The Collection of Bernard Sheridan
Our March sale features one of our strongest ever selections of early Modern British artworks and includes important artworks fresh to the market.
The sale includes an impressive and varied amount of private collections. Firstly, works from the Collection of Bernard Sheridan (1927-2007), with important pieces by Wyndham Lewis (lot 7), Dame Ethel Walker (lots 4-5) and Duncan Grant (lot 6). Bernard Sheridan was a highly successful solicitor, representing clients across various fields from the entertainment industry to human rights. Sheridan was described as ‘a fierce negotiator with a strong social conscious’ and often challenged the might of the music industry in his work. High profile clients included Pink Floyd, Kate Bush and Damien Hirst, but perhaps Sheridan’s most important case was led against the British Government and concerned the Chagos Islanders exiled to Mauritius in 1971. This case went on for 10 years and the Court of Appeal only found in Sheridan’s favour days before his death.
We will also be selling the Collection of Paul Clarke, which includes beautiful items by Mary Fedden (lots 54-55), her husband Julian Trevelyan (lot 56) and Jack Jones (lot 52). We also have works from a Private Collector of Bloomsbury related works (lots 139-143), which includes rare pieces by Nina Hamnett (lot 141), Anne Estelle Rice (lot 142) and Gertrude Hermes (lot 143). Additionally, we have works from the Estate of the sculptor Alfred Horace Gerrard and his wife, the painter Katherine Leigh-Pemberton (lots 28-31), and the collection of art historian Kristian Romare (lots 288-295) which includes an early work by Franciska Clausen (lot 289).
Lot 54: Mary Fedden OBE RA RWA, Still life with lamp, 1987
Adrian Heath’s early masterpiece ‘Composition No.2 Brown & Black, 1954’ is another highlight. This is a brilliant example of the artist's Constructivist style of the mid-1950s, made at an important time for the artist as he was organising the publication of 'Nine British Abstract Artists' written by Lawrence Alloway and the related landmark group exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in 1955.
Lot 317: Adrian Heath, Composition No.2 Brown & Black, 1954
A particular highlight is Philip Wilson Steer’s ‘Miss Montgomery, c.1907-08’, originally owned by the eminent collector of early Modern British art, Major E. O. Kay (Edwin Ody Kay 1885–1969). This is the first time the work has been on the open market since 1986.
Lot 83: Philip Wilson Steer OM, Miss Montgomery, c.1907-08
We also have an early landscape by Sir Kyffin Williams ‘Farm Mynydd Bodafon, c.1950s’, one of the artist's iconic and much loved depictions of Angelsea. The work has been in the same family collection for decades and is accompanied by a copy of a beautiful letter handwritten by the artist.
Lot 305: Sir Kyffin Williams OBE RA, Farm Mynydd Bodafon, 1950s
Contemporary highlights will include an early work by Larry Rivers ‘Don't Fall, 1966’ (lot 401) and a piece by Dan Colen’s ‘The Swirl, 2006’ (lot 549) from a solo show with Gagosian of the same year. We also have a sensational Subway drawing by Keith Haring ‘Snake through three men (Subway Drawing), c.1980’ (lot 490).
Lot 401: Larry Rivers, Don't Fall, 1966
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