The Winter Fine Art & Antiques Fair, Olympia, taking place from 12-18 November 2012, is considered one of the most important annual events in the art and antiques calendar.
Find undiscovered art and antiques at Olympia from over 20,000 pieces, carefully handpicked by 150 British and continental dealers for their quality, provenance and beauty, including the finest in paintings, sculptures, furniture, jewellery, ceramics, and textiles.
John Piper CH LG - Town on the Charente. Exhibitor: Babbington Fine Art.
Fine Art makes up a good proportion of the fair with prices ranging from the hundreds to the hundreds of thousands. Print specialists Dinan & Chighine has two important sets of prints by Marc Chagall and Joan Miro while Court Gallery brings an oil on card laid on canvas, "Aquarium au Verre", 1944 by Georges Braque. Held in the Vassar College Collection from 1956 until 2012, the work was the first of the artist's fish bowl series and the motif was repeated many times by him in the 1940s and 50s. Also, as shown in the article a exquisitely beautiful John Piper exhibited by Babbington Fine Art.
Furniture is an important element of the Winter Fair with a number of the UK's top furniture dealers exhibiting. Wakelin and Linfield brings an early 18th century English walnut bureau and Hansord will be showing a myriad of interesting objects such as a late 19th century armchair constructed from timber from Nelsons ship The Foudroyant as well as a rare pair of early 19th century Dutch colonial burgermeisters chair with carved decoration and a fine George III period mahogany partners desk, with original brass swan neck handles and good veneers to the drawer fronts dating from 1775.
Scottish-based, Victorian picture dealer, Campbell Wilson has an oil on canvas portrait of Isadora Duncan by Paul Swan (1883-1972) signed and dated. The most famous dancer of her time, Isadora is known as the "mother of modern dance". Nicholas Bagshawe's Philip Alexius De Laszlo (1869-1937) portrait of Major Henry Frederick Elliott Lewin was painted during the First World War, and is a fine example of one of 38 portraits that the artist painted in 1915 of officers going to the front, as their families feared they might not return. Ironically after painting these patriotic and poignant portraits, Laszlo was imprisoned for two years in 1917 (at the hands of the very establishment he had been portraying so handsomely) and suffered a nervous breakdown.
Japanese specialist Laura Bordignon Antiques will be bringing a selection of Japanese ivories, bronzes and works of art from the Meiji Period. These include a Japanese silvered bronze okimono of an eagle, signed Seiya saku, dating from the Meiji period. The BADA (British Antique Dealers Association) are also holding a lecture titled, The Flamboyant Mr Chinnery: an artist in India and China. At a time when the West's eyes are looking towards China and India this lecture, given by Patrick Conner, reminds us of how 200 years ago one wayward genius, George Chinnery, interpreted through his brush the turbulent times of imperial expansion and the Opium Wars in the region.
The Fair is open until the 18th of November 2012. For more information on opening hours and ticket prices, please visit www.olympia-antiques.com