Rare works by Pangbourne painter and polymath more than doubles auction estimate, fetching £71,400
An auction of rare artworks by renowned painter Mortimer Menpes (1855-1938), who built Pangbourne’s Iris Court and set up fruit farms in Purley-on-Thames, attracted eager interest, and they were sold with great success.
A lively start to the sale was ensured by strong pre-sale interest in the private collection of 15 works by the Australian-British painter.
The group more than doubled its combined pre-sale mid-estimate of £35,000, achieving £71,400*.
Nine out of the 15 works sold for over top estimate with all but one sold to buyers from Australia and the UK.
The two top lots in this group were On the Ganges, which was carried off for £11,000* (estimate: £3,000-£5,000) and On the Marge of the Sunset, Benares, which fetched £9,375* (estimate: £3,500-£5,500).
Both works were offered in their original frames commissioned by Menpes from Japanese craftsmen and gilded in London.
Menpes, together with Sickert, had been James McNeill Whistler’s studio assistant.
But, as head of sale Adrian Biddell commented, Menpes ‘out-Whistered Whistler’ by actually visiting Japan in 1887, much to the American painter’s ire.
It was the first of a series of ambitious travels Menpes made to far flung destinations, including India, Mexico, South Africa and Morocco and Venice, paintings of which all featured in the sale.
Something of a polymath, as well as a painter, he was variously a crack shot (he shot competitively for England), explorer, publisher, printer and self-confessed raconteur, eventually turning his hand to market-gardening, setting up the Menpes Fruit Farm Company specialising in growing fruit and carnations near Pangbourne.
The works were sold by specialist London auction house Olympia Auctions, Kensington.
Prices marked with an asterisk (*) include the buyer’s premium calculated at 25 per cent on the hammer price.
For our pre-sale story read here: https://www.newburytoday.co.uk/lifestyle/rare-artworks-by-renowned-painter-mortimer-menpes-who-built-9419444/