10th Jun, 2026 12:00
Live Sale: Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture June 2026
55
⊕ JAMES HULL (BRITISH 1921-1990)
COMPOSITION - BLUE RED AND YELLOW
signed and dated HULL XI 84 centre right
watercolour with charcoal on paper
61 x 75 cm; 24 x 30in
76 x 89 cm; 29 x 35in (framed)
Hull aptly summed up his work as 'a tension of objects in space.' The way in which simplified geometric forms interlock and appear to support each other in 'Composition, Blue, Red & Yellow' is typical of his later work. After a successful early career as an artist, Hull turned his back on painting full time after winning a competition to design the interior of the Daily Mirror building, spending the 60's as a design consultant for the International Publishing Corporation (IPC). In 1980 he returned to painting, his work starting to gain traction once again by the end of the decade. He exhibited at the Strickland Gallery in 1986, and with Adrienne Resnick Gallery and Whitford & Hughes in 1989. His death a year later was all too premature.
Sold for £600
COMPOSITION - BLUE RED AND YELLOW
signed and dated HULL XI 84 centre right
watercolour with charcoal on paper
61 x 75 cm; 24 x 30in
76 x 89 cm; 29 x 35in (framed)
Hull aptly summed up his work as 'a tension of objects in space.' The way in which simplified geometric forms interlock and appear to support each other in 'Composition, Blue, Red & Yellow' is typical of his later work. After a successful early career as an artist, Hull turned his back on painting full time after winning a competition to design the interior of the Daily Mirror building, spending the 60's as a design consultant for the International Publishing Corporation (IPC). In 1980 he returned to painting, his work starting to gain traction once again by the end of the decade. He exhibited at the Strickland Gallery in 1986, and with Adrienne Resnick Gallery and Whitford & Hughes in 1989. His death a year later was all too premature.
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
