It has been an extraordinary year for pictures at Tennants, with stellar results, re-discovered masterpieces, and a record-breaking hammer total for the department.
The year was topped by the magnificent L.S. Lowry pure seascape “The North Sea”, which sold for £840,000 (all figures exclude buyer’s premium) in the October Modern and Contemporary Art Sale. The painting was last seen on public view in an exhibition in 1967, the year after it was painted, and had since been in private hands. Painted in 1966, “The North Sea” is one of the finest examples of Lowry’s rare large-scale seascapes. Lowry was fascinated by the sea. At once both beautiful and dangerously powerful, it was a constant source of inspiration to the solitary artist, and he painted it throughout his life. These rare, seemingly simple yet highly sophisticated works are far removed from the bustling industrial streets scenes for which he is better known.
The Modern and Contemporary Art Sales saw two world auction records set, with Sheffield-born Joe Scarborough’s “Whitby Regatta” selling for £18,000, and Maggi Hambling’s “Red Head with Cat” selling for £28,000. Adding to the latter’s allure was an accompanying letter from the artist relating to the picture, in which she noted that it was painted whilst she lived in Battersea, and that the sitter was her girlfriend at the time. Further notable lots included “Palestrina’s Pavan”, a bronze by Philip Jackson (sold for £7,000), “It’s Bloody Freezing” by Brian ‘Braaq’ Shields (sold for £16,000), “Edward Street Man with Dogs” (sold for £7,000), and “Cricket” by Edith Lawrence, which was sold from the artist’s estate (sold for £7,500).
2022 also saw the single owner sale ‘Line, Colour & Form’, which offered an array of mid to late 20th century paintings, prints, ceramics and sculpture, thoughtfully put together over the course of thirty years by a collectors in the North East of England. The top lot of the sale was “Vacances en France” by Carlos Nadal, which sold for £12,500.
“In a Ligurian Garden” by Henry Herbert La Thangue led a host of highlights in the year’s British, European and Sporting Art Sales. The important lost British Impressionist painting sold for £180,000 having been rediscovered in Yorkshire; it had been passed down through the Prince-Smith family, manufacturers of textile machinery from Keighley, West Yorkshire, and had once hung in the Royal Academy in 1908, with its companion picture ‘Ligurian Flowers’, now in the Blackburn Art Gallery.
The year saw notable sales of paintings from good private estates, including “Silvery Moonlight”, an atmospheric painting by the Victorian master of night scenes John Atkinson Grimshaw, which sold for £90,000. The painting was from the estate of Denton Hall in Ilkley, Yorkshire which was part of the NG Bailey group of companies for over 40 years until its recent sale. NG Bailey is the UK’s leading independent engineering and services business and is owned by the Bailey family. The majority of the Denton Hall Collection will be sold at Tennants in March 2023.
Amongst a host of fine art and antiques consigned from The Contents of The Laithes, Penrith from the Estate of Ian Stephenson were notable paintings, which included “The Fortune Teller” by William Powell Frith (sold for £20,000), and “Cordelia”, by Thomas Francis Dicksee (sold for £13,000). Also consigned by private vendors were Richard Ansdell’s “Going to the Lodge” (sold for £40,000), William Kay Blacklock’s “Bathers, Walberswick” (sold for £15,000), and a c.1700 French School depiction of Christ displaying his wounds to his Disciples (sold for £8,000).
This October we were also delighted to stage a loan exhibition, ‘The Art of Colour’, which brought major works of art to Leyburn from both public institutions and private collections. Highlights of the exhibition included an iconic self-portrait by Wyndham Lewis, one of the most significant British artists of the 20th century, on loan from the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull and ‘Central Australia’ by Sidney Nolan, on loan from the University of York and rarely on view to the public.
Head of Pictures Charlotte Conboy says:
“It has been an exciting year, and a privilege to handle so many extraordinary paintings and achieve fantastic results for our clients. With a good offering of paintings from private estates already consigned for both the Modern and Contemporary, and the British, European and Sporting Art Sales, we look forward to a strong start to 2023”.
