10th Jun, 2026 12:00
Live Sale: Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture June 2026
58
⊕ SYDNEY HARPLEY RA (BRITISH 1927-1992)
GIRL ON A SWING
with the artist's stamp Harpley and numbered 3/12
bronze
height: 23cm; 9 in (excluding base)
height: 25cm; 9 3/4in (including base)
Property from a Private Collection, West London
Provenance
Cecilia Green, London (Cecilia Green, 1931-2003, was the muse and model of the painter William Russell-Flint from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s)
Inherited from the above by the parents of the present owner
Hartley sculpted dancers, acrobats and girls on swings with equal audacity and elegance. He established the single female as his favourite subject while still a student, exhibiting examples with the Young Contemporaries and at the Royal Academy, selling his first pieces to the National Gallery of New Zealand, Wellington and the artist Fleur Cowles (1908-2009).
The son of an electrician and cabinet maker, Harpley grew up in Dagenham, leaving school at 14 to become an apprentice electrician. But after seeing the carved head of Ramases II in Cairo during National Service with the Royal Engineers (1945-48) he was compelled to sculpt. He became a student of sculpture at Hammersmith School of Art in 1951, and in 1953 began at the Royal College of Art under the instruction of John Skeaping. After the RCA he returned to Hammersmith to teach part-time and began to receive commissions for portrait busts and figurative groups. Elected to a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1963, he joined the staff at Leicester Polytechnic in 1972 and was elected a Royal Academician in 1981. A succession of successful exhibitions followed at home and abroad, including two at the Chris Beetles Gallery in 1987 and 1990.
Sold for £1,600
GIRL ON A SWING
with the artist's stamp Harpley and numbered 3/12
bronze
height: 23cm; 9 in (excluding base)
height: 25cm; 9 3/4in (including base)
Property from a Private Collection, West London
Provenance
Cecilia Green, London (Cecilia Green, 1931-2003, was the muse and model of the painter William Russell-Flint from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s)
Inherited from the above by the parents of the present owner
Hartley sculpted dancers, acrobats and girls on swings with equal audacity and elegance. He established the single female as his favourite subject while still a student, exhibiting examples with the Young Contemporaries and at the Royal Academy, selling his first pieces to the National Gallery of New Zealand, Wellington and the artist Fleur Cowles (1908-2009).
The son of an electrician and cabinet maker, Harpley grew up in Dagenham, leaving school at 14 to become an apprentice electrician. But after seeing the carved head of Ramases II in Cairo during National Service with the Royal Engineers (1945-48) he was compelled to sculpt. He became a student of sculpture at Hammersmith School of Art in 1951, and in 1953 began at the Royal College of Art under the instruction of John Skeaping. After the RCA he returned to Hammersmith to teach part-time and began to receive commissions for portrait busts and figurative groups. Elected to a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1963, he joined the staff at Leicester Polytechnic in 1972 and was elected a Royal Academician in 1981. A succession of successful exhibitions followed at home and abroad, including two at the Chris Beetles Gallery in 1987 and 1990.
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
