Alan Thornhill Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1921 - d. 2020

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  • Alan Thornhill (1921-2020), 'The Embrace', bronze, 1 of 6, signed, on a wooden plinth, 6.75" (17cm) high overa
    Mar. 26, 2024

    Alan Thornhill (1921-2020), 'The Embrace', bronze, 1 of 6, signed, on a wooden plinth, 6.75" (17cm) high overa

    Est: £300 - £500

    Alan Thornhill (1921-2020), 'The Embrace', bronze, 1 of 6, signed, on a wooden plinth, 6.75" (17cm) high overall.

    John Nicholson's Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers
  • ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)
    Oct. 11, 2023

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)

    Est: £150 - £250

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020) MASK cast concrete height: 34cm; 13 1/2in Executed in 1990, this work is unique. ARR may apply

    Olympia Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL ((BRITISH 1921-2020))
    Oct. 11, 2023

    ALAN THORNHILL ((BRITISH 1921-2020))

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL ((BRITISH 1921-2020)) NEXUS clay height: 146cm; 57 1/2in Executed in 1984, this work is unique. The bronze cast of the present work stands on the southside of Wandsworth Park, Putney. It is one of nine sculptures by Thornhill on the Putney Sculpture Trail. The Putney Sculpture Trail was opened in 2008. Set by the Thames, the route runs for one and a half miles, from Leaders Gardens to the west of Putney Bridge to Point Pleasant to its east. The idea of the trail began with the donation of Thornhill's work Load to Wandsworth Council in the late 1980s installed close to Putney Bridge. In 2005 Thornhill offered further sculptures, and the idea of a sculpture trail along the banks of the Thames was devised, with primary sponsorship for the project from Western Riverside Environmental Fund and Wandsworth Council. It is now the largest permanent outdoor sculpture collection by one artist in London. NB: This work is located off-site. For pre-sale viewing please contact the department. ARR may apply

    Olympia Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)
    Oct. 11, 2023

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)

    Est: £100 - £150

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020) SLEEP OF CLOWNS terracotta height: 34cm; 13 1/2in Executed in 1985, this work is unique. ARR may apply

    Olympia Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)
    Oct. 11, 2023

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)

    Est: £150 - £250

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020) SOLITARY numbered A40 at one end patinated terracotta height: 23cm; 9in length: 68cm; 26 3/4in Executed in the 1970s, this terracotta is unique. ARR may apply

    Olympia Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL ((BRITISH 1921-2020))
    Oct. 11, 2023

    ALAN THORNHILL ((BRITISH 1921-2020))

    Est: £60 - £80

    ALAN THORNHILL ((BRITISH 1921-2020)) TRIPLE CLOWN signed Alan Thornhill lower right; titled Triple Clown lower left charcoal 40 x 29cm; 15 3/4 x 11 1/2in 59.5 x 47cm; 23 1/2 x 29in (framed) ARR may apply

    Olympia Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL ((BRITISH 1921-2020))
    Oct. 11, 2023

    ALAN THORNHILL ((BRITISH 1921-2020))

    Est: £80 - £120

    ALAN THORNHILL ((BRITISH 1921-2020)) DANCING FIGURES signed and dated Alan Thornhill '84 lower right charcoal 56 x 58.5cm; 22 x 23in 74.5 x 77cm; 29 1/4 x 30 1/4in (framed) ARR may apply

    Olympia Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)
    Oct. 11, 2023

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)

    Est: £100 - £150

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020) CLOWNS - A PAIR both: signed with monogram lower right charcoal each: 40 x 29cm; 15 3/4 x 11 1/2in each: 59.5 x 47cm; 23 1/2 x 18 1/2in (framed) (2) ARR may apply

    Olympia Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)
    Oct. 11, 2023

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)

    Est: £100 - £150

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020) SELF-PORTRAIT charcoal 61 x 44cm; 24 x 17 1/4in 65 x 48cm; 25 1/2 x19in (framed) ARR may apply

    Olympia Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)
    Oct. 11, 2023

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)

    Est: £250 - £350

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020) LISTENER patinated terracotta height: 29cm; 11 1/2in Executed in 1984, this work is unique. ARR may apply

    Olympia Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)
    Oct. 11, 2023

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020) AUGURY patinated terracotta length: 73cm; 28 3/4in height: 25.5cm; 10in Executed in the 1970s, this terracotta is unique. ARR may apply

    Olympia Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)
    Oct. 11, 2023

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020) TOM STOPPARD numbered 220 on neck patinated terracotta height: 43cm; 17in Tom Stoppard sat for this bust in 1973, a year after his play Jumpers had won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play and London Theatre Critics Award for Best New Play. Thornhill was a great fan of Stoppard's work. He recalled of the present bust: 'Dissatisfied with the first day's attempt I did another in one day and felt I had made a breakthrough'. A bronze cast of the present work is in the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas (Austin) which has an extensive holding of Stoppard's papers. Stoppard was born Tomáš Sträussler in Czechoslovakia in 1937. When the Nazis invaded the country in 1939 the Sträussler family fled to Asia. After the death of his father in Singapore his mother married Major Kenneth Stoppard, and after the War the family resettled in England. Stoppard worked first as a journalist, then as a theatre critic. His major break-through as a playwright was with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, first staged at the Edinburgh Fringe in the summer of 1966, and then in April 1967 at the National Theatre. Acclaimed plays have followed, amongst them The Real Inspector Hound (1968), Jumpers (1972), Travesties (1975), Arcadia (1993), and Leopoldstadt (2020). ARR may apply

    Olympia Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)
    Oct. 11, 2023

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020)

    Est: £500 - £700

    ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020) Alan Thornhill (Lots 128-135) Introduction ‘Deliberately devoid of ‘initial idea’ my work is propelled by the process of improvisation. It evolves as an act of faith from an abstract into a figurative or at least an organic statement in accord with my general aspiration: to arrive by an uncharted route at images which strike home.’ Thornhill grew up in Fittleworth, West Sussex and was educated at Radley and New College, Oxford where he read History. During the War he served as an officer in the Gloucestershire Regiment, and took part in the D-Day Landings, but after the bombing of Dresden by the Allies he became a conscientious objector. After the War Thornhill enrolled at Camberwell School of Art where he specialised in ceramics, and then spent a year at Farnham School of Art. In 1951 he set up Hawkley Pottery near Stroud and taught at Stroud School of Art. He sold his pots in Heal’s and was selected for the Council of Industrial Design’s Index of Good Design. But with his interest in potting waning he began to explore the sculptural possibilities that clay offered, encouraged by friends Lynn Chadwick and Jack Greaves. In 1959, on being offered a teaching post at Kingston School of Art he moved to London, where he set up a new studio in Putney. Describing his sculpture, his daughter Anna Thornhill wrote: '[he] pioneered a radical and improvisatory approach to clay work that involved dispensing with an internal armature and allowing content to emerge from his unconscious. Abstract pieces of the 1960s developed into large groups of figures. Pacifism, Jungian psychology and world conflicts were themes that emerged organically in his work.’ (The Guardian, 1 May 2020). With his fascination for the articulation of mass, his sculptural output ranged from portrait heads of leading figures from the arts, education and politics (such as the playwright Tom Stoppard, lot 125), to a series of monumental life-sized figurative compositions that evolved from his imagination during the 1970s and 1980s. Nine of his large-scale works form the Putney Sculpture Trail. Inaugurated in 2008, the trail is the largest permanent outdoor sculpture collection by one artist in London. One of these larger-scale works are included in this sale (lot 127). Thornhill had several one-man shows, including at the Drian Gallery, Marble Arch; The National Theatre, South Bank; the Orangery, Holland Park; Putney Exchange; St Catherine’s College, Oxford; Kingscote Park, Gloucestershire and Galerie Jean Camion, Paris. In 2012 there was a major retrospective of his work at the Museum in the Park, Stroud. ALAN THORNHILL (BRITISH 1921-2020) UNDERGROUND aluminium relief 31 x 54.5cm; 12 x 20 1/4in Conceived in 1961; cast in an edition of 6. ARR may apply

    Olympia Auctions
  • An archive belonging to the Gloucestershire based sculptor & artist Alan Thornhill [1921-2020]
    Oct. 06, 2021

    An archive belonging to the Gloucestershire based sculptor & artist Alan Thornhill [1921-2020]

    Est: £150 - £200

    Alan Thornhill Archive. An archive belonging to the Gloucestershire based sculptor & artist Alan Thornhill [1921-2020], including paintings, drawings, notebooks, diaries, correspondence & reference books Qty: (12 cartons)

    Dominic Winter Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £400 - £600

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Self portrait in the studio signed and dated AT '93 (lower right) oil on canvas, unframed 90 x 76 cm (35 1/2 x 30 in) PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £350 - £550

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Sequence patinated terracotta (mixed fire clay and red clay) 92.5 cm (36 1/2 in) high PROVENANCE: Artist's estate Executed in Putney in 1974. Thornhill recalled of the title of the present work: 'The name suggested because of a hint of dance in the piece.' 'The process is one of interplay with the material in which the intervention of the unconscious with its ambiguities and improbabilities is obediently heeded. Deliberately devoid of ‘initial idea’ my work is propelled by the process of improvisation. It evolves as an act of faith from an abstract into a figurative or at least an organic statement in accord with my general aspiration: to arrive by an uncharted route at images which strike home.' Alan Thornhill For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £400 - £600

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Labyrinth patinated terracotta (fire clay) 74 x 51 cm (29 x 20 in) Conceived in Putney in 1972 PROVENANCE: Artist's estate My aspiration has been to achieve in the round objects inviting scrutiny from many angles and removes, challenging and hopefully affecting the viewer. With practice over time the displacement of attention away from the subject adds the complexities sensed as ‘content’ to creep or flow into the work from which the viewer, including the sculptor himself, can obtain an unfathomable degree of mystified satisfaction. Alan Thornhill For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £350 - £550

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Slaughter sucker syndrome signed with initials AT (lower right), titled (on an artist label, attached to the reverse) oil on canvas 94.5 x 137 cm (37 1/4 x 54 in) PROVENANCE: Artist's estate EXHIBITED: Holland Park, London, The Orangery, 1995 For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Figures in a landscape oil on canvas, unframed 95 x 136.5 cm (37 1/2 x 53 1/2 in) PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £600 - £800

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Summoner patinated terracotta 158.2 x 64 cm (62 1/4 x 25 1/4 in) Conceived in 1986, the bronze cast is in the Museum in the Park, Stroud, Gloucestershire PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £600 - £800

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Animaversion patinated terracotta 148.5 x 72 cm (58 1/2 x 28 1/4 in) Conceived in 1987, the bronze is in Museum in the Park, Stroud, Gloucestershire PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £600 - £800

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Whirlygig patinated terracotta 111 x 54 cm (43 3/4 21 1/4 in) 176.5 x 55 cm (69 1/2 x 21 3/4 in), including plinth Concieved in 1985. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £600 - £800

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Bond patinated terracotta 144.5 x 79 cm (56 3/4 x 31 in) Conceived in 1985, this work is also known as Women of Greenham as a tribute to the women who protested at RAF Greenham Common against the government's decision in the early 1980s to allow cruise missiles to be stored there. The protest camp for nuclear disarmament at Greenham was active until 2000. The bronze of the present work was purchased by the Jerwood Foundation. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Emi II signed AT/Alan Thornhill/C245 (on the back of the neck) patinated terracotta 32 x 29 cm (13 1/4 x 11 1/2 in) Emmi was a Spanish student of Thornhill's at Morley College. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Head of a woman signed AT (on the back) patinated terracotta 33 x 20 cm (13 x 8 in) PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Green man dust-up signed with monogram (lower right) acrylic on canvas 101 x 91 cm (39 3/4 x 35 3/4 in) Painted in Stroud in 1997 PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £250 - £350

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Birth of man (nativity) signed with initials AT (lower right) oil on canvas laid down on board 52 x 76.5 cm (20 1/2 x 30 in) PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £200 - £300

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Enigma (The Porter) signed with monogram AT (lower right) oil on canvas 76 x 50.5 cm (30 x 20 in) Conceived in 1991, the title of this painting derives from Thornhill's serendipitous reading of When the World Was Whole, Three Centuries of Memories by Charles Fenyvesi, published in 1990. The book chronicles the author's Hungarian family's rise under the Hapsburgs, its fall in World War I and its near extinction under the Nazis. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £250 - £350

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Organic form signed and dated Thornhill '72 (on the side) bronze 17 x 20 cm (6 3/4 x 8 in) PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £400 - £600

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Adam and Eve patinated terracotta 93 x 48 cm (36 3/4 x 18 3/4 in) Concieved in 1961. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £150 - £250

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Children at play patinated terracotta 47.7 x 56.5 x 34 cm (18 3/4 x 22 1/4 x 13 3/4 in) PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Janet Brace signed AT (on the back of the neck) patinated terracotta 34.5 x 24 cm (13 3/4 x 9 1/2 in) Executed in 1964 at the artist's Putney studio. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate The sitter, Janet Brace, was the wife of Derek Cooper, OBE (1925-2014), the probing journalist and mellifluous broadcaster who produced a series of documentaries for radio and television including Signpost (1961), Revolution Round the Corner (1964) and The Curious Character of Britain (1970). Latterly he was probably best known as the voice of Radio 4's The Food Programme which he presented from 1979-2001, and in which he decried the parlous state of the British culinary tradition. For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Hugh MacDiarmid patinated terracotta 36 x 26 cm (14 1/4 x 10 1/4 in) Executed in 1974 at MacDiarmid's home in Biggar, Lanarkshire; a cast in bronze is in the National Portrait Gallery, London. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978) was the pen name of the influential Scottish poet, journalist, polemical political figure and idealist Christopher Murray Grieve. The son of a postman, he grew up in Dumfriesshire and started work as a journalist in Wales. During the First World War he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Greece and France, an experience that greatly impacted both his political and literary development. On his return to Scotland in 1918 MacDiarmid settled in Montrose, and published his first collections of poetry: Annals of the Five Senses in 1923, Sangschaw in 1925 and Penny Wheep and A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle in 1926, this latter extended poem being considered his most influential work. Such early writings were penned in what he termed 'Synthetic Scots', a version of the local Scots language (not to be confused with the gaelic spoken in the Highlands) that combined local Lowland dialects. At the end of the 1920s he worked for Compton Mackenzie's magazine Vox, and in later years wrote increasingly in English. In 1928 MacDiarmid helped found the National Party of Scotland (now the SNP), but was expelled during the 1930s. He subsequently joined the Communist Party, but was soon expelled from that too (on the grounds of being a Scottish Nationalist). Later however he stood for the SNP in 1945 and 1950, and for the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1964, campaigning in Kinross and Perthshire for the seat of Conservative Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home, and polling 127 votes. For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Rt Hon Franck Cousins, head of the Trade Union Congress signed AT (to the back of the neck) patinated terracotta 37 x 26 cm (14 1/2 x 10 1/4 in) Executed in 1971 at the sitter's home in Wrington near Bristol. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate Born in Bulwell on the outskirts of Nottingham, Franck Cousins (1904-1986), followed in his father's foorsteps as a miner, his first job as a fourteen year old working as a collier down the local pit. He subsequently became a lorry driver, and an active member of the road transport section of the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). Appointed National Secretary of Road Transport (Commercial) Group in 1948 he became Assistant General Secretary of the TGWU in 1955, and was elected to the Labour Party's National Executive Committee the same year. He became General Secretary of the TGWU in 1956, a post he held until 1969. Closely aligned with the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson, he was elected an MP for Nuneaton in 1965, and served in Wilson's Cabinet as Minister of Technology from 1964-1966. For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £600 - £800

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Together patinated terracotta 91 x 60 cm (35 3/4 x 23 1/2 in) Conceived in 1982 when Thornhill was teaching at Morley College, the bronze is in Museum in the Park, Stroud, Gloucestershire PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Telephone man signed and inscribed AT 81 (underneath) patinated terracotta 34 x 26 cm (13 1/2 x 10 1/4 in) Conceived in 1961, the present subject was inspired by Thornhill's work at the time at the telephone exchange. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £400 - £600

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Eve patinated terracotta 91 x 38 (35 3/4 x 15 in) board: 100.5 x 42.5 cm (39 1/2 x 16 3/4 in) Concieved in 1961. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £400 - £600

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Augury patinated terracotta 75.5 x 47 cm (29 1/2 x 18 1/2 in) PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £400 - £600

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Rescue signed and numbered Thornhill IX (on the male figure's foot) bronze with green patina 50 x 20 cm (19 3/4 x 8 in) Conceived in 1961. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £600 - £800

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Solitary bronze 67 x 35 cm (26 1/2 x 14 1/4 in) PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £600 - £800

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Load patinated terracotta 142 x 73 cm (56 x 29 in) Conceived in 1984, the bronze cast of the present work was the first sculpture by Thornhill to be donated to Wandsworth Council and installed on Putney embankment in 1987. Situated near Thai Square, it is one of the nine works by Thornhill that now comprise the Putney Sculpture Trail. For more information about the Putney Sculpture Trail, please see lot 207. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £600 - £800

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) The Turning point signed with a monogram and numbered 13 (on the base) patinated terracotta 145 x 75 x 75 (57 x 29 1/2 x 29 1/2 in) 181 x 75 x 75 cm (71 1/4 x 29 1/2 x 29 1/2 in), including the plinth Conceived in 1986, the bronze cast of the present work stands at the corner of Putney High Street and Putney Bridge Road and is one of the nine sculptures by Thornhill on the Putney Sculpture Trail. For more information about the Putney Sculpture Trail, please see lot 207. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate The title of the sculpture was inspired by Fritjof Capra’s book The Turning Point: Science, Society and the Rising Culture, published in 1982 which looked to find solutions to the woes of the world, from the nuclear arms race to western economies; conservation of natural resources to a dysfunctional society. For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £500 - £700

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Motherfigure patinated terracotta 136 x 46 cm (53 1/2 x 18 in) The bronze of the present work stands on Putney Wharf East and is one of the nine works by Thornhill in the Putney Sculpture Trail. For more information about the Putney Sculpture Trail, please see lot 207. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate This work represents the burden that women carry in war and was made during the Bosnian crisis. For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6 Footnote: 161 x 54.5 54.5 cm (63 1/2 x 21 1/2 in), including plinth

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Quotidiana, Bosnia oil on canvas 91 x 127 cm (35 3/4 x 50 in) PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Phases signed with initials AT (lower right), titled (on an artist label attached to the reverse) oil on canvas 101.6 x 114.4 cm (40 x 45 in) Conceived in 1993, in Vazerac, France, this was Thornhill's first large attempt at abstract composition. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £200 - £300

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Before the awakening signed with initials AT (lower right), titled (on a label attached to the reverse) oil on canvas, laid down on board, unframed 76.5 x 52 cm (30 x 10 1/2 in) PROVENANCE: Artist's estate For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) Basil Bunting patinated terracotta signed AT (on the back of the neck) 31 x 25 cm (12 1/4 x 10 in) Executed in 1973 at the sitter's home in Wylam, Northumberland. PROVENANCE: Artist's estate The influential modernist poet Basil Bunting (1900-1985) was brought up in a Quaker family, and attended the Quaker school Leighton Park. A pacifist during the First World War, after refusing his army call-up he served time while still a teenager as a conscientious objector in Wormwood Scrubs and Winchester prisons, an experience that scarred him, and would have a lasting effect on his writing. On release from prison in 1919 Bunting enrolled at the LSE, and became part of a wider London circle of journalists, artists and social activists, meeting muse and model Nina Hamnett who introduced him to the poetry of Ezra Pound. Bunting subsequently met Pound in Paris, and the two writers became close friends and associates. In the early 1930s Bunting stayed with Pound for two years in Rapallo, Italy, and in 1938 Pound dedicated Guide to Kulchur to Bunting and Louis Zukofsky as 'strugglers in the desert'. Fascinated by medieval Persian literature, especially their sound patterns, Pound served in the Second World War in the British Military intelligence in Persia, and subsequently became The Times correspondent in Iran. On his return to England his earlier poetry was discovered by younger poets of the day, and in 1965 he published his important long poem Briggflatts. He described the major artistic influences on his life as 'Jails and the sea, Quaker mysticism and socialist politics, a lasting unlucky passion. the slums of Lambeth and Hoxton...' and on his advice to poets he wrote: 'Compose aloud; poetry is a sound'. For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
  • ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)
    Jul. 08, 2021

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020)

    Est: £300 - £500

    ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) ALAN THORNHILL (1921-2020) A.S. Neill patinated terracotta 30 x 26 cm (11 3/4 x 10 1/4 in), high Executed in 1971 when Neill sat for Thornhill at Summerhill School, Suffolk. Casts in bronze are in the collections of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh and the American College of Orgonomy, New York. Alexander Sutherland Neill (1883-1973) was one of the most innovative educationalists of the last century. He put into practise his radical philosophy on teaching and learning at Summerhill, the school that he established in 1924 in Lyme Regis, which shortly thereafter moved to Leiston, Suffolk. Neill wrote widely on education, publishing Summerhill in 1960 to explain the methodology of the school based on his belief that children were inately good, that teaching should be led by student interest and that student happiness was paramount. Self-governance was a central tenet to Summerhill, in which every member of the school community - pupils and staff - had an equal vote to agree school rules and settle school disputes. Following the publication of Summerhill, his ideas received widespread interest and gained considerable credence among the counter-culture of the free school movement both in the UK and abroad in the 1960s and 70s. Neill was one of several influential educationalists that Thornhill sculpted, another was Dennis Silk, former England cricketer and Headmaster of Radley College. For further details on the artist, please check: https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/open-studio-of-alan-thornhill/?pc=6

    Chiswick Auctions
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