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£150,000 Thames view from 1918 balloon
Evening Standard21.11.08
A PICTURE painted in a hot air balloon above London Bridge during the First World War is set to fetch up to £150,000 at auction next month.
It was painted after war artist Christopher Nevinson gave a blank canvas to be sold at Christie's in 1916 in aid of the Red Cross. He drove an ambulance for the charity in France at the start of the war.
The buyer Lady Parsons then commissioned Nevinson to paint a picture of the Thames from the air.
Nevinson, who had studied at St John's Wood School of Art, The Slade and in Paris, undertook the project in 1918.
Now the evocative wartime image, Among The Searchlights, is to go under the hammer at Christie's again.
It is expected to sell for between £100,000 and £150,000 at King Street on 12 December.
