Roseberys’ March Modern British Sales set new auction records for pioneering twentieth-century female artists Paule Vézelay and Léa Decamps-Lafugie. Vézelay’s Five Forms: Orange, Brown, Red and Grey on White (1959) achieved £22,304, more than doubling its £8,500-£9,000 estimate, making it the most valuable work on paper by the artist ever sold at auction. Meanwhile, two oil-on-canvas works by Decamps-Lafugie, offered in a standalone sale of French Naturalist Painters from a Private Collection, sold for £13,120 and £11,152, marking the highest prices achieved for her works in this category. Across two days, Roseberys’ Modern British & 20th Century Art auctions surpassed half a million pounds in hammer total.
Lot 194: Paule Vézelay, British 1892-1984 - Five Forms: Orange, Brown, Red and Grey on White, 1959 pastel on paper
A Bristol-born abstract artist, Vézelay moved to Paris in 1926, adopting her new name to align with the avant-garde currents of the city. She exhibited at the Salon des Superindépendants, earning praise from Christian Zervos, and was a member of Abstraction-Création alongside Jean Arp and Marlow Moss. Invited by André Bloc to establish a London branch of Groupe Espace, Vézelay played a key role in modernist European art. Her auction record-setting work is a variation on Yellow Circle (1956), held in the Arts Council Collection, London. Currently, her oeuvre is the subject of Living Lines, an exhibition at Bristol’s RWA museum.
Lot 1012: Léa Decamps-Lafugie, French 1890-1972 - L'opéra au Japon, oil on canvas
Decamps-Lafugie’s two Orientalist paintings depict a Japanese opera scene and a Thai woman amid orchids. One of the first known Western women to explore Southeast Asia extensively in the 1920s, she became renowned for her vivid portrayals of the region’s cultural life. Influenced by Post-Impressionist masters who made similar journeys to the Far East, her work captures both landscapes and nightlife with remarkable virtuosity. Her paintings, most recently exhibited in Du fleuve Rouge au Mékong (Musée Cernuschi, Paris, 2012), were fiercely contested over the phones and online before selling to a British private collector.
Lot 1011: Léa Decamps-Lafugie, French 1890-1972 - Siamoise et orchidées; oil on canvas
“These two twentieth-century female artists, long overlooked, are finally receiving their dues, setting records at auction in 2025. With strong results for Fleur Cowles, Beryl Cook and Joana Vasconcelos, this is an exciting moment for underrepresented female artists in the middle market, and we anticipate further momentum,” commented William Summerfield, Associate Director and Head of Modern British & 20th Century Art at Roseberys.
Lot 481: Joana Vasconcelos, Portuguese b.1971 - Poirot, 2015
Further highlights included a ceramic frog by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, selling for £6,560 against an estimate of £3,000-£5,000. This work exemplifies her fusion of high and low materials, addressing feminist concerns around traditionally female-associated crafts like sewing and crochet. A similar work is held by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC.
Lot 350: Beryl Cook, British 1926-2008 - Warthog, c.1982
Works by Beryl Cook and Fleur Cowles also exceeded estimates, selling for £10,469 and £6,035, respectively. Both feature animals in surreal, floriate settings. Finally, an oil on canvas by Philip Wilson Steer of Harwich Estuary flew over its high estimate of £15,000, realising a price of £31,440. This marks an upwards trajectory for the British Impressionist at auction.
Lot 2: Philip Wilson Steer OM, British 1860-1942 - Harwich Estuary with Shipping, 1913
Newsletter Signup
Newsletter
