Fine Art

One of the side-effects for the art market of being in a lockdown is that people have more time to discover works that they might have otherwise missed or overlooked.

The UK and Australia have a strong connection, highlighted by commemorations such as the recent Anzac Day (April 25) to remember Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought in the First World War.

The 'London Original Print Fair' (LOPF) is one of the many dealer events moving online as the coronavirus lockdown continues.

Works by the prolific John Bellany (1942-2013) appear regularly at auction, with small drawings often available for hundreds of pounds, but the larger and vigorously coloured figurative oils generally make many thousands.

Following the success of the dedicated online sale of works from the collection of Old Masters dealer Rafael Valls, which more than tripled the high estimate to gross £1.6m (see Art Market in this issue), Sotheby’s will conduct its mid-season sale of Old Masters as an online event.

The London auction house holds its first online-only sale dedicated to a single dealer

Unlike in other parts of Europe where portraits of children were a rare phenomenon, the Dutch Republic experienced a rapid increase in this genre of painting between 1500-1700.

The sale at garden statuary specialist Summers Place Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in Billingshurst on March 24 (the day after lockdown) was among the first conducted under new government restrictions on social distancing.

The last few weeks of lockdown may have left you wishing you could do more to fight coronavirus. Or they may have left you feeling like that blank stretch of wall in the living room could really do with brightening up.

Trudpert Schneider (1804-99), a Freiburg carpenter whose first brush with photography was to repair a broken box camera, is today deemed one of Germany’s most important daguerreotypists. The photographic firm he founded in 1847 continued under the management of his sons Heinrich and Wilhelm until 1921.

Samuel Palmer (1805-81) prints are not unusual on the market but one of two that were offered as a single lot at Chorley’s (22.5% buyer’s premium) in Cheltenham carried an interesting inscription by the artist’s son, AH Palmer.

'Portrait of a Young Girl with a Cigarette' was a high-flyer in a sale at Wendl (21% buyer’s premium) in Rudolstadt held before open auctions were prohibited by the German authorities.

As part of a spring sale featuring works on paper under £2000, British art dealer Karen Taylor is offering this watercolour by Lady Jane Harriet Pleydell-Bouverie (1819-1903).

The bohemian lives of the Bloomsbury Group of artists have long been a source of fascination for the British public.