Unrecognised copies galore

Auctions are filled with unrecognised copies of often famous paintings. I have highlighted some atrocious copies after Rubens regularly, but others fall victim of the same...

Dan Morphy sells an "oil painting of a young artist". It's clearly the self-portrait by Vigée le Brun from the Watford Museum. UPDATE: sold for $350.

The top lot at Catawiki is an "Unknown artist (20th century)", described as an "unknown but very good master". The master that painted the original, yes, not the copiist here (a very recent copy, by the looks of it, but e.g. the faces are all wrong). It is another painting by Cot, "The Storm", also in the Metropolitan Museum. UPDATE: sold for 281 Euro.

Another Catawiki auction presents an "Anonymous" "Old Painting", which is actually a very recent copy of an old painting instead. The original by Jean Raoux is in the Wallace Collection. UPDATE: sold for 45 Euro

Some are nearly insulting. Barridoff sells a "Dutch or English school, 18th c." oil on canvas on masonite. Any "on masonite" old master should be considered very suspicious in my opinion. This one is a copy of the portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels by Rembrandt. Obviously an obscure painting which took me an immense effort to discover. UPDATE: sold for $1,600

Frans Francken II

For sale at Prunier, lot 118, 15 February 2015: a "Banquet" scene attributed to Frans Francken II. Estimated at 4,000 to 5,000 Euro. The same lot was sold in December 2012 at Alde for 2,200 Euro as "Circle of Frans Francken I". Someone hopes, rightly or wrongly, to make a nice profit by providing a more precise attribution, and probably after having cleaned the picture (it certainly looks brighter now).  I would personally not attribute it to Francken, it isn't good enough in nearly all aspects. Not that Frans Francken II the best of painters is, but even for him this seems too awkward in pose. 

From follower of Teniers to Cornelis de Wael back to follower of Teniers the Younger?

So, a nice, typical "after Teniers" painting is for sale in France now. Better than the countless mediocre "after Teniers" that litter every auction apparently, I tried to see if I could find more info on this one.

Turns out that it was sold (rather dirty) in April for 1,900 Euro (as follower of Teniers) at Lasseron, only to reappear cleaned (as above) at Aguttes in September as a painting by Cornelis De Wael, estimated at 5,000 to 6,000 Euro. Nice ROI, but no one bought it...

So, now it's once again for sale (third thime in less than a year!), back to the old attribution of Follower of Teniers, an with an estimate of 2,500 to 3,500 Euro (original price, costs, and cleaning costs probably), at Doullens, 1 February. Shows that not every sleeper and fast profit works out so well in the end...

Old attributions: Bruegel, Vranckx, ...

Apart from the countless "Teniers" of very varying quality, one often encounters paintings with old but now rejected attributions. If only they all were true... I already posted such a "Gerard David" in an older blog post, but nowadays, one can also buy a Bruegel, a Vrancx, ... for little to no money. Whether these were genuine old mistakes or ancient sellers knowingly trying to dupe buyers is hard to know of course. But it's fun to see what was labeled as some well-known painter in the past, and while some are 19th century copies, imitations or fakes, some are interesting second-rate paintings in their own right.

The above work, badly cracked in three, was a Breughel. Presumably Pieter Breughel the Elder, why settle for less? It is labeled at the back as "Ecole de Breugel" and now correctly sold as a Breugelian work. Date, origin, ...? Unknown, looks to me more 18th or early 19th century, but very hard to know from some pictures only. For sale at Carlo Bonte for 300 to 500 Euro  and described as late 16th century. If it truly dates from that period, I think it is a fairly conservative estimation. I couldn't find any prototypes for this painting, so it may be some invention by a late Breugelian painter, probably from Mechelen then as that city had the most of those apparently.

The topic of the Devil sowing while the people are sleeping has later been used in other paintings as well, e.g. the above one by Abraham Bloemaert (who has painted the same idea multiple times). It illustrates the parable of the Pares, from the Bible (Matthew chapter 13).

 Another former attribution in the same auction is a village scene by Sebastian Vrancx. Well, the auction house lists it as "attributed to Vrancx", but that seems a bit optimistic. Circle of Vranckx may be closer to the truth. Especially the figures aren't of the quality one would expect of Vrancx. Estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 Euro seems quite correct though, an interesting painting but with quite a lot of damage, with the paint wrinkled all over the work.

And as an extra special final one, here is a painting currently listed as attributed to Sebastian Vrancx, which was formerly attributed to Breughel, Wouwerman, Callot and Carel Breydel. For sale at Jordaens on 9 February, it is estimated at 11,000 to 12,000 Euro. It seems to me to have more chance of really being a Vrancx than the other one, and it is in better condition. Interesting cityscape, with the cupola in the right background.