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J.M.W. Turner, R.A. (1775-1851) Storm at Sea (£150,000-250,000), courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge).

The Golden Age of British watercolours will be celebrated at a single owner sale at Christie’s  in London in July.  The collection and stock of W/S Fine Art and Andrew Wyld (1949 – 2011) will be offered in two parts, at King St. on July 10 and at South Kensington on July 18.  The sale of around 400 lots is expected to realise between £1.5 million and £2 million.

The Golden Age encompasses the great age of landscape watercolour painting in Britain from 1750 to 1850. Wyld was a connoisseur renowed for his discerning eye with a gallery in Mayfair.  The sale represents a roll call of artists of the Golden Age, including John Constable, David Cox, John Robert Cozens, Peter de Wint, Thomas Gainsborough, and J.M.W Turner. The crowning glory of any collection is a work by Turner. Storm at Sea appears to be the first idea for Turner’s major oil painting Staffa, Fingal’s Cave exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1832.  Another highlight is Cozens Rome from the Villa Mellini, a precursor of the Romantic movement in British art. A number of works by George Romney include an oil portrait A Mother and Child Reading.

The sale will offer vibrant and immediate topographical views of regions from London and its environs, to East Anglia, Yorkshire and Northumberland to Scotland and Wales.  It encompasses views of France, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Greece and Turkey.  Estimates range between £500 and £250,000.

John Robert Cozens (1752-1799) Rome from the Villa Mellini Watercolour (£100,000 –150,000), courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge).

George Romney (1734-1802) A Mother and Child Reading (£100,000-150,000), courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge).

L.S. Lowry's Industrial Landscape: Stockport Viaduct, 1958, courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. UPDATE: THIS MADE £1,273,250.

Lowry, Lavery, Scott and Peploe are among the big names peppering Christie’s 20th century British and Irish art sales in London on May 23 and 24.  Expected to realise more than £12 million the sales will feature over 300 lots with estimates from £500 to £1.8 million.  L.S. Lowry’s Industrial Landscape:  Stockport Viaduct, 1958 is, at £1.2 to £1.8 million, the most expensively estimated lot in an auction which features Scottish Colourists, London School artists, St. Ives, Neo-Romantics, sculpture, Pop Art and Irish art.

Aïda, a Moorish Maid by Sir John Lavery, courtesy Christies Images Ltd., 2012. UPDATE: THIS MADE £181,250.

The top Irish lot is Sir John Lavery’s Aïda, a Moorish Maid, estimated at £150,000-250,000.  Works by Lavery and by William Scott dominate the Irish art section of the sale.  The most expensively estimated works are all by Lowry.  He set the two highest prices for any work in the category last year when Piccadilly Circus and The Football Match sold for £5.6 million in November and May respectively.  Scottish Colourists feature strongly with work by Samuel John Peploe R.S.A. (1871-1935), John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961), Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell R.S.A. (1883-1937) and George Leslie Hunter (1877-1931).  The Gorbals, 1944 by Edward Burra (£500,000-800,000) depicts urban decay in the modern slums of war-time Glasgow. A key Neo-Romantic work it will be offered from The Collection of Lord Forte (1908-2007) and is estimated at £500,000-800,000. The London School is showcased with work by Frank Auerbach (b.1931), David Bomberg (1890-1957) and William Roberts, R.A. (1895-1980).  St. Ives is represented by Sir Terry Frost (1915-2003), Bryan Wynter (1915-1975), Alfred Wallis (1855-1942) and Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975).  Rolling Over Horse,1980 (£120,000-180,000) by Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930-1993) is one of a number of highly collectible sculptures. There is Pop Art by Gerald Laing (1936-2011), Joe Tilson (b.1928) and Allen Jones R.A. (b.1937).  There are fine and highly collectible works by both Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979) and Sir Stanley Spencer, R.A. (1891-1959). The Bridle Path, Cookham, 1938, by Spencer has been in the same family since it was painted.

William Scott, Orange Still Life, courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (£100,000-150,000). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

SIR JOHN LAVERY, Boating at Remenham (£20,000-30,000), courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. UPDATE: THIS MADE £39,650

Portrait of Rose, Fourth Marchioness of Headfort by Sir William Orpen (1878-1931). UPDATE: THIS MADE £577,250.

Prime Irish works of art gathered from around the world will be on view in Dublin and Belfast prior to Sotheby’s  sale of British and Irish art in London on May 10.  Sir William Orpen’s Portrait of Rose, Fourth Marchioness of Headfort (£300,000-500,000) and Portrait of Geoffrey, Fourth Marquis of Headfort (£60,000-80,000) are being presented for sale together.  The sitters, Geoffrey Thomas Taylour and Rose Boote, married in the face of disrepute and disgrace. It was a love that endured until Geoffrey’s death in 1943. Rose commissioned the portraits. They were exhibited at the 147th summer exhibition of 1915, by which time Orpen was unquestionably the leading portrait painter of his generation in the Royal Academy in London.

Augustus John (1878-1961), Portrait of W.B. Yeats. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £51,650

There are two landscapes by James Arthur O’Connor (1792-1841). A View of Fin Lough and Delphi Lodge (£30,000-50,000) and A Mountain Road in Mayo (£15,000-25,000) were commissioned by the 2nd Marquess of Sligo.  A Connaught Fishing Village (£120,000-180,000) is the most expensively estimated of four Paul Henry (1876-1958) works in the auction.  All are classical western landscapes. Among the Twelve Pins, Connemara is estimated at £100,000-150,000, The Edge is estimated at £80,000-120,000 and Turf Stacks in the West has an estimate of £60,000-80,000.  A still life by Roderic O’Conor  (1860-1940) is estimated at £50,000-80,000 and a reclining nude by the same artist has an estimate of £40,000-60,000. A portrait of W.B. Yeats by Augustus John (1878-1961) is estimated at £30,000-50,000.  May Day by F.E. McWilliam (1909-1992), one of his most striking Bean sculptures, is estimated at £70,000-100,000.  A group of Northern Irish works includes Summer by Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) estimated at £60,000-80,000 and Manna by Colin Middleton  (1910-1983), estimated at £30,000-50,000.

Irish paintings and sculpture from the sale will be on view at Sotheby’s, 16 Molesworth St., Dublin on April 24 and 25 and at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on April 27 and 28. (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for January 16, 2012).

James Arthur O'Connor (1792-1841) - View of Fin Lough and Delphi Lodge. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £36,050.

May Day by F.E. McWilliam (1909-1992). (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD