NEW YORK, NY.- Mule Team, an extremely rare painting by the acclaimed First World War artist C.R.W. (Christopher) Nevinson (1889-1946), and three of the artist’s rarest prints from the same era will go on display at Bonhams, 580 Madison Avenue New York from 1-7 May inclusive prior to their sale in London later this year.

Mule Team, a major work in Bonhams sale of Modern British Art in London on 10 June, is estimated at £250,000 - 350,000, and could well set a world record for the artist’s work. The prints, to be sold in Bonhams British Master Prints sale on 17 June, include MT (Motor Transport), a rare woodcut from 1918 (£50,000 - 70,000); The Workers, a lithograph from 1919 (£30,000 - 50,000) and The Cursed Wood, a drypoint from 1918 (£20,000 -30,000)

Mule Team has been in private hands for nearly 100 years during which time it has been seen in public only once. It was painted in late 1917 following Nevinson’s return to London from a four- week tour of the trenches in his capacity as an official war artist. The works produced during the war form the basis of Nevinson’s reputation as one of Britain’s most acclaimed artists of the early 20th century. Almost all the oil paintings from 1917 are in public collections and those depicting Tommies – such as Mule Team – very rarely appear on the open market.

At the heart of the painting is an ordinary British solider – a Tommy – seated on his mule with ammunition and sustenance slung over his shoulders. The clenched fist which grasps the reins with purpose and determination is deliberately oversized to emphasize the defiance and perseverance of the Allied armies.

Of the prints, The Cursed Wood shows a war-blasted landscape, its bare trees overflown by spectral aircraft. MT (Motor Transport) depicts an ordinary truck full of weary soldiers and The Workers reflects both the widespread industrial unrest in the year after the war ended and also something of Nevinson’s own radical background.

These works were created at a turning point in Nevinson’s development and show the artist moving towards greater realism. His depiction of ordinary soldiers performing routine tasks or suffering the after effects of combat prompted criticism from Department of Information officials and War Office censors. They felt the subject matter lacked the heroism and, therefore, the propaganda value, which they had seen in his earlier work and that some of the images would spread despondency and weaken home front support for the war.

Director of Modern British and Irish Art at Bonhams, Matthew Bradbury, commented, “Mule Team is an exceptional work and also an extremely rare one. There are very few of Nevinson’s wartime oil paintings left in private hands and so the emergence of Mule Team onto the market is a major opportunity for collectors. The subject of this picture – the stoical Tommy plodding on with his mules against the leaden sky – is not noisily heroic, but more a reflection, after three years of war and no end in sight, of a quiet determination to see things through.”

Bonhams Head of Prints, Rupert Worrall, commented, “Nevinson’s wartime prints are probably the most famous of his output in that genre and the most sought after. MT (Motor Transport) is particularly rare. Unusually, it was produced in an edition of only 12 and that, together with the subject matter, makes it highly desirable.”