Art

In their auction of fine books & manuscripts lat Sunday, November 16, Skinners the Boston saleroom sold two Aubrey Beardsley illustrations. The first, The Climax (pictured right) fetched $213,300, well over its $15/20,000 estimate; the previous record for a Beardsley drawing was $159,600. A second Beardsley illustration – A Platonic Lament sold for $142,200, it had an estimate of $15/20,000.

The original pen and ink drawings were provided as illustrations for Oscar Wilde's controversial Salome: A Tragedy in One Act. After being exhibited in Europe they were sold in a sale at Anderson Galleries to an agent acting on behalf of a collector. Nine of the thirteen drawings were eventually donated to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. The two lots sold at the auction remained a mystery to Beardsley scholars and collectors for more than eighty years. The pictures were discovered in a Boston-area home hanging on a bathroom wall.

Beardsley died at the age of 25 of tuberculosis. Given that his career was cut so short, his works are very rare, but they are also very beautiful, making them all the more sought after by collectors.

You may be aware that the Antiques Roadshow is also produced in Holland and just like in the UK there are sometimes some incredible finds. On an episode to be aired next March that was filmed at the Rijksmuseum Twente art museum in the eastern city of Enschede a previously unknown work by 17th-century Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Younger has turned up. The painting, which dates from approximately 1620, was bought from an antiques dealer for 100 guilders in 1959 (less than £530 today).
The painting was taken to the show by a lady whose husband had originally bought the picture. An art expert has called it "the find of the century" and estimates its approximate value at between £62,000 and £75,000.

With the sale of Damien Hirst’s art hogging the headlines this week I spotted this item in an upcoming Lyon & Turnbull sale on 27 September in London. It’s described in the catalogue as follows. WHO NEEDS BLOOD WHEN YOU'VE GOT LIPSTICK, Lipstick and blood on canvas. This work was painted by Kate Moss at the height of her affair with the singer Pete Doherty. The painting was created using lipstick and was later inscribed by Pete in his own blood. 122cm x 91.5cm (48in x 36in) Exhibited: Pete Doherty's exhibition 'The Art of Albion', Paris April-May 2008 Provenance: Bankrobber Gallery, London Bought directly from Pete Doherty's private collection and is accompanied by a receipt in his hand for the sale on a Soho House napkin. It has an estimate of £30 – 40,000.
It all begs the question about whether it’s the art or the notoriety that is driving the prices.

On 20 September an oil painting called Windlesham Moor, in Sunningdale, Surrey will go on sale at John Dickins Auctioneers in Buckinghamshire with a guide price of between £100,000 to £150,000. The painting was kept in an attic for thirty years because the owner did not like it and refused to have it hanging in his home. Its high price is because Sir Winston Churchill painted it. The house in the picture later became the home of the Queen and Prince Philip and was painted by the future Prime Minister in 1934.

The oil painting was given to Churchill's wartime director of Home Intelligence, Baron Stephen Taylor, who later presented it to his secretary. She later gave it to her son who, taking an instant dislike to it, chose to wrap it in a bin liner and store it in his attic. The auctioneers initially could not put a name to the painter but after ten months of detective work by John Dickins its provenance has been proved. There are 175 items in their sale of paintings on 20 September.

The death of an artist can often cause the prices realised at auction for their work to rise, which is exactly what happened when Beryl Cook's painting - Granny with her pet mouse - sold for £69,600 at a Bonham's sale last week.  This was almost twice the previous record price and was the first sale of any of Beryl Cook's work since she died in May. She got much of her inspiration from pubs in Plymouth, where she lived, and this was the subject of The Dolphin, the second of the two paintings - it sold for £66,000.