Female British artists headline sale

Four of the twentieth century’s leading female British artists will headline the Modern Art and Design sale at Cotswold-based Chorley’s Auctioneers on November 20.

Fine examples of work by Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970), Dod Procter (1890-1972), Anna Zinkeisen (1901-1976) and Lucie Rie (1902-1995) will be offered for sale at Chorley’s among 150 other modern and contemporary art pieces.

Dame Laura Knight is the most well known of the artists – favouring an arresting, impressionist style that met with great commercial success. Chorley’s will offer an oil on canvas entitled Derby Day, Epsom (est. £60,000-100,000). The artwork comes from a series of paintings depicting the races at Epsom and Ascot, which Knight first visited in the early 1930s. It is a particularly strong example, identifying the viewer with the spectators’ sense of absorption and excitement.

Chorley’s will also offer two vases by another pioneer of British modernism, Lucie Rie. She was one of the finest and most experimental British studio ceramicists of the twentieth century, who had to contend with an overwhelmingly male environment as she made her name. Two notable examples of Rie’s work are offered in the sale – volcanic and white glaze vases estimated at £12,000-18,000 and £15,000-20,000 respectively.

Dod Procter favoured a realistic yet highly individual style and became one of the earliest female members of the Royal Academy when elected in 1942 (her friend Laura Knight was elected in 1936). Procter is most celebrated for her thoughtful portraits of young women, but the oil on canvas portrait offered by Chorley’s is unusual in depicting a young man. It retains the androgyny for which the artist is well known and carries a guide price of £6,000-8,000.

Anna Zinkeisen was an underrated British modernist whose bold and theatrical style is only now being reassessed. Chorley’s will offer the unique canvas, All the Colours of the Rainbow (1942), which was commissioned by Imperial Chemical Industries to promote the production of chemical dyes. Zinkeisen’s execution belies the painting’s commercial origins, resulting in a dreamlike and surreal piece that must be counted among her finest pictures. It carries an appealing estimate of £1,000-1,500.

Thomas Jenner-Fust, auctioneer and director at Chorley’s said “All four of these artists were working at a time when the British art world was overwhelmingly patriarchal, yet each established themselves as leading lights of Modern British Art. They were diverse in their subject matter, which ranged from light-hearted snapshots of high society to historically important depictions of the Second World War. We are delighted to offer such important works by these influential female artists and expect strong bidding on the day.”