Paintings spanning 300 years by some of Scotland’s leading artists could fetch more than £1 million at an auction in Edinburgh on Wednesday.
Bonhams Scottish Art Sale includes work ranging from 18th century portraitist Sir Henry Raeburn and 19th century Glasgow Boy Edward Atkinson Hornel to the four Scottish Colourists and the late Joan Eardley, John Bellany and Paisley polymath John Byrne to living artists including Peter Howson, Jack Vettriano and Alison Watt,OBE, whose summer exhibition has just opened at Lévy Gordy Dayan in New York.
The sale is led by the only known self-portrait by Paul McPhail with his wife and fellow artist, Jenny Saville, a huge oil painting inspired by Michelangelo’s marble La Pieta in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
Mother & Child, which is expected to fetch £30,000-50,000, was painted by McPhail in 1992, shortly after the completion of the couple’s studies at the Glasgow School of Art, and depicts the artist in the arms of his partner, and now wife, Saville.
The giant 183cm x 172.5cm oil on canvas was also painted in the same year that Saville painted her own self-portrait Propped, which later made £9.5 million at auction in 2018.
Leo Webster, Picture Specialist at Bonhams Edinburgh, said: “We are delighted to be offering this work in the Scottish Art Sale alongside an exceptional selection of works from rare pieces by artist and playwright, John Byrne, to outstanding works by the Scottish Colourists.”
Work by all four of the Colourists – George Leslie Hunter, Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, Samuel John Peploe and John Duncan Fergusson – will be offered in the sale.
Among the highlights are three still life paintings spanning Hunter’s career as well as Peploe’s landscape painting of “New Abbey, Dumfriesshire”, estimated at £25,000-35,000 and Cadell’s rare Ben Cruachan across the Sound of Mull, which could make £30,000-50,000.
The sale, which also coincides with the 150th anniversary of the birth of painter and sculptor Fergusson, includes his 1914 portrait “Head of a Girl”, which is expected to fetch £20,000-30,000, and several of his sketches on paper.
Rare works by Scots artist and playwright Byrne, who died last year aged 83, include Study of a Rabbit, from 1960, valued at £8000-10,000, and a portrait of Bomba from Tutti Frutti in ink, gouache and gesso on card, which could make £800-1200.
A small Glasgow painting of “Children playing and boarded up shop” by Joan Eardley could fetch £20,000-30,000, while Alison Watt’s large portrait “The Cherubic One” is also estimated at £20,000-30,000.
Some of the most recent paintings in the sale are three studies by Jack Vettriano completed in the mid 2000s, including The Illustrated Man (£15,000-20,000), the Awful Truth (£12,000-18,000) and The Man in the Navy Suit (£8000-12,000).
May Matthews, Bonhams managing director, Scotland, said: “The beauty of working within the Scottish Art market is we have everything from (Sir Henry) Raeburn and (Allan) Ramsay right up to (Jack) Vettriano and Alison Watt.”
“The Scottish Art Sale represents a great span of the centuries and of genre. There is something for every collector in this sale. It is a real pleasure to view and I would urge the public to do so.”
Ben Cruachan across the Sound of Mull signed ‘F.C.B.Cadell’ (lower right), inscribed and initialled ‘Absorbent Ground – never varnish – F.C.B.C. (verso) oil on panel
38 x 45cm (14 15/16 x 17 11/1 6in).
£30,000 – 50,000
Û35,000 – 59,000
US$37,000 – 62,000
PHOTO Alan Simpson
