Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Auction!

Recently 2 privately owned George Stubbs paintings have come available at auction. The owner of these priceless (in my opinion) works of art died and his descendants decided to sell them at Sotheby's Auction House.

Brood Mares and Foals was painted in 1767 at the height of the renowned horse painter's career.

An undisclosed buyer made a successful bid totalling £10,121,250 for the 100cm by 187cm oil on canvas which was offered for sale for the first time.

Sotheby's, which had expected a sale in the range of £10m-£15m, said it was a record price for a work by Stubbs.

The painting was privately kept by the descendants of its original owner Colonel George Lane Parker, son of the second Earl of Macclesfield, for 237 years.

It was exhibited at the National Gallery in London in 2005 having only been shown twice before, both times in 1768.

Emmeline Hallmark, director of British Pictures at Sotheby's, said Stubbs - who published a book titled The Anatomy Of The Horse in 1766 - was "the greatest horse painter of his time".















This is the second George Stubbs painting.. but I have yet to find out any details about it.

5 comments:

SmartAlex said...

Mom used to have a full sized mural of this painting in our living room

http://www.oceansbridge.com/paintings/german/George_Stubbs_024_OBNP2009-Y09235.jpg

Jen said...

The second painting is 'Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath, with a Trainer, a Stableboy, and a Jockey'. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/8432672/George-Stubbss-Gimcrack-on-Newmarket-Heath-an-appreciation.html.

The first painting was sold in Dec for 10 million. Gimcrack is set to go to auction July 5th at Christie's Auction House and is estimated to fetch 20 million.

Gimcrack was painted in 1765 for Viscount Bolingbroke, who owned the horse. He was the most famous racehorse of the time. It was last sold in 1951 for £12,600.

Jen said...

The Independent wrote a good piece about it: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/16320m-price-tag-sees-stubbs-race-to-head-of-old-masters-field-2264388.html

Julie said...

Cool - thanks for filling in the blanks!!!

Justaplainsam said...

You guys are good!

I have a Degas race course pastel anyone want to take a look at it and tell me its history?

I'll post it on my blog