Twentieth Century British Painting

Exhibition E-Catalogue

This exhibition is built around a kernel of late twentieth century British paintings from the collection of an old and valued client who we sadly lost last year. His son asked us to help with the dispersal of his collection and it was bitter-sweet to be reunited with a few old favourites.

Like all such collections, put together over decades with a fine eclectic eye, it is the very personal expression of one man’s taste. As Tiffany and I began to catalogue the paintings, we were reminded how different the general British art market of the late twentieth century is to today’s. Undoubtedly tastes have changed dramatically, both in the aesthetics of interior design and the shift in preference towards choosing ideas or concepts over painterly ability. I confess to a sense of guilty nostalgia for the pre-Sensation era when contemporary art at the Royal Academy was personified by Professor Ken Howard.

The artists of the day were easily recognisable and pleasingly consistent in their talent and ability, most were (or in some cases still are!) members of the Royal Academy and the New English Art Club. Both were institutions that nurtured a philosophy of art, informed ‘by the visual world and personal interpretation’ but significantly the chief medium of that interpretation was paint.

They were, in their way, the keepers of the flame of this currently neglected area of the art world. In fact, the New English Art Club was formed as a reaction to the entrenched attitudes of the Royal Academy in the 1880s and its members embraced the Parisian avant-garde, particularly impressionism and post-impressionism. Now that the latter movements, more than a century later, have been fully assimilated into mainstream art philosophies they are naturally, in an ironic reversal, considered old hat by the new avante-garde members of the Royal Academy.

The collection contains many on the classic tick list of the time – Ken Howard, Fred Cuming, Peter Kuhfeld, Donald Hamilton Fraser, Jane Corsellis and Donald McIntyre. To these we have added a number of works by artists who either inspired them or who were leading proponents of the style in their day, notably Edward Seago, Mary Fedden, John Ward and Dame Laura Knight. These painters’ reputations have stood the test of time and fashion. Some are still leading lights of the New English Art Club today although the Academy is lost to the anti-painters for the moment. The artists in this exhibition are the hardy perennials of our art world, names whose reputations and values have so far proved impervious to the vicissitudes of fleeting fashion.

- Matthew Hall May 2019

14 May - 31 May 2019

Monday to Friday

10.00 AM - 6.00 PM

Saturdays

BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

Sundays

CLOSED

CLOSED BANK HOLIDAYS

View Framed

Josef Herman OBE RA (1911-2000)

Two Farmers

ink and wash

3.5 x 5.5 ins (9 x 14 cms)

£785

framed

View Framed

Josef Herman OBE RA (1911-2000)

Dancers' Dressing Room

ink and wash

19 x 24 ins (48 x 61 cms)

£985

framed

View Framed

Ken Howard OBE RA

Isle of Wight

oil on board

9.5 x 8 ins (24 x 20 cms)

£4,500

framed

View Framed

Ken Howard OBE RA

Towards Sennen Cove

oil on board

8 x 9.5 ins (20 x 24 cms)

£4,500

framed

Sold

View Framed

Ken Howard OBE RA

Morning Light Varanasi

oil on board

8 x 10 ins (20 x 25 cms)

£4,500

framed

Sold

View Framed

Peter Kuhfeld

Porte Della Carta,Venice

oil on board

11 x 15 ins (28 x 38 cms)

£1,800

framed

Sold

Dame Laura Knight DBE RA RE RWS (1877-1970)

The Hop Pickers

ink and wash

15 x 11 ins (38 x 28 cms)

£9,250

framed

Sold

Paul Maze DCM MM (1887-1979)

Guards Parading I

watercolour

12 x 21 ins (30 x 53 cms)

£3,700

framed

View Framed

Paul Maze DCM MM (1887-1979)

The Lancer's Uniform (9th/12th Royal Lancers)

pastel

22.25 x 30.5 ins (57 x 77 cms)

£4,500

framed

Sold

Paul Maze DCM MM (1887-1979)

Jessie at her dressing table

pastel

10 x 14 ins (25 x 36 cms)

£2,600

framed

Sold

View Framed

Paul Maze DCM MM (1887-1979)

The Old Well

pastel

14.5 x 21 ins (37 x 53 cms)

£3,800

framed

View Framed

Donald McIntyre RI (1923-2009)

River Wharfe

acrylic on board

7 x 11 ins (18 x 28 cms)

£4,250

framed

View Framed

Donald McIntyre RI (1923-2009)

Seatown Street Cullen

oil on board

14 x 17 ins (36 x 43 cms)

£6,750

framed

Edward Seago RWS RBA (1910-1974)

Dutch Still Life 1957

oil on board

12 x 16 ins (30 x 41 cms)

£18,750

framed

View Framed

Steven Spurrier RA RBA ROI (1878-1961)

Centre of Attention

pencil and watercolour

10.5 x 15.5 ins (27 x 39 cms)

£2,850

framed

View Framed

Steven Spurrier RA RBA ROI (1878-1961)

Radio Orchestra

mixed media

9.5 x 13 ins (24 x 33 cms)

£2,200

framed

View Framed

Steven Spurrier RA RBA ROI (1878-1961)

Division of Labour

watercolour on board

10.5 x 15 ins (27 x 38 cms)

£4,850

framed

View Framed

Feliks Topolski RA (1907-1989)

It's a Rush Job - There's A War On

ink and wash

8 x 10 ins (20 x 25 cms)

£1,850

framed

View Framed

Feliks Topolski RA (1907-1989)

Cavalry Club, 1939

ink and wash

12 x 15.5 ins (30 x 39 cms)

£4,250

framed

View Framed

Feliks Topolski RA (1907-1989)

The Duke of Edinburgh and HM the Queen with Bridesmaids

ink and wash

11.5 x 17 ins (29 x 43 cms)

£2,850

framed

Sold

View Framed

Feliks Topolski RA (1907-1989)

Henley Royal Regatta, 1987

mixed media

12 x 16.5 ins (30 x 42 cms)

£2,750

framed

Gordon Wyllie RSW (1930-2005)

Evening in a French Village

mixed media

10 x 18.5 ins (25 x 47 cms)

£5,500

framed

Gordon Wyllie RSW (1930-2005)

Three Gables

mixed media

15 x 15 ins (38 x 38 cms)

£6,500

framed

Gordon Wyllie RSW (1930-2005)

Island Autumn

gouache on paper

24 x 24 ins (61 x 61 cms)

£11,000

framed

Sold

Gordon Wyllie RSW (1930-2005)

Viaduct

Gouache and Ink

9.5 x 12 ins (24 x 30 cms)

£2,500

framed

Gordon Wyllie RSW (1930-2005)

Yacht on the River

mixed media

15 x 17 ins (38 x 43 cms)

£6,500

framed