So, what is ‘British Impressionism’?
Is it a genuine phenomenon, or a marketing construct? Colin Gleadell reports on a new kind of sale at Christie’s
The first ever sale devoted to “British impressionism” goes on view at Christie’s in London this weekend, raising questions concerning whether there was such a thing, given the almost complete association of the movement with France, or whether it is perhaps a marketing construct.
For those unfamiliar with the term, some late-19th-century critics occasionally used the word “impressionism” in relation to British artists – Whistler’s nocturnes, for instance, or the “plein air” rural naturalism of Stanhope Forbes or George Clausen.
But for most of the 20th century, “British impressionism” was too vague a term to gain currency in art-historical studies. It really came to the fore in the Eighties’ art market, through the efforts of dealer David Messum, to enhance the standing of artists of the Newlyn School, such as Forbes and Clausen, whose work he sold.
His academic ally was Kenneth Mcconkey of the Newcastle Polytechnic, who used the phrase as the title for a book in 1989. More recently, Tate Britain has included it as a catch-all in its glossary of art terms, describing it as “forms of impressionism” practised by artists in the British Isles who were “influenced by French impressionism”.
It was not until this century, though, that the salerooms picked up the baton. Standard Victorian art was struggling, so impressionistic paintings, previously included in Modern British, were transferred to Victorian sales to liven things up, the phrase “British impressionist” added to their sales titles.
Now, their segregation within the Victorian market could provide a focus to further stimulate supply and demand. As Brandon Lindberg of Christie’s explains: “The term ‘impressionism’ is a complicated but potent one. People buy into it. We decided to separate the ‘impressionists’ from the more conventional Victorian works to make for a more digestible sale.”
The content of the new sale, though, is uncomfortably diverse. Close to the French impressionism we are familiar with are a rediscovered portrait of a girl in white by John Singer Sargent, a girl in a hayfield by George Clausen, and a mill pool by Alfred Munnings that resembles Monet’s water lily pond at Giverny.
But to categorise other works in the sale – a formal society portrait by John Lavery, for example, or a realistic depiction of gipsy life by Laura Knight – as “impressionist”, even though the artists may at some other point have displayed the influence of impressionism, is verging on the ridiculous.
Christie’s is clearly stretching the definition, but, says Lindberg: “We have to be commercial.”
A news report in the Antiques Trade Gazette tells how a Dorchester auctioneer was fined more than £18,000 for advertising fake works for sale purportedly by the primitive Cornish artist Alfred Wallis, whose genuine works can fetch more than £100,000.
At the back of the paper, a cleverly timed advertisement appeals to those who just want the Wallis style, asking for “outlets for authentic-looking original paintings in the style of Alfred Wallis”.
On afteralfredwallis.co.uk, artist Max Wildman offers quite passable pastiches, which he signs and dates on the back, for between £75 and £245. Pop star and photography collector Elton John could be forgiven for dreaming about Man Ray’s 1926 photograph of his lover holding an African mask, Noire et Blanche, which John hangs behind his bed at home in Atlanta. Last week, another print of this image sold in Paris for £2.4million – a record for any non-contemporary photographic work at auction.
Mystery surrounds the star lot in Bonhams’ sale of Japanese lacquer art from the respected Misumi Collection in London last week. The Meiji period (1868-1912) black lacquer panel depicting crickets on long grasses against a silver moon by Shibata Zeshin was estimated at £150,000, but withdrawn just before the sale.
Bonhams confirmed after the auction that it had been sold privately, but neither the price nor the buyer was divulged. Specialist Asian art dealer Sydney Lmoss currently has a group of Zeshin’s work for sale priced between £20,000 and £40,000, but the Bonhams work, it says, is bigger and equivalent to a similar panel by Zeshin that sold for £842,500 three years ago. Presumably, therefore, someone made an offer that was far in excess of the estimate and which Bonhams could not refuse. Bets are that the panel is headed for a museum in the Gulf.