Five of JMW Turner’s works are to be auctioned across three sales on the 250th anniversary of the painter’s birth.
Born in 1775, Joseph Mallord William Turner was a painter and printmaker during the English romantic period and was most famed for his landscapes, often of a nautical theme.
Christie’s auction company, which sold a Turner watercolour for £5.8 million in 2006, will present several of his works for auction this July.
Among the pieces being sold is a watercolour titled, Lake Brienz, With The Setting Moon, during the Old Masters Evening Sale on July 1. It is estimated to fetch between £600,000 and £800,000.
There is also View Of Stoke House, which carries an estimated selling price of £20,000 to £30,000, and depicts a figure sketching what is thought to be a self-portrait in the foreground.
This piece, along with two others will be put for sale as part of the Old Masters, 19th Century Paintings And Drawings From A Private Collection: Selling Without Reserve event taking place on July 2.
Another of the pieces in this sale depicts the Cornish coastline around Pendennis Castle and carries an estimated selling price of £60,000 to £100,000.
One other Turner work, a pencil and watercolour on paper, will be part of Christie’s Old Masters To Modern Day Sale: Paintings, Drawing Sculpture, also taking place on July 2.
These sales are part of Christie’s Classic Week, which forms part of the auction company’s programme of events for its London summer season.
Earlier in the year Tate Britain announced it would celebrate the 250th anniversary of Turner’s birth with a new room showcasing his work and also said it would open a new video installation about Turner’s travels across Europe, among other things.
Every other year the gallery hosts a prize ceremony for a prestigious contemporary art award named after the painter which is awarded to a British artist annually.
