Original railway art sold at railwayana auctions in 2022

This account summarises the sale of original paintings of Britain’s railways at the main railwayana auctions up to the end of 2022. General auction houses and fine art sales selling railway paintings in the same period are not included. In 2022, the main railwayana auction houses have largely stuck to their online, Covid-restricted arrangements of the last two years, though some have recently started to return to live event formats at the same pre-pandemic venues as before. The quality of photos advertising paintings for sale in online catalogues is now much improved across the board.

 

1. The number of original railway paintings sold at railwayana auctions fell sharply in 2022, compared to the previous year: 2011 - 32, 2012 - 41, 2013 - 61, 2014 - 88, 2015 - 105, 2016 - 136, 2017 - 81, 2018 - 66, 2019 - 87, 2020 - 70, 2021 - 144, 2022 - 84.

 

2. Consequently, the number of railway artists represented also fell in 2022, when compared to 2021: 2011 - 25, 2012 - 20, 2013 - 27, 2014 - 34, 2015 - 42, 2016 - 48, 2017 - 31, 2018 - 25, 2019 - 25, 2020 - 33, 2021 - 59, 2022 - 35.

 

3. The number of railwayana auction events that sold railway paintings fell back to pre-pandemic levels in 2022: 2011 - 7, 2012 - 10, 2013 - 13, 2014 - 19, 2015 - 18, 2016 - 22, 2017 - 18, 2018 - 14, 2019 - 16, 2020 - 16, 2021 - 25, 2022 - 17. 

 

4. In 2022, eight paintings by three different artists reached or surpassed a £1,000 hammer price at railwayana auctions. The number of such paintings sold at these venues each year 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 - 7 paintings, by Freeman [2], Price [2], Broom, Root, Breckon,

2018 - 9 paintings, by Hawkins [4], Breckon [2], Price [2], Root,

2019 - 9 paintings, by Breckon [4], Broom, Cuneo, P. O. Jones, Root,

2020 - 7 paintings, by Price [4], Freeman, P. O. Jones, Shelbourne,

2021 - 11 paintings, by Breckon [3], Price [3], Hawkins [2], Fearnley, Broom, Freeman,

2022 - 9 paintings by Breckon [5], Root [2], Price [2],

 

The work of a relatively small group of favoured contemporary railway artists continues to sell well above the rates achieved by others. Over the last twelve years, works by Don Breckon [25], Barry G. Price [18], Philip D. Hawkins [12], Malcolm Root [12], Gerald Broom [8] and Barry Freeman [7] have been most prominent in this category. It’s worth noticing how infrequently paintings by Terence Cuneo and David Shepherd - both former fellows of the Guild of Railway Artists - appear at railwayana auctions. Both artists are recognised nationally as having a wider remit than solely for their railway pictures. As their work could therefore appeal to a wider range of prospective buyers, sellers might logically prefer the fine art sales option, instead.

Baroda at Lime Street by John Harrison was sold at a railwayana auction in 2020.