Pandolfini part 2: Flemish Entombment

Pandolfini, from Italy, sells on 26 February 2019 a "Flemish School, 16th century" Entombment, estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 Euro.

The work seems, if one goes back far enough, to be based on a prototype by Dirk Bouts from ca. 1450, now in the National Gallery. The faded colouring is because this is a very rare surviving early painting on canvas instead of on panel.

But a closer parallel is with a work by the Master of Hoogstraten, now in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp. This anonymous Master was active around 1500, and is named after an altarpiece from Hoogstraten, a regional center in the province of Antwerp with a beautiful grand church. This work is a piece of that altarpiece of the Seven Sorrows of Mary.

It seems as if the work for sale is still later and further removed from the Bouts original; the Hoogstraten version keeps the Bouts' right side (the Magdalene and the man), while the Lamentation in the background also reminds me of the Lamentation by Bouts from the National Gallery of Prague. But the position of the Christ, and his hands, are different from the Bouts and closer to the work for sale, as is the man on the left and the posture of the Virgin.

But the work for sale is not by or after the Master of Hoogstraten, sadly, it is a copy after an engraving by Antonie Wierix of a design by Marten de Vos from ca. 1585, as found at the Rijksmuseum. It is a fairly faithful copy, but excludes the extra elements of the Passion in the front, and the (somewhat greyed out) figure above and to the right of Mary, and the church in the background.

The best part of the work for sale, apart from the composition which isn't original, is the very fine colouring, which gives the whole a very pleasing appearance. But the execution lacks some finesse, the faces are a bit rough. All in all, the painting (which may well be early 17th century instead of 16th) is probably worth the estimate, but don't expect to buy something truly original.

UPDATE: sold for 2,750 Euro.

Interesting Old Master auction at Pandolfini

Pandolfini, from Italy, sells a fine collection of Old Masters on 26 February 2019, including quite a few Northern European works.

It includes lot 53, a Death of Cleopatra attributed to "Flemish School, 17th century": this good-sized oil on panel (75 by 106) is not the best painted work by far, and the 4,000 to 6,000 Euro estimate is rather high, but the composition is unusual and rather exuberant. It is based on an engraving by Raphael Sadeler I after a painting by Gilles Coignet (example from the British Museum), but the painting is not made by a master artist, and loses most of the vigour of the original. It probably won't sell, as it worth closer to 2,000 Euro.

UPDATE: not sold, as expected.

Lot 31 is a Christ carrying the cross, attributed to the "Dutch School, 17th century" and estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 Euro. The description references the work of Claes Cornelisz Moeyaert, who they claim is stylistically and compositorially similar. I fail to see the similarities though, the work is much closer to paintings by the Franckens.

Most of these paintings seem to originate with Raphael's 1516 version from the Prado, with the soldier on the left, Christ looking back, the riders on horses in the background, the kneeling women on the far left, ... Flemish version often add Veronica with the veil, and Joseph of Arimatea helping to carry the cross, overcrowding an already quite full original.

You can e.g. see an Isabella Francken sold (rather cheaply, certainly for a rare woman artist) at Bonham's in 2009 for £6,000; the work for sale seems slightly later, but has many similar elements and style. E.g. the Veronica is easily comparable.

The above Hieronymus Francken also shares some elements, and is closer in general (the direction of the composition). All the Francken works seem to have gigantic crosses though, especially the crossbeam is way larger than in the work for sale, so perhaps some other artist or circle needs to be found. I need to look further, but the direction of Simon de Vos or similar artists seems promising.

The work is actually very good, and severely underestimated. It should fetch 8,000 to 10,000 Euro.

UPDATE: sold for 3,250 Euro, above estimate but still cheap.

UPDATE 2: on 5 December 2019 for sale at Hampel as "Circle of Frans Francken II", estimated 5,000 to 7,000 Euro. Should sell without a problem.

I already tweeted about Lot 40, a 17th century portrait that reminds me of the works of Lucian Freud. It lacks the refinement, the smoothness seen in most 17th century portraits, but without having the deficiencies of the typical works by lesser artists. No idea yet who painted it, but at 2,500 to 4,000 Euro it seems cheap.

UPDATE: sold for 3,375 Euro.

Tomorrow: more!

Early Netherlandish masterpiece for sale at Freeman's

Freeman's, in the USA, sells on 27 February 2019 a "Master of the Embroidered Foliage" Virgin and child, estimated at $150,000 to $250,000.

Which is very, very cheap for such a rare and beautiful work.

The description of the work is absolutely spot-on, the provenance complete for the last 100 years, the identification made by Friedländer...

This Master is, despite his restrictions and his dependency on older artists, one of the great unknowns of the Flemish painting, together with people like the Master of the Baroncelli Portraits. It has been postulated that there was not one Master, but a studio of multiple followers of Van der Weyden who all worked in a very similar style, and who now all get grouped together as "Master of the Embroidered Foliage".

A small Adam and Eve (50 by 33) was sold at Christie's in 2012 for 1.4 million Euro (against a 100K estimate!). The next most recent sale of a quasi-certain work by the master goes back to 1982 though, when a Virgin and Child at Sotheby's was already estimated at $160,000.

Boston

Munich

So this is an exceedingly rare work of genuine high quality. It's a partial copy after Van der Weyden, his beautiful Virgin and Child with Saint Luke. The original is kept in Boston, and three full copies are located in Bruges, Saint Petersburg, and Munich. The Munich copy is said to may have been painted by the Master of the Embroidered Foliage as well.

Comparing the Munich version and the one for sale gives an idea of the artistic merits of both. The Munich version is perhaps slightly more refined, but the difference is minimal. And the one for sale, which was intended as a stand alone work from the start (and thus isn't a fragment of a full copy) has the bonus of a new background, not the one from the original but a very Medieval looking, tapestry-like scene with dogs and a peacock on stylized grass.

"Museum quality" is an overused term, but this work has truckloads of it and should fetch at least $1 million.

UPDATE: a reader informed me that the 2012 Christie's work shown above was later for sale with the Gallery Jonckheere in Monaco with a different attribution. It is no longer listed on their website, but some research showed that they recatalogued it as "Aert Van den Bossche", an artist active in Brussels and Bruges from the same period, who may be the same as the Master of the Legend of Saint Barbara. Another work previously attributed to the Master of the Embroidered Foliage (a Virgin and Child in Minneapolis) has also been reattributed to Aert Van den Bossche in the past.

UPDATE 2: sold for $2,050,000! Well deserved, I'm curious who bought it.

Underestimated Entombment by unknown German master

Brussels Art Auctions, from Belgium, sells on 5 February 2019 a "German School, 16th / 17th century" Entombment, estimated at 5,000 to 8,000 Euro.

It is a beautiful painting in the International Gothic style, which one can find all over Western Europe, but this example indeed looks German. It seems unlikely that it would be a 17th century work, it would be very archaic by then, and is much more likely to be early 16th century, or even second half of the 15th century.

There were many masters (known by name or with a notname) in Germany at the time, and I am not very familiar  with most of them, so I have been unable so far to pinpoint an artist or region for this work. Even so, I believe it to be severely underestimated, and think it will easily fetch 25,000 to 30,000 Euro instead.

One artist who has created similar works is Caspar Isenmann (1410-1472), from Colmar (now in France, but art historically situated in Germany).

Another work which matches the one for sale in some aspects (especially the balding man and his clothing) is an altarpiece by Martin Schongauer, also from the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar.

The Virgin in the work for sale strongly reminds me of Flemish examples, e.g. by Quentin Massys (the Lamentation from Museum M in Leuven). But the remainder of the work offered here is more archaic, with its strict horizontality and lack of background, and is closer to Flemish examples like the works of Dieric Bouts (who was popular in Germany).

An Entombment by a Master from Cologne, dated to the first decade of the 16th century and now in the Art Institute of Chicago, also reminds me somewhat of the work for sale.

For comparison, a Spanish example (Pedro Sanchez de Castro) with a similar iconography, including the Gothic panels in the tomb, but a quite different execution.

I have not touched upon depictions of the entombment in other art forms, including miniatures and stained glass windows, and especially the large sculptures one can found in churches in Germany and France. But one of these caught my eye, a Grablegung from the Saint Michael Church in Schwäbisch Hall, from 1456. It is probably the closest composition to the one for sale here, with the man at the head, and especially with the position of the hands and feet of Jesus. Whether this is a coincidence or points to a Swabian origin of the painting (considering that the Swabian School was a rather important group of painters in these years) is not clear.

Abraham van Diepenbeeck, Gerard Seghers, or someone else?

Brussels Art Auctions, from Belgium, sells on 5 February 2019 an "attributed to Abraham van Diepenbeeck" drawing (well, a brunaille, a monochrome brown painting) of the Adoration of the Shepherds, estimated at 10,000 to 15,000 Euro.

It's a very nice oil sketch, by an accomplished artist, but I don't immediately see the link to Van Diepenbeeck (1596-1675). To me, the work seems more closely related to the work of Gerard Seghers (1591-1651).

Many aspects of this work go back to works by Rubens and especially Jacob Jordaens, including the maid with the jug on her head, or the discarded jug in the front, and the cow or ox looking at the spectators from the side. Other aspects, like the shepherd on the right carrying the sheep, can be found at David Teniers (Collection Custodia, copy by Teniers after Schiavone); this work has the ox looking at you as well, and a quite similar position of the Virgin and the kneeling shepherd on the left, so it may have been the direct inspiration for the composition for sale.

Like I said, I haven't found a similar Van Diepenbeeck, but the RKD lists the above Adoration by Gerard Seghers, from the Saint Vincent church in Soignies (Belgium). It has many similar elements (girl with the jug, position of the shepherds, head of the kneeling shepherd, ox on the left, ...) Enough to attribute it to Seghers? No, there have been too many painters creating similar works in this period.

But while Van Diepenbeeck has created at least one Adoration of the Shepherds as well, it doesn't look very similar to me. (Engraving by Cornelis Galle II, image from the Rijksmuseum).

In a strange coincidence (or a case of selection or perception bias?), a painting based on the same composition is now for sale at Scheublein, Germany, on 1 February 2019. It is described as "Unknown, 17th / 18th century", and is actually smaller than the brunaille (30 by 35 cm vs. 44 by 56 cm). It is estimated at only 150 Euro, and sold without limit. It is a strange hybrid, with the shepherd on the right copied nearly exactly, and the virgin reversed left-right, apart from her head which maintains the original direction. Weird! It seems that there should be other versions (or an engraving) out there where this is based on, and which may tell us more about the original artist.

Having said all that, what about the estimate? It's quite steep, certainly without any certainty about the original artist. It seems unlikely that it is by any of the truly greats like Rubens, although perhaps Jordaens is a possibility. For a more minor artist (compared to Rubens or Van Dyck), 10,000 Euro is a lot, but it is a large, finished, and good work, and a finished painting of this quality would easily fetch a lot more, so I guess that the price is reasonable, though hardly a bargain.

"Circle of Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert" is by or close by Erasmus Quellinus II

Van Ham, from Germany, sells on 30 January 2019 a "Circle of Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert" Virgin and Child with John the Baptist, estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 Euro.

The work is a typical Antwerp work from around 1650, strongly inspired by Rubens and especially Van Dyck, and clearly made by a talented painter.

It doesn't really look like Bosschaert to me, but I have found another artist with a similar style and with some elements in other works which are very close to the one for sale: Erasmus Quellinus II (1607-1678) (I know, it would have been more of a surprise if I hadn't put it in the title of this post, but this make searching for it easier afterwards 😊)

The above work is from the Museo de la Fundación Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid, and dated to about 1640. Especially the child is nearly identical, but also many other aspects in the work for sale remind me of the Quellinus. The condition is a lot worse, and makes it harder to judge if it may really be by him, or by a good follower: my gut instinct tells me that it probably is a real Quellinus II though.

Even in this condition, it should probably be worth 5,000 Euro; and it seems likely that the work will reappear, beautifully restored, at auction or at an art fair next year.

UPDATE: sold for 7,000 Euro!

UPDATE 2: sold for 52500 Euro at Lempertz in 2020 as a work by Quellinus!!! It's nice to see, when revisiting these blog posts years later, that among my many rather optimistic attempts, there also were some cases where I was spot-on. 

"Style of Van Reymerswael" is a copy after Quinten Massys (or Van Eyck?)

Van Ham, from Germany, sells on 30 January 2019 an "In the style of Martin van Reymerswaele" Money changers, estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 Euro.

While one of the well-known compositions by van Reymerswaele is a similar work, this actual composition is not by him but by Quinten Massys, from 1514, now in the Louvre. The work for sale is clearly not of the same quality, but it has some interesting differences. Most noticeable is the Eyckian mirror, which is no longer placed on the table but now hangs on the wall, and shows the two main characters instead of a third figure (the artist?). The remainder of the background has become a lot more bland as well, and the woman now has a ledger instead of a beautiful prayer book, which is perhaps more realistic but less appealing.

The work by Reymerswaele (here shown in the version of the Prado) is also based on the Massys, but diverges on many points not copied by the version for sale. A copy of the Massys seems to be much rarer than one of Reymerswael, and the changes in this version may point to a lost Massys original, as they seem beyond the grasp of the copiist. As there is speculation that the Massys is a copy after a lost Van Eyck, it might even be that the work for sale is based on the Van Eyck, but now I'm being very optimistic.

The estimate is probably about right, but the work is more interesting than the description indicates.

UPDATE: sold for 3,800 Euro!