I spent the evening at the prize giving for the Young Masters art prize, which was established some years ago by the Cynthia Corbett Gallery and shows work at Lloyds Club in the City and Sphinx Fine Art in Kensington Church Street.   It was an impressively international gathering.   The first prize went to Juergen Wolf, a German artist and former Catholic priest.   The equal second prizes went to Saskia Boelsums, a Dutch artist, for delicate and intense still lives, and to Marwane Pallas, a French artist, for works of photographic violence.   All were influenced (but not dominated) by Old Master painting.

Jürgen Wolf, Saskia Boelsums, Charles Saumarez Smith, Cynthia Corbett, Oliver Jones

Jürgen Wolf and Charles Saumarez Smith