LONDON.- Modern & Post-War British Art took centre stage at Sotheby’s in London this week, as collectors responded with resounding enthusiasm to this season’s standout offerings. The Evening and Day Sales on 22 – 23 November brought a combined total of £9,457,250 (est. £5.5 – 8.1 million), with a sell-through rate of 92%, and 75% of the lots selling for above their pre-sale high estimates. This sell-through rate ranks as Sotheby’s highest for a sale of Modern & Post-War British Art1. The auctions were led by a monumental sculpture by Barbara Hepworth from her seminal Family of Man series, which brought £3.8 million. Highlights of Modern British Art from the collection of Lord & Lady Attenborough also soared in the saleroom, as every single lot sold to bring a grand total of £1.8 million.

This was followed by the ‘white-glove’ sale A Painter’s Paradise, celebrating the legacy of Mary Fedden and Julian Trevelyan, which totalled £888,250. Each lot in the auction found a buyer and a new auction record was achieved for Trevelyan at £46,250. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the restoration of their historic studios at Durham Wharf for future generations of artists.

This week’s strong results continue the momentum witnessed in Sotheby’s salerooms earlier this month when Modern British art from the personal collection of David Bowie shattered all expectations.

Dame Barbara Hepworth:
Yesterday’s Evening sale of Modern & Post-War British Art at Sotheby’s London saw Barbara Hepworth’s majestic Parent I - the pinnacle of one of the most iconic series executed by giant of 20th-century British art - sell for £3,758,750 (est. £2,000,000-3,000,000). One of the most ground-breaking and forwardthinking artists of her generation, Barbara Hepworth carved a path as a world-recognised sculptor – a stature that no female artist had previously achieved. Parent I belongs to The Family of Man, a magnificent group of sculptures that are undoubtedly the crowning achievement of Hepworth’s final years – a universal survey of humanity, acknowledging both the civilisations of the past and the present, alongside aspirations for the future.

A Life in Art: Lord & Lady Attenborough
Offered across the Modern & Post-War British art evening and day sales were a group of works from the collection of Lord and Lady Attenborough, whose interest in British art first started in the 1940s and endured throughout their lives. All 37 Modern British artworks offered from their celebrated collection sold to bring £1,772,625 (est. £668,000-1,025,000), with 70% exceeding their pre-sale high estimates – testament to their immense passion and a very distinctive eye.

The selection was led by two works by Henry Moore. Shelter Drawing by the artist brought £296,750 (est. £150,000-250,000), an extraordinary depiction of the large numbers of people that sheltered on tube station platforms in London during the Blitz. Moore’s masterful sculpture Seated Woman: One Arm achieved £112,500 (est. £40,000-60,000) – a wonderful example of the artist’s ability to create endlessly original figural forms to capture a timeless essence.

A further highlight was Autumn Legend, an arresting landscape by Alan Reynolds, which achieved a world auction record for the artist at £137,500 (est. £30,000-50,000).

A Painter’s Paradise
From the moment they came together in 1949, Julian Trevelyan and Mary Fedden were the closest of working companions, and they painted and printed in different corners of the studio at Durham Wharf, for the rest of their lives. The exhibition and sale provided a fresh and highly personal insight into the life and art of two of Britain’s mostcherished artists, with works being chosen from all the major periods of their highly successful careers, spanning 80 years of artistic and creative endeavour.

Today’s auction raised £888,250 (est. £410,800-636,500), with 100% of the works finding a buyer and over 82% of these selling for above their high estimates. The proceeds from the sale will go towards the project to restore and develop the historic studios at Durham Wharf by recent Turner Prize-winning architects Assemble. The redevelopment will ensure that the place in which these artists lived and worked will remain a haven for a new generation of painters, musicians, film-makers and designers.

An auction record was set for a work by Julian Trevelyan as his depiction of Durham Wharf, the place where his vision came together, sold for £46,250 (est. £15,000-25,000). On the topic of his riverside home he wrote, ‘Here… I put down my tap-root; My life was measured by its tides, and my dreams were peopled by its swans and seagulls.’

The sale brought together all but one of the illustrations by Mary Fedden that were used in Motley the Cat, a children’s story by Susannah Amoore, which sold for a combined total of £84,500 (est. £24,80037,700).

Further Highlights
Among other works that attracted strong competition, Anemones in a Glass Jar exceeded pre-sale expectations to sell for £392,750 (est. £70,000-100,000) - achieving a world auction record for Christopher Wood, whose flower paintings are amongst the best-known and most soughtafter of his output.

Roger Hilton’s March 1961 was acquired by the Jerwood Collection for £68,750 (est. £40,000-60,000) – to go on view in the future at the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings. An example of his unique style that blended thoughtful control with wild abandon, the work was painted in a pivotal year in the artist’s career.

A work by Sir Winston Churchill, Britain’s greatest war-time leader, Les Zoraïdes on Cap Martin sold for £368,750 (est. £100,000-150,000) – an indication of his exceptional ability as a painter. The South of France and the Riviera in particular held an immense appeal for Churchill and this work depicts a Riviera villa owned by celebrated 20th-century society figure Daisy Fellowes, married to his cousin Reginald.

Making an extremely rare appearance at auction, a major mature work by Marlow Moss, Composition Yellow, Blue, Black, Red and White brought £150,000 (est. £60,000-80,000). Moss moved to Paris in the late 1920s to apprentice herself to Lèger, although it was her encounter with Mondrian that would define her approach to abstraction for the rest of her career. The onslaught of the Nazis drove her to move to a farmhouse in Normandy, and she was forced in turn to abandon this – and much of her life’s works – to narrowly escape on a boat to England. This final studio was hit by shelling, thus destroying almost the life’s work of the one true British disciple of Neo-Plasticism.

Summary of Sotheby’s Sales
This Week Sales of Modern British & Post-War British Art were part of a busy wider spectrum of related sales at Sotheby’s this week. See below for the results of further sales held at New Bond Street over the course of the past two days:

Picasso Ceramics from the Collection of Lord & Lady Attenborough: ‘White-Glove’ sale totalled £3,080,875.


1 Excluding sales of single-owner collections of Modern British Art.