Lempertz, Annunciation, ca. 1500

Not really a hidden treasure, as Lempertz auctions are always worth browsing, but an interesting picture for a reasonable price. An annunciation, described as Southern Germany, ca. 1500, and estimated at 8,000 to 9,000 Euro. It is very charming, painted with a mixture of skill and naivity, and with decorative elements like the rabbits on the right. The double see-through, left and right, is rather unusual, but not completely succesful, and many of the details are rather sketchy, unlike e.g. good Flemish paintings in the same style, but the overall effect is still quite accomplished. UPDATE: sold for 31,000 Euro, so I wasn't the only one to find the price very reasonable!

It reminds me of a similar painting from the Museum of Rothenburg, dated ca. 1510 and located in Southern Germany or Tyrol. The angel (especially the hair), the Child being beamed down with the cross by God (which indicates that the one for sale was originally a bit larger but has been cut down at the top, assuming the image shows the whole picture), the miniature donor portrait, all sit firmly in the same tradition. The one for sale is more modern, even though the estimated date is ten years earlier. 

The detail of the Christ with the cross coming from the sky is an ancient one, and can already be seen in the Annunciation by Robert Campin (compare e.g. as well the hair of the Angel). Other details, like the angel wearing a cross on his head, can be traced back at least to Petrus Christus. But the overall composition of the one for sale seems to be a new invention. 

Unrecognised (and rather poor) copies galore

Sometimes (well, quite often), you encounter copies which are only good enough for the dustbin. I'll collect a few here, not bothering to post them before the end of the auction because, well, they aren't worth bidding on...

This is being offered as "head and shoulder portrait of a bearded gentleman wearing a hat", 20th century. It's actually a copy of sorts of a famous self-portrait by Rubens.

A much better painted copy, but in very poor condition, was sold as "19th Century School - Oil painting - Shoulder length portrait of a man in 17th Century dress with wide brimmed hat" at the Canterbury Auction Galleries as well. You'ld think that these very famous and very often copied works would be recognised by auctioneers...

Similarly, the above was offered as "portrait of the Madonna and child with the infant John the Baptist", without any reference to the original "Madonna della tendo" by Raphael. Especially the Child in the copy is fascinating.

Somewhat better, but equally unrecognised though there was only one painter with this style and subject: a copy of Fragonard's "La chemise enlevée" from the Louvre is offered by Deutsch Auktionen in Austria (24 February 2015, lot 59) as "French School late 18th Century, Naked lady on her bed struggling with Amor". A wide estimate of 700 to 1,400 Euro, seems more than enough. UPDATE: sold for 1,800 Euro!

Oh, and I have no idea why, but the above is given at Dreweatts and Bloombury as a "Follower of / After Van Dyck". I don't see the resemblance here... 

Rubens

At Deutsch Auktion in Vienna, they sell (as lot 14) a painting attributed to Rubens. While it undeniably has quality,  it is too simple, too tame, to be a Rubens. It's a nice portrait by an unknown and probably hard to identify late 17th century Flemish painter, worth more than the $50 it stands for at the moment (with 3 bids so far). The painting is described as "Portrait of a bearded man in front of dark background", it seems rather clear that it is some monk, but beyond that not much can be said. Worth a few 1,000 Euro, but not the prices a real Rubens would fetch.

UPDATE: sold for 3,900 Euro, as expected.

Veronese, finding of Moses

Always the most fun, when the auction house points in the right direction but doesn't know (or give) the essentials. Here, at Deutsch, sale of 24 February 2015, lot 34, we have a work described as Painting: Italian artist 18th century. Well, it may be 18th century, it may be 16th century. What is certain is that the original of this composition is a famous work by Paolo Veronese in the Gemaldegalerie of Dresden. Now, is this a Veronese, a workshop of Veronese, a copy by someone well-known like Sebastiano Ricci (which would indeed make it 18th century) or even Tiepolo, or an inferior copy?

The original is significantly larger, the copy (if that is what it is) focuses on the essence only and drops the more anecdotical figures to the right completely.

But some elements in the one for sale are better (as far as one can see on these images) than in the Dresden version, e.g. the rushes on the blanket of Moses, or the feathers on the hat of the dwarf on the left, or the sky (the Dresden version has these rather simplistic pinky sunrays, the one for sale has much more "realistic" sky).

Veronese painted multiple versions of this subject, like this one pictured above, so it's not impossible
that another real Veronese version would appear.

So, is the one for sale an actual, and better, Veronese? Doubtful, although one never knows. Is it an inferior copy? Certainly not, it is a very high quality one. Author?  Not Tiepolo, whose copies weren't as faithful. Perhaps Ricci, perhaps someone else. But at an estimate of 3,500 Euro to 5,500 Euro, and a starting bid of only 1,700 Euro, this seems to be a so far unrecognised bargain. It's huge as well, at 165 by 147cm it is considerably larger than most copies on the market, indicating the ambition of the painter and the supposedly upper-class market. I wouldn't be surprised, if a few others recognise this, to see this pass the 10,000 Euro mark.

UPDATE: sold for 6,000 Euro, I was again too optimistic.

In 2004, at Christie's, another (complete) copy after Veronese, high quality but smaller (about 100 by 150cm) sold for $13,000. 

Master of the Prodigal Son or Michiel Coxie?

At Lemoine, a work attributed to the "Master of the Prodigal Son",  a well-known and productive master from Antwerp from around 1550, at the height of the Antwerp Mannerism. The estimate for this "Annunciation" seems rather high, at 12,000 to 18,000 Euro, but the work is interesting nevertheless. The basic composition, with a red four-poster on the right, Maria reading, a door or window in the centre, and the Angel on the left, can be found many times in many variations, going back to examples by Van der Weyden and Memling.

The painting takes many elements from the "Annunciation" by Joos van Cleve in the collection of the Met Museum, which is vastly superior of course.

The above version was sold at Bonham's in 2011 for 6,400 Euro. It was attributed to the Workshop of Michiel Coxie, and is a less refined version of the one for sale here. Many elements are nearly identical, some (like the Holy Ghost, but also the hands of the Virgin or the window in the back) are quite different though, but despite this it is unmistakeably (inspired by) the same composition.

The work for sale doesn't seem to be good enough to be by the Master of the Prodigal Son though, so the estimate is probably too high. Interesting, quite good, but not good enough. 

Medea or Lucretia

Not a terribly well executed painting, but interesting to see how attribution and subject can change on these. For sale at Balclis, 11 February, is a "Flemish School, ca. 1720, Jason and Medea", starting price 600 Euro. UPDATE: sold for 900 Euro.

The same or an extremely similar painting was sold in 2002 at Christie's as "Circle of Jacob Toorenvliet, the Rape of Lucretia" for $1,844. So now you can, if you are lucky, buy it for a third of the price... I don't really see a depiction of Jason and Medea in this picture though, the Rape of Lucretia seems a lot more likely. I can't judge the earlier attribution to the circle of Toorenvliet. 

More highlights from Vanderkindere, including a portrait close to Clouet

A very interesting auction at Vanderkindere tomorrow. I already highlighted two paintings the previous two days, a Workshop of Rubens and a follower of Dirk Bouts. Other (to me) interesting works include;

A painting (preparatory oil sketch?) of some prophet or philosopher, attributed to Gaspar de Crayer. The face is very convincing, the remainder is more schematic. Estimated at only 600 to 800 Euro. UPDATE: Sold for 600 Euro, which still seems a bergain to me.

A self portrait by 19th century artist Ferdinand De Braekeleer.  Nothing spectacular, but to get a nice self portrait drawing by a well-known artist for only an estimated 100 to 150 Euro is a bargain. UPDATE: sold for 500 Euro, so some people agreed with me.

A portrait of Duchess Catherine de la Valette, situated in the circle of François Clouet. I'm not convinced that this isn't a much later fake/copy, but it's hard to judge from the screen. The face isn't "primitive" enough to be a French mid-16th century portrait. On the other hand, it is very nicely painted and quite intriguing.

If it is 16th-century and French, then it is worth a lot more than the estimate of 3,000 to 4,000 Euro. UPDATE: sold for 7,000 Euro!

The above is a comparable detail from a Clouet portrait. To my unspecialized eyes, the Valette portrait looks later, more "porcelain"-like, but this may be due to condition of course. The similarities are certainly there. On the other hand, some Clouet paintings have a similar look to them, like the one below:

But that one (detail from "The Love Letter") is more sculpted than the one for sale... So I don't know, but it certainly is a painting that should get some serious scientific attention to determine whether it is a very, very good 16th century French portrait, or some random later portrait that has been made to look as if it is old..

ADDENDUM 10/02/2015

Could it be a Dumonstier? The Dumonstiers were a family of French portrait painters in the wake of Clouet. Etienne was the best, but Pierre Dumonstier the Elder (ca. 1545-1625) has made a portrait of  Bernard de Nogaret, Seigneur de la Valette in about 1585.

I also found a portrait painted by "the environment of" Daniel Dumonstier, another member of the family, which is close in style and dress to the one for sale. Dated to ca. 1630, this seems closer to the date for our lot here. Looking at other works by the Dumonstiers and certainly Daniel, I would attribute this lot to Daniel Dumonstier with some certainty. Whether the inscription is original is not certain, and the jewellery (the crown and the earrings) seem like later additions as well (duchesses normally don't wear crowns anyway, do they?), but the portrait is probably an original seventeenth-century French portrait of decent quality.