Károly Patkó’s 1932 tempera on board Cetara, Italy, $110,000 (£88,000) at Andrew Jones Auctions.
A student at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, a member of the artist colony of Nagybánya and a participant in Hungary’s most influential inter-war exhibitions, many of his paintings are kept by the Hungarian National Gallery.
This large 2ft 5in x 4ft 5in (1.04 x 1.25m) tempera on board coastal scene, offered by Andrew Jones Auctions (25/18/12% buyer’s premium) in Los Angeles as part of a Pebble Beach collection on April 28-29 is signed and dated 1932.
The pastel scene depicts the town of Cetara in south-west Italy where Patkó visited while a fellow of the Hungarian Academy in Rome between 1929-32. It was during this period that the artist’s easy-on-the-eye geometric style emerged.
Relatively few of Patkó’s paintings appear for the sale in the English-speaking nations but in Hungary and its neighbours his work is a relatively common sight at auction, and more than a dozen of his pictures have sold for more than $100,000.
According to Artprice, the current high for the artist stands at HUF180m (£390,000), bid in December 2022 for a scene of shipwrights in a Mediterranean harbour dated 1930, sold by Kiselbach Gallery, Budapest.
In this context, the estimate of $10,000-20,000 for Andrew Jones’ large-scale, prime period work was an attractive one. As 30 potential bidders ‘watched’ on the LiveAuctioneers platform, it hammered for $110,000 (£88,000).
There was less competition for two European Old Master paintings from the same source.
English School portrait of Edward VI, $22,000 (£17,600) at Andrew Jones Auctions.
A portrait of Edward VI, the Tudor monarch who reigned as a boy for just six years from 1547-53, was estimated at $30,000-50,000 but sold at $22,000 (£17,600).
As the male heir to the throne and the future of the Tudor dynasty, a number of portraits of Edward exist showing him as both the Prince of Wales and as a nine-year-old king.
This image depicting him wearing a black and gold embroidered doublet trimmed with ermine copies a full-length portrait known in several versions that is associated with the workshop of the enigmatic court artist ‘Master John’. Seemingly an Englishman, he came to prominence in the years after the death of former court favourite Hans Holbein in 1543. The ‘Master John’ portrait of Edward in the National Portrait Gallery was almost certainly painted immediately after Edward became king in 1547.
The Pebble Beach picture - a half-length oil on a cradled panel measuring 2ft 5in x 22in (74 x 56cm) - was catalogued as “English School 16th or 17th century”. It had a detailed province since the 19th century, having previously been in the collection of Kimbolton Castle, the country house in Cambridgeshire that is most famous as the final home of Henry VIII’s first (divorced) wife Catherine of Aragon who died there in 1536.
The picture was deemed sufficiently important at the time to hang at some of the most famous exhibitions of the Victorian era. It was part of the Exhibition of Art Treasures held at Manchester Botanical Gardens in 1857, the largest temporary art exhibition in British history with more than 16,000 works of art and 1.3m visitors. In 1866 it was among the 1035 pictures shown at the South Kensington Museum (later the V&A) at the first Exhibition of National Portraits and in 1890 was at the Exhibition of the Royal House of Tudor at the New Gallery, a Bond Street address now the flagship store for the Burberry brand.
First audience of his Excellency the Right Honourable Charles, Earl of Manchester with the Doge and Senate of Venice, 1698, $38,000 (£30,400) at Andrew Jones Auctions.
Estimated at $50,000-70,000 and sold at $36,000 (£30,400) was a Venetian painting depicting the visit of the British diplomat Charles Montagu (1662-1722), 1st Earl of Manchester, to the Venetian court in 1698.
Montagu’s mission in Venice was multifaceted: to affirm and strengthen the Anglo-Venetian alliance, to secure support against France in the unfolding scenarios of European politics, and to promote English trade interests.
This monumental canvas, measuring 4ft 3in x 6ft (1.3 x 1.8m), was painted by a Venetian artist at the time to record his first audience with the Doge and the Senate.
