Rembrandt and Teniers

Aguttes Neuilly, from France, sells some nice works on 12 March 2019.

Lot 68 is a Jean-Jacques Pradier, estimated at 300 to 500 Euro.

It is signed, so it may well be painted by Pradier, but it is a straight copy of a typical small David Teniers, now in the Louvre.

More interesting is lot 55, a pair of "19th century Dutch school" drawings, estimated at 300 to 400 Euro. One is identified as a Rembrandt selfportrait, and the other one is a Rembrandt etching as well.

I don't know enough about Rembrandt and his drawings, but these two are very well done, and in reverse compared to the engravings. Could they be original designs or sketches for these two engravings? Highly, highly unlikely of course, but nice to ponder. They certainly were made by someone who knew how to draw, and how to turn a more static engraving in a fluid, spontaneous work.

If I were to spend 300 Euro, I would certainly prefer the two Rembrandt drawings over the Teniers painting!

Unrecognised copies after Teniers and after Maerten de Vos

Pousse-Cornet, from France, sells on 24 November 2018 a "Flemish School, 18th century" Banquet, estimated at 800 to 1200 Euro.

It is an unrecognised but fairly good copy after David Teniers the Younger, the "Feast of the Prodigal son" from the Louvre, which probably was a portrait of himself and his family. The version for sale is a bit blurry in the faces but otherwise better than most copies you'll find for this price. It probably is just not good enough to be considered a workshop version (it clearly isn't an original by Teniers, who is well-known for only painting one version of each painting himself, and letting his workshop make copies if needed), but I can see it going for 1,500 to 2,000 Euro.

And Madeleine, from France as well, sells a "Flemish School, 17th century" Last supper, a large canvas (90 by 170 cm) estimated at 800 Euro.

It is a copy after an engraving by Johannes Sadeler after a design by Maerten de Vos (found, as usual, on the site of the Rijksmuseum). The painter at least had the skills and originality to change it from a vertical work to a quite different horizontal one, moving figures around to achieve a better result in the new format. It is not the most popular design by De Vos, I couldn't immediately find other paintings with this design, and considering its size and age, I guess it will easily fetch the estimate.

Two copies after Teniers' Temptation of Saint Anthony

In the Louvre one can see the "Temptation of Saint Anthony" by David Teniers II. It was one of his most popular paintings, and was often copied already during the 17th century, e.g. one version sold in 2015 at Lempertz for 10,000 Euro, which I discussed here.

Now there are two copies for sale, both reversed and with comparable estimates.

Lamas Bolaño, from Spain, sells on 14 March 2016 a "Flemish School, 17th century, circle of Teniers" version estimated at 800 Euro. It is a rather crude copy, lacking the refinement of the original.

Much better is the version for sale at Cambi, Italian auction house, on 9 March 2016: "Flemish School, 17th century" (no mention of Teniers here), estimated at 800 to 1,000 Euro, so the same as the Spanish version. It's twice as large, and much thinner painted (the structure of the canvas is quite visible through the painting), but it is a much more attractive version. It's not by Teniers of course, and seems to be after an engraving of the work, but value for money it is way better than the Bolaño version, which is boring. This one is lively, done by a very competent artist, with an eye for detail and colouring. It should be worth closer to 2,000 Euro probably, while the Spanish one should struggle to get the bottom estimate.

It is interesting to see how such popular works spread across the whole continent throughout the centuries (and often soon after they were made); while every country or even region had its own specific style, they weren't isolated from the remainder of European art.

Cornelis de Vos or David II Teniers, or how to get a swift ROI

A reader of this blog kindly pointed me to an auction for a painting sold a few months ago at Vanderkindere (in an auction I presented some pictures from, but not this one). Described there as "attributed to Cornelis de Vos", it made 5,800 Euro.

Now, it appears at a Mercier auction for 22 March 2015, as "David II Teniers", with an estimate of 50,000 to 60,000 Euro. Quite a nice and swift return on investment, if it would be sold for that price.

It's a nice picture, but I'm not sure it really is a Teniers. His portraits include works like the above two (from the Fondation Custodia), which seem to be much more finely detailed, and much more realistic: the one for sale almost looks like a caricature. The background is too bland, the clothing too indifferent, the collar just a crude representation... The same arguments would also disqualify it from being a "real" (or at least a finished) De Vos.

I'm not a specialist in Teniers (or in any painter I discuss on this blog, for that matter), but I wouldn't estimate this painting at more than what it fetched at Vanderkindere. UPDATE: not sold, as it now again for sale (at less than half the estimated price) at Köller in Switzerland