Two versions of same composition, one Bruges, one South Germany?

Lempertz, from Germany, sells on 20 September 2019 a "Probably South German master, 16th century" Holy Kinship, estimated at 6,000 to 8,000 Euro.

While there are many somewhat similar works with this subject, sharing some aspects with the one here, I could only find one other work with nearly the same composition. Strangely enough, the execution of that one is quite different, and it was described at the auction in 2005 as "Circle of Anthuenis Claeissins", referring to the Bruges painter Anotnis Claeissens (1536-1613). I found that one through Artnet, and I have no idea of which auction house, estimate or result. They also only offer a relatively small image, which is too bad, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose.

The two paintings may look quite different at first sight, but too many details are the same to be a coincidence.

At the bottom left, we have Saint John the Apostle and Saint James the Great, with their mother Salomé. In both cases, Salomé has very similar headgear and mantle, the same position with the slightly opened book in one had and the other around the standing Jacob, and John sitting at her knees and reading.

The top left shows 6 important Biblical figures (plus a child), including Joseph, Salomon, and Zebedeus. The order and placement of the figures is identical, with e.g. Josephh standing with his hands on the balcony on either side of the head of Mary, Zebedeus on the left pointing to his wife Salome, or the two women directly to the right of Zebedeus, with the baby and the same headgear. As in all these comparisons, it will also be clear that the colours vary wildly, and that postures and details are sometimes very similar, and at other times completely at odds.

In the centre we get Mary and her mother Anna, and Jesus between them.These are less similar, but some details like the dress and headdress of Anna (and the way it falls over her shoulders), the hand in the open book, all point to the same origin.

At the top right we see six further figures (again with an extra child, John the Baptist), with Elizabeth, Simeon, Cleophas, and others. The three left-most figures, Salomon (labeled (Salomé in the painting), Simeon, and Joachim, have the same position and gestures, but by mistake has the bishops hat of Zacharias been given to Simeon in the Claeissens version (or vice versa). The figures on the right are less similar, although they are placed in the same order and e.g. the rightmodst one, Alphaeus, points to his wife Mary in both examples.

The bottom right has Mary Alphaeus, and 4 children; James (the son of Alpheus), Simeon (probably Simon the Zealot or Simeon of Jerusalem), Barnabas, and Judas Thaddeus. Striking similarities include the headdress of Mary, the position of all 5 figures (with Judas Thaddeus half kneeling, his head turned, one hand stretched out towards Jesus, and the other holding a basket; and Simeon and Barnabas together reading a book).

All in all, these similarities can not possibly be a coincidence, and point to a common origin for these two works. However, the clear differences seem to indicate that their have to have been intermediate versions, not one common origin (like an engraving), but e.g. two different drawings after some common work, which then formed the basis for these two paintings.

I haven't found a trace of these possible other (better) versions of this composition, nor of a possible original artist. Any and all information is welcome!

"Probably early 17th century Antwerp Master" is Workshop of Hendrick van Balen

Lempertz, from Germany, sells on 20 September 2019 a "Probably Antwerp master, early 17th century" John the Baptist preaching, estimated at 8,000 to 10,000 Euro.

It is a copy after a work by Hendrick van Balen, a version of which was sold at Christie's in 2018 for £200,000. The one for sale, though still very good, is clearly inferior when looking at the detailing, but may be good enough to be called a Workshop version perhaps, or otherwise a School of or Follower of version.

The strange thing is that while for this lot 3, Lempertz didn't find the link with Van Balen, their very next lot is catalogued as a "follower of Hendrick van Balen" with an estimate of 10,000 to 12,000 Euro. This is indeed supported by a similar work at the RKD which was listed as by Hendrick van Balen: if that version was by him, it has to be one of his very last works, as it is unsigned but dated 1632.

I personally like the first lot more than the second one, and would estimate it slightly higher, basically reversing the two estimations.

"Follower of Brueghel" in 2018, "attributed to Jakob Grimmer" now, but still a copy after Hans Bol

Hargesheimer, from Germany, sells on 14 September 2019 an "attributed to Jakob Grimmer" "Parable of the Sower", estimated at 30,000 Euro.

The same work was for sale last year at Saarbrûcken, as a "follower of Brueghel", for 900 Euro. I then wrote a blog post about it, explaining that it is not the Parable of the Sower but the Parable of the Tares (the Sower is about indiscriminately sowing and includes no devil or sleeping men, the Tares is about "But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.", and the "enemy" is later explained to be the Devil).

More importantly, I showed that the work is a copy after an engraving by Hans Bol from 1574. It seems unlikely that Jakob Grimmer would have copied this engraving, and the work is not good enough to be by him either (e.g. the cloudscapes by Grimmer are one of the best parts of his work in many cases, but here the sky is rather boring). While Grimmer sometimes has rather simplistic work, they still show a lot more skill than this copy. The estimate here seems way too high.

This isn't the only seriously overestimated work in this auction though.

This "Workshop or School of Rubens" Magdalene was already overpriced at Hampel in 2017 (15,000 Euro, no sale), and is still overpriced here at 12,000 Euro. It looks good on their website at first glance (with the rather small default image Hargesheimer provides), but when seen more closely, it becomes obvious that it is a poor later copy, as indicated by the Lartsite as well (scroll down to number 11). Worth 3,000 to 5,000 Euro perhaps?

They also have a "Frans Hals (workshop?)" boy with a flute, estimated at 5,000 Euro. It is a very poor copy after Hals (or at least after a follower of Hals, much better example thanks to the RKD). Worth 500 Euro instead? The same applies to another similar "Hals" estimated at 4,000 Euro.

I also seriously doubt that Rembrandt made this rather poor drawing in 1636 for his 1654 etching of "Jesus between his parents returning from the Temple" (and not a "flight into Egypt"), but if it was by Rembrandt, 3,500 Euro would be cheap.

I haven't looked in detail at all the works yet: there are many paintings with a very affordable estimate, and it may well be that there are some bargains among these. But there were very few works among the more expensive ones which seemed to be worth their estimate.

Leemans Brothers

Galerie Moderne, from Belgium, sells on 9 September 2019 an "anonymous, 17th century" "Dog in a landscape", estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 Euro.

The painting isn't terribly well executed, but has some rather intriguing elements in it. It turns out to be a collection of bird hunting equipment. More importantly, some of the exact same elements can be found on better works, giving us a name and period for this work as well.

The largest, horizontal bird cage can be seen nearly identical in works by Johannes Leemans (1633-1688), a painter of trompe-l'oeils with hunting papaphernalia. One of those was sold at Christie's in 2009 for 49,000 Euro. A very similar one is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels.

Another one with a very similar cage (and especially the cloth on top) also has the same bag (or whatever it is) below it. This one was sold at Sotheby's in 2001 for £14,000, not as the work of Johannes Leemans but by his slightly older brother Anthonie Leemans (1631-1673). Even the position of the bag in front of the cage, and the horizontal "arrows"(?) behind it, are nearly the same, and some other more mysterious elements are comparable as well.

The main differences are that the painting for sale is in much worse condition, and seems to have been painted by a follower of the Leemanses, not directly by either of the two brothers. As a "follower of Anthonie Leemans", it should be worth the estimate, if you can find a bidder willing to look past the damage.

As an aside, I wonder at the business model of such one-trick ponies as the two Leemanses. They were competent painters, and the produced quite a few of these works: but if you only sell one product, and the taste or fashion changes, then you suddenly are very vulnerable. It's bad enough if your style gets outdated by new painters, but if you then only have one subject, and basically just one composition (like Johannes here), then it may get hard to scrape a living from these.

UPDATE: unsold, again for sale on 20 January 2020 at Galerie Moderne with a very reasonable 1,000 Euro estimate.

"Attributed to Cornelis Schut" is copy after engraving

Vanderkindere, from Belgium, sells on 10 September 2019 a "17th century, Antwerp, attributed to Cornelis Schut" Conversion of Paul, estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 Euro.

I don't think Schut has anything to do with this, not even in an indirect way, as it is a rather dark copy after a ca. 1650 engraving by Cornelis Cort after a work by Giulio Clovio (courtesy the Rijksmuseum).

Old fakers trying too hard...

HRD Auctions, from the UK, sells on 13 August 2019 an "attributed to Van der Heyden" View of Amsterdam, estimated at £400 to £600.

It is a good example of something one often sees warnings about: fake labels. This one has an extremely detailed old label on the back, giving not only the artist and subject, but also a provenance: it had been sold at the Erard auction in 1832, and later owned by the Marquise d'Auost in Paris.

There indeed was a similar Van der Heyde at the important Erard auction, so I can imagine someone armed with this painting and the auction catalogue getting away with this in the 19th or early 20th century. But nowadays, certainly with the large Internet repositories, people can check these things, and compare the work much more easily with real works by the artist. I'm glad that the auctioneer didn't fell for it either.

The Erard "Van der Heyde" can now be found in the Museum of Karlsruhe, and I found it through the RKD.

And even better, the RKD lists a "related" work from the Hermitage, which has the exact same image as the one for sale, but just a tad better painted 😁

A 20 euro estimate must be the lowest so far...

Neumanns, from Germany, sells on 17 August 2019 a "circa. 1890; signed F. Menehausen" portrait of a Lady, estimated at a very low 20€.

It is a large pastel (69 by 83 cm), well executed and reasonably well preserved (although from the looks of it seriously faded at the bottom?), which should be worth clearly more even as an anonymous but good work.

Once one notices that the second "e" in the sig is perhaps not an "e" but an "s" (compared with the "s" near the end), it becomes quite simple to find the artist. It actually is the work of Frieda Menshausen-Labriola (1861-1939), a relatively important German portrait artist (she has been described as the most important or accomplished female German portrait painter of her time) who lived and worked in Germany and Italy.

While she hasn't been an avant-garde artist, she was clearly a very accomplished portraitist, a good example of the taste and style so appreciated by the bourgeoisie at the time. Her works fetch between 400 and 2000 Euro, and this pastel is probably worth around 600 Euro (it would have been a bit more if not for the discoloriation at the bottom).