Art

This picture was sent to me recently by a friend asking what I could tell him about the bronzes. Apparently the picture was taken at Sothebys in 1969 when this bronze was sold. They were cast in 1964 by the sculptor, David Wynes, the same man who did the Boy with a Dolphin on Cheyne Walk, the Fred Perry bronze outside the Centre Court at Wimbledon, and the Queen Elizabeth Gates by Hyde Park Corner.

According to Wynne he contacted Brian Epstein asking if the Beatles would sit for him. Epstein was not confident they would and so Wynne went to Paris, where the band was staying at the Hôtel George V. "Beatlemania was at its height and there were police everywhere. I went up to their room, and found they were not too keen at first. But eventually Ringo said OK. The clay model I made seemed to meet with their approval, so I went on and did them all. After that we got on rather well. I took them out to dinner, which they found useful because I could speak French."

Six casts were eventually made and all soon sold, with Wynne keeping a proof for himself.The proof sold in 2004 for £75,000

In my Collectors' corner column this time I have looked at the the rise of vintage posters. You can read the whole thing HERE

A watercolour painting by the Prince of Wales turned up for sale on a stall at the Old Curiosity Market in Devizes just before Christmas. Read more HERE

Revisiting Evelyn Waugh's brilliant novel 'Brideshead Revisited' and the early section about life at Oxford University during the 1920s I was reminded of this small section in which Waugh writes of Charles Ryder's undergraduate rooms.

"I proudly hung a reproduction of Van Gogh's sunflowers over the fire and set up a screen painted by Roger Fry with a Provencal landscape, which I had bought inexpensively when the Omega workshops were sold up.I displayed also a poster by McKnight Kauffer and Rhyme Sheets from the poetry bookshop, and, most painful to recall, a porcelain figure of Polly Peachum which stood between black tapers on the chimney piece."

He goes on to describe his books, but this tantalising vignette of his room is just a joy to contemplate. This first edition of Waugh's novel dates from 1945 and the period he is writing of is in the early to mid 1920s at Oxford, which is when Waugh himself was a student at the University, although not a very good one as he only managed a third-class degree. The first edition is valued at somewhere around £700.

The Omega workshops closed in the summer of 1919 and Evelyn's brother had been given a screen by Roger Fry, which was at the family home, Underhill. Interestingly Ryder disposes of the the screen in 'Brideshead Revisited', reflecting Waugh's own disenchantment with Bloomsbury. This screen from the Omega Workshop was painted by Fry's former lover, Vanessa Bell and is on show at the V & A in London.

One of the best things about being unable to move around so freely, (if best is the right word!) is that I get to check up on all the email alerts with great stories from around the world. One of the best is the story of Dr. Jim Huffman who paid $900 for a painting at ClaireBourne Antiques on Nicholasville Road in Lexington Kentucky antique store. The ophthalmologist and amateur art collector finally decided he would and having bought it he decided to have it professionally cleaned, as it was so dirty. He took the 30-by-40 inch river landscape to Cincinnati for cleaning. A few weeks later he got a call to say they had found the artist's signature.

It turns out to be worth closer to $100,000, because it’s by Robert Scott Duncanson, a noted 19th-century artist – the first African-American painter to gain international recognition. Duncanson was born in 1821 in New York State; his father was a Canadian of Scottish decent, his mother, an African-American. The family moved to Cincinnati where one of the city's wealthiest individuals, Nicholas Longworth, commissioned the artist to paint eight large murals for his house, now the Taft Museum of Art. Today, 22 of Duncanson's works are in the Smithsonian Institution's American Art Museum.

Huffman has loaned his untitled painting to the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, where it is on view for the indefinite future.

What a great story!