LONDON.- The Modern British Art Day Sale on 21 October brings together a diverse offering of British art from the 20th and 21st centuries. Highlights include Laurence Stephen Lowry’s A Man Walking (1961, estimate: £150,000-250,000), it depicts a man walking down the street, his hat pulled down over his ears and his eyes set on the pavement below him. This man is a classic inhabitant of Lowry’s world, a solitary figure from the artist’s cast of characters, widely painted from the mid-1950s onwards. In addition, Barry Flanagan’s Nijinski Five (2005, estimate: £100,000-150,000) depicts a lively dancing hare on top of a pentagon-shaped base. Here we see Flanagan as a mature sculptor at his very best, and the culmination of his experimentation with the hare that had occupied him from the 1970s onward.

The Modern British Art Day Sale is offering works from a number of important private collections. This includes Hollywood royalty Kirk, and Anne, Douglas. The couple were avid art collectors, and friends with many of artists they purchased works from as with Elisabeth Frink’s, Barking Dog (1981, estimate: £100,000-150,000). There is a further Elisabeth Frink sculpture from their collection, Lying Down Horse II (1985, estimate: £300,000-500,000) in the upcoming Modern British Evening Sale, 20 October.

The Molenick Collection is also represented, encompassing selected works from the collection of Ben Emmerson OBE Q.C., one of the United Kingdom’s leading international human rights lawyers. The collection has a strong focus on post-war St Ives artists, including Patrick Heron’s Muted Red Brown and Orange with Lemon: September 1966 (1966, estimate: £20,000-30,000), Ben Nicholson’s 1970 (blue jug) (1970, £10,000-15,000), and William Scott’s Pear Study (3 Pears), (1983, estimate: £80,000-120,000).

Sean Scully’s, Untitled (To Clodagh) (1992, estimate: £10,000-15,000), originates from the collection of the late Clodagh Waddington, wife of the gallerist Leslie Waddington, while Walter Sickert’s The Beribboned Washstand, (1903-1904, estimate: £80,000-120,000) leads a group of two works from the collection of B.J. Eastwood, an Irish collector and business man.

There are also works from a number of British sculptors, including Emily Young’s, Warrior Poet, (2000, estimate: £60,000-80,000), Barbara Hepworth’s Figure III, (1922-1923, estimate: £40,000-60,000), Gertrude Hermes’s Leaping Salmon (1949-1951, estimate: £10,000-15,000) and two sculptures by Kim Lim, Untitled (1983, estimate: £1,000-2,000) and Untitled Relief (1995, estimate: £1,000-2,000) coinciding with her inclusion in the major 2021 Arts Council Collection Touring Exhibition: Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945.

Six works have been donated by British contemporary artists, curated by Chris Westbrook to benefit the WellChild Children’s Charity. WellChild supports seriously ill children and their families, which has become a lifeline to families during the Covid-19 pandemic. A highlight from this section is Ian Davenport’s Small Wave, (2021, estimate: £20,000-30,000).

Scottish Colourists include Samuel John Peploe’s Pink Roses in a Vase (circa 1929, estimate: £120,000-180,000). With British Pop highlighted by Sir Peter Blake’s first known self-portrait Self Portrait (1949, estimate: £60,000-80,000). The Modern British Art Day Sale will be on view from 17 to 20 October 2021.

Alice Murray, Head of Day Sale, Modern British & Irish Art, Christie’s London: “The sale presents a diverse offering of British art from the 20th and 21st centuries. This includes pioneers of British Modernism: important works by Ben Nicholson, an early sculpture by Barbara Hepworth from 1922-23, and a group of four works directly from the Estate of Alastair Morton. We have works from a number of important private collections and a strong representation of female artists including paintings by Gillian Ayres, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Vanessa Bell, Sandra Blow, Joan Eardley and Anne Redpath. We are delighted to welcome clients to King Street for the Modern British Art Day Sale, 21 October.”