A winterscape of the Yorkshire Pennines by Peter Brook (1927-2009) sold at £5600 against a £5000- 7000 estimate to a private buyer.
Privately consigned, Bleak Midwinter, Pennine Landscape depicts a wall and tree silhouetted against snow and a sunset sky (top right).
Measuring 20in x 2ft (51 x 61cm), the oil on canvas bears a label for the Old Clarenden Gallery in South Australia, where it was probably exhibited in the 1960s-70s at one of Brook’s shows.
The record for Brook stands at a premium-inclusive £12,500, fetched at Christie’s South Kensington in December 2013 for Calling for a Brew (With More Snow Coming).
A northern industrial street scene by Brook’s contemporary, Stuart Walton (b.1933), also starred in Hartleys’ sale.
Old Factory, Claypit Lane, Leeds, a 2ft 1in x 3ft (63 x 91cm) oil on board below right, sold on top estimate at £900 to a private buyer.
The sum is not far behind another Leeds street scene from 1965 that sold for £1450 in September 2015, the second highest price for the artist at auction.
As expected, the top-seller at the sale was a vibrant summer carnival scene by Brian ‘Braaq’ Shields (1951-97), often billed as Liverpool’s answer to Lowry.
The privately consigned 17½ x 23½in (44.5 x 59.5cm) oil on board, which also features Braaq’s trademark industrial town in the distance, sold for £11,500 to a private buyer.
