Throughout Hepworth’s sculptural journey,direct carving in stone was the method and material that best allowed her to achieve her artistic aims. The importance of the artist’s hand remained central to Hepworth’s approach, as she forbade the use of any mechanical tools in her studios preferring the labour-intensive but age- old chisel and hammer. This echoed her idea of allowing the nature of the chosen material to dictate the final form of the work. Henry Moore, Rocking Chair No. 2, bronze, 1950 (est. £800,000-1,200,000) ‘The rocking chair sculptures were done for my daughter Mary, as toys which actually rock” Henry Moore’s Rocking Chairs are the most personal sculptures of his output, having been made with his daughter Mary in mind. An only child, Mary was born in 1946 after sixteen years of marriage and was doted on by Moore. The Rocking Chair bronzes in this series capture a heart-felt intimacy between mother and baby, and the great sense of joy and delight that parenthood brings, and clearly brought for Moore and his wife. The work lacks any sense of formality, with a naturalistically rendered child balancing precariously on the knees of their mother, whose strikingly beautiful silhouette with gently curling ringlets are reminiscent of those of Moore’s wife Irina. Thus these works offers a fascinating autobiographical insight into the life of one of the most important sculptors of the past century, with this example being offered at auction for the first time, having remained in a family collection since it was acquired before 1962. Also appearing at auction is the intricate original plaster for the third of the four rocking chairs (illustrated right, est. £80,000 – 120,000) – an extremely rare instance of these early plaster carvings appearing on the open market.

Ben Nicholson, 1966 (Ios), oil on carved hardboard (est. £700,000-1,000,000) ‘The reliefs are what I’d choose to stand or fall by...’ Monumental and magnificent, 1966 (Ios) is a work of immense confidence and self-assurance, a masterpiece borne of maturity but with its roots in Ben Nicholson’s early practice. In 1957, Nicholson met married the young German photographer Felicitas Vogler and the following year they moved to Brissago in Switzerland overlooking Lake Maggiore. The marriage and move proved a catalyst for a renewed sense of purpose and and productivity resulting in series of ambitious large-scale reliefs, including 1966 (Ios), which is appearing in public for the first time since it was purchased in 1971. a Ben Nicholson, 1940 (gouache), gouache and pencil on card (est. £60,000 – 80,000) Spanning four decades of work by Nicholson, the sale also includes an early 1940s gouache, which set the artist within the heart of British Modernism, through to a series of drawings extending into the 1970s.

Patrick Caulfield, Red, White and Black Still Life, acrylic on board, 1966/84 (est. £300,000- 500,000) is a perfect example of Patrick Caulfield’s sophisticated images of metropolitan life. The bottle represents conviviality and conversation, whilst allowing the artist to play complicated games in his characteristic graphic style of illustration, infused with ideas of Cubism and Purism. Easy to Red, White and Black Still Life read yet complex rendering of space, flatness and depth, solidity and transparency, the work reflects fellow artist Howard Hodgkin’s declaration that Caulfield was ‘such a connoisseur of spaces where people gather for pleasure’. Two of the greatest colourists in post-war British art, Hodgkin and Caulfield’s methods contrasted yet complemented each other, as Hodgkin worked with gestural sweeps of paint whilst Caulfield opted for flat and controlled hues. in its The painting remained in the collection of Caulfield’s family, and continued to fascinate the artist long after he conceived it, as he looked at it every day whilst sitting at the table beneath it to eat, talk and share a bottle of wine. In fact, he re-worked it in 1984, transforming what had originally been a red and a black bottle into a single red bottle with a black shadow.

Lynn Chadwick, Beast XXI, bronze, conceived in 1959, cast by Brotal in 1960, number 1 from an edition of 6 (est. £100,000-150,000) Australian architect Kenneth Scott acquired Beast XXI directly from Lynn Chadwick in 1960. A founding member of the Ghana Institute of Architects, Scott was celebrated for a plethora of architectural monuments across the country, and kept this sculpture in the experimental modernist home he had designed for himself in Accra. Chadwick first struck upon the beast as a subject after a visit to Mykonos and Delos, where he saw the ancient remains of the famous avenue of lions at Delos – admiring the menacing posture and weathered forms of the sixth century B.C. sculptures. A lithe creature with an alert, anxious and threatening presence, this work does not represent a particular kind of beast; instead pulsating with a mysterious animal vigour. 

STANLEY SPENCER – A HEAVENLY VISIONSir Stanley Spencer, Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta: Punts by the River, oil and pencil on canvas, 1958 (est. £3,000,000-5,000,000) Stanley Spencer is an artist for whom the intimate and everyday was inseparable from the eternal and ineffable. His paintings transform ordinary people and familiar places, with his native village of Cookham portrayed as a Holy Land of miracles and divine intervention. Punts by the River belongs to his series ‘Christ Preaching from Cookham Regatta’, envisaged as one of six paintings to accompany his 17-foot-long centre piece of the subject that remained unfinished on his death and which now hangs at the Stanley Spencer gallery in Cookham. Having remained in the same private collection since it was acquired in 1959, the painting will go on view to the public for the first time since 1961. Early Regattas often highlighted the social distance between punters and those who were confined to the riverbank. Spencer, as the sixth son of a piano teacher from the Home Counties, had always seen the idea of renting a punt as ‘an unattainable Eden’ reserved only for the upper classes. In this self-portrait – painted in the same year that he received his knighthood – Spencer realises the tantalising desire of floating on the river. The lively local girls are depicted as a fleshy, tangled mass of limbs, as a young – and seemingly naked – young man tries to break their cosy circle. Bearing a strong resemblance to Spencer as a youth, the pose is contorted in the manner of a saint in a Renaissance altarpiece – a hint at the divine amidst the earthly pleasures of a village festival. WILLIAM ROBERTS – THE EVERYDAY PAINTER William Roberts, The Barber’s Shop, oil on canvas, circa 1946 (est.£150,000 – 250,000) From his earliest days at the Slade through the heady Bohemian scene of Post-WWI Soho, William Roberts had always remained fascinated by the hustle and bustle of everyday life. His love of the everyday – both in terms of subjects and settings – resulted in some of the most visually engaging poular scenes of the period, including this busy scene of men at the barber shop.

Lowry’s Industrial Panoramas are a distillation of all the key themes and ideas of his art, which in itself is a distillation of life in the industrial towns of the north of England in the CELEBRATING L.S. LOWRY ‘My ambition was to put the industrial scene on the map, because nobody had done it...’ One of the great painters of modern life, L.S. Lowry captures everyday life in the cities of the Industrial North of England and find beauty in the harsh reality. Together, the eight works by the artist in the auction cover every aspect of his oeuvre, spanning paintings and drawings, dating from 1920 to the 1960s. Laurence Stephen Lowry, Father Going Home, oil on canvas, 1962 (est. £250,000-350,000) Formerly in the collection of Monty Bloom, a Welsh businessman and important patron of the artist who championed the stark, individual portraits, this humorous and joyful painting of a father on his way home from work is being offered at auction for the first time. Though Lowry is the artist of hardship and strife, he also depicts the resilience of working-class culture and how their identity gave strength to the factory workers of the Northern industrial towns. Lowry infuses an apparent naturalism with subtle expressionist qualities, lending the figure a swagger that succinctly tells of his mood and the feeling of walking home after a long day and perhaps a few pints. In the window, a small boy waits, the smile on his face mirroring that of his father, creating an emotional charge. Unlike many of Lowry’s paintings, the scene is bathed in irrepressible warmth. Laurence Stephen Lowry, Industrial Panorama, oil on canvas, 1954 (est. £1,000,000- 1,500,000) early 20th century. The painting of the experience and psychology of the industrial city makes him not only an important artist historically, but also a hugely relevant artist internationally today, as he puts the spotlight on the other side of ‘progress’. This composite landscape is a master-class in Lowry’s poetic vision. Larger than the majority of his works, it has an expansive quality – the cold, dirty river weaving through the imaginary city heralding the viewer’s arrival into this hard world. artist’s

SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL: PAINTING AS A PASTIMEChurchill’s paintings tell the story of his travels through Europe, America and North Africa and form a pictorial diary of his ‘off-duty life’ as a father, husband and friend. Sir Winston Churchill, Marrakech, oil on canvas laid on board, circa 1935 (est. £80,000-120,000) ‘Marrakesh is simply the nicest place on Earth to spend an afternoon’ Marrakech was one of Churchill’s favourite winter painting locations. Fascinated by the exotic, desert landscape and the variety of subjects that presented themselves, as well as the climate, colour and light, Churchill’s Moroccan paintings can be counted amongst the most successful works that he ever produced. Such was the draw of the city he called the ‘Paris of the Sahara’ that Churchill was prompted to attempt his one and only war-time painting here in the immediate aftermath of the Casablanca Conference of 1943, pleading with his friend and fellow statesman Roosevelt to accompany him to Marrakesh and watch the sun go down over the Atlas Mountains.

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF ARABELLA CHURCHILLSir Winston Churchill, An Open Staircase, La Capponcina, Cap d’Ail, oil on canvas, circa 1940s (est. £80,000-120,000) Established in 1981, the charity uses drama participation and creative play to provide social and emotional benefits for children of all abilities, but focusing particularly on those with special needs. Churchill and his wife Clementine had a lifelong fascination with France, and this painting of his political friend Lord Beaverbrook’s villa – bustling with architectural angles and evocative Mediterranean colours – depicts why this small corner of a paradise meant so much to Churchill. As with so many of his works, a sense of quiet and privacy pervades this scene, drawing the viewer into the narrow archway. The sale will also feature two paintings that Churchill had gifted to his adored granddaughter Arabella, which until now have remained in the studio at Churchill’s beloved Chartwell and will be sold to benefit Children’s World. glamorous early life, Arabella chose a different path and set out to always help those around her. A keen supporter of various charities, Arabella was most well- known for her pivotal role in co-founding Glastonbury as well as the enduring legacy of the charity she set up, Children’s World. After a

TWO MONUMENTAL CANVASES BY WILLIAM SCOTT‘Beauty in plainness... in a conception that is precise’ William Scott was among the most internationally celebrated British painters of the 20th century, his works acquired by the most forward-thinking collectors and institutions of their day. This auction presents two works from the collections of two uncompromisingly modern Irish collectors – Dr Ronald Tallon and Dr John O’Driscoll – both having remained in family collections since they were first acquired. William Scott, Berlin Blues 2, oil on canvas, 1965 (est. £350,000-450,000) Scott moved to Berlin in 1963 on the invitation of the Ford Foundation to take part in the Berliner Künstlerprogramm artist-in-residence programme. The stimulus of Berlin was at once both cerebral, as he mingled with Berlin creatives, and tangible – the eponymous colour of the Berlin Blues series was a pigment Scott discovered whilst in the city. The emphasis on emblematic flatness and abstract formal relationships in these works was also partly rooted in an avid interest in Egyptian sculpture, fuelled by the exceptional archaeological collections in the city. Scott himself considered this impactful painting immensely significant, selecting it as the basis for a five-pence stamp design he created for the Eire postal service in 1973. Having first pondered in a letter to his son as to whether or not the first ever abstract stamp would be met with approval, his doubts were proved to be unfounded, as eight million copies permeated the consciousness of the Irish public. William Scott, Dark Earth Scheme, oil on canvas, 1974 (est. £200,000-300,000) The genesis for Scott’s life-long obsession for the theme of the still life was a visit to an exhibition in Paris in the summer of 1946, entitled ‘A Thousand Years of Still Life Painting’. The show left him overwhelmed with the notion that despite a seemingly ‘limited’ subject, the genre had been a powerful one for artists for countless generations. Scott developed a vocabulary of distinctive forms inspired by objects familiar to him. In much the same way as the Cubists used the guitar and bottles as ciphers of the bohemian life, so Scott focused on the long handled frying pan and square bowl, both placed on a flattened table top, as signifiers of simple domesticity and the enduring power of hearth and home. Dark Earth Scheme encapsulates the very best of Scott’s poetic sense of space, with his instantly recognisable simplified forms arranged in perfect harmony on a backdrop of rich, ochre tones.

HOWARD HODGKIN: WORKING ON PAPERIn October 2017, Sotheby’s sale Howard Hodgkin: Portrait of the Artist focused on the myriad objects across Indian and Islamic Art, European sculpture, rugs, textiles and furniture that Hodgkin had collected throughout his life and which provided much inspiration for his own work. The auction captured the imagination of thousands of visitors and bidders across the world. Howard Hodgkin: Working on Paper will reveal the scope, diversity and ultimately the great passion Hodgkin had for working on paper. Alongside stage designs for the Royal Ballet and Mark Morris Dance Group, commissions from projects such as the Olympic posters and illustrations for works by his friends Julian Barnes and Susan Sontag, the auction will include a significant proportion of dazzling prints from the 1960s up to some of the last works he produced. Every print in the sale is an Artist’s Proof, retained by Hodgkin in his personal collection. Following the auction, the proceeds will fund a complete museum collection of Hodgkin’s graphic work that is fully accessible for the public to see and enjoy, as well as supporting a new edition of the artist’s Catalogue Raisonné, which will feature 189 prints and many unique works on paper. Howard Hodgkin, Swimming, acrylic on foam board, 2012 (illustrated above, est. £25,000-35,000) DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Visit Sotheby’s London galleries on Sunday 10 June for an afternoon of free talks celebrating Sotheby’s summer season of Modern British Art. Gallery talk with Carolyn Leder, author of ‘Stanley Spencer: The Astor Collection’ 1pm | Stanley Spencer: Heaven on Earth Robert Scott, the artist’s son in conversation with Sotheby’s senior specialist Simon Hucker 2 pm | The Art of William Scott Gallery talk with Andrew Smith, Hodgkin’s printmaker 3 pm | The Journey of Making: Howard Hodgkin Working on Paper Gallery talk with Richard Cork, art critic and curator A children’s activity booklet will be available throughout the exhibition. 4 pm | Modernism in Britain: Hepworth, Moore & Nicholson Contact ModBrit@Sothebys.com to reserve a place