Thursday 19 September 2019

Nice auction at Neumeister, including a Brueghel the Younger which is a Grimmer instead

Neumeister, from Germany, sells on 25 September 2019 a fine collection of Old Master paintings.

Lot 94 is an "Antwerp, Early 16th century" Man of Sorrows (or Christ and the Instruments of the Passion), estimated at 4,000 to 6,000 Euro. It is painted by an accomplished artist, even though it may be based on an engraving (though I haven't found one with this composition).

On the middle left, next to his shoulder, I think I have found a monogram, "PA". It is cleverly hidden in the decoration, but as these are the only letters anywhere, and they clearly aren't "PAX" or some such, I wonder if they may be a monogram for the artist? But it doesn't really look like Pieter Aertsen I think, and I doubt that Pieter Coecke van Aelst would use PA. Others may have a better idea (e.g. the way the flesh of the left arm is painted seems to be very artist-specific). It should easily sell at the estimate, and may go a lot higher if some people have an idea of the actual artist.


Lot 109, Saint Paul with the viper by "Dutch school, 17th century" (est. 2,500 to 3,000 Euro) is a copy after an engraving by Harmen Jansz Muller from ca. 1590, after a design by Dirck Barendsz, as found at the Rijksmuseum site. Considering that the charm of the painting is all derived from the composition of the engraving, and the actual artistic merits of the painting are very small, it might struggle to reach the estimate.

Lot 119 is the most interesting of these, a "Workshop of Pieter Brueghel the Younger" allegory of Spring, estimated at 25,000 to 30,000 Euro.

Other versions of this work are known, and in 2013 one was sold at Sotheby's for $2,285,000!

A full set of the four seasons was sold at Christie's in 2016 for £6,466,500.

But the description of that version brings the cat out of the bag: the one for sale here is most likely not from the workshop of Pieter Brueghel the Younger, but from the workshop of Abel Grimmer. The Brueghel versions all have some characteristics not found in the Grimmer ones, and vice versa.

Private collection


In the Brueghel ones, you can see that they are planting flowers, there are two sheep close to the river, and there is a row of houses across the river.

The Grimmer ones, on the other hand, follow the original engraving after Pieter Brueghel the Elder much closer. This was made in 1570 by Pieter Van der Heyden (example from the Met Museum).


A signed 1607 copy (i.e. older than the Pieter Brueghel the Younger versions) is kept in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (together with the remainder of the series). It is clearly a lot closer to the one for sale than the Brueghel ones: no flowers are planted, no loose sheep, but on the other hand you get a small boat on the water, the houses behind the river are replaced with some stand, the gate behind the workers (smack in the middle of the painting) is longer to the left, the large pigeon tower isn't red at the bottom but yellowish white, ...

A full set of the four seasons by Grimmer was sold at Lempertz in 2018 for 285,000 Euro. This one seems to be a bit further removed from the original, as some details become weird or are missing (the boat on the river, which will pass the stand in some festive manner, is replaced with a swan; the shovel in the front gets a strange angle; the pigeon tower becomes a generic tower...) suggesting that this may be the work of a follower of Grimmer and not directly a work by Grimmer; the work for sale seems closer to his original though.

As such, I would estimate it at 50,000 Euro.





Thursday 12 September 2019

The missing link

Arcimboldo, from Czechia, sells in a very interesting Old Master auction on 14 September a "Flemish School, 17th century" Still life, estimated at 4,000 Euro.

The work is the "missing link" between a work by Jan Davidsz de Heem from the Städel Gallery, and a "follower of de Heem" sold at Christie's in 1996 (through RKD).

The work is very close in composition to the Christie's one, but of much better quality. Sadly, it isn't good enough to be by De Heem probably, but at 4,000 Euro it is still reasonably cheap.


By the way, the first lot in the auction, a "Circle of Dürer" resurrection at 16,000 Euro, is closely based on the Dürer woodcut from the "Small Passion" series. They hinted at this with their "circle of" statement, but I prefer it when auction houses simply state flat-out if a composition is so closely based on a famous existing one.

Wednesday 11 September 2019

"Late 17th century French School" looks like a follower of the Master of the Parrot

Conan (the Barbarian?), from France, sells on 14 September 2019 a "French School, late 17th century" triptych of the Holy Family, estimated at 8,000 to 10,000 Euro.

The work has no elements as far as I can see which would date it so late, or which would make it French: it looks to be painted by a follower of the Master of the Parrots (or of the two stylistically closely related other masters, the Master of the Female Half Lengths and the Master of the Prodigal Son).

The origin of the composition seems to be a work by Joos van Cleve (via RKD). The version here is likely a third-hand version, after a work by the Master of the Parrot.

Comparable work by the Master of the Female Half-Lengths

Value of this work should be around 3,000 Euro, not the estimated 8,000. 

UPDATE: the work is on 30 January 2021 again for sale, with Berard et Peron in Lyon. The description is even further off, now it is said to be a Florentine School, 16th century! The estimate of 4,500 to 5,000 Euro is at least more realistic.