Elaine Kilmurray's Top Picks

No. 1

Lot 31: ‡ John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925), Constantinople, Watercolour over pencil | Est. £60,000-80,000 (+ fees)

"Sargent visited Istanbul only once, in 1891, during a trip to Egypt, Greece and Turkey as part of his research for the mural project he had undertaken for the Boston Public Library project. Here, he is painting the historic city from the northern bank of the estuary, looking south across the Golden Horn to the celebrated city silhouette, which is dominated by the dome and three of the four slender minarets of the sixteenth-century Süleymaniye Mosque. The skyline is described in super-soft mauve, grey and blue washes, which lend it a mood of ethereal mystery, quiet and stillness. In contrast, the foreground is a tangle of indeterminate forms realised in rich browns, which suggest the working waterway world of pier, shipping and masts."

No. 2

Lot 29: ‡ John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925), Venice Sailing Boat, Watercolour | Est. £30,000-50,000 (+ fees)

"Venice was important to Sargent as a real place, an aesthetic and architectural treasure trove and an idea. He painted it comprehensively and obsessively over many years, from its grand buildings to its arched footbridges and secluded side canals. There is little of historic Venice here. The Palladian church of San Giorgio Maggiore, seen across the lagoon, is an unsubstantial vision, a distant pastel haze. The foreground is an everyday Venetian working scene realised in the most summary way, a sailing boat casting its shadow on the water and a cluster of boat, freight and figure, but painted in luxuriant pigment, wet-on-wet. The slight bleeding from pigment into paper, the physical evidence of brush and paint, is captivatingly immediate."

No. 3

Lot 28: ‡ John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925), Judith Gautier by Lamplight, 1883, Wash and pencil | Est. £20,000- 30,000 (+ fees)

"Judith Gautier, daughter of the influential French critic and poet, Théophile Gautier, was a prolific writer, critic and scholar of Japanese and Chinese literature and, like Sargent, an ardent Wagnerian (she and the composer had an emotionally intense relationship towards the end of his life). Sargent represented her several times in different media in the early 1880s, a period when they were particularly close. Pen and wash sketches are relatively rare in Sargent’s oeuvre, and here she is shown leaning forward in an informal and confiding pose, her dark beauty softened by ambient lamplight, a crescent moon ornament in her hair indicated by a bold curve of reserve paper."

No. 4

Lot 47: Emily Sargent, Trees in the Gardens of the Villa Varramista, Watercolour | Est. £4,000-6,000 (+ fees)

"A corner of the Villa Varramista, a late Renaissance villa in the Val d’Arno, Tuscany. Emily Sargent concentrates on the upper portion of a tree with its leaves changing colour and some green foliage beneath and a slice of the upper section of the villa with its shallow tiled roof, all seen against a bright blue sky. It is an ‘unscenic’ view. not an obvious subject. Emily chooses a quirky angle of vision, evoking a whole from a segment rather than being simply literal or descriptive. The watercolour is dated 1908 on the reverse; Emily stayed at the villa with her brother and friends in the autumn of 1910 and she may have misremembered the date."

No. 5

Lot 52: Emily Sargent (American, 1857-1936), Courtyard with a Tree, Hammamet, Watercolour | Est. £4,000-6,000 (+ fees)

"Hammamet, is a coastal resort in Tunisia, where Emily Sargent’s younger sister Violet and her husband had a house and where Emily was a frequent visitor. The area and the environment provided Emily with paintable subject matter, seductive light and opportunity. Here, she paints a house in the local vernacular, describing it frontally with steps leading up to an arched, pale green door, and grounding it traditionally in a straightforward garden setting with a blue sky above. It is delicately drawn and painted: some darker splashes denoting patches of shadow on the whitewashed walls of the building show a nuanced and assured touch."

No. 6

Lot 20: λ Sir Matthew Smith (British 1879-1959), Flowers, Oil on canvas | Est. £20,00-30,000 (+ fees)

"Smith’s approach to painting was instinctive, direct and economical, an individual style that relied on the immediate application of paint to canvas, a bold attitude to colour and confident rhythms of line. In this still-life, the brightness of the palette and the rough handling impart great energy and a sense of spontaneity. The spirit of Matisse and Fauvism, imbibed during Smith’s years spent in France, is palpable."

No. 7

Lot 26: λ Henry Moore (British 1898-1986), ‘Reclining Figure Curved, Rough’, Bronze | Est. £15,000-25,000 (+ fees)

"It is so interesting and instructive to see a small-scale example of one of Henry Moore’s reclining figures when one is accustomed to seeing them on a monumental scale and in public places throughout the world. The reclining figure was a primarily important and recurring theme in his art. He experimented with the motif from the mid 1920s until the end of his life and it became the vehicle through which he explored the formal relationships between the human form, space and sculptural materials. Experiencing the motif at a scale smaller than the actual human body posed questions about the influences of both Pre-Columbian and classical art and about the processes of abstraction through which Moore put it."

No. 8

Lot 7: James Dickson Innes (British 1887-1914), Palm Trees at Collioure, Oil on canvas | £15,000-25,000 (+ fees)

"There are sun-drenched images of Collioure, a village situated on Mediterranean coast of southern France, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, by artists from André Derain to Matisse and Picasso. Innes, who came south from Wales and London when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, presents a different view from this near-idyllic vision. His palette is darker and deeper in tone (the palette in Lot 6 is distinctly brighter) and the naif, expressive style draws an elemental landscape with animated trees and a lowering sky: a primitive approach suggesting primitive energies in nature."

No. 9

Lot 10: ‡ Henri Le Sidanier (French 1862-1939), The Promenade au Clair de Lune, Pastel heightened with black | Est. £10,000-15,000 (+ fees)

"As a medium, pastel allowed Le Sidanier the softness of form he required to achieve his moody, intimist images. This is an unremarkable street scene in which nothing very much is happening. The quiet greys are relieved by strokes of black and slightly jagged strokes and illumined by yellow highlights to create a crepuscular streetscape with meditative undertones."

No. 10

Lot 16: Harold Gilman (British 1876-1919), The Rectory, Oil on board | Est. £8,000-12,000 (+ fees)

"There is something uncompromising about this enclosed composition: the lower section of a building with a figure beneath a parasol seated outside it but without sky or context to place it in space. Gilman’s strong colour and the mosaic-like painting style - the thick impasto strokes - privilege form over content in an audacious and challenging manner.  The picture is a physical expression of Gilman’s commitment to realism, his enthusiasm for the work of the Post-Impressionists, especially Van Gogh, and the defiance of his role in the contemporary art world."

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Auction Details

Tuesday 7 July 2026, 3pm BST
Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2JE

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