The total estimate for the sale at Christie’s on October 4 is £12m and notable pieces include Jean Dubuffet’s Visiteur au chapeau bleu with an estimate of £2m-3m; Milton Avery’s Dark Inlet, carrying an estimate of £900,000-1.5m; and Francis Picabia Lampe estimated at £800,000-1.5m.
Lampe was previously in the collection of Jacques Doucet, and is one of a series of paintings Picabia made between 1921 and 1923 and is still within its original Pierre Legrain frame. Dubuffet’s Visiteur au chapeau bleu (Visitor with Blue Hat), 1955, was produced during the first few months of the artists six-year visit in the south of France.
Born in Dublin in 1934, Waddington was the son of gallery owner Victor Waddington and his wife, Zelda. In the late 1950s Victor Waddington returned to London, where he opened a gallery on Cork Street. Accompanying him was the 24-year-old Leslie, who would soon become a director at his father’s business. In 1966 he opened his own space, Waddington Galleries, alongside business partner Lord Alexander Bernstein. By the late 1980s he had five outlets on Cork Street.
Waddington was "without equal in the profession"
Waddington, who passed away on 30 November 2015, previously served as chairman of the Modern Painting and Pictures sections of TEFAF fair. In 2003, he was one of the first dealers to participate in London’s Frieze Art Fair. In 2013, Nicholas Serota presented him with the Federation of European Art Galleries Award in Basel, lauding Waddington as an individual "without equal in the profession".
The October 4 sale is the first of two that will feature works from Waddington’s collection. The second will be held in November to coincide with Christie’s Modern British & Irish Art auctions.
