Stella Esther Gwendolyn Bowen Australia, Britain, 1893-1947
Past Sales
Sales by Medium
Where to buy or sell art works by Stella Esther Gwendolyn Bowen
Auction Houses
About Stella Esther Gwendolyn Bowen
Born in Adelaide in 1893 Stella Bowen studied under Margaret Preston. She travelled to London in 1914 to further her studies and soon became a member of the artistic and literary community. For the rest of her life she lived mainly in England and France. In the 1920s and 30s she paintied portraits of a number of literary and artistic figures including Aldous Huxley, Edith Sitwell Gertrude Stein and T. S. Elliot. During World War II she recieved a commission from the Australian War Memorial to paint the Royal Australian Air Force and other Australian soldiers in Britain. After her death, a memorial exhibition was held by the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1953.
Our database records art auction sales of works by Stella Bowen from 2003 and in total 23 works by the artist have been offered for sale, of which 13 (57%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $123,000 for Jardin Exotique, C.1938 sold by Bonhams in November 2021. No works have been offered for sale this year, and the last sale we have recorded for the artist was in 2023. Works by Stella Bowen are held by the Australian War Memorial, National Gallery of Australia and a further three major public national galleries (see list below).
Stella Esther Gwendolyn Bowen is listed in the following standard biographical references:
- Campbell, Jean. Australian Watercolour Painters: 1780 to the Present Day. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1989. Page 289
- Dictionary of Australian Artists Online, an online resource for biographical data about Australian artists, designers, craftspeople and curators.
- Australian Prints + Printmaking, a database listing printmaking artists from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region based on the print collection of the National Gallery of Australia.
Artists' Resale Royalty
Could the second and subsequent works by this artist sold after June 9, 2010 for over $1,000 be liable for the Artists' Resale Royalty? More info…
No, ineligible. The artist has been deceased for more than 70 years.
The Australian Art Sales Digest is a database of over 610,000 works by more than 12,000 artists who are listed as having either lived or worked in Australia or New Zealand, and an additional 36,000 foreign and other artists, offered for sale by auction in Australia and New Zealand from the early 1970s to the present day.
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