Lucian Freud 'Goldie' Sketch Sells For £50,000 At Chiswick Auctions

Artist's palette, easel and brushes sold over their estimates

A previously unknown work by Lucian Freud (1922-2011), one of the most important figurative painters of the 20th century, has sold for £50,000 at a sale at Chiswick Auctions this week.

Sketch of Goldie in charcoal on canvas, is a ‘study’ of a horse that Freud left incomplete in 2003. He embarked on the work at the Wormwood Scrubs Pony Centre in West London, which is run by the nun, Sister Mary-Joy Langdon. He had been introduced to the stables by his studio assistant, the artist David Dawson, who had chanced on them while walking his dogs on the Scrubs. Very few of his canvases have remained unknown, making this work particularly rare.

Freud spent several years painting at the stables and built up a great friendship with Mary-Joy, only to leave her the present sketch, which she has treasured. She decided to sell it, to raise funds for the pony centre, a registered charity offering riding to disabled children, in order to ensure its future.

Estimated to fetch between £40-£60,000, there was high demand on auction day, with fervent bidding on the telephones, in the room and on the internet, with the work finally winning out to an anonymous telephone bidder.

There were other items belonging to Freud in the sale, which all sold well over their estimates; his easel, sold for £2,750 against an estimate of £600-£800 and his paint palette, sold for £3,750 against an estimate of £2,000-£3,000. His rags, tea mug, that he used while at the stables, brushes and turps sold for £3,500 against an estimate of £500-£700.

The drawing was part of the Chiswick Auctions Modern & Post-War British Art sale held yesterday (Tuesday, December 3rd) at the Bollo Lane headquarters of the auction rooms.

Krassi Kuneva, Head of Sale, Modern & Post-War British Art at Chiswick Auctions, said: “It is rare to see such preliminary workings out of a composition by Lucian Freud. He normally destroyed anything that he deemed unfinished or unworthy. In this case, instead of demolishing it, he left it in Mary-Joy’s hands, providing us with an exciting, intimate view of how he formed his initial ideas on canvas.”

As well as the works by Freud, the sale presented a selection of works by both widely recognised British artists and some lesser known names.

Highlights from private collections included examples by Edward Wadsworth, Roger Fry, Alfred Wolmark, John Hoyland, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, Mary Fedden, along with rarely seen pieces from the collections of Katharine ‘Kitty’ Church; Alfred and Helen Mignano; Florence Lindon-Travers, the actress famous for her leading roles in Alfred Hitchcock’s movies, among many more

December 5, 2019