A CHARMING scene featuring children playing on the banks of the River Teme is expected to fetch up to £20,000 when it went under the hammer at Christie's today (Thursday).

Children Playing in a Park, Ludlow is one of a series of paintings by Philip Wilson Steer featuring the Teme at Ludlow from the late 1890s through the first decade of the 20th Century.

The series shows how Steer's style had moved away from his earlier experiments with Impressionism, inspired by Whistler and Monet, which led to an almost pointillist technique.

His later style has been described by art experts as incorporating a kind of romantic arcadianism inspired by the work of Turner and Constable.

This late work from the series represents an Edwardian period piece with children playing in a pastoral idyll and was continued in Steer's studio after its beginning in Ludlow in 1906.

It was finally exhibited at Steers' one-man show at Goupil's Gallery in 1909 as In a Park, Ludlow.

For further information contact Christie's quoting sale number 7594, lot 36, on 02078 399060.

10:11am Thursday 5th June 2008

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