Fine Art

From lighthouses and ships in distress to labourers and landscapes, the two exhibitions at The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh this month celebrate three centuries of Scotland’s art.

To celebrate 30 years in the business, Jonathan Cooper Gallery of Chelsea hosts a group exhibition of figurative painting, drawing and sculpture by contemporary artists.

A portrait of Miss Virginia Gammell, an Edwardian society lady, is among the highlights at Mark Murray’s summer exhibition taking place in New York.

The Paris high season is a time when classic sales of traditional fare are as much to the fore as buoyant sectors such as Asian, contemporary and modern and tribal art.

British watercolours depicting the beautiful county of Devon and painted during the medium’s golden age drew eager bidding at Cheffins of Cambridge (22.5% buyer’s premium).

The latest batch of period portraits to pass through Cheffins featured several from a late-16th century property in Great Chesterford, Essex. Passed by descent, the quartet was led by an attractive English School portrait of Queen Mary I (1516-58), an oil painted on an oval 2ft x 21in (62 x 53cm) canvas.

No two jobs are the same for the art shippers offering a bespoke service at the top end.

More than 50 works by the French modern sculptor César (1921-98) are on display in the artist’s home city of Marseille.

“She was the only fair organiser I’ve ever met from whom I didn’t mind getting a ticking off,” said one of the many tributes paid to Bunny on her death (Andrew Sim).

Less well-known than other daring young women in their flying machines, Peggy Salaman, or rather a bronze bust of her, emerged from a Mayfair basement to take off in a Suffolk saleroom.

It took less than five minutes for a work by Max Beckmann (1884-1950) to become the most expensive painting ever sold at a German auction.

Nearly 500 lots of Modern British and 20th century art went under the hammer at Woolley & Wallis (25/12% buyer’s premium) in Salisbury to notch up a total of £535,000 with three-quarters sold.

Like many businesses scarred with bomb damage in post-war Britain, Lyons teashops were in need of cheering up.

Uniting galleries, auction houses, artists and one of London’s venerable art institutions – and even Victoria Beckham – Mayfair Art Weekend returns this summer.