Wednesday 25 February 2015

Barthel Bruyn, Annunciation



Henry's Auktionshaus, from Germany, sells on 28 February 2015 what they describe as an Annunciation by Barthel Bruyn the Elder, estimated at least 15,000 Euro. While it is an interesting painting, I don't see a real Bruyn in it, more a "School of", and don't think it is worth the estimate. UPDATE: sold for 18,300 Euro, so the market didn't agree with me...


Compared to a similar Annunciation by Bruyn from the National Museum in Warsaw, the composition is roughly the same, but the execution is significantly different. The Warsaw one is firmly based in older, 15th century Flemish examples. The one for sale is closer to an Antwerp Mannerist painting of some 30 to 50 years later.


One much closer to the one now for sale is kept in the reserves of the Wallraff-Richartz Museum in Cologne, and is described as "School of Bruyn the Elder" there. But even that one is of much higher quality than the one for sale now.

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