This evening village scene by the landscape painter James Hamilton Hay (1874- 1916) drew multiple bids at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium) in Exeter on October 3.
Evening in The Village Square sold at five times its top guide at £4000, an apparently new record for the artist at auction, eclipsing the premium-inclusive £4000 paid last year at Christie’s for a view of the Lake District at sunrise.
Consigned privately from a family with Scottish ancestry, the 18½ x 22in (47 x 57cm) oil on canvas shows dark figures dotted around a square, illuminated by the lights from shop windows.