"Audience with the pope" is copy after Rubens' "The four church fathers"

DVC, from Belgium, sells on 27 October 2018 a "17th / 18th century" "Audience with the Pope", estimated at 1,000 to 2,000 Euro.

While the painting clearly contains a pope and others, it would be a very strange "audience" with a semi-nude man, a lion, a dove and some putti.

It is a depiction of the 4 main Roman Catholic church fathers, Saint Ambrose (with the beehive), pope Gregory the Great (with a dove), Saint Augustine (with the bleeding heart), and Saint Jerome (with the lion). The original painting was by Rubens (lost? I couldn't find an image or location for it), but it is known through copies, including a painting by Jacob Jordaens (RKD) and an engraving by Cornelis Galle (Rijksmuseum).

This a rather rare work, some other paintings by Rubens have been copied much more often, and because of its art historical importance (and relative quality) it should easily fetch the estimate.

Another Susteren portrait, this time perhaps by Gerard ter Borch

DVC, from Belgium, sells on 29 September 2018 an "attributed to Gerard ter Borch" miniature (8 by 7 cm) portrait of Abraham van Susteren, estimated at 1,500 to 3,000 Euro.

Nothing remarkable (well, a miniature by Ter Borch is remarkable enough, but nothing I would normally spend blog space on), but this caught my attention as I have posted about a portrait of the same sitter (and one of his wife) in May of this year already. I guess some descendant is slowly cleaning out the old stuff from their house... I have described what we know about Van Susteren at length in that post, so I'll not repeat it here.

This portrait clearly shows the same man, but at a younger age, which fits with my lengthy analysis of the date of that other work. This one was painted when he was still in the Netherlands, i.e. before 1665. Abraham van Susteren was born in 1628, so the painting is probably from the 1650s.

Whether it is by Ter Borch is hard to determine, he certainly has made better miniature portraits but some others are of comparable quality, and the artist who created this one clearly had considerable talent. And on the other hand Van Susteren clearly had the wealth to pay for a good artist. The estimate for this miniature seems a bit conservative.

"Battle Scene" is Battle of Leckerbeetje; by Balthasar Courtois?

DVC, from Ghent, sells on 18 February 2017 an "Attributed to Sebastian Vrancx" Battle scene, estimated at 2,500 to 5,000 Euro.

Vrancx, Groeningemuseum, Bruges

It is a variation on a typical Vrancx work, the "Battle between Bréauté and Leckerbeetje, 5 February 1600", which for some reason was very popular and is known through many copies (both by Vrancx and his Studio, and later followers), as can also be seen in the inventories of Antwerp art legacies in the seventeenth century or similar sources.


The story isn't even about a real "battle" in the sense of a massive confrontation in war (although it was part of the 80 Years War, probably the second longest such named War in history), but it was a duel between 22 local, Catholic knights fighting for the Spanish, led by Leckerbeetje, and 22 Dutch and French knights, led by the Norman de Breauté for the French. Leckerbeetje died early in the confrontation, but his knights won and captured De Breauté and a few others. At the surrender, Bréauté was promised that he wouldn't be harmed (which was standard practice, much more interesting to demand a ransom than to kill prisoners, plus next time it might be your turn to get captured and you wouldn't want to be killed then either). However, the citizens lynched then anyway... The city, Den Bosch, was then still a Spanish-ruled, Catholic city, while the majority of what is now the Netherlands was Protestant and independent.

Vrancx, sold through Philip Mould

Why this moment captured the imagination isn't known, neither the actual story nor the original painting are really exceptional, but somehow it got copied and copied over and over again.

According to Jean Moust, who has a larger version of the work for sale for 11,800 Euro, Sebastian Vrancx was indeed the first to paint this, and other versions are by Pieter Snayers, Cornelis Droochsloot, Gerrit van Santen, and many anonymous artists.

Remarkable in the work for sale are the very prominent red sashes on many fighters. Perhaps this is partly due to the condition of the work, but as Moust describes, the sashes were the military uniform of the day, indicating to which party you belonged. That the work for sale shows the Red (Spanish) central figure already as victorious over Leckerbeetje, and not the more common fight between Breauté and Leckerbeetje, may indicate that this one was intended for a Catholic client, who would like to see this element stressed.

Apart from that element does the work for sale follow the composition of all these works quite rigidly. Most typical are some background elements; the gallows to the left, the tower in the middle, the mill to the right, with the city behind it; and the two watchers on the hillock on the right. The remainder is harder to see, the work needs cleaning and DVC doesn't offer high resolution images online.

The version which seems to copy this version the closest, at least with regards to the composition, is one at RKD attributed to Balthasar Courtois, a pupil of Vrancx. The colours are very weird, and the condition very poor, so a real comparison is hard, but the figures in the front, especially the fallen Leckerbeetje and some other elements like the group directly to the right of Bréauté, clearly relate this one to the one at auction now. Perhaps this indicates that the one for sale might also be by Balthasar Courtois, but it's hard to be certain with these.

It would surprise me if this work fetches the higher estimate, but the starting position of 2,500 Euro seems feasible on a good day.

UPDATE: unsold, again for sale with a 2,500 to 4,000 Euro estimate at DVC on 1 April 2017.

'English School, 19th century" is by John Crawford Brown

DVC, from Gent, Belgium, sells on 22 October 2016 an "English School, 19th century, illegibly signed" "Shipwrecked", a large (102 by 143 cm) canvas estimated at 1,000 to 2,000 Euro.

A hard to read label at the back identifies the painter as John C. Brown RSA, which stands for John Crawford Brown (1805-1867), Glaswegian landscape, genre and historical painter who was relatively well-known in his time but who is nowadayw more obscure, perhaps due to the very small number of works by him that appear on the market. I'm usually wary of such labels on the back, which are an easier way to fake attribution and history, but in this case I see no reason to doubt it. It also identifies the subject as the wreck of the Spanish Armada.

In 1997, his "Return from Waterloo", of similar dimensions, was sold for £6,000 at Sotheby's. I would estimate this work at about the same price.

Another version of a "Follower of Coxie" I already discussed

DVC, Belgian auction house, sells on 29 September 2015 a "Flemish, late 16th / early 17th century, Antwerp School", estimated at 1,000 to 1,500 Euro.

It is yet another version of a composition I discussed at some length in April in this post, when French auction house Turpin offered a different version. The one for sale now also isn't an original Coxie (or Francken), but still a nice copy and certainly worth the estimate. Quite a popular work in its time!

UPDATE: again for sale at DVC on 7 June 2016 with same 1,000 Euro estimate and description.

Pieter van Avont

DVC, in Ghent, sells a "Flemish, 17th century" painting of the Holy Family with John the Baptist in a landscape, estimated at 4,000 to 6,000 Euro. According to the description, it was sold in 1946 as by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrik Van Balen I. At first glance, it certainly looks like a Brueghel, but the style and quality aren't there, although it is a very good painting.

Searching further revealed that the central figures are the same (but in reverse) as the ones in a similar painting by Pieter van Avont. The quality of the work seems somewhat lesser though, so an attribution as "Circle of Pieter van Avont" may be the most correct here. The landscape may be by Van Avont or someone else in the same Jan Brueghel II circle, hard to tell. Should be worth the estimate, and if it could be firmly attributed to Van Avont even a bit more.

Third offer: result

I made a third offer, at DVC in Ghent, for what they described as a "German School, 16th or 17th century" Adoration, oil on copper, 35 by 28 cm, estimated at 700 to 1,000 Euro.

I was a bit amazed that an auction house in Flanders didn't recognise the style as that of Frans Francken II (by now well known to readers of this blog). Francken II (and by extension all the Franckens) commonly reused their more succesful compositions many times. For this one, I only found two other examples.

First I found this lot from Christie's, sold as Studio of Francken II (perhaps Hieronymus Francken II or Ambrosius Francken II) in 1997 for £2,875. It is a simplified version (loses some parts of the composition), but somewhat better painted in some details.

Some further searching revealed what may be the original version of this painting, this time in a flower garland. The flowers are attributed to the Circle of Jan Brueghel II, and the interior again to the Studio of Francken II. It sold at Christie's in 2002 for a nice £18,800. It has the exact same composition as the one that was for sale at DVC, with the seethrough to the palm tree on the right, and the God-the-Father above, which were both missing in the 1997 copy.

Another version, very comparable to the one for sale, is, according to the RKD, kept in the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht, but I can't find it on the website of that museum.

I would estimate the one for sale at DVC at at least $2,000.

And sure enough, I lost it as it ended at 2,200 Euro, which seems to be a correct, somewhat low price but no longer a true bargain.