Claude William Dobson Sir Peter Blake Ben Nicholson Sean Scully
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MAGAZINE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2016 ISSUE 47 Handcrafted by Land Rover Special Operations for Champagne Pol Roger Claude The grass is always greener William Dobson The first English portrait painter Sir Peter Blake Bentley goes Pop Ben Nicholson His hidden influence and Sean Scully My favourite room SUMMER 2016 ISSUE 47 ÉLÉGANCE Genève - Mies - Rolle - Morges - Yverdon - Bussigny - Lausanne - Lutry - Vevey - Montreux - Fribourg - Sion - Crans-Montana Paris - Monaco - London - Brussels - Lisbon - Moscow - Los Angeles - New York - Miami - St. Barts - Mauritius www.barnes-suisse.com Contents Issue 47 30 48 5 Editor’s letter and contributors FEATURES COLUMNS 18 Pop the hood 40 Platform: A new leaf 7 News and forthcoming Peter Blake tells Raffaella Barker George Shaw’s art is set in suburban highlights why he gave a Bentley Continental woodlands and unlikely green spaces. GT Convertible his trademark Pop Michael Prodger discovers how his 15 Inside Bonhams Art treatment residency at the National Gallery has Edward Wilkinson, Bonhams new influenced his work Executive Director in Asia, talks to 22 Left on the shelf Lucinda Bredin Francis Wheen traces the history 44 Carte blanche of a rare, inscribed first edition of The legendary San Franciscan 56 Food: Tomato catch up Karl Marx’s Das Kapital designer John Dickinson was a Tom Kemble, head chef one-off.Emma O’Kelly talks to his at Bonhams’ Michelin-starred 26 Claude almighty patrons about his extraordinary restaurant, reveals the secret Claude Lorrain was described by John interiors of the perfect gazpacho Constable as “the most perfect landscape painter the world ever saw”. 48 Battle of Paris 58 Travel: On the trail of Piero Jonathan Jones agrees Georges Mathieu’s works are enjoying Lucinda Bredin tours Tuscany a major revival – and about time, too, and Umbria in search of works 30 Fellow traveller argues Matthew Wilcox by early Renaissance master Cyril Reddihough was an important Piero della Francesca collector of Ben Nicholson’s work 52 A life in porcelain – and the painter’s best friend. Eve Newgas fled Vienna before the 61 Around the globe Jovan Nicholson marvels at the Anschluss with her family’s astonishing Matthew Wilcox previews extraordinary Reddihough collection collection of porcelain. The experience Bonhams’ sales around the world of St Ives’ masterpieces fostered a lifelong interest in ceramics, says Rachel Spence 64 International sales diary 36 The full English Waldemar Januszczak heralds 72 My favourite room William Dobson as the first great Sean Scully English portrait painter FRONT COVER Claude Lorrain (French, c.1600 - 1682) Pastoral Landscape (detail) See page 26 MOTORING EDITION See inside for details Bonhams 3 Editor’s letter We write a lot about artists in Bonhams suited to that momentous era, says Waldemar Januszczak, when Magazine, but perhaps not as much as the court had to rough it in Oxford rather than glide around we should about people who enable the Palace of Whitehall. We know little about Dobson himself; artists to create work – their patrons. In indeed his self-portrait, which is being offered in July’s Old Master this issue, we have a number of stories Paintings sale, is possibly the most revealing image he has left. Turn which show how important patronage to page 26 to find out more. and commissions are. For instance, one While Dobson was at the beck and call of Charles I, it could be of the most important collections of said that Leo and Marlys Keoshian were at the feet of legendary Philip Hollis British modernism – to be offered in the Californian furniture designer John Dickinson. They commissioned Modern British Art Sale in London this June – was assembled by him to redecorate their house in 1968 and didn’t change a thing Cyril Reddihough, a Yorkshire solicitor who heard about the works for almost half a century. This astonishing collection of furniture of a certain Ben Nicholson and went to visit him. Reddihough and fittings – stainless steel bath, anyone? – will be offered at came away transfixed, began a correspondence with the artist, went Bonhams Los Angeles in the autumn. on Tuscan holidays with him and bought works by him and other And sometimes an artist becomes a patron. When asked to help members of the St Ives group throughout his life. Nicholson later a hospice charity supported by Bentley, the great British artist Sir acknowledged that the help of Reddihough and his other patrons Peter Blake grabbed the steering wheel and designed the world’s was crucial: “The understanding they gave was invaluable and the first Pop Art Bentley Convertible. It will be sold in aid of the work which they bought kept us going.” Care2Save Charitable Trust at Bonhams’ Goodwood Festival of Before the 20th century, patrons were royal or noble. William Speed sale in June – and will doubtless achieve a heartening result. Dobson, famously described by the gossipy biographer John Aubrey as “the most excellent painter that England hath yet bred”, was Sarjeant Painter to the court of Charles I at the moment when the Civil War was about to ignite. Dobson’s robust style was perfectly Contributors ©Jason Bye Waldemar Januszczak Francis Wheen Raffaella Barker Emma O’Kelly Sean Scully One of Britain’s most The author might have been to The journalist and best-selling Emma O’Kelly began her career in Born in Ireland, raised in Croydon, distinguished critics, Januszczak, school (briefly) with Mark Thatcher novelist, whose latest work From journalism on Design Week where based in America, Sean Scully is also a presenter-director of arts and occasionally be mistaken for a Distance moves between a she interviewed Jonathan Ive who now on a triumphant tour with his documentaries, says he “could former Conservative Party leader Cornish post-war artists’ colony had just created the Apple mac works around the major museums not live happily without writing Iain Duncan Smith, but this hasn’t and present-day Norfolk, talks and was concerned it might not of China. The painter and about art”. On page 26, he stopped him from immersing to Sir Peter Blake about his fly. She is now Editor-at-Large printmaker, who has twice been celebrates the life and work of himself in the history of Marxism. life, work, taking his students for Wallpaper and also writes for nominated for the Turner Prize, William Dobson, the nation’s Here, Wheen, the author of an at the Royal College out for Telegraph Luxury, How to Spend explains why the Resnick Rotunda first great portrait painter, whose award-winning biography on Karl lunch – and giving a magnificent it and Mr Porter. On page 44, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art wonderful self-portrait is offered in Marx, writes about a rare, inscribed Bentley Continental GT a Pop Art she investigates the work of the is his favourite room. Turn July’s Old Masters sale in London. first edition of Das Kapital. makeover for charity. designer John Dickinson. to page 72. Follow us on Twitter: @bonhams1793; email: [email protected] Editor Lucinda Bredin Deputy Editor Matthew Wilcox Associate Editor Hilly Janes Features Assistant Isobel Cockerell Copy Editor Nick Mickshik Designer Nathan Brown Photographs Bonhams Photographic Department Advertising Enquiries Irene Michaelides; [email protected]; Paolo Russo; [email protected] Printed by Taylor Bloxham, published four times a year by Bonhams 1793 Ltd, 101 New Bond Street, London W1S 1SR Subscription (four issues) £25 for the UK, £30 for Europe or £35 for the rest of the world, inclusive of postage. Subscription Enquiries Linda Pellett, Bonhams +44 (0) 1666 502 200; ISSN 1745-2643. Issue 47 © Bonhams 1793 Ltd, 2016. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of Bonhams. All dates are correct at the time of publication. All sales are subject to Bonhams Terms & Conditions. Sale dates may be subject to alteration. Currency exchange rates correct at the time of publication. bonhams.com. Should you no longer wish to receive this magazine, contact [email protected] Bonhams 5 Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art Hong Kong Thursday 2 June 10.30am A pair of exceptionally rare imperial doucai waterpots Yongzheng six-character marks and of the period Estimate: HK$10,000,000 - 15,000,000 ($1,300,000 - 1,900,000) Enquiries: Asaph Hyman +44 (0) 20 7468 8248 [email protected] bonhams.com/chinese 6 Bonhams Clockwise from left: Samson Soboye, designer Daniel Lismore, Sorapol, Emma, Viscountess Weymouth and Maureen Lipman pose with their chairs T Chair lift Emma, Viscountess Weymouth, Maureen Lipman and Jonny Wilkinson were among those contributing designs to a collection of chairs sold at Bonhams in aid of CHIVA Africa in March, where the sale raised an astonishing £90,000 for charity. More than 30 celebrities, artists and designers – which News also included Made in Chelsea stars and Arsenal Football Club – took part in the In and out of event, Sitting Pretty. “It feels fitting for Bonhams to host this event and we were Bonhams’ salerooms very proud to help CHIVA Africa raise such a substantial amount,” said Giles Peppiatt, Bonhams Director of African Art. T Taking his medicine Damien Hirst first began work on his Medicine Cabinets series in 1988, during his second year at Goldsmiths’ College of Art in London. Constructing the MDF unit at home, he filled it with the empty packaging of his grandmother’s medication, which he had requested she leave to him in her will. A superlative example from this series is to be offered at Bonhams’ Post-War and Contemporary Sale in London in June.