Munnings Astor Portrait Leads Bonhams British Impressionist Sale
LONDON, England — September, 2026 —
Bonhams will present its biannual 19th Century and British Impressionist Art Sale on September 23, 2026, at its New Bond Street saleroom in London, featuring works by Sir Alfred James Munnings, John Singer Sargent, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Dame Laura Knight, and other distinguished artists. A public exhibition opens September 18, giving collectors an opportunity to view the works in advance of the sale.
Leading the auction is Sir Alfred James Munnings, PRA, RWS (1878-1959), Portrait of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor on Bill’s Simondale II, estimated at £200,000-300,000. Commissioned by the sitter’s son, William Waldorf Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor, the portrait has remained in the family by direct descent since its completion. Painted during Munnings’ residency at Cliveden in the late 1930s, the work is closely related to his celebrated canvas A Summer Evening, Cliveden (1939) and exemplifies the artist’s technical mastery of equestrian subjects. Cliveden itself stood at the center of British cultural and political life under Astor family ownership, drawing figures including Winston Churchill, Rudyard Kipling, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and George Bernard Shaw.
Also among the top lots is Henri Adolphe Laissement’s (1854-1921) Au Salon des Artistes Français en 1911, estimated at £100,000-150,000. Exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1912, the painting depicts the previous year’s exhibition in a richly self-referential composition, placing Jules Alexandre Grün’s monumental Un vendredi au Salon des Artistes Français at its center and drawing viewers into a layered meditation on the act of seeing art. James Jacques Joseph Tissot’s Départ du fiancé (Departure of the Betrothed) carries an estimate of £150,000-250,000, while Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky’s An Oxwagon Traversing a Ford on a Moonlit Evening is estimated at £120,000-180,000.
Charles O’Brien, specialist in 19th Century and British Impressionist Art at Bonhams, noted that the Munnings portrait beautifully captures both the artist’s virtuosity and his close relationship with one of Britain’s most influential families, and that the broader sale, with significant works by Laissement, Tissot, and Ruskin alongside a number of works fresh to the market, makes for an especially compelling offering. Further information is available at Bonhams.com, and press inquiries may be directed to press@bonhams.com.
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