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Ewbank To Sell Rare Unseen Paintings By Terence Donovan

When he died in 1996, legendary photographer Terence Donovan left behind an archive of more than a million pictures, now well known and documented, offering a remarkable visual history of British culture and fashion spanning nearly 40 years.

Now another ‘archive’ has emerged: a collection of 15 paintings by the photographer, most of them previously unseen and many gifted by him to their owner, which are coming on to the market for the first time.

Along with David Bailey, Terence Donovan (1936-1996) became a celebrity best known for his striking images of the Swinging Sixties and the chic personalities who created the ‘London Scene’. Donovan’s fashion shoots for Harper’s Bazaar, Queen and Vogue in which he photographed his equally famous supermodels in grim urban settings became synonymous with his name.

Less well known is how later on his career, he turned his considerable energy to directing some 3,000 TV commercials and pop videos. His most memorable was Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love”, Palmer singing to a backing group of almost identical long-legged girl musicians.

Even less well known is that Donovan had a fascination for all things Japanese and was himself a black belt in judo.

Donovan’s biggest secret, though, was his desire to become an artist with paintbrush and canvas. It was a change in direction that took place in the later years of his tragically short life. His paintings combined his love of Japan and art and he tasted more success when a one-man exhibition at the Albermarle Gallery in London in 1990 proved highly successful.

He committed suicide in 1996 aged 60, apparently suffering from depression brought on by the steroids he was taking for a skin condition.

Surviving paintings by Donovan in the few years he practised his art are rare. However, Surrey fine art auctioneers Ewbank Clarke Gammon Wellers have been instructed to sell a collection of 15 of his works, abstract compositions in acrylics on canvas and paper which date from 1990-93.

They are being sold by Mr Gerard Grover, 43, who for 14 years was head packer at the Battersea shipping and storage company T Rogers & Co., which Donovan used often to move his photographs to exhibitions around the country.

Said Mr Grover: “Donovan was a very generous man and would always give us a tip for helping him. But instead of giving me or the lads I worked with money, he would give us one of his paintings. The lads didn’t rate them, but I liked them, so I used to buy them off them for a few pounds – the price of a couple of drinks. I thought they might be worth something one day, so I kept them safe.

“Later, I got the opportunity to buy a couple more paintings which had been purchased by a dealer from the artist in 1991. I thought about staging an exhibition of them but the idea went by the way. Then a few months ago I was looking on the Internet and saw some of Donovan’s pictures in a gallery and was shocked by the prices.

“I don’t have them on show and they are not covered by insurancee, so I thought it was time to let someone else have the responsibility of looking after them. I really like them. The more you look at them, the more you see in them. He was obviously a gifted artist.”

With little or no auction precedence, valuing the pictures has been difficult, but they will be offered with estimates starting from as little as £600. The collection is expected to raise in the region of £15,000 but such is their scarcity, that sum could easily be exceeded.

The collection will be offered as part of the Ewbank Summer sale of fine art and antiques on Wednesday and Thursday June 24-25. It will be held at the Burnt Common auction rooms in London Road, Send, starting at 10.30 each morning. Viewing is on Saturday June 20 from 10am to 2pm; Monday June 22 from 10am to 5pm and Tuesday June 23 from 10am to 8pm. There will also be viewing on each sale day from 9.30-10am.

The sale catalogue with all lots illustrated will also be available for viewing on the Internet at www.ewbankauctions.co.uk a week prior to the sale. For further information, please contact the auctioneers on 01483 223101.

Notes:
The website Terence Donovan Archive (www.terencedonovan.co.uk) gives the following history of the photographer.

Terence Donovan was born the only child of a working class family in East London in 1936.

Fascinated by photographs and photographic processing as a young boy, his professional photographic life started at the age of 11 at the London School of Photo-Engraving, which he left a 15 to become a photographer's assistant. After a year at the John French studio (1957 -58) he left, opening his own first photographic studio in 1959 at the age of 22. The studio was an instant success. Work poured in and his versatility attracted a range of clients, including the leading advertising agencies and the fashion and lifestyle magazines at the time, among them Vogue, Queen and Man about Town and later the influential Nova, Marie Claire and Elle. He accomplished much at an early age and came to particular prominence in the 1960s as part of the now famous era in of Swinging London. Associated at this time with David Bailey and Brian Duffy, these three English photographers revolutionised the world of magazine and newspaper photography. Shooting mostly with black-and-white film in these early years, his informal, intelligent style set him apart. In 1963 he took his first photograph for Vogue; an association that ended only with his death. His last published photograph was for Vogue and appeared posthumously late in February 1977.

In the 1970s he decided to diversify to concentrate mostly on advertising photography and the moving image. By the 1980s much of his time was spent making award-winning television commercials and advertising campaigns, while still shooting still photographs for fashion magazines and newspapers and covering the fashion collections twice a year for Harper’s Bazaar (Italy). He was a pioneer of the pop promotional video, most famously for Robert Palmer's song Addicted to Love (1986), for which he was nominated one of Vanity Fair magazines People of the Decade in 1989.

The Royal family in particular Diana, Princess of Wales, formed part of the many commissions, which he continued to undertake right up until his sudden death in November 1996. Shortly before he died, he was appointed a Visiting Professor at Central St Martin's School of Art, a position of which he was fiercely proud.

A retrospective exhibition of his London photographs was held at the Museum of London in 1999 and the large-format anthology of his photographs Terrence Donovan and was published in 2000.

Donovan was married twice and was the father of Daisy Donovan who is a television presenter, Terry Donovan, the founder of Rockstar Games and musician Dan Donovan of Big Audio Dynamite.