Landscapes lead the way

6th June 2024

Among a strong offering in the Modern British and 20th Century Art auction, several landscapes shone through as sale highlights.

Leading the way was a work by Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979), depicting tall trees above a roofline of cottages. London-born Hitchens left the city for the Sussex countryside during the Second World War, living in a caravan on Lavington Common. From this time he became fascinated with treescapes and woodland subjects, although this work from 1928 demonstrates his interest dating from before his move. Arguably best known for his more panoramic landscapes, this rather smaller work still proved popular with collectors, selling for a premium-inclusive £34,020.

Another detailed landscape that drew the bidders’ collective eye was by British artist, Charles Ginner. Better known for his paintings showing buildings in urban landscapes, The Catalpa Tree is a snapshot of a garden scene, rich in summer colour and the differing hues of leafy shrubs and trees. It happily exceeded its £7,000-10,000 estimate to achieve a final price of £21,420.

Perhaps more traditional in the scope of the landscape, The Five Sisters of Kintail by John Maclauchlan Milne was an extensive mountain scene painted by the artist often referred to as the Fifth Scottish Colourist. A reference to the group influenced by artists such as Cezanne, Maclauchlan Milne spent a long time in France, before returning and imbuing his beloved Scottish landscapes with the light and colour that had inspired him in the Mediterranean. It sold on the day for £22,680.

A work by one of the actual Scottish Colourists, George Leslie Hunter, is one of his 23 known works depicting Venice. The sharp brushstrokes of vivid colour are typical of Hunter’s work and the influence of Henri Matisse. It sold at the top end of its estimate for £17,640.

Away from the oil paintings, a 1937 watercolour by John Nash titled Under the Willows, more than doubled its bottom estimate to sell for £9,702, while a pen and ink drawing by John Piper, depicting Stoke Park in Northamptonshire, sold for £10,710.

“Landscapes hold a continued appeal for long-standing collectors and one-off buyers alike,” explained Paintings specialist, Victor Fauvelle. “They are often evocative of a time of year, or a specific place, and can hold an accessible nostalgia for the viewer that is harder to evoke in a portrait or still life. The artists included in the sale were all well-known for their works in this area and the continued interest in their art is evidenced in the strong bidding we were fortunate to see on the day.”

On the flip side of the coin, an interior scene by Harold Harvey (1874-1941) came from a time (during the First World War) when artists were deterred from painting landscape scenes for fear of them falling into enemy hands. The oil painting, probably depicting his wife, Gertrude, in their cottage at Newlyn shows a heavy nod to early Dutch interiors with its focus on simple, everyday life. Attracting strong bidding, it flew past its top estimate of £12,000 to sell for £29,610.

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