The artist, John Piper, at work.
John Piper enjoyed significant cultural and financial success during his lifetime, and interest in his work has continued to grow steadily since his death in 1992. The artist experimented with an extraordinary number of different styles and techniques throughout his long and distinguished career, achieving recognition for both his abstract and his figurative art across a wide range of media.
But despite his mastery of different artistic disciplines, prints still account for over 65% of John Piper’s work sold at auction, with the majority of his prints selling for £500 to £1,000, and a significant number reaching as much as £5,000. The artist was a prolific printmaker throughout his life; the resulting dissemination of his work to a larger audience at more affordable prices quickly helped to make him a household name, and his popularity endures to this day.
Below is a list of the six most sought-after John Piper prints. If you own a John Piper print, get in touch with Mark Littler today to find out more about how much it may be worth, and how to sell it.
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A Retrospect Of Churches
This set of lithographs in colours centres around churches, a subject Piper returned to repeatedly throughout his career, and it was sold by Christie’s in February 2008 for £16,000. Each of the 24 prints depicts an English or a Welsh church, sometimes in their entirety, and sometimes focusing on a particular detail such as a door or a section of intricate stonework.
The churches range in age, architectural style, and geographical location, and Piper experimented with a number of new and (at the time) daring techniques to make the prints. The resulting images are a beautiful and fascinating compilation of ancient Christian buildings created using contemporary artistic methods.
But the lithographs are also a culturally important record of Britain at the time; Piper was an official war artist in World War II, and he’d seen first-hand how architecture that had remained solid for hundreds of years could be destroyed in a single night. Though these prints were published in 1964, almost twenty years since the end of World War II, an eerie darkness haunts many of the images. It is as if the smoke and smog of destruction is never far away, reminding the viewer of how quickly things can change, and how fast beauty can be destroyed.
A Retrospective of Churches Sold by Christies in 2008
Death in Venice
Though Piper is primarily known for his paintings and prints, he was also hugely successful in designing sets for the stage. This 1973 series of screenprints in colours was sold by Bonhams in June 2016 for £13,000, and the portfolio was inspired by the set designs Piper created for the premier of Benjamin Britten’s final opera, Death in Venice. The opera is based on the famous 1912 novella of the same name by Thomas Mann, and Piper’s second wife, Myfanwy, wrote the English libretto for it.
The Death in Venice prints explore the city’s darkly-enchanting beauty alongside central themes from Mann’s novella, including obsession, isolation, and decay. There is a haunting atmosphere to the images which depict the grand, crumbling architecture of the magical city. The prints are devoid of people, as if Piper is inviting us to contemplate the fleeting nature of youth, beauty, and life itself.
Death In Venice Sold by Bonhams in 2016
Brighton Aquatints
These 12 hand-coloured aquatints date from 1939, and they were sold by Bonhams in November 2012 for £8,500, surpassing their estimated £5,000 to £7,000. They’re a celebration of Brighton’s iconic architecture, a town Piper once called the “proper background for popular English seaside life.”
Piper created the sketches for the series in the winter of 1938; many of the finished prints have a slightly desolate feel, devoid of any tourists and inhabitants, and overshadowed by frequently gloomy, thunderous skies – perhaps a nod towards the perilous political situation of the time.
Piper also chose to hand-colour 55 of the sets, which equated to 660 prints. The process took months, and guests who stayed at Piper’s derelict farmhouse frequently found themselves involved in helping. One of these people was Piper’s long-term friend, the poet and journalist John Betjeman. Betjeman shared Piper’s love of architecture, and churches in particular, and the two collaborated on multiple projects throughout their lives.
Brighton Aquatints Sold by Bonhams in 2012
Nursery Frieze I And II
These two lithographs in colours were sold for £7,500 by Christie’s in April 2002, far exceeding their estimated £1,500 to £2,000. In typical Piper style, the scene is almost entirely devoid of humans, yet their handiwork populates the images, from the boats in the water to the flags and buildings on the shore.
The muted, almost-pastel colour palette is an effective contrast to the bright whites and reds of the nautical images. There’s little hint of the more gothic, sombre style that can be found in much of Piper’s other work, making these friezes some of the most gentle images he created.
Nursery Frieze I And II Sold by Christies in 2002
Abstract Composition
This 1936 autolithograph almost doubled its estimated price when it was sold by Sotheby’s in March 2015 for £5,500. The abstract print reflects the kind of art Piper was focusing on throughout much of the 1930s, when he was at the forefront of the avant-garde art movement. He was invited to join the modernist Seven and Five society by Ben Nicholson, and although he began to dissociate himself from abstract art by the end of the ‘30s, its influence lingered.
One of the most extraordinary things about Piper is the impossibility of associating him with just one artistic movement or style, since he experimented endlessly throughout his career. The main paradox is that he was an antiquarian with an especially keen interest in historical buildings, yet he was also deeply involved in publicising modernist, abstract art – perhaps this seeming contradiction is one of the main reasons his work remains sought after today.
Abstract Composition Sold by Sotheby’s in 2015
Victorian Dream Palaces
This set of eight serigraphs (also called silk screen prints) dates from 1977, and it was sold by Christie’s in June 2000 for £5,000. The title of the series reflects the slightly-surreal, dreamy aspect of many of the prints, though it’s a quality that almost borders on gothic nightmarishness at times. The images are an exquisite record of various stately homes, and they’re loaded with the kinds of painstaking detail that could only come from someone who truly loved and appreciated beautiful architecture.
Victorian Dream Palaces Sold by Christies in 2000
