Roseberys will conclude its Modern British & 20th Century Art programme for 2025 with an auction led by distinguished private collections alongside significant works by leading post-war and contemporary artists. Part I & II of the auction will take place on Wednesday 10 December at 10 AM and 2PM respectively.

Sale highlights include a major late portrait by Zoran Mušič (lot 266), a 1948 painting by Peter Rose Pulham originally owned by Isabel Rawsthorne (lot 267) and a mature work from Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s Small Energies series (lot 223).

Part II presents notable contemporary works including two photographs by Barbara Kruger (lots 463-464), a monumental gilded bronze by George Condo (lot 490) and Hollow Columns by Sir Tony Cragg (lot 462).

Selected Highlights

Lot 266: Zoran Mušič, Slovenian/Italian 1909-2005 - Assis Gris (or 'Uomo Grigio'), 1998
Estimate: £40,000 - £60,000

A late and introspective work addressing ageing and mortality through restrained handling. Related works are held in the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts Norwich. Exhibited at Contini Galleria d’Arte Venice in 1998.

Lot 223: Wilhelmina Barns-Graham CBE, British 1912-2004 - Atlantic Squall No.2, 1980
Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000

A mature example from the Small Energies series exploring linear abstraction and natural forces. Provenance includes the New Craftsman Gallery St Ives and several British collections.

Lot 267: Peter Rose Pulham, British 1910-1956 - Grisaille figure, 1948
Estimate: £10,000 - £15,000

Grisaille Figure exemplifies the distinctive visual language Peter Rose Pulham developed in the post-war years, alongside artists like Isabel Rawsthorne, the picture’s previous owner, and Francis Bacon. The painting isolates and abstracts the figure within an empty space reminiscent of a gymnasium’s bars, rendering the human form as abject and tentacular. Contorted ‘limbs’ burst across the canvas with a violence that echoes Breton’s notion of convulsive beauty. Pulham employs subtle tonal gradations in greys that evoke both the immaterial and the grotesquely fleshy, alternating between pronounced outlines and dissolving remoteness elsewhere. This duality evokes the qualities of black and white silver gelatin photography and perhaps signifies the evolution in his approach to figuration.

Lot 462: Sir Tony Cragg CBE RA, British b.1949 - Hollow Columns, 2006
Estimate: £80,000 - £120,000

Cragg has always been interested in the idea of creating new forms, over representing terrestrial objects. In the present lot, the sculpture appears in motion, flowing through space despite its physical heaviness of bronze. His practice is guided by the 'intelligence of materials', whereby the material has intrinsic prosperities that guide the sculptural process of the artist.

A Private Collection of Early Modern British Art (lots 1-53)

Lot 2: David Bomberg, British 1890-1957 - Sappers under Hill 60, 1918-19
Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000

This collection brings together an important group of early modern British works with a particular focus on Anglo-Jewish artists active in the early 20th century. Many of these artists were associated with the so-called Whitechapel Boys circle, a loosely affiliated group centred in London’s East End whose members drew on European modernism while addressing the social and cultural conditions of the immigrant communities in which they lived.

Lot 22: Bernard Meninsky, British 1891-1950 - Portrait of a woman in red
Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000

The collection includes works by Mark Gertler, Josef Herman, Philip Naviasky, Fay Pomerance, David Bomberg, Bernard Meninsky, Sir William Rothenstein and Jacob Kramer, all of whom contributed significantly to the formation of an Anglo-Jewish modernist sensibility. The wider collection also features works by Walter Sickert, Duncan Grant and Sir Terry Frost.


Lot 6: Jacob Kramer, Russian/British 1892-1962 - The Jewess, 1923
Estimate: £5,000 - £7,000

Key works include Jacob Kramer’s The Jewess (1923) a graphic and expressionist portrait that reflects his engagement with Vorticism and the Central European traditions that shaped his practice.

Lot 3: Mark Gertler, British 1891-1939 - Nude, 1930
Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000

Mark Gertler’s Nude (1930) demonstrates his synthesis of post-Impressionist structure with stylistic influences drawn from his Eastern European heritage.

The Estate of Jeffrey Judelson (lots 54-84)

Lot 69: Ceri Richards CBE, Welsh 1903-1971 - Homage to Dylan Thomas (Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night)
Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000

Jeffrey Judelson was an intensely private man with a passion for discovery, collecting over 60 years, works that ranged from Old Master prints to Post-War painting. A polyglot, writer and teacher, he travelled widely, acquiring pieces that reflected his curiosity and appreciation for beauty in all forms. Judelson’s eye delighted in small details, from the intricate to the unconventional and his collection embraced connections between teacher and pupil, overlooked artists and emerging talent. Ceri Richards, Keith Vaughan, Ben Nicholson and Philip Wilson Steer are some of the notable artists included in the collection.

Lot 57: Augustus John OM RA, British 1878-1961 - Vivien John posing nude in a landscape, late 1930s
Estimate: £10,000 - £15,000


The highlight of the Judelson Estate is a portrait by Augustus John of his daughter Vivien in an Arcadian landscape, offered on the open market for the first time (estimate £10,000–£15,000).

The Estate of Professor Joseph Rykwert CBE (lots 85-104)

Professor Joseph Rykwert CBE 1926–2018 was a leading architectural historian whose collection reflects long-standing personal relationships with artists including Prunella Clough and Paolo Cotani. Rykwert taught internationally and wrote major works which shaped architectural theory throughout the late 20th century.

Lot 87: Prunella Clough, British 1919-1999 - Untitled abstract
Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000

His friendship with Clough is represented by Untitled abstract (lot 87) a gouache and watercolour exploring the micro and macro structures of the urban and natural world. The work demonstrates Clough’s characteristic movement between geometric and organic forms and sits within a dialogue shaped in part by Rykwert’s own architectural thinking and by Clough’s connection to her aunt Eileen Gray.

Lot 98: Paolo Cotani, Italian 1940-2011 - Untitled
Estimate: £800 - £1,200

Cotani is represented by Untitled (lot 98) executed in acrylic pastel and pencil. Cotani lived in London from 1964 to 1970 and through his friendship with Rykwert was appointed professor at the Colchester School of Art. His work in the estate reflects his interest in materiality surface and linear construction and his wider exhibition activity across Europe.

A Private Collection of South African Modernism (lots 153-155)

Lot 153: Pieter Wenning, Dutch/South African 1873-1921 - St John's Church, Wynberg
Estimate: £5,000 - £7,000

A private collection of South African Modernism also contributes notable works to part I of the sale, including a landscape by Pieter Wenning who is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important artists working in South Africa in the early 20th century.