People who have a painting by Edward H Thompson they are thinking about selling are advised that now could be the time to do it.
Cockermouth saleroom Mitchells is appealing for entries for an auction it is holding to celebrate the launch of a book celebrating the artist’s life and work.
The Lake District’s Most Prolific Painter by Charles Nugent, will be launched at Mitchells later this year.
The event, on Monday December 8, it will be attended by the artist’s granddaughter Barbara and Charles’ widow Louise.
Hundreds of Thompson paintings have been sold through Mitchells saleroom over the years. The auction house holds the all-time record price achieved for a Thompson of £10,800 for a large watercolour Winter Sunset, Vale of Keswick in June 2011.
Mitchells Antiques & Fine Art Sale will be held from Wednesday December 10 to Friday December 12 and to help mark the occasion, the auctioneers are appealing for entries of Thompson paintings for this sale, which has a closing date of Friday November 7.
Born in Workington, Thompson (1879-1949) lived all his life in the north west of the Lake District.
He was employed from a young age as a clerk in the steelworks in Workington.
He was mostly self-taught and did not become a full-time professional artist until 1918 after which time his output increased significantly in response to the growing Lake District tourist industry.
He is estimated to have produced as many as 10,000 pictures in his lifetime, many of which have been sold through Mitchells saleroom.
Published posthumously, the book was compiled and written by Charles, who previously worked in the drawings and watercolours department at Christie’s.
He was also a curator at the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester where he authored illustrated catalogues of its important collection of British watercolours as well as of the Turner watercolours in the Manchester Art Gallery.
The book brings together the facts of Thompson’s life with illustrations of a range of his pictures, beginning with early oil paintings in the Edwardian period and continuing into the 1930s and later where watercolours predominate.
If you would like to attend the book launch or have a Thompson painting you’d like to sell, contact Mitchells with your details by calling 01900 827800 or emailing [email protected]
