Leonard Baskin collection heads sale – Antique Collecting

A sale of one of the most comprehensive collections of American artist Leonard Baskin’s work to come to the market will take place at Rosebery’s on November 26.

Gallerists Mary and Alan Hobart, founders of the Pyms Gallery in London, will offer their pioneering collection at the South London auctioneers, which will also include examples from Modern Irish art, particularly Sir William Orpen and William Crozier. The gallerists’ private collection was the focus of a major exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, titled Championing Irish Art: The Mary and Alan Hobart Collection, in 2023.

The sale will celebrate the Hobarts’ commitment to championing Modern Irish and British artists and will be sold alongside furniture, silver, and decorative art objects. A separate sale, The Private Collection of Mary and Alan Hobart, is due to be auctioned at Christie’s on November 19.

Pyms Gallery was founded in 1975 by Alan and Mary Hobart and was highly influential in driving a reappraisal of early Modern Irish artists in London, particularly Sir William Orpen, Jack B. Yeats, and Mary Swanzy.

Central to the sale will be a large group of works by Baskin, including sculptures, drawings, prints, and a signed first edition of Ted Hughes’s The Crow, illustrated by the artist, a lifelong friend of the poet. The works have been part of the collection for over a decade, originally acquired with plans for an exhibition dedicated to Baskin.

The sale features two exquisite wood carvings: the early masterpiece Prometheus (c.1949) and Seated Man with Cloven Hoof (1965). Baskin’s pieces are emblematic of the Post-War period, sharing an intensity of vision with contemporaries such as Elisabeth Frink, Germaine Richier, and Alberto Giacometti.

The auction will coincide with Roseberys’ Modern British & 20th Century Art sales: Early Modern to Post-War and Pop to Contemporary, featuring works from the collection of Mollie and Graham Dark, key figures in the St. Ives art scene. Post-War era highlights include pieces by Italian masters Mimmo Rotella and Lucio Fontana. The contemporary section of the auction is led by a notable work by Sarah Lucas.