Stanley Jones: Works from estate of key figure in post-war British printmaking up for sale at Sworders
Works from the estate of a key figure in the history of post-war British printmaking come up for sale at Sworders next week.
More than 100 lots from the estate of master lithographer Stanley Jones, founder of the Curwen Studio, will be included in the sale of modern and contemporary art at the Stansted Mountfitchet auction house on Tuesday and Wednesday (Oct 1-2).
Jones, who died in February 2023 aged 89, worked with the A-Z of British post-war artists. Combining great technical expertise, a brilliant colour sensibility and a famously calm temperament, he excelled in the world of collaborative fine art printmaking, creating limited edition works on paper with Perry Green-based Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Elizabeth Frink, David Hockney and Edward Bawden among others.
Born in Wigan, the son of an engine driver, Jones’s roots were not those of the typical artist. However, after showing great promise at his local art school, he later studied at The Slade in London and then the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
It was while working at Atelier Paris in Montparnasse, where he printed for the likes of Soulages, Severini and Sugai, that he was approached by publisher and gallery owner Robert Erskine with an idea to create a lithographic studio to the same standard for British artists.
Following a ‘pilot’ project in St Ives, the Curwen Studio opened in 1958 in a former stable block in Plaistow, east London, before moving in 1965 to a basement studio in Midford Place, off Tottenham Court Road. John Betjeman, who occasionally visited to watch artists at work, described what he saw there as ‘artistic alchemy’.
When, after 24 years, the studio moved to Cambridge in 1989, Jones remained an important part of Curwen and a tutor and mentor to numerous students, many of whom went on to achieve wider recognition.
His family has chosen 115 pieces from the estate to sell at Sworders. They include works by all of the best-known British talents he worked with.
A famous black and white photograph from the time shows Jones in deep conversation with Henry Moore as a lithograph comes off the press.
Several works by Moore are offered, including a pencil drawing made as part of the lithographic process for Girl Seated at Desk, which carries the collection’s highest estimate at £8,000-£12,000, and the printer’s proof of the 1974-75 lithograph in colours Four Reclining Figures (£400-£600) from “Omaggio a Michelangelo”, the album published in 1975 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the birth of the Italian painter, sculptor, architect and poet.
Some of the impressions are printer’s proofs or original works made during the artistic process before creation of the final edition. The 2001 lithograph Inspection by Paula Rego (£500-£700) is inscribed in pencil “Dear Stanley, I hope you can get this lighter - Thank you Paula”.
A Graham Sutherland portrait of cosmetics entrepreneur and art collector Helena Rubenstein is marked “Trial Proof SJ” and was never editioned. The story goes that when Sutherland found out Rubenstein had commissioned the portrait for use on her personal Christmas card, he refused to let it be used. This rarity is guided at £200-£300.
The works offered for sale include a series of signed prints made by Barbara Hepworth (1903-75) towards the end of her career. Works titled Argos, Three Forms, Sea Forms, Oblique Forms, Two Marble Forms (Mykonos), Sun and Moon and Pastoral, all dated 1969, have guides of £1,500-£2,000 each.
Classic works by Edward Bawden such as Leadenhall Market and Smithfield Market from the popular 1967 London Markets series are guided at £600-£800 and £800-£1,200 respectively, while the sale also includes characteristic ‘British landmark’ prints by John Piper such as Long Melford Church, 1982 (£500-£700) and Scotney Castle, Kent, 1976 (£400-£600).
Here is the link to the 115 works for sale https://www.sworder.co.uk/auction/search/?st=Stanley%20Jones&sto=0&au=1182&sf=%5B%5D&w=False&pn=1.
