Oise enchères, from France, sells on 3 November 2018 a "Circle of Abraham Janssens" Vistation, a large work (112 by 162) estimated at 6,500 to 7,000 Euro.
It's an impressive, almost Rubensian work, but highly deficient when one looks at details, like faces. Either some extremely poor retoration has ruined the work (but this might be reversable), or (more likely) this is a copy after a very good work done by a patient but mediocre amateur. When copying a cloud or a dress, getting the positions slightly wrong isn't that important. When painting a face, the minutest details matter. The best thing about such copies is the renewed respect one gets for actual good painters, people who not only can invent these compositions, but paint them convincingly.
The same composition is known in multiple much better versions, originally by Willem van Herp, and also by Joseph Marie Vien. This makes the work more recent, as Janssens lived from 1575 to 1632, and Van Herp from 1613 to 1677 (and Vien from 1716 to 1809!).
The best-known version by Van Herp is kept in the
Museum of Poitiers. The work, although on a smaller canvas, has a larger composition, adding some extra features left and right.
Even better is a version in a private collection, which probably is the actual original by Van Herp. This version was for sale in 2005 at
Sotheby's, with a surprisingly low estimate of 15,000 to 20,000 Euro. I could see this go for 100,000 Euro if it came on the market now, as it is a very good painting from one of the best followers of Rubens.
Another good but dirty copy, with some additional foliage on the right side and at the top, sold at
Sotheby's for £15,000.
The version for sale though is a lot worse, and I doubt that anyone who has really looked at the painting and noticed these faces will be willing to spend 6,000 Euro on it.
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