credit card on platforms such as Coinbase, Kraken, eToro and PayPal. There will be fees so watch out for these, most exchanges charge a percentage of your transaction when you buy crypto. Once you’ve got your wallet set up and funded, you are good to go. Currently, the largest NFT marketplaces are:
  •  OpenSea.io
  •  Rarible
  •  Foundation
These platforms are host to thousands of NFT creators and collectors, equally you can also go to auction as all the main International auction houses now have fully staffed departments dealing only with NFT’s with private and regular auctions and ‘Drops’. Also the bigger galleries such as Pace now have a separate NFT department. Should I buy NFTs? NFTs are risky because there is no discernible secondary market as yet and so there are no comparable secondary sale prices that you might be looking at if collecting mainstream art. It’s all just so new, so maybe it’s worth just dipping your toe in the water and go for individual artists selling direct like ‘Waxbones’ via the site knownorigin.io. I was very impressed when I heard him on Radio 4 recently, as he says himself ‘I design information and wayfinding for cities by day and expel my creative juices under the alias ‘Waxbones’. by night.. his prices start at around £300 for his limited editions. Buying NFTs must be a personal decision and only if you have money to spare and remember that the value is based entirely on what someone else is willing to pay for it. An NFT when it comes to resale may go for less than you paid for it, or you might not be able to sell it at all if nobody wants it. I heard a collector speaking on the radio recently, he owns 15 NFT’s which he has bought as part of his broader investment portfolio, he has valued them all at £O! This way as he says ‘the only way is up’! There lots to study and see out there on NFTs so take a good look around and enjoy!

Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) – Painting as a Pastime

Posted on by

It’s 1915 and the First World War is raging. Winston Churchill, now aged forty, was in the thick of the fighting, leading his men at Ypres. It was while resting behind enemy lines at Ploegsteert, nicknamed ‘Plug Street’ by the Tommies, that he first picked up a brush to paint for the first time. His reasons for doing so are most eloquently expressed by Churchill himself in the introduction to his book ‘Painting as a Pastime’ first published in 1947.

Image of painting by Winston Churchill, Plug Street, 1915

Plug Street, 1915. Oil on canvas. 51 x 60 cm
Painted during WW1 while Churchill was resting with his men behind the battle lines at Ploegsteert near the front at Ypres.
In the National Trust collection at Churchill’s home , Chartwell, Kent

“Happy are the painters, for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end, or almost to the end, of the day. To have reached the age of forty without ever handling a brush or fiddling with a pencil, to have regarded with mature eye the painting of pictures of any kind as a mystery, to have stood agape before the chalk of the pavement artist, and then suddenly to find oneself plunged in the middle of a new and intense form of interest and action with paints and palettes and canvases, and not to be discouraged by results, is an astonishing and enriching experience. I hope it may be shared by others. I should be glad if these lines induced others to try the experiment which I have tried, and if some at least were to find themselves dowered with an absorbing new amusement delightful to themselves, and at any rate not violently harmful to man or beast.”

The Loup River, Alpes Maritimes 1936 by Sir Winston Churchill 1874-1965

THE LOUP RIVER, ALPES MARITIMES, 1930. Oil on canvas. 20 1/8×24 (51·5×61). Presented by the artist 1955. Exh: R.A., 1947 (174); R.A. Diploma Gallery, March–August 1959.
The picture was painted in 1930, and the site lies about five hundred yards from where the main Cagnes to Grasse road crosses the river.
It was one of the two pictures Churchill exhibited at the R.A. in 1947 and were submitted to the Selection Committee under the name ‘David Winter’.

Churchill soon found that watercolours were not his ideal medium, and instead switched to the more robust medium of oil paint – as ‘you can more easily paint over your mistakes’. Early encouragement came from an amateur prize he won for “Winter Sunshine, Chartwell,” a bright reflection of his Kentish home. Also, under the pseudonym Charles Morin, he sent five paintings to be exhibited at the Paris Salon in the 1920s, where four were sold for £30 each. However, making money was not the incentive, then or ever. It was simply the sheer delight of painting that accounted for Churchill’s devotion.

Image of painting by Winston Churchill, Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque.

Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque. Signed with initials ‘W.S.C.’ (lower right). Oil on canvas. 45.7 x 61 cm.
The world auction record holder for Churchill sold on behalf Angelina Joli for £8,285,000 in January 2021 the only painting Churchill completed during WW2 and gifted to President Roosevelt, probably the most historically Important picture by Churchill.

He readily received tuition and guidance from some of the leading artists of the day such as Sir John Lavery, Sir William Nicholson and Walter Richard Sickert. This led, in 1947, to the then president of the Royal Academy, Sir Alfred Munnings, suggesting Churchill submit two works to the annual Summer Exhibition. Churchill was eventually persuaded, on the proviso that they be submitted under the pseudonym of David Winter. Both pictures were accepted, with one being acquired later for the National Collection by the Tate. A few years later during the first post-war Royal Academy Dinner in 1949, Churchill was made an Honorary Academician (Hon, R.A), the first and so far, only person to be awarded this honour.

Image of painting by Winston Churchill, JUG WITH BOTTLES

JUG WITH BOTTLES, signed W.S.C. (lower right). Oil on canvas board. Unframed: 51 by 35.5cm.; 20 by 14in.
Painted at Chartwell sold in Nov 2020 for £983,000

Churchill had a true craftsman’s dedication to his art and readily accepted the advice to visit Avignon and later the Cote d’Azur where he discovered artists who worshipped at the throne of Cezanne. He also acknowledged the inspiration he derived from his many visits to Marrakech, Morocco.

Image of painting by Winston Churchill, MIMIZAN

MIMIZAN, signed with initials. Oil on canvas, 56.5 by 36cm.; 22¼ by 14in. Executed circa the 1920s
Image of painting by Winston Churchill. Sold June 20128 for £430,000
Gifted by the Artist to Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein in 1950

Churchill sought and found tranquillity in his art. His much-quoted words, summing up his expectations of celestial bliss; “When I get to heaven, I mean to spend a considerable portion of my first million years in painting, and so get to the bottom of the subject…”

Image of painting by Winston Churchill, THE SCUOLA DI SAN MARCO VENICE

THE SCUOLA DI SAN MARCO VENICE, signed with initials. Oil on canvas, 50.5 by 61cm.; 20 by 24in. Executed in 1951.
Churchill loved Venice, he spent his honeymoon there in 1908, this picture was painted on a family holiday at the Lido in 1951.
Sold Nov 2015 for £500,000

By far the best and most enjoyable way to get to know the man and his art is to visit his beloved Chartwell in Kent. Now owned and run by the National Trust, Churchill’s paintings and artefacts are all around the house, but for me the revelation is the Garden studio which is full of Churchill’s paintings, hung corner to corner almost, with his paints, brushes and easel all set out as if he were returning shortly… not to be missed!

Image of painting by Winston Churchill, View of Blenheim Palace through the branches of a cedar

View of Blenheim Palace through the branches of a cedar. Oil on canvas. 61 x 51 cm
A view of Churchill’s childhood home painted in 1920 and gifted to Churchill’s daughter Mary Soames, and sold from her estate collection sale in December 2014
for £566,000

RELATED ARTICLES

Sir Winston Churchill

African, Modern and Contemporary Art

Artists to Watch in 2021

Modern British Sculpture Sleeper

Bridget Riley

Laura Knight

Mary Fedden

George Condo

David Hockney

MORE ARTICLES

Modern and Contemporary Art and Sculpture

Old Master Paintings

Jewellery

Watches

Books and Manuscripts and Written Material

Objects of Virtue

Clothing and Accessories

Insurance Articles

Furniture

Arms and Militaria

Wine and Whisky

Miscellaneous Articles

How Art Galleries & Auction Houses Have Adapted During COVID

Posted on by

‘Never waste a crisis’ they say in the art business. The various lockdowns, and Covid itself, has forced the art market to adapt quickly to the new challenges we all face in our lives and businesses. When you think of the art business, it’s about people and face to face meetings, parties and major auction gala openings etc. So how, in the face of the pandemic, are they going to manage, when indeed the very people they need to see and sell to are no longer allowed to travel or even mingle in any way shape or form!

Brilliantly and swiftly auction houses reacted almost overnight. Having worked in the auction industry myself for over 30 years, I’m well aware of how many great ideas were sitting on the shelves in auction houses just waiting for the right moment to be put into practice, now suddenly, that ‘right moment’ is now and all the ideas are in play. Realising that it would now be impossible for people to view in person, they switched to remote live and timed online auctions. The latter, prior to Covid, had only been mildly successful, but now, with no other option and with bidders locked up at home, they found tens of thousands of new bidders.  We were about to witness the reality of presenting auctions live to the public- with nobody at all sitting in the saleroom! Those of you who have attended auctions will recognise the buzzing atmosphere with people here, there and everywhere all bidding and crammed shoulder to shoulder. Well, none of that was going to be possible now.

Christie’s mounted what they called a ‘global auction’ which was an extraordinary feat of logistics and engineering. There was an auctioneer in Hong Kong passing on to the auctioneer in Paris, passing on to an auctioneer in New York, so literally back-to-back auctions spanning almost 15 hours!  What was truly remarkable was the numbers. Over 160,000 people were either watching or bidding around the world, whereas normally they might expect 30,000 online viewers and the prices achieved were every bit as strong.  In some cases, even stronger than pre-pandemic, mainly because new people were involved so bidder numbers were significantly higher than would have been seen before. In fact, there were so many people attempting to log on to watch, me included, that it was impossible for the system to cope! They reacted quickly though and adapted things. So much so that one year on 160,000 + people watching an auction in various locations around the world is normal and they no longer run out of bandwidth.

To further develop the online offering, new visual aids have appeared. You can now gauge the size of the picture you were thinking about buying on a virtual wall. To be able to gauge the size of the piece is genius, as sometimes in our heads it’s bigger or smaller than it really is.

Auctioneers around the world are still adapting to the new norm. However, not all of them are doing auctions in exactly the same way, which is rather refreshing.  Some are conducting live auctions with an auctioneer, sometimes in his own living room, with images and bidding increments being presented on your screen so everything is there for you, while the actual pieces are safely in the warehouse.

Condition reports for multi million dollar lots are essential so that at a distance you can be comfortable with what you’re buying, Covid rules allow for independent restorers to visit the rooms to do reports on behalf of the vendors and are flat out doing just that!

We’re only a year on, however it seems like five years’ worth of ideas and development have been squeezed into less than a year of real time when it comes to auctions. You can now bid on either a live auction in one session with an auctioneer and nobody except staff in the room, or on a timed online auction which is spread over a week or so.  Everyone is doing it in their own slightly differing ways and yet all are instinctively seeming to get it right.

Major auctions now appear on YouTube so you can search Christie’s auction and watch a recorded New York auction from beginning to end, followed by a second session in London if you have the energy! The 160,000 people worldwide watching in 2020 has now grown to nearer a million in some cases with auction houses using multiple cameras and angles just like a football match.
For art dealers, international art fairs are the lifeblood to their businesses as it’s where they meet new clients, re-engage with existing clients and show exciting new pieces and discoveries for the first time.  The buzz of fairs, such as Masterpiece, the London Art Fair and the Armoury and Frieze fairs are all suspended. The galleries are no longer able to use their physical shop space to garner interest, so to reach out they are turning increasingly to newsletters, updates and new stock reports, knowing that we’re all locked down so much more likely to read what they are sending us.  While it’s not possible to go into the galleries themselves, new virtual portals have opened, run by those dealers usually involved with art fairs. This allows them to showcase on other platforms such as Love Antiques, The Bruno Effect and 1st dibs and 2covet – all of whom are benefitting from added interest in this lockdown world.

It’s fair to say that pretty much everything is virtual in the art world now. The upshot I think is that for many people buying at auction and galleries has been totally demystified so encouraging new buyers. When lockdown ends and we get back to something near normal, I think that the art world will bounce back with a vengeance. People will still want to buy at auctions but will accept and enjoy attending virtually too, and there will be an equal number of people who have been introduced to buying art via virtual fairs and exhibitions.

Virtual Auctions


Live auction at Christie’s London on March 1st 2021, here we see the hammer about to come down on the only wartime painting completed by Winston Churchill ‘ called the Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque. it was completed by Churchill in 1943 after the allied conference in Morocco and given to President Franklin D Roosevelt and much later bought by Brad Pitt for his then wife Angelina Joli and sold in this auction on her behalf for nearly 6 times its pre-sale estimate of £1.5 million for a record breaking £8.3 million. The auctioneer is the only one not wearing a mask, see below

Staff bidders at the March 1st auction, not black tie anymore for gala auctions, it’s now matching black masks for everyone. You can’t see but there are no members of the public in the saleroom at all, they are either on these phones or online, only these masked phone bidding staff , the auctioneer plus a few masked art handlers showing the works are the only people in the room. The room would normally be packed yet despite everything this sale and all the others have been rip roaring successes. The sale was filmed using multiple cameras and angles and is therefore fun to watch it is on you tube, just search Christie’s auction where it can be viewed in full, on the night the auction was viewed by over 100,000 people. It appears that watching auctions under lockdown has gone viral !

A rare early picture by Vincent van Gogh, Rue Montmatre , estimate £5-8 million for sale at Sothebys on March 25th 2021 ,this is the image from the online catalogue, it has a ‘zoom in’ facility and condition report, lot essay etc see below

Same Van Gogh picture shown on a virtual wall, next to a virtual window, to give you a sense of its scale

Arg-Ala by Damien Hirst,
Estimate £150-200,000
In a Sothebys online timed auction 26th March, 2021, bidding is over a week usually and progress is shown 24/7 like e bay, bidding ends at a specific time and day with a delay if bidding is still active and will continue until bidding stops , at the time of writing it was £150,000, the picture is 50 x 50 cms and is seen here with an art handler nearby to give scale. These online timed sales were mainly used for lower value lots or collection sales pre- covid , however they have now fully proved their ability to sell very high value lots well.

The latest big news in the auction world is digital art , known as NFT’s ( Non Fungible Tokens) this is a brand new development as of March 2021. This image shows a work with multiple images titled ‘The First 5,000 days ‘ created over 5,000 days by Mike Winkelmann, aka ‘Beeple’ sold for $69,000,000 in Christie’s New York . Again this was not a live traditional auction it was a timed sale as for the Hirst in fig 6. Amazingly the starting estimate was only $100 and there was no reserve , bidding only began actively a few minutes before the auction was due to close, bids rose from $100 to $69,000,000 in a matter of minutes ! It was bought by Vignesh Sundarasen a Singapore based investor. The work doesn’t exist in a tangible form, so you can’t hang it up anywhere nor have you bought the copyright which stays with Beeple the artist. However you can trade it via the unique access code you receive with the work.

Another digital work made up of multiple individual images again by Beeple, called ‘The Next Chapter’ Beeple first began making his ‘Everydays’ (one image per day) in 2007, however lockdown and its full embrace of live online auctions seems to have provided the catalyst to go global with offering digital works at auction online.

Virtual Art Dealing


Unlike the auction houses Art Dealers don’t have the monkey of back to back auction calendar to manage, however they do rely on major Art fairs and events such as Frieze, The London Art Fair and Masterpiece to showcase new works and meet new clients and make sales. Many of the events have been postponed, however The London Art Fair went digital, showcasing individual galleries such as Alan Wheatley in this image. The image and details will have been shared with all registered attendees of previous year’s fairs and is teamed up with experts and other curators to present a series of lectures, webinars and virtual events to drive sales.

More London Art fair 2021 images, featuring works for sale by Bridget Riley, Ian Davenport and others

Welcome page for 2covet a new online dealer platform enabling dealers to continue to have access to sales and new clients while their shops remain closed.

2 covet dealer page showing more traditional pictures from a dealer in late 19th and early 20th century
Pictures.

2 Covet website showing the range of categories available to buy.

A new site, ‘The Bruno Effect, due to open June 2021 focussing on antiques vintage and 20c design.

Bruno Effect’s dealer focus page

1st Dibs is an established online dealer platform, they have a full range of art and antique dealers who pay commission on sales along with a monthly subscription so it’s quite an investment , if you also have a closed shop, lockdown will have encouraged many more dealers to move online to this site. They hold online dealer and object focus events plus editors picks so many more dealers are moving online

A current ‘Editor’s Picks’ event page on 1st Dibs featuring items from different disciplines chosen by the Editor.

Looking for Lowry

Posted on by

L S Lowry, (1887-1976) is perhaps our most famous English painter of the 20th Century. Certainly, if you were appearing as a contestant on ‘Pointless’ then good luck trying for a pointless answer by naming Lowry as your answer in any question category! Most people in the UK today, young or old, and for some reason mostly male, will in some way or other have heard of Lowry.
As a Victorian, born in Manchester in 1887, he was the only child of Robert and Elizabeth Lowry. It seems he was always a disappointment to his mother, who really wanted a girl. Early photographs show him still wearing girls’ clothes aged 4 or 5. He also wanted to be an artist, which was yet another disappointment to his mother.

However, as the Lowrys were not wealthy enough to support the family, he was thwarted by having to work full time at his father Robert’s work place. This left no time for painting in the day, leaving him only the evenings to study, so that is what he did. Always older than everybody else, it took him the best part of 20 years to fully qualify. Even then, (although he never admitted it to anybody he knew), he had to continue to work full time, Monday to Saturday, and so only painted at night for many, many years. Indeed, probably through habit he continued to do this his whole life.

He was at his most productive after he retired from the Pall Mall Property company in 1952, when at least he had the whole day at his disposal. He was by then famous for his Industrial Landscapes which he began painting in the 1920’s. On retirement, he was keen to move on but inevitably his collectors still mostly wanted his ‘Industrials’.
He switched to a lighter, brighter, whiter, palate by the early 60’s and began to make small, quickly painted pictures, mainly with people and animals.
He has always been a popular artist at auction and as early as 1964 pictures were reaching record sums of near to £2,000, a very significant sum back in the day. His exhibitions in London at the Lefevre gallery were always a sell-out and so now prices for even small, genuine drawings and sketches are out of the reach for many collectors.
Limited edition prints had been around since the beginning of the 20th Century, with artists such as Picasso and Henry Moore signing limited editions of their printed work.
Lowry became involved in the late 60’s and early 70’s, signing everything personally. It is these that offer the new collector at least an entry level starting point as a collector. Generally speaking, the price range runs from £2,000 up to the dizzy heights of £20,000 for particularly rare examples.

This article gives a brief introduction to the 25 to 30 different signed prints by Lowry that are still available. They regularly come up for auction and are available in private galleries all around the UK. As they are multiples, they are a bit like buses – if you miss one, there will be another along soon. Hence, there is no need to jump in quickly. If this is something that you want to get involved with, see what’s out there and then dip your toe in the water .

Things to watch out for are – condition and colour, (some prints fade if they’ve been in strong sunlight), and avoid stains and rips. Good luck and enjoy the process!
LS Lowry (1887-1976)
1-3 are all original Lowry paintings

Station approach Manchester print

 

1) Going to the Match, 1953
Signed, oil on canvas, 71 x 92. This is an image of the original oil bought at the 1997 auction by Graham Taylor on behalf of the Professional Football association pension fund, it’s now on view in  the Lowry Salford
Original oil painting, Sold at auction for £1,926,500 in 1997

Station approach Manchester
2) The original Lowry painting Station Approach, Manchester 1960, oil on canvas, 76 x 101 cm
Sold for £2,322,500 in 2014

Punch and Judy
3) The original Lowry painting Punch and Judy. Signed and dated 1943, Oil on canvas, 41 x 56  cm
This original painting has changed hands multiple time since it first came up for auction in 1995 when it made £152,000, last time it sold was in 2019 when it made £611,000
Sold for £962,500 in 2014

The following are all signed limited edition prints of various original Lowry pictures and drawings

Going to the match
Going to the Match, 1953. Signed Colour print from an edition of 300, 56 x 70 cm
While the price paid for the original is not the record price the print version is the top priced Lowry print! It is to do with the subject, ie football and the fact that there were only ever 300 produced
£20,000 in 2020
£18,000 in 2015

Station approach Manchester print
Station Approach, Manchester. Signed colour print from an edition of 850, 40 x 50 cm
£3,187 in 2020
£3,100 in 2015

Punch and Judy print
Punch and Judy. Signed colour print from an edition of 75, 44.5 x 68.5 cm
Prices go down as well as up, the price for this particular print has gone down since 2015…
£5,062 in 2020
£8,100 in 2015

Britain at play
Britain at Play. Signed colour print from an edition of 850, 47 x 60 cm
£4,200 in 2021
£2,500 in 2015

Fever van
Fever Van. Signed colour print from an edition of 700, 45 x 54 cm
£4,800 in 2021
£2,500 in 2015

The Pond
The Pond. Signed colour print from an edition of 850, 45 x 58 cm
£4,000 in 2021
£2,200 in 2015


Market Scene in a Northern Town. Signed colour print, 46 x 60 cm
£5,000 in 2021
£2,700 in 2015


Man Lying on a Wall. Signed colour print. No 479 from an edition of 500, 40 x 50 cm
£7,200 in 2020
£6,000 in 2015

Group of Children
Group of Children. Signed colour print from an edition of 850, 18 x 19 cm
£3,825 in 2020
£1,800 in 2015

The Contraption
The Contraption. Signed Colour print from an edition of 750, 31 x 30 cm
£4,000 in 2020
£2,100 in 2015

Great Ancoats Street
Great Ancoats Street. Signed b/w print, from an edition of 850, 26 x 36 cm
£2,800 in 2020
£1500 in 2015

Salford Viaduct
Salford Viaduct. Signed, monochrome, lithograph from an edition of 75, 52 x 64 cm
£7,000 in 2021
Rare print, only two have been offered at auction, one sold for £6500 in 2016

Deal Beach sketch
Deal Beach, sketch. Signed colour print from an edition of 850, 26 x 50 cm
£5,000 in 2019
£3,500 in 2015

Burford Church
Burford Church. Signed colour print from a numbered edition of 850, 60 x 45 cm
£2,200 in 2020
£3,100 in 2015

A street full of people
A Street full of people. Signed b/w print from a numbered edition of 75, 62 x 97 cm. This particular print is no 2/75 and was embellished in blue crayon by Lowry himself which doubled its price to £20,000!
£10,000 in 2020. It’s a rare print only 5 have come up, one made £800 in 2012

Mrs Swindell's picture
Mrs Swindell’s picture. Signed colour print from an edition of 850, 40 x 30 cm
£3200 in 2020
£1600 in 2015

The football match
The Football Match. Signed and numbered black and white print from an edition of 850, 26 x 36 cm
£5,737 in 2021
£4750 in 2015

Three men and a cat
Three Men and a cat. Signed in blue biro, colour print, 25 x 17 cm
£3600 in 2020
£1800 in 2015

His familiy
His Family. Signed colour print from an edition of 575, 54 x 72 cm
£1785 in 2020
£1600 in 2015

The Secrets Revealed by the Back of Pictures

Posted on by

Next time you’re watching the Antiques Roadshow, look carefully to see what each of the different specialists do when they first examine a new item.

The jewellery specialists will get out their ‘loop’ (a small high magnification eye glass) and examine the setting, the stone its colour, light reflection, hallmarks and all the other little details of interest to them; the furniture specialists will crouch down on hands and knees to look underneath or pull out the drawers to rummage inside; the ceramic specialist will pick up the piece, turn it upside down and go straight for the base to look for marks and stamps and other clues.

The picture specialists have a similar routine. First a glance at the front and then flip it over to look at the back (size allowing). To the uninitiated it may look like they have hardly glanced at the front. So, what are picture specialists looking for? Well, there could be a whole host of things back there such as: if a picture has been re-framed there might be a sticker or a note left by the framer saying what was done and when. In some cases, it may have been exhibited and there may be exhibition labels pasted on the back of the picture. As dates and locations are usually included, this can help lead to identifying whether or not it is a more or less important work. It may have been bought from a commercial gallery and the quality or value may depend on the gallery it came from. There could have been restoration work carried out on the picture and or notes or labels that may give a hint or indication of where and it when it might have been repaired.

I have often heard the phrase ‘it’s got a very good back’ said about a picture with lots of labels. Certainly something attached to the back of a picture will rarely be removed once there, so it often feels like walking through history when looking at the back of a well labelled picture. It probably doesn’t make any sense if you’re not used to it, but it makes perfect sense if you spend your days looking at pictures. I have even seen specialists look at a photograph of a picture and then out of habit, turn the snap over to look at the back for anything interesting!

I thought it might be helpful just to share a few examples of the backs (and fronts) of some pictures and works on paper that I have seen myself. I also try to explain a little bit more about what I’m looking for, what we are seeing and what conclusions if any, we are able to draw.

L S Lowry (British, 1887-1976)
Children Walking up steps
Oil on board, 25 x 35 cm
Estimate, £150-250,000
From the Artist’s estate
Not signed or dated
Sold £137,000, March ‘21

Reverse of Children Walking up steps
Showing top left exhibition label for Crane Kalman London top left. Bottom centre, loan label for The Lowry Salford

L S Lowry (British, 1887-1976)
Broken Shop Window, 1950
Signed, Pastel, 27 x 37 cm
Estimate £35-55,000
Sold £50,000, March ‘21

Backboard of Broken Shop Window; the green label says NAN, code for Christies Cheshire office, and has Christie’s London address, it shows the work was consigned for sale from an owner in or near Cheshire. In white chalk a previous Christie’s sale date, lot 301 8/Jun/90. Black stencil KKS69, this is unique to Christies, London

Victor Pasmore ( British, 1908-1998)
Abstract, 1951-52, 68 x 83 cm, Oil on board
Estimate £60-80,000
Sold £72,750, Nov ‘20

Photo showing the back of above picture

Magnification of labels on the back see this label for an exhibition at a Jonathan Clark’s London Gallery…. No date probably circa 1990- 2000

Owner’s own label, Sir Martyn Becket’s

Carriers label name on label
Rob Oakden
Not significant

Arthur Tooth, a major London gallery label date, circa 1950’s stock no Cl 686

Arts Council 1980 exhibition label catalogue no 22

David Bomberg ( British, 1890-1957)
Old City and Cathedral, Ronda. 1935, signed lower left, oil on canvas, 64 x 76 cm
£400-600,000
Provenance Asa Lingard, Bradford
Sold £790,750

View of the back of Old City and Cathedral, Ronda, it’s all very original with its original canvas no labels evident so look for any writing on the canvas or wooden stretcher

Spotted some writing top left hand corneron the wood , it says ‘ Ronda, David Bomberg, Spain 1935. Possibly the artist’s hand writing or maybe a previous owner?

More writing top centre , it says ‘Richard Cork says Cuenca‘.
Richard Cork is the authority on Bomberg. This is in biro circa 1980’s so not the artist. Cork changed his mind to Ronda near Malaga.

Centre right, ‘Property of Mrs Nimmo‘ a previous owner again in biro so not Bomberg.

William Roberts (British, 1895-1980)
Women playing with Cats
1919, Signed. Pen ink and watercolour, 29 x 20 cm
£150-250,000
Sold £325,250, Nov ‘20

Back of Women playing with Cats; a great looking back.
Top a label for a show at Tate Britain in 1956, catalogue no 186, it then toured the UK.
Also showing the owners name at the time, Michael Tachmindji.
Hamet Gallery label, Feb 1971, very well known and respected gallery, sold by them to another owner. Arts Council label, they organised the Tate Show and its tour around the UK.

The cut out in the backboard shows the title inscribed on the back of the work itself, written by the artist ‘Women Playing with cats’

Ben Nicholson (British, 1894-1982)
Two Forms
Oil on board, 23.8 x 21.6 cm
Estimate £70-100,000
Sold June ‘18, £193,750

Back of Two Forms. See shipping label and owners name Mr Wright Luddington, who bought the work at the Lefevre Gallery London. See Lefevre gallery label underneath. See writing in pencil top centre, Two Forms, Ben Nicholson 1947, this is all the artist’s writing.

RELATED ARTICLES

The Back of Pictures

Patrick Heron

LS Lowry

Modern British Sculpture

Henry Moore Market

The Art Market and Brexit

Andy Warhol

MORE ARTICLES

Modern Art and Sculpture

Contemporary Art and Sculpture

Old Master Paintings

Jewellery

Watches

Books, Manuscripts and Written Material

Objects of Virtue

Clothing and Accessories

Insurance Articles

Furniture

Arms and Militaria

Wine and Whisky

Miscellaneous Articles

African, Modern and Contemporary Art

Posted on by

cotswolds

Collectors are always on the lookout for new opportunities and in a brilliant piece of rebranding over the last couple of years the old style South African Art auctions have re-emerged as a new category known as African, Modern and Contemporary Art.

Ben Enwonwu
Tutu, 1974, oil on canvas
Bonhams, London, Feb 2018. Estimate 200,000 – £300,000, sold for £1,208,750

Auctions now take place in New York and London and the rebranding has widened the catchment area to the whole of Africa, while at the same time still retaining the big hitters such as Irma Stern and Ben Enwonwu , the auctions now include many new artists or previously neglected artists from across the Continent of Africa. Looking around at the current International contemporary sales in all the main sites, some African artists such as El Anatsui have already broken through to the mainstream market. However the vast majority of artists are at a very early stage so it’s still possible to support and spot new stars and over the next 5 to 10 years I would expect to see many more cross over into the mainstream Contemporary auctions.

El Anatsui
Recycled Dreams, c2005. Found aluminium bottle caps and copper wire.
Christies, New York, Nov 2018, Estimate 700,000 – 1,000,000 USD, sold for 1,512,500 USD
Here are a few examples from recent sales and it’s encouraging to note that the price range is wide and the choice of work is vast, all the way from £2,000 to £2 million and there is plenty of work available at entry and all levels in every sale, the volume of art being produced by this vibrant and vast Continent is more than enough to satisfy even the most enthusiastic collector.

Billie Zangewa
The Cotswolds, 1973. Embroidered silk.
Aspire Art Auctions, Sept 2019, Estimate 9,800 – 16,400 USD, sold for 14,987 USD
Covid has brought us many challenges and the world of auctions and galleries have responded brilliantly to the call for greater visibility about what is available to buy .

Chéri Samba
J’Aime la Couleur, 2005. Acrylic and glitter on canvas.
Sotheby’s London, April 2019, Estimate £40,000 – £60,000, sold for £93,750
So now It’s super easy to browse to find what appeals to you. It’s easy to follow the sales and bid online, take your time before buying, and I think you will learn and enjoy!

Ibrahim El Salahi
Standing Figure. Pen and Ink.
Bonham’s London, March 2019, Estimate £15,000 – £20,000, sold for £50,062
Some artists to look out for are:
El Anatsui , Ben Enwonwu, Gerard Sekoto, Ibrahim El Salahi, Yusuf Grillo, Demas Nwoko, Skunder Boghossian, Malangatana Ngwenya, Iba N’Diaye, Papa Ibra Tall, Sam Ntiro, Uzo Egonu, Uche Okeke, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Irma Stern, Nicholas Hlobo, William Kentridge, Chéri Samba, Billie Zangewa, Abdoulaye Konate, Ouattara Watts.

Gerald Sekoto
Cyclists in Sophiatown. Oil on canvas board.
Sotheby’s London, October 2019, Estimate £250,000 – £350,000, sold for £362,500
Artists hail from Angola, Benin, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and other countries in Africa.

Artists to Watch in 2021

Posted on by

Some new or not so well known artists who have all outperformed auction expectations during 2020.

The advent of online only sales and bidding has not only broadened the International reach of Contemporary art auctions but also spawned new trends that have moved more quickly and been much more noticeable, especially in the Contemporary day sales which have often been overshadowed by the evening auctions. This makes the day sales even better hunting grounds and barometers of who is hot or not. Early evidence of up and coming artists is seen when their hammer prices hurtle past their high estimates many times over.

Here are a few of the artists who exceeded expectations at day sales during Covid restrictions in 2020. I think they are all ones to watch and may well appear in an evening sale soon!

Matthew Wong, River at Dusk, (2018)
Matthew Wong River at Dusk
Matthew Wong (Canadian, 1984-2019)
River at Dusk, 2018, oil on canvas, 203 x 178 cm
Offered at Phillips Hong Kong, December 3, 2020, estimate 7-10 million HKD sold for 37,760,000 HKD. A new world record for the artist.
The Canadian born Chinese Matthew Wong smashed into the International Art market in 2020.
His ‘River at Dusk’ painted in 2018 was offered in Hong Kong on December 3rd 2020 by Phillips in association with Poly Auctions. It made nearly 5 times its low estimate of 7 million HKD (approx. £700,000) selling for 37,760,000 HKD . Self-taught as a painter , Wong’s untimely death in 2019 at the age of only 35 has robbed us of one of the most talented painters of his generation. Therefore inevitably and tragically the number of his available works is limited.

Salman Toor, Rooftop Party With Ghosts 1 (2015). 
Salman Toor Rooftop Party wth ghosts
Salman Toor, Rooftop Party With Ghosts 1 (2015) Photo courtesy Christie’s.
Auction: Christie’s New York, December 3
Estimate: $100,000 to $150,000
Sold For: $822,000
Salman Toor, was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1983
and lives and works in New York City

Christina Quarles, Tuckt (2016)
Christina Quarles, Tuckt
Christina Quarles, Tuckt (2016). Photo courtesy of Phillips.
Auction: Phillips New York, December 8
Estimate: $70,000 to $100,000
Sold For: $655,200
Christina Quarles was born in Chicago, IL in 1985 and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She completed her BA at Hampshire College in 2007 with a double concentration in Philosophy and Studio Arts. Christina earned her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University in 2016. She currently lives in Los Angeles, CA with her wife and two cats.
Christina Quarles is being hailed as the ‘hottest artist in America’
Pilar Corrias Gallery in London, recently sold works for as much as $200,000. In 2021 Quarles’s delayed solo show opens in Chicago, debuting dozens of paintings and sculptures.

Bernard Frize, Néoco (2004)
Bernard Friz, Néoco
Bernard Frize, Néoco (2004). Photo courtesy Sotheby’s.
Auction: Sotheby’s Paris, December 11
Estimate: $49,000 to $73,000
Sold For: $198,000
Bernard Frize was born in France in 1954 and in addition to the one above , on December 3, a painting sold for $276,000 at Phillips’s evening sale in Hong Kong, and then days later, at Sotheby’s Paris, another went for $198,000—well over its high estimate of $73,000.

Alex Gardner, Moment (2018)
Alex Gardner, Momen
Alex Gardner, Moment (2018). Photo courtesy Phillips.
Auction: Phillips New York, December 8
Estimate: $20,000 to $30,000
Sold For: $170,000
Alex Gardner is an LA based American painter, he was born in 1987
In his first ever appearance at auction, Gardner saw his 2018 painting Moment, sail past its $30,000 high estimate to sell for $170,000. As far as I can tell this is his first time out and the only pictures offered at auction so far, it certainly will not be the last!

Ayako Rokkaku, Untitled (2012)
Ayako Rokkaku Untitled
Ayako Rokkaku, Untitled (2012). Photo courtesy Christie’s.
Auction: Christie’s Hong Kong, December 2
Estimate: $45,000 to $71,000
Sold For: $306,000
In 2003, the self-taught Japanese artist Ayako Rokkaku, then just 21 won the Scout Prize at Geisei, the biannual Tokyo art fair founded by artist Takashi Murakami. Since then, Rokkaku has continued to make her manga-inspired, largely hand-painted works, which often involve cartoonish depictions of young girls.
In early December at the Christie’s Hong Kong auctions series, a signature work by Rokkaku sold for $306,000, well above its high estimate of $70,000, thus creating a new record for the artist. This record did not last long as at the the Taiwan auction house Ravenel, when The Sisters, sold for $416,000.

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Eve on Psilocybin (2018)
Kudzanai Violet Hwami Eve on Psilocybin
Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Eve on Psilocybin (2018). Photo courtesy Phillips.
Auction: Phillips New York, December 8
Estimate: $30,000 to $40,000
Sold For: $252,000
Born in Zimbabwe in 1993 Kudzanai-Violet Hwami is another new young artist on the gallery and auction scene. Although only 26 at the time she was chosen as one of the four artists to represent Zimbabwe in the 2019 Venice Biennale despite the fact that she will not finish her MFA at the Ruskin School of Art until this year, 2021.
Hwami’s first auction showing was for her psychedelic Eve on Psilocybin , it was lot 1in the sale and it set a strong trend for the whole sale, multiple bidders pushed the price up to $252,000, well above the high estimate of $40,000

Dame Laura Knight, RA, DBE, RWS (1877-1970)

Posted on by

Dame Laura Knight was an extraordinarily gifted painter, who despite being painfully shy in her early years, later developed a great sense of personal style and strength of character and honed her true genius for colour and composition.

Laura Knight - Artist’s Self Portrait

Laura Knight – Artist’s Self Portrait, at her easel, public collection

Laura had a great lust for life and embraced everything it threw at her; from being a teaching assistant at Nottingham School of Art, aged 13, via the shores of North Yorkshire and Cornwall and following critical success becoming the first ever female Royal Academician. She was also the only female War artist in World War Two, covering the Nuremberg War Crime trials as the official British artist, with her career culminating in1963 with being the first female artist to have a full retrospective exhibition of her work at the Royal Academy.

Laura Knight - Nuremberg war crimes trials

Laura Knight – Nuremberg war crimes trials, collection of the Imperial War Museum

What a life! Laura really packed everything in. She had a very pale ‘English Rose’ complexion and blushed very easily, especially when confronted by ‘chaps’ other than her husband, the painter Harold Knight whom she married in 1903. For those of you who like movies featuring real artists, you can see Laura on Netflix in the flesh as it were in the 2013 movie ‘Summer in February’ starring Dominic Cooper as the painter Alfred Munnings, Laura is brilliantly played by Hattie Morihan and the movie is set in Lamorna, Cornwall.

Laura Knight - On the Cliffs, Cornwall

Laura Knight – On the Cliffs, Cornwall. Signed, oil on canvas, 63 x 76 cms. Sold December 2009, £ 646,050 the current world record price

The action takes place in February of 1913. As Spring comes early down there, it was during what proved to be the last golden, warm, and peaceful Cornish Spring before the destruction and devastation of WW1 arrived in 1914. Laura is tongue-tied and red in the face whenever she is confronted by the roguish painter Alfred Munnings (Dominic Cooper is just playing himself I think!), who takes every opportunity to embarrass Laura with his advances whenever Laura’s husband Harold was nowhere to be seen.

Laura Knight Ballet Girl and Dressmaker

Laura Knight, Ballet Girl and Dressmaker, signed, oil on canvas, 96 x 122 cms. Sold July 2018, £322,000

Laura learned painting from her mother who taught at Nottingham School of Art. When she was only13 her mother became terminally ill and Laura effectively took on her role. She married her childhood friend the painter Harold Knight (1874-1961) in 1903 and they moved to join the Staithes artists’ colony based on the North Yorkshire coast due north of Whitby, living and working in or near the village of Staithes .

Laura Knight - Packing Fish, Staithes

Laura Knight – Packing Fish, Staithes, oil on canvas, 60 x 50 cms. Sold March 2013, £20,000

Her style is quite different in Staithes. As money was tight, she painted mostly in watercolour there. However, the work is very charming. She loved the local people and depicted their daily life in low-ceilinged, poorly lit interior with figures using muted and subtle colours.

Laura Knight - Marsh Mallows, Cornwall

Laura Knight – Marsh Mallows, Cornwall. Oil on canvas, 76 x 64 cms. Sold Dec 1999, £331,500

The Knights moved to Cornwall in 1907 and by 1908 Laura’s style had transformed under the influence of the warm, brilliant light, dazzling blue green seas and glorious sunny days. All this lifted her palette and her work to new heights. When this new work was first shown at the Royal Academy it caused a sensation and even today these truly remarkable Cornish pictures always command the highest prices.

Laura Knight - Munitions worker

Laura Knight – Munitions worker, collection of the Imperial War Museum

Laura Knight was a great painter in the British Impressionist tradition and a trailblazer for women artists of the 20th Century. Both Laura and Harold enjoyed critical and financial success, with Laura notably arriving in her Rolls-Royce to paint at the Epsom Derby. She was also amazingly productive, painting continuously for well over 50 years.

Laura Knight A dull day Epsom

Laura Knight – A dull day Epsom, oil on canvas, 63 x 76 cms. Sold may 2014, £88,000

She was always on the hunt for new subjects, which in addition to Staithes and Cornwall include; the theatre, ballet, the circus – with all its players and characters – glamour girls and ladies, horse racing, fairgrounds, landscapes… She was a remarkably busy lady indeed, so luckily for the collector there are many buying opportunities, from fine black and white etchings for not much money, to drawings and sketches, and watercolours and oils.

Mary Fedden Tuscan Terrace

Mary Fedden 1915-2012

Posted on by

They say you should never meet your heroes, however in my case meeting my heroine Mary Fedden back in 1989 went without a hitch and she was a pure delight throughout.

mary fedden blue table

Mary Fedden
The Blue table, oil on board, 76 x 91 cms.
Painted in 1959,
Sold in Feb 2007 for £49,200 ( estimate 15-20,000)

We were both council members of the artists’ charity the AGBI, founded by J M W Turner in 1814; 200+ years later we are still helping artists and going strong. The Committee would meet eight times a year with ten or more council members, mainly artists with some commercial art members such as myself in attendance also. I sat opposite or near Mary for the next ten years or more and if I close my eyes I can still hear her rich, gentle and mellow speaking voice, just the sort of voice that suits fairy tales read aloud. Mary had been on the council for years when I joined, and she was happily enjoying a well-deserved revival of fortunes. Back in 1989 the art market was enjoying a real high point. It was a ‘bonkers’ market for art which lasted until November 1990 when it finally ‘tanked’.

mary fedden tuscan terrace

Mary Fedden Tuscan Terrace, signed and dated 1956, oil on canvas, 50 x 76 cms. Sold £27,500 July 2010 ( estimate £20-30,000)

Mary was showing her work in an exhibition in a gallery in Cork Street. On the opening day lines of people had begun forming up outside the gallery from the early morning, all trying to be first in to buy. Part of the reason for this was Mary’s insistence that her prices should be attractive, ie low so as to ensure success, so the pictures were all priced between £300 and £600, which for the commercially minded collector in the queue outside represented an immediate profit on the current auction prices; hence the feeding frenzy … I remember buyers were limited to no more than 3 pictures per person! On or around Mary’s 90th birthday in 2005 I managed to get her in for a boardroom lunch I was hosting at Christie’s, at which she told me a little more about her life and career.

mary fedden my things

Mary Fedden My Things, signed, oil on canvas, 101x 162 cms. Sold twice, first in June 2006 for £30,000 and again in 2008 for £103,250 !!

She had married fellow artist Julian Trevelyan in 1951. It was his second marriage and her first, and as was the convention back then, Mary almost entirely parked her painting career and ambitions not long after they married. At the time it was not thought appropriate to compete with one’s husband in a marriage between painters.

mary fedden Julian Trevelyan

Mary Fedden. Mary’s husband Julian Trevelyan by the  Thames, signed, oil on board, painted in 1978, 78 x 68 cms sold for £19,200 in Nov 2007.

Julian became President of the RA and died in 1988 and so 1989 marked the first year Mary felt able to ‘go for it’ as it were. She had not stopped painting in the intervening years, she had just stopped selling. Her pricing was probably still stuck in the fifties also! Her accountant told her that in 1989 she earned as much in that one year as she had earned since getting married in 1951 and 1988!

mary fedden julian in the greenhouse

Mary Fedden Julian in the Greenhouse, signed and dated 1986, oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cms. Sold £ 25,000 July 2015 ( estimate £8-12,000)

The appeal of Mary’s work is universal and immediate and private collectors loved and admired it back then and still do now. Also, for me Mary’s work is unique to her and she does not owe anything to or follow any school of painting, making her work recognisable and attractive.

mary fedden white Mary Fedden, The White Umbrella , signed, oil on canvas, 91 x 101 cms. Sold Nov 2007 for £48,000 ( estimte 30-50,000)umbrella

Mary Fedden, The White Umbrella , signed, oil on canvas, 91 x 101 cms. Sold Nov 2007 for £48,000 ( estimte 30-50,000)

Mary’s prices rocketed, albeit from a low base in the late 80’s, so her confidence grew and grew, and her prices have remained strong continuing to gain ground today. Mary was a delight to know and she lived and loved to paint.

mary fedden tabbys dinner

Mary Fedden. Tabby’s dinner, signed, oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cms. Sold June 2007 for £22,000 (estimate £6-8,000)

When she was no longer able to travel, she painted at home in Hammersmith using postcards of her old paintings as source material. I have unashamedly chosen some of my favourite pictures for this piece and you can buy her work at the Portland Gallery in London, who also take great care looking after her estate and artistic legacy.

The Importance of Consulting Industry Recognised Art Specialists

Posted on by

Reports in the press recently about fake paintings loaned to a country house in Scotland and the London art dealer who paid £1m for a painting and proceeded to sell it on for £8m, highlight the importance of consulting recognised industry specialists when buying or considering selling. Unfortunately, these examples are only the ones in the press and not the works we see where clients have overpaid or the works are not right and we are the bearer of bad news.

This then reminds me of a very sad story that happened nearly 50 years ago, when I worked on the front counter at Christie’s, King Street.

A middle-aged man came to the desk with a large canvas of Diana and her hand maidens, wrapped up in brown paper and string. He said it was his family’s ‘Rubens’ and he wanted it valued. By pure chance, Christie’s Old Master Department had just taken on Gregory Martin, who for the previous 10 years had been curator of Flemish paintings at The National Gallery and was a Rubens expert. He examined the picture and pronounced it an old copy worth £1000-£1,500. I went back downstairs with the painting, wondering how best to break the news. He took it very badly, the blood draining from his face and slumping backwards into a chair. I bought him a cup of hot sweet tea like you do for trauma victims and he told me the story of how the painting came to be his.
His father had died a year ago and as the elder son, he was allowed first choice from the collection. The ‘Rubens’ was undoubtedly the most significant thing in the castle, and he had always loved it, so that was what he chose. His younger brother got everything else, which amounted to a little over three hundred paintings. I just prayed his brother was the accommodating type.
If only he’d taken a second opinion from a recognised specialist in the field of Old Master paintings prior to making his final choice. Please don’t make the same mistake.

In the art world there are many different genres of works and consequently experts who are authorities in their chosen field. Here are a few of our specialists who help to showcase the breadth and depth of knowledge we offer to our clients.

David Dallas,
Old Masters Specialist

David Dallas joined Christie’s in 1969, where he was the youngest person in a Technical Department (Old Masters). He subsequently became deputy head of the Picture Department at Phillips Son and Neale and ended his auctioneering career as International Director (Global Head) of Old Masters at Bonham’s in January 2015.

In between he worked for more than twenty years with Johnny Van Haeften, specialising in Dutch and Flemish paintings of the 17th Century. He is a specialist in British Landscape Paintings 1750-1850.

He was for many years on the Vetting Committee of the Summer and Winter Art and Antiques Fair at Olympia and Chairman of the Picture Vetting Committee at Grosvenor House Fair and has also been on the vetting committee of Masterpiece. He is a trustee of the Reading Foundation for Art, a former Chairman of The Friends of Readings Museum and Gallery and an external advisor to the Collections Committee of Eton College.

Jonathan Horwich,
Modern British Art Specialist

Jonathan Horwich began his career in the art world in 1973 with the picture dealer Thomas Agnew. In 1976 he joined the picture department of the recently opened Christie’s South Kensington, where he valued and catalogued their many multi- discipline picture sales. He was involved in all aspects of ‘CSK’s business including their innovative ‘ Roadshow’ valuation days held at locations across the UK. Jonathan became a regular auctioneer from 1984 onwards and an Associate Director in 1985.

In 1987 Jonathan was recruited to join Christie’s in King Street as Director and head of the Modern British picture department. During this time Jonathan continued as an auctioneer and gained a strong reputation for the sale of single owner Modern British Art collections, including those of Frederick Forsyth , Peter Meyer and many others and also became recognised as an expert in Modern British Art. In addition to his role in Modern British at Christie’s, Jonathan was appointed head of British and Irish Art in 1998, International Director of the 19th European picture department in 2003 and Deputy Chairman in 2006.

After 22 years at Christie’s King Street, Jonathan joined Bonhams in late 2009 as Global Director of picture departments, where he continued his involvement with Modern British auctions, while at the same time building up Bonhams worldwide picture auctions. This included setting up Impressionist and Contemporary sales and departments in London and New York. In January 2016 Jonathan was recruited to join Phillips in London as a Senior Specialist Director with a focus on Modern and Contemporary British Art a position which he held until December 2018.
Jonathan is recognised as an expert in the Modern British field and maintains close links with experts and galleries and also keeps abreast of all current market developments, trends and issues. Jonathan has a particular interest in and knowledge of the work of L.S. Lowry. As a result he has appeared on ITV’s ‘ Looking at Lowry’ and a Lowry focussed episode of the BBC’s ‘ Fake or Fortune’ .

Jonathan serves as a Council member and Steward for the Artists charity, the Artists General Benevolent Institute (AGBI) and is a member of Chelsea Arts Club.

Ben Hanley,
Contemporary Art Specialist

Ben is an established contemporary art specialist. He began his career working in the Old Master and 20th Century markets before moving into the contemporary market. He has over 20 years’ experience working in the UK and international art markets.

A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the Courtauld Institute of Art London, Ben has developed specialist level knowledge in Old Masters, Impressionist, Modern and Post War & Contemporary art. In addition to this Ben has extensive project management experience having curated and produced over 100 art projects spanning highly complex multi-venue festivals to smaller bespoke events. He has worked with governmental, institutional and commercial partners including the National Gallery, V&A, the Serpentine Gallery, the Courtauld Institute, Christie’s, Sotheby’s and the Russian Ministry of Culture.