Monday 6 November 2017

Early Flemish or 19th century?

Rops, from Belgium, sells some early Flemish paintings on 12 November 2017.

First, there is this 16th century copy of Van der Weyden's Deposition, estimated at 1,000 to 2,000 Euro. To me, it looks like a 19th century one instead, e.g. the face of the Virgin, and not a good one at that. No 16th century Flemish work I know is painted like that.

UPDATE: sold for 850 Euro, seems still too much for me but at least didn't make the lower estimate.

The second is a "Salvator Mundi" from "Flemish School, 16th century: Claeissens", estimated at 400 to 600 Euro. I'm not convinced about this one either, but it seems more likely that it has been restored in the 19th century and that an old original is hidden beneath it. Antoon and Pieter Claeissens were prolific Bruges painters from the 16th century, continuing the work of the great 15th century masters like Memling with works in an archaic vein and with a lot less talent.

This one is not a Salvator Mundi, simply a Head of Christ, and is in the vein of the works of Quinten Messys and the like. It is way better than the first work I showed, but there are many, many versions of this one, which explains its relatively low value. Even so, this should be closer to 1,000 Euro if people believe it to be original, and is probably the cheapest type of authentic 16th century Flemish painting of some (though limited) quality one can acquire nowadays.

UPDATE: sold for 1,700 Euro, which seems to be the correct price for this.

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