Dreweatts’ Modern and Contemporary art sale in Newbury on April 3 will offer a range of Mod Brit pictures, including a selection of St Ives School group works. However, one of the main highlights in this category is a wartime painting by John Armstrong (1893-1973) which carries an estimate of £20,000-30,000.
The Surrealist painter, who was appointed an official war artist at the outbreak of the Second World War, produced a series of works depicting dreamlike figures and ruined buildings but, as the war progressed, the theme of robed figures in a desolate landscape became a recurring image in his work.