Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite and British Impressionist Art

Sarah Reynolds joined Christie’s in 2008, starting in the British Watercolours & Drawings and Maritime Art departments. Since 2013 she has combined Maritime Art with Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art, and Sporting & Wildlife Art, and she is responsible for sourcing, cataloguing and promoting works in these categories. In 2018 Sarah was appointed Head of Sale for Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art, and she also joined the ranks of Christie’s auctioneers.

Since starting at Christie's Sarah has contributed to the success of the department’s many and varied sales, including single owner collections such as The B.J. Eastwood Collection: Important Sporting and Irish Pictures (July 2021) and The Joe Setton Collection: Pre-Raphaelites to Last Romantics (December 2020). She has also been involved in setting several new world records in Maritime, Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art and was instrumental in the success of the inaugural British Impressionism sales in November 2017. Sarah launched the Christie’s Lates programme at Christie’s South Kensington in March 2015, and has been an integral part of the team that transitioned the successful format to King Street in 2017. Sarah is a graduate from St. Peter’s College, Oxford and the Courtauld Institute, London. Her main interests include 18th century marine paintings, Pre-Raphaelite and British Impressionist paintings, and she has a particular fondness for portraiture.

With twenty years’ experience in valuing Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art, Peter Brown has overseen sales which have ensured Christie’s dominance of this market. As head of department, Peter has led a team which has achieved many world auction records for Victorian artists including those for Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Millais, Holman Hunt and Leighton. He was closely involved in securing and selling the Forbes Collection of Victorian Pictures in 2003, which sold for a total of £17 million – the largest ever auction of Victorian art to date, in which 65 auction records were achieved. In July 2013 he co-ordinated an auction of Victorian Pictures that realised £22,201,975 /$33,547,184 /€25,598,878, the highest total ever achieved for the category. The top price was paid for a masterpiece by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt., A.R.A., R.W.S. (1833-1898), Love Among the Ruins, which sold for £14,845,875/$22,432,117/€17,117,294, setting a new world record price for the artist at auction (estimate: £3 – 5 million) and becoming the most expensive Pre-Raphaelite painting ever sold at auction. In June 2000, he discovered an unsigned and previously unidentified work by Sir John Everett Millais. Estimated at £60-80,000, the picture sold for £157,750. (Christie’s, London, 14 June 2000, lot 11). Most recently he helped orchestrate the sale of the Setton Collection in December 2020 which saw many pictures double their pre-sale estimates and achieve world record prices. Peter Brown holds a B.A. from Durham University, and is a graduate of Christie’s Education. He has worked with Christie’s since 1992 and is a Senior Director and International Specialist.

Having completed a BA in History of Art at University College London, and an MA in 18th Century British and French Drawings at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Annabel worked in the Prints and Drawings department at the British Museum, and at another major auction house. She has been working in the British Drawings department at Christie’s since 2015, working on both the Early British and Victorian sales. She has also been involved in single-owner collection sales including Stunners and The Collection of William Drummond, and was Head of Sale for The Astor Collection from Tillypronie, Aberdeenshire.