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PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF LORD AND LADY COTTESLOEA lifelong supporter of the arts, The Hon. John Fremantle (4th Lord Cottesloe) collected works of the 20th century by artists including Walter Sickert, William Orpen, Augustus John, Henry Moore and John Piper. The latter two were lifelong personal friends. He also forged close friendships with several leading lights of the stage, including Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. In 1953 he became a trustee of Tate and the following year was appointed chairman of the Advisory Council and Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art. In that same year his father died, meaning he inherited the title, Lord Cottesloe. From 1960-65 he was chairman of the Arts Council, during which time he conceived, with Olivier, his great passion project: to build a National Theatre on London’s South Bank. As chairman of the National Theatre board, he steered the development for fourteen years and finally, in 1976, it was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. One of its three theatres was named in his honour. The present work was in the collection of the connoisseur, artist, and advisor, Hugh Blaker (1873 - 1936). Born in Worthing, West Sussex in 1873, Blaker studied painting in Antwerp and Paris, and in 1905 became curator of the Holburne Museum, Bath. He retired in 1913 and became a revered dealer, collector, and critic. He is best known for his role as agent to two important Welsh collectors of Impressionist painting: the Davies sisters of Gregynog, Gwendoline and Margaret Davies. He himself bequeathed a Modigliani, The Little Peasant (1913), to the Tate Gallery, and was responsible for the Tate’s acceptance of a loan of two Cézanne’s into their collection.Importantly, he was an enthusiastic supporter of the modern British artists and amassed an impressive collection, comprising at least twenty-eight works by Augustus John, alongside works by Walter Sickert, William Gore, and Harold Gilman. His remarkable collection of Modern British, Impressionist, and Old Master drawings and paintings was exhibited at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, in 1928, and at Platt Hall, Manchester, and Brighton Art Gallery and Museum in 1929. Additionally, following his death, the Leicester Galleries, London, exhibited a selection from his collection in 1948, where the present owner bought the work.The breadth of Blaker’s collection expresses his appreciation for artistic profundity across art history: ‘The eye is not a finished instrument, but requires training; and one who cannot equally appreciate good art in all its phases, ancient and modern, should realise that he still has fields to conquer.’ (Hugh Blaker quoted in exhibition catalogue Manchester Art Gallery, Exhibition of the Hugh Blaker Collection, May – June 1929, p.3).

AUGUSTUS JOHN, O.M., R.A. (1878-1961)

The Tinkers

Details

AUGUSTUS JOHN, O.M., R.A. (1878-1961)
The Tinkers
signed and dated 'John 1917' (lower right)
ink, watercolour and gouache on paper
14 3/4 x 18 3/4 in. (37.5 x 47.7 cm.)
Executed in 1917.

Provenance

E.J. Gooding.
His sale; Christie's, London, 29 November 1918, lot 31, where purchased by Hugh Blaker, Isleworth.
Purchased by The Hon. John Fremantle (Lord Cottesloe) at the 1948 exhibition.

Literature

Matinee Programme for Miss Lena Ashwell's Concerts at Chelsea Palace, London, 20 March 1917, illustrated on the cover, as 'The Flight into Egypt'.
L. Browse, Augustus John Drawings, London, 1941, no. 51, illustrated, as 'The Flight into Egypt'.

Exhibited

Vienna, Secession, Masterpieces of English Painting from Three Centuries, September - November 1927, no. 242.
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Exhibition of Contemporary British Art, October - December 1928, no. 122.
Manchester, City Art Gallery, Exhibition of the Hugh Blaker Collection, May - June 1929, no. 118.
Brighton, Public Art Galleries, Catalogue of the Hugh Blaker Collection, September - October 1929, no. 101.
London, Leicester Galleries, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Drawings Selected from the Collection of the Late Hugh Blaker, March 1937, no. 36.
London, Leicester Galleries, Exhibition of Works from the Hugh Blaker Collection, March 1948, no. 32.
London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Works by Augustus John, March - June 1954, no. 294, as 'The Tinkers, or The Flight into Egypt'.

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Pippa Jacomb Director, Head of Day Sale

pjacomb@christies.com +44 (0) 20 7389 2293

Lot Essay

The Tinkers was reproduced in colour on the programme cover for the Chelsea Matinée, on 20 March 1917, in aid of Miss Lena Ashwell’s Concerts at the Front. She was one of the first to organise large-scale entertainment for troops at the front during the First World War.

We are very grateful to Rebecca John for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.

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