A Colourful Time For Scottish Pictures

Sotheby’s Sale of Scottish Pictures this April will have at its heart one of the finest groups of Colourist works ever to have come to the market. Together the 40 Colourist works to be offered are expected to realise in excess of £2.5 million – by far the highest estimate for any such group of works ever offered at auction – and they will come to the market at a time when interest in them is as buoyant as ever.

Traditionally, Sotheby’s April sale has been held within the elegant spaces of Hopetoun House on the suburbs of Edinburgh but this year, the sale and the three day exhibition that precedes it will take place in central Edinburgh, at the city’s Assembly Rooms – a shift which coincides with Sotheby’s 40th anniversary of painting sales in Scotland.

Aside from the Colourist works in the sale, April’s offering will provide a rich showcase of other 20th-century Scottish art, including a challenging group of works by a number of cutting edge contemporary artists. The sale will take place on Thursday, April 26, 2007 and has a pre-sale estimate of £3.8 - 5.6 million.

Commenting on the sale, Andre Zlattinger, Director and Head of Scottish Pictures at Sotheby’s, said: “Not since the late 1980s has such a fine and valuable group of works by the Colourists come to the market, and the prospect of offering such a group now – when interest in this group of artists is so strong – is very exciting. Demand for quality works by the Colourists has seen a dramatic surge in recent years and we have continually seen new records set in each of our successive sales. We fully expect to see this trend confirmed in our forthcoming sale.” He also added – in relation to Sotheby’s new Edinburgh address for the first Scottish sale of the year: “We are looking forward to our change of location this April. We are bringing these Scottish masters to the heart of Edinburgh to make the whole event – and especially the pre-sale view – more accessible to a wider audience.”

The much-loved Colourist section of the sale will feature works by the ever-popular Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935), George Leslie Hunter (1877-1931), John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961), Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell (1883-1937) and also Estelle Rice (1879-1959), Margaret Morris (1891-1980) and John MacLauchlan Milne (1885-1957). The Colourists were all inspired by the French Impressionists and they helped advance Scottish art into a new era - their principle being to condense and enhance a subject as it was laid out before them into harmonies of tone and colour.

Every facet of the Colourist movement will be represented in April – works on paper, oils, early works, late works and significant examples from all artists – and all of the works are of exceptional quality and are fresh to the market. Last year Sotheby’s set a new auction record for a Colourist painting when Samuel John Peploe’s Still Life with Tulips sold for £523,200.

Public View at New Bond Street, London: -

Monday 2 April
Tuesday 3 April
Wednesday 4 April
Thursday 5 April
Tuesday 10 April
Wednesday 11 April
Thursday 12 April
Friday 13 April

Public View at The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh: -

Tuesday 24 April – 9am-5pm
Wednesday 25 April – 9am-5pm
Thursday 26 April – 9am-12.30pm