"L. Clary" is Eugène Clary, sitter is Suzanne Valadon

Ribeyre, division of Drouot from France, sells on 23 September 2016 a "French School, 1900, signed L. Clary" portrait estimated at 180 to 220 Euro.

The signature doesn't start with an L but with a stylized E, for Eugène Clary, French landscape painter (1856-1929). It can be compared with other signatures from him (the middle two seem to be somewhat older than this work, which is probably from around 1900).

Another portrait (or genre scene with female presence, these aren't really portraits of course) by him was sold at Sotheby's this year for £20,000, but that one was a lifesize work while the one for sale is small (55 by 36cm), which usually is reflected in the value. It is a more lively work, with the birds, but to me it is less appealing.

More interesting is a work by Clary in the Musée d'Orsay, in Paris. This work clearly shows the same model, in a very similar pose (and similar dimensions) as well. It is a ca. 1887 portrait of Suzanne Valadon, famous model for the avant-garde in Paris at the time, who can also be seen in works by Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, and so on. She was a good painter in her own right, and the mother of Utrillo, so truly a central figure in the Paris art scene then.

The depiction for sale here, with Suzanne holding a flower, may be a reference to the story of Ophelia: I have found that Clary exhibited an Ophélie at the 1886 Salon, but I haven't found an image of it so whether the painting for sale is related is pure speculation at the moment. 

This work indicates how Clary was at first a rather progressive and interesting painter, before he became a more conventional landscape painter (more boring now, but presumably more profitable then). Compared to e.g. the work from Sotheby's, the one for sale is much better, vigorously painted.

The painting should be worth 2,000 Euro at least.

UPDATE: wow, sold for 7.200 Euro!

UPDATE 2: I missed it at the time, but a few months later it was offered at Christie's, with a background and description which completely matched my above blog post, and sold for £13,750. A nice return in a few months time. 

Two of the five "Senses", after Teniers

Binoche et Giquello sell, through Drouot, on 15 January 2016 two paintings from the "Atelier of David Teniers" estimated at 400 to 600 Euro.

While the first one is correctly described as an "allegory of smell", the second is apparently not recognised as the accompanying "allegory of touch". It seems a bit optimistic to put this in the Teniers atelier, even though that had a rather large production of varying quality: but as two old works after Teniers, the estimate seems on the conservative side.

The "Touch" is a copy after the above Teniers (from the Guildhall Art Gallery in London), but without the decor and with the glee on the face of the old woman replaced by a more concerned expression (probably due to the lack of skill of the copier). The differences in colour and details may indicate a few stations between the original and the copy, not some work straight from the workshop.

I couldn't find a version of the "smell" that was equally close to the one for sale, but paintings like the above show the similarity with the works of Teniers anyway. It is quite possible that an original series of the five senses with the same woman in them existed, and that the "smell" for sale here is a reminder of how the original may have looked. 

One can wonder if other Teniers' paintings, like the above two from the National Gallery featuring a very similar older woman, aren't also part of series of the senses (in this case, taste and hearing?). The above two are not connected in the National Gallery website (even though they came from the same collection at the same time and have similar dimensions), and are given dates ten years apart, but it is obvious that they (or their originals at least, if they are workshop copies) belong together from the many identical elements in them; this makes it more likely that they were part of a series of course, and it would be nice to find the other three senses from the series.

Double inversion

Wapler Mica, through Drouot Paris, sells on 3 July 2015 a "Flemish School, ca. 1660" depiction of the daughters of Creops uncovering the child Erichthonius. It's a relatively large (54 by 66) oil on copper, estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 Euro.

The description is quite lengthy, and has a section I particulary like, compositorial origin: "Ce groupe reprend, dans un sens inversé, le groupe de personnages du tableau (Cuivre, 59 x 48 cm) de Willem van Herp passé en vente à Vienne, Dorotheum, le 17 octobre 2012, n° 774, reproduit en couleur." Or: the group [of figures to the left] reprises, in an inverted sense, the group of people on the painting (oil on copper, 59 by 48 cm) by Willem van Herp sold in Vienna, Dorotheum, 17 October 2012, #774, reproduced in colour"

This is correct, but rather irrelevant, as the van Herp (pictured) is an inversion of an older work by a much more famous artist, whose figure composition has been directly copied in the painting for sale here...

The original work has been cut down (presumably in the 18th century), only copies and fragments are left. The whole composition can be seen in the above copy (courtesy Artvalue.com).

One fragment of the original showing one of the figures is kept at the Allen Memorial Art Museum. It shows the brilliance of Rubens and the difference between most copies and the real deal.

The copy for sale is rather crudely painted, and looks more like a copy after a tapestry than a copy after a painting. It isn't worth the estimate though, even though the story behind it is remarkable enough.

UPDATE: unsold, again for sale on 14 November 2015 with a revised estimate of 800 to 1,200 Euro, which is a lot more reasonable.

UPDATE: unsold again, now for sale on 21 April 2016 with an upped estimate of 1,500 to 2,000 Euro! Still with the same problematic description though.

UPDATE: again unsold, now for sale on 3 October 2016 at Drouot Paris with an estimate again of 800 to 1,200 Euro, and no other changes. How many times will they try this one? 

The importance of getting names right, part 2

Two weeks ago, I highlighted an auction where they sold a work attributed to "T. de Brackelar", which turned out to be F. de Braekeleer instead.

Now, Drouot offers a "Ferdinand Brenkelaer", which is again a "de Braeckeleer", but this time by or after Adriaan Ferdinand de Braekeleer. No idea why this name is the one that gets mangled so badly twice in a row, it's not as if there are no other Dutch or Flemish names that can be misread. Perhaps one day I'll find a "Van der Weyden" written as " Von de Heyde" or somesuch, which will mislead a lot of people :-)

Copy after lost Bosch original

At Leclere via Drouot, they sell on 18 April 2015 a correctly described copy after Hieronymus Bosch, "Crown of Thorns", estimated at 6,000 to 8,000 Euro and dated to about 1600.

It is one of a few paintings which are commonly accepted to have an original by Bosch, even though no original is known. The best copies are kept in the Museum of Berne (as said by Drouot, and depicted in black and white above) and in London, with another very similar (but with a donor added) early (1520-1530) copy in the Museum of Antwerp (second black and white image above). The one for sale, while later and lesser quality than the three I mentioned, is still a good and relatively affordable way to have a real old Bosch copy, which isn't that common anymore on the market. The chance that you are buying the original Bosch seems extremely unlikely though.

The above are other copies from the Msuée Magnin in Dijon and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The most unusual variation I found was the above, from a private collection in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium.

Missing Rubens

A lot of unrecognised copies after old masters this week, mostly to poor to mention here (or do you want a poor 19th century copy of a Velazquez?). More fun is it when a copy of a Rubens painting turns up at Drouot (lot 52, 27 March 2015), described as  Flemish School, 17th century, "Diana", and estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 Euro, which turns out to be a copy after a lost or location unknown Rubens original. Could it be the long lost original? Well, obviously not, unless you believe that the whole painting has been overpainted so much that every trace of Rubens has been erased.

A much better copy was sold at Sotheby's for £10,000 in 2008. The one now for sale seems relatively expensive considering the quality, but if you are trying to collect every Rubens painting, this may be one of the harder to find ones!

There are a few important differences between the Sotheby's copy and the one for sale here, no idea what the reason is (creative freedom of the copiers? Multiple lost originals?). The result is that in the one for sale, the dog in the front is just barking at nothing, while in the Sotheby's one he is barking to some dead wildlife. Seems more logical...

Copy after Schwartz

Yet another "Flemish School", this time "ca. 1620, Proserpina abducted by Pluto", at Drouot (lot 51, 27 March 2015). Estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 Euro, this seems rather expensive.

No opinion on the date or region of this copy, but the original is German and some 50 years older: Christoph Schwartz (1543-1592), now in the Fitzwilliam Museum. The reversed copy, different colours, ... all indicate that this is a copy after an engraving. During the process, it lost all power. The horses, instead of frightening wild animals, seem now to be frightened of the water; the fierce mountains in the background have turned into rolling hills, the fast flowing river has become a pond with some wrinkles from the horses and chariot.

Note that Lambert Sustris either also has painted a version, or is an alternative attribution for the original painting. Schwartz and Sustris have collaborated for a while, their work can be very similar sometimes.

Francken II

A very nice composition and interesting painting, sold as "Workshop of Frans Francken II, called the Younger" with a Crucifixion surrounded by passion scenes, measuring 95 by 71 cm. At Drouot Richelieu, 25 March 2015, estimated at 4,000 to 6,000 Euro. The auction catalogue describes a signed similar work in the Louvre with 8 grisaille scenes, and the fact that a figure from the painting for sale also appears in another Francken work. UPDATE: sold for 11,100 Euro, or way above estimate!

What the auction catalogue doesn't mention is that the above composition, but in a much better condition, has also been for sale at Hampel Auctions in Munich in 2009, as "attributed to Frans Francken II", with an estimate of 20,000 to 25,00 Euro. As that catalogue correctly indicates, it is an original variation of the trompe-l'oeil, with the central panel not between but above the twelve surrounding ones, obscuring them slightly.

Whether the one for sale is of the same quality as the one from Hampel is hard to judge in its current state, from what I can see it looks either as good or perhaps slightly less detailed, but it obviously is in a much worse condition. Most of this can be solved by a good restoration (or even a simple cleaning), but it remains a gamble what will be the end result. Probably, you will end for your 4,000 to 6,000 Euro plus cleaning costs with a very nice and more valuable Francken II painting of considerable quality and originality, much more so than the very frequent rather mediocre Francken II (style, attributed, circle) that are for sale constantly for similar prices. Below are some other Francken II (or workshop or the like) paintings similar to the one for sale, for comparison.

A similar composition of the Mocking of Christ, but only a third as large, was sold at Dorotheum for nearly 15,000 Euro.

On the other hand, yet another (more traditional,without the trompe-l'oeil effect) variation, depicting the life of Alexander the Great, was not sold at Bonham's with an estimate of $10,000.

A "Mary mourning the dead Christ" (49 by 36 cm) was sold at Mathias and Ribeyre for 16,000 Euro.

A simpler "Crucifixion", perhaps less well painted as well, measuring 64 by 50 cm, only fetched 2,400 Euro at Segre in 2011.

Palladio

Palladio, "I quatro libri dell'architettura"

The second edition of 1581, all four books, in a later binding. Only estimated at 400 to 500 Euro, these books normally sell for ten times as much... Bargain! DrouotLive

Erasmus

Cheap 1527 Erasmus edition

No picture, “used” condition; a 1527 edition of Erasmus’ “Opus de conscribendis epistolis”, estimated at only 50-100 Euro? Worth a gamble. Now at DrouotLive