LONDON.- The Modern British & Irish Art Evening Sale on 26 June will launch 20th Century at Christie’s, a season of sales that take place in London from 17 to 30 June 2017. Fifty-five works in the evening auction represent British and Irish art across the 20th Century. The auction will be led by Henry Moore’s Family Group (1946, estimate: £1,500,000-2,500,000) and Barbara Hepworth’s Curved Form (Bryher II) (1961, estimate: £1,500,000-2,500,000), which is being offered from the Tuttleman Collection. Further sculptures from the collection include London (1966, estimate: £500,000-700,000) by Sir Anthony Caro, and Henry Moore’s Seated Woman (1975, estimate: £600,000-900,000). A group of seven Lowry paintings from five decades of the artist’s output include a self-portrait of the artist titled Boy in a Yellow Jacket (1935, estimate: £400,000-600,000) and a cityscape depicting the first industrial suburb in Manchester, Footbridge in Ancoats (1952, estimate: £150,000-250,000). Two paintings by Ben Nicholson demonstrate the development of his style throughout his career from the Cubist approach of 1932 (guitar) (estimate: £500,000-800,000) to the figurative 1945 (still life) (estimate: £450,000-650,000). Two paintings of the Gloucestershire landscape by Stanley Spencer demonstrate the impact that the idyllic countryside around Leonard Stanley had on the artist at a moment that was defined by the affair he had with Daphne Charlton. Christopher Wood’s Reclining Nude with Flowers (1926, estimate: £300,000-500,000) is offered alongside Beach Scene with Bathers, Piers and Ships (1925, estimate: £300,000-500,000), the largest and most complex painting Wood created. The Scottish Colourists are represented by Samuel John Peploe and George Leslie Hunter with a further selection of the full group in the Modern British & Irish Art Day Sale on 27 June 2017. Post-War artists such as Victor Pasmore, Bridget Riley, Sean Scully, Antony Gormley and Tony Cragg form a strong group of those working in the last half of the century and beyond. The works will be exhibited in London from 9 to 26 June 2017

SCULPTURE THROUGHOUT THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Sculpture will lead the Modern British & Irish Art Evening Sale and highlights are on view in an outdoor exhibition ‘Sculpture in the Square’, in St James’s Square, a garden setting close to Christie’s Headquarters on King Street, London. Artists include Anthony Caro, Elisabeth Frink, Barbara Hepworth, Allen Jones and Henry Moore. Further highlights in the auction include William Turnbull’s Female (1989, estimate: £200,000-300,000), a late sculpture by the artist in which he builds on the ‘Idol’ series that he created from 1955-57. Standing among the artist’s most socially-conscious works, Henry Moore’s Family Group offers a poignant vision of familial unity in the wake of the Second World War. It is the largest of a group of sculptures conceived in relation to this theme between 1944 and 47. Tony Cragg’s Portrait (2008, estimate: £150,000-250,000) is a lyrical example from his diverse oeuvre. A large sculptural work, its immaculately undulating contours align to reveal the elegant outline of a human profile. Antony Gormley’s Insider figures are derived from the vital dimensions of a human body which is subjected to a degree of abstraction. Inside Australia Prototype, (Tamara Jenks) (2005, estimate: £120,000-180,000) and Inside Australia Prototype, (Simon Jones) (2005, estimate: £120,000-180,000) are figures inspired by the series which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Perth International Arts Festival in 2003.

BEN NICHOLSON
Nicholson relished in the interplay of forms, as seen in 1932 (guitar), juxtaposing and overlaying a series of shapes and layers of different materials to create a wonderfully visceral surface. He was inspired by the bold modernism of Braque and Picasso, whom he met in France during 1933, and the infinite possibilities of experimenting with Cubism. 1945 (still life) exemplifies Nicholson’s ability to balance form, colour and space, harmonising two genres: landscape and still life in poetic perfection. After relocating to Cornwall from Hampstead, Nicholson began to turn away from his concentration on geometric forms and abstraction and his works became imbued with elements of the rural Cornish landscape.

L.S. LOWRY
A group of seven works by L. S. Lowry show the artist’s fascination with all aspects of life in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Estuary (1944, estimate: £600,000-800,000) is a captivating seascape depicting the seaside resorts on the Lancashire coast in the latter half of the 20th century while Footbridge in Ancoats (1952, estimate: £150,000-250,000) celebrates the world’s first industrial suburb in the very heartland of the industrial revolution in Manchester. Here Lowry was drawn to the detail of Victorian viaducts, bridges, pavements and street furniture. Boy in a Yellow Jacket is one of a series of heads that he painted during the late 1930s, which are actually strange composite images that are both self-portraits and depictions of every day Salford men that Lowry passed on the street; elderly men, the homeless, workers at the mills, or in this case a young boy. Lowry started to paint these dark and melancholic figures in the mid-1930s following the death of his father in 1932. The group is completed by A Station Platform (1939, estimate: £120,000-180,000), The Mill, Lunchtime, a cricket match (1940, estimate: £70,000-100,000), An Old Windmill, Almlwch (1941, estimate: (200,000-300,000) and Newbiggin-by-the-Sea (1966, estimate: £250,000350,000).

SIR STANLEY SPENCER
Stanley Spencer stayed in Gloucestershire at an important stage in his life. His affair with Daphne Charlton at the time did much to restore his spirits after a period of emotional turmoil and he painted around a dozen landscape and farm scenes in and around Leonard Stanley including Landscape, Gloucestershire (1940, estimate: £600,000-800,000). Cottage Garden, Leonard Stanley (1940, estimate: £500,000-800,000) is a garden landscape executed from the vantage point of Spencer’s studio in Leonard Stanley. His strong sense of the outdoors is preserved and the distended perspective showcases enlarged daisies and dandelions on the lawn with primulas, hyacinths, tulips and daffodils in the circular flower bed, suggesting an early spring time.

CHRISTOPHER WOOD
Reclining Nude with Flowers (1926, estimate: £300,000-500,000) was created in Paris during a period of creative energy in which Wood consolidated his artistic vision and his engagement with the modern movement. Although the identity of the sitter remains ambiguous it was inspired by Jeanne Bourgoint, his first female love who was acquainted with Jean Cocteau. His relationship with Jeanne was a significant development for Wood who had previously only had sexual relationships with men, principally his long-term partner Tony Gandarillas. The relationship with Jeanne encouraged a sharp desire in Wood to paint the female nude and in 1926, the year their affair began, he painted at least nine canvases. Beach Scene with Bathers, Piers and Ships (1925, estimate: £300,000-500,000) was deliberately intended to gain him critical and commercial attention. Its subject matter and temperament demonstrate that he had his finger on the pulse, depicting a hedonistic scene inspired by the subject matter of two smash-hit Parisian productions by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.

POST-WAR LONDON
Less than a decade after completing his MA at the Royal College of Art, Peter Blake had established himself as one of the founding fathers of Pop Art. Kandy (1963-65, estimate: £350,000-500,000) is an early example of imaginary portraits of sexually provocative young women in a series that now spans over 50 years. Patrick Caulfield’s The Well (1966, estimate: £250,000-350,000) is modern, anonymous, seemingly mass-produced in style, but classical in subject, conjuring up a more exotic, exciting time. Painted in 1960, Linear Motif in Black and White (estimate: £120,000-180,000) by Victor Pasmore oscillates between the traditionally separate disciplines of painting, sculpture and architecture. Bridget Riley’s Thrust 2 (1970, estimate: £300,000-500,000) is also offered as well as Leon Kossoff’s A Street in Willesden, Summer 1983 (estimate: £400,000-600,000) a painting that offers a snapshot of community life in Willesden, North-West London, where the artist has lived and worked since 1966.

THE SCOTTISH COLOURISTS
The Scottish Colourists are represented in the sale by Samuel John Peploe’s Three pink roses in a blue vase with fruit (mid-1920s, estimate: £300,000-500,000) and A still life of pink roses and fruit (mid-1920s, estimate: £300,000-500,000) as well as George Leslie Hunter’s Still Life with Roses, Fruit and Knife (circa 1929, estimate: £150,000-250,000). In addition two works formerly in the collection of Major Ion Harrison are included: Hunter’s Anemones in a Red Vase, Yellow Teacup and Apples (circa 1929, estimate: £200,000-300,000) in the Evening Sale and Peploe’s The Pine Trees (circa the 1920s, estimate: £50,000-80,000) in the Day Sale.

MODERN BRITISH AND IRISH ART DAY SALE
The Modern British & Irish Art Day Sale will take place on 27 June 2017. A focal point is a group of 13 further sculptures from the Tuttleman Collection by Henry Moore, Lynn Chadwick and Anthony Caro. Stanley Spencer’s Boys' Garden (1957, estimate: £100,000-150,000) was painted while the artist was staying with his friend Kate Morrell and her family in Edgbaston, Birmingham and depicts a part of the garden designated as Morrell’s sons play area. Further highlights include Poppies by Sir Cedric Morris (1926, estimate: £25,000-35,000) and Jan (1933, estimate: £70,000-100,000) by Glyn Warren Philpot.