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Modern British and Irish Art

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Lot 54^AR

John Craxton R.A.
(British, 1922-2009)
Fisherman and boy 20.9 x 22.8 cm. (8 1/4 x 9 in.)

29 May 2013, 14:00 BST

London, New Bond Street

Sold for £16,250 inc. premium

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Christopher Dawson

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Director

Tel: +44 20 7468 8297

Ingram.Reid@bonhams.com

John Craxton R.A. (British, 1922-2009)

Fisherman and boy
signed and dated 'Craxton/42' (lower right) and inscribed 'for Nick with love.' (lower centre)
pencil and crayon on card
20.9 x 22.8 cm. (8 1/4 x 9 in.)

Footnotes

PROVENANCE:
Gifted by the artist to the present owner circa 1980s

In 1942 John Craxton, turning 20 that autumn, was in full flow as an innovative artist – working in London with Lucian Freud and in Dorset with E.Q. Nicholson, and being mentored by Peter Watson and Graham Sutherland. Always dazzling, his drawings of this period were at their most surreal, often bearing oblique war-time metaphors. This benign image relates to a kraken series in which Craxton, punning on his name, created alienated and sometimes monstrous figures. He loved metamorphosis and his fluid marine forms would finally surface as a big-eyed, ink-loaded cuttlefish on the cover of the 1944 anthology Visionary Poems and Passages or The Poet's Eye.

We are grateful to Ian Collins for compiling this catalogue entry.

Additional information

The 29 May sale was the departments most successful auction to date making almost £5m.
Furthermore, it was 90% sold by value with some staggering results achieved for fresh, competitively priced material sourced from private collections. Over half of sold lots soared above their high estimates, indicating that Bonhams is best positioned to secure the best price for your Modern British & Irish Art.
The variety on offer within this genre continues to delight buyers, proven by exceptional results for post-war masters such as Auerbach, Scully, Hockney and Freud whilst the early-mid century examples by Spencer, Lavery, Burra and Moore also exceeded expectation. We were proud to break our own world auction record twice over in the same sale for a pencil drawing by L.S. Lowry. Agecroft Regatta sold for £211,250, pipping The Organ Grinder (£151,250) to the title. The sculpture and Irish content were similarly contended for by the packed saleroom and busy telephones.
The cover lot Garden Path, Cookham Rise by Sir Stanley Spencer fetched an impressive £769,250 while the much admired Oil-bound Puffin by Lucian Freud commanded £385,250 on the day, with both returning to private collections.
We are delighted to now invite consignments for the forthcoming auction on 20 November 2013.
Please contact a member of the department or visit the sale webpage for further information.
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