"Ca. 1900 Flemish work" is original by or good copy after Josef Janssens

Carlo Bonte, from Belgium, sells on 11 December 2018 a "Late 19th - Early 20th century, in the manner of the Flemish Primitives" Golgotha, a large work (108 by 137 cm) estimated at 600 to 1,000 Euro.

The work is a version of the Crucifixion by Josef Janssens de Varebeke (1854-1930), a religious painter working in a Neogothical style. He painted many portraits, but probably his most famous work is his "Our Lady of Sorrows" cycle in the Antwerp Cathedral. This series of seven works includes the original Crucixifion by Janssens.

The work for sale has more subdued colours, and harsher lines, making it look more modern, a move away from the Flemish Primitives and more pointing towards Flemish Expressionism. The removal of the halo's also gives it a less traditional, religious effect, and more a general image of mourning and loss.

It's hard to tell if this is a later version by Janssens, or a copy by a good artist. The estimate seems too low in either case, a copy of this quality should be worth 2,000 Euro, and an original by Janssens of his major work is probably closer to 10,000 Euro.

"Attributed to Honthorst" seems closer to Bijlert

Carlo Bonte, from Belgium, sells on 21 March 2018 an "Attributed to G. Honthorst" Allegroy of the five senses, a relatively large (126 by 150cm) painting estimated at 5,000 to 8,000 Euro.

It is a fine work, though not good enough to be by one of the great masters, and may well be an old quality copy of a to me  unknown work. The style is closer to the works of Jan van Bijlert (1597-1671) instead of Honthorst (1592-1656). Both were Utrecht caravaggisti, but this work ha more aspects in common with Bijlert.

The most striking is another Allegory of the Senses, which seems almost like a counterpart to the one for sale. It is the property of the Davis Museum in Wellesley College near Boston, USA.

Other elements, like the woman on the left, are also comparable to the work of Bijlert.

The estimate seems about right, perhaps a bit too high.

Healing of the lame by Saints Peter and John

Carlo Bonte, from Belgium, sells on 13 December 2017 a "Southern Netherlands, 17th century" Healing of the lame by Peter and John, estimated at 6,000 to 8,000 Euro.

At first I was looking for an artist like Bartholomeus Spranger, who ha a similar femininity in some of his figures, curved like the Saint John is here, and whose angels and faces look similar as well. A drawing I found at the RKD seemed to point in the same direction. But the work had too many more Baroque elements to be satisfyingly attributed to Spranger.

Further research led me to an engraving by the very prolific Jacques Callot (1592-1635), a French artist who was influential throught Europe. The work for sale is a faithful but very good copy of the engraving, and in fact in many aspects improves upon the engraving (which is unusual).

Apparently the engraving was based on a painting by Ludovico Cardi (Cigoli) (1559-1613), for which I haven't found an original. The above two images are both said to be by Cigoli in online searches, but aren't good enough to be by him. The work for sale is a lot better, but when seen up close shows some less precise, more rushed sections, the kind of thing one would expect more in a copy than in an original. So perhaps this is a copy made by some rather good Flemish painter while on his Grand Tour?

Copies normally aren't worth a lot, but this one is good. If (and it's a big if) the original of the work is lost, then it might be worth even more as the best representation left of it, but usually for every copy I can find online a lot of others are still unavailable or much harder to find. It should be worth around the estimate.

If, by chance, this turns out to be the original after all (which isn't impossible, Cigoli isn't the most perfect artist and often has weaker parts in his works), it should be worth 30,000 Euro instead (not because a name is worth more than an anonymous work, but because an original is worth more than a copy).

"Monogrammed DRS" is a fake David Ryckaert

Carlo Bonte, from Belgium, sells on 14 June 2017 a "17th century monogrammed D.R.S" tavern scene, estimated at 1,000 to 1,500 Euro.

I believe it is not "D.R.S." but "D.R.f." (with lowercase f) for David Ryckaert fecit ("made"). David Ryckaert III (1612 - 1661) is known for these kind of scenes in the vein of Brouwer and Teniers.

Having identified the supposed artist is good, but sadly I'm fairly certain that this one can't be an original Ryckaert or even a 17th century work.

The "stoof" shown on the right is something that as far as I know never appeared on 17th century paintings (and certainly not in a tavern), and only became available around 1800. The fake is probably at least 100 years later, as people from 1800 or thereabouts would still know that this kind of heating was "new", while 100 years later it was already old-fashioned enough to be confused with much older heating systems.

"Manner of Roelandt Savery" is follower of Frans Snyders

Carlo Bonte, from Belgium, sells on 21 March 2017 a "Unsigned, late 16th / early 17 century, in the manner of Roelandt Savery" Still Life with grapes and exotic birds, a panel painting estimated at 2,000 to 4,000 Euro.

The work doesn't resemble Savery (1576-1639) so much as it does some works by his contemporary Frans Snyders (1579-1657), from which it seems to have copied the style and the use of some birds, even though a straight copy is hard to find. The work isn't good enough to be a Snyders or even a Workshop of Snyders, and is probably best described as a Follower of Frans Snyders.  Late 16th century in any case is a bit optimistic for this work, which is firmly seventeenth century.

The grapes as such could be a by or after a number of painters, including Snyders. Grapes were among the most popular elements in still lifes. Even Savery used them sometimes, but they are a less typical element in his works.

But the birds are the most obvious link between this work and Snyders. Especially his multiple variations of the "Concert with Birds" contain some very similar examples.

For example the blue tit has a similar pose, but it isn't a real copy.

The hoopoe also is quite close.

As is the swallow.

I'm not quite sure what this rather twisted bird is supposed to be, but again something very similar appears in the works of Snyders.

It's almost as if someone had access to some now lost work by Snyders and copied it, or could use a lot of his preparatory drawings, and created a new  composition from them.

I haven't been able to find any other similar work (an outdoors scene where a lot of birds surround some bunches of grapes), usually you have indoor grapes with one or two small birds, or outdoor birds on a tree.

All in all, an unusual and remarkable work, but not by a major artist. The estimate seems about right, perhaps a bit low.

UPDATE: sold for 25,000 Euro, a bit low indeed!!