What I called a "Cheap "Follower of Cranach"" is probably a Christian Goller fake

UPDATE; painting again for sale at Jackson's on 17 November 2015, weird (still a fake though).

On 9 June 2015, I posted an auction of what I considered a cheap "Follower of Cranach" painting. Some further research seems to indicate that I have been duped (as was the auction house now, and many auction houses and dealers in the past).

 

The painting for sale (left picture) is exactly the same as one shown in an article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of 20 November 2014 about Christian Goller, notorious German Cranach forger (right picture). The added third apple to the right of the head of the Virgin, the shape of the rocks on the left, every detail seems to be the same. The one in the article was sold for 900 Euro, so below the estimate of the one for sale at Jackson's in Iowa. The Jackson's one eventually sold for $3,500, which would mean a nice profit for the seller if it is the same painting (and possibly a rather dubious practice to buy it as a known fake but sell it as a Follower of...)

And it clearly is the same painting. Apart from the obvious visual similarity, there are more damning aspects. In the catalog for the sale in November 2014 (lot 21), the dimensions were given as 54,5 by 77 cm; in the Jackson's sale, it was 78 by 54 cm.

 And below you can see the back of the paintings, from the two catalogs. So, obviously the same painting.

May and June summary

May and June showed a steady rise in visitors compared to April: from 408 pageviews in April over 515 in May to 709 in June, breaking the previous record of March. The 2000th pageview happened on June 2nd. I also passed the 200 and 250 posts milestone.

Visitors have come now from 35 different countries, including 13 new ones: Argentina, Belarus, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, India, Japan, Maroc, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates

I placed 5 bids on auctions, winning two items, both somewhat disappointing; a follower of Ruisdael and a manner of Cranach, which I first hoped to be closer to the real thing. A nice painting, but not as old as I hoped. I'll sell them in the autumn, and let you know more about them at that time, if appropriate.

My second most popular post (by pageview, which doesn't catch everything) is with 20 views a post about a copy after Rubens: not really my most remarkable post, so probably some coincidence. But my June posting about a possible Simon Marmion Burgundian portrait reached a nice 34 views, partly because my tweet about it was favoured and retweeted by the auction house.

Which reminds me: I started to Tweet, you can find me at https://twitter.com/auctionaugur!

The blog will be mostly quiet in July, with my holidays on the one handand a lack of interesting auctions on the other. I guess it will pick up again in August, with the announcements of the first September auctions. Enjoy the summer (or if you are in the Southern hemisphere, enjoy winter)!

Wilhelm van Ehrenberg

Balclis, from Spain, sells on 8 July 2015 a "Flemish School, 17th century, circle of Peeter Neefs II and Frans Francken II" painting of the Liberation of Saint Peter, a very large oil on copper (81 by 116, which is extremely large for a copper painting of that age) estimated at 6,000 Euro.

While Neefs and Francken have painted similar works, the painting is by far the most closely related to the work of Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg (an Antwerp painter of German origin, ca. 1630-ca.1700). A painting like the above "Dungeon interior" (from a private collection) is quite similar in style and composition. The figures on that one are by Hieronymus Janssens, and it is quite possible that the figures on the one for sale are also by another painter.

As so often, the best evidence comes from the RKD, with the above painting (sold at Christie's in 1995). While not a copy of the one for sale, it is so close as to make an attribution to the same artist quite likely. It should fetch about 10,000 Euro.