Fine Art

The ‘high season’ of summer auctions in London held by Sotheby’s and Christie’s generated £205.8m including premium last week.

Two works by Fred Stead (1863-1940) drew strong interest at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) in West Sussex thanks, in part, to here-to-be-sold estimates. They were being consigned from a deceased estate.

Four pictures in Colchester sale provide a good case study in the factors affecting John Constable attributions and buyer confidence

Good art at a great price in regional sales.

Last year Messums rescued the Wolland studio of artist Elisabeth Frink (1930-93) from collapse and has now reconstructed it in its Wiltshire premises.

Art dealer Peter Nahum has created a free-to-access digital catalogue raisonné for the Victorian painter Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833–98).

A lifetime impression of The Fall of Man (Adam and Eve) – perhaps Albrecht Dürer’s (1471-1528) best-known engraving – has sold for a record €430,000 (£390,000) in Germany. The buyer was a British collector.

'Cliffs Edge, Porth Dafarch' by Martin Llewellyn is featured in an upcoming online exhibition on the artist at Panter & Hall.

In a letter to his brother, written in 1883, Vincent van Gogh expressed his admiration for the Swiss painter Albert Anker.

This picture by Ramon Casas (1866- 1932), sold from Colnaghi during London Art Week.

A second tranche of works from the estate of Tony Venison, the long-serving gardens editor of Country Life, lifted the latest Modern British and 20th century art auction at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium).

Cedric Morris (1889-1982) is now a major name in the Mod Brit market whose most bountiful flower paintings can sell for over £100,000. While Sworders has a strong track-record with the artist-plantsman, works depicting two rather different subjects were offered at the latest sale in this category.

In his autobiography Georg Schrimpf described how he originally lacked the courage to become a painter and spent several years as a baker, a waiter and a coalman until he finally found the conviction to devote himself exclusively to art.