Painting by Norfolk Artist Gwyneth Johnstone Fetches New Record of £14,500
One of the last remaining paintings by Norfolk artist Gwyneth Johnstone has sold for more than any of her works has ever done before.
The artwork titled Provencale Market beat the previous record set by the late artist who worked from a private studio in Coltishall.
Last year, her painting titled Living at Barns bury Terrace fetched £13,000, more than twice the previous highest amount paid for one of Ms Johnstone’s works.
The painting, Provençale Market, one of 17 remaining works from the artist’s private collection, and the largest, was sold at Cheffins Art & Design Sale in Cambridge.
It sold for more than twice the maximum guide price of between £5,000-£8,000.
Brett Tryner, director at Cheffins, said: “These works were completely fresh-to-the-market and the results achieved go to show her growing popularity amongst both private buyers and the trade. Johnstone is starting to be recognized as one of East Anglia’s finest artists from the post-war era and her energetic and romantic landscapes are growing in appreciation as some of the best of the genre.”
Other highlights amongst her collection of paintings on offer included Abstract with Trees which sold for £1,700, over the guide of £300, and London Square II which made £1,600 compared to the guide of £500. Similarly, another abstract landscape, Trees with Moon, sold for £1,600, eight times its lower estimate of £200-£300.
Ms Johnstone was born in 1915 in Coltishall and was the illegitimate daughter of musician Nora Back and famous artist, Augustus John. From 1933–1938 she studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She also trained under cubist artists, Andre Lhote in Paris and Cecil Collins. Ms Johnstone spent her time between her home in Norfolk and later in the South of France and Spain. She died in 2010 and was buried alongside her mother near Coltishall.
Ms Johnstone’s pictures appeared in a series of group shows in the 1960s, including the Women’s International Art Club and Young Contemporaries, however it was from the 1980s onwards that she saw her most success with a series of solo exhibitions in both London and Norfolk.
