It is a truism of the art market that new record prices for an artist will bring more work to auction. But what is often forgotten is that the market rarely follows a record price for a masterpiece with another record price for a masterpiece. Instead, consignors often come forward with interesting works that may be seen in a new light. That’s the case in London this February when Christie’s will have two works by Lucian Freud from the same collection. These works will appear after the spectacular $86.265 million paid for Freud’s Large Interior, W11 (after Watteau) that was one of the stars of the Paul Allen collection sold in New York last November.
The two works on offer are an early beachscape not shown publicly for nearly 50 years. Scillonian Beachscape from 1945-46 is offered with a £3.5 million estimate. Although the painting is hardly large by the standards of most contemporary art or the scale of Freud’s later work, it was one of the largest works Freud had made up to that point in his career. To put that £3.5 million estimate in context, another 1945 beach scene (though a work on paper) was sold for £2.6 million nearly 12 years ago (the exchange rate at the time made the dollar price $4.2 million.) It had come to auction with an estimate in the high six figures.
The second work on offer is Garden from the Window painted in 2002. It comes with a £2.5 million estimate. A 2003 work The Painter’s Garden was sold in 2019 with a $4 million estimate. The final selling price for that work was $5.95 million.
