East Anglian art leads Essex sale
Rare paintings by the Essex designer of the iconic wartime Keep Calm and Carry On poster will feature in Colchester-based Reeman Dansie’s bi-annual auction of East Anglian Art and Artists.
Essex painter and designer Ernest Wallcousins (1883-1976) began his career in North America, before settling in Leigh-on-Sea. He was well known for his design and book illustrations and was particularly prominent during the WWII period, his work including a 1945 portrait from life of Winston Churchill, he is however best known as the designer of the Keep Calm and Carry On poster.
His work is almost never seen at auction and the two paintings included in the auctioneer’s sale on May 1 are typical of his more usual fantasy illustration style, said to be the inspiration for many modern-day fantasy, ‘sword-n-sandals’ illustrators. One example entitled Fantasy is estimated at £1,500-2,500.
The painting features in a huge auction of 350 lots, celebrating the artistic heritage of the East Anglian region. With works of art spanning over three centuries, highlights include a rare snowballing scene by 19th-century Ipswich artist Thomas Smythe (1825-1906), estimated at £2,500-3,500; a Suffolk landscape by Hadleigh artist Lucy Harwood (1893-1972), estimated at £2,000-3,000; and a Leonard Squirrell (1893-1979) watercolour of Chelsworth, guided at £1,200-1,800.
The auction house said the sale, which runs from April 30 to May 2, is a veritable who’s-who of local art and other notable artists include John Sell Cotman, John Crome, Thomas Churchyard, John Moore, Edward Bawden, John Nash, Harry Becker and Maggi Hambling.
