Scandal Doubles its Estimate at Bonhams
Published December 20th, 2007
Croatian Artist Championed by Samson Fox - Internationally Renowned Yorkshireman and Forebear to Fox Acting Dynasty
An oil painting, entitled “Scandal”, by Croatian artist Vlaho Bukovac (1855-1922), made £42,000- over double its estimate- in Bonhams 19th Century European Paintings sale in New Bond Street on Tuesday 13 November 2007. Buckovac’s patron was the philanthropist and industrial magnate, Samson Fox of Harrogate (1838-1903), ancestor of the incredibly talented acting dynasty.
Bonhams holds the top three record prices for the artist, having sold a beautiful painting of a nude girl for £100,800 in June 2006 and another painting, “The Bather”, for £60,000 earlier this year.
In the late 1880’s, Bukovac was “discovered” by Samson Fox, who was undoubtedly instrumental to his considerable public success. Fox was one of the greatest Victorian entrepreneurs; he formed the Leeds Forge Company and went on to be an internationally distinguished engineer, inventor and ironmaster.
Bukovac often stayed with Fox at his home in Harrogate, Grove House and photographs of the interior of the house show rooms filled with works by the artist. While some of these paintings are accounted for today, the whereabouts of others still remain unknown. Lady Beresford-Peirse, founder of the International Trust for Croatian Monuments, who is herself Croatian and married to a Yorkshireman, has championed Bukovac for many years. It is her ambition to discover the whereabouts of missing Bukovac paintings once owned by Samson Fox.
The painting “Scandal” was acquired at the turn of the 19th Century by Joseph Mitchell of Bolton Hall near Rotheram, who was a great friend of Samson Fox. It was bought by an anonymous Croatian collector
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