'Amazing' John Byrne painting of The Beatles achieves remarkable auction sale result

A rare painting of The Beatles by the late John Byrne has sold for £27,700 at auction - almost double its original estimate.

In the painting, created in 1969, Byrne represented each Beatle seated beside a “spirit animal” while Yoko Ono is seen in a crystal ball held by John Lennon.

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The artwork, estimated at £10,000 to £15,000, sold for £27,700, including buyer’s premium, when it went under the hammer at Lyon & Turnbull on Wednesday.

It was one of ten early Byrne works bought from the artist by his local parish priest, Father Tom Jamieson in Renfrew, Renfrewshire, in the early 1970s, which were sold by the auction house in its Contemporary Art sale.

Paisley-born Byrne, creator of TV show Tutti Frutti and the play The Slab Boys, died on November 30, 2023 aged 83.

Charlotte Riordan, Lyon & Turnbull’s head of contemporary & post-war art, said: “This is an amazing collection of John Byrne’s work. Father Jamieson clearly had a keen eye for artistic talent, seeing great promise in a man who would go on to make his own distinctive and indelible mark on Scottish, and indeed British, cultural life.

“The Beatles painting was a precursor to a larger version, created for his 1969 December show at London’s Portal Gallery.

“This was a reference and reaction to the fact that Portal attracted a star-studded clientele, with some of the biggest names in British showbusiness at the time becoming frequent visitors. Clients included; Julie Christie, Michael Caine, David Niven, David Bailey, The Beatles – particularly Ringo Starr who is thought to own ‘Patrick’ paintings – and Brian Epstein.

“The painting was purchased by the art director and graphic designer Alan Aldridge, who went on to use it as the frontispiece to The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, published in 1969. It was later used as the cover of The Beatles Ballads LP 12 years later.

“Rumours suggest the original large-scale work was lost by EMI records, and so this work being offered for sale by Lyon & Turnbull is a rare surviving early version. There is only one other known example, in a private collection in America.”

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All works in the collection of Father Tom Jamieson were produced during Byrne’s “Patrick” era, during which the Glasgow School of Art graduate signed the majority of his work with his father’s first name and pretended to be a “primitive” self-taught artist to attract the interest of the London art world.

Byrne became friends with Father Jamieson when the artist and his family lived on Paisley Road, Renfrew, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, bonding over a shared love of music and culture. The priest bought work from Byrne, who worked from his studio garage in the back garden.

The sale also featured a piece commissioned by Scottish folk musician Donovan in 1971 for the cover of HMS Donovan, an album of children’s songs which sold for £6,300.

Other works in the sale include the large painting Homage a Hockney – 1970, which sold for £18,900 with all prices including buyer’s premium.

It was created to coincide with David Hockney’s major retrospective exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, in 1969-1970.

Byrne’s daughter Celie Byrne, also an artist, spoke of Father Jamieson and George Harrison visiting their house while she and her brother were small.

In an interview filmed for Lyon & Turnbull’s social media platforms, she said: “I remember Father Jamieson from when I was tiny. He would come round to the house quite regularly.

“They would sit and talk about work, and he went out to the garage looking at my dad’s artwork and what he was working on. I just remember him being really lovely and I always remember his stripy scarf.”

She added: “We were wee obviously, but apparently George Harrison came to the house twice in Renfrew for dinner.”