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Click here to subscribeJames Lawrence Isherwood F.R.S.A., F.I.A.L. (British 1917-1989) A ship and the Liver Building, Liverpool Signed, oil on board.34 x 44.5cm (framed 46.5 x 57cm)Artists’ Resale Right (“droit de suite”) may apply to this lot.The painting is in very good, original condition with no obvious faults to report. The painting is ornately framed but not glazed. The frame has some scuffs and knocks commensurate with age.
John Goodlad (British 20th/21st century) "Crowther Street, Stockport" After L. S. Lowry Signed, with certificate of authenticity attached verso, oil on canvas board.30 x 25cmArtists’ Resale Right (“droit de suite”) may apply to this lot.The painting is in very good, original condition with no obvious faults to report. The painting is unframed.
Caroline Deighton (British 20th/21st century) "Twilight Tranquility" Signed, dated July 2019 on artist's label verso, oil on board.48.5 x 48.5cm (framed 64.5 x 64.5cm)Artists’ Resale Right (“droit de suite”) may apply to this lot.The painting is in very good, original condition with no obvious faults to report. The painting is ornately framed but not glazed. The frame has some minor scuffs and knocks commensurate with age.
James Downie (British 1949-) "The Warren Bulkeley Inn, Stockport" Signed, dated 2017 on verso, oil on canvas.29 x 29cm (framed 36.5 x 36.5cm)Artists’ Resale Right (“droit de suite”) may apply to this lot.The painting is in very good, original condition with no obvious faults to report. The painting is framed but not glazed.
John Goodlad (British 20th/21st century) "The Football Match" After L. S. Lowry Signed, titled and dated 4/24 on certificate of authenticity verso, oil on canvas board.25 x 30cmArtists’ Resale Right (“droit de suite”) may apply to this lot.The painting is in very good, original condition with no obvious faults to report. The painting is unframed.
John Lowrie Morrison (Jolomo) (British 1948-) "Summer Field, Isle of Iona" Signed and dated 2001, titled on verso, oil on canvas.28.5 x 28.5cm (framed 53 x 53cm)Artists’ Resale Right (“droit de suite”) may apply to this lot.The painting is in very good, original condition with no obvious faults to report. The painting is ornately framed and glazed. The frame has some minor scuffs and knocks commensurate with age.
Gordon Radford (British 1936-2015) "The Harbour, Abersoch" Signed, oil on board.24 x 35.5cm (framed 48.5 x 58.5cm)Artists’ Resale Right (“droit de suite”) may apply to this lot.The painting is in very good, original condition with no obvious faults to report. The painting is framed and glazed. The frame has some minor scuffs and scratches commensurate with age.
CHRISTINE RAINCOCK "Pair of Robins with nest bearing sign "To Let"", oil on canvas, signed lower right, inscribed to slip "Do you think then, my dearest, that this one will do? The rent's not too high, the improvements are new, the house has been thoroughly papered and painted, there are families near with whom we are acquainted", painting 20.5 cm x 15.5 cm, frame 38 cm x 33 cm
R STONE; a 19th century oil on canvas, a full portrait of a seated maiden, unsigned, 110 x 81cm, framed.Condition Report: Canvas has been re lined, there is an area of a suspected old repair however it is hard to tell as the painting has been coated in thick lacquer, please see additional images, the frame has some knocks and losses.
* EDDIE WOLFRAM (1940 - 2001), GAUGUIN'S GIRL oil on canvas, signed, titled and dated 8.82 versoframedimage size 92cm x 122cm, overall size 93cm x 123cm Note: Born in Essen, Germany, Eddie Wolfram moved to England in 1948. His first one-person exhibition was held in 1958 at Woodstock Gallery, London. Wolfram was described in the Guardian (3 September 1965) as 'an artist determined to communicate with society at large...' . As well as painting Wolfram worked as a set designer and writer for television and as a producer of pop videos. As a writer on art his publications include History of Collage: An Anthology of Collage, Assemblage and Event Structures (1975). During the early 1970s, Eddie Wolfram was the Head of Fine Art at Croydon College of Design and Technology. Wolfram recruited an impressive group of lecturers to work with him including John Bellany, Gillian Ayres, Barry Martin and Patrick Heron. Helen Chadwick was one of the students. Eddie Wolfram was also the Manager and boyfriend of Millie Small the Jamaican singer of "My Boy Lollipop" which reached no 2 in the singles charts in both the UK and US. Eddie Wolfram paintings rarely appear at auction but he influenced a generation of artists and achieved considerable success in multiple artistic endeavours. By all accounts, he was a flamboyant and charismatic figure.
* DAMIAN CALLAN (SCOTTISH b. 1960), CLOSE-UP KITES oil on board, signed and dated '07, titled verso framedimage size 65cm x 49cm, overall size 78cm x 62cm Note: Edinburgh artist Damian Callan is the author of two books, Paint Like Degas and Paint Like Renoir. His work is exhibited widely in the UK and is held in collections across the world. He has written articles for Artist & Illustrators Magazine and The Artist Magazine and regularly demonstrates drawing and painting techniques at public events in Edinburgh.
Four paintings 'My Heart Is Out Of The Window' oil on canvas depicting an elderly disabled lady looking out of a window, another painting titled 'I Want To Go To Heaven For A Long Weekend' depicting an elderly gentleman surrounded by reefs and a coffin, both framed and signed 'Lampson', 86h x 70w and 96h x 76w; and 'Head On' 1970, oil on board, and another titled 'Semi Detached Cross' oil on canvas, both depicting hedgerows around a fence/gateposts, both framed and signed 'Lampson' 85cm x 72cm, and 85cm x 59.5cm Location: RABIf there is no condition report shown, please request
AFTER SIR GODFREY KNELLER PORTRAIT OF LADY LUCY BOOTH Oil on canvas laid to board 125 x 100cm (49 x 39¼ in.) Provenance: Possibly commissioned by John Robartes, 1st Earl of Radnor for Llanhydrock, Cornwall Inherited by Lady Isabella Legh, nee Robartes or Charles Legh Thence by descent at Adlington Hall Literature: Another version at Llanhydrock https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/884941 Lady Lucy Booth, nee Robartes (unknown-1717), was the sister of Lady Isabella Legh née Robartes (1674-1725) and Charles Bodvile Robartes, 2nd Earl of Radnor (1653-1723), and the daughter of Robert Robartes, Viscount Bodmin (1634-82), and Sarah Bodvile, later Countess of Radnor (1640-1720). She married George Booth Esq. the brother of Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington. Another version of this painting can be found at Lanhydrock, Cornwall. It has previously been suggested that the sitter could be Mary Oldbury, Countess of Warrington (circa 1680-85 - 1740), Lucy's sister in law, but a label on the back of the Lanhydrock version would suggest that Lucy is a more likely candidate.The present portrait most likely entered the Legh collection following the marriage of Lady Isabella Robartes (1674-1725) to John Legh of Adlington Hall in 1693. Alternatively, it is conceivable that it could have been retained at Llanhyrdrock but later gifted to the Legh family upon the death of their cousin, the 3rd Earl of Radnor, in 1741 when the Radnor title and Llanhydrock were separated: the title succeeded by distant cousin and the house, believe by antiquarian John Loveday to be in a sorry state, bequeathed to a nephew. Condition Report: Oil on canvas laid to board. Craquelure throughout, together with some bitumen separation in the darker pigments in the lower half of the canvas. Rubbing and abrasions to the framing edges. Some superficial surface scratches throughout including one larger scratch to the lower left edge (approx. 30cm). Inspection under UV light reveals retouching and in-filling throughout, with an area concentrated to the sitter's chest. There is also a green, cloudy, varnish.Condition Report Disclaimer
FOLLOWER OF SIR GODFREY KNELLER PORTRAIT OF A LADY, POSSIBLY ELIZABETH CUTLER OR LADY LAETITIA SMYTH Oil on canvas 120 x 95cm (47 x 37¼ in.) The present lot has traditionally be described as a portrait of the second wife of the 2nd Earl of Radnor. However the 2nd Earl (first creation) was only married once. It is more likely then that this is either the second wife of the 1st Earl (first creation), Lady Laetitia Smyth, or the first and only wife of the 2nd Earl, Elizabeth Cutler.Elizabeth Cutler was the daughter of Sir John Cutler, 1st Bt. and his second wife, Elicia Tipping. On 4 June 1689, she married Charles Bodvile Robartes, 2nd Earl of Radnor, son of Robert Robartes, Viscount Bodmin (1634-82), and Sarah Bodvile (1640-1720). She died on 13 January 1696, without issue. The present portrait most likely entered the Legh collection following the marriage of Lady Isabella Robartes (1674-1725) to John Legh of Adlington Hall in 1693. Alternatively, it is conceivable that it could have been retained at Llanhyrdrock but later gifted to the Legh family upon the death of their cousin, the 3rd Earl of Radnor, in 1741 when the Radnor title and Llanhydrock were separated: the title succeeded by distant cousin and the house, believe by antiquarian John Loveday to be in a sorry state, bequeathed to a nephew. Condition Report: The canvas is relined, and presents a slight layer of dirt across the whole surface. UV light reveals an unevenly applied varnish across , as well as various retouches that are visible to naked eye, such as the foliage to the lower left corner which has been added, as well as the various brown highlights of the chair to the lower right - such retouches are thick brushes of paint of about 5 cm in length . Further scattered restorations are visible in the folds of the drapery, together with small dotted restorations on the visage, near the nose and eye - the latter are very small retouches of about 0.5 cm in width. Such smaller retouches are also present on the breast, and a wide patch of restoration to the right border. To conclude, the painting presents a few dirt stains across, and losses of paint to the borders caused by abrasion with the frame. Condition Report Disclaimer
THOMAS HUDSON (BRTISH 1701-1779) PORTRAIT OF CHARLES LEGH; AND HIS WIFE HESTER Oil on canvas, a pair 124.5 x 99cm (49 x 38¾ in.) (2) Provenance: Probably commissioned by the sitter for Adlington Hall, and thence by descent Literature: Adlington Guide Book: 'The Dining Room'. This pair of portraits were presumably commissioned by the sitters to proclaim their status, joint fortunes and influence on the fabric of Adlington Hall. Charles Legh (1697-1781) was the son and heir of John Legh (1668-1739) and Lady Isabella Robartes, sister of the 2nd Earl of Radnor. He married his wife, Hester (née Lee), in around 1730. Hester was the daughter of Robert Lee and through him inherited an estate at Wincham. Charles Legh perhaps made the most extensive and fashionable improvements to Adlington Hall and its parkland. Evidently, he valued the historical part of his house ensuring that the older areas were incorporated into his new scheme. He created a new west wing comprising a principal staircase, dining-room, drawing-room, library and ball-room, completed in around 1749. The south front has a pediment frieze above the tall portico entrance with its four Ionic columns, and is inscribed 'Charles and Hester Legh 1757'. Charles Legh was also responsible for creating the stables, although there is no record of him having employed an architect for any of the architectural works at Adlington. It seems likely that he designed the additions himself, and used local builders and materials to implement his designs. Charles Legh was a friend of Handel, who is said to have visited Adlington Hall to play on the magnificent organ in the Great Hall, which was probably installed during the tenure of Charles' father, John, when he inherited Adlington in 1696. Charles Legh's only son, Thomas Legh (1735-75), predeceased him, and when he himself died in 1781, the male line of the family became extinct, and the inheritance descended through the female line to his niece Elizabeth Rowlls, nee Davenport, who upon her inheritance took the name Legh. Condition Report: The Gentleman: The canvas is relined and presents a subtle craquelure across the whole surface. UV light reveals a few retouches on the white dress at the height of the chest, as well as a few dotted retouches on the on the sitter's left cheek and forehead - such retouches, however, a very minor. In addition, UV light reveals some infilling of the craquelure to the left of the sitter, and a heavy varnish unenvied applied in wide brush strokes. Further restoration is alp present on the background curtain. To conclude, various superficial damages are visible to the border of the painting, as well as a few dotted losses of paint in the background. The Lady: The canvas is relined and presents a visible craquelure across the whole surface. A few dotted losses of paint caused by the craquelure are present to the lower left corner and lower right. UV light reveals various infills of the craquelure at the height of bust, as well as a curved shaped retouch to the right of the lady's visage, which travels the length of the cheek. To conclude, various scattered retouches are visible near the bottom border, as well as damages to the edges. Condition Report Disclaimer
THOMAS BARDWELL (BRITISH 1704-1767) VIEWS OF ADLINGTON HALL AND PARK Oil on canvas, a set of four Each 61.5 x 101cm (24 x 39.3⁄4 in.) (4) Provenance: Charles Legh, descent to current ownerLiterature: County Life, 28 November 1952, p.1734, fig. 1; 12 December 1952, p. 165, fig.9. J. Harris, The Artist and the Country House, London, 1979, p.321, no.360. P. de Figueiredo and Julian Treuherz, Cheshire Country Houses, Chichester, 1988, pp.17-18, fig.9. G. Tyack and S. Brindle, Country Houses of England, 1994, pp.84-85. J. Harris, The Artist and the Country House. London, 1995, p.84-5, fig. 57-8. Exhibition: Sotheby's London, The Artist and the Country House, no.57 and 58. The present lot is a striking example of English country house portraiture, commissioned as a painterly record of a generation's contribution to the family seat. The tradition of estate painting arrived in England relatively late in comparison with the continent, where Renaissance rulers and aristocrats sought to document their palaces and homes. While oil paintings on canvas of a standalone property are unrecorded in England before 1600, the tradition was taken up with great enthusiasm and the art form reached its zenith in the eighteenth-century.Born in Suffolk in 1704, Thomas Bardwell was a painter with a varied oeuvre; he travelled across England and Scotland executing country house views, portraits and conversation pieces. He began his artistic career decorating house interiors and initially owned a paint supply business. Although he lacked formal training, in the 1720s he was employed by the successful country house painter Peter Tillemans (c. 1684-1734) to paint Livermere Hall in Bardwell's native East Anglia. Tillemans' influence on Bardwell is discernible from his earliest topographical pictures. Notably, his painting of Hedenham Hall (1735) adopts Tillemans' distinctive equine staffage, shown most prominently in his view of Chatsworth (1720s). Though charmingly naïve, this early work is also notable for its sensitive observation of detail and miniature-like quality.Previously attributed to James Shrigley, The Adlington views demonstrate how Bardwell's proficiency in country house painting evolved in his mature years. First and foremost, the works memorialise the architectural achievements of Charles Legh (1697-1781), including the south wing portico, detached stable block, domed Temple of Diana and garden follies. Although early continental estate pictures certainly display a keen interest in preserving specific details, decorative concerns often came at the expense of accuracy and views were compressed to create broad pictorial maps. By the turn of the 18th century, however, artists and patrons responded to the growing study of topography and sets of elevational views proliferated to provide a comprehensive record.Bardwell's interest in perspectival accuracy therefore made him a fitting choice for the commission. Published in 1756, his study The Practice of Painting and Perspective Made Easy offers the reader a guide to the principles of perspective using illustrations of buildings, gardens and avenues. His principles are brought to fruition in the present works, through geometric precision, carefully manipulated areas of light and shadow and the incisive rendering of architectural detail.Bardwell's views also act as a celebration of the English estate, with its bucolic scenery and rural pleasures. Following Charles Legh as he strolls around the grounds, the paintings provide a pictorial tour of the landscape. The parkland is characteristic of the mid eighteenth-century designs popularised by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, with rolling pastures and clusters of trees. Horses graze, deer and rabbits frolic, and Charles Legh is accompanied by a crowd of his cherished dogs. Indeed, the lines between portraiture, landscape, sporting and country house painting blurred in English eighteenth-century conversation pieces and works began to speak to the symbiotic relationship between the home and family. Thomas Bardwell's portraits, for instance, often include the sitter's home in the background and his estate views show figures riding or promenading through the grounds.John Steegman wrote that 'a house may be called Castle, Abbey, Priory, Park, Hall, Court, Manor, or just a House...But they are all houses, which have been born-in, lived-in and died-in by the family, and which are centred the family's affections and pride'. Bardwell's pictures animate the country house by reflecting the delight and fulfilment of those who inhabit it. In one view, Charles Legh stands proudly before the imposing new facade. Another shows him looking across his sweeping vista and admiring Adlington Hall from a distance. In each picture, however, the figure moves unobtrusively across the landscape; there is an awareness of his transience. While one generation travels through, the home and park remain the constant focus, a testament to one family's enduring legacy. Condition Report: White picket fence, centrally located The paintings has been wax lined. There are multiple chip losses evident and a strong pattern of craquelure present. Examination under UV light reveals touches to many of the chip losses, along with work to a 4 ½ in. (approx.) vertical tear to the canvas, located in the sky on the right, and to a few additional infills in the sky. In the foreground there are some more dispersed spot touches and some glazing to thinness. Dogs in front of lake The painting has been adhered onto an oil tempered hardboard. This structural treatment is designed to support the original canvas which has several repairs to it along with a strong pattern of craquelure. Examination in a raking light suggests a good adhesion within the work and a certain level of structural stability. Examination under ultra violet light reveals some scattered retouches to a combination of isolated chip loses, some of these combine to form a more concentrated area of work, and to a few infills in the sky, one above the buildings on the right and two more Man with blue coat The picture has been adhered to an oil tempered hardboard. This structural treatment designed to support the original canvas which has several repairs to it across the sky. Examination in a raking light suggests a good adhesion within the work and a certain amount of structural stability. Examination under a UV light shows restoration to what appears to be a number of holes and some linear breaks to the canvas. The two largest of these are above the trees on the right and in the sky in the upper left quadrant. Horses The painting has been wax lined. This lining is designed to support a 3" vertical tear in the right of the sky and a strong pattern of craquelure Examination under ultra violet light shows scattered retouches across the sky, to chip losses and age cracking. This pattern of chip losses continues across the foreground which also has several patches of old varnish. Condition Report Disclaimer
FOLLOWER OF SIR GODFREY KNELLER PORTRAIT OF LADY ISABELLA LEGH, HOLDING FLOWERS IN A ROCKY LANDSCAPE Oil on canvas With later identifying inscription (to canvas verso) 121 x 96.5cm (47½ x 37 in.) In a carved and gilded frame Provenance: Possibly commissioned by John Robartes, 1st Earl of Radnor for Llanhydrock, Cornwall Inherited by Lady Isabella Legh, nee Robartes or Charles Legh Thence by descent at Adlington Hall Literature: G. Nares, 'Adlington Hall, Cheshire - III: The home of Mrs. Legh', Country Life, 12 December 1952, p. 1961.Lady Isabella Legh née Robartes (1674-1725) was the daughter of Robert Robartes, Viscount Bodmin (1634-82), and Sarah Bodvile, later Countess of Radnor(1640-1720). She was born in 1674 at Lanhydrock House, Bodmin, Cornwall. On 18 July 1693, she married John Legh of Adlington Hall (1688-1739) with whom she had two children, Lucy Frances Legh (1695-1728) and Charles Legh (1697-1781). It is possible that the present portrait was commissioned by the sitter's father as a series of portraits depicting his daughters or children. It most likely entered the Legh collection following the marriage of Lady Isabella Robartes (1674-1725) to John Legh of Adlington Hall in 1693. Alternatively, it is conceivable that it could have been retained at Llanhyrdrock but later gifted to, or purchased by, the Legh family upon the death of their cousin, the 3rd Earl of Radnor, in 1741 when the Radnor title and Llanhydrock were separated: the title succeeded by distant cousin and the house, believe by antiquarian John Loveday to be in a sorry state, bequeathed to a nephew. Condition Report: The canvas has been lined and there is a heavy varnish which is uneven in it application. Craquelure throughout including an area concentrated along the central stretcher line. There is an old repaired tear (L-shaped, approx. 15x15cm) to the lower left corner and this is visible in natural light. Rubbing and abrasions to the framing edges. With some very light specks of paint loss/abrasions throughout however this is barely noticeable. Inspection under UV light reveals scattered retouching and in-filling throughout, as well as a patchy green masking varnish. The painting is likely to date from the 18th century. Condition Report Disclaimer
LODEWIJK FREDERIK HENDRIK (LOUIS) APOL (DUTCH 1850-1936) THE EASTERN GATE (DELFT) IN A WINTER LANDSCAPE Oil on canvas Signed (lower left) 70 x 92cm (27½ x 36 in.) Saleroom notice: Please note our cataloguing has been updatedApol specialised in painting snowy winter landscapes and his picture Winter in the Forest received much acclaim when it was exhibited in the Hague in 1875 and was subsequently bought by the State. He was taught by J.F. Hoppenbrouwers and P.F. Stortenbeker and in 1868, at the age of 18, he received a scholarship from the Dutch King, Willem III. In 1880 Apol took part in an expedition on the SS Willem Barents to Spitsbergen in the Arctic Ocean. The impressions of this journey were a source of inspiration during his whole life. His work is in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and the Kunstmuseum in the Hague. Condition Report: The canvas has been lined and is a little slack. The impasto is good throughout. Some scattered craquelure, including a heavier area in the sky running vertically to the right of the church. Some light rubbing and abrasions to the framing edges. Some light undulation to the canvas throughout. Inspection under UV light reveals no evidence of restoration or repair.Condition Report Disclaimer
λ GLORIA VANDERBILT (AMERICAN 1924-2019) WALKING DOLL Mixed media on paper Signed (lower left); titled (verso) 41 x 31cm (16 x 12 in.)Gloria Vanderbilt was an American artist, socialite, actress and designer. She was born to the wealthy and influential Vanderbilt family, and her aunt was Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney - founder of the Whiteny Museum of American Art. She attended the Art Students League of New York where she practiced oil painting and held solo exhibitions. She is known as an important contributor to the development of the designer blue jean, and spent most of her life within the public eye. Her varied artistic practice explores portraiture and pattern in multicolour and she showed across New York and Vermont.
ARTIST ALFRED WILLIAM STRUTT’S Personal copy of Painting Popularly Explained; Including Fresco, Oil, Mosaic, Water Colour, Water Glass, Tempera, Encaustic, Miniature, painting on Ivory, Vellum, Pottery, Porcelain, Enamel, Glass Etc. 1873. With School of Art presentation plate to the front pastedown “Presented to A. W. Strutt for success in the Advanced [and elementary in ink] of the course of instructions in art”. Original blind stamped Morocco “V R” to the upper board **Alfred William Strutt was born in Tanaraki, New Zealand, the son of the English artist William Strutt (1825-1915). His grandfather was the miniaturist William Thomas Strutt (1777-1850) and his great-grandfather was Joseph Strutt (1742-1802) a social historian and artist. His sisters Rosa and Laura were also artists. His father had moved to Australia in 1850 and then to New Zealand in 1855, where he recorded the early days of the British colony. Alfred and his family returned to England in 1862 where he studied at the South Kensington School of Art.
WILLIAM JOHNSTONE O.B.E. (SCOTTISH 1897-1981) DARK BORDERS LANDSCAPE, 1925 Signed and dated to canvas verso, oil on canvas 63.5cm x 76cm (25in x 30in) If you have had the pleasure of visiting the long-anticipated, newly re-opened Scottish Art wing at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh (re-opened 2023), the first painting you are likely to have set eyes on is the monumental masterpiece ‘A Point in Time’ (1929/37) by William Johnstone. The huge canvas is a formidable sight; with abstract twists of black, blues and greens creating fathomless caverns. It is hung against a bold, blood-red wall immediately facing the entrance. In this phenomenal artwork the curators of the National Galleries found the key visual within the collection to challenge tired perceptions. The re-hang’s opening statement could not be clearer: 20th century Scottish art was seriously accomplished, outward-looking and Modern with a capital ‘M’. This curatorial choice also elevates Johnstone himself emphatically and with purpose; literally centralising his significance within the story of Scottish art – not to say international modernism - as never before. Born in the Borders in 1897 to a farming background, Johnstone, a powerful personality, mixed with other radical thinkers in the Edinburgh College of Art in the 1920s. Alongside the poet Hugh MacDiarmid, Johnstone was pivotal within the conception of the “Scottish Renaissance”. This was a cultural movement spanning art and literature that looked to move away from the perceived stagnancy of the centralised British cultural self-view, advocating instead a modernisation - and independence - of Scottish political and cultural values. Though Johnstone’s origins were immutably tied to the Scottish landscape, his burgeoning career soon took a decisively international direction. In 1925 he was awarded a Carnegie Travelling Scholarship which enabled him to study in Paris with André Lhote at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, as well as the Atelier Colarossi. In 1926 he travelled further afield to Spain, Italy and North Africa, accompanied by Max Bernd-Cohen, an American lawyer-turned-artist who become a lifelong friend. His circle of acquaintances in Paris at that time included the artists Alberto Giacometti, Fernand Léger, and the eminent collectors Leo and Gertrude Stein. In 1927, Johnstone married the American sculptor Flora MacDonald, spending subsequent years in America and Scotland. They settled in London in the 1930s, with intermittent teaching commitments enabling him to return to America sporadically for the next twenty years. Indeed, it was teaching that became his major life’s work and he was no less innovative within this field than within his art practice. He held the position of Principal at the Camberwell School of Art and Design between 1938 and 1945 and later at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. In this capacity he is credited with evolving the ideologies of each school, bringing them more in line with Continental art and design principles akin to the Bauhaus and creating teaching opportunities for exciting young avant-garde artists including Richard Hamilton, Victor Pasmore, Alan Davie and Eduardo Paolozzi. His services to education within the arts earned him an O.B.E. Sojourns teaching in America included positions as Fulbright Lecturer and Director of the Colorado Springs Fine Art Centre Summer School. He also lectured at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Taliesin, Wisconsin, in 1949 and 1950. Johnstone’s friend and colleague, the artist and theorist Anton Ehrenzweig, identified three stylistic phases in Johnstone’s painting career. Firstly, a surrealist phase of the 1930s, a cubist phase of the 1940s and finally his calligraphic or tachist phase of the 1950s. ‘Dark Borders Landscape’, dated 1925, can be read as a psychological take on the Scottish landscape; a brooding, abstract suggestion of elemental forces, mood and place. His Borders landscapes are often executed in the darkest of tones, as here. Art historian Beth Williamson has suggested a psychological interpretation of the tumultuous dreichness inherent within these early Scottish landscapes; perceiving a troubled relationship with the soil he and his kin sprang from and laboured over so tirelessly, but which offered only the scantest living in return. She also notes the sense of alienation Johnstone felt upon his return to his home farm after having been conscripted in World War I. Despite fortunately never seeing active duty, the distress caused by the exposure to traumatised front-line soldiers, paired with the sense of his own fate hanging perilously in the balance while waiting for the call up, forever changed the young artist. Even as early as the 1920s, Johnstone had developed an innovative and unique paint application that embraced expressive, totally intuitive brushwork. This expressionistic take on abstraction - “dripping” his paint as early as the 1920s - latterly saw his work referred to in the context of American Abstract Expressionism (the so-called “action painters”). Johnstone’s work in fact pre-figures this school of artists and his approach has, as Ehrenzweig indicated, much more in common with the ‘automatic drawing’ techniques of the Parisian Surrealist school in Paris: psychological forces made tangible in paint. The goal of Johnstone’s art practice was to assimilate his interests and fields of influence to totally unique effect, evolving an entirely personal style. His reference points were diverse but always drawn to that which is distilled and instinctual over pre-meditated: from the Pictish carving of his Scottish homeland to the New Mexico school, and from Asian calligraphy to Primitivism and the artwork of children. At the heart of his paintings, whatever the period, you will always find expressive, intuitive mark-making.This creative belief-system was extrapolated to its extreme in the plaster relief series he created in 1970, as an elderly man. In these works, from one of the most celebrated decades of his artistic career, the physical and metaphysical combine to create extraordinary sculptural objects that read as simultaneously ancient and futuristic. “The earth has been a very great creative mother for the artist, the poet, the composer; but the material of the soil can produce its own art. With these thoughts I made my plaster reliefs in order to find confirmation of my conviction that the medium of plaster would itself reveal its own miracle. I knew that in myself I must produce a condition, relaxed and free from thought or deliberation; that which would be produced through my hands would then be from my inner self and be completely unconscious. I throw the lump of crude, wet plaster on the smooth polished surface; a gesture pf creation... and the plaster sets.” – William Johnstone, in the catalogue introduction for ‘Genesis’, ten plaster reliefs exhibited by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 1973.
ANDREW CRANSTON (SCOTTISH B.1969) UNTITLED (MONKEY), 2006-2008 Signed and dated 2006-2008 verso, oil and varnish on hardback book cover 24cm x 34.5cm (9.5in x 13.5in) Purchased from the artist's studio c. 2011/12 Cranston was born in Hawick, Scotland in 1969. He studied Fine Art at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, before completing an M.A. in Painting at the Royal College of Art, London. Today Cranston works from his Glasgow studio. One of Scotland’s foremost contemporary painters, he has exhibited extensively, including a recent major solo show ‘What made you stop here?’ at the Hepworth Wakefield in 2023-2024. The work offered here for sale is from a significant strand within his oeuvre, created by painting, lacquering, layering and collaging over a ‘found’ book cover base. His work is subtle and gently narrative, recalling the world-making intimacy of Vuillard and Bonnard.
ALISON MCGILL (SCOTTISH B.1974) UNTITLED (ABSTRACT) Signed verso, oil and wax on board 194cm x 192.5cm (76.5in x 75.75in) McGill graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a First Class BA (Hons) in Drawing and Painting in 1996 followed by an MFA in Painting.She has won a number of awards for painting including the Alexander Graham Munro Travel Award which she won in 2003 from the RSW (Royal Scottish Society of Artists in Watercolour).Her work is held in the collections of Bank of Scotland Headquarters, University of Stirling Art Collection, Western General Hospital Art Collection, NHS Art Collection, Royal College of Physician and Standard Life Insurance.
Lucy Lockwood (British, active 1896–1934) Oil on canvas Study of a wire-haired terrier, signed and dated 1927 lower left, framed and glazed, 51cm x 61cm Condition Report Good overall condition. Some accretions on inside of glass, possible minor fading/discolouration, scratch near signature but looks to have been done at time of painting. General wear and tear.
Henri Charles Jonas (1878-1944) Oil on panel Portrait of a haloed religious figure, signed and dated '34 lower left, 23cm x 20cm Jonas was a Dutch artist of the Limburg School, following travel throughout Europe and North Africa he took up a teaching position in 1922 at the Stadtekeninstituut, Maastricht. He spent time during the 1930s as a patient at the Valerius Clinic in Amsterdam and at the Saint Servatius Mental Instituion in Venray. Doctors urged him to continue to paint during his time at various institutions. The painting bears a label verso which makes reference to Dr F Havermans, who was Medical Director and Head Psychiatrist of Saint Servatius in Venray during Jonas's treatment. By family repute, this painting was gifted by Jonas to Dr. Havermans in thanks, and thence by descent to the present owner.
A group of framed paintings and other items to include: A gouache of bluebells in the woods signed Francis, 93; A watercolour of two travellers in front of a snowy mountain vista; An oil painting of a farmer with cattle, unframed and unsigned with another oil on canvas of tress by water; A 20th century still life oil signed Marc, 93; An enhanced photograph of a dog, two chromolithograph prints of rural scenes; together with a 20th century Chinese framed relief of birds and flowers, two fishing themed boxed framed cabinets, and one glazed picture frame, largest canvas: 70 x 60 cm (12)
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