Laundry day

Bruno Roquigny, from Saint-Valéry-en-Caux, in France, sells on "1 January" an "Exceptional German painting", without further information so far.

It looks to be a very early listing, hence the lack of information, the strange date, and the fact that there are so far only two items in the auction.

But the painting nevertheless looks very interesting indeed. Late medieval depictions of laundry day, or the belaching of the linen, are fairly rare (most everyday acticities are rarely depicted, and those of women more so than those of men). They usually appear in series of the months of the year (or the seasons), and this one probably is no different.

The closest example I could find was from the "Splendor Solis", a German alchemy text from the early 1530s. The painting seems to date from about the same time, which would make it a very early work of this kind. Of course, it may equally be a hundred years more recent, things didn't change that fast in these days. The style is somewhat naive but at the same time rather accomplished, with enough individualism in the faces, clothing and poses to make it captivating and life-like. It may well be German, as indicated by the auctioneer, but Flemish or Dutch seem equally possible. I see no possibility to attach a name to it, it has some resemblance to the works of e.g. Jörg Breu and other German painters of Monatsbilder (depictions of the months), but it is far from close enough to be by him.

Considering the scarcity of these paintings, and the quality and detail in it, I would estimate this at 8,000 Euro, despite the lack of a name or pure artistic quality.

UPDATE:  the listing has now been completed. The st January date remains, but an artist and estimate are added.Wolfgang Heimbach (1605-1678), washing at Christiania (Copenhague), estimated at ... 60,000 to 80,000 Euro! So a hundred years later and ten times as expensive as my expectations :-)

UPDATE 2: sold for 62,000 Euro, good estimate by the auctioneer.