Bessie MacNicol Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Bessie MacNicol Art Value Price Guide

Dec. 05, 2024
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904)
Est: £15,000 - £20,000
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) THE VEILED HAT (PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST'S SISTER) Signed, oil on board 30.5cm x 21cm (12in x 8.25in) The Fine Art Society Ltd, London and Edinburgh, October 1974, no.98/5833;Ewan Mundy Fine Art Ltd, Glasgow where acquired by the present owner.Literature: Ailsa Tanner, Bessie MacNicol: New Woman, privately published 1998, p.80, ill.col.pl.46 The Veiled Hat was described as ‘one of the loveliest pictures Bessie MacNicol ever painted’ by Ailsa Tanner, the artist’s biographer. (Tanner, A., Bessie MacNicol: New Woman, privately published 1998, p.80). Tanner has identified the portrait’s subject as Bessie’s sister Minnie Phoebe MacNicol, on account of her ‘very attractive face and very characteristic, slightly protruding teeth, which betray her identity unmistakeably’. (op.cit. p.80)The sisters’ intimacy is evident in the portrait’s psychological insight. Minnie is dressed in fashionable finery as if ready for a social engagement or a day in town, but her expression suggests a state of reverie, inviting us to wonder what - or who - so preoccupies her. The Veiled Hat is undated, but Tanner suggests that it might have been painted shortly before Minnie’s marriage to theatre worker Victor Lionel Alexander in April 1901, whom she may have met at the Glasgow Athanaeum while studying solo singing. (op.cit, p.80) Perhaps, then, Minnie dreams of Victor. The suggestion of an inner life in a ‘society’-style portrait is characteristic of James Abbott McNell Whistler, whose work MacNicol ardently admired. In late 19th-century Glasgow Whistler’s paintings were revered as the modern ideal of artistic expression, and his influence can be detected in The Veiled Hat’s sensitive interiority, as well as its soft tonality and painterly technique. Indeed, Whistler was likely to have been interested in MacNicol’s work, as she was invited to exhibit at the International Society of Painters, Sculptors and Gravers when Whistler was President in 1898.By the time MacNicol is believed to have completed The Veiled Hat she had been working as an artist for well over ten years, and her technical and compositional confidence is evident in ‘bravura’ flourishes such as the three parallel strokes of cornflower blue articulating the rim of Minnie’s hat, topped with scumbled lavender suggesting sculptural layers of lace and ruffles, or the picture hanging to the upper-left of the composition evoked by a single daub of cream-coloured paint drawn horizontally until the brush was exhausted of pigment. There are also passages of striking subtlety: Minnie’s features are realised with notably spare strokes of paint, so that her face appears diffused through her translucent lace veil, the folds of which are intimated by extending tones from Minnie’s hair or hat through the still-wet paint over her face in fine diagonal strokes. MacNicol was an artist of exceptional talent whose life was tragically extinguished by complications during childbirth at the age of 34. Following the death of her husband Alexander Frew in 1908, his second wife sold all of Bessie MacNicol’s paintings. (Tanner, op.cit., pp.97-101) The dispersal of her oeuvre, the brevity of her career, and her perceived status as a woman artist have resulted in MacNicol’s importance long being overlooked. Fortunately, her stature as a ‘Glasgow Girl’ painter par excellence is now better understood.
Lyon & Turnbull
Jun. 06, 2024
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904)
Est: £15,000 - £20,000
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) THE PINK HAT Signed and dated '98, oil on canvas 51cm x 41cm (20in x 16in) Bessie MacNicol attended the Glasgow School of Art between 1887 and 1892. She went on to Fra Newbery’s summer schools at Lundin Links, Fife and later travelled to Paris to continue her training at the Académie Colarossi. In 1893, MacNicol exhibited for the first and only time at the Royal Academy of Arts, London and then the Royal Glasgow Institute where she would continue to exhibit until her death in 1904. By 1894, MacNicol had returned to Glasgow and acquired a studio at 175 St Vincent Street. It was during the following years that she earned her place among the Glasgow School painters.The influence of MacNicol’s training at the Académie Colarossi is clear in many of her paintings from the 1890s and nearly all of these are figurative works. Elegant sitters wearing an array of wide petticoats, lace, feathers, fur and millinery became a recurring theme. The Pink Hat, an accomplished portrait of 1898, depicts a fashionable sitter wearing a turban of material styled as a tammy with pom pom, complete with a sheer veil wrapped down and around the sitter’s neck. Wide flat brush strokes create an austere background while MacNicol’s suggestive paint handling highlights the rolls of fabric upon the sitter’s head and the lace and frills of material where the dark cape is tied with a bow.MacNicol is well represented in public collections, including Aberdeen Art Gallery, Edinburgh Museums & Galleries, Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum and Perth Art Gallery. In his book, Scottish Painting Past and Present (T.C. and E. C. Jack, Edinburgh, 1908, p.436), James Caw, Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, recognised MacNicol as ‘probably the most accomplished lady-artist that Scotland has yet produced.’
Lyon & Turnbull
Dec. 13, 2023
ELIZABETH (BESSIE) MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904)
Est: £5,000 - £7,000
ELIZABETH (BESSIE) MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) PHYLLIS WITH A BOUQUET OF FLOWERS signed B. MacNichol lower right oil on panel 23 x 17.5cm; 9 x 7in 38.5 x 32cm; 15 1/4 x 12 1/2in (framed) Property from a Distinguished Private Collection Provenance Richard Green Gallery, London Purchased from the above by the present owner in 1999 MacNicol was a student at the Glasgow School of Art (1887-1893) under Francis Henry Newbery, who encouraged her to travel to Paris to study at the more liberal Académie Colarossi where women were permitted to study alongside men. MacNichol was thus one of the first wave of female artists from Britain to study in France. Frustrated by the chauvinistic attitudes she encountered there, however, she soon returned to Scotland where she exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Glasgow Institute. In 1896 she stayed in the artists' colony in the fishing village of Kirkcudbright in Galloway on the Solway Firth, where she painted her striking portrait of Edward Atkinson Hornel (collection of Broughton House, Kircudbright), one of the Glasgow Boys, and the colony's leading proponent. The same year she exhibited at the Munich Secession. She married Alexander Frew, a doctor and fellow artist, in 1899 and set up a large studio at their home in Glasgow, but died in the later stages of pregnancy in 1904. Now counted as one of the fabled 'Glasgow Girls', her work is all too little known as much was destroyed after her death.
Olympia Auctions
Dec. 07, 2023
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) THE LILAC SUNBONNET
Est: £15,000 - £20,000
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) THE LILAC SUNBONNET Signed, oil on canvas (41cm x 30.5cm (16in x 12in)) Provenance: Robert McTear & Co, Glasgow, 31st January 1908, lot 49 Richard Green, London (RH1455) Exhibited: Craibe Angus & Son, Glasgow, Memorial Exhibition, 1905 After her time at Glasgow School of Art, MacNicol trained at the Academie Colarossi in 1892, during which time she was highly influenced by the artists working in Paris and across Europe. The Lilac Sunbonnet painted in 1899 is a superlative figurative work by the artist. The sitter, a fresh faced farm girl dressed in light flowing fabrics, is illuminated by the high sun bringing her into focus. While the work has been posed, MacNicol has managed to convey the spontaneity of the scene as a day’s work is being carried out. Her moment of rest under a branch is bathed in strong, fresh colour. MacNicol is often grouped with The Glasgow Girls and must be recognised as an accomplished woman painter. However, during the 1890s her output was far more aligned with her artist friends The Glasgow Boys, most notably David Gauld (1865-1936), who produced a similar series of impressionistic portraits using expressive light and shade to illuminate the sitter. In his book, Scottish Painting Past and Present (1908. pp436), James Caw, Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, recognised MacNicol as ‘probably the most accomplished lady-artist that Scotland has yet produced’.
Lyon & Turnbull
Dec. 08, 2022
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) ELIZABETH
Est: £20,000 - £30,000
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) ELIZABETH Signed and dated '97, oil on canvas (36cm x 30.5cm (14in x 12in)) Provenance: James Connell & Sons, Glasgow Ewan Mundy Fine Art, Glasgow Private Collection, Glasgow Literature: Ailsa Tanner, Bessie MacNicol: New Woman, privately published 1998, p.29, ill.col.pl.10 Born in Glasgow in 1869, Elizabeth MacNicol, known as Bessie, was one of the few artists within the Glasgow Girls group who excelled at painting during her time at the Glasgow School of Art (1887-1892). With the encouragement of its Director, Fra Newbery, MacNicol painted at his summer schools at Lundin Links, Fife and later travelled to Paris to continue her training at the Academie Colarossi. In 1893, MacNicol exhibited for her first and only time at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. This was also her first year exhibiting at the Royal Glasgow Institute where she would continue to exhibit until her death in 1904. By 1894, MacNicol had acquired a studio at 175 St Vincent Street in Glasgow. It was around this time that she discovered the artists’ town of Kirkcudbright, where she spent time painting alongside some of the Glasgow Boys. Her only solo show was in 1899 at Stephen Gooden’s Art Rooms in Glasgow, the same year she married medical doctor-turned-artist Alexander Frew. From their home in the West End of Glasgow, MacNicol painted mainly figurative work in her studio, and continued exhibiting in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and internationally until her early death in childbirth in 1904. Art critics of the time praised MacNicol for her strong and vigorous style of painting, comparing her favourably with her male contemporaries. At her funeral, the all-male Glasgow Art Club members’ tribute praised her as ‘a true artist’. Elizabeth is a highly attractive oil painting, characteristic of MacNicol’s figurative work in the late 1890s, where women are presented alone amongst foliage or dappled in sunlight beneath a canopy of trees. In this strong portrait composition, an elegant female sitter, reading with head tilted backwards, draws clear influence from Whistler, an artist hugely admired by Glasgow School artists, as well as from the Dutch Old Masters, and the Impressionists who inspired MacNicol during her sojourn in Paris. Elizabeth not only highlights MacNicol’s virtuosity and highly assured brushwork; the composition also reveals a psychological depth in the interplay of elements such as the floral arrangement to the left of the sitter, and the play of light and dark which force our gaze on the sitter and the contemplation of her inner reverie. MacNicol is well represented in public collections. In her lifetime she exhibited widely in Scotland at the Royal Scottish Academy, the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists, the Royal Glasgow Institute, and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour. Her works have also been exhibited in London, Liverpool, Manchester, throughout Europe and the USA. In his book Scottish Painting Past and Present (London, 1908, p.436), James Caw, Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, recognised MacNicol as ‘probably the most accomplished lady-artist that Scotland has yet produced’.
Lyon & Turnbull
Nov. 14, 2020
Alexander Frew. Sailboats off Coastline, oil
Est: $300 - $500
(British, 1863-1908). Oil on canvas, signed and dated "J. Frew, 1892" ll, 10 x 14 in., framed.
Alex Cooper
Jun. 14, 2017
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) THE DEBUTANTE 24cm x 16.5cm (9.5in x 6.5in)
Est: £1,000 - £1,500
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) THE DEBUTANTE Signed and dated ''98, watercolour 24cm x 16.5cm (9.5in x 6.5in)
Lyon & Turnbull
May. 22, 2014
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) IN THE PARK 16.5cm x 11.5cm (6.5in x 4.5in)
Est: £3,000 - £5,000
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) IN THE PARK Signed, oil on panel 16.5cm x 11.5cm (6.5in x 4.5in)
Lyon & Turnbull
Nov. 28, 2013
BESSIE MCNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) THE VISIT 27cm x 18cm (10.5in x 7in)
Est: £1,500 - £2,000
BESSIE MCNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) THE VISIT Signed, watercolour 27cm x 18cm (10.5in x 7in)
Lyon & Turnbull
May. 30, 2013
BESSIE MCNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) LADY WITH A FUR COLLAR 27cm x 18cm (10.5in x 7in)
Est: £2,000 - £3,000
BESSIE MCNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) LADY WITH A FUR COLLAR Signed and dated 1904, watercolour 27cm x 18cm (10.5in x 7in)
Lyon & Turnbull
May. 30, 2013
BESSIE MCNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) THE VISIT 27cm x 18cm (10.5in x 7in)
Est: £1,500 - £2,000
BESSIE MCNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) THE VISIT Signed, watercolour 27cm x 18cm (10.5in x 7in)
Lyon & Turnbull
May. 30, 2013
BESSIE MCNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) LADY IN A LACE COLLAR 23.5cm x 18.5cm (9.25in x 7.25in)
Est: £2,000 - £3,000
BESSIE MCNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) LADY IN A LACE COLLAR Signed, oil on canvas 23.5cm x 18.5cm (9.25in x 7.25in)
Lyon & Turnbull
Jun. 09, 2012
BESSIE MACNICOL (1869-1904) PORTRAIT OF PEGGIE
Est: £2,000 - £3,000
BESSIE MACNICOL (1869-1904) PORTRAIT OF PEGGIE HUNTER Oil on canvas, signed and dated 1899. 61x46cm (24x18")
Great Western Auctions
Mar. 22, 2012
Bessie MacNicol (1869-1904)
Est: £4,000 - £6,000
Bessie MacNicol (1869-1904) St Monance, Fife oil on canvas 16 x 19¾ in. (40.6 x 50.2 cm.)
Christie's
Jul. 23, 2011
ALEXANDER FREW (SCOTTISH FL. 1883 - D.1908) SUN SETTING OVER A SCOTTISH LOCH 76cm x 91cm (30in x 36in)
Est: £400 - £600
ALEXANDER FREW (SCOTTISH FL. 1883 - D.1908) SUN SETTING OVER A SCOTTISH LOCH Signed and dated 1893, oil on canvas 76cm x 91cm (30in x 36in)
Lyon & Turnbull
Apr. 22, 2010
BESSIE MACNICOL
Est: £3,000 - £5,000
BESSIE MACNICOL 1869 - 1904 LADY WITH A FAN signed and dated l.l.: B. MacNicol 1904. oil on panel 36 by 27 cm.; 14 by 10¾ in.
Sotheby's
Dec. 02, 2009
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) PORTRAIT OF A LADY WITH A FAN 35.5cm x 27cm (14in x 10.5in)
Est: £6,000 - £8,000
BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) PORTRAIT OF A LADY WITH A FAN Signed, oil on panel 35.5cm x 27cm (14in x 10.5in)
Lyon & Turnbull
May. 01, 2008
Bessie MacNicol , 1869-1904 Still Life with an Oriental Vase watercolour and gouache
Est: £2,000 - £3,000
signed u.l.: B. MacNicol watercolour and gouache
Sotheby's
May. 01, 2008
Bessie MacNicol , 1869-1904 vanity oil on canvas
Est: £40,000 - £60,000
signed and dated l.l.: B. MacNicol 1902 oil on canvas
Sotheby's
May. 01, 2008
Bessie MacNicol , 1869-1904 A Portrait of Mary oil on canvas
Est: £12,000 - £18,000
signed l.l.: B. MacNicol ; signed on an old label attached to the stretcher oil on canvas
Sotheby's
Apr. 16, 2008
In the greenwood
Est: £1,500 - £2,000
Attributed to Bessie MacNicol (1869-1904) In the greenwood oil on canvas 39¾ x 30 in. (101 x 76.2 cm.)
Christie's
Oct. 26, 2006
Attributed to Bessie MacNicol (1869-1904)
Est: £3,000 - £5,000
In the Greenwood oil on canvas 39 3/4 x 30 in. (101 x 76.2 cm.)
Christie's
Apr. 18, 2005
BESSIE MACNICOL 1869-1904 PORTRAIT OF MARIA STEUART
Est: £3,000 - £5,000
signed l.r.: B MacNicol; inscribed on an old label attached to the stretcher: Maria Steuart, daughter of/ James and Christiana Steuart/ and sister of Francis Steuart. / Writer to the signet. Of 2 / Lynedoch Place, Edinburgh oil on canvas
Sotheby's
Dec. 06, 2002
ALEXANDER FREW ( THE NORTH END, IONA 91cm x 152.5cm (36in x 60in)
Est: £2,000 - £3,000
ALEXANDER FREW ( THE NORTH END, IONA Signed and dated 1899, oil on canvas 91cm x 152.5cm (36in x 60in) Estimate £ 2,000-3,000
Lyon & Turnbull