Friday, 21 August 2015

Third time's a charm for this Teniers?

I blogged in March 2015 on a painting which had been sold in January 2015 at Vanderkindere (Brussels) as "Attributed to Cornelis de Vos" for 5,800 Euro, and was offered at Mercier (France) two months later as a "David II Teniers" with an estimate of 50,000 to 60,000 Euro, which was way too much in my opinion.

Apparently it didn't sell at the time, as it is now for sale at Köller, Switzerland, on 18 September 2015, again as a David II Teniers but with an estimate of 25,000 to 35,000 Swiss Francs, or about half the previous estimate (but still a nice profit). The reasons for the new attribution are basically the same as at the Mercier auction (comparison to the Fondation Custodia portraits), but with (as far as I remember) the added argument that the sitter (or at least her husband) was known to be friends or associated with David II Teniers, and with some further provenance. None of the provenance has any sort of attribution though (the inventory of the sitter's will indicates portraits of her and her husband, but no indication who made them or whether this portrait is the same or not).

The monogram (upper left corner, pictured) is now being described as a "DT F" monogram signature, which (again speaking from memory) wasn't mentioned yet at the Mercier sale, and which looks to me a bit as wishful thinking or circular reasoning; I certainly can't see a "DT" in it. The "F" is quite clear, but the first could be nearly everything. The two examples I found of Teniers monograms were a big, round D with a small T inside.

Strangely, and a bit disappointingly, the provenance only lists a 1936 and 1942 entry, and (unlike other entries in that Köller catalogue) omits the two recent auctions, stating instead that it was "Kürzlich in einer Privatsammlung entdeckt" or "recently discovered in a private collection". I believe that auction catalogues should list all available info, not just the favourable bits. Hiding earlier different attributions is not a good practice...

UPDATE: sold for 24,000 Swiss Francs, just below the lower estimate but still a nice profit. I guess that at least some people were convinced that it truly was a Teniers; I still don't like the work though...

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