GUILDFORD, England – Canvases cut from “Screaming Pope” paintings by Francis Bacon have emerged and will be sold on March 21 by the Surrey auctioneer who sold other but unidentified fragments of Bacon works for more than £1 million. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

Five canvases, all of which have been authenticated by the Francis Bacon Authentication Committee, will be sold by Surrey fine art auctioneers Ewbank’s on Thursday, March 21. They are estimated conservatively to fetch around £100,000. A sixth canvas from the same source as the others, having recently returned from America so not examined by the committee, is estimated at £5,000-10,000.

All six canvases originated from the studio of Lewis Todd from Cambridge, who as an aspiring painter, had cut them up and used them for his own paintings, which he later sold to visitors and collectors on the All Saints Craft Market and art exhibitions.

Francis Bacon (1909-1992) is known to have painted mainly on the unprimed reverse of canvases and was a ruthless critic and editor of his own work. Anything he was not satisfied with or thought too perfect he mutilated.

Lewis Todd, who died in 2006 aged 81, was well known as a caricature artist for the Cambridge Daily News, now the Cambridge Evening News. After World War II and short of funds, he was encouraged to take up painting in oils by John Kesterton, manager of the Heffer Gallery who gave him his first canvases free because they had only been used on the reverse by Bacon, whom the gallery also supplied with materials, and perfectly suitable for painting on the front side,

The gifts were conditional upon Todd agreeing to cut up the canvases before making use of them for himself. It is not known how Bacon’s used canvases came to be at the Heffer Gallery in the first place.

Said auctioneer Chris Ewbank: “Todd did as he was required and cut the canvases so he could practice on them. At the time Bacon was making his name and his significance as a one of the world’s most outstanding contemporary artists had yet to be widely recognized. It is fantastic to think that these pictures were once part of a much larger painting of historical importance.

Astonishingly, among them and on the reverse of at least one of the original uncut canvases was one of Bacon’s most celebrated and graphic Screaming Pope images. This series of paintings was inspired by Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, and said to be Bacon’s way of expressing the horror of war and its aftermath.

Comparing the fragments to the famous Bacon painting hanging in the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa – Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X – the similarities are self-evident. Last November, Francis Bacon’s Untitled (Pope) 1954, depicting a shrieking pontiff, sold in a New York auction for a record £18.7 million.

Chris Ewbank added: “The discovery of these fragments of Bacon-painted canvases represent an important moment in art history. It was no secret that Lewis Todd once used discarded canvases from Francis Bacon’s studio, it was even mentioned in Todd’s obituaries, but to have identified authenticated Bacon pieces which feature one of Bacon’s haunting pope portraits is incredible.

“It also leads to the intriguing speculation that there are more examples of Bacon’s paintings in existence used by Todd for his own purposes, while someone, somewhere might even have a painting by Todd with a pope’s head on the back of it. Anyone who owns a painting by Todd should take it off the wall and check the back of the canvas. Those seemingly random daubs of paint could indicate a work of far greater significance.”

Most valuable of the six oils shows the yellow, white and black edge and leg of a chair, and some of the white papal clothing, on a black and blue ground. It measures 36 by 24 inches, with an additional 3 by 4 inches obscured where the canvas is wrapped and nailed to stretchers. The “right” side shows a still life painted by Todd in 1958, and is signed and inscribed verso, “The Studio at Orchard Avenue.” It is estimated at £25,000-30,000, as is another showing what appears to be the fleshy hand and arm of a Bacon pope. Also visible is the white and green arm of the chair on a black and blue ground. The painting measures 21 by 26 inches and has been removed from its stretchers. On the front is a painting of a house and tree by Lewis Todd.

Estimated at £15,000-25,000 is a canvas measuring 34.5 by 30 inches overall. It shows a set of curtain rings on a black background with three lines of a cube. The use of black as a background and apparent cube structures around figures was frequently employed by Bacon. Similar rings appear in Untitled (Pope) illustrated in Francis Bacon The violence of the real by Armin Zweite plate 10 page 116. Lewis Todd’s painting on the front shows a boy reading a book.

Two other canvases are each estimated at £10,000-20,000. One shows a typical yellow and white edge of a chair from a pope portrait, on a striped purple, black, and blue ground. Bearing similarities to Bacon’s Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1953), it measures 29 by 24 1/2 inches overall and bears Todd’s portrait of a man wearing a hat on the front.

The other shows typical vertical black stripes in a style used frequently by Bacon as the background for his 1953-54 pope portraits. Written in pencil by Todd is the title of one of his paintings and the words “A Francis Bacon Screaming Pope” inscribed verso. It measures 27 by 21 inches overall and is painted with a still life by Todd.

This and the other four authenticated pieces were included in a PhD research project at Northumbria University sponsored by the Bacon Trust. As part of the research, paint samples from the paintings were collected and analyzed. Preliminary results confirm that all pigments and binding medium used were typical of Francis Bacon works of the 1950s and 1960s.

The sixth canvas from the same source as the others, only recently returned from America and not examined by the Authentication Committee, has deep blue and black vertical lines and is inscribed verso in pen “Apples – by Lewis Todd” and “Francis Bacon – cast off! in 1950’s.” The canvas measures 22 by 18 1/2 inches and is estimated a £5,000-10,000.

Lewis Todd (1925-2006) lived in Over, near Cambridge. He was educated at the Perse School in Cambridge and served in the Home Guard based in Histon. After the war he worked as a graphic artist for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAF) eastern region, and was awarded the British Empire Medal for his work.

He retired in the 1980s, becoming a “Sunday painter,” describing himself as a “late Impressionist,” while his style was likened to that of L.S. Lowry. He and his wife ran a stall at Cambridge’s craft markets for many years.

One of his oil paintings, a scene of people punting on the River Cam behind Kings College Chapel, was purchased on behalf of the Queen Mother and believed to be in the Royal collection, while Prince Charles and Prince Philip were said to enjoy his cartoons done at the East of England Show MAF tent.

Ewbank’s is Surrey’s leading auctioneers of fine art and antiques. They are credited in having established the market for previously unseen and mutilated Francis Bacon canvases. In 2007, they sold a collection rescued from a skip outside the artist’s London studio by electrician Mac Robertson who became Bacon’s drinking partner. Estimated at around £50,000, the collection sold for £1.13 million.

Next came a further six works which were sold by Ewbank’s on behalf of Ron Thomas, a porter at Bacon’s dealers, Marlborough Fine Art. One of Thomas’ duties was to ferry paintings between the gallery and Bacon’s studio and the mutilated canvases were given to him, either to keep or to have the stretchers for his own use. They sold for a total of £32,000.

In 2008, a man who worked in the shop where Bacon purchased his art materials consigned part of one of Bacon’s destroyed canvases dating from about 1985, which showed what appeared to be a “pool of flesh” spread across a black background. It sold for £12,000.

For further information, please contact Chris Ewbank FRICS ASFAV on 01483 223101 or antiques@ewbankauctions.co.uk .

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

The collection was assembled over the years by a Miami antiquarian who amassed a collector’s trove of antiques. Now in his mid-70s, the antiquarian has made the decision to look toward retirement and sell off the part of the collection. Each session begins at 6 p.m. EDT.

Accordingly, Brian Kogan, president of the gallery said, “this collection is easily the largest single offering of French and Continental porcelain in one auction to date.” The tremendous offering with over 200 lots of European porcelains includes Sevres, Royal Vienna, Meissen, Jacob Petit, Old Paris, Dresden, Saxony, Hocht, and has all kinds of pieces to include covered urns, vases, plaques, boxes, cache pots, candelabras, tazzas and dishes. Highlighting the auction is the largest group of palatial porcelain hand-painted lidded urns seen by the gallery to be sold in session two on March 19.

Each urn is a testament to the exquisite legacy of 19th and early 20th century French and Continental porcelain painters who painted beautiful allegorical scenes in the reserves. Each having a naturalistic setting with courting figures in elegant period clothing enjoying nature and her bounty and each being mounted in incredible bronze dore handle mountings in masks, tendrils and scrolls. The urn is a revered form and is coveted for embodying the bounty of life and inevitably the ashes of death. The quality and execution of the urns is the best of French porcelain.

Deserving attention are Lot 427, an important Sevres urn, and lot 487, an Important Royal Vienna urn.

Each is noted for the combination of painting, form and overall execution and design, and quite possibly done for an exhibition or palace. The Sevres urn in the traditional cobalt blue backround glaze stands a 54 inches high and the Royal Vienna urn, in a seldom-seen mustard glaze, is 40 inches high. Both have dore mounts and exuberant floral decoration. Both are prized and should bring attention from buyers around the globe. Additionally, there are Lots 445, 387 and 350, all Sevres late 19th century urns that exemplify the best in porcelain from the period.

The collection has a vast array of Asian objects including a wide selection of vintage carved pink and green quartz lamps, several French bronze candleabras and a selection of ivories including lot 365, an 18th century carving of a monk holding a shrine. There are many Vernis Martin furniture pieces with dore bronze mountings, including lots 122 and 172, each Louis XV late 19th century cabinets with marble tops. Lot 42, a Sevres 31-inch-diameter porcelain plaque depicting French kings in small reserves mounted in a giltwood carved stand.

For condition reports, assistance and information contact Mr.Leslie Baker or Kogan by calling the gallery at 561-805-7115.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

“This is an ambitious auction, for sure,” said Todd Converse of Gordon S. Converse & Co. “At nearly 1,000 lots, it’s way bigger than most of our previous sales. But we’re excited about it because there is so much great merchandise in so many categories. There really is something for everyone. Also, shipping will be available on all but about 100 larger items.”

The lots are eclectic and freewheeling, ranging from a box of about 12 sailing-related tools, engraved scrimshawed hangings and a damaged octant (est. $60-$120) to original Little Archie comic book art (est. $100-$200). An expected star of the vintage clocks category is a gold-toned and glass-cased LeCoultre Atmos clock dating to the early 1960s (est. $400-$700).

Fine art will feature an oil on canvas painting by Earnest Townsend (N.Y., 1893-1944), titled Bermuda Waters, 27 inches by 31 inches, housed in a later gilt wood frame and signed lower right (est. $2,000-$3,000); and an oil on canvas by Christopher Shearer (American, 1846-1926), depicting a village scene, 33 1/2 inches by 40 1/2 inches and signed lower left (est. $1,200-$1,500).

Asian (mostly Chinese) antiques, objects and furniture will be plentiful. Star lots will include a finely carved Chinese 19th century wood-carved immortal, about 15 inches tall (est. $10,000-$15,000); and a fine and impressive 19th century gilt bronze Buddha casting on a conforming attached base, 15 inches by 12 inches, showing some wear (est. $4,500-$8,500).

Also offered will be a Chinese huanghuali altar table, about 32 inches tall by 67 inches wide (est. $5,000-$10,000); Chinese scrolls attributed to Fu Baoshi and Feng Zikai (both est. $8,000-$12,000); and a pair of Chinese zitan horseshoe chairs in black lacquer (or dark finish) of dense, heavy zitan hardwood and with elaborate carved splat in bas relief (est. $5,000-$7,000).

More items from Asia include a Chinese zitan stand, 31 inches tall (est. $3,000-$5,000); a Qing Imperial jade seal in a zitan box about 7 1/4 inches tall (est. $1,000-$2,000); a Chinese zitan and jade ruyi, or curved ceremonial scepter (est. $1,250-$2,000); a stack of old Chinese currency (est. $300-$500); a set of four Tianhuang seals in a 4 1/2 inch square huanghuali box (est. $400-$600); and a Chinese blue and white Qianlong vase, 14 1/2 inches tall (est. $400-$600).

Estate jewelry items will feature a platinum Swiss-made ladies’ dress wristwatch made by the Glycine Watch Co., including a special clasp and set with sapphires and diamonds (est. $2,500-$5,000); and a hunting cased ladies’ pendant watch in “Warranted Assay 14K” gold, with a fully running stem-wind nickel-plated jeweled duplex escapement movement (est. $80-$120).

Sterling silver will include an assembled five-piece tea set, Philadelphia, with a 1 1/2 pint teapot by Gorham and sold by Bailey Banks and Biddle, a 1 3/4 pint chocolate pot, a 2-pint teapot and warmer, sold by J.F. Caldwell, and a creamer and sugar, all with combined weights of over 81 troy oz. (est. $1,000-$1,250); and a fine and multi-sided Tiffany & Co. silver bowl, 2 1/2 inches by 8 inches, marked 18165 and 5169 and weighing 16.85 troy ounces (est. $4,000-$1,000).

African objects will include a carved wooden statue, 10 1/2 inches tall (est. $100-$200).

Gordon S. Converse & Co. is always accepting quality consignments for future sales. To consign a single item, an estate or a collection, call them at 610-722-9004 or send an email to either Todd@ConverseClocks.com or Gordon@ConverseClocks.com.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE