Cursiter painting sells for £338,000

A rare Stanley Cursiter painting has sold for over £338,000, smashing the previous £60,000 auction record set for a piece of the Orcadian artist’s work.

The Ribbon Counter, painted in 1913, was auctioned at Christies, in London, yesterday, and went for £338,500.

Having witnessed the radical artistic innovations of the Italian Futurists, Cursiter painted seven paintings in 1913 in this style. The majority are now in public collections, including the National Galleries, Scotland and Dundee Art Galleries and Museums.

Stanley Cursiter was born in Kirkwall on April 29, 1887.

He went on to become King George VI’s and the present Queen’s painter and limner in Scotland — a position he held for nearly 30 years, from 1948 until his death in 1976.

Educated at Kirkwall Grammar School, in 1948 he was made a Freeman of Kirkwall and awarded the CBE.