Artworks from Wilfred and Jeannette Cass estate in sale

Bellmans is offering a selection of paintings, prints and sculpture from the Estate of the late Wilfred and Jeannette Cass in the forthcoming sale of Modern British & 20th Century Art at Bellmans Sussex on 15th November 2022. The works were displayed at their stunning Bauhaus-style home, Hathill Copse on the North-Eastern edge of
the Goodwood estate.

The superb modernist house, designed in 1975 by architects John and Heather Lomax, to plans inspired by Serge Chermayeff, provided precisely the setting that Wilfred and Jeannette were searching for. Wilfred said about the house: “As my wife and I headed towards our seventies together, we knew it was time for a dramatic change. We wanted a new home in the country, and we wanted to create a project together that would not just occupy our time, but become our passion.”

That passion was The Cass Sculpture Park, a charitable foundation to promote the work of young sculptors to a global audience. In 1996, four years after its founding, the charity won the National Arts Collection Funds prize for “Promoting Enjoyment of the Visual Arts” and in 2006 Wilfred was awarded a CBE.

Art was always central to Wilfred and Jeannette’s life. Wilfred was born in Berlin in 1924, a descendant of the famous Cassirer family. After working as a research engineer in London and studying communication technology at Regent Street Polytechnic he, along with his son Mark, set up Image Bank UK, part of The Image Bank which was successfully sold to Getty Images in 2001. From 1987 Wilfred was Chairman and Chief Executive of Moss Bros Plc and the company’s fortunes were turned around under his leadership. His uncle Paul Cassirer had been a highly successful dealer handling the works of Cezanne and Van Gogh.

He and Jeannette were associated with some of the most important names in modern British art, counting the likes of Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Michael Ayrton and Elizabeth Frink amongst their closest friends. Highlights from the collection include a seminal Hockney print Pool Made with Paper and Blue Ink, estimated at £20,000-£30,000, a fine selection of prints by Henry Moore, a stunning watercolour by Peter Blake, estimated at £3,000-£5,000, as well as works by RB Kitaj, Marini Marini, and sculpture by Jean Derval, Karlheinz Goedtke and Livio Seguso.