Sir Thomas Lawrence’s full length portrait of Anne, Viscountess Pollington (later Countess of Mexborough) with her son John Charles (later 4th Earl of Mexborough) is on display at Moretti Fine Art, Duke St., St. James’s, as part of London Art Week. Lawrence was the leading British portrait painter of the early 19th century and Anne was the eldest daughter of the politician Philip Yorke, 3rd Earl of Hardwicke (1757-1834) who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1801. He served as the first Viceroy in Post-Union Ireland. The Earl of Mexborough remains a title in the peerage of Ireland. London Art Week is in full swing in various galleries around central London until July 7.
Lady with a fan by Gustav Klimt at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £85.3 MILLION TO BECOME THE MOST VALUABLE PAINTING EVER SOLD IN EUROPE.
A late painting by Klimt set to become the most valuable artwork ever sold in Europe, wonderful antique furniture, portraits and exceptional collectibles will make rich pickings for the rich and plenty of eye candy for the rest of us in London in the coming weeks. This is the time of year when the art world descends on the British capital for a variety of major sales, fairs and significant one off events like the re-opening after five years of the world renowned National Portrait Gallery. Despite some indications that the global art market might be in slightly hesitant mode right now the London summer season of 2023 is unlikely to disappoint. Lady with a Fan by Klimt at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary evening sale on June 27 has an estimate of around €80 million. The last portrait he painted was still on an easel in the studio at the time of his untimely death in the flu pandemic of 1918. Featuring an unnamed woman it is described by Sotheby’s as an ever deeper, ever more joyful immersion in pattern, colour and form, filled with the creative exuberance. The auction will offer a strong grouping of portraits with work by artists like Alberto Giacomett and Edvard Munch.
These c1765 carved mirrors in the Chippendale style are being shown by Ronald Phillips at the Treasure House Fair
In celebration of the re-opening of London’s National Portrait Gallery last Thursday the dynamism of portraiture across the centuries, redefined by each generation, will again be highlighted at Christie’s sale on June 28. One of the more contemporary offerings here is Diplomacy I by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Part of the Tate Retrospective which closed last February it depicts a group of suited delegates recalling Marion Kaplan’s photographs of African heads of state at a summit in Uganda in 1967. The artist has created bold new characters for black representation in art. In this imagined portrait Yiadom-Boakye has inserted a single woman, clad in pink. The sale offers portraits by Frank Auerbach, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Edgar Degas, Lucian Freud and Howard Hodgkin.
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Diplomacy I (2009) at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE £1,371,000
The Treasure House Fair, in full swing until next Monday at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, was generated by leading UK dealers after the cancellation of Masterpiece, which cited a lack of overseas exhibitor interest. Treasure House has attracted dealers from France, Switzerland and the US like Geoffrey Diner and Michele Beiny. There is fine antique furniture from leading UK dealers like Ronald Phillips at this curated global event with distinguished names across a wide range of disciplines.Meantime the city is gearing up for London Art Week which runs from June 30 to July 7 with 53 specialists and expert dealers with museum quality examples of decorative arts, paintings, sculpture and works on paper from antiquity to contemporary. Various galleries will show work by Irish artists like Sir John Lavery, Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (who lived here for a time) Augustus John and Gwen John as well showcasing artists from Giambologna to Renoir, Picasso and Dora Maar. The Fine Arts Society will exhibit an enamel by Phoebe Anna Traquair, the Irish born artist who achieved international recognition for her role in the Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland. She produced large scale murals, embroidery, enamel jewellery and book illuminations. On show in London is The Life of the Virgin (1906), three plaques in enamel with foil on copper.
The Life of the Virgin (1906) by Dublin born Phoebe Anna Traquair is on display at the Fine Arts Society in London.
This 1831 view of Gougane Barra in Co. Cork by George Petrie is among the works displayed by Guy Peppiatt. Fine Art during London Art Week the showcase of London’s leading galleries in Mayfair and St. James which runs from December 1-6. The watercolour heightened with touches of body colour is indistinctly signed and dated.
The story behind this long lost Canova painting from London Art Week goes back to Rome in 1792. Prince Abbondio Rezzonico, a patron of Canova, presented a self portrait by Giorgione, the 16th century Venetian painter, to a group of assembled artists then in Rome including Angelica Kauffman, Gavin Hamilton, Antonio Cavallucci, Giovanni Volpato and others. All agreed it was an authentic self portrait.
One year later Canova revealed that he was in fact the painter of the self portrait of Giorgione. The portrait was on a 16th century panel of the Holy Family. Canova, best known now as a sculptor, was also a skilled painter but he seemed to regard painting as a hobby and rarely sold any of his works. The story of the fake was known, but the painting was long thought to have been lost. It was discovered during a valuation in Rome in 2016 and is now on the market in London for one million pounds.
THIS oil self portrait by the Irish artist Peter J. Keelan is among the highlights at London Art Week which runs at various galleries around Mayfair and St, James’ in central London until July 6.
Redolent of the more Bohemian artists of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods the portrait is offered by Bagshawe Fine Art of Bury St. Keelan spent time in Paris and Pont-Aven at the end of the 19th century. He exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy and around 1890 he sent work to the RHA from an address at Pont-Aven. This was a time when Gauguin, Roderic O’Conor and Walter Osborne were all in residence at Pont-Aven.
The style of this 18″ x 15″ portrait is naturalistic with broad brush strokes and a stance that is close the viewer. This work shows that he was plainly an artist of ability. He remains for now a shadowy figure about whom information is hard to come by. Bagshawe Fine Art remain confident that they will be able to make a fuller appraisal when more of his work surfaces.
CHARLES COLLINS 1680 – 1744 A Peacock, a Gamecock, Three Tufted Hens with Chicks and other Birds, including a Bullfinch, in a Landscape
A rare and impressive picture of a peacock and chickens by the Irish artist Charles Collins (1680-1744) is a feature of London Art Week from July 3-10. London Art Week is the most important gallery-based celebration of traditional art, highlighting the unrivalled quality, riches and expertise available within the galleries of Mayfair and St. James’s. Bringing together over 40 leading art galleries and three auction houses, the event includes dedicated exhibitions and presents a wealth of paintings, drawings, sculpture, and works of art from antiquity to the 20th century. A Grand Menagerie: Animals Depicted by Master Painters and Sculptors at neighbouring Duke St. galleries Rafael Valls and Tomasso Brothers depicts The Painter’s Menagerie and The Sculptor’s Menagerie. From an exotic rhinoceros carved in coloured marble to an early study of a mouse by Jan Brueghel the Younger, the featured animals hail from all corners of the globe, and encompass the variety of wild and domestic creatures that have captured the imagination of artists for millennia. The Collins work is part of these exhibitions.
Johnny van Haeften and Lowell Libson, Senior Committee members of London Art Week said:“’London Art Week’ is a key moment of the year which celebrates the resounding importance of the art gallery. It also highlights the position of Mayfair and St. James’s as the global centre of the traditional art market, and the leading destination for expertise. We look forward to welcoming collectors, curators and enthusiasts to this year’s event which will offer the strongest and most diverse selection of art to date.”
The story behind this long lost Canova painting from London Art Week goes back to Rome in 1792. Prince Abbondio Rezzonico, a patron of Canova, presented a self portrait by Giorgione, the 16th century Venetian painter, to a group of assembled artists then in Rome including Angelica Kauffman, Gavin Hamilton, Antonio Cavallucci, Giovanni Volpato and others. All agreed it was an authentic self portrait.
THIS oil self portrait by the Irish artist Peter J. Keelan is among the highlights at London Art Week which runs at various galleries around Mayfair and St, James’ in central London until July 6.
