Tuesday 15 December 2015

"17th century Flemish School" is close to Simon de Vos

Sala de Ventas (doesn't that simply mean "Auction Room"?), from Barcelona, sells on 17 December 2015 a "Flemish School, 17th century" Christ carrying the cross, estimated at 1,600 Euro.

The painting copies some elements from known Simon de Vos paintings, and is perhaps a copy after an unknown De Vos or a work from his Workshop. It isn't good enough though to be a real Simon de Vos.


The central Christ figure (top) appears in reverse in another "Christ Carrying the Cross" by De Vos, for sale through the 1stdibs website (bottom).



A few other figures, like the praying woman in blue (left) and the mother with the child on the right also clearly come from the same hand originally. The dog is almost completely identical. Considering that most of these elements are not reversed, I don't think the painting for sale is likely to be based on an engraving.


The bottom central three women, perhaps the best painted part of the painting, is copied straight from another Simon de Vos work, from the Hermitage: The meeting of Esau and Jacob. In this comparison the difference in quality is striking though.

The actual value of the painting depends in part on how close one believes it to be to Simon De Vos. As a copy, the price is about right, perhaps a bit low. If one sees it as a workshop work, that perhaps needs a bit of TLC, then a price closer to 5,000 Euro may be more realistic.

UPDATE: apparently not sold, as it is now again for sale at Bolaño (another Spanish auction house) on 14 March 2016 with an 1,800 Euro estimate. Still no mention of the Simon de Vos link.


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