Tuesday 3 May 2016

"Flemish painter, 17th century" is probably a workshop version by Thomas Willebroirts Bosschaert

Cambi, from Italy, sells on 4 May 2016 a "Flemish painter, 17th century" bacchanale, a very large painting (128 by 214 cmà estimated at 10,000 to 12,000 Euro.

It is a different version of a work by Thomas Willebroirt Bosschaert, nearly equally large but square. That version, which has as a bonus a much better background by Jan Davidsz de Heem, sold for $100,000 at Christie's in 1998.

The version for sale now is very good, but I would guess that it's a workshop version rather than a single-handed Bosschaert work. Looking at it in detail still shows a very attractive work, while most copies of such works fail in that regard.

As such, I would expect it to be worth closer to 20,000 Euro.

UPDATE: while many paintings in this auction seriously surpassed the estimates, this one barely fetched the minimum estimate of 10,000 Euro. It's a strange business.

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