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Modern British and Irish Art

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Lot 56^AR

John Craxton R.A.
(British, 1922-2009)
Welsh Shepherd Asleep 20.3 x 27.6 cm. (8 x 10 7/8 in.)

29 May 2013, 14:00 BST

London, New Bond Street

Sold for £28,750 inc. premium

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Christopher Dawson

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Director

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Ingram.Reid@bonhams.com

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

Welsh Shepherd Asleep
signed 'Craxton' and indistinctly dated (lower right)
oil on board
20.3 x 27.6 cm. (8 x 10 7/8 in.)
Painted in 1943 (according to a label verso)

Footnotes

PROVENANCE:
With Christopher Hull Gallery, London

Welsh Shepherd Asleep relates closely to an illustration by Craxton which features on the frontispiece of Ruthven Todd's surrealist novel The Lost Traveller (see Fig.1), published by Wrey Gardiner's Grey Walls Press in 1943. The tale tells of a young protagonist, Christopher Aukland, who after a blitz bomb blast awakes to find himself, time suspended, in a hallucinatory desert. He embarks on an odyssey of surreal moments drawing him to a dystopian city from which he unsuccessfully attempts to escape. Christopher is accordingly sentenced with the impossible task of seeking his namesake bird, the extinct Great Auk. Upon this quest he is captured at sea and savagely beaten to death by hostile fisherman, finally metamorphosing into the penguin-like Great Auk itself.

As form of gratitude for his contribution to the novel, Craxton was given a Joan Miró work in lieu of a monetary payment.

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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