Modern British Art Evening Sale

 The Modern British Art Evening Sale will be led by Sir Winston Churchill’s Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque (1943, estimate: £1,500,000-2,500,000), offered from The Jolie Family Collection. It is presented alongside two further works by the former Prime Minister of the UK, Scene at Marrakech (circa 1935, estimate: £300,000-500,000), offered by order of the Trustees of Viscount Montgomery’s Will Trust  and St Paul’s Churchyard (1927, estimate: £200,000-300,000). Masters of British sculpture include outstanding examples by Lynn Chadwick, Barry Flanagan, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and William Turnbull. Sir John Lavery’s painting of Doris Delevingne, The Viscountess Castlerosse, Palm Springs (1938, estimate: £400,000-600,000) is offered from the collection of Charles Delevingne, while a selection of portraits from the Estates of L.S. Lowry and Carol Ann Lowry reveal the artist’s intimate observations of people. Further highlights include Jack Butler Yeats’ expressive painting Until We Meet Again and Head of Frank Auerbach, a portrait of the artist by his close friend Leon Kossoff, one of only three ever created (1956, estimate: £100,000-150,000). The Modern British Art Evening Sale will directly follow A Family Collection: Works on Paper, Van Gogh to Freud, livestreamed from our saleroom in New York.

Sir Winston Churchill

Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque (1943, estimate: £1,500,000-2,500,000, illustrated above, left), offered from The Jolie Family Collection, is the only work that Churchill created during the Second World War. As a symbol of the special relationship between the UK and the USA, as well as a mark of respect to the American President, Churchill gifted the painting to Franklin D. Roosevelt, after they visited Marrakech together. Scene at Marrakech (circa 1935, estimate: £300,000-500,000, illustrated above, right) was a gift from Churchill to Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, one of the most distinguished generals of the Second World War. St Paul’s Churchyard (1927, estimate: £200,000-300,000) depicts a London scene, a rare subject for Churchill; it is believed that he painted only two other London subjects.

Sir John Lavery, Property from Charles Delevingne

The Viscountess Castlerosse, Palm Springs (1938, estimate: £400,000-600,000, illustrated below, left) by Sir John Lavery  depicts Lady Doris Castlerosse, who rose to fame in the twenties when sharing a flat with the actress, Gertrude Lawrence. Lavery painted Lady Castlerosse’s famed legs, not once, but twice, with her limbs depicted in the foreground of the picture as well as in the seated figure whose face is out of view.

Sculpture

The sale will include six important sculptures from the Collection of Mireille and James Lévy. Henry Moore’s Maquette for King and Queen (estimate: £750,000-1,000,000, illustrated page one, right), leads the group and was conceived and cast in 1952. King and Queen works are regarded among his most popular and recognised sculptures, and the only series to depict a single pair of adults.  Small Maquette No. 2 for Reclining Figure (conceived in 1950 and cast in 1965, estimate: £200,000-300,000) is one of just two maquettes that Moore created in preparation for his most celebrated masterpiece: Reclining Figure: Festival, 1951. Endowed with a purity of form and a sense of physical intimacy, the unique slate sculpture Three Round Forms (1951, estimate: £200,000-300,000) embodies Barbara Hepworth’s mature approach to form and material. Three carefully arranged elliptical forms stand with intricate tension, personifying the artist’s preoccupation with exploring relationships that arise when multiple forms are juxtaposed. Square Forms (Two Sequences) (conceived in 1963-64 and cast in 1966, estimate: £300,000-500,000) demonstrates Hepworth’s masterful ability to achieve equilibrium between the demands of bronze and its expressive possibilities.

Les Deux, (1997, estimate: £250,000-350,000) is one of Barry Flanagan’s most striking hare sculptures, which typified his figurative work from 1979 onwards, a cast of which has never appeared at auction before. Regarded as Flanagan’s most recognisable motif, the hare has become synonymous with his artistic practice. This is presented alongside Gendrd I / Gendrd II (1994, estimate: £300,000-500,000), one of Flanagan’s most playful and endearing works, from the collection of the late Clodagh Waddington. Two Reclining Figures (1972, £400,000-600,000, illustrated page two, bottom right) is one of Chadwick’s most significant and monumental works of the period. The figures are impressive in scale, life size, measuring almost two metres in length.

Yeats

Painted in 1949, Until We Meet Again (£500,000-800,000) personifies Jack Butler Yeats’ wonderfully expressionistic style of the late 1940s. Characterised by dynamic brushstrokes and thick impasto, Yeats’s treatment of the medium can readily be compared to the paintings of his European Expressionist contemporaries, most notably the work of his good friend, Oskar Kokoschka.

Lowry

Lowry’s portraits hold an important place in the schema of Lowry’s work and like his industrial landscapes which are typically composites, they borrow elements from both real and imagined people. Ann in a Red Jumper (1957, estimate: £150,000-250,000) is one of the very best examples of Lowry’s representation of his idealised sitter Ann: it has been exhibited infrequently and has remained in the artist’s estate until now. In Children Walking up Steps (painted circa 1960s, estimate: £150,000-250,000), Lowry has used the steps as a clever device to maximise the number of figures in the composition, filling not just the foreground, but the centre ground too, from left to right. Staring wide-eyed, Head of a Boy (1962, estimate: £300,000-500,000), marks a distinctive period in Lowry’s work when he became consumed by painting desolate single figures.

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*Please note when quoting estimates above that other fees will apply in addition to the hammer price - see Section D of the Conditions of Sale at the back of the sale catalogue.

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium. Sales totals are hammer price plus buyer’s premium and are reported net of applicable fees.