Previously unseen collage among three works by Boty to be sold in Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale at Christie’s London

The Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale starting at 2:00pm on 17 October includes the previously unseen and unknown work Untitled (Christmas collage ’64) executed by Pauline Boty in 1964. The three works in the sale can be viewed at 8 King St, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6QT from 12 October.

The following images and details are all courtesy of Christie’s:

Pauline Boty (1938-1966), 1964, Untitled (Christmas collage ’64) gouache, ink and collage on paper. © Christie’s Images Limited 2024

Lot 131
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
Untitled (Christmas collage ’64)
gouache, ink and collage on paper
17½ x 125⁄8 in. (44.5 x 32.1 cm.) Executed in 1964
£10,000-15,000 | US$14,000-20,000 | €12,000-18,000

Provenance
The artist, and by descent to the present owner

Pauline Boty (1938-1966), c. 1961, Untitled (Head of a Girl) gouache on paper. © Christie’s Images Limited 2024

Lot 130
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
Untitled (Head of a Girl)
gouache on paper
19¾ x 16 in. (50.2 x 40.7 cm.) Executed circa 1961.
£30,000-50,000 | US$40,000-65,000 | €36,000-59,000

Provenance
The artist, and by descent to the present owner

Literature
‘Advertisement for Rowney’, ARK, No. 28, London, 1961, illustrated.
S. Tate, Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Wolverhampton, 2013, p. 43, pl. 13, as part of “Advertisement for Rowney’.
M. Kristal, Pauline Boty: British Pop Art’s Sole Sister, London, 2023, p. 106, as part of ‘Advertisement for Rowney’, illustrated.
Untitled (Head of a Girl) featured in an advertisement for Rowney artists’ materials, first published in ARK No. 28, 1961. ARK was a style and design journal published by the Royal College of Art from 1950-1978. The Rowney advert, designed by Keith Branscombe,
depicts Boty seated in front of three of her paintings, holding a card with ROWNEY printed on it. As in other photo shoots, Boty is making sure her work appears in photographs taken of her, anchoring her identity as an artist, not just a pretty face.

We are very grateful to Dr Sue Tate, author of Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Wolverhampton, 2013, for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.

Pauline Boty (1938-1966), 1961, Theatre Design for Irma’s Room in ‘The Balcony’ by Jean Genet, ink, watercolour, gouache, collage and lace on paper © Christie’s Images Limited 2024

Lot 135
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
Theatre Design for Irma’s Room in ‘The Balcony’ by Jean Genet
inscribed ‘The Balcony. Jean Genet/Irma’s Room’ (on a label attached to the backboard)
ink, watercolour, gouache, collage and lace on paper
12½ x 18 in. (31.8 x 45.8 cm.)
Executed in 1961.
£20,000-30,000 | US$27,000-39,000 | €24,000-35,000

Provenance
with Mayor Gallery, London.
Private collection, UK, from whom acquired by the present owner circa 2019

Exhibited
London, Mayor Gallery, Pauline Boty, June 1993, no. 10. Wolverhampton, Arts Council England, City Art Gallery, Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, June – November 2013, pp. 68, 129, exhibition not numbered, pl. 34: this exhibition travelled to Chichester, Pallant
House Gallery, November 2013 – February 2014; and Poland, Łódź, Museum Sztuki, March – May 2014.

Literature
LITERATURE
S. Tate, Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Wolverhampton, 2013, pp. 68, 129, pl. 34.
M. Kristal, Pauline Boty: British Pop Art’s Sole Sister, London, 2023, p. 139, illustrated.

We are very grateful to Dr Sue Tate, author of Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Wolverhampton, 2013, for her assistance in cataloguing this lot

Auction details
Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale
17 OCT 2PM BST | LIVE AUCTION 22686
Christie’s, 8 King Street, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6QT

Viewing
From 12 October

Further information is available here: [link]

Boty’s “Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give” attains new record sale price

Pauline Boty’s 1962 tribute to Marilyn Monroe, “Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give”, sold earlier this evening at Christie’s London for £1,310,500 – a new record for one of her works! This was previously held by another of her paintings from 1962, “With Love to Jean-Paul Belmondo”, which sold for £1,159,500 at Sotheby’s in 2022.
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The conclusion to the sale can be seen here: [link]

New essay and short film with author Ali Smith on “Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give” at Christies.com

Pauline Boty (1938-1966), 1962, Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give [detail], oil on board (estimate: £500,000-800,000). Christie’s Images Ltd. 2024.

Pauline Boty’s tribute to Marilyn Monroe, Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give was exhibited at the Arthur Jeffress Gallery in August 1962, and gifted by the artist to a close friend two years later. It has remained in the same collection ever since.

Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art specialist Angus Granlund says the gift marked a key moment in Boty’s career: “A trailblazing pioneer and true polymath, Boty painted, acted, danced and engaged in political activism. However, at this key period she refocused her energy on painting, turning down acting roles to do so.” Granlund further describes the work as “a hugely important picture, and Boty’s only Marilyn painting still in a private collection. It unites two women who were synonymous with one another in the 1960s.”

Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give (1962, estimate: £500,000-800,000), is a leading highlight of the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale on 20 March.

Ali Smith inspecting Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give in the short film accompanying the lot essay. Christie’s Images Ltd. 2024.

The essay and short film with Ali Smith are available here: [link]

Lot detail
Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give, 1962
Oil on hardboard
106.5 x 127 cm

Estimate
GBP 500,000-800,000

Auction details
Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale
20 March 6:30PM GMT | Live Auction 22673

Viewing
New York: from 9–21 February
London: from 13–20 March

Further information on the auction is here: [link]

Major Pop art work by Boty to be sold in Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale at Christie’s London

Pauline Boty (1938-1966), 1962, Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give, oil on board (estimate: £500,000-800,000). Image courtesy of Christies

Christie’s London has announced the following exciting news:

“THE ONLY PORTRAIT OF MARILYN MONROE BY BOTY IN PRIVATE HANDS, we will offer Pauline Boty’s celebratory tribute to Marilyn Monroe, Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give (1962, estimate: £500,000-800,000), as a leading highlight of the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale on 20 March. The painting was gifted to a close friend of Boty’s in 1964 and has remained in the same collection since. One of Pop Art’s founding members, Pauline Boty died prematurely at the age of 28 in 1966. Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give is one of only around 25 Pop paintings that Boty created and was included in a rare lifetime exhibition at Arthur Jeffress Gallery in London in 1962.

Boty painted two further depictions of Monroe as tributes to the actress following her death, both of which are held in museum collections: Colour Her Gone, 1962 (Wolverhampton Art Gallery) and The Only Blond in the World, 1963 (Tate, London). Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give will be on view in New York from 9 to 21 February before being exhibited in London from 13 to 20 March.

Angus Granlund, Head of Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale, Christie’s: ‘Painted in Boty’s distinctive style, Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give takes the form of a pictorial collage that is entirely rendered in oil paint. A celebration of female empowerment, this is thought to be Boty’s only painting of Monroe painted during the actress’ lifetime. The epitaph referred to in the title relates to the film Something’s Gotta Give shutting down production. The centrepiece of the composition is taken from a photograph published in Life magazine on 22 June 1962, depicting Monroe swimming in a pool on set. Collecting, collating and synthesising mass culture imagery from newspapers, adverts and magazines was central to Boty’s practice. A true polymath, as well as being a ground-breaking artist, Boty was also a talented actress and political activist. She strongly identified with Monroe and is often associated with her. Held in the same private collection since 1964, this rare painting brings together these two celebrated 1960s icons. Christie’s is honoured to present Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give as a leading highlight of the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale and look forward to welcoming clients in New York and London to view this Pop Art masterpiece.’

Pauline Boty was a pioneering artist whose work shaped one of the greatest movements in British art of the 20th century. Within her short lifetime, she created a powerful, vibrant group of works that explored popular culture and left-wing politics, subjects which were coming into sharp focus in the 1960s. Boty studied at the Royal College of Art, the seedbed of the Pop Art movement, where she met, befriended and went on to exhibit with Sir Peter Blake, Derek Boshier, David Hockney, Peter Phillips and Patrick Caulfield. In 1961, she exhibited along with Blake, Geoffrey Reeve and Christine Porter at the A.I.A. Gallery in a group show seen as the very first Pop Art exhibition.”

Lot detail
Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give, 1962
Oil on hardboard
106.5 x 127 cm

Estimate
GBP 500,000-800,000

Auction details
Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale
20 March 6:30PM GMT | Live Auction 22673

Viewing
New York: from 9–21 February
London: from 13–20 March

Further information will both be added to this post and be available here nearer the time: [link]

Work by Boty to be sold in Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale at Christie’s London

The Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale starting at 1:00pm on 19 October includes Pauline Boty’s Still life with paint brushes from c. 1959-61. The work can be viewed at 8 King St, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6QT from 15 October.

The following image and details are all courtesy of Christie’s:

Pauline Boty (1938-1966), c. 1959-61, Still life with paint brushes, pencil, gouache and metallic paint on card. © Christie’s Images Limited 2023

Details
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
Still life with paint brushes
pencil, gouache and metallic paint on card
15 ¾ x 19 ¾ in. (40.5 x 52.7 cm.)
Executed circa 1959-61

Provenance
Purchased by Joe Boyd at the 1993 exhibition.
His sale; Christie’s, South Kensington, 12 December 2014, lot 97, where purchased by the present owner

Literature
S. Tate, Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Wolverhampton, 2013, pp. 28, 128, pl. 7.

Exhibited
London, Mayor Gallery, Pauline Boty, May – June 1993, no. 8.
London, Whitford Fine Art and Mayor Gallery, Pauline Boty: The Only Blond in the World, November – December 1998, exhibition not numbered.
Wolverhampton, Art Gallery, Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, June – November 2013, exhibition not numbered

Estimate
GBP 25,000 – GBP 35,000

Auction details
LOT 127
Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale
19 OCT 1PM BST | LIVE AUCTION 21951

Note
We are very grateful to Dr Sue Tate for her assistance in cataloguing this lot

Further information is available here: [link]

Three Boty works to be sold in Modern British and Irish Art Sales at Christie’s London

The Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale starting at 6:00pm on 21 March includes Bum from 1966, and the next day on 22 March starting at 1:00pm the Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale includes two early works, Golden nude and Nude on the beach. All three can be viewed at 8 King St, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6QT from 14 March onwards.

The following images and details are all courtesy of Christie’s:

Pauline Boty (1938-1966), BUM, 1966. Pencil, ink, watercolour, gouache and collage on paper. © Christie’s Images Limited 2023

Details
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
BUM
Pencil, ink, watercolour, gouache and collage on paper
19 5/8 x 16 in. (50 x 40.6 cm)
Executed in 1966

Provenance
A gift from the artist to Kenneth Tynan, and by descent

Exhibited
London, Gazelli Art House, “Silver Lining”, March–April 2019, exhibition not numbered

Estimate
GBP 60,000 – GBP 80,000

Auction details
LOT 1
Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale
21 MARCH 06:00 PM GMT | LIVE AUCTION 21948

Extract from Lot Essay
“Gifted by the artist to Kenneth Tynan in 1966, the present work has remained in his family ever since. Unprecedented in Boty’s limited body of work, this collage is the only known study for a major painting and provides a tantalising insight into her working methods. Executed in the same vibrant colours as the oil painting (sold Christie’s London, 22 November 2017, lot 4), the layers of collage reveal the complexity behind this playful composition.

BUM, a splendid and mature work, was Boty’s very last painting and painted after a diagnosis for cancer that ended her life so prematurely, aged only 28 in 1966. In the face of death, it is a wonderfully vibrant piece painted in colours straight from the tube. Commissioned by Kenneth Tynan for his notorious, erotic cabaret Oh! Calcutta! it places her, to the very end, at the cutting edge of the 60s zeitgeist. The title is a play on the French ‘O, quel cul tu as’ (‘O, what an arse you have’) and in a letter to the impresario, William Donaldson, Tynan outlined a gamut of ideas for the show, one of which was ‘a pop art ballet designed by Pauline Boty, based on paintings that focus on the principal erogenous zones’. BUM, intended as the first of a series, took its cue from the punning title. Within a precisely executed proscenium arch the female bottom is exquisitely and sensuously painted, the flesh has a bloom like a peach and the work could be read as a sensuous celebration of life. Yet the meaning is surely more ambiguous. We have a reified body part, set above the demotic title, BUM, rawly proclaimed in chunky san-serif lettering and revealed ‘on stage’ inviting perhaps a slap or a caning as much as a caress. Certainly, any simple celebration of sexual pleasure has been superseded by something more complex and interesting.

We are very grateful to Dr Sue Tate, author of Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Wolverhampton, 2013, for preparing this catalogue entry.”

Further information is available here: [link]

Pauline Boty (1938-1966), Golden nude, 1959. Oil on paper. © Christie’s Images Limited 2023

Details
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
Golden nude
Signed and dated ‘BOTY. 59’ (lower right)
Oil on paper
23 1/2 x 17 1/4 in. (59.5 x 44 cm.)
Painted in 1959

Provenance
The artist, and by descent

Estimate
GBP 30,000 – GBP 50,000

Auction details
LOT 140
22 MARCH 01:00 PM GMT | LIVE AUCTION 21949
Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale

Further information is available here: [link]

Pauline Boty (1938-1966), Nude on the beach, c.1958-59. Gouache on paper. © Christie’s Images Limited 2023

Details
PAULINE BOTY (1938-1966)
Nude on the beach
Gouache on paper
19 1/2 x 15 3/4 in. (49.5 x 39.5 cm.)
Executed circa 1958-59.

Provenance
The artist, and by descent.

Estimate
GBP 30,000 – GBP 50,000

Auction details
LOT 141
22 MARCH 01:00 PM GMT | LIVE AUCTION 21949
Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale

Further information is available here: [link]

An essay on Boty entitled Pauline Boty: ‘She was beautiful, with this marvellous laugh: clever, very bright, very much the early feminist’ by Jessica Lack is also available here: [link]

Rediscovered Canova masterpiece once situated outside Boty’s Kensington flat to be auctioned by Christie’s

Antonio Canova (1757-1822), Maddalena Giacente (Recumbent Magdalene), 1819-22. © Christie’s Images Ltd 2022

Antonio Canova’s Maddalena Giacente (Recumbent Magdalene), regarded as his lost masterpiece and completed shortly before his death, will be a star lot in the Old Masters Evening Sale on 7 July 2022 at Christie’s in London

At one stage the sculpture was located outside the front of the house in Addison Road owned by antique dealer Jon Manasseh which Boty shared with Celia Birtwell. Derek Boshier also rented a room as a studio there whilst Peter Blake stored his paintings. The sculpture even makes a brief appearance in Ken Russell’s 1962 documentary Pop Goes the Easel with an aerial shot of Blake seated on it whilst he, Boshier and Peter Phillips wait for Boty to respond to their ringing the bell to be let in.

Boty on the steps outside Addison Road [unknown photographer]

From the Christie’s website:

Having accidentally become an art world ‘sleeping beauty’ over the last 100 years – her authorship gradually forgotten and whereabouts unknown – this outstanding sculpture of Mary Magdalene in a state of ecstasy was commissioned by the Prime Minister of the day, Lord Liverpool (1812-1827). Recumbent Magdalene will be a star lot during Christie’s Summer edition of Classic Week in London.

Dr. Mario Guderzo, leading Canova scholar, former Director of the Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova and Museo Biblioteca Archivio di Bassano del Grappa commented: “It is a miracle that Antonio Canova’s exceptional, long lost masterpiece the Recumbent Magdalene has been found, 200 years after its completion. This work has been searched for by scholars for decades, so the discovery is of fundamental importance for the history of collecting and the history of art. It testifies to the intensive thought process of the work of the Italian sculptor who was a fundamental witness of his time: faithful to Pope Pius VII, sought after by Napoleon, beloved by the English sovereign George IV, esteemed by the world of European collecting and of critical importance for the restitution of works of art seized under Napoleon. The re-discovery of the Recumbent Magdalene brings to a conclusion a very particular story worthy of a novel, of a marble of significant historical value and great aesthetic beauty produced by Canova in the final years of his artistic activity.”

Details of work
Antonio Canova (Possagno 1757–1822 Venice)
Maddalena Giacente (Recumbent Magdalene), Marble, 1819–1822
75 x 176 x 84.5 cm (291⁄2 x 691⁄4 x 331⁄4 in.)
Estimate: GBP 5,000,000–8,000,000

Further information on the work and sale, including a short film with Christie’s European Sculpture specialist Donald Johnston and art critic Alastair Sooke on its remarkable rediscovery, is available here: [link]

Boty work sells for new record price in auction at Sotheby’s

*WITH LOVE TO JEAN-PAUL BELMONDO [detail], oil on canvas, 1962*

Yesterday evening in Sotheby’s British Art: The Jubilee Auction Pauline Boty’s 1962 painting With Love to Jean-Paul Belmondo sold for GBP 1,159,500 [GBP 950,000 plus Buyer’s Premium; Estimate GBP 500,000 – 800,000] achieving a new record price for one of her works.

This was previously held by her 1966 painting Bum, which sold at Christie’s on 22 November 2017 for GBP 632,750 [including Buyer’s Premium] with an estimate of GBP 200,000 – 300,000.

For more on yesterday’s sale and an extensive Catalogue Note on the work by Sue Tate [scroll right to the foot of the page] please see here: [link]

“Pauline Boty, Pop Artist and Woman” event on Monday in Sotheby’s Jubilee Arts Festival

The Jubilee Arts Festival takes place from 28 May–15 June at Sotheby’s London and is described as follows: “Within the Jubilee Season, Sotheby’s will open its doors for an Arts Festival celebrating the alchemy of British creativity and stirring its spirit in the next generation. With exhibitions and events spanning the visual, performing, and literary, we will gather figures advancing and reinterpreting Britain’s treasured cultural legacy. Beyond unique opportunities to view artworks and jewellery loaned from some of the nation’s greatest private collections, we are partnering with RADA, Intelligence Squared and Fantasia Orchestra to deliver a programme of musical and dramatic performances, cultural and historical debates and talks with contemporary artists and creatives.”

On Monday 13 June at 1:00 pm in Pauline Boty, Pop Artist and Woman, Dr Sue Tate and Sotheby’s Frances Christie will discuss Boty’s life and work, including her important 1962 painting With Love to Jean Paul Belmondo which is due to be auctioned by Sotheby’s on 29th June [please see previous News item].

For further information on the festival please click here: [link]

Major work by Boty to be sold by Sotheby’s in Jubilee Auction

On 29th June “British Art: The Jubilee Auction” at Sotheby’s in London will include Pauline Boty’s 1962 painting With Love to Jean-Paul Belmondo, with an estimated sale price of 500,000 – 800,000 GBP.

WITH LOVE TO JEAN-PAUL BELMONDO, oil on canvas, 1962

Sotheby’s describe the sale as follows: “In June 2022, the world’s attention will turn to London as we pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, the longest serving monarch in UK history, admired and respected globally for her 70 years of service. To mark this significant moment, we will hold a major live-streamed Evening auction dedicated to the best of British Art. The sale will incorporate artists such as Gainsborough, Constable and Millais working in the 18th and 19th centuries to icons of the 20th century such as Barbara Hepworth and L.S. Lowry, and into the 21st century with artists such as Bridget Riley and Banksy.”

With Love to Jean-Paul Belmondo will also be included in an exhibition at Sotheby’s in London from 28th May–15th June and 22nd–29th June. In the intervening time it will be on display in New York with other key works.

More information on the sale is available here: [link]

On 13th June Dr Sue Tate and Sotheby’s Frances Christie will be in conversation as part of the Jubilee Arts Festival – a programme of musical and dramatic performances, cultural and historical debates and talks with contemporary artists and creatives. Further details to follow soon here.

Details
With Love to Jean-Paul Belmondo by Pauline Boty
Oil on canvas
Signed BOTY, titled and dated 62 (on canvas overlap)
Property from a French Private Collection

Unframed: 152.5 by 122cm.; 60 by 48¼in.
Framed: 154 by 123.5cm.; 60½ by 48¾in.
Executed in 1962.