10th Jun, 2026 12:00
Live Sale: Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture June 2026
33
WILLIAM BLAMIRE YOUNG (ENGLISH-AUSTRALIAN 1862-1935)
THE ROYAL BARGE
watercolour on paper
10 x 16cm; 4 x 6 1/2in
34 x 39cm; 13 1/4 x 15 1/4in (framed)
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey
Provenance
Arthur and Florence Barrett, Melbourne (purchased in the early 1900s)
Barbara Barrett, London (grand-daughter of the above)
Thence by descent to the present owner, niece of the above
Exhibited
Melbourne, The Fine Art Society
Born in Londesborough in Yorkshire, Blamire Young oscillated between England and Australia. At Cambridge, where he studied maths, he became a member of the Fine Art Society and frequented the Fitzwilliam Museum. Then in 1885 he emigrated to New South Wales to teach at Katoomba College. There he met fellow British émigrés and college staff Phil May (1864-1903) and Richard Godfrey Rivers (1858-1925). May combined his teaching with working as a cartoonist and illustrator for The Sydney Bulletin. While Godfrey Rivers was a recent graduate of the Slade School of Art in London.
Instructed by both artists, Blamire Young established his own studio, which became a magnet for other aspiring talent including Theodore Fink (1855-1942) the influential publisher and politician. But following a catastrophic fire which destroyed much of his work in 1893, Young returned to England where he studied with Hubert von Herkomer and associated with the Beggarstaff Brothers, James Pryde and William Nicholson, their fluid manner clearly evident in the present lot and lot 32.
Following his marriage in 1895 he returned to Australia, established a co-operative producing Art Nouveau style posters and turned to writing, publishing two one-act dramas: Art for Arts Sake which played at the Melbourne Repertory Theatre in 1911 and Children's Bread published in 1912. That same year he departed with his family once more for Europe, travelling via Spain and arriving in England in 1914. During the following decade he served in the First World War, was elected to the membership of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours and the Royal Society of British Artists, exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy, showed at the Chester Gallery and had a solo exhibition at the Fine Art Society on New Bond Street before finally returning to Australia in 1923.
In Australia Blamire Young's work is in the art galleries of Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Geelong and in the collections of Plymouth Art Gallery and Watford Museum in the UK.
Sold for £500
THE ROYAL BARGE
watercolour on paper
10 x 16cm; 4 x 6 1/2in
34 x 39cm; 13 1/4 x 15 1/4in (framed)
Property from a Private Collection, Surrey
Provenance
Arthur and Florence Barrett, Melbourne (purchased in the early 1900s)
Barbara Barrett, London (grand-daughter of the above)
Thence by descent to the present owner, niece of the above
Exhibited
Melbourne, The Fine Art Society
Born in Londesborough in Yorkshire, Blamire Young oscillated between England and Australia. At Cambridge, where he studied maths, he became a member of the Fine Art Society and frequented the Fitzwilliam Museum. Then in 1885 he emigrated to New South Wales to teach at Katoomba College. There he met fellow British émigrés and college staff Phil May (1864-1903) and Richard Godfrey Rivers (1858-1925). May combined his teaching with working as a cartoonist and illustrator for The Sydney Bulletin. While Godfrey Rivers was a recent graduate of the Slade School of Art in London.
Instructed by both artists, Blamire Young established his own studio, which became a magnet for other aspiring talent including Theodore Fink (1855-1942) the influential publisher and politician. But following a catastrophic fire which destroyed much of his work in 1893, Young returned to England where he studied with Hubert von Herkomer and associated with the Beggarstaff Brothers, James Pryde and William Nicholson, their fluid manner clearly evident in the present lot and lot 32.
Following his marriage in 1895 he returned to Australia, established a co-operative producing Art Nouveau style posters and turned to writing, publishing two one-act dramas: Art for Arts Sake which played at the Melbourne Repertory Theatre in 1911 and Children's Bread published in 1912. That same year he departed with his family once more for Europe, travelling via Spain and arriving in England in 1914. During the following decade he served in the First World War, was elected to the membership of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours and the Royal Society of British Artists, exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy, showed at the Chester Gallery and had a solo exhibition at the Fine Art Society on New Bond Street before finally returning to Australia in 1923.
In Australia Blamire Young's work is in the art galleries of Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Geelong and in the collections of Plymouth Art Gallery and Watford Museum in the UK.
Auction: Live Sale: Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture June 2026, 10th Jun, 2026
L.S. Lowry’s expansive Figures on a Beach (lot 39) is the lead painting in our June sale that ranges from the Old Masters to Modern British and post-War & Contemporary. Many of the works have been in the same collection for decades; a number have fascinating stories attached.
The first seven lots of Dutch and Flemish Old Masters are from the collection of Paul Wertheimer. Acquired almost hundred years ago, Wertheimer brought the works to England when he fled Germany in 1938. Leading the group are 17th century panels attributed to Moses van Uyttenbroeck and Lucas van Uden, the latter a reduced copy of Rubens’ original in the Royal Collection (lots 1 & 4). Another early panel, a portrait of Cornelisz. Van Beresteyn, is by a follower of Michiel Jansz. van Miereveld (lot 9).
Works by fellow artists and friends Augustus John and Edgar Augustus ‘Loben’ Slade (lots 20-25) feature John’s early portrait of Loben and five works on paper by the lesser known Slade, nephew of the founder of the Slade School of Art, one of which is a watercolour of Jessie McNeill, John’s model, muse and mistress.
Also in the sale are seven works by Australian artists, including Jeffrey Smart, William Blamire Young and Leonard French, all from a private collection in Surrey (lots 30-36), and ten paintings from a Cheshire Collection that features the work of Helen Bradley, Edouard Cortes and Marcel Dyf together with bracing coastal views by Campbell Archibald Mellon (lots 40-48).
A small and fascinating work on paper is by Paul Nash. It captures the view of Harry Rocks off Ballard Down from Nash's flat in Swanage where he was living in the mid-1930s and which he incorporated into his Surrealist work ahead of the major Surrealist exhibition in London of 1936 (lot 27).
Beside the Lowry beach scene, other post-War works include an important early sculpture by James Tower (lot 52), a leading sculptor-ceramicist of his generation. Other post-War abstract works include examples by Frank Avray Wilson, James Hull and Etienne Beothy (lots 50, 51, 55 & 57).
For more information please contact us | pictures@olympiaauctions.com | +44 (0)20 7806 5541
Viewing
PUBLIC EXHIBITION:
Sunday 7th June: 12pm - 4pm
Monday 8th June: 10am - 8pm (Drinks 5 - 8pm)
Tuesday 9th June: 10am - 5pm
