Modern British and Irish Art

London, 25–26 November 2015

The Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale features works by some of the greatest British artists of the 20th century.

Highlights include Henry Moore's bronze Reclining Figure: Umbilicus, an iconic L.S. Lowry oil, The Railway Platform, and an exquisite sculpture by Eric Gill Eve that has not been seen by the public since the 1932 Venice Biennale. Works by Sir Stanley Spencer, Dame Barbara Hepworth, Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, William Nicholson, Dame Elisabeth Frink and Eric Ravilious will also feature in the sale – a celebration of the richness and diversity of 20th century.

For the Day sale section, we are particularly honoured to be presenting an outstanding collection of works from the estate of L.S. Lowry. Led by a delightful oil, Man with bowler hat, with an estimate of £60,000–100,000, the collection also includes a unique selection of beautiful drawings, many of which have never been seen by the public. Our sale will also feature exceptional works by some of Britain's leading 20th century artists – including Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore and Dame Barbara Hepworth – as well as lots by prominent British Pop artists Joe Tilson, John McHale and Peter Blake.

Explore the Auctions

Specialist Picks

From the covetable to the highly collectible, our specialists share their favourites from our upcoming sales

  • View Lot

    David Bomberg (1890-1957)

    Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem
    Estimate
    £800,000 – £1,200,000

    David Bomberg's depiction of The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is at once arresting and mesmeric. It left the artist's easel in 1925 as a strikingly modern image and it retains an extraordinary freshness and vitality today. Described by Bomberg's biographer as an outstanding work, it was acquired by the present owner thirty years ago and is arguably the most important Jerusalem painting in private hands.

    Philip Harley
    Senior Director
  • View Lot

    Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975)

    Hand Sculpture (Turning Form)
    Estimate
    £250,000 – £450,000

    This beautifully rendered sandalwood sculpture from 1953 is one of the finest examples of Hepworth’s carving I have seen come to auction. It encapsulates perfectly her fascination with form, both in the sculpture’s physicality and movement, but also by encouraging the viewer to participate in her exploration. The title, Hand Sculpture (Turning Form), invites us to caress its smooth surfaces and explore its landscape of hollows and penetrations. Despite its size, there is enormous rhythmic quality and spirituality to the piece, which unites the pure, natural wood with the human force of the sculptor. First shown at Hepworth’s retrospective at the Whitechapel in 1954, this serene carving has not been seen in public since Maurice and Muriel Fulton acquired the work over 40 years ago.

    Alice Murray
    Junior Specialist
  • View Lot

    Eric Gill, A.R.A (1882-1940)

    Eve
    Estimate
    £200,000 – £300,000

    Described by Gill himself as ‘one of my best’, this Bath stone carving is a spirited and seductive interpretation of Eve. Unlike his rather demure Eve of two years’ earlier, now in the Tate Gallery’s collection, this Eve thoroughly flaunts her sexuality and sensuality: in the placement of her hands at her hips, accentuating the curves of her figure; in the loosely held, falling drapery; in the turn of her head; and, above all, in the half hidden forbidden fruit that she clutches in her right palm. Gill’s masterful technique is apparent in the intricate details: the beaded necklace, the sweep of her hair, her almond eyes and the curve of her abdomen. Eve was purchased directly from the artist by Lt. Colonel John Dixon-Spain, an architect who, during the Second World War, was one of the first of the ‘Monuments Men’, charged with recovering missing art treasures to their rightful owners after looting by Nazi soldiers. Gill wrote to Dixon-Spain in 1932, requesting the loan of Eve for inclusion in the Venice Biennale of that year. Eve has not been seen in public since then, and remains in the same family’s ownership.

    Pippa Jacomb
    Specialist, Head of Day Sale
  • View Lot

    Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A. (1887-1976)

    The Railway Platform
    Estimate
    £1,300,000 – £1,800,000

    Painted in 1953, a year after Lowry retired from the Pall Mall Property Company, The Railway Platform is a wonderful study of people in a moment that is familiar to many of us, that of standing and waiting for a train to take us on our daily journey to work. In that crowded environment Lowry has managed to capture both the interaction and animation of families, friends and acquaintances, but also that essential loneliness that is such a trademark of his paintings – individuals lost in their own thoughts. A rare painting, the whole composition is cleverly assembled to give the impression that you are slowly passing the platform on a train going the other way. This sense of a fleeting moment in time is accentuated by the opening up of the sky line to the right side of the image to reveal the urban and industrial landscape and the rotund figure in animated dialogue with a fellow traveller. In my view, the pathos you feel in these figures makes this painting one of Lowry’s very best crowd scenes.

    Nicholas Orchard
    Senior Director
  • View Lot

    Eric Ravilious (1903-1942)

    Beachy Head Lighthouse (Belle Tout)
    Estimate
    £80,000 – £120,000

    Before the major retrospective that took place earlier this year at the Dulwich Picture Gallery (in which this work was included), Eric Ravilious was maybe not an artist that one thought of when you looked at British Art of the 1930s, dominated by the intellectual tug of war between Surrealism and Modernism. As a consequence there are a number of British artists who I believe have been overlooked and deserve reassessment. Ravilious is top of this list. As a watercolour artist he is unsurpassed in the 20th century. Bringing a purity of design to the English landscape, empty of life yet full of tension, you need to step forward and study the incredible technique that gives his work an effervescence that belies the medium. No reproduction can really do justice to this sublime work. Come and stand in front of Beachy Head Lighthouse (Belle Tout). Take the time and allow the artist’s narrative to become interwoven with your own.

    William Porter
    Senior Director
  • View Lot

    Henry Moore, O.M., C.H. (1898-1986)

    Reclining Figure: Umbilicus
    Estimate
    £1,500,000 – £2,500,000

    One of the highlights of this November sale is Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure: Umbilicus which was conceived in 1984. It exemplifies the quintessential qualities of the great sculptor’s distinctive style. Composed of sensuous, biomorphic forms, in Reclining Figure: Umbilicus, Moore has transformed the human body into an arrangement of abstracted parts, encapsulating the sculptor’s unique ability at balancing abstraction and figuration and expanding the expressive potential of the human form. Propped up on her elbows, the female figure’s head, enlivened with the just-visible, delicate contours of her facial features, is turned slightly as she languorously reclines, appearing alert and at the same time, magisterial, as she presides over the surrounding space.

    Andrè Zlattinger
    Head of Department
  • View Lot

    John Piper, C.H. (1903-1992)

    Abstract Painting, 1935
    Estimate
    £300,000 – £500,000

    Piper’s abstract paintings of the mid 1930s heavily contrast the depictions of historical architecture and landscape, which one normally associates him with. For me they are by far his most innovative and important works. His exploration into the abstract may have only lasted a few years, before being cut short by the war, but the reverberations are still being felt today. The compositional purity of Abstract Painting, 1935 conceals the complexity of its surface. Piper not only plays with the juxtaposition of shapes and colours but also contrasts the texture of coarse canvas against smooth wood. His painting at this time epitomised the Modernist movement that saw London, and more specifically Hampstead, take the mantle from Paris as the centre for avant-garde art in the pre-war years. These extremely rare paintings are in my opinion among the most convincing and inventive abstract work produced in this country.

    Angus Granlund
    Associate Director
  • View Lot

    Sir Stanley Spencer, R.A. (1891-1959)

    Hilda with Bluebells
    Estimate
    £1,000,000 – £1,500,000

    Stanley Spencer's paean to his muse and first wife, Hilda Carline is my favourite artwork this season. Spencer was a visionary and in his most powerful works he portrays life's great truths within the context of his own life story. In this work, painted five years after her death, Stanley recalls a spring day at Hampstead Heath where the Spencers lived during the early years of their marriage. Capturing a moment in time, Spencer presents Hilda to the viewer, admiring a crop of bluebells, symbolising constancy and everlasting love, but also eternal sleep, as he lies beside her in adoration of the woman that he loved and lost.

    Rachel Hidderley
    Senior Director
  • View Lot

    Sir John Lavery, R.A., R.S.A., R.H.A. (1856-1941)

    The Maid was in the Garden Hanging out the Clothes
    Estimate
    £300,000 – £500,000

    Sir John Lavery’s wonderful impressionistic sunny image of The Maid was in the Garden Hanging out the Clothes was painted in 1883 in the gardens of one of the hotels in Grez-sur-Loing, a town South-East of Paris where in late Summer he joined a colony of artists and for the next few years he produced some of his most famous “en-plein air” paintings. When he exhibited the picture at The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in 1885 he did so from his studio at 160 Bath Street Glasgow, a building I know well as for eighteen years I worked at Christie’s saleroom in Glasgow – just two doors up the street from the studio of one of Scotland’s best known and loved artists.

    Bernard Williams
    International Director

Special Features

  • The lighter side of L.S. Lowry
  • Three works offered in our Modern British & Irish Art sale in London that illustrate how as his circumstances changed, L.S. Lowry’s emphasis shifted from the landscape to the individual, and his paintings of city life took on a lighter, brighter and more carefree quality
  • Read more
  • Henry Moore, O.M., C.H. (1898-1986)
  • Reclining Figure: Umbilicus
  • © The Henry Moore Foundation. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2015 / www.henry-moore.org
  • Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A. (1887-1976)
  • The Railway Platform
  • © The Estate of L.S. Lowry. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2015.