Phillips bids for a share of modern market
Number three auctioneer Phillips continues to seek to expand its activities beyond the niche contemporary art sector in which it formerly specialised. Last week, it appointed Elizabeth Goldberg to head up a new department for 19th-and
early 20th-century American art. Previously head of American art at Sotheby’s, Goldberg was responsible for such impressive sales records as $44million for a Georgia O’keeffe painting in 2014 and $46million for a Norman Rockwell in 2013.
Recently it has been noted, too, how under the guidance of special adviser Hugues Joffre, Phillips has sold major modern European works by Picasso, Miró and Matisse. But one man is not enough to develop these initiatives, and Phillips has little to offer in terms of impressionist and modern art in the forthcoming New York sales. That may now change, as it is said to be hiring David Norman, who was a specialist in impressionist and modern art at Sotheby’s for 30 years, and who oversaw the sale of the first $100million painting, Picasso’s Garçon
à la Pipe, in 2004. Norman rose to become worldwide chairman for the division, and a vice-president of Sotheby’s North America, before he left in 2016 to set up his own business.
A little over a thousand pounds could buy you a glimpse into one of British history’s greatest love stories. When Admiral Lord Nelson returned to England from Italy in 1801, where he had fallen in love with Emma, the wife of the British envoy Sir William Hamilton, he bought Merton Place, a grand manor near Wimbledon. The three of them lived in a scandalous ménage à trois before
Nelson was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805; he called it “Paradise Merton”. About 100 years later – by which time the house had long fallen into disrepair and had been mostly demolished – the Victorian artist Henry John Sylvester Stannard (1870-1951) painted the house and its luxurious gardens as they had been.
Stannard’s vibrant watercolour was discovered in a trunk belonging to the Stannard family, where it had been for more than 50 years. Bought by Elford Fine Art in Devon 20 years ago, it is being offered for sale for the first time at The Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair next week.