Ethel Spowers' Wet Afternoon print could bring $76,000 to Bonhams

A rare modernist linocut by little-known Australian painter and print-maker Ethel Spowers (1890-1947) is to auction at Bonhams London on April 16. Wet Afternoon carries a £50,000 ($76,000) top valuation, testament to its strong previous performance at auction.

Ethel Spowers Wet Afternoon auction
Spowers' Wet Afternoon marks an important development in the artist's style

In April 2011, Wet Afternoon "21/50", which features a sea of umbrellas in the rain, shot past its £5,000 ($7,555) top estimate at Christie's, going on to sell to an American collector for £51,650 ($83,931).

Wet Afternoon was completed in 1929 and is considered among Spowers' most important works as it marks a change in her artistic direction following a period spent under the tutelage of modernist exponent and founder of the Grosvenor School, Claude Flight.

Also to star at the sale is a similarly graphic print by Cyril Edward Power (1871-1951) entitled The Tube Station, which is estimated to be worth £70,000 ($110,000).

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