The Westbridge Report

Don’t miss out on the opportunity for excellent end-of-season deals with Westbridge’s Summer Fine Art Clearance Sale! This timed-online sale is running exclusively via Invaluable.com, and closes Thursday, July 21st at 5pm pst. To view the catalogue and register for bidding, please CLICK HERE. This sale features a wide selection of paintings, prints and sculpture, with some lots starting as low as $30!

The 2016 print edition of the Canadian Art Sales Index will be arriving soon! For more information, please visit our publications website, or contact us by toll-free telephone at 877-736-1014 or email at info@westbridgepublications.com. Check back shortly for new details!

Auke Cornelis Sonnega (Dutch 1910 – 1963) “Balinese Woman” Oil on canvas, 20″ 15.75″

Westbridge Auctions is pleased to present a sale of  Important Canadian & International Works of Art, taking place live-online exclusively through Invaluable.com on Sunday, March 29th at 2pm pst. To view the catalogue and register for live and absentee bidding on Invaluable, just CLICK HERE.

Offered in our June 24th auction.

Westbridge Fine Art Auction House is pleased to present a sale of Important Canadian & International Works of Art on June 24th at 2pm PST. This sale includes both paintings and prints by artists such as A.Y. Jackson, Stanley Cosgrove, Roland Gissing, Norval Morrisseau, Thomas Roberts, Mildred Valley Thornton, Ronald Jackson, W.J. Phillips, Edward Seago, Alfred Fontville de Breanski Jr. and Jan Korthals.

This sale will take place live in the saleroom and live online via Artfact.com. Online bidding and registration may be done here.

Mother & Child on Beach by Ron Hedrick

Visit art2auction.com to view the catalogue for our affiliate site’s upcoming auction!

Check back soon for new updates to the Westbridge Blog!

Peter Brueghel the Younger's The Massacre of the Innocents fetched 4.6m pds.stlg. at Sotheby's, the highest price of the summer Old Master season.

We have seen in recent weeks that the impressionist, contemporary and modern art markets in London and New York have not fared too well (down as much as 72% according to one analyst) as a result of a brutal world economy and relatively minor offerings. Such is not the case with the Old Master market. In fact, it’s just the opposite. While the Impressionists & Co. take a heady dive, the OMs, as witnessed in the recent series of sales in London, are going in the other direction.

Sotheby’s and Christie’s posted combined sales July 7^th & 8^th of over 56 million pounds sterling with a fairly high lots sold percentage. Sotheby’s in particular were impressive, with their sale on July 8^th taking in 36m pds. stlg., compared to 33m pds. stlg. for their summer impressionist auction, and 25m pds. stlg. for their modern and contemporary sales.

Not only did the Old Master departments not have a problem finding suitable and substantial material to offer, estimates, according to Sotheby’s department co-chairman George Gordon “are no lower than two years ago – the market has been maintained.”

The top selling Old Master this summer was Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s The Massacre of the Innocents, considered by many to be his finest version of the popular subject. Painted circa 1605-10, it sold at Sotheby’s for 4.6m pds. stlg., almost double the low estimate.

When I was in New York a couple of years ago watching, among other things, the sale of J.M.W. Turner’s Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio, which made a record $32 million at Christie’s, I was speaking with the firm’s department head about the state of the Old Master market at that time, and in particular the fact that it seemed of all markets to be less swayed by trendy buyers and burgeoning financial markets. He agreed, comparing it more to a solid, blue chip mutual fund – well, a mutual fund of two years ago, not recent months! – than a risky stock venture with potentially higher yields. It was, and still is, a much smaller, more specialised market where most of the clients are known, and price surprises remain the exception rather than the rule.

One interesting fact, however, that he did impart was that he was seeing more and more young, wealthy collectors who were active in the impressionist, modern and contemporary markets swinging over to the Old Masters. The reason, he said, was that these clients realised that they could buy masterpieces by renowned Old Masters for a fraction of what they were paying for contemporary works. In other words, they recognised, at least on a monetary level, what great value for money the Old Masters were compared to the rest of the fine art markets.

Clearly those values remain today despite the global financial crisis. Some would say it’s just reward for the skilful, labour-intensive masterworks of the Old Master period versus the split-second tantrum-inspired colour splashes that have dominated much of the 20^th century. Others would say crap and leave it at that. Either way, it’s sad that Canada wasn’t around in the 16^th century, because we might have been able to sink our hard earned dollars into a Jusepe de Paulo Riopelli rendition of Prometheus, or a Jacubo Giuliano Bushini execution of The Madonna and Child and enjoy a slow, but steady upward growth rather than the wild fluctuations of our present-day contemporary markets.

Ciao!

Tom Lamb by Leo Mol, sold for $41,000 at auction. Image courtesy of Dominion Auction Gallery, Winnipeg

He may not have been Canada’s top selling sculptor, although to be truthful he wasn’t far off the pace, but it could be argued that he was one of the most popular, particularly in the salerooms. There have not been too many occasions in recent years that the figurative work of Leo Mol failed to find a buyer at auction. And his top selling piece, a large study of Tom Lamb that fetched a hammer price of $41,000 at Dominion Auctions in Winnipeg in June 2007, certainly puts him in the top echelon of Canadian sculptural works sold at auction.

I never had the honour of meeting Leo Mol, but from all reports it seems he was a quiet and humble man who refreshingly, unlike so many of today’s artists, had little interest in money and the materialistic side of life, but rather lived for and focussed exclusively on his work.

Born Leonid Molodozhanyn in Polonne, Ukraine in 1915, Leo Mol studied at the Leningrad Academy of Arts under Manizer (1936-41), at the Kunst Academy, Berlin, and the Academy of the Arts in The Hague, The Netherlands. He came to Canada in 1948 and settled in Winnipeg, and his early work included stained glass windows and church murals. Best known for his bronze, granite and terra cotta sculptures of female nudes, figures and portrait busts in the classical tradition, Leo Mol’s many celebrity subjects included busts of the Hon. John Diefenbaker, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, Pope Paul VI, and Group of Seven members A.Y. Jackson, Frederick Varley and A.J. Casson.

Although primarily a sculptor, Leo Mol also painted landscapes in oil and watercolour and produced several colour lithographs. Among his painting companions were members of the Group of Seven.

In 1992 the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden opened in Winnipeg featuring over 200 bronze sculptures from the artist’s personal collection. Today the garden features closer to 300 works, including paintings and pastels in an indoor gallery.

Leo Mol exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy in 1955-1970, and his work can be found in many prominent corporate and institutional collections including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery and the Vatican Museum, Italy.

Leo Mol died on July 4th, 2009 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was 94 years old.

Grosvenor fair closes after 75 years

If you’re an art and antiques buff and were planning on taking in the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair next summer don’t bother. It’s been cancelled – already – even though this year’s fair has only just closed and was viewed by most participants as a success despite the current economic climate. Described by one dealer as the London art world’s Wimbledon, the Grosvenor fair has been running for 75 years. Ironically, it was founded in 1934 by a group of dealers anxious to stimulate trade during the Great Depression.

According to the fair’s sponsors, the fair is “no longer financially viable.” Not to worry say many of the world’s top dealers and regular fair participants, it was time to move on anyway. And some have wasted no time in getting their own thing going. A group of important Old Master dealers have launched their own summer event, London Master Paintings Week which ran from July 4 – 10 and featured 23 dealers.

One wonders if the omission of the word “Old” from the new fair title is an indication that the fair will eventually open up to Impressionist, modern and contemporary masters in the future. Makes sense to me.