A very modern art sale at Gorringe’s.
Oil on canvas, 80x60cm
An exciting new chapter is unfolding at the historic Lewes auction house Gorringe’s, which is set to host its first-ever sale dedicated entirely to modern art and design.
Art & Design Post 1880, on September 16, includes several important works from the modern period, including Flowers in a Jar by Duncan Grant and George Bergen (£4,000-£6,000), Afternoon by Edward Wolfe (£25,000-£35,000), Bathers on the Beach by Jacques-Émile Blanche (£6,000-8,000) and six works by influential post-war British abstractionist William Gear, curator of Towner Eastbourne between 1958 and 1964.
Flowers in a Jar is of particular interest. It is a collaboration between Grant and Bergen, a Russian-born American artist, painted circa 1930. In this period the two men were involved in a passionate love affair, centred around Charleston, the Sussex farmhouse and studio Grant shared with Vanessa Bell. For 18 months or so, as Grant’s biographer Frances Spalding wrote, ‘Duncan’s emotional life hinged on this man’s existence’. The relationship was an acute source of anxiety for Bell, and ruffled feathers within the Bloomsbury inner circle, with Virginia Woolf describing Bergen as ‘sheep headed, bird witted, and not nice.’
The piece fuses Grant’s lyrical post-impressionist style with Bergen’s more structured modernist sensibility, generating a quiet tension between spontaneity and control. The vase is thought to be Grant’s work and the flowers Bergen’s. A Grant painting titled George Bergen Painting in the Garden, showing the artist at work on this very piece, is known to exist, though its whereabouts are unknown.
Edward Wolfe, often dubbed ‘the English Matisse’, was also closely associated with the Bloomsbury group, working closely with Roger Fry at the Omega Workshops. Wolfe’s signature style – lush colour, sensual brushwork, and a theatrical sense of repose – is fully present in Afternoon, which reflects the artist’s lifelong fascination with light and leisure.
A similar mood of introspective ease is captured by the fin de-siècle French painter Jacques-Émile Blanche in Bathers on the Beach. Blanche, whose style bridged Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, is best known for his portraits and his plein-air coastal scenes, often painted on the beaches of Dieppe or Étretat – though the setting for this painting was Scheveningen (The Hague), in the Netherlands.
We caught up with Gorringe’s Managing Director & Head of Paintings John Holmes, to find out more about the inspiration behind the sale. “Today’s buyers are increasingly seeking out rare and desirable items of mid-century furniture, Scandinavian design, contemporary ceramics and modern British paintings,” he says.
“I first became aware of this interest in my previous role as Head of Paintings at another regional auction house where we ran fine art sales in the traditional manner, separately from our furniture sales. However, both I and the head of the design department had observed a particularly high demand for 20th-century pieces.
“We decided to merge the departments to offer a dedicated sale of art and design from 1880 onwards. Not only did this provide a single source for buyers of modern art and design, it also allowed them to visualise how items could be presented in their homes. The auction attracted considerable interest from the outset and regularly proved to be the house’s most viewed and attended sale.
“I’m excited to be continuing this innovation at Gorringe’s through our new fine sale, which features exceptional modern art, 20th-century studio ceramics, mid-century furniture, sculpture, and design. “
The Art & Design Post 1880 auction serves the interests and passions of contemporary collectors and more casual buyers while also complementing our existing Twentieth Century Design and Pop Culture sale, which remains a highly popular source of accessible furniture, art, ceramics and pop culture memorabilia.”
Gorringe’s are holding a late opening preview of the sale at their gallery at 15 North Street Lewes (5pm-7pm) on September 12, with the auction taking place at 10am on September 16. The next Twentieth Century Design and Pop Culture sale will take place at 9.30am on September 15.
| bellmans.co.uk | |
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