Put the light down flat and the picture becomes an object.
A conservator examines a surface by dropping the lamp almost parallel to it, so every ridge of paint throws a shadow. Impasto, canvas weave, old fills and craquelure all appear. Drag across the plate to swing the lamp; lower it to graze the surface.
Drag to move the lamp
Surface normals are derived from this single photograph by shape-from-shading, as a reading aid. A measured relief map requires photometric stereo — several exposures under known light positions — which we supply with the full condition report.
Impressionist & Modern Art — Evening Sale
Public viewing: Friday 10 — 5 · Saturday 10 — 5 · Sunday 12 — 5 · Monday 10 — 7, and by appointment
Scale does not survive a thumbnail.
The trade still decides what a picture is worth by standing in front of it. This is the sale hung on real walls under real gallery lighting, at the works' own proportions. Drag to look around the room.
The three-dimensional viewing room needs a desktop browser with WebGL. Every lot can be examined individually from its catalogue entry.
Six fields, six specialists.
A consignor deals with the person who will actually catalogue the property, from first valuation through to settlement.
Nineteenth and early twentieth-century American painting, with an emphasis on marine and landscape subjects.
2 lotsEuropean armour, edged weapons and sporting guns, catalogued with full condition reporting.
4 lotsJapanese woodblock prints, Chinese ceramics and works of art, and Korean furniture.
14 lotsPainting, sculpture and works on paper from the 1860s to the middle of the twentieth century.
6 lotsEuropean painting from the fourteenth century to 1800, with a standing specialism in the Spanish and Netherlandish schools.
1 lotOld master and modern printmaking, from Rembrandt etchings to post-war editions.
Sales ahead.
Recently sold.
Anyone can photograph a picture. What a house is paid for is the research behind the entry.
On the founding of the house
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Eleanor Vance
Head of Impressionist & Modern Art
[email protected] -
Tomás Reyes
Senior Specialist, Old Master Paintings
[email protected] -
Hana Itō
Head of Asian Art
[email protected] -
Gregor Halm
Specialist, Arms & Armour
[email protected]
From the department.
Two versions of the same picture, one lined and heavily restored, can differ in value by a multiple.
31 Jul 2026 How to read a provenanceA chain of ownership is an argument, and like any argument it can have gaps.
31 Jul 2026 What raking light actually shows youDrop a lamp flat against a painting and the surface stops being an image and starts being an object.