For the British painter David Bomberg (1890-1957), still traumatised and disillusioned by his experience as a soldier in the First World War, the move to Spain in 1934 marked a turning point in his life and career. Not only did he start a family, but he found in Ronda in the Andalusian province of Málaga, inspiration for some of his finest work. One of the great paintings from that period, The Old City and Cathedral, Ronda, leads Bonhams Modern British and Irish Art sale in London on Wednesday 18 November. Painted in 1935, months before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, which was to devastate the city, it is estimated at £400,000-600,000.

Ronda is famous for its dramatic location. Surrounded by mountains, it perches high above the El Tajo canyon which divides the city in two. Although Ronda and its buildings are readily identifiable in The Old City and Cathedral, Ronda, the painting is not a topographical representation but rather Bomberg's response to the drama and contrast of his new home and the liberating light-suffused setting in which he was now working.

Bonhams Director of Modern British & Irish Art, Matthew Bradbury said: "The Old City and Cathedral, Ronda is a wonderful work embodying the painter's sense of liberation both personally and artistically. It is celebratory painting, executed with admirable verve by an artist who had fallen in love with Spain."

The sale also offers two work by William Roberts (1895-1980) from very different stages of his career.

Women Playing with Cats has been dated to around 1919 and is testament to Robert's affiliation with Vorticism and his close acquaintance with fellow artists Percy Wyndham Lewis and David Bomberg. The emphasis in the work on highly stylised geometric forms, and overlapping angular shapes, used to distort reality, point to Roberts' engagement with Vorticism and the abstract pictorial language laid down by Lewis in key works from the years 1913-1915. It has an estimate of £150,000-250,000.

Robert's Munitions Factory was executed in 1940 as a preparatory sketch for the oil painting of the same name now in the City of Salford Museums and Art Gallery. At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Roberts approached the War Office hoping to be commissioned as a war artist; he had been a successful official War Artist in World War I. He was assigned to accompany the British Expeditionary Force to France, but the contract was cancelled when Roberts refused to travel, insisting he could do the work just as well in England. The War Artists' Advisory Committee did, however, commission him to produce three works illustrating aspects of life on the Home Front, the first of which was Munitions Factory, which is estimated at £70,000-100,000.

Matthew Bradbury said "Women Playing with Cats has a special place in Robert's oeuvre and has not been exhibited for almost half a century. An appealing mix of realism with the principles of Vorticism, makes for an accessible yet arresting image and demonstrates all the influences and inspirations which made him one of the most significant English modernists of his day.

"Munitions Factory, by contrast, is rooted in Roberts' own experiences working in a munitions factory during 1915 and manages to successfully incorporate his expertise into the composition while at the same time giving centre stage to the individual workers including mechanics, welders and plate-cutters coming together with quiet confidence work in at time of national emergency."