The Dome, Brompton Oratory by Charles Ginner, £4000 at Roseberys.
An example of the latter appeared at Roseberys’ (26% buyer’s premium) sale of Modern British & 20th Century Art in South London on September 12.
Demonstrating his interest in urban architecture, the 15½ x 12½in (39 x 32cm) ink and watercolour on paper depicted the dome of Brompton Oratory and the roofs of the surrounding houses.
Signed in the lower right, it dated from 1936 when Ginner was living in Hampstead and was working primarily in watercolour.
As founding member of the Camden Town Group in 1911, alongside his friends Harold Gilman and Spencer Gore, and the London Group in 1913, images of the capital feature regularly in his work and this example showed how the artist meticulously studied the geometry of the buildings, working up the colours to create a complex images highlighting both the historic and the modern elements of the view.
Estimated at £3000-5000, it sold on mid-estimate to a UK private buyer. Although the artist’s watercolours can make more (and, indeed, this one made £6000 back in 1988 at Christie’s), the price was still among the highest for a Ginner work on paper other than those sold at Sotheby’s or Christie’s.
