Flea market find
AN abstract painting that a Cherry Burton woman picked up in the middle of the night at a French flea market for just a few Euros is predicted to make at least £10,000 when it goes under the hammer in an auction in York on Friday.
Kate Pottage spotted the picture at 3am, lying on a pavement, as exhibitors were unloading their wares in preparation for La Grande Rederie d’amiens, one of the largest flea markets in Europe that was due to start at dawn on Sunday, April 21.
“There was something about this picture. Even by the light of my torch the shapes and the textures and the atmosphere of the abstract image were really striking. I saw that it was signed P. Heron but quite honestly the name meant nothing at that moment.” said Kate.
Kate asked the vendor how much he wanted. The man picked up the canvas, looked at it for a moment and replied “50 Euros” (£42). She offered him 30 (£25). They agreed 40 (£34).
It was only when she got down to examining the picture back home in East Yorkshire that it began to dawn that P. Heron was Patrick Heron (1920-1999), one of the most important British painters of the 20th century, an artist whose pictures routinely sell at auction for tens of thousands of pounds – and have on occasion topped £1m.
Duggleby Stephenson art specialist Coralie Thomson said: “It is a wonderful find. Leeds-born Heron was incredibly influential, an artist, writer and critic who played a major part in firing British interest in post-war abstract art. His early influences were Braque and Matisse but after viewing an exhibition of American abstract impressionism in London in 1956 Heron abandoned figurative painting and underwent a conversion to pure abstraction.”
The painting goes into Friday’s Fine & Affordable Art Sale at the Duggleby Stephenson Saleroom in York Auction with an estimate of £8,000-£10,000.