17th century Columbus portrait is neither

Lewis & Maese, from Texas, sell on 1 July 2015 a "17th century oil on canvas of Christopher Columbus", estimated at just $500 to $800.

Which would be a bargain for an old and quite well preserved portrait of such an iconic figure. Problem is that the portrait doesn't look 17th century at all, but is more likely 19th century; and worse that there is no reason at all to believe this is Columbus. The inscription is "1552" (or at least a date in the 1550s) when it is known that Columbus died in 1506; and it states "Aeta. 72" or aged 72, when he died aged 54 or 55 years old... The painting also bears a heraldic shield, which is totally unlike the Columbus shield. The portrait does have a vague resemblance to some known Columbus portraits, that's as far as it goes. But it is totally unclear why the subject is described as Columbus, perhaps some inscription on the back, or some family legend from the previous owner?

Henry Mirande (plus a 20th century "17th century Dutch" work)

Swan, Uk auctioneer, sells on 2 July 2015 an "Oil on canvas". Which isn't much of a description, obviously. No estimate either...

Luckily they provide decent images, which allow to find the artist: Henry (or Henri) Mirande (1877-1955), French modernist (expressionist) painter and illustrator, relatively famous around the time of his death but since largely forgotten, also because not many of his works seem to come on the market. The bulk of his work was in illustration for the many French magazines of the first half of the 20th century, including the more naughty ones, with many appearances in "Le Rire" and "Le Pêle-Mêle". His style in these illustrations is quite different from his usually rather sombre paintings. I'll not put further illustrations here, as the copyright status on his work isn't clear to me (the benefit of sticking to long dead artists!), but you can appreciate some of his wonderful illustrations here.

His paintings fetched $1,000 to $2,000 in the 1980s, and since then I could only find traces of one sold painting, which fetched some 2,000 Euro in 2007. I guess the one for sale here (of unknown size) should be worth at least the same.

At the same auction you can buy a "17th century Dutch oil on panel", estimated £200 to £300.

The image makes it clear that this isn't a 17th century work though, and the second image of the "indistinctly signed" signature shows it to be the work of Adrianos Marijnissen (1899-?), whose paintings of Winter in the Netherlands fetch usually around £1,000. A bit too much in my view, but if you like retro-sentimentalism then it may be a good buy. If you want a genuine 17th century painting though, better steer clear.

Unrecognized portrait by Thomas Murray

Versailles Enchères, an obviously French auction house, sold on 21 June an "English School, 18th century" full-length portrait of a man, estimated at 6,000 to 8,000 Euro despite some damage. The rather steep estimate for an anonymous portrait meant that it ended the auction unsold.

The description listed an inscription on the painting, "Sir Robt Salus Byi Cotton Bart". With some effort, this led to the identification of the sitter, "Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton", with the "Bart" meaning "baronet" of course. To be more precise, the third of the same name, living between 1695 and 1748. The National Portrait Gallery has an image of him, but doesn't show it on the website. Luckily the Fitzwilliam has the same engraving.

This mezzotint was made by George White after a painting by Thomas Murray (1663-1734). As the engraving exactly matches the painting for sale, we can safely conclude that this anonymous English portrait is by Thomas Murray (or a direct copy of his work, which seems less likely considering the high quality). In that case, it should have been worth at least the lower estimate, and probably up to 15,000 Euro.

I had dropped a note about this painting with a colleague who is more specialized in these things, but apparently he didn't buy it. Hence my posting after the fact here! With some luck, it will reappear at auction with a lower estimate

Potential sleeper

Versailles, French auction house, sold on 21 July 2015 a "17th century Italian school" drawing, estimated at 150 to 200 Euro.

It sold for a rather surprising 10,208 Euro instead, suggesting that some people recognised the hand of a known artist in this. The inscriptions read (approximately) "Renone fiume" and "Bachilione fiume". The Bacchiglione is a river in Northern Italy (Vicenze, Padua). In Vicenza, there is also a Retrone river, which ends in the Bacchiglione.

I haven't got a clue who might be the artist behind this, the drawing in itself doesn't warrant the price.

A reader pointed me to some similar drawings by Giorgio Vasari, but those ones were better than the one sold now. But it certainly is the closest I've come yet to identifying this one!

Vrancx, Francken or Pynas

Sheppard's, from Ireland, sells on 30 June 2015 a "Seventeenth century Dutch School" Saint John the Baptist preaching, estimated at 1,500 to 2,500 Euro.

It was sold at the same auction house in October 2014 for 3,500 Euro, then "attributed to Jan Pynas", a Dutch painter from 1581-1631. I don't really see many similarities with Pynas' work, like the above work from the Museum of Quimper with the same subject (courtesy RKD), although it is obviously from the same region and time.

The composition of the work for sale has been used multiple times by other artists though. Wikigallery shows a version supposedly by Frans Francken the Younger. It has some changes, e.g. the two horsemen on the right in the original are reversed and placed in the centre in Francken's version, and John the Baptist has a different attitude.

Similar to the Francken version is an anonymous one from the Warsaw Museum (again courtesy RKD).

But the RKD also lists a third version, from the Royal Danish Collection from ca. 1620, situated close to Sebastian Vrancx.

So, where to place the one for sale? No idea, although the other versions suggest that this one is probably Flemish as well, and not Dutch. Despite the small differences noted above, it is very obvious that all these paintings (except the Pynas) go back to one and the same origin. The shared details are too numerous to be a coincidence (e.g. the man in the middle carrying on his back a rectangular wicker basket with a cloth on top of it, just to the right of the seated man in the foreground who leans on his left arm). The one for sale is adequately painted, with some aspects like the white horse noticeably better than other details. It needs a good cleaning, but it should be worth the upper estimate even as an anonymous painting, and warrants further research to see whether e.g. any of the Franckens have had a hand in it.

Difficult attribution

Hampel sells on 1 July 2015 a "Workshop of Herri met de Bles" depiction of Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos, a small work (37 by 30) estimated at 4,000 to 5,000 Euro.

The work has a long auction history, each time with a different attribution, so this interesting work seems to be very hard to pin down. It was sold at Sotheby's in September 2006 as "Flemish School, early 17th century" for 4,080 Euro. One month later, it was for sale at Mercier in Lille as by Lambert Van Noort, which puts it in 16th century Flanders. I haven't been able to find the result of this sale though. Then in 2011, it was again for sale at Mercier, but this time as a Joachim Patenier. And now, it is for sale in Germany as a Workshop of Herri met de Bles, at an estimate which is the same as the sale price of 9 years ago... With all this history, I wouldn't pay more for it. The chance that it ever gets a definitive attribution seems very slim.

UPDATE: not sold, again for sale on 25 September 2015 at Hampel with the same description and an estimate of 2,500 to 3,500 Euro.

Copy after Rubens "Tomyris"

Hampel sells on 1 July 2015 a "Flemish School, 17th century" painting of "The Head of John the Baptist brought to Queen Marianne", estimated at 3,500 to 4,500 Euro.

It is yet another fanciful description of a copy after a painting I already discussed in an earlier blog, a Rubens from Boston with the "head of Cyrus brought to Queen Tomyris". It is again a reversed copy, after an engraving, and not good enough to justify the estimate.

"Continental School" is copy after Marten de Vos

Alex Cooper, from Maryland, sells on 27 June 2015 a "Contiental School, late 16th or early 17th century, probably Flemish" painting with the Raising of Lazarus, estimated at $1,000 to $2,000.

It is a reasonably well painted, somewhat simplified copy after a work by Marten de Vos. I haven't found the original, but the engraving by Johannes Galle is clear about it. As the painting for sale has the same orientation as the engraving, it is probable that it is based on an engraving of the painting and not on the original.

Another painting by De Vos, from the Liechtenstein collection, is closely related to this composition though.As usual, it shows the differences between an original and a run-of-the-mill copy quite easily.

The one for sale shouldn't fetch much more than the lower estimate probably.

School of Bronzino

Neumeister, auction house from Munich, sells on 1 July 2015 a "Tuscany, mid 16th century" painting of a Holy Family with John the Baptist. A smallish oil on panel of 60 by 46 cm, it is estimated at 5,000 to 6,000 Euro.

The bad news for the seller is that the same painting was bought in Munich in July 2008 for 67,500 Euro (against the same estimate of 6,000 Euro, described as Italian School, 16th century).

Presumably the buyer (and at least one other bidder) thought it to be the work of a well-known painter and worth a lot more. Equally presumably, it turned out to be a bad gamble, and here we are again now.

So, who was the presumed master behind this picture? My money is on Bronzino, as this painting shares some clear characteristics with similar works by Bronzino.

On the one hand, we have this one from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The Saint John is a reverse image of the one for sale, and the other figures are remarkably similar though in different positions.

Comparing the painting with another Holy Family by Bronzino (this time from the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC) also shows clear similarities, in style, facetype, clothing. But the style of painting is clearly different, with the one for sale looking unfinished, as if it lacks a final layer. The real Bronzinos are very statuesque, sculpted figures, while the one for sale is more a drawn figure.

It is a good painting, but what the exact relation is to Bronzino remains unclear. Why they don't sell it as "School of" or "Circle of Bronzino" is not really clear though. The estimate seems about right, unless you believe it is closer to Bronzino after all. UPDATE: sold for 17,000 Euro, way above estimate but still way below what was paid for it previously...

Double inversion

Wapler Mica, through Drouot Paris, sells on 3 July 2015 a "Flemish School, ca. 1660" depiction of the daughters of Creops uncovering the child Erichthonius. It's a relatively large (54 by 66) oil on copper, estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 Euro.

The description is quite lengthy, and has a section I particulary like, compositorial origin: "Ce groupe reprend, dans un sens inversé, le groupe de personnages du tableau (Cuivre, 59 x 48 cm) de Willem van Herp passé en vente à Vienne, Dorotheum, le 17 octobre 2012, n° 774, reproduit en couleur." Or: the group [of figures to the left] reprises, in an inverted sense, the group of people on the painting (oil on copper, 59 by 48 cm) by Willem van Herp sold in Vienna, Dorotheum, 17 October 2012, #774, reproduced in colour"

This is correct, but rather irrelevant, as the van Herp (pictured) is an inversion of an older work by a much more famous artist, whose figure composition has been directly copied in the painting for sale here...

The original work has been cut down (presumably in the 18th century), only copies and fragments are left. The whole composition can be seen in the above copy (courtesy Artvalue.com).

One fragment of the original showing one of the figures is kept at the Allen Memorial Art Museum. It shows the brilliance of Rubens and the difference between most copies and the real deal.

The copy for sale is rather crudely painted, and looks more like a copy after a tapestry than a copy after a painting. It isn't worth the estimate though, even though the story behind it is remarkable enough.

UPDATE: unsold, again for sale on 14 November 2015 with a revised estimate of 800 to 1,200 Euro, which is a lot more reasonable.

UPDATE: unsold again, now for sale on 21 April 2016 with an upped estimate of 1,500 to 2,000 Euro! Still with the same problematic description though.

UPDATE: again unsold, now for sale on 3 October 2016 at Drouot Paris with an estimate again of 800 to 1,200 Euro, and no other changes. How many times will they try this one? 

"Flemish School" is copy after Palma Vecchio

Nabécor, auction house in Nancy, France, sells on 27 June 2015 a "17th century Flemish School" Saint Jerome, oil on copper of 29 by 22 cm, estimated at 800 Euro.

As is common with poorly painted works with a good composition, it is a copy of a much better work, in this case a late 16th century Saint Jerome by Palma Vecchio. Whether the copy is Flemish or Italian is hard to tell, painting on copper usually points more to Flanders but it is far from certain, as evidenced here: the original (or at least one version of it) is also painted on copper!

The work has been thge subject of multiple engravings as well, I know of versions by Justus Sadeler, Jan Eillarts and Raffaello Guidi. So this was a well-known painting in its day, with many copies floating around. It's hard to tell from the pictures how good or bad this copy is, so I can't reasonably guess whether the estimate is right or not. I certainly wouldn't pay more for it without seeing it in reality, in the pictures it looks pretty weak.

UPDATE: apparently not sold, for sale again on 12 September 2015 at the same auction house with the same estimate.

250th post: a bargain nice Wouwerman!

As has become tradition, for my "jubilee" blog posts I offer you what may be a real bargain (so far, all turned out to be a dud in the saleroom, so take this one for what's it worth...)

Constanty, auction house from Limoges, France, sells on 27 june 2015 a "Dutch School, ca. 1700" rest of the hunters scene, 107 by 128 cm, estimated at 5,000 to 6,000 Euro.

It reminds me very strongly of the work of Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668), a pre-eminent Haarlem painter. Auctions rooms are stuffed full with "follower of Wouwerman" second- or third-rate paintings, but this is a very good one.

Lempertz sold in 2012 the above smaller Wouwerman (36 by 40cm only) for 317,200 Euro. So you can guess what the above painting would be worth if it was a pure original Wouwerman... It probably isn't, though. Faces aren't Wouwermans strong point, but in the one for sale, certainly considering its scale, they simply are too weak. But even so, it looks like a very good follower of Wouwerman (or a weak Wouwerman), and should be worth more than the estimate.

The above painting from the Dulwich Picture Gallery is very close to the one for sale here. Again, at 47 by 64 cm it is a lot smaller though.

UPDATE: apparently not sold, as it is listed on an auction aftersale site.

"Style of Flemish School ca. 1500" is a copy after Van der Weyden

Boisgirard, in Nice, sells a "In the style of the Flemish School, ca. 1500" Crucifixion, a small (26 by 18) painting in a Gothic frame, estimated at 600 to 1,000 Euro.

It is a copy after the central panel of Rogier Van der Weyden's "Crucifixion" from the Museum of Vienna. It looks like it is fairly recent (the last 200 years) though, not really 15th or 16th century. Just a gut feeling, the ageing seems artificial. It seems to be a reasonably well painted work, certainly considering the small scale, so if it is really old it certainly is worth its money and then some.

"Flemish School" is copy after Carlo Cignani

Jezequel, auction house in Rennes, France, sells on 22 June 2015 a "Flemish School of the 18th century" painting of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, a small scale (45 by 35 cm) work estimated at 800 to 1,200 Euro.

No idea whether the painter was Flemish or not, but the original is most likely by Carlo Cignani. Sotheby's sold in January 2014 a "Studio of Cignani" version of the same work, but much better painted and at 228 by 173 cm somewhat different in scale. It made $37,500. The one for sale now has about the right estimate, probably.

Follower of Joos van Cleve: has it been cut down recently?

Deutsch, auction house in Austria, sells on 23 June 215 an "Attributed to Joos van Cleve" Virgin and Child with Cherries, 61.5 by 43 cm, estimated at 2,600 to 4,500 Euro.

It is a nice enough picture, but was it some 6 cm wider until a few years ago? And if so, has part of the original been removed, or was it a later addition? The former would be a severe case of vandalism, common in earlier times but I hoped eradicated by now. The latter is of course more debatable.

At Fivecenturies, a Russian art seller, one can still see a now sold painting which looks very familiar, apart from the right side where some rather poorly painted donor portrait makes the painting less attractive. This painting measured 61 by 49 cm, so the same height but 6 cm extra width. Could it be that someone has removed 6cm on the right, and repainted the remainder of the right side to remove all traces of the donor? I can find not a single difference between the painting for sale and the Russian one. It's fairly common to have multiple copies of the same painting, but usually they differ in the details...

The painting is now attributed to Joos van Cleve, but despite its good quality is more likely to be by a Follower. All versions of this painting which are accepted as original (e.g. the one from the Suermondt-Ludwig Museum in Aachen, or the one sold at Sotheby's in 2002), and most of the known copies (some 20), face to the left, just like the Italian (Da Vinci) original of the composition. Only some 5 copies, all attributed to followers of Cleve, face to the right, like this one.

While it is worth the estimate, I would put it back to a Follower of Joos van Cleve, not attributed to him, and have serious reservations about the removal of the right part, which can't be undone anymore.

UPDATE: sold for 17,000 Euro, so some people believed in it or didn't know (or care) about the history.

UPDATE 2: now for sale at Lempertz (14 may 2016) as "Antwerp School, ca. 1560" with an estimate of 20,000 to 24,000 Euro. Looks like someone's gamble didn't pay off, no artist could be linked to it (as expected), and now they hope to recuperate their investment.

UPDATE 3: the first attempt to get their money back failed, so it is again for sale at Lempertz on 21 September 2016, now estimated at 16,000 to 18,000 Euro. 

Utrecht Caravaggist "Judith" at Bukowski's

Bukowski's sells on 15 June an "Unknown artist, 18th century" painting of Judith, 97 by 125 cm, estimated at 1,600 Euro but at the moment already slightly surpassing that estimate. UPDATE: and it sold for more than 17,000 Euro! It racked up 58 bids. A real sleeper...

It is a very nice painting, clearly underestimated, but hard to attribute. The style is post-Caravaggio, and looks to me more like the Dutch Caravaggists than Italian, although the rather sensuous look of Judith (but without the overt eroticism of many Judith paintings) reminds me of some French painting as well.

The painting has been damaged in the past, it looks as if the varnish has been cleaned too aggressively, which may also explain why the original painting has become visible beneath the sword and sword hand. It's as if the painter originally wanted to show Judith holding the head, and decided afterwards to make it more a "flagrante delicto" scene, with the sword still in her hand.

The painter gets very nice effects by minimal pictural means, a bit like Frans Hals and some other Dutch painters of the 17th century.

If I had to place the painting somewhere, I would look at the Utrecht school of Caravaggists, someone like Hendrick ter Brugghen (his "Esau" pictured, note the old woman, and the greytone man at the right), although he is normally a more precise, less loose painter. This applies even more to Honthorst or Baburen. Ter Brugghen or Van Bijlert seem the closest in style to the painting for sale, but I doubt that either of them is the artist.

Andromeda by Follower of Titian

Sahuquet, from Bordeaux, sells on 25 June 2015 an "Italian School, early 18th century" Perseus and Andromeda, a large painting of 125 by 207 cm estimated at 6,000 to 8,000 Euro.

It was sold four years ago at Cazo as "Italian School, 17th century" for 5,000 Euro and apparently has since been cleaned.

The strange juxtaposition of a typical refined Italian nude Andromeda and an awkward, rather naive flying Perseus and the sea monster is not uncommon in works on this topic, like the above Van Cuylenborch (courtesy of Wikigallery).

Italian examples include this one by Palma Il Vecchio, although the Perseus is here more in style.

The reclining nude in this picture is reminiscent of Titian, in his version of the Andromeda story and especially in his Danae (lower picture), which is clearly the basis for the posture of this Andromeda for sale, down to details like the way the hand is positioned in the folds, and the shadow of one knee on the other. Only the position of the chained arm is obviously completely different. It's fun to see how a langourous nude woman on a bed with soft cushions can be transported to a picture of a woman in chains resting on a bed of rocks. I guess it explains in part why the picture for sale looks somewhat awkward, but it still is interesting and rather well painted as far as one can see on the small picture.

A very unusual dodo painting of the "winds of change"

Wilkinson's, a Yorkshire auctioneer, sells on 21 June 2015 a "17th century" oil on canvas "depicting a female figure floating in a barren landscape with a lizard and dodo bird beneath her, and building in distance, the corners painted with cherubs' heads blowing wind from billowing clouds" (to quote their description in full). A quite large painting (77 by 122), it is estimated at £1,200 to £1,600.

17th century dodo paintings are a collector's dream, as they are seriously rare and dodos remain ever popular. At first, I didn't believe this to be a dodo, it certainly isn't a realistic depiction of one, and many 17th century paintings (mainly in the Garden of Eden type, known from Jan Brueghel and the like) have other turkeylike birds which may be mistaken for a dodo.

But when one starts to decipher the painting, the claim that it is a dodo starts to make sense. The subject of the painting seems to me to be the "winds of change". For starters, we have the four winds blowing from the corners, around a seated goddess(?) with cloud hair, who may be Elektra or one of the Nephelai, or a goddess I don't immedately recognise (Aura? Fortuna?). The "lizard" in the foreground is a chameleon, symbol of change. In the background, we see a ruin, again a symbol of "tempus fugit", the wheel of time and the winds of change that stops for no man or building. In that context, a symbolic extinct bird, the dodo, makes perfect sense. The whole is a kind of vanitas or memento mori painting, don't bask in your current status because tomorrow it may all change and come to an end. Of course, this would suggest that it was painted after it was known that the dodo was extinct, which was not until the early 19th century. That bit I haven't been able to figure out completely yet :-)

It's not a particularly good painting, and may be early 18th century (French?) instead of 17th century, but even so it is a very unusual one (a short search didn't reveal any other paintings of this type), and the dodo (if it is a dodo) is a very serious added bonus. I wouldn't be surprised if this surpasses its estimate considerably and sells for £5,000 or more. UPDATE: sold for £1,200, so the bidders didn't share my enthusiasm and/or analysis.