Nice collection at Galerie Moderne (part 4): Catharina van Hemessen

This fourth installment of the posts on the auction at Galerie Moderne on 14 November 2017 focuses on one painting only.

Lot 211 is an "Attributed to Catharina van Hemessen" miniature portrait (diameter 11.5 cm) estimated at 6,000 to 8,000 Euro.

It is probably the most interesting and most valuable piece in the collection. It was on offer at Sotheby's in 2002 as "Catharina van Hemessen" with an estimate of £15,000 to £20,000, but was apparently unsold. According to the RKD, it was then in 2003 for sale with art dealer Jan de Maere in Brussels, where the current seller presumably bought it. The RKD still lists it as by Catharina van Hemessen.

Catharina van Hemessen (Antwerp, 1527 - after 1560, presumably ca. 1580) was the daughter of Jan van Hemessen,  an important painter in his own right. She is one of the very, very few known female painters from the sixteenth century in the Netherlands, together with Mayken Verhulst and one or two nuns. As such, she is an extremely important figure, even though only a small number of her works are known, most self-portraits (like the upper image). The second image, from the Bowes Museum, is perhaps her best work we know of.

According to the RKD, the text around the rim says "wensen op sterven doet vreugd derven", i.e. "Wishing to die makes happiness go away".This may be correct, I read the first word as "Wachten" ("waiting") instead of "Wensen" ("wishing"), which seems to me to make more sense: many people spend their life waiting to die, more than wishing to die.

It seems to me to be a Contra-reformation sentiment, against the more Calvinist view of Fatalism: no need to live all your life waiting for your death. Seize the day, carpe diem! No idea if that really was the intention, but it certainly is a nice and unusual step away from the usual vanitas and memento mori paintings you get from the Northern Netherlands.

The woman is carrying a pansy, and it may be an engagement painting, send to the prospective groom to see his bride-to-be for the first time.

The head of the woman is very nicely painted, and considering the small size is a convincing piece of work. The painting seems more fleshy and less linear than most Van Hemessen works, but her known works aren't very consistent either.

Another circular miniature, slightly bigger, is attributed to Van Hemessen, and is quite comparable, although I like the one for sale more. This one was sold for 16,250 Euro.

Works by Catharina van Hemessen are very rare on the market: in 2013 one was sold for more than 500,000 Euro, but that was a full-size panel and not comparable to this work. Other works, portraits of young women, sold for 15,000 to 30,000 Euro, but this was in the late 20th century. This work though was sold in 2001 (the year before it was offered at Sotheby's) by Tajan, in France, then still as an "attributed to Hemessen", for 42,000 French Francs, or some 7,000 Euro.

I can't see this work going for less than it did 15 years ago, as the interest in this kind of work has increased, and the interest in very early women painters has increased massively. If enough people believe it to be really by Catharina van Hemessen, it could skyrocket to 50,000 Euro; otherwise, it should go for 10,000 to 15,000 Euro.

UPDATE: sold for 10,000 Euro, above the high estimate and exactly my bottom estimate.