Fine Art

A significant collection of pictures by the Victorian watercolourist Albert Goodwin (1845-1932) was a near sell-out at auction in Suffolk and generated just under £120,000.

A label to this 21 x 16½in (53 x 42cm) print reads 'Photograph of the Moon, taken by Prof Henry Draper, MD, with a silvered glass Telescope, Fifteen and a Half Inches Aperture, Hastings NY September 3rd 1863'.

Flemish Old Masters and Modern works combined to boost takings at two spring sales held north and south in England.

After abandoning his early career as a contributor to Punch and the Illustrated London News, Myles Birket Foster (1825-99) went on to establish his reputation as a painter of technically skilled and highly polished watercolours, depicting landscapes and rustic subjects from Scotland to the Mediterranean.

Philippe Fortuné Durand is regarded as the first professional photographer in France.

The financial highlight at Lyon & Turnbull’s (25% buyer’s premium) inaugural Modern Made auction at the Mall Galleries in London was provided by an auction record for Malaysian Modernist painter and poet Abdul Latiff Mohidin (b.1938).

When it comes to early or vintage photographs the interest is often centred around the social history of the material – the camera’s ability to document past events, be they special occasions or scenes of everyday life.

A private single-owner collection of around 180 lots from one vintage photographer was the subject of a recent sale held by Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in London.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Early views of China are often best-sellers in the realm of topographical photography. An album of 83 albumen prints from the 1860s-70s proved to be a major attraction at Bonhams’ latest book sale held in Knightsbridge.

'Electricité', pictured below, is one of a limited edition portfolio of 10 photogravures after Man Ray’s Rayographs from a 1931 commercial commission from the artist by the Compagnie Parisienne de Distribution d’Electricité.

A double helping of vintage cameras and photographic equipment was recently staged at Chartres by the Ivoire group Lelièvre, Pascal, Maiche, Paris (20% buyer’s premium).

An exhibition of 36 views of Mount Fuji, inspired by Hokusai’s famous print series, is presented by dealer Daniella Dangoor at the 'London Photograph Fair: Special Edition'.

The last panoramic painting by William Powell Frith (1819-1909) in private hands has been sold – but will not vanish from the public eye just yet.

Previously unpublished sketches and letters by the American artist and traveller George Catlin (1796-1872) attracted multiple bidders at Forum Auctions in London.

This headstone design of a female nude by the controversial sculptor Eric Gill (1882-1940) was deemed too risky to be realised when he designed it in 1933.

British art historian Frances Spalding on how a post-war buying spree by councils aimed to bring the latest works to the classrooms.