Yorkshire Pictures

Simon Palmer (b.1956)
"In the Vale" Figures on a country lane
Signed and dated (19)94, watercolour, 49cm by 57cm

Henri Hayden (1883-1970) Polish
"Nature Morte à la Poule"
Signed and dated (19)50, oil on canvas, 49cm by 64cm

Provenance: Waddington Galleries, London, where purchased by the artist Patrick Hall (1906-1992) and his wife in December 1962
Thence by descent

Peter Lanyon (1918-1964)
Untitled (San Gimignano)
Signed and dated 1964, mixed media, 35cm by 25cm

Provenance: The New Art Centre, London
Beaux Arts, London
Mark Barrow, Modern British Artists, Stroud

Austin Wright (1911-1997)
“The Critics”
Lead, 32cm high

John Northcote Nash RA (1893-1977)
“Boxted Mill Pool”
Signed, oil on canvas, 66cm by 84.5cm

Exhibited: Royal Academy of Arts, London, "John Nash Exhibition", 1967
Tennants Auctioneers, Leyburn, "350 Years of British Art", 2017

John Nash was the brother of the artist Paul Nash and was born in London. Although he began his working life as a journalist, his brother encouraged him into art, and he was generally self-taught.

In 1973 he held a joint exhibition with Paul Nash at Dorien Leigh Galleries and staged his first solo show at the Groupil Gallery in 1921. In 1918, during World War I, he was appointed an official war artist, producing various significant works including; "A French Highway" and "Over the Top", which are both held by the Imperial War Museum, amongst numerous other paintings and sketches. After the war, Nash taught at the Ruskin School (1922-27), and the subject of his pictures became almost solely focused on the natural environment.

Several writers, including Frederick Gore in his introduction to Nash's Retrospective Exhibition held at the Royal Academy in 1967, have attributed him with the artistic influence of post-Cézanne French painters and he undoubtedly held the artists Spencer Gore, Robert Polehill Bevan, Charles Ginner and Harold Gilman in high esteem. This is further supported by his early association with the Camden Town Group. However, John developed a highly consistent and recognisable style which was essentially inspired by the British countryside and it is difficult to convincingly associate him with any specific group or movement of his generation. It was Harold Gilman who also advised him to work in the studio from drawings and studies made from nature which became the essential working practice of the artist, and in a letter from Edward Bawden to Sir John Rothenstein in 1979 he also states that Nash made numerous sketch book drawings during the summer months, which were made into paintings within his studio in the winter, using the squared up for transfer technique.

Nash was made Associate Royal Academician in 1940 and a full member in 1951. He was a loyal and dedicated member and reliably produced his six required oils or watercolours for the annual Summer Exhibition.

In 1943 the artist purchased Bottengoms Farm in Essex for £750. The current painting is the product of what Rothenstein calls his 'Bottengom Period' of the 1950s when he was living in Wormingford with his wife and amongst a close social and artistic group consisting of Robert and Natalie Bevan (the son of the artist Robert Polehill Bevan of the Camden Group), Colin and Marian Benham, the artist Cedric Morris, Lady Cranbrook and Ronald Blythe. It is part of a canon of work which was inspired by the surrounding area, and in which there are various views of the same Boxted Mill and mill pond. The Tate for example, holds one such example, "Mill Buildings, Boxted Essex" (1962) and there are further extant watercolours from 1953. The outstanding work presented here, depicting the area so familiar and dear to the artist shows many of his techniques and abilities; by slightly simplifying the arrangement without any sense of abstraction being introduced, the artist presents a moderately exaggerated reality, whilst remaining true to the essence of the landscape.

David Bomberg (1890-1957)
Self Portrait
Signed and dated (19)31, charcoal, 56cm by 38cm

John Bellany CBE, RA (1942-2013) Scottish
Fishing boat in a harbour
Signed, oil on canvas, 90cm by 120cm

Prunella Clough (1919-1999)
"Old Quarry" (1955)
Signed, inscribed and dated to label affixed to reverse and Christies stencil AP3??, oil on board, 34cm by 27cm

Provenance: W.Heffer and Sons, Ltd, Cambridge