The Chelsea interior with Frank Auerbach’s Figure on Bed (1968) estimated at £300,000-500,000 over the mantlepiece.
A group of 56 works by artists including Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud, John Craxton and Graham Sutherland from a Chelsea Collection will feature at Sotheby’s in November. It will form part of Sotheby’s Modern and Post-War British Art sales on November 13 and 14. Amassed over 20 years, the collection spans a period of immense stylistic change and includes many fresh to market paintings, drawings, etchings and sculpture that have never been at auction. It is estimated to bring in more than £1.5 million.
Frances Christie, Sotheby’s Head of Modern & Post-War British Art, said: “It was a huge thrill to step across the threshold of the Chelsea house from which these works originated. There, so beautifully displayed in room after room, unfolded a roll-call of many of the great names of Post-War British art, successfully juxtaposed with medieval alabasters and eighteenth century furniture. The sale will offer collectors the chance to acquire some wonderful works which will be making their appearance on the auction market for the first time.” (Click on any image to enlarge it).
Peter Lanyon’s Carthew (1950) is estimated at £70,000-100,000.
John Craxton’s Elegiac Figure (in Memory of Peter Watson) (1957-59) is estimated at £60,000-80,0000. Watson was patron to Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon and founder of the Horizon review of literature and art and the Institute of Contemporary Arts