Bridget Riley, CH, CBE. Born 1931

Posted on August 25, 2020August 22, 2024 by Jonathan Horwich

Bridget Riley, Bassacs, ’94 (section), signed and dated 94, gouache on paper, 66 x 87 cms. Sold Nov 2019, £250,000

It is impossible not to be moved both spiritually and physically while standing in front of a major work by Bridget Riley. She belongs to a painting movement known as ‘Op Art’.

Bridget Riley – Shift, 1963. Oil on canvas, 75 x 75 cms. Sold twice recently in London, June 2016, £1,426,500 and then February 2020, £2,715,000

Not to be confused with Pop Art, Op Art is short for Optical Art, a style of visual art that uses optical illusions and effects with the aim of destabilising the viewer. The viewer gets the impression of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibrating patterns or of swelling and warping. The movement emerges in the 1960’s and includes other major International artists such as Victor Vasarely and Jesus Rafael Soto.

Bridget Riley – Primitive Blaze, emulsion on board, 1963, 94 x 94 cms.
Sold June 2007 for £826,400

Just try standing directly in front of a Riley work, especially a large 60’s black and white piece. It truly is a unique experience. After a few seconds you begin to feel woozy, then you begin to feel like you are being pulled into the picture itself and so you begin to move involuntarily and to sway gently to gain access, and then your eyes go fuzzy. This effect all comes from the artist’s specific design and her precise aim is to make this happen to you.

Bridget Riley – Chant 2, 1967, Emulsion on canvas, 231 x 231 cms. Sold July 2008, £2,561,250

Bridget Riley uses a studio system to make her pieces; she makes the original design and then her super skilled team produce the finished pictures under her direct supervision throughout. Her distinctive way of working owes little to other artists and her skill, knowledge and experience now spans over 50 years as a working artist. By using a studio method with teams of people who will carry out her ideas and put them into practice means she is freed up to constantly have new ideas and to refresh her art and output.

Bridget Riley – Study fo Point Movement, signed, gouache on card, 68 x 73 cms. Sold Nov 2017, £162,000

I love the sheer precision of her work and also the variety, and I marvel at how she manages to always make it undoubtedly recognisable as the work of Bridget Riley. The most desirable and expensive pieces are the black-and-white works which span the early 60’s from 1961-1964. These culminate in the 1965 exhibition ‘ The Responsive Eye’ held at MOMA New York, when ‘Current’ 1964, by Riley was selected for the front cover of the catalogue.

Bridget Riley – October 5, Revision of August 11, signed and dated 98, gouache on paper, 85 x 56 cms. Sold March 2020, £125,000

Colour works begin to emerge from 1967 onwards and are inspired by places Riley knows or has visited. For example, the ‘Ka’ and ‘Ra’ series relate to her visits to Egypt and evoke the colours, shapes and light in Egypt. The series, ‘Les Bassacs’ is inspired and named after the village of the same name in Provence, near to where Riley has her studio.

Bridget Riley, Bassacs, ’94 (section), signed and dated 94, gouache on paper, 66 x 87 cms. Sold Nov 2019, £250,000

For collectors there is much to choose from; an easy and affordable starting point being the many limited-edition prints, followed by works on paper and then paintings. The big money has until recently been for the 60’s black and white works only which inevitably are now very rare, so in recent years large scale colour works from the 70’s and 80’s and later have increased in price significantly.

Bridget Riley – Serpentine Study, 1999, gouache on paper, 39 x 38 cms
Sold Oct 2019, £50,000

For me, the genius of Bridget Riley is that her work never dates and is always fresh and vibrant in its intensity and vision.

Bridget Riley – Six Circles, gouache, 1970, 79 x 45 cms. Sold June 2018, £125,000

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

Posted on August 25, 2020August 22, 2024 by Jonathan Horwich

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, 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, 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. 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, 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, 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. 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, 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, 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 1915-2012

Posted on August 18, 2020August 21, 2024 by Jonathan Horwich

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
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, 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 90^th 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, 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. 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, 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, 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. 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.

Investing in Warhol Is Investing in Art History

Posted on July 10, 2020August 5, 2024 by Doerr Dallas Valuations

By Ben Hanly, Modern and Contemporary Art Specialist

Download the article here

“Investing in Warhol Is Investing in Art History” (Eric Shiner, Andy Warhol Museum)
The appeal of Andy Warhol’s work is universal and enduring, and it has been the bedrock of the Post War/Contemporary art market for decades, fuelled by his global fame and the rich supply of work. Not surprisingly, his images which were drawn so strongly from popular culture, have come to define our understanding of contemporary art and culture since the 1970s. The art of Warhol is now so mainstream and so inextricably linked to our visual vocabulary that it is impossible not to be familiar with it.

Contemporary art without Warhol is unthinkable, and this influence and popularity is reflected in the strength of his commercial market which has continued to rise on an upward trajectory since his death in 1987.
In many ways the Warhol market defies traditional market rules where perceived wisdom suggests that market strength is linked to the tension between supply and demand – where a limited supply exists, strong prices usually follow. Paradoxically, the opposite is true with Warhol who was a hugely prolific artist. In 1963, Gerald Malanga introduced Warhol to the hitherto commercial technique of silk-screening which he went on to use throughout his career to produce large numbers of canvases produced in various series, as well as extensive numbers of limited-edition prints.

Normally this would be a recipe for commercial disaster. However, with Warhol it turned out to be a strength. Warhol’s notoriety brought him global fame and this coupled with the easy accessibility of his images which have become icons of our time, has meant that there has always been a strong demand for Warhol’s work. The fact that the large supply of works on offer at any one time to collectors has encouraged a very buoyant and vigorous trading market for the artist. Similarly, the fact that collectors can enter his market at varying price points has been very helpful in developing Warhol’s market.

Even today, it is possible to buy a good Warhol limited edition print for as little as £25,000. Whilst this figure might not be exactly small change, it does represent extremely good value and a very attractive entry point level for new collectors entering the market of such an iconic artist. It is hard to believe that a Warhol Campbell’s Soup Can print can be bought at auction for a little as $35,000. The word ‘iconic’ is often used too freely these days, but in this case the use of the word is fully deserved. Warhol’s soup can imagery is truly iconic and for many people it represents what modern art is, so to be able to acquire such an important piece of art history for a relatively accessible price is remarkable.

At the other end of his market, Warhol’s major canvases can make staggering sums of money – such as his 1963 Silver Car Crash which made $105m at Sotheby’s in 2013; or his Triple Elvis, also from 1963, which made $82m the following year in 2014. It is not surprising that Warhol’s highest prices have been for his seminal early paintings – here rarity and uniqueness come into play as far fewer works were produced in the early 1960s than in later years, and all of them created with much more hands-on involvement from the Artist himself. It was only in the late 1960s/1970s that Warhol’s studio, his now famous Factory, came into full swing and started to produce large numbers of works with an ever-increasing supply of assistants and helpers. The early works from the 1960s are, therefore, pure Warhol and they are the truly iconic images which were to make Warhol’s reputation – his Soup Cans, Marilyn, Elvis, Jackie Kennedy etc.

A market as diverse and large as Warhol’s performs differently at its different price levels; prints perform differently to canvases, which in turn perform differently depending on date and quality. Clearly the masterworks will always be avidly sought after by major clients and achieve huge prices. However, it is the overall stability and buoyancy that is astonishing with the Warhol market across all sectors.
It is true to say that the value of Andy Warhol’s artwork—despite a brief dip in the 1990s—has been on an endless upward trajectory, and they continue to offer a secure investment opportunity to all levels of collectors. It should be noted that in 2014 alone the value of the international Warhol market sold at auction accounted for $570m – this figure accounted for more than a sixth of the global art market!
Warhol may have famously said that everyone has their 5 minutes of fame, but it appears that thirty-three years after his own death, Warhol’s artwork has a much longer lasting appeal to collectors!

Rafael Valls at Sotheby’s

Posted on July 3, 2020August 19, 2024 by David Dallas

You may have read that Rafael Valls, the well-respected St James’s stalwart, is to offer 100 paintings form his eclectic stock at Sotheby’s in London, online, between the 1st – 8th of April. The viewing is terrestrial, but the auction is not.

This is not the first time a sole trader’s stock has come up for auction and single owner sales date back centuries. Sotheby’s has an enviable record in this regard. In October 1991 they had their first sale of the works of a living artist, when David Oxtoby consigned 100 works on paper of musicians of the 1950s to be sold in aid of Nordoff Robbins Music therapy. Next up, in September 2008, was the Damien Hirst sale, which grossed over $200m. Subsequently, most of the top London Antique Furniture dealers consigned their stock to auction, notably Hotspur, Mallet, Phillips and Harris and Pelham Galleries, but this was because their market had almost evaporated.

There are two things that set this sale apart from the above and from the Moretti Mannerlist sale of 2015 and the Otto Naumann retirement sale of 2018. The first is that this is just a small, perhaps toe-in-the-water, tranche of what Rafael Valls holds and the second is that it is online. This must appeal to a younger audience unfamiliar with Old Masters. Furthermore, as we find ourselves in a climate where gatherings are banned, viewing and auctioning a sale in cyber-space helps in maintaining motion within the art world.

Nordoff Robbins Music therapy: www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk

David Hockney

Posted on July 3, 2020August 19, 2024 by Jonathan Horwich

Who would have guessed that at the Sotheby’s Art auction in 2006, provided you had a spare £2.9 million, you could buy a truly iconic 60’s Splash painting by David Hockney, sell it 14 years later via the same auction house and achieve over a 600% net return on your investment!

Gaugin’s Chair (1988) sold in New York in 2017 for £6.1 million

This is the story behind Hockney’s painting ‘The Splash’, which comes up for auction again in London next month on Feb 11th. This time it has a £20-£30m estimate – ten times it’s 2006 price tag. The canny vendor has also secured an auction guarantee from a third party, meaning no worries about it selling and no nail biting on auction night. The owner can just sit back, relax and enjoy the show, as whatever happens it’s going to sell. The price achieved back at auction in 2006 was a new world record for Hockney and the Contemporary Art market was steaming ahead. Since then Hockney’s prices have rocketed, and in 2018 Hockney briefly became the most expensive living artist at auction, pushing Jeff Koons out of the top spot with ‘Portrait of an Artist, Pool with Two Figures’ (1972) which sold in NY for £61m.

Portrait of an Artist , Pool with with Two Figures (1972) sold in NY for £61 million

This got me thinking about other Hockney works that had made more than one appearance on the auction block over the last 10-20 years and how they fared.
Gaugin’s Chair from 1988 first appeared at a 1988 Christie’s Lighthouse charity sale and made £160k, it pops up again in 1998 and makes £23.k, then again in in New York in 2017 where it makes a staggering £6.1m!

Picture of a Hollywood Swimming Pool (1964) made £5.5 miliion in New York in 2019

Swimming Pool (1965) sold for £1.2 milllion in 2007. In June 2012 it made £2.5 million

‘Picture of a Hollywood Swimming Pool’, from 1964 was first offered from the Stanley Seeger Collection in 2001 when it made £465k. At its next appearance in 2019 in New York it sold for £5.5m.
‘Swimming Pool’ from 1965 first appeared in 2007, when it made £1.2m then it pops up again in June 2012 when it sold for £2.5m.

Different Kinds of Water pouring into a Swimming Pool (1965) sold for £506,000 in New York in 1989. In 2019 it made just over £2.7 million

Another example that shows things don’t always go to plan is that of the other Pool themed picture from 1965 called ‘Different Kinds of Water pouring into a Swimming Pool’. It first comes up in NY in 1989 when it makes £506k; then pops up again in 2018 with a speculative estimate of £6-8m. It fails to sell and then comes up again the following year in 2019, but now with a much more realistic £2.5-3.5m estimate. This time it sells comfortably within the estimate range at just over £2.7m

The Splash (1966) expects to sell for £20-£30 million in London in February 2020

The David Hockney exhibition at Tate Britain in 2017 was a Blockbuster and a total triumph. For me, it acted as a catalyst for the surge in interest in Hockney and his work. ‘Hockney is Tate Britain’s most visited exhibition ever’ was the Tate’s headline after the exhibition ended in 2017. This all-encompassing, totally absorbing, stunningly colourful and magnificent exhibition must surely have stirred everyone who saw it, including me, and no doubt led many major collectors to get in quick before the market runs away from them.

George Condo

Posted on July 3, 2020August 19, 2024 by Jonathan Horwich

Of all the figurative painters working today, few if any can match George Condo’s CV for artistic heritage and bragging rights. He worked for Andy Warhol in the ‘Factory’, jammed with and was a friend to Basquiat and now designs albums for Kanye West and handbags for Kim Kardashian.

The Queen, by Condo the work is called ‘Dreams and Nightmares of the Queen’ 2006

Born in Concord, New Hampshire, USA in 1957 Condo’s work spans nearly four decades. He studied Art History and Music at Lowell in Massachusetts before moving to Boston where he worked in a screen-printing shop. He joined a band in Boston called ‘The Girls’, through which he met Basquiat in 1979 while performing on the same bill in his band ‘Gray’. Long story short, Basquiat persuaded Condo to move to NY in 1980 and the rest is history. Condo’s previous screen-printing experience got him the gig in the ‘Factory’ working for Andy Warhol. He worked there for nine months and reportedly only met Warhol once. He was also involved with ‘diamond dusting’ pictures as well as silkscreen-printing. Andy Warhol subsequently bought several paintings from one of Condo’s first NY shows in the early 80’s.

Nude and Forms, the current world record holder, sold at Christie’s NY May 2018, for $6.6 million

Both Warhol and Basquiat where strong artistic influences on Condo’s work at this time. However, over above these two as he emerged as a figurative painter, was and still is, Picasso. A key difference is that unlike Picasso who painted figurative images of real people and things, Condo’s images all emerge from his imagination. In an interview with the Guardian in 2013 he is quoted as saying ‘I describe what I do as Psychological Cubism. Picasso paints the violin from four different perspectives at one moment. I do the same with psychological states; four of them can occur simultaneously. Like glimpsing a bus with one passenger howling over a joke they’re hearing down the phone, someone else asleep, someone else crying – I’ll put them all in one face”.

‘Day of the Idol’ photo courtesy of Sotheby’s, sold twice, Sotheby’s NY May, 2018, $2.7 million , then again at Christie’s NY, November 2019, for $ 3.7 million.

He’s also influenced by old master painters such as Rembrandt and Degas. The colour field and abstract painters such as deKooning and Rothko and will add in elements and colours from these artist’s work into his.

It was Condo who painted Kanye West’s 2013 Christmas gift to Kim – a Hermes Birkin bag featuring three nude women and an angry green monster. Not quite what the couple were expecting, it was once rumoured to have been destroyed. When inevitably it was posted on Instagram, followers were not amused, ‘holy shit balls that’s ugly ‘ said one!

Hermes Birkin exclusive design by George Condo – gifted by Kanye West to Kim Kardashian

Condo moved to Cologne and then Paris where he spent 10 years between 1985 and 1995 remaining entirely focused on imaginary characters until the 2000’s. In 2006 he painted a portrait of the Queen, who has a long neck, gerbil like cheeks and a Crown and he also did the five interchangeable covers for Kanye West’s 2010 album (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy), one of which appears to depict Kanye naked and straddled by a winged naked female. Prior to this, his imaginary characters would have multiple pairs of eyes, teeth and all sorts of other ‘additions’. Ralph Rugoff, the curator of the 2011 Hayward Gallery Condo retrospective show wrote that Condo’s portraits amounted to an ‘anatomical orgy’.

Red Head sold Philips NY in May 2018 for $ 1.5 million

The Art Market’s response to Condo’s work exploded during the Spring/ Summer sales of 2017 to the same period in 2018. Condo had become perhaps the most coveted artist on the secondary market in those 12 months, thanks to both the tiny quantity of his output and a belief that buying his work was a surefire investment that could or should pay off. Over the 2017/18 period Condo, set and broke his own record at auction three times.

Henry Moore, Prolific Artist

Posted on July 2, 2020August 19, 2024 by Jonathan Horwich

Henry Moore was born in Castleford in 1898 into a Yorkshire coal mining family. His rather didactic father felt that his children should never follow him into mining and saw education as the way out.

Reclining Figure, Festival 1951
Bronze, 230 cms wide.
Sold in June 2016 for £24,722,500. This is the current world record price for a Moore bronze

Moore had shown an early talent for sculpting and drawing at junior school and had made numerous very creditable pieces from clay and stone. He passed the entrance exam for Castleford Grammar School at the second attempt thus joining some of his siblings already at the school. The wide breadth of subjects taught there exposed him to medieval sculpture which attracted his interest straight away and he was encouraged to study, copy and draw pieces. He was also asked by the Headmaster to carve a School Society plaque and also a roll of honour for pupils who were serving in World War I.

Reclining Figure, 1982
Bronze, 246 cms wide.
Sold for $11,000,000 in Nov 2017

Moore joined the War effort in 1917, very soon after joining he was gassed and subsequently hospitalised until 1918, thus keeping him safely away from any further hostilities. On leaving military service in 1919, he received a servicemen’s grant which gave him enough money to study Fine Art at Leeds School of art. Between them, Leeds Art Gallery and the School of Art gave him easy access to see and study the many Modern works of art in their respective collections. This had a profound effect on Moore’s personal and artistic development and he became strongly influenced by the work of Brancusi, Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier Brzeska and Frank Dobson. These influences pulled Moore towards the almost forgotten traditional carving method known as ‘direct carving’ in which the imperfections of the material and marks left by the carving tools, became part of the finished sculpture, the process is referred to by sculptors as ‘truth to material’ . In actively pursuing this method Moore was resurrecting a then nearly four hundred year old carving tradition stretching back to the Old Master sculptors Canova and Bernini.

Mother and child with apple, 1956
Bronze, 72 cms high.
Sold for £5,010,500 in February 2014

Later in his career when casting his sculpture in bronze, Moore found that in his hands bronze was not an antithesis of stone or wood carving: carving, scraping and grating his plaster models allowed him to create texture in his finished bronzes that matched anything he could achieve in his stone or wood pieces. In fact Moore paid great attention to the patination of his bronzes and supervised the process personally whenever possible, especially on large scale works where it is evident that many of his patinas suggested natural textures and weathering.

Large 4 piece reclining figure, 1972
Bronze, 402 cms high.
Sold $3,300,000 June 2006. Since 2006 prices have increased and I would now expect this piece to make nearer to $10 million

Following his studies at Leeds, Moore moved to Hampstead where he took on part time teaching work at the Royal College of Art while continuing working on his sculpture. He later took up another teaching role at the Chelsea College of Art where he began to develop more abstract work.

He was part of the organising committee for the international surrealist exhibition in London in 1936, where Roland Penrose purchased one of his Moore’s new abstract mother and child works, carved in stone. Penrose displayed his new purchase in the front garden of his house in Hampstead, much to the annoyance of the local residents who ran a two year campaign to remove the piece!
In 1938 Moore met Kenneth Clark who championed his work from this first meeting onwards.

Reclining Figure, 1982
Bronze, 246 cms wide.
Sold for £3,625,250 in Feb 2006. Again the value of this piece has risen significantly since 2006, another from the same cast sold for $11,000,000 in 2018

At the outbreak of the Second World War the Chelsea School of Art was evacuated to Northampton, so Moore resigned his teaching post and began working on powerful drawings of Londoners sleeping on the London underground all commissioned by Kenneth Clark, now the Chairman of the War Artists Advisory committee. When the Moores’ Hampstead home was hit by shrapnel Henry and his wife Irina moved to a farmhouse called Hoglands, set within in a hamlet called Perry Green, just outside Much Hadham in Hertfordshire . This house and the surrounding land became a home, studio, gallery, workshops and display area for his work for the rest of his life. Over time his continued financial success in selling work enabled him to acquire adjoining land nearby and buildings for use as studios and exhibition spaces. This large rural site now houses the Henry Moore Foundation galleries and study centre, where you can take a tour of Hoglands, walk the grounds and gardens, and visit the galleries and studios which are all open to the public.

Family Group,1946
Bronze, 44 cms high.
Sold in June 2017 for £3,861,000. In 2008 another from this same edition sold for $4,000,000

After the war, following several miscarriages Irina had a baby daughter, Mary who was born in March 1946. Two years prior Moore had lost his mother and these two events drew him to focus on one of his most successful and enduring themes, the Mother and Child. Also in 1946 he made his first visit to America to attend a major retrospective of his work held at MOMA in New York. This exhibition was a huge critical and popular success and his fame spread rapidly across the US. He was taken on by an art agent in Los Angeles who advised many Hollywood moguls and actors. His work was bought in quantity by Betty Warner, a very wealthy and influential socialite and collector in LA and the wife of Jack Warner of Warner Brothers pictures was also a strong influencer.

Horse
Bronze, 13.8 cms high.
Sold in March 2020 for £32,500. Horses are rare subject matter for Moore bronzes, however I think this piece is elegant and nicely stylised and offered good value at this price

The last 30 years of Moore’s life were his most productive in every sense, he was incredibly busy making, exhibiting and selling work in all mediums, particularly bronze all around the world.

Mother and Child, 1929
Bronze, 10.2 cms high.
Sold for $5,000 in December 2019. This is the cheapest piece you can find, however its perhaps not the prettiest

By the early 1970’s he was making over £1,200,000 a year in income from sales of art alone. He was probably the first British artist of the 20th century to become a millionaire. However the downside was that as a UK tax payer earning this sort of money he was liable to pay 80% tax on his earnings In fact so significant was his tax bill that in 1972 he was publicly declared the single highest individual tax payer in the entire UK. This warranted a visit to Hoglands by the then Chancellor, Jim Callaghan to acknowledge his tax contribution, I noticed a photo taken of this meeting at Hoglands, Jim Callaghan is smiling broadly, however Moore isn’t looking quite so cheerful having just parted with £960,000 in income tax .

Mother and child, Relief, 1977
Bronze, 38.4 cms.
Sold in November 2019 for $10,000. There are a number of relief bronzes smiler to this which, although unusual, do offer good value.

Henry Moore produced a huge quantity of the highest quality work, particularly bronzes and he has a truly international reputation, so his pieces appear for sale around the globe, all the time. On any given day you can find something new coming up for sale somewhere in the world and I show a few examples below. One of the many truly remarkable facts about the Moore market is just how cheap his tiny bronzes are, in fact prices for bronzes range from as little as £5,000 for a small piece right up to £25 million for the largest pieces. In addition peace of mind is offered to buyers by the carefully curated complete catalogue raisonees listing with reference numbers all his bronzes, unique carvings, drawings and prints from all periods.

Caricature head, 1978
Bronze, 10.1 cm high.
Sold in November 2019 for $15,000

The Importance of Consulting Industry Recognised Art Specialists

Posted on June 27, 2020August 16, 2024 by David Dallas

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.

LS Lowry

Posted on July 23, 2019August 15, 2024 by Jonathan Horwich

I have been involved in Modern British painting and sculpture since 1987 when I took charge of Christie’s Modern British department. This brought me into direct contact with the artists themselves, their families, friends and collectors, which I found totally absorbing and fascinating. My fate was sealed, and I think I became a Modern British ‘Lifer’ in 1988 when we held the Camden Town Group exhibition. However, little did I know back then just how large a part Lowry would play in my working life over the next 32 years.

‘The Village Street’ appeared in the Christie’s Review of the Year for the 1964-65 season having been sold for a then record price of 1,600 Guineas

I think it’s fair to say that L S Lowry is probably one of the best known 20th century painters in the UK, with his work being more easily recognisable to British people than many other national or even international artists. This wide recognition and easy acceptance have led to a healthy and consistently strong level of interest from private collectors over the last 60 or more years.
For the first-time art collector, Lowry’s signature pieces are immediately engaging and have a broad appeal. Typically, a first and second Lowry purchase would both be signature pictures, after which would follow less obvious works, such as a minimalist sea piece or a dreamlike, haunting, empty landscape. This interest in collecting a single artist led to the formation of some great collections, many of which I have had the privilege of either helping put together and or selling over the years.
Critical and financial success for Lowry, like so much in his life, came late. Although born in 1887, his first London exhibition at the Lefevre gallery was not until Autumn 1939, then again in 1943 and the third in 1945, when Britain had other things on its mind.

‘Northern Race Meeting’ which achieved £5,296,000 in 2018

Lowry served the War out as a Fire Warden in Manchester and when life and exhibitions began again at Lefevre in the 50’s, buying Lowry pictures suddenly became very fashionable and fun and his exhibitions were sell-outs. So strong was the interest that at one point in the early 60’s Lowry’s prices at auction exceeded his then current gallery prices. As if to illustrate this, an article featuring a 1935 picture called ‘The Village Street’ (pictured) appeared in the Christie’s Review of the Year for the 1964-65 season having been sold for a then record price of 1,600 Guineas.
If the sixties marked the beginning for Lowry acquisitions and collections, then March 1995 and the Rev. Geoffrey Bennett collection sale at Christie’s, marked the beginning of a series of collection sales at auction. Bennett was followed by the Frederick Forsyth collection, 2002, Laurence Ives, 2004, Lord Forte, 2011 and the Thompson collection in 2014. All of these single owner, single artist sales helped to expand the market and to increase the awareness of Lowry and also spawned new collectors many of whom I have got to know well.

‘The Football Match’ sold for £5,641,00 in 2011

Although there haven’t been any significant collection sales since the Thompson sale in 2014, Lowry prices and interest have remained strong with top prices still being achieved for signature pictures such as Northern Race Meeting (pictured) in 2018, which achieved £5,296,000.
Equally many records still stand from 2011-2014 such as The Football Match (pictured) in 2011at £5,641,00 and Piccadilly Circus (pictured) at £5,122,000 in 2014.
Lowry painted and drew continuously throughout his long and very productive life, so happily there are still many new works out there still to be discovered. I have been fortunate enough to have seen hundreds of works by Lowry over the years through my work with collectors and involvement with the Lowry collection in Salford and I look forward to seeing many more…

‘Piccadilly Circus’ achieved £5,122,000 in 2014

By Ben Hanly, Modern and Contemporary Art Specialist

David Dallas, Old Masters Specialist

Jonathan Horwich, Modern British Art Specialist

Ben Hanley, Contemporary Art Specialist

David Dallas,
Old Masters Specialist

Jonathan Horwich,
Modern British Art Specialist

Ben Hanley,
Contemporary Art Specialist