Nude on Bed III by Frank Auerbach
On Wednesday, March 19th, Christie’s London hosted one of its evening sales dedicated to modern British and Irish art. These sales often do fairly well, but that is not always a foregone conclusion. This one, I believe, was a great success for Christie’s.
Christie’s expected two lots to sell for £1 million or more, and they respectively became the first and second place lot of the evening. Frank Auerbach’s 1961 oil painting Nude on Bed III made its auction debut on Wednesday. The work is incredibly rare to appear at auction since it has been in the same private collection since 1962. Its previous owner, Moyra Campbell, was the daughter of the Duke of Abercorn and served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth’s cousin, Princess Alexandra. Nude on Bed III has only been exhibited once apart from the show at London’s Beaux Arts Gallery, where Campbell purchased the painting. Having passed away in 2020, Campbell’s family consigned the Auerbach to Christie’s, anticipating it to make between £700K and £1 million. The painting slightly exceeded expectations, hammering at £1.2 million / $1.56 million (or £1.49 million / $1.9 million w/p).
Sitting Couple on Bench by Lynn Chadwick
While the Auerbach exceeded its pre-sale estimate, the anticipated first-place lot ended up in second. Lynn Chadwick designed the bronze sculpture Sitting Couple on Bench in 1990. Yet this edition (numbered 5 of 9) was not created until 2021, eighteen years after the artist’s death. Several editions of this sculpture have previously found great success at auction, with the first edition in the series selling at last year’s modern British and Irish evening sale for £1.6 million w/p. The version sold at Christie’s on Wednesday fell slightly short of these expectations, hammering at £1.1 million / $1.4 million (or £1.37 million / $1.78 million w/p) against a £1.2 million minimum estimate. The sale’s biggest surprise ended up becoming the third-place lot. Upon looking at Sir William Nicholson’s 1908 still life The Lustre Bowl, I thought it was nice but not particularly noteworthy. It is consistent with some of the artist’s other still-life paintings, employing a sort of chiaroscuro background for household objects. Some bidders at Christie’s that day seemed to disagree with this assessment, as several interested parties continued to bid on the painting until it sold for over five times its high estimate. Though estimated to sell for no more than £180K, interest in the dark still-life drove its final hammer price all the way up to £950K / $1.2 million (or £1.19 million / $1.5 million w/p). This made it the second-most-expensive work by Nicholson ever sold at auction, just trailing behind his painting Miss Simpson’s Boots, which sold at Christie’s in 2022 for £1.78 million w/p.
The Lustre Bowl by Sir William Nicholson
Even if the Nicholson hadn’t blown away its pre-sale estimate, Christie’s Modern British Irish evening sale would have done incredibly well. Of the twenty-five lots available that evening, twelve sold within their pre-sale estimates, giving Christie an accuracy rate of 48%. Five additional lots (20%) sold below, and six (24%) parentheses sold above. With two lots going unsold, the sale achieved a sell-through rate of 92%. All the hammer prices added up mounted to £9 million / $11.7 million against a total pre-sale minimum of £7.45 million.
Christie’s London Modern British & Irish Evening Sale
Nude on Bed III by Frank Auerbach
On Wednesday, March 19th, Christie’s London hosted one of its evening sales dedicated to modern British and Irish art. These sales often do fairly well, but that is not always a foregone conclusion. This one, I believe, was a great success for Christie’s.
Christie’s expected two lots to sell for £1 million or more, and they respectively became the first and second place lot of the evening. Frank Auerbach’s 1961 oil painting Nude on Bed III made its auction debut on Wednesday. The work is incredibly rare to appear at auction since it has been in the same private collection since 1962. Its previous owner, Moyra Campbell, was the daughter of the Duke of Abercorn and served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth’s cousin, Princess Alexandra. Nude on Bed III has only been exhibited once apart from the show at London’s Beaux Arts Gallery, where Campbell purchased the painting. Having passed away in 2020, Campbell’s family consigned the Auerbach to Christie’s, anticipating it to make between £700K and £1 million. The painting slightly exceeded expectations, hammering at £1.2 million / $1.56 million (or £1.49 million / $1.9 million w/p).
Sitting Couple on Bench by Lynn Chadwick
While the Auerbach exceeded its pre-sale estimate, the anticipated first-place lot ended up in second. Lynn Chadwick designed the bronze sculpture Sitting Couple on Bench in 1990. Yet this edition (numbered 5 of 9) was not created until 2021, eighteen years after the artist’s death. Several editions of this sculpture have previously found great success at auction, with the first edition in the series selling at last year’s modern British and Irish evening sale for £1.6 million w/p. The version sold at Christie’s on Wednesday fell slightly short of these expectations, hammering at £1.1 million / $1.4 million (or £1.37 million / $1.78 million w/p) against a £1.2 million minimum estimate. The sale’s biggest surprise ended up becoming the third-place lot. Upon looking at Sir William Nicholson’s 1908 still life The Lustre Bowl, I thought it was nice but not particularly noteworthy. It is consistent with some of the artist’s other still-life paintings, employing a sort of chiaroscuro background for household objects. Some bidders at Christie’s that day seemed to disagree with this assessment, as several interested parties continued to bid on the painting until it sold for over five times its high estimate. Though estimated to sell for no more than £180K, interest in the dark still-life drove its final hammer price all the way up to £950K / $1.2 million (or £1.19 million / $1.5 million w/p). This made it the second-most-expensive work by Nicholson ever sold at auction, just trailing behind his painting Miss Simpson’s Boots, which sold at Christie’s in 2022 for £1.78 million w/p.
The Lustre Bowl by Sir William Nicholson
Even if the Nicholson hadn’t blown away its pre-sale estimate, Christie’s Modern British Irish evening sale would have done incredibly well. Of the twenty-five lots available that evening, twelve sold within their pre-sale estimates, giving Christie an accuracy rate of 48%. Five additional lots (20%) sold below, and six (24%) parentheses sold above. With two lots going unsold, the sale achieved a sell-through rate of 92%. All the hammer prices added up mounted to £9 million / $11.7 million against a total pre-sale minimum of £7.45 million.