Friday 6 February 2015

Abraham or Sebastian Pether


For sale at Il Ponte as simply a "19th century master", this painting is (a copy after) an Abraham (or perhaps Sebastian) Pether landscape. Estumated at 550 to 600 Euro and auctions ends on 9 February 2015. The painting is often copied, but I haven't found the location of the original. Could this be it? It certainly is better painted than some other copies or variations I found, but I'm not certain it has the actual quality a Pether should hav (e.g. the reflection in the water). 
This copy is from the York Museums (found throught the BBC "your paintings" site) and looks more like a sketch, not a finished work.


At Christie's, a work described as "Follower of " was sold in 2007 for £475. It features the same ruin on the right (with an extremely unrealistic rose window preserved in it!), and the same body of water. The image is too small to compare the quality though.

Looking at works by the Pethers, the current lot is a typical one (they seem to be the kind of painter who stuck to a succesful theme a bit too much), not worth a huge amount of money even if an original, but not a bad buy at the estimate in any case.

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