Haveron Fine Art

John Alexander (Scottish, 1686-1766) Portrait of George Gordon, 7th Laird of Buckie (Scottish, 1707-1756), c. 1743 Oil on canvas In a carved ebonised frame, with gilded inner slight...

Dame Ethel Walker DBE ARA (1861-1951) Young Man in a Red Tie Oil on canvas 51 x 40.6 cm.; (within frame) 70 x 59.7 cm. Provenance: The Lefevre Gallery, London, stock number X890; Christie’s, London, Modern British Pictures, Watercolours, Drawings and Sculpture, 12 September 1996, lot 58; Bonhams, London, Modern British and Irish Art, 23 November 2022, lot 177; Private Collection, United Kingdom. This focussed composition is dominated by a handsome young man in profile, frowning with a concentrated glare. His slender cheeks meet a jaw brushed with a masculine grey, complimented by the blue of a flower or pocket square, and the shadow of a loose strand of oiled hair that rests across his forehead. The stylistic sophistication shows Walker at her best, ambitiously combining measured figuration with expressive abstraction, as delicious dashes of pigment appear still wet, and dissonant swipes energetically mark the surface of the canvas. With an elegance that borders on the effete, the sitter’s urbane style includes a spearpoint collar, framed by the wide lapels of his suit jacket. Most significantly, the young man’s dandyish fashion is augmented by the conspicuous titular red tie which he wears – an established expression of queerness in the 20th century. Painted by the lesbian artist Dame Ethel Walker, it is likely that the portrait is that of a gay man belonging to London’s queer artistic circles. Indeed, Walker’s male sitters (who constitute but a fraction of her output) are typically conceived as modish, and often wear striking colourful ties. Walker was one of the earliest lesbian artists to overtly explore her sexuality in her works, and an aesthetic fascination with the female form culminated with her glorious large-scale ‘decorations’, exemplified by Decoration: The Excursion of Nausicaa (Tate, N03885). Red neckties had been established in the 20th century as a coded (though appropriately colourful) expression of queerness, not dissimilar to the green carnation of the Wildean aesthetes. The gay writer and musician Mikhail Kuzmin was painted in 1909 in a stark red tie. Two decades later, the Anglo-French physician Havelock Ellis described the red necktie as an emblem amongst queer New Yorkers: ‘[…] there has been a fashion for a red tie to be adopted by inverts [homosexuals] as their badge’ (Ellis, p. 299). The motif permeated fiction, and in Thomas Mann’s 1912 novel Death In Venice, the protagonist Gustav von Aschenbach begins to wear a red necktie after he develops an infatuation with a beautiful young boy staying at his hotel. William Faulkner’s 1929 novel The Sound and the Fury includes an unnamed male character identified throughout by his distinctive red necktie, which is the subject of veiled insinuations against his masculinity. Walker must surely have been familiar with this symbolic importance when she executed the present portrait. Her few portraits of male sitters include colourful neckties almost exclusively, and include numerous examples of red neckties. Indeed, the artist herself preferred to wear a red tie, a declaration which so impressed itself on Virginia Woolf that she noted it in a diary entry after tea with Walker (Bell, p. 282). Walker, who painted Woolf’s sister Vanessa Bell, had once offered to paint Woolf in the nude, as Lilith. Around the same time, Augustus John painted the gay peer Evan Morgan, 2nd Viscount Tredegar, in a loose red necktie or neck scarf. The portrait passed through the Lefevre Gallery, which also represented Walker, and which inventoried the present work. While the sartorial choice may have been incidental, a colourful accessory chosen to enliven the portrait, its prominent inclusion would suggest a personal significance to Walker, the recognition of a shared experience between artist and subject. Dame Ethel Walker was hailed as a leading female artist of her generation, and as late as 2010 was one of only four women artists to have been honoured as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Walker was born in Edinburgh in 1861 to the botanist Arthur Abney Walker, a descendent of the Walker family of iron industrialists, whose estates included Clifton House (Rotherham) and Blythe Hall (Nottinghamshire). She attended school in London after the family moved to Wimbledon, and in 1880 met the fellow artist Clara Christian, with whom she would form an important personal and professional bond. The women’s relationship was later allegorised by the writer George Moore as that of Stella (Christian) and Florence (Walker) in his fictionalised three-volume memoir Hail and Farewell. Walker went on to Putney School of Art and Westminster School of Art, and studied under Frederick Brown, who became a lifelong mentor. Around 1893 Walker took further study at the Slade School of Art, partly under Walter Sickert, and returned in 1912, 1916, and 1921. Although Walker enjoyed painting floral still lifes and seascapes, her best work was portraiture. She worked from her studio at 38 Cheyne Walk for most of her career, and enjoyed a prominent role in London’s artistic milieu. Her sitters included the artists Lucien Pissarro, Orovida Camille Pissarro, Vanessa Bell, and Barbara Hepworth; she painted Nancy Astor, the Countess of Strathcona, the editor Joan Werner Laurie, and author Leo Walmsley. The actors Flora Robson and Elsa Lanchester sat for Walker, as did the young Christopher Robin Milne. Walker herself was photographed by the bisexual photographer and painter Humphrey Spender...

British, December 1879 After John Tenniel (1820-1914) A philatelic cover depicting Alice, the White King and his messenger, with a ham sandwich An adaption of the illustration to Le...

David Cox Junior (1809-1885) (attr.) A sketch of Richmond Castle, North Yorkshire Graphite and wash on paper 17.6 x 25.8 cm.; (within frame) 35.6 x 43.4 cm. Provenance: Private Co...

William Henry Hunt OWS (1790-1864) (attrib.) Study of a resting infant Watercolour and graphite heightened with zinc oxide on paper 13.9 x 18.5 cm.; (within frame) 31.1 x 25.6 cm. P...

French Academic School, 18th century A tête d’expression study of a gentleman, c. 1780-90 Oil on canvas 46.1 x 35 cm.; (within frame) 57.5 x 46.6. cm. Provenance: Private Collectio...

Petra Schott (German, b. 1953) Pleasant Thoughts, 2021 Mixed media on canvas Signed lower right 100 x 80 cm.; (within frame) 110 x 90 cm. Born in Hanover in 1953, Petra Schott studi...

Derek Hyatt (1931-2015) Twelve Apostles, West Yorkshire Oil on board 30.6 x 29.3 cm.; (within frame) 45.8 x 43.4 cm. Provenance: The Margaret Bailey collection (1930-2022); Priva...

R. Lang Thomas (British, 20th century) Patricia, 1947 Graphite on paper Signed and dated lower right 34.4 x 26.8 cm.; (within frame) 56 x 47.5 cm. Provenance: The Chelsea Art Society; Private Collection, United Kingdom. Exhibition history: The Chelsea Art Society, 1947 In attractive side profile, a young lady rests her gaze at a gentle distance, her lips pursed...

Flemish or South German, c. 1700-1720 Hunting trophy with a deer and game, adorned with the accoutrements of the chase Oil on canvas In a period style moulded pine and ebony veneer...

Florentine, mid-16th century Circle of Tomaso D’Antonio Manzuoli, known as Maso da San Friano (1536-1571) The Virgin and Child with the Infant Baptist After Andrea del Sarto (1486-1...

Charles d’Agar (1669-1723) (attrib.) Portrait of a lady in widow’s weeds, three-quarter-length, seated in an architectural setting Oil on canvas In an original carved and gilded Le...

Joel Tomlin (b. 1969) Cinder, 2004 Oil on linen Signed and titled verso 183 x 157 cm. Provenance: Joel Tomlin; MW Projects, London, 2004; Permanent Collection, Saatchi Gallery; Chri...

Paul M. Smith (b. 1969) Make My Night, 1998 RA4 colour print, aluminium mounted Edition 1 of 5, from a series of 12 Signed, dated and numbered verso 71 x 104.1 cm. Provenance: Paul ...

Gebrüder Micheli (Micheli Brothers), Berlin, 19th century Head of Niobe, from the Niobe group Plaster cast Inscribed verso, ‘Gebr Micheli Berlin’ 80 x...

William J. O’Brien (b. 1975) Cleanse, Fold and Manipulate (2007) Oil paint, aerosol paint, wood, string, carpet, wax, and other mixed media 136 x 53 x 48 cm. Provenance: William J...

Michael Chance (B. 1987) Green Shoots, 2021 Oil on canvas Signed lower left Titled, signed and dated verso 153.5 x 122 cm. Provenance: Michael Chance; Private Collection, United ...

Bernard Fleetwood-Walker RA RWS (1893-1965) Study for Mr and Mrs R. H. Butler and Their Daughters, c. 1932 Graphite, coloured graphite and wash on paper, mounted to card 64.5 x 74.5 cm.; (within frame) 87.4 x 91.8 cm. Provenance: The artist’s studio, 1965 (no. 525); Private Collection, United Kingdom. Dated to c. 1932, the present drawing belongs to a series of preparatory studies for Mr and Mrs R. H. Butler and Their Daughters (1932), a large family composition...

Bernard Fleetwood-Walker RA RWS (1893-1965) Study for Mr and Mrs R. H. Butler and Their Daughters, c. 1932 Graphite on paper, mounted to card 55.5 x 77.7 cm.; (within frame) 80.1 x 99.8 cm. Provenance: The artist’s studio, 1965 (no. 524); Private Collection, United Kingdom. Dated to c. 1932, the present drawing belongs to a series of five known preparatory studies for Mr and Mrs R. H. Butler and Their Daughters (1932), a large family composition...

Bernard Fleetwood-Walker RA RWS (1893-1965) Study for Mr and Mrs R. H. Butler and Their Daughters, c. 1932 Graphite on paper, mounted to card Signed centre left 53 x 42.8 cm.; (within frame) 77.6 x 62.8 cm. Provenance: The artist’s studio, 1965 (no. 523); Private Collection, United Kingdom. Dated to c. 1932, the present drawing belongs to a series of preparatory studies for Mr and Mrs R. H. Butler and Their Daughters (1932), a large family composition...

Bernard Fleetwood-Walker RA RWS (1893-1965) Study for Mr and Mrs R. H. Butler and Their Daughters, c. 1932 Graphite and coloured graphite on paper, mounted to card Signed centre right 42.6 x 53 cm.; (within frame) 66.7 x 75.7 cm. Provenance: The artist’s studio, 1965 (no. 521); Private Collection, United Kingdom. Dated to c. 1932, the present drawing belongs to a series of preparatory studies for Mr and Mrs R. H. Butler and Their Daughters (1932), a large family composition...

Bernard Fleetwood-Walker RA RWS (1893-1965) Kneeling Nude, Study for The Maidens, c. 1932 Graphite, chalk and wash on paper 46.1 x 18.6 cm.; (within frame) 57.2 x 33.2 cm. Provena...

Patrick Lichfield (1939-2005) Officially Thomas Patrick John Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield Boy Wearing a Palestinian Keffiyeh, c. 1960 Gelatin silver print 38 x 29.1 cm. Provenance: Patrick Lichfield, who gifted to Hugh Myddelton Biddulph (1995-2021); Passed to Gaia Servadio (1938-2021); By descent to Orlando Mostyn-Owen (b. 1973); Private Collection, United Kingdom. This charming portrait expresses a moment of universal tenderness, the young boy grinning with a charismatic ease, his eyes lit with recent laughter. A cultural insight is provided by the Palestinian keffiyeh which he wears loosely around his head, a traditional and deeply sybmolic headdress worn in arid regions of the Middle East. Prior to the 1930s, keffiyeh were worn by rural workers, whereas city residents and the educated elite wore the Ottoman tarbush (or fez). However, during the 1936-39 Arab revolt in Palestine, rebel commanders ordered all Arabs to wear the keffiyeh. The black and white design as seen in the present photograph was popularised in the 1950s, after Sir John Bagot Glubb wanted to distinguish his Palestinian soldiers from the Jordanians (whose keffiyeh were red and white). The alternating pattern represents economically and culturally significant olive leaves, while the fish net motif symbolises fishing and the sea. The photograph is one taken by Lichfield on a visit to the Empty Quarter with his lifelong friend Hugh Myddelton Biddulph, of Chirk Castle, Wales. The sand desert encompasses most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, and the visit was one of Lichfield’s earliest to the Middle East, which he would revisit throughout his career (particularly Dubai). The pair travelled through the region on a Mini Moke, carrying basic supplies and sleeping in a teepee. The photograph was left after Myddelton’s death to his second wife Gaia Servadio, the eccentric Italian journalist, writer, and first mother-in-law to Boris Johnson. After her death in 2021, it passed to her artist son Orlando Mostyn-Owen, and later into a private British collection. Patrick Lichfield was born in 1939, the son of Thomas Anson, Viscount Anson, and Anne Bowes-Lyon, later Princess Anne of Denmark. After seven years in the Grenadier Guards, Lichfield began his career as a photographer’s assistant in 1962 to Kasterine and Michael Wallis, after which he earned a five-year contract with American Vogue; he benefited greatly from his access to the royal family, since Queen Elizabeth was his maternal first cousin. In 1981 he took the official photograph for the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Although best known for his portraits of the royal family, Lichfield’s celebrity portraits included Yves Saint Laurent, Jane Birkin, Cecil Beaton, David Hockney, Kate Bush, Ian McKellen, Joan Collins, Joanna Lumley...

Patrick Lichfield (1939-2005) Officially Thomas Patrick John Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield Guard and Tortoise, c. 1960 Gelatin silver print 38.2 x 26.5 cm. Provenance: Patrick Lichfield, who gifted to Hugh Myddelton Biddulph (1995-2021); Passed to Gaia Servadio (1938-2021); By descent to Orlando Mostyn-Owen (b. 1973); Private Collection, United Kingdom. A young man crouches on a rocky outcrop, approached by a small tortoise. He wears an archetypal service uniform, his jacket cuffs with bands of gold braiding, and polished brass buttons. His banded cap is of a sort later appropriated from the military for use in private service, and his loose socks and mud-spattered brogues remind of British schoolboys. A distant arched structure can be seen beyond, perhaps a small bridge over water. The photograph was taken by Lichfield on a visit to the Empty Quarter with his lifelong friend Hugh Myddelton Biddulph, of Chirk Castle, Wales. The visit was one of Lichfield’s earliest to the Middle East, which he would revisit throughout his career. The pair travelled through the region on a Mini Moke, carrying basic supplies and sleeping in a teepee. The photograph was left after Myddelton’s death to his second wife Gaia Servadio, the eccentric Italian journalist, writer, and first mother-in-law to Boris Johnson. After her death in 2021, it passed to her artist son Orlando Mostyn-Owen, and later into a private British collection. Patrick Lichfield was born in 1939, the son of Thomas Anson, Viscount Anson, and Anne Bowes-Lyon, later Princess Anne of Denmark. After seven years in the Grenadier Guards, Lichfield began his career as a photographer’s assistant in 1962 to Kasterine and Michael Wallis, after which he earned a five-year contract with American Vogue. He benefited greatly from his access to the royal family, since Queen Elizabeth was his maternal first cousin. In 1981 he took the official photograph for the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Although best known for his portraits of the royal family, Lichfield’s celebrity portraits included Yves Saint Laurent, Jane Birkin, Cecil Beaton, David Hockney, Kate Bush, Ian McKellen, Joan Collins, Joanna Lumley...

27. Theo Ellison (b. 1990) Entombment, 2017 C-type lambda print on paper Edition 1 of 5 Signed, titled, dated and numbered verso 78 x 120 cm. (within frame) Provenance: Theo Elliso...

British, 1954, Manner of John Nash (1893-1977) Woodland scene with a body of water Watercolour and graphite on paper, mounted to card Signed indistinctly and dated lower left 34.1 x...

British, c. 1940-50 Tombstones in a country graveyard With a study of two herring verso Signed in initials with brush handle lower right, ‘R.M.’ Oil and graphite on board 30.3 x 37....

Alfred John Billinghurst (1880-1963) From The Studio (Snow), c. 1920-40 Oil on artist’s board Titled and signed verso The panel stamped with a Blanchet su...

Greek, 18th century An icon depicting Saint Charalambos Painted with a Christogram and crucifix verso Egg tempera, gilt and gesso on panel, within a gilded frame border 45.4 x 35.5 c...

Jaipur School, c. 1840 An illustration to the musical mode of Patamanjari Ragini From a Ragamala series Gouache and gold on wasli paper 24.1 x 19.6 cm.; (within frame) 33.7 x 28.5 ...

Peter de Wint OWS (1784-1849) A sketch of children climbing a fence Watercolour and graphite on paper 7 x 17.8 cm; (within frame) 26.7 x 36.5 cm. Provenance: Bequeathed by the a...