AN oil painting by a Hereford-educated artist and former Whitchurch resident is set to fetch around £300,000 at auction.

Philip Wilson Steer painted Yachts at Cowes (Summer at Cowes) in 1892, when he was in his early 30s.

It is going to auction at Christie's in London on Tuesday, June 16 and is expected to sell for between £250,000 to £300,000.

Mr Steer was born in Birkenhead on December 28, 1860, but according to the Oxford

Dictionary of National Biography, he and his family moved to Apsley House, Whitchurch, in 1864.

It also says he followed his brother to Hereford Cathedral School between 1875 and 1877.

From Whitchurch, Mr Steer went on to become one of Britain’s most distinguished artists and in 1931 he was awarded the Order of Merit.

The Order of Merit is a special honour awarded to individuals of great achievement in the fields of the arts, learning, literature and science.

It is the sole gift of the Sovereign and is restricted to 24 members as well as additional foreign recipients.

Past British holders have included Florence Nightingale; sculptor Henry Moore; composer Sir Edward Elgar; and Sir Winston Churchill.

Yachts at Cowes was a particular favourite of Mr Steer’s and he kept the picture for 40 years.

If it sells for £300,000 or more, it will become Steer’s second most valuable work.

The current world auction record for his work is £674,500- the sum paid at Sotheby’s in London last year for an oil painting called Tired Out.