Fine Art

The flagship auctions of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art in New York last week showed a recovery after a difficult 2016.

The Cubist-inspired oils of Manchester artist Geoffrey Key (b.1941) regularly feature at Peter Wilson (20% buyer’s premium) in nearby Nantwich.

A rather shabby portrait of an unknown woman sparked a bidding battle at W&H Peacock (17.5% buyer’s premium) in Bedford on May 5.

A sketchbook by the Bavarian artist Georg Johann Scharf (1788-1860) was discovered recently by ephemera dealer Valerie Jackson-Harris at the Sunbury Antiques Market at Kempton Park.

“I think the secret to our success is that we now hold an art sale every four weeks.” A 90% sell-through rate from 400 lots was the latest bullish stat to come out of John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium) monthly picture auctions, started this year by specialist Buffy Parker.

Coming up next at The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh is the exhibition Between Tides: Scotland’s Working Culture of the Sea.

John Minton’s 1940 painting 'Landscape with Figures' is among the pieces included in Osborne Samuel’s exhibition 'The Romantic Impulse: British Neo-Romantic Artists at Home & Abroad 1935-1959'.

Jenny Saville’s (b.1970) contorted and grotesquely fleshy female nudes are hot property on the contemporary art market.

Estimated at CHF9000-12,000, a panel painted in the manner of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) sold for CHF700,000 (£564,500) at Galartis SA in Crissier, Lausanne on May 5.

A painting by British artist Evelyn Dunbar (1906- 60) set a record price at auction for the artist at Cheffins’ Art & Design sale on May 11.

“When I first visited, the hairs on the back of my neck shot up. I knew immediately this was a unique capsule – a bohemian delight where a generation of artists had been inspired, had lived, loved and socialised.”

Unusual appearance of mountain views by painter whose career was cut short by tuberculosis

An exhibition of Company School painting takes place at Francesca Galloway’s space in Dover Street from May 22-July 7.

Satellite events and specialist photography sales are riding on the coattails of Photo London (May 18-21) this spring, coinciding with the fair’s four-day run at Somerset House.