LONDON.- Sotheby’s London is to offer Skaters, A Scene on Duddingston Loch near Edinburgh by Scottish artist Charles Lees (1800‐1880) in its sale of Victorian and Edwardian Art on Tuesday, 17 May 2011. Estimated at £100,000‐200,000, the painting will make its first known appearance at auction since it was painted in 1853, and comes to the market from a Private Scottish Collection. The subject of skaters would come to define Lee’s career and the present work is distinguished as the artist’s first ‐ and principle ‐ treatment of figures enjoying the winter activity. When the painting was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1854, it was rapturously received by public and critics alike. The Art Journal extolled it as a work “of the highest character in almost every desirable quality of Art”. The picture’s success can be