Sunday 3 May 2015

Ever owned a record cover?

At Doyle's of New York, they sell on 20 May 2015 a nice collection of old masters, including an "English School, 17th century" portrait, estimated at $3,000 to $6,000. UPDATE: sold for $8,500.


It is a nice, typical period portrait, not by one of the great masters but still better than most English portraits of the period. But what is unusual is that the painting has already been used as the cover of a classical music record. The "Consort Songs" by William Byrd, published by Fret Music and performed by Emma Kirkby, was released in 2005. The painting, from ca. 1630, is slightly later than the composer (1540-1623), but not considerably so. Slightly unusual is the predominantly white dress, most paintings of this period show a coloured or black dress (except for children).

For comparison, a 1629-1630 portrait by Van Dyck, showing the similar fashion for that period, and highlighting why a Van Dyck is slightly more expensive...

More similar, both in artistic quality, hairdo, and in fashion, is the above, 1630-1635 dated portrait of a lady by Jan van Ravesteyn, but it still is a better work than the one for sale.

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