Has someone really removed the signature from this painting in the last 12 months?

Cannes Enchères, from France, sells on 7 July 2018 as lot 300 a "20th century Belgian School, ca. 1912" portrait of Emile Verhaeren, estimated at 300 to 400 Euro.

The work has a landscape on the back, dated to 1912.

A portrait of Emile Verhaeren, Nobel Prize for Literature laureate and known friend of many of Belgium's most progressive artists of ca. 1900 (including Ensor and Van Rysselberghe) is always interesting, and a fair chance to find a painting by a great artist.

This one has a few problems though. For starters, how do we know that this is Verhaeren? Yes, he looks somewhat the same, but Verhaeren is always portrayed with a "pince-nez", glasses without the earpiece which get pinched on the nose, but the person in this portrait has regular glasses instead.

More worryingly is that the painting was for sale last year in Prague, at Antikvity Praha, for 500 Euro. It was then identified as Verhaeren as well, and as "possibly French". The work had a different frame, and most remarkably, it had a signature. On the back, it had also a monogram FB with the date 1912. Sadly, I can't decipher the signature, something like "Ferdinand" or "Friedmond" (?) "Beiker" or "Reiker" (the monogram may be FR, although FB is more likely). I haven't been able to find the painter this may refer to.

And now, both the monogram and more importantly the signature are erased, leaving only the date? Now, if the signature was apocryphal, then most likely the date was apocryphal as well, and getting rid of one but not the other is weird. And if the signature was not apocryphal but indicated a different origin or otherwise was problematic, then too bad, but don't remove it. In any case, this leaves a very bad taste to the mouth and is a good reason not to buy this painting, as it is now suspect in every way...

You can see that they have had to remove everything, going down to the bare canvas, to get rid of the signature, so it most likely was original, not a later overpaint. Which makes this a willful and shameful act of vandalism.

UPDATE: again for sale as "Verhaeren" at Cannes Enchères on 13 October 2018, now for 200 to 300 Euro. 

Flemish painting after Roman sculpture

SGL, from France, sells on 24 June 2018 a "Flemish School, ca. 1600" Hercules and the snakes, estimated at 3,000 to 5,000 Euro.

The same figure can be seen on a "Follower of Rubens" work sold at Christie's in 2015 for £11,800, but the two works are different enough to suppose that some engraving was the basis for it.

On the Rijksmuseum site I found this anonymous engraving, from a 1584 Italian book on ancient Roman sculptures.

And the RKD showed me the actual sculpture, currently in the Uffizi.

Whether the artist of the work for sale knew the engraving (or another one of the same work), or had seen the original sculpture, is hard to know of course.

UPDATE: again for sale at SGL on 11 November 2018, with a seriously revised estimate of 1,200 to 1,500 Euro. Should have no trouble finding a buyer at that price.

UPDATE: a better version was sold at Artcurial in November 2018 for 23,000 Euro!

"Ca. 1480" or "First half 17th century"?

Pforzheimer, from Germany, sells on 23 June 2018 as lot 338 a "Follower of Robert Campin, ca. 1480" Virgin and child, estimated at 6,000 Euro.

The work, a copy of a famous work by Campin from the Städel in Frankfurt, was according to the RKD previously sold by Phillips London in 1998, but then described as "First half 17th century", which seems more correct based on the background.

Not many old full-length copies of this work are known, making it interesting, and it shows how long the work of Campin was appreciated in the following centuries before it became largely forgotten. But that doesn't justify dating this copy to a very early 1480, which doesn't fit the style at all. Late 16th century would be the very earliest, but 17th century seems a perfect match, looking at the way e.g. the clothes are made more shiny, and how the drapery is placed behind the scene.

This of course has an influence on the value. 6,000 Euro would have been very cheap for a 1480 painting of this size and reasonable quality, but seems the max this work can achieve when one considers its real age. But it has the distinction of being the first Robert Campin copy I have highlighted!

"Antwerp School" is by or after Laurence Neter

Deutsch, from Austria, sells on 27 June 2018 an "Antwerp School, ca. 1700" Adam and Eve, estimated at 1,800 to 2,800 Euro.

It is a copy after a painting I already discussed at some length in February 2017, when another (worse) copy appeared at auction. This one stays much closer to the original by Laurence Neter from 1639, but lacks finesse in e.g. the Adam (who has a nice moustache!)

There seems to be some inscription on the rock to the left, but I can't decipher it. Possibly it's simply an indication of the Bible verse, it it is very short and seems to start with "G" (for Genesis)?

The estimate seems about right.

I can't decipher the signatures on these charity shop finds...

I just bought these two paintings in my local charity shop, and I'm very happy with them. Normally, flower paintings one finds in such shops or at car boot sales are true amateur work, often awful, sometimes acceptable, but never of any real quality. This time though, I found two true gems, probably French from the late 19th century or early 20th one.

Oh, and I'm a really lousy art photographer, I'll try to make better pictures later (when the sun sits out perhaps). I hope they give an idea of the actual colours and quality anyway. 

Oil on panel (good hard wood, not some cardboard!), some 30 by 40cm (I haven't really measured them), with very luminous colours and the typical loose brush strokes one links to Impressionism. But these loose strokes hide a high degree of precision and eye for detail, which for me sets these apart from most such works. Plus the wonderful colours, and the more unusual wintery theme of one of the two works (which I presume were intended as pendants right from the start).

The style is close to the work of e.g. Fantin-Latour, or especially the works of Georges Jeannin (1841-1925), but it is not really of the same quality probably (I have found that it is much harder to judge a painting one has bought, than a random painting at auction). Both panels are signed (by the same artist), but no matter how hard I try, I can't decipher them.The name is close to Jeannin, but the signature is not the same as the one Jeannin seems to have used throughout his career.

It seems to be something like "F" or "J" (first name initial), and then "J" or "M" or something like that, "a..ss...s". Not "Janssens", I think, as I believe that there is more than one letter between the "a" and the "ss".

I'm not certain of any of these letters, so please don't feel bound by them when looking for a name.

Any further information, guesses, thoughts about country, period, artist, and value are welcome of course, you get my eternal gratitude in return. Oh, and if you don't like them and think I overrate them, then please tell me so as well, a reality check is a good thing.

Oh, and as a bonus, this is what I found when I removed the two paintings from the frames in which they came, but which clearly didn't belong with them: two 18th century engravings by Claude-Dominic Vinsac (1749-1800), from his series of designs for goldsmiths. My copy of one of them is actually in better condition than the one in the Rijksmuseum! Basically, these two engravings plus their frames are worth more than what I payed for the paintings in the first place...

"Follower of Frans Pourbus" is a Jacob de Backer

Tajan, from France, sells on 19 June 2018 a "Flemish School, ca. 1620, follower of Frans Pourbus" Creaton of Adam and Eve, estimated at 10,000 to 15,000 Euro.

The painting is a copy after, or quite possibly another version of, a work by Jacob De Backer (1540-after 1590), a contemporary of Frans Pourbus the Elder, but who worked mainly in Antwerp. The original / alternative version can be found in the Groeningemuseum in Bruges. It has the exact same dimensions.

The quality and finish of the work is very comparable, the most striking difference is in th ecolours, mainly the red vs. pink change (due to varnish / discoloration?). The work for sale is perhaps slightly better than the Bruges version, but that may be due to condition and not indicative of a different artist.

Another version, this time correctly attributed to De Backer (but oh so slightly less well painted) was offered at Hampel in 2008 for 28,000 Euro, but didn't sell.

10,000 Euro seems relatively cheap for a good Jacob De Backer.

UPDATE: the work is now for sale at Dorotheum (23 October 2018) as by Jacob de Backer (with a confirmed attribution!), with an estimate of 30,000 to 40,000 Euro. The description repeats much of what I said in the above post (not copying my work, but confirming it, which is good for my ego). The link to the Dorotheum version was given to me by a regular reader, thanks.

A sleeper Alessandro Allori!

Herbette, from France, sells on 17 June 2018 a "French School, 18th century" portrait of a lady, estimated at 1,300 to 1,800 Euro.

At first I tweeted about it, as I thought it looked better and older than the description and estimate indicated, but I couldn't immediately find the right artist or period. But looking further and further first led me to the 16th century, then to Italy, and finally to Alessandro Allori (1535-1607).

I was first searching for French paintings of princesses or noble ladies, but I couldn't match the striking (and truly beautiful) fashion displayed in this painting with any works I encountered. A brief excursion to Elizabethan works confirmed that the work was probably from that period, but again the fashion didn't really match. Which led me to Italy, and a painting of Isabella de' Medici (1542-1576) from the Uffizi was the first match, both in clothing and by sheer luck also in style of painting.

This lead me to look further at Allori paintings, which share the same dress style, same way of painting faces (the eyes especially, but also the pale skin, the small mouth, the eyebrows, ...). Most of them are slightly turned sideways, but a few look directly at the viewer, and these are to me the best. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna houses this portrait (either Maria de' Medici or Eleonora di Toledo).

And ultimately I came across an Allori portrait from the Fogg Museum (or Harvard Art Museum). It is slightly larger than the current work (64 by 47 cm instead of 56 by 43 cm), and depicts the same woman, in the same dress and necklace, but with a different posture and a different hair jewel. And, most importantly, the work for sale is a lot better than this one (the reverse of what I usually have to say in my blog posts).

Comparing the head and the collar clearly shows the much more refined finish of the work for sale, the attention to detail in the lace (or whatever the cloth is), the much more realistic look of the face (no matter how much it still resembles a porcelain doll), ... The yellowing of the Fogg version is partly to blame for it, but even ignoring this you get in their version a lifeless, flat cloth, painted with skill but without real vigour, real splendour. It is a very good depiction of somptuous clothing, but it is not life-like.

The Fogg version is given as by Allori on ther website,  but the Fondazione Zeri (a catalogie of Italian painting comparable to the RKD website for Dutch and Flemish painting) has catalogued it as "School of Allori", which may be correct as the quality is not there compared to the best of his own works.

While I can't give any guarantees, being a generalist art historian who has based the above on images from the Internet, not on handling the actual painting or on a thorough knowledge of the works of Allori, to me this is almost certainl to be a real work by Alessandro Allori. Herbette indicates that it has been relined and has some repainted areas, and gives no provenance on their website.

So what's it worth then? At least 50,000 Euro. And sometimes these good sleepers in unsuspecting auctions go way beyond that, surpassing what the same painting would fetch in a major auction house even, so who knows? 

"Melchers" is a nice Gari Melchers with good provenance

Herbette, from France, sells on 17 June 2018 a "Melchers" signed and dated (1900) portrait of a man, estimated at 400 to 600 Euro.

It is unclear why they haven't made the connection to Gari Melchers (1860-1932, "Gari" is short for Garibaldi!). An important American artist from the turn of the century, he also worked many years in the Netherlands, France and especially Germany.

The current painting not only is signed and dated, but it has on the back a label of the "Grosse berliner Kunst-Ausstellung", the Big Berlin Art Exhibition of 1900. And sure enough, in the catalogue of that exhibition we find more than 30 paintings by "Gari Melchers, Paris", including a "Männlicher Studienkopf", a study of a male head (well, there are two of those, but the other is a pastel).

Finally, the frame of the painting is very striking, and it turns out that Melchers has used the same type of frame for other works as well.

Now, it is possible that someone found an unsigned turn-of-the-century painting of a man's head and added a frame, signature, and label on the back which all fit together, but that seems rather unlikely, so I guess the logical conclusion is that this is a genuine Melchers from his best period (his paintings after the first World War are less interesting in my opinion).

The value? One painting fetched nearly $1 million in 200, but most are around the $10,000 mark, and this is only a study. The estimate, up to about $1,000, may be about right (the exhibition provenance should help). But the seller and auction hosue would surely have a better chance of getting this target if they clearly advertised this for what it is, surely?

"Resurrection" may be close to Frans Floris

Audap Mirabaud, part from the Drouot Group from France, sells on 22 June 2018 a "Flemish School, circa 1580" Resurrection of Christ, estimated at 6,000 to 8,000 Euro.

They seem to have tried to sell it before, without success. It is a rather interesting and good painting though.

I haven't found another copy of this composition (which is rather unusual for a good, well-composed painting from this period). Some elements point to specific artists though.

The central Christ is very reminiscent of the one in the Resurrection by Hendrick De Clerck, from the National Museum in Warsaw. Even though the body is reversed left-right, but the arms aren't, it still seems to be based on the same model, with Christ sitting, with the feet crossed in the same way, the right arm raised in a similar way, and so on.

But the general style reminds me most of Frans Floris (1516-1570). On the one hand we have the above engraving, from the Art Institute of Chicago, which has a similar position for the soldier on the right (back to us, same sword, same style); and on the other hand we have paintings like "The awakening of the arts", which shows his typical and quite unusual use of manysplotches of pink (mainly pink clothing) throughout the work, which is also an eye-catching aspect of the work for sale (the pink boots of the soldier on the right especially).

The work probably isn't really by Frans Floris, there are some quality issues in some faces, but on the other hand e.g. the main soldier is beautifully painted. Perhaps it has been copied with great care from an unidentified engraving, but if it is an original work, then it has been done by a fairly good painter. The current estimate in any case seems very reasonable.

UPDATE: apparently not sold, again for sale at same auction house on 28 November 2018 with an estimate of 3,000 to 5,000 Euro.  No idea why this painting has such trouble finding a buyer.

UPDATE 2: now again for sale at Hampel (28 March 2019), either same painting cleaned or a different version of the same dimensions, and nearly identical in all details except the colour of the central figure. Estimate 7,000 to 9,000 Euro, attributed to Joachim Wtewael this time.

A very small copy after Jan Brueghel

Castor Hara, from France (part of the Drouot group), sells on 8 June 2018 a "Flemish School, 18th century" very small (5,5 by 7 cm!) watercolour of the Danse of the Children, estimated at 150 to 250 Euro.

It is, considering the scale, a very good copy of a painting I already discussed in October last year. The original is by Jan Brueghel, and many copies exist of the charming scene.

The copy is very well painted for such a small scale, and the estimate seems low for this work (which may well be 17th century). I would expect this to go for 600 to 800 Euro instead.

I'm offering a highly realistic modern work at auction.

Bernaerts, from Belgium, sells on 19 June 2018 a "Ross Rossin" Egyptian Gardens, a large (120 by 120cm) oil on canvas estimated at 1500 to 1800 Euro.

And it is offered by me 😄

Ross Rossin is born in Bulgaria in 1964, studied at the National Academy of his country, and started working as a portrait painter, first in Japan and later all over Europe. While he then already started on his career as the portrait painter for the rich, the famous, and the important, he also created other works, often somewhat mysterious ones featuring nude women.

By 1999, he moved to the US and settled in Atlanta, and devoted himself uniquely to photo-realistic portrait painting on large (and very large) scales.

Rossin in front of his portraits of Jackie Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln

His portraits are included in the National Portrait Gallery (the American version, part of the Smithsonian), American universities (including Harvard Law School), State Capitol buildings, museums, and a Presidential Library; but also in the collections of companies and many private collections.

But they appear on the market only very rarely: people who acquire one of his portraits apparently want to hold on to it for a very long time.

His portrait of Maya Angelou (famous American poet) was used for a US Stamp, which became legendary. Not for the very good portrait on it, but because it has been taken out of circulation after it became clear that the US Postal Office put the wrong quote on it!

I have found evidence of only one sale of a work by him: at a charity auction for the Rotary Club, his portrait of the Rotary founder was sold for a whopping $170,000!

The present painting (which has kindly been confirmed by the artist as being an authentic work by him) dates to 1996, a year when he had an exhibition in Brussels (according to his Wikipedia page), and represents a crucial moment in his development as an artist. While he would mostly abandon painting anything but portraits soon afterwards, it is in this period that he perfected his photo-realistic style.

Even in 1995, just one year earlier, his works are still much less detailed and refined, and the compositions are a lot more boring and repetitive. This work though shows a perfection of the ideas and the style he had toyed around with for a few years, and while he would abandon most of the ideas afterwards, the style he had developed in the work for sale would bring him to the success he now enjoys.

Comparing a detail from these older works to similar details from the work for sale (which has the same dimensions) shows the difference, and the quality of the current one. The general composition is also a lot more complex, not a simple displacement of the basic image all over the canvas but an interaction of the three depictions of the same model.

What's it worth? Well, I'm obviously not objective, and the lack of previous sales makes it harder as well. But it's a popular subject (goodlooking female nudes), in a great format (large enough to be impressive, but small enough to fit in every home), by a well-established artist with a rich clientèle (reselling this in the States may be an interesting prospect if you don't want to own it for yourself) but with more than enough scarcity to make it something special. Bernaerts is, together with De Vuyst, one of the two leading art auction houses in Flanders. The 1,500 lower estimate seems to me a very, very cautious approach...

All images on this page are "copyright" Ross Rossin.