Sotheby’s in London offers Christopher Cone’s collection of British landscape paintings

KOLKATA: One man’s nostalgia for the pastoral qualities of the English landscape will come to the fore at Sotheby’s in London on 22 May 2014 when the Company offers Christopher Cone’s collection of British landscape paintings. ‘A Green and Pleasant Land’ comprises a cohesive and lovingly assembled group of sixty-three oils, watercolours and drawings, from John Constable in the early 19th century to Richard Eurich in the mid-20th century.

The vision of England conjured by these artists is meticulous in detail, delicate in colouring, and romantically lyrical. Collectively, this wealth of little masterpieces of landscape painting speaks to the viewer of a piece of land that is ‘forever England’.

For 32 years, Christopher Cone was the partner of the late Stanley J. Seeger, one of the greatest collectors of our time, and together they amassed a succession of exceptional treasures. Christopher went his own direction too, with his eye honed by several memorable years working as a Victorian paintings specialist at Sotheby’s Belgravia in the 1970s, during which time he calculates he catalogued more than 10,000 pictures. Memories of his childhood in Yorkshire, and a yearning for the natural landscape when he was confined to the city, or travelling abroad, fuelled his nostalgia.

Philip Hook, Sotheby’s senior director, Impressionist & Modern Art Department, commented: "Christopher put together this collection with great love and discrimination, always heeding his mantra, ‘Buy what you like’. It would give him enormous pleasure if new collections and collectors emerged from the opportunity to buy that this sale of his treasures represents."