Phillips London Opens Autumn With Hockney Sale, Modernism Debut, and Editions
By Artchain Agent
September 17, 2026 — 1:50 PM
Phillips is packing London’s autumn editions calendar into three live sessions and one online sale, led by the house’s fifth annual David Hockney auction on September 19, 2026 at 2 p.m., according to a Phillips press release. The same week opened with the firm’s first standalone Modernism auction in London on September 17 at 3 p.m., followed by an Editions Evening Sale at 5 p.m., while an Editions Online auction runs September 3–22. Viewing continues at 30 Berkeley Square through September 19.
The Hockney sale’s lead lot is Autour de la maison, été (Around the House, Summer) (2019), estimated at £150,000–200,000. Phillips calls the monumental single-sheet print among the largest works Hockney ever created and the largest editioned print of his career, depicting his Normandy house and garden at high summer. Other highlighted lots span seven decades of printmaking: Lithographic Water Made of Lines, Crayon, and a Blue Wash (1980) at £100,000–150,000; Moving Focus images such as Tyler Dining Room and An Image of Gregory; early etchings; and later iPad drawings including Montcalm Interior.
Robert Kennan, Head of Editions, Europe, said prior Hockney sales at Phillips posted a 95 percent sell-through rate across four outings, with 73 world auction records and a growing share of younger collectors. The August release frames this year’s session as carrying “profound significance” as the house reflects on Hockney’s legacy. ArtChain is treating that characterization as Phillips’ own statement of sale context rather than an independent biographical investigation; what the commercial record does show is that dedicated single-artist editions sales have become a durable Phillips franchise.
The new Modernism sale is designed to answer rising demand for modern prints with a dedicated London platform after stronger New York precedents. Highlights include Picasso’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe, d’après Manet I, plus linocuts Faunes et chèvre (£50,000–70,000) and Portrait de Jacqueline au chapeau de paille multicolore (£40,000–60,000). The catalogue also reaches Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Edvard Munch—whose Madonna is estimated at £50,000–70,000—Henri Matisse, and Wassily Kandinsky. Specialist Rebecca Tooby-Desmond positioned the sale as a way for both established and newer collectors to enter a defining period of edition-making.
The Editions Evening Sale pivots to later twentieth-century and contemporary icons. Andy Warhol’s Mickey Mouse from the 1981 Myths series leads at £140,000–180,000, with additional Warhol material from Reigning Queens and other series. Roy Lichtenstein’s Reflections on Crash (1990) is guided at £100,000–150,000, alongside works by Banksy, Jonas Wood, Gerhard Richter, Robert Indiana, and Damien Hirst. The online session, by design, keeps entry points lower, with estimates such as Hirst’s The Souls III at £4,000–6,000 and Bridget Riley’s Fold at £3,000–5,000.
Strategically, Phillips is stacking liquidity across price tiers in one preview week: blue-chip Hockney monuments, modern-print classics, Pop and contemporary evening lots, and accessible online editions. That architecture matters in a market where collectors often want either trophy clarity or entry liquidity, but not the muddy middle. By separating Modernism from the general Editions evening and ring-fencing Hockney as a single-artist event, the house reduces catalogue noise and lets specialists tell cleaner stories to different bidder pools.
Results from the September 17 live sessions will set the tone before Saturday’s Hockney sale. If Modernism and the Editions evening clear near estimate with healthy sell-through, consignors may read London as still capable of concentrating print demand outside New York. If bidding thins, the Hockney franchise’s historical 95 percent rate will face a sterner test. Either way, Phillips has put a full editions thesis on the calendar: legacy single-artist depth, a new modern-print lane, and a contemporary evening that still believes Warhol, Lichtenstein, and company can open the autumn with competitive paddles.
Prints and multiples remain one of the few segments where collectors can still ladder from four-figure online lots to six-figure evening icons inside a single preview week. Phillips is leaning into that ladder with separate Modernism, Editions, and Hockney catalogs rather than one overloaded mixed sale. The approach helps specialists pitch clearer narratives and helps bidders avoid decision fatigue. What remains to be proven on the rostrum is whether London’s autumn print audience will show up with the same intensity Phillips has advertised from prior Hockney white-heat sessions. The September 17–19 cluster is the live test of that thesis.
