Original railway art sold at railwayana auctions in 2017

The renowned railway and wildlife artist, David Shepherd, died on the 17^th September 2017, at the age of 86. Referred to affectionately during his lifetime as “the man who paints elephants,” he was a founder member and one of only five fellows of the Guild of Railway Artists. David Shepherd was well respected for his efforts in both wildlife conservation and railway preservation. He rescued two steam locomotives directly from British Railways, Standard Class 4 4-6-0 No. 75029, which became The Green Knight, and Standard Class 9F 2-10-0 No. 92203, which he named Black Prince. David was also instrumental in the restoration of the East Somerset Railway as a heritage line.

The death has also been announced of Barry Freeman, GRA, whose detailed and expertly executed railway paintings consistently attract high prices when they come to auction.

Only original railway pictures that were sold at the main live and internet railwayana auctions during 2017 are included below - namely, at Bristol, Crewe, GCRA, GNRA, GWRA, railwayana.net, Solent, Stafford and Talisman. All the information has been available for perusal in the auction houses’ own online archives. Further railway paintings will certainly have changed hands elsewhere, of course. The prolific output of GRA associate member, Joe Townend, continued in 2017, with no less than 25 of his paintings being sold.

1. The number of original railway paintings sold at the main live and internet railwayana auctions fell sharply this year, reversing an upward trend that had been apparent since 2011:

2011 - 32, 2012 - 41, 2013 - 61, 2014 - 88, 2015 - 105, 2016 - 136, 2017 - 85.

2. Not surprisingly, the number of railway artists whose work sold at these auctions also fell:

2011 - 25, 2012 - 20, 2013 - 27, 2014 - 34, 2015 - 42, 2016 – 48, 2017 - 31.

3. In 2017, the number of individual specialist railwayana auction events that included railway paintings which sold fell from last year:

2011 - 7, 2012 - 10, 2013 - 13, 2014 - 19, 2015 - 18, 2016 – 22, 2017 - 18. 

4. In 2017, the number of artists whose work topped the £1,000 hammer price at specialist railwayana auctions was also less than last year. In each year since 2011, the number of such paintings sold and the artists concerned were:

2011 - 3 paintings - by Heiron [2], Broom,

2012 - 3 paintings - by Bottomley, Hawkins, Broom,

2013 - 8 paintings - by Broom [2], Breckon [2], Heiron, Root, Price, Freeman,

2014 - 7 paintings - by Root [3], Elford, Breckon, Freeman, Hawkins,

2015 - 11 paintings - by Breckon [3], Hawkins [2], Root [2], Beech, Ellis, Elford, Price.

2016 - 13 paintings - by Breckon [4], Price [3], Hawkins [2], Freeman, Root, Broom,

                                  Greene,

2017 - 9 paintings - by Freeman [3], Price [3], Broom, Root, Breckon,

The Guild of Railway Artist’s annual Railart exhibition was again held at the Severn Valley Railway’s Kidderminster museum in 2017. Sixty-four art works were displayed from August 21^st until 1^st October. The usual splendid standard of the entries selected for show was maintained. More information about the guild is available on their website at www.railart.co.uk