An artist who, at a low ebb in the wake of the First World War, had once been reduced to selling his works on street corners, did not merit an entry in the Macmillan Encyclopaedia of Art after his death
in 1968.
Newton, the grandson of one of the founders of Winsor & Newton, specialised in moody urban views of vacant London streets beneath thundery clouds, today much admired for their unsettling sense of menace or foreboding. His penchant for scenes involving waterways earned him the nickname ‘the Canaletto of the canals’.
After a Storm, Chepstow Place, Notting Hill drew international attention before it sold for £65,000 at Chorley’s on May 24-25.
Measuring 2ft 1in x 3ft (63 x 90cm), it came for sale via a direct descendant of Lady Beauchamp, wife of the 7th Earl and daughter of The Earl of Grosvenor, with an estimate of £10,000-15,000.
The price is thought to be the second-highest price for the artist at auction after City of London from Hampstead was sold by Bonhams in June 2015 for £128,500.
