Fine Art

A small 6¼ x 11in (16 x 27 cm) oil on canvas by Nicolas De Staël (1914-55), titled Composition and dating from 1950, is one of the potential highlights of the contemporary art auction to be held by Dorotheum in Vienna on May 31 and June 1.

An intriguing 18th century watercolour of a tree struck by lightning fetched a multi-estimate sum at Forum Auctions’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) March 30 sale in London.

A mid-19th century oil painting depicting in detail a scene at the height of the Australian gold rush is a potential highlight of a Sotheby’s Australia sale next month.

Almost exactly a year after setting an auction record for modern British painter Sir Cedric Morris (1889-1982), the Henry Adams saleroom has done it again.

Lawrences of Crewkerne is co-sponsoring a major new exhibition of works by the Camden Town Group which runs at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton until July 8.

Among the raft of dedicated works on paper auctions staged for the recent Drawings Week in Paris were two market-fresh sales devoted to family collections of works by a single French artist.

While Degas’ youthful drawings produced some notable individual prices in Drawings Week, it is the classic charcoal and pastel drawings of Parisian dancers and workers from his mature years that are the most commercially popular (the current work on paper record is the premium-inclusive $37m/ £23.35m/€29m paid for Danseuse au repos of 1879 at Sotheby’s New York in 2008).

Marielle Barde, Edgar Degas’ great-niece, was one of the heirs and vendors of the Degas studio drawings and attended Christie’s Paris sale. This was the second such dispersal the family had held in these rooms of artworks from her famous great-uncle following a house move some decades ago.

This pastel portrait by Maurice Quentin de la Tour is the potential star of the auction taking place at Drouot held by Kalck & Associés.

A framed limited edition print is Cattle Market by Jo Willis priced at £170, measuring 12 x 12in (30 x 30cm). It will be for sale at the Reading Contemporary Art Fair this weekend.

Waterhouse & Dodd’s upcoming exhibition focuses on the influence of David Bomberg’s (1890-1957) paintings on a wide circle of artists.

The cusp of March to April is traditionally photo time in the Big Apple. It is the period when AIPAD (The Association of International Photography Art Dealers) stages The Photography Show, which is the main US fair for photography, and the point when the major New York auction houses put on the first of their biannual stateside series of photo auctions.

A previously unknown complete set of Goya’s La Tauromaquia led Sotheby’s sale of Prints & Multiples in London on April 4.

A large, late work by JMW Turner appears at Sotheby’s on July 5 with an estimate of £15-25m.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.