John W. Waterhouse
Now that our show hattrick (oh wait, we do have one more next week) is over and we’re back in the gallery, it’s time to get back to some auction reviews… following Christie’s Victorian sale in early July, Sotheby’s took it’s shot in the London market and performed fairly well.
Simeon Solomon
On the evening of July 12th, Sotheby’s offered up a far slimmer 92 lot sale. Leading the way (and accounting for more than 50% of the sale) was Waterhouse’s The Siren – the two figure work depicts a man struggling in the water clinging to a rock, while a female figure passively looks down upon him. Most interestingly, the work featured provenance all the way back to the artist, where it was first sold through Agnew’s on February 1st 1901. Most recently, the work sold through Sotheby’s London in 1985… at that time, the work sold for £72,000 ($105K)… it was also offered for sale back in 2003, but found no takers at the $1-1.5M estimate in New York. This time around, the work was offered with a £1-1.5M estimate and blew past that with bidding topping out at £3.8M ($5.07M)… I’m sure the seller was quite pleased. In a (very very) distant second was Simeon Solomon’s Habet! In the Coliseum A.D.XC, which first appeared at auction in 1891 where it was purchased for 21 Guineas through Christie’s. The work was acquired in 1914 by the grandparents of the present owner… at the auction last month, the work found a buyer for £370K (est. £300-500K / $490K). Following that was Dame Laura Knight’s The Ballet Girl and the Dressmaker, which found a buyer at £322K (£100-150K / $426K). There is not much provenance here… the work was commissioned by H. Earl Hoover in 1930 and was exhibited at the Royal Academy, London of that same year… it was then passed to Hoover’s widow, Miriam U. Hoover, where it has remained since – the work was being sold as part of her estate.
Dame Laura Knight
While more than a quarter of the works did not find a buyer, there were a few failures that were more significant than others… Works by Edward Lear (est. £250-350K); Herring Snr. (£150-200K); Stanhope Alexander Forbes (£200-300K); and Munnings (£150-200K) all went unsold… that said, the Waterhouse more than made up for those and the other 21 unsold lots (72% sold).
In the end, the sale still topped its £5-7M estimate as it brought in £7.28M. Granted, that figure includes the buyer’s premium but it was still a fine showing for a Victorian Sale these days…. And as we always say, what a difference one painting can make.