11th Feb, 2026 11:00
The Estate of John Russell Taylor: Author, Critic, Collector
4
DENTON WELCH (BRITISH 1915-1948)
STILL-LIFE OF FLOWERS IN A VASE
signed Denton Welch lower right; oil on panel; 49.5 x 33.5cm; 19 1/2 x 13 1/4in (56 x 40cm; 22 x 15 3/4in framed)
Exhibited: London, The Barbican Art Gallery, A Paradise Lost, no. 360
Executed circa 1943-44. Welch was educated at Repton in Derbyshire. After a visit to China, he studied painting at Goldsmiths' School of Art but aged twenty was severely injured in a cycling accident that left him an invalid. This life-changing event led him to write poems, short stories and three largely autobiographical novels composed with a painter's eye for detail: Maiden Voyage (1943), In Youth is Pleasure (1945) and A Voice through a Cloud, the last, like his Journals, published posthumously (1950 & 52) and I Left My Grandfather’s House in 1958 (see lots 321 & 322). He exhibited his paintings regularly with the Leicester Galleries. His detailed and layered compositions tend to be decorative and Neo-romantic in spirit. The present still-life, painted with thick black impasto, and set in a surrealist, almost gothic landscape conjures a typically moody atmosphere.
Sold for £14,500
STILL-LIFE OF FLOWERS IN A VASE
signed Denton Welch lower right; oil on panel; 49.5 x 33.5cm; 19 1/2 x 13 1/4in (56 x 40cm; 22 x 15 3/4in framed)
Exhibited: London, The Barbican Art Gallery, A Paradise Lost, no. 360
Executed circa 1943-44. Welch was educated at Repton in Derbyshire. After a visit to China, he studied painting at Goldsmiths' School of Art but aged twenty was severely injured in a cycling accident that left him an invalid. This life-changing event led him to write poems, short stories and three largely autobiographical novels composed with a painter's eye for detail: Maiden Voyage (1943), In Youth is Pleasure (1945) and A Voice through a Cloud, the last, like his Journals, published posthumously (1950 & 52) and I Left My Grandfather’s House in 1958 (see lots 321 & 322). He exhibited his paintings regularly with the Leicester Galleries. His detailed and layered compositions tend to be decorative and Neo-romantic in spirit. The present still-life, painted with thick black impasto, and set in a surrealist, almost gothic landscape conjures a typically moody atmosphere.
Auction: The Estate of John Russell Taylor: Author, Critic, Collector, 11th Feb, 2026
Auction Location: London, UK
John Russell Taylor was a compulsive collector. When he died at the age of ninety, his two bedroom flat on the corner of Brook Green was floor to ceiling with books and pictures that he had collected over the last seventy years. A precocious talent he was awarded a scholarship to read English at Cambridge aged 16 and graduated with a starred First Class degree. Film, theatre and art critic for The Times for more than four decades, he wrote thousands of articles and reviews for the newspaper. He also wrote over sixty books – critical studies, biographies, and monographs. He was appointed professor of Film at the University of Southern California during the 1970s, when he was asked by Alfred Hitchcock to write his biography. Hitch remains the standard text on the film director. John's interests ranged across all aspects of the arts from Art Nouveau book illustration to Vorticism, fan paintings, poetry and stage design. Struck by the visual rather than the value of a work of art, the sale of his picture collection gives a flavour of the full gamut of his encyclopaedic mind, a man remembered for his phenomenal range of reference, his extraordinary talent for writing and his warm and generous character.
For a copy of the printed catalogue, email pictures@olympiaauctions.com
PUBLIC EXHIBITION
Friday 6th February: 10am - 5pm
Sunday 8th February: 12pm - 4pm
Monday 9th February: 10am - 8pm (Drinks: 5pm - 8pm)
Tuesday 10th February: 10am - 5pm
View Press Release for more information
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PUBLIC EXHIBITION
Friday 6th February: 10am - 5pm
Sunday 8th February: 12pm - 4pm
Monday 9th February: 10am - 8pm (Drinks: 5pm - 8pm)
Tuesday 10th February: 10am - 5pm
