“The Lieutenance Honfleur” by Edward Seago, one of Britain’s best known and most widely collected twentieth century artists, sold for £16,000 in Tennants Auctioneers’ Modern and Contemporary Art Sale on 1st March (all figures exclude buyer’s premium). Edward Seago (1910-1974) is known for his ability to capture a moment in paint with spontaneity and fluidity. Honfleur, on the Normandy coast, was one of his favourite places to stop on his regular sailing trips to France, before going on to Paris along the River Seine. He was fascinated by the topography of Honfleur and captured it from numerous different viewpoints. The present example demonstrates his signature warm, soft palette, cleverly depicting reflections on gentle waters.
Selling for £13,000 against an estimate of £4,000-6,000 was an interesting Still Life of Apples by Duncan Grant. Born in Scotland, Duncan Grant (1885-1978) set up the Omega Workshop with Roger Fry, with the aim to bring the Post-Impressionist style into the home and to make art a part of everyday life. He later lived in the Bloomsbury Group’s infamous Charleston House with partner Vanessa Bell. The picture was sold with provenance from the family of writer David Garnett, a fellow member of the Bloomsbury Group.
Work by other Scottish artists sold particularly well in the sale, with the pastel “Tall Red House” by Joan Eardley (1921-1963) selling for £4,800. Eardley is known for her powerful, expressive paintings of the gritty, the elemental, and the dilapidated in post-war Scotland. Capturing contrasting sides of life, Eardley had two overriding areas of interest which produced her greatest works – the vast skies and roiling seas around the declining fishing village of Catterline, south of Aberdeen and the ragged children in Glasgow’s poverty-stricken tenements. Further notable results for Scottish art included “Pink Rocks Iona” by John Lowie Morrison ‘Jolomo’ (b.1948) (sold for £5,100), and “Muck Beach” and “Eigg, Rock and Rum” by Pam Carter (b.1952), which sold for £3,000 and £3,800 respectively.
A private collection of works by Paul Maze (1887-1979) sold very well, too. Maze, often referred to as the ‘last of the Post-Impressionists’, had the extraordinary ability to capture the essence of a place with deceptive simplicity. Born in Normandy, he spent most of his life living in England. Amongst the lots in the sale his Interior with a jug of summer flowers sold for £4,800, “Interior with Two Dogs” sold for £1,300, and “Vase of Marigolds” sold for £1,500.
A strong selection of Northern Art was also on offer, with “Spittal, Berwick”, a pencil drawing by Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887-1976) from a private collection selling for £7,000. A selection of works by Manchester-born Geoffrey Key (b.1941) sold well, too, with his “Park Dance” selling for £7,000, and there were strong levels of interest for works by York artist Mark Hearld (b.1974), whose “Bullfinch” and “Lapwing” mixed media collages sold for £1,100 each.
The sale achieved a total hammer price of £195,520 for 152 lots, and a 90% sold rate.
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