East Anglian artists highlights in sale

Works by leading East Anglian artists, including Edward Seago, Arthur Munnings and Sir John Alfred Arnesby Brown are among the highlights of a Norfolk sale later this month.

Also included in the 350-lot auction held by Keys Fine Art Auctioneers in Aylsham, Norwich, are many works by artists of the Norwich School – including pictures by all four famous Cotmans (John Sell, John Joseph, Miles Edward and Frederick George), Henry Bright and James Stark.

The sale will also offer an unprecedented 19 works by Stephen Batchelder, as well as the first part of the extensive collection of the late Peter Kennedy Scott, who was the oracle on the Norwich School of Artists until his recent death.

Some of the highlights of the sale include:

• An Alfred Munnings watercolour of a ‘Romantic Couple’, measuring 16” x 12”, painted in 1906, a time when the artist was mainly designing and drawing advertising posters.  The work has been in private hands since it was painted, and this will be the first time the work has been seen publicly for over a century.  It has a pre-sale estimate of £12,000-£15,000.
• An oil on board painting of ‘Walton Backwater, Essex’ by Edward Seago, measuring 24” x 16”, painted in the artist’s typical impressionistic style.  It has a pre-sale estimate of £25,000-£30,000.
• Another work by Edward Seago, a watercolour of ‘Old Houses at Middleberg’, measuring 15” x 11”.  It has a pre-sale estimate of £4,000-£6,000.
• Five works by John Arnesby Brown, including an oil on canvas view of Morston in Norfolk, which has a pre-sale estimate of £8,000-£10,000.

Keys general manager and head of fine art Kevin Lines said, “Our East Anglian Art Sales have grown both in numbers and quality of lots, and they are now the most important sales of works by East Anglian artists anywhere.” He continued, “Demand  is buoyant for these artists, such that we now run the East Anglian Sale twice a year.  This region has long been a globally-important hub for painters, and as such has attracted some of the UK’s leading artists to live and work here.”