Beyond trenches
Like many young British men unfortunate enough to be born in the late 19th century, Harry Epworth Allen was caught up in the bloody carnage of the First World War – and paid a heavy price.
Born at 36 William Street, in the Broomhall district of Sheffield in 1894, the talented artist was posted to France as a private in the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1916, sketching enemy equipment and locations in the field. After being moved to the front line, he won the Military Medal for gallantry under heavy shell fire on January 25, 1917.
He found his officer buried in a dugout but while trying to get him out a shell fell close by, burying him too and causing serious wounds to both legs. Allen saved the officer’s life by digging himself free and calling for help but French hospital surgeons could not save one of his legs, which was amputated above the knee.
Allen showed a remarkable talent for art from childhood
The distinctive landscapes of a one-legged Yorkshire war hero are capturing the attention of today’s art world. John Vincent reports.
and, after working as a clerk in Arthur Balfour’s steelworks, enrolled at the Sheffield Technical School of Art in 1912. It was to stand him in good stead postwar and, after being made redundant, he turned to painting full time in 1925, becoming a member of a number of art societies, including Sheffield Society of Artists, Hallamshire Sketch Club (later Hallamshire Art Society), Heeley Art Club and, from 1952, the Pastel Society. He exhibited 39 works at the Royal Academy over 23 years from 1933 and his semi-surreal, stylised landscapes can be found in the collections of the British Museum, the Government Art Collection and Hepworth Wakefield. Despite his prodigious talent, one the 20th century’s most distinctive interpreters of landscape became something of a forgotten figure, until recently when a few of his more powerful images, mainly in oils, started to fetch several thousands of pounds. Now, with observers predicting increased interest in the prolific Allen’s works on paper, a collection of some 200 such images, previously unseen on the open market, is to surface at Tennants. The collection was bought by the current vendor around the turn of the millennium direct from Allen’s studio via the artist’s widow Lucy, whom he married in 1925.
The first batch of 20, all with relatively modest estimates, go under the hammer on October 9 and there could be some bargains. Highlights include Lady at Piano, possibly his wife (est. £250-£400), Haystack (£180-250), Rambler and Bus and Car (both £100-£150), Farm Buildings (£150-£250) and Plough and Sacks (both £80-£120).
Allen, who lived in Sheffield all his life, specialised in landscapes of South Yorkshire, North Derbyshire and Ireland, which he visited for the first time in
1936 with fellow Sheffield artist William Archibald Gunn (1877-1966). He died from a coronary thrombosis at his home in Banner Cross Road in 1958, aged 63.
Going loco: A Bing for Bassett-Lowke live steam Midland Railway locomotive and tender made £3,600 at a Tennants toys, models, collectables and sporting sale. It was sold with its original 1923 receipt (for £15 3s 6d). An original film poster for the 1949 black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, starring Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood, Valerie Hobson and Alec Guinness (playing nine characters) went for £2,160.
Moore’s nude: An 11cm by 16.5cm bronze by Henry Moore, Reclining Nude, Crossed Feet, from an edition of nine, has a guide price of £60,000-£80,000 at a Dreweatts of Newbury, Berkshire, sale of Modern and Contemporary Art on October 12.
Fair exchange: The Northern Antiques Fair enters a new era when it moves from Harrogate, where it was held from 1951, to the Garden Rooms at Tennants in Leyburn. The next fair runs from September 30-October 3.
Pilot study: Hull-born Henry Redmore’s maritime oil on canvas
Picking up the pilot realised £4,750 at the Salisbury, Wiltshire, salerooms of Woolley & Wallis. Shipping in choppy waters, by a pier, attributed to Redmore, made £2,250.
Window shopper: An ecclesiastical metal-framed stained and painted glass window, featuring St Thaddaeus, apostle and martyr, standing holding a Bible and cross, realised £610 at Hartleys of Ilkley.
Worth a mint: A George VI gold proof set from
1937 proved star lot at a Tennants sale of coins, tokens and banknotes, fetching £11,040. The cased coins were struck and housed at the Royal Mint and consisted of £5, £2, sovereign and half-sovereign. One of the rarest items in the sale was a George V “hollow neck” penny from 1911, so named because of the distinctive indentation to the back of the new monarch’s neck. The coin, in extremely fine condition, sold for £2,160.