THE LAST known work ever produced by an acclaimed sculptor who called Dorset home is going under the hammer at auction.

Dame Elisabeth Frink's Standing Horse was produced by the Royal Academician in 1993, just before she died in Blandford, Dorset, the same year.

The work is expected to fetch between £40,000 and £60,000 and is a highlight of Newbury auctioneers Dreweatts Modern and Contemporary Art sale on March 15.

The late Dame Elisabeth Frink came to live in Dorset with her husband Alex Csaky in the mid 1970s. 

She created the Dorset Martyrs Memorial, a grade II listed sculpture, which was unveiled in Dorchester in 1986 on the site of the gallows where Catholic martyrs were hanged in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The horse theme ran consistently throughout Frink’s work, with her father having been an amateur jockey and the sculptor growing up in the countryside surrounded by animals.

Standing Horse is part of the Jean Marsden private collection of works by Frink in the sale, which features works from across her career, from the 1950s right up to the 1990s.

Francesca Whitham, picture specialist at Dreweatts, said: “It is wonderful to bring to market such a well-curated and passionately collected collection of works.

"Jean Marsden’s admiration for Elisabeth Frink shines through the collection which includes seven sculptures and four works on paper all by Frink."

Also in the collection is a charming bronze sculpture of a dog, which was commissioned (by The Morris Singer Foundry Ltd. in Hampshire), to be sold in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital.