Fine Art

A sense of rediscovery came at Young’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Surrey when a portrait of a figure in eye-catching red attire emerged from a local deceased estate.

Withers and Dailey selections follow hot on the heels of Turpin lots with plenty of fine art highlights

This 18th century pastel on paper portrait showing a young friar has many hallmarks of the work of the Venetian painter Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757).

A rare picture painted in India by Arthur William Devis (1762-1822) depicting a group of Bengali weavers was the subject of dramatic competition at Gorringe’s (25% buyer’s premium) spring fine art and antiques sale.

A new boutique art fair launches in London this spring.

Rediscovered work inspired by Goethe emerges at auction in Germany

Sketches and journal by Emily Eden relate to her life in the UK then journey to the subcontinent

Street traders or costermongers of 1930s-40s London star in Browse & Darby’s current show on Welsh artist Ceri Richards (1903-71).

In 1959, some two years after the German painter Otto Piene founded the ZERO group of artists together with his colleague Heinz Mack, he began producing his so-called 'Rauchbilder' (Smoke Paintings).

Early on in his career, which spanned most of the 19th century, Johann Wilhelm Preyer decided to paint only still-lifes. He studied at the academy in Düsseldorf and was one of the leading lights in what was to become the Düsseldorf School of painters.

If you wanted to sum up the current state of the watercolours and works on paper sector in a single sentence, you might say something like ‘flatter than ever for general works but exceptional lots routinely generating strong interest’.

The highest price at auction for 12 years for Arthur Foord Hughes (1856-1934) came at Nottingham saleroom Mellors & Kirk (24% buyer’s premium) at the start of the year.

Two portraits of Regency beauties by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) come for sale at Cottone Auctions in Geneso, New York, on March 20. Both come by descent from by the Buffalo industrialist Colonel Charles Clifton (1853-1928) who paid huge sums for them in the early 1920s.

A mixture of leading artist, intriguing subject, ‘prominent’ background and perhaps a bit of speculation helped propel a portrait of an Indian figure to 36 times the top estimate.