Tuesday 19 September 2017

"Style of Roelandt Savery" is after Peeter Boel (inspired by Jan Fyt)

Carlo Bonte, from Belgium, sells on 27 September 2017 an "Unsigned, 17th century, style of Roeland Savery" bird fight ("Allegory of fleeting time", they call it), estimated at 3,000 to 5,000 Euro.

Works attributed to Joannes Fyt and  Jan van Kessel I use identical elements, so perhaps the artist must be searched in either camp.



Joannes or Jan Fyt clearly is a better painter than the artist at work here. The RKD lists this large painting from the Staatsfalerie in Oberschlossheim, Munich. The heron and falcon are nearly identical (with the heron reversed obviously), but not completely the same.

Jan van Kessel I has more variation in the quality of his works (and also works by his family Jan van Kessel II and Ferdinand van Kessel), making him a more obvious candidate for this painting, if one doesn't like to have an anonymous work from the "circle of". This one again comes from the RKD and is a much smaller work. It was sold at Christie's in 1998. Van Kessel often copied elements from others, including Fyt, and in fact this work is listed by the RKD as being partially based on a work by Fyt as well; they don't mention that the top half, with the heron is also based on Fyt though!

The actual exact same image as in the painting here can be found in an engraving by Peeter Boel from ca. 1657, which I found at the Rijksmuseum (the RKD is brilliant for paintings and good for drawings: the Rijksmuseum is the best public source for Flemish and Dutch engravings though, and provides free high-quality images). Here the wings and feet of the heron and the tail of the falcon are identical to the painting.

The estimate of the work for sale seems about right, it is not an original by a known master but it is well-painted and of considerable size, and hunting scenes or bird scenes are still fairly popular.

UPDATE: not sold, again for sale at Carlo Bonte on 13 December 2017 with a lowered estimate of 2,000 to 3,000 Euro.

UPDATE 2: not sold, now at Rops on 28 January 2018 with same description but higher estimate of 4,000 to 6,000 Euro! Seems rather optimistic...

UPDATE 3: Sold for 4,300 Euro, bizarre... Buyer could have had it for half the price only one month ago!



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