antiquesandartireland.com

Works by the pioneering Irish born artist Phoebe Anna Traquair far exceeded expectations to sell for a total of £109,479 at Bonhams Scottish sale in Edinburgh on October 14. Reverie sold for £21,313 having been estimated at £1,000-1,500; and Portrait of a Girl sold for £20,063 against an estimate of £1,000-1,500.

Bonhams Picture Specialist in Edinburgh, May Matthews, said: “Phoebe Anna Traquair holds a unique place in the history of Scottish culture. She was the first major woman artist in modern Scotland, and, in 1920, became the first woman to be elected to the Royal Scottish Academy. Traquair’s work rarely comes up at auction, and collectors responded enthusiastically to the chance to acquire one of these beautiful works.”

The Scottish Sale made a total of £689,376.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 30, 2020)

No less than 33 works by Phoebe Anna Traquair, a pioneering Irish born artist in the Arts and Crafts Movement, come up at Bonhams Scottish sale in Edinburgh on October 14. Born in Kilternan, County Dublin, she studied at the School of Design at the Royal Dublin Society between 1869 and 1872. At the age of 22 the artist moved to Edinburgh. In 1920 she became the first woman to be elected to the Royal Scottish Academy.  She was also a muralist with work in four Edinburgh buildings: the two successive chapels for the Sick Children’s Hospital (1885-86, 1896-98), the Song School of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral (1888-92) and Mansfield Place Church (today’s Mansfield Traquair Centre, 1893-1901). As the National Gallery of Scotland’s director James Caw wrote in 1900, she breathed extraordinary ‘visions of life and beauty upon dead walls’. Her work rarely appears on the market and this is a private collection from a direct descendant.