Several female artists led the charge at Cheffins' recent Art & Design sale, the company’s best sale to do date of this discipline, with works by Elisabeth Vellacott and Catherine Giles achieving record prices for the artists and sales significantly above catalogue estimate prices.
18/11/2024 Fine Art, Paintings, Drawings & Prints
Elisabeth Vellacott’s work – ‘Pebble Beach: Rocks and Paddlers’, circa late 1970s (pictured above), sold for £19,000, a record for the artist, whilst ‘Inside Outside 2: The Ghosts in the Garden’, dated 1966, achieved £13,000. Both works trounced their £3,000-£5,000 catalogue estimates.
Portraits by Catherine Giles from the Quentin Stevenson collection also sold well with a pencil drawing of Jessica Dismorr circa 1905-08, selling for £2,200 and an oil on gessoed board self-portrait, circa 1930 (pictured below), going under the hammer for £5,500 – over ten times its £300-£500 and also a record for the artist.
Brett Tryner comments: “All of the Vellacott and Giles pictures were from the collection of Quentin Stevenson. He was a close friend of Vellacott and was also her executor. The successful sales demonstrate the re-awakening of interests in female artists who, whilst were admired in their lifetime, never quite reached the levels of collectability as some of their contemporaries.
Historically, art market sales have been dominated by male artists, but a ‘Women Artists Market Report’ highlighted that the total price of women artists’ works sold at auction has risen by 194% between 2012 and 2022, from $350.6 million to $1.03 billion.
Brett adds: “It’s encouraging to see that the tide is turning for female artists, a trend that will hopefully continue”.