1. At one point during his career, Frithjof Smith-Hald (1846-1903) was regarded as among Norway’s most famous landscape painters in Europe. This wintry scene, painted on a 20in x 2ft 7in (52 x 79cm) oil on canvas and dated to the height of his career in 1889, sold for a multi-estimate sum at Exeter saleroom Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood on October 15.
2. Looking down the wrong way is the title of this 19 x 13in (48 x 33cm) pencil sketch of steps by Stanley Spencer (1891-1959), which he signed, annotated and dated May 1940. It was offered at Ewbank’s of Surrey on October 24 and is likely to originate from the artist’s trip to the Lithgows Shipyard in Port Glasgow on the River Clyde where he was sent by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee in May 1940 to depict civilians at work.
3. Harry Becker (1865- 1928) focused much of his career depicting the daily toil of farmers in his native Suffolk in the last days before farming became mechanised. This 9 x 12in (23 x 31cm) pencil drawing appeared at Norwich saleroom Keys on October 25.
Prices do not include buyer’s premium.
