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The man who painted Winston Churchill's most notorious portrait made this small, dark study of a river at night, and it comes to auction in Guildford on 30th July. Graham Sutherland's 'River II', a gouache and indian ink on paper measuring just 15.3 by 12 cm, carries an estimate of £2,000 to £3,000. It is signed to the left and dated 1966, and once passed through Marlborough Fine Art on Albemarle Street, whose gallery label still survives on the back.
For a picture so small, it holds a lot of weather. Black ink floods the top of the sheet like a night sky. Below it, yellow and green wash across the paper in the shape of moving water, cut through with the thin, whip-like black lines Sutherland used for reeds and branches. It is abstract, but the river is unmistakable. This is the artist working in the vein that made his name, hunting out strange living forms in the landscape rather than simply copying it.
'River II' can be seen at Aubreys' saleroom at Loseley Park, Guildford, in the days before the sale, which takes place on 30th July. Bidders anywhere in the world can follow the auction live and place bids online at auctions.aubreys.com. The estimate is £2,000 to £3,000, and the work comes framed and glazed.
"It is a tiny thing, but it stops you," said Aubrey Dawson, of Aubreys' 20th Century and Modern Art department. "You can feel the damp coming off it. Sutherland could take an ordinary stretch of river and make it feel like the edge of something, and he does exactly that here, in an area smaller than a postcard."
Graham Sutherland (1903 to 1980) trained at Goldsmiths and started out as a printmaker and landscape artist before turning to the spiky, half-abstract natural forms he became known for. He was an official war artist during the Second World War, recording bomb damage in London and the mouths of Cornish tin mines, and later designed the enormous 'Christ in Glory' tapestry for the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral. His 1954 portrait of Winston Churchill was so disliked by its sitter that Lady Churchill had it destroyed. Pieces like 'River II' show his quieter, more searching side, the eye that kept returning to water, roots and the edges of fields. You can read more about his life and see past results on our Graham Sutherland artist page.
If you have inherited a similar archive, collection or family heirloom and would like to discover its auction value, Aubreys Auctioneers & Valuers offers free, no-obligation valuations, including home visits across Surrey and London. Aubreys Auctioneers & Valuers is an independent, family-run auction house based at Loseley Park, Guildford, with an office in Mayfair, London. The firm holds monthly specialist auctions of jewellery, watches, silver, fine art and antiques, attracting bidders from across the UK and internationally.
