Christie’s Sells Beauford’s Portrait of Peter Eyre

Christie’s London offered Beauford’s portrait of Peter Eyre for sale at its Post-War to Present sale on June 25, 2026.

Portrait of a Young Man
(1960) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

The estimated sale price was 60,000£ – 80,000£.

The work sold for 101,600£, including a 27% buyer’s premium.

In Les Amis’ interview with Eyre (December 2025), we learned that the painting hung in the office of gallerist Paul Facchetti during Beauford’s 1960 solo exhibition at the gallery.

We have published a couple of articles about this exhibition:

Beauford’s Solo Show at the Paul Facchetti Gallery

A Look at Two Beauford Delaney 1960 Abstracts

Beauford’s predominent use of yellow in the Eyre portrait reminds me of the closing words of Richard J. Powell’s essay entitled “The Color of Ecstasy,” which he included in the catalog for the 2002-2003 itinerant exhibition The Color Yellow:

Beauford Delaney’s artistic preoccupation with the color yellow is governed by its capacity to illumine …. Delaney sought in his work and throughout his entire life to experience that state of perfect bliss in nature and society, to reach that nearly unattainable note or apogee of emotional discernment in the arts, and to know that ecstatic feeling of an “excessive and deliberate joy” in life. Oddly enough, by placing himself and his audience in his dense and luxurious yellow zone, he realized these grand ambitions.