£750,000 IN PICTURES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 774, 21 September 1929, Page 32

£750,000 IN PICTURES

DEAR’S SALES AT CHRISTIE’S STORY PAINTINGS DOOMED The picture sales of the season, which closed with the sale at Christie’s in London recently, make a poor comparison—in terms of arithmetic—with many other seasons during this century, writes a correspondent in the “Daily Mail.” Since January over 6,000 pictures by old and modern masters have changed hands at Christie’s for nearly £750,000, but very few of the works attained prices which can be considered notable. Last year, of course, was memorable owing to the sale of the Holford collection. In one afternoon over £364,000 was realised, whereas the most extensive individual collection sold this year, that of Lord Yarborough, made the comparatively moderate total of £63,000. Every season the appearance of great private collections in the saleroom becomes less probable, and the more important picture sales are now made up of works from a dozen or more different sources. On two occasions this year a total of over £120,000 has been realised in one afternoon. In each case, however, many properties have gone to make up the catalogue. The sale on May 3, for instance, when 27 works from the collection of Lord Brownlow realised £60,000, also included items from the collection of Lord Hastings, Earl Stanhope, Lord Stalbridge and many others. Even more varied as regards ownership was the £130,000 sale held on June 28, the catalogue of which included nearly 20 different properties. In 1928 no fewer than 11 pictures at Christie’s made over £IO,OOO apiece, producing among them over £250,000. This year the number is reduced to three, sold for a moderate total of £45,000. To this must be added the 14,500gns paid for Gainsborough’s portrait of Edmund Nugent, sold at .Puttick and Simpson’s rooms in May. Van Dyck heads the list with his portrait of Jaequo Le Roy, which, at the Brownlow sale, realised £17,850. Next comes Rembrandt’s painting of a warrior, sold for 15,600gn5. and Hoppner’s delightful portrait group of the Cust Brothers, which made IO.OOOgns. In certain ways, however, the season will be memorable. Never before have such consistently high prices been paid for works by British sporting artists. Paintings by men who 20 or 30 years ago were almost ignored have also leapt into an auction-room popularity which appears to be permanent. Paintings by such men as Zoffany, Cotes, Opie, Northcote, Wheatley and Beechey now have a following which places them on a plane undreamt of even ten years ago. The sale of Captain Richard Ford’s collection of works by Richard Wilson, in June definitely re-established the position of this long-neglected painter, four of them producing over £12,000. On the other hand there is no sign of recovery in the steady decline in the value of works by once popular Royal academicians and certain of their contemporaries. There is little doubt that the demand for the sentiment story-telling canvases, so popular 30 or 40 years ago, has gone for ever. In March this year a huge work by Rosa Bonheur, measuring 4ft. by 9ft, “Ploughing in the Nivernais,” made only 46gns. It was sold by Viscount Hambleden, whose grandfather, the wellknown Rt. Hon. W. H. Smith, paid 4,200gn5. for it in ISSS.