10th Jun, 2026 12:00
Live Sale: Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture June 2026
65
ROE ETHRIDGE (AMERICAN B.1969)
MARY BETH
chromogenic print on aluminium
74 x 59cm; 29 x 23 1/4in
82 x 67cm; 32 1/4 x 26 1/4in (framed)
Property from a Private Collection, Southampton
Executed in 2005 in an edition of five (numbered 4/5 on the Andrew Kreps Gallery label on the reverse)
Provenance
Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
A postmodernist commercial and art photographer, Ethridge is known for taking a seemingly ordinary art historical narrative then subverting the image. He often takes an outwardly generic landscape or 'straight forward' portrait and introduces a surprising incongruity or constructs a series of photographs individually bland in subject matter but personal and subversive when placed side by side. The present work is at first glance a straight forward portrait, however the figure's downward gaze and shortened arm whispers of Dutch Old Master portraiture. As well as his museum and gallery exhibitions, Ethridge has worked for the likes of Kenzo, Balenciaga, Comme Des Garcons and Mercedes Benz.
MARY BETH
chromogenic print on aluminium
74 x 59cm; 29 x 23 1/4in
82 x 67cm; 32 1/4 x 26 1/4in (framed)
Property from a Private Collection, Southampton
Executed in 2005 in an edition of five (numbered 4/5 on the Andrew Kreps Gallery label on the reverse)
Provenance
Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
A postmodernist commercial and art photographer, Ethridge is known for taking a seemingly ordinary art historical narrative then subverting the image. He often takes an outwardly generic landscape or 'straight forward' portrait and introduces a surprising incongruity or constructs a series of photographs individually bland in subject matter but personal and subversive when placed side by side. The present work is at first glance a straight forward portrait, however the figure's downward gaze and shortened arm whispers of Dutch Old Master portraiture. As well as his museum and gallery exhibitions, Ethridge has worked for the likes of Kenzo, Balenciaga, Comme Des Garcons and Mercedes Benz.
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
