London – A rare six foot abstract work by John Piper (1903-1992), Painting, 1936 (Forms on Dark Blue), leads Bonhams' Modern British & Irish Art sale on 19 June at Bonhams New Bond Street, London. The work, which was believed to be lost and has never before been offered at auction, has an estimate of £300,000 - 500,000.

John Piper is regarded as a pioneer of Modern Art and in the mid-1930s he was one of the leading British abstract artists. However, by the end of the decade he had become disillusioned with non-representational art and reverted to naturalism, making painting from his lauded abstract period extremely rare.

Ingram Reid, Bonhams Head of Sale, commented: "Painting, 1936 (Forms on Dark Blue) is the zenith of John Piper's abstract engagement. Until now, it was believed to have been destroyed, lost to fire. Having remained in the same important family collection since its execution, and largely unseen for six decades, its rediscovery is a major addition to the extant canon of 20th century British art and presents a once-in-three-generational opportunity to acquire a true modernist masterpiece. The six-foot canvas is among British art's most ambitious paintings of the 1930s, and in both conception and legacy, the work has greatly contributed to the broader international modernist movement."

Writing in the summer edition of Bonhams Magazine, Frances Spalding, states: "One of the most exciting developments within British art of the 1930s was John Piper's appearance in the field of modern art. After experimenting with collage and other modernist tropes, he arrived at a distinctive and definite vein of abstract art."

In 1934 Piper travelled to Paris and, through introductions from Ben Nicholson, he visited several artist's studios, including those of Alexander Calder and Jean Hélion. This exposure to the forefront of European modernism catalysed a shift in Piper's practice, resulting in his earliest purely abstract works, initially constructions in wood and glass. The following year Piper set about producing a series of abstract paintings. Realised between 1934-39, and confined to just roughly thirty-five examples, these works are considered among his most important contributions.

Piper's abstract paintings were first published in the quarterly art periodical Axis which he had co-founded with his wife to be Myfanwy Evans. They were then showcased in a handful of exhibitions, including the exhibition Abstract and Concrete in 1936. Piper was closely involved in the process of assembling Abstract and Concrete and was also responsible for the exhibition's poster. For the London leg of the exhibition, Piper replaced his choice of work, a picture now in the Tate, with Painting, 1936 (Forms on Dark Blue). It was most likely at this exhibition that the work attracted the attentions of Serge Chermayeff, a Russian-born architect, industrial designer, and writer.

Chermayeff and Piper struck up a friendship that would ultimately last for 60 years. In 1936 Chermayeff was building himself a modernist home at Bentley Wood, East Sussex – now considered one of the most important buildings constructed in Britain in the interwar years and was recently awarded grade II listed status. In September of 1936 Chermayeff designed an exhibition of pianos at London's Dorland hall. An entire room was to be designed around Piper's abstracts and almost certainly Painting, 1936 (Forms on Dark Blue) hung as a centrepiece.

Piper gifted the work to Chermayeff, and Chermayeff hung the painting above his piano in Bentley Wood's open living space. Following the outbreak of war Chermayeff emigrated to the United States in 1940 where he and his family would settle, at first in San Francisco before moving to the East coast. Painting, 1936 (Forms on Dark Blue) was initially put into storage in the UK, it seems, in the Harrods repository. The building sustained bomb damage with considerable impact to a portion of its contents. Whether it was this incident, or the fact Chermayeff's London flat was also destroyed in the blitz, that has led to historians recording the loss by fire of Painting, 1936 (Forms on Dark Blue) is not known. In actuality the work was shipped to San Francisco, with Chermyeff writing to Piper from his home on Pacific Avenue to confirm 'The large painting you gave me survived a buffeting at sea + hangs ... in our apt. To our perpetual delight'.

In the 1950s, Chermayeff built himself a holiday home on Cape Cod, and writing from there in May of 1952 his wife Barbara relayed to Piper 'Your large abstract picture which you gave us, John, is on our walls in this cottage and I am looking at it at this moment with much pleasure'.

The Chermayeff's loaned Painting, 1936 (Forms on Dark Blue) to the Marlborough Gallery in 1964 for Piper's first retrospective with his new dealers, and there the work graced the cover of the exhibition catalogue.

Other highlights of the sale include:

• Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A. (British, 1887-1976), Old Building, Edinburgh. 53.3 x 43.2 cm. (21 x 17 in.). Estimate: £180,000 - £250,000.

• Christopher Wood (British, 1901-1930), At Marseilles. 54.2 x 65.1 cm. (21 1/4 x 25 5/8 in.). Estimate: £150,000 - £200,000.

• John Craxton R.A. (British, 1922-2009), Goatherd and Goat. 127 x 104 cm. (50 x 40 in.). Estimate: £100,000 - £150,000.

• William Turnbull (British, 1922-2012), Female, 194 cm. (75 1/2 in.) high (Conceived in 1989 and cast in 1993). Estimate: £150,000 - 250,000.

• Patrick Heron (British, 1920-1999), The Langdale Pikes, Dusk, 1949-50, 76.2 x 63.5 cm. (30 x 25 in.). Estimate: £200,000 - 300,000.

• Lucian Freud (British, 1922-2011), Boy and animals in a landscape, 26.4 x 32.3 cm. (10 3/8 x 12 5/8 in.) (Executed circa 1942). Estimate: £70,000 - 100,000.

30 May 2024