PAINTINGS
Throughout his lifetime, Simon Sainsbury assembled an intimate collection of paintings focusing on over 400 years of British art from 1600 to the present day and a carefully chosen group of Impressionist and Modern pictures. The selection to be offered at Christie’s in June includes works by Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Stubbs, Joseph Wright of Derby, Angelica Kauffman, Sir Stanley Spencer, Pierre Bonnard, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Henri Matisse and Paul Signac, among others. A leading British highlight is Portrait of William Charles Colyear, 3rd Earl Of Portmore (1747-1823), when styled Viscount Milsington, as a boy, halflength, in a grey coat, leaning on a table, with a spaniel pup by Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (1723-1792) which has been exhibited twice at the Royal Academy (estimate: £200,000-£300,000). Portrait of three girls, three-quarter length, in green silk dresses, with lace embroidery, holding yellow and white feathered fans by the Circle of Marcus Gheeraerts II (1561/2-1636) is an intricate early work which is expected to realise £150,000-£250,000, and Thomas Freeman, Lord Clarendon's gamekeeper, with a dog and a shot doe in a wooded river landscape, his gun and hat beside him by George Stubbs, A.R.A (1724-1806) is closely related to a similar composition from the Mellon Collection recently exhibited at The Royal Academy (estimate: £150,000-£250,000). British art from the 20th Century is highlighted by The Last Supper by Sir Stanley Spencer (1891-1959), painted in 1922, which has been widely exhibited, including at the artist’s retrospective at The Tate in 1955 (estimate: £120,000-£180,000), and Under the Hammer by Robert Polhill Bevan (1865-1925) which was painted in 1914 and is expected to realise £150,000-£250,000.

 Further works from the collection will be offered at the auctions of Impressionist and Modern Art on 24 and 25 June 2008 including paintings by Bonnard, Vuillard, Fantin-Latour, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas and Matisse. Leading this section is Collioure. Les Balancelles, an early Pointillist picture by Paul Signac (1836-1935) which dates from the height of the artist’s interaction with his friend and fellow artist, Georges Seurat (1859-1891) and whose importance is reflected in the extensive range of publications that discussed it soon after its execution in 1887 (estimate: £1,800,000-£2,500,000).

SIMON SAINSBURY
Simon Sainsbury was born in 1930 and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. A keen sportsman, he trained as a chartered accountant before joining the family firm, Sainsbury’s, in 1956. In 1969, on the retirement of his uncle Robert, Simon Sainsbury was appointed Deputy Chairman of the company, while his brother John became Chairman. Simon masterminded the flotation of the firm in 1973, which was described at the time as ‘the sale of the century’; share applications closed after just one minute and by 1992, the company had a turnover of more than £9 billion. Simon Sainsbury masterminded the building of the Sainsbury Wing at The National Gallery, which opened in 1991, donated by Simon and his two brothers, Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover K.G. and the Hon. Sir Timothy Sainsbury. Beneficiaries of his generosity include the British Museum, The National Gallery, The Tate, The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Royal Academy, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Christ Church Spitalfields and The Landmark Trust, among countless others. In October 2007, it was announced that 18 paintings from the collection of Simon Sainsbury had been left to the Tate and the National Gallery in what was described by Sir Nicholas Serota as one of the most important bequests to come to the nation in the last 100 years. The entire bequest will be exhibited at Tate Britain in July 2008.