14th Jun, 2025 9:30 GMT/BST
Ruskin Spear RA (1911-1990)
"The Dartmouth Castle"
Signed and dated 1935, oil on canvas, 60cm by 50cm
Provenance: Bonhams, London, "20th Century British Art", 30th June 2010, lot 81
Unlined, all keys present, a little lacking in tension. A shallow dent approx 4 inches in diameter to the sky just above the chimneys on the right. Brittle age craquelure in some of the thicker passages, including the sky. Stable, but very slightly pulling at the canvas in places. Tiny nick top right corner. A little abrasion around the edges from contact with the frame. Fairly patchy old varnish leaving uneven surface gloss slightly degraded and greyish. Surface dirt and debris.
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Auction: Modern & Contemporary Art, 14th Jun, 2025
Two interesting works by Alfred Wallis, self-taught fisherman-artist from St Ives, will lead the Modern & Contemporary Art Sale; Sailboats and Fish and Steamboats and Lighthouse were purchased by the vendor’s grandmother directly from the artist. Heading a good offering of Northern Art in the sale are three works by Helen Bradley, who reinvented herself as an internationally acclaimed artist aged 75. Using a soft yet colourful palette and simple two-dimensional figures, she illustrated short narrative accounts based on early childhood memories of growing up in the Edwardian era.
Other artists represented in the sale include David Hockney, Lynn Chadwick, Madeline Green, Norman Cornish, Brian 'Braaq' Shields, Sally Arnup, Kenneth Armitage, Henry Moore, Paul Nash and Howard Hodgkin.
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