LONDON.- Important works by three of the 20th century’s best-known women artists are included in the December 12 sale of Modern British and Irish Art at Chiswick Auctions in London. The sale is led by Eileen Agar’s 1958 oil A Sea Change, which is estimated at £20,000-£30,000 ($25,115-$37,670).

Agar (1904-1991), famously the only female artist to exhibit at The International Surrealist Exhibition held in London in 1936, experienced a resurgence of inspiration in the 1950s, when she briefly resided in the Canary Islands. A Sea Change is a rare and prime example of the artist’s output during this period. The work is executed in an inverted method, with the colored forms likely to have been painted across the entire composition, before being partially covered by aquamarine paint like cutouts from a collage.

Included in the retrospective of the artist’s work held at the Commonwealth Institute in 1971, the picture was also exhibited at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, England, as part of the 2008-2009 exhibition “Eileen Agar, An Eye for Collage.” It was acquired by the owner at auction in 1999 and was previously in the collection of Lord Sainsbury.

A watercolor and ink on paper by the Anglo-Portuguese artist Dame Paula Rego (1935-2022) is expected to bring £15,000-£25,000 ($18,835-$31,390). Wendy and Hook III, dated 1992, was one of the drawings Rego did for a new edition of Peter Pan created by the Folio Society. It was purchased by family of the present owner at the Marlborough Gallery, London, in their exhibition “Paula Rego Peter Pan & Other Stories,” in 1992.

The work of Elizabeth Frink (1930-1993) is represented by a particularly fine and early pen, ink and wash drawing titled Crouching Figure with Horse’s Head. Dated 1951, during Frink’s later years as a student at Chelsea School of Art, it is monumental in scale at 75cm by 56cm and captures perfectly the key motifs and themes that would dominate the artist’s work across her career. The estimate is £12,000-£18,000 ($15,065-$22,600).

L.S. Lowry’s detailed pencil drawing Hulme Place, Salford, estimate £22,000-£28,000 ($27,625-$35,160) is a prime example of masterful draftsmanship and mood-capturing. Dating from 1926, this view of a handsome Georgian street in Lowry’s hometown is a relatively early expression of the style that would later define him and serve as the foundation for his tremendous success. From the same period is Lowry’s pencil drawing Rhyl Harbour. It is expected to reach £20,000-£30,000 ($25,115-$37,670).

Lowry visited Rhyl and Lytham St Anne’s on numerous occasions on family holidays, and it was on these trips that he began a lifelong fascination with the sea and maritime subjects.

When the drawing was done in 1924, Rhyl Harbour was a calm, serene setting, but this would later make way for the bustling, seaside tourism seen in the post-war period. While the focus of the drawing is the boats nestled into the dock, it also includes an early sighting of the artist’s famous matchstick men in the distance.

The auction house has sold some fine oils and works on paper by Keith Vaughan (1912-77) in recent sales. The December 12 offering features a wash, gouache, ink and crayon composition titled Assembly of Figures II and dated 1965.

Over the course of 25 years Vaughan produced nine major paintings of this title, the first dating from 1952 and the last completed one year before he died in 1976. They depict nude male protagonists in beachscapes or semi-abstracted landscape environments. This painting, one of several in the sale from a private collection formed quite recently through major London and provincial art dealers, is expected to bring £18,000-£25,000 ($22,600-$31,390).