Roseberys’ Modern British & 20th Century Art auction is led by the discovery of two works by Isabel Rawsthorne. These important paintings were originally believed by the owner to be by Francis Bacon. The anonymous vendor inherited the works from their grandfather, a former friend of Bacon’s. Following new research by Roseberys, their true attribution has been confirmed. Although best known as Bacon’s collaborator and sitter, Rawsthorne played a central role in Post-War figurative painting, influencing and being depicted by artists such as Jacob Epstein, Alberto Giacometti, and André Derain. The newly attributed works, painted during her mature period, explore themes Isabel would return to throughout her career; animal and vegetal forms and the body in motion. They carry estimates of £8,000-£12,000.
Two works by Isabel Rawsthorne in Part I of Roseberys' Modern British sale
Rawsthorne led an itinerant life, often abandoning her work due to moves or romantic separations. As a result, little of her art is seen on the open market, making new discoveries rare. Despite having few solo exhibitions in her lifetime, interest in her work has grown following a recent biography by Carol Jacobi, Curator of British Art 1850-1915 at Tate Britain, and a major feature in the recent exhibition 'Francis Bacon: Human Presence' at the National Portrait Gallery.
Born in London’s East End and raised in Liverpool, Rawsthorne won a scholarship to the Royal Academy but left after six months due to financial constraints, becoming Jacob Epstein’s studio assistant. She later immersed herself in the avant-garde circles of Paris and London, forming relationships with Jean-Paul Sartre, Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti. Her intimate relationship with Giacometti was rooted in a shared commitment to representational art, which she maintained throughout her career.
After the war, she settled in London and became friends with Francis Bacon. Bacon painted fourteen portraits of Isabel and they shared a close artistic and intellectual engagement throughout their lives. Bacon and Rawsthorne would go on to share an exhibition at the Hanover Gallery in 1949.
One of the auctioned works, Baboon, signed with a monogram, relates to Baboon and Child (c. 1964) in the Tate Collection. Rawsthorne, who sketched at London Zoo throughout her life, was elected a Zoological Society of London Fellow in 1947. Like Bacon, she saw the baboon as a reflection of man’s animalistic nature, and her dynamic brushwork evokes a tension between physicality and fragility.
Lot 218: Isabel Rawsthorne, Baboon, oil on canvas, signed with monogram lower right
The work entitled Stoat with Moon (with 'Dancers' on the reverse is from the artist’s ‘Migrations’ series, which reflect her experiences of the Essex countryside, where she lived after the war. Here the scale is simultaneously micro and macroscopic, with vegetal and animal forms floating in abstract shapes of colour that could be a view down a microscope or of a constellation. The form of the stoat floating in a blue sphere is depicted twice, one more detailed than the other, suggesting a developing organism within a cell.
Lot 219: Isabel Rawsthorne, Stoats and Moon, c.1984 (with 'Dancers' on the reverse), c.1970s
Dancers, on the reverse, stems from her time designing sets and costumes for The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera (1951-1961), introduced to her through her second husband, composer Constant Lambert. Rawsthorne often sketched ballet dancers, capturing the ephemeral quality of movement. Related works, Svetlana Beriosova – Study of Ballet Dancer (1) and Study of a Ballet Dancer (2), are in the Fry Art Gallery collection.
“Isabel Rawsthorne was a painter of great vitality, capturing something essential and urgent in the natural world. Strikingly modern, she is too often overshadowed by the men she inspired. These works are central to her oeuvre, and we are delighted to bring them to auction,” said William Summerfield, Associate Director and Head of Modern British & 20th Century Art at Roseberys.
Lot 202: Keith Vaughan, Landscape, 1953
Other highlights of Roseberys’ Modern British & 20th Century Art sale include an important landscape by Keith Vaughan and seminal Nigerian modernist Uche Okeke’s Mural for the Children's Library in Enugu, from the family of the artist. Following a successful sale in 2024, further works from the collection of Mary and Alan Hobart, founders of Pyms Gallery, will be auctioned, including paintings and sculpture by Mary Swanzy, Leonard Baskin and Sir William Orpen.
Lot 374: Uche Okeke, Mural for the Children's Library in Enugu, c.1964
Running alongside the sale will be ‘French Naturalist Painters from a Private European Collection’. Previously exhibited with The Fleming Collection in 2012 and held in the same collection for many decades, the auction features works by painters including Willy Eisenschitz, Ginès Parra and Gaston Balande.
Lot 1056: Willy Eisenschitz, Austrian 1889-1974 - Paysage de la Drôme, 1955
Newsletter Signup
Newsletter
