Northern Art Excels at Auction

In an exceptional sale of Modern & Contemporary Art at Tennants Auctioneers on 15^th October, Northern Art excelled, led by “The North Sea”, an important seascape by Laurence Stephen Lowry, which sold for £1,070,381 (inclusive of all fees), (£840,000 plus buyer’s premium). The painting was last seen on public view in an exhibition in 1967, the year after it was painted, and has since been in private hands. Two pencil sketches by Lowry from the same collection were also offered in the sale, ‘A Pond’ sold for £14,000 (plus buyer’s premium), and ‘Man Taken Ill’ sold for £10,000 (plus buyer’s premium). The three works were sold from the estate of a Lady in the North West.

A string of strong prices was also achieved for works by Spennymoor mining artist Norman Cornish; “Edward Street Man with Dogs” sold for £7,000 (plus buyer’s premium), “Thompson’s Newsagent” sold for £5,500 (plus buyer’s premium), and “Street with Church, Cold Mist” sold for £3,800 (plus buyer’s premium). Works by Sheffield artist Joe Scarborough continue to generate competitive bidding, and his ‘Contrada of the Goose’, depicting the famous Palio horse race in Siena, Italy, sold for £8,000 (plus buyer’s premium), doubling the bottom estimate.

Away from Northern Art, “Red Head with Cat” by Maggi Hambling sold for £28,000 (plus buyer’s premium). The painting was sold together with a 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 and that the cat was called Pavole. “Jesus Walking on Water” by David Mach sold for £7,000 (plus buyer’s premium). Celebrated for his monumental sculpture, Scottish Pop artist Mach created this work for his important solo exhibition ‘Precious Light’ at the City Arts Centre in Edinburgh in 2011. The show was created to commemorate the 400^th anniversary of the King James Bible.

Also selling well above estimate were “Spring at Oriel” by Ken Howard, who died just a few weeks ago (sold for £9,500 plus buyer’s premium), and ‘Sailboats before an island’ by Paul Signac with provenance from fellow artist Paul Maze (sold for £9,000 plus buyer’s premium).

The sale realised a total hammer price of £1,072,310 for 122 lots, with a 93% sold rate.

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