Drawings & Pastels

At Ivoire Nantes’ (24% buyer’s premium inc VAT) auction in the French city on September 29, this 2ft 1in x 3ft (64 x 91cm) signed pastel by Louise Abbemé (1858-1927), showing the actress Sarah Bernhardt seated, sold for €8200 (£7455).

The term ‘works on paper’ encompasses a diverse range of media from the drawings that offer a glimpse into an artist’s creative process to prints, posters, ephemera and documents. Pictured here is a section of items available to buy from dealers or bid for at auction.

A drawing by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) sold to a phone bidder for £32,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Chiswick Auctions last week.

Wider spectrum of buyers means presenting catalogue entries in greater detail can pay off

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

A record price of £10,200 was paid last month for a pen and ink sketch by fell-walking legend Alfred Wainwright at 1818 Auctioneers of Milnthorpe, Cumbria.

Without the signature and dedication, this crayon and pencil drawing of 'Dorfhaus mit Baum und Randsteinen' (Village House with Tree and Rocks), coming up for sale at Neumeister in Munich on July 16, would be virtually impossible to attribute to its creator.

MADAM – I would be very grateful if any of your readers could shed light on the artist of the attached crayon drawing of Churchill.

Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) has held its first live sales in Paris since lockdown.

A black chalk drawing of a skeleton drew an extraordinary competition at a German auction house Lempertz at the end of last month. Estimated at €3000-3500, it attracted at least 15 bidders and was eventually knocked down at €420,000 (£381,820) to a French dealer.

Under the changed regulations in Germany it would have been possible for Dr Andreas Sturies (20% buyer’s premium) in Düsseldorf to hold the spring auction in front of an audience.

Turning heads at Bonhams Knightsbridge’s sale of Modern British art was a group of 22 pen and ink drawings by Cecil Beaton (1904-80) which formed part of the photographer’s 'The Book of Beauty' published in 1930.

One New York saleroom that has been notably active in the book market during the Covid restrictions is Doyle (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium). A recent sale included original illustrations for some well-known English children’s books.