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!

The always dependable "attributed to"

Rops, from Belgium, sells on 29 January 2017 an "attributed to Rembrandt" Rembrandt and Saskia, estimated at 3,000 to 4,000 Euro.

The auction house states that "numerous documents" are added, without any further information, but that surely has to be a good sign.

It's a bit sad, I usually like Rops who seem to be a good auction house to deal with, but here they are selling the usual auction house nonsensical "attributed to" for a work which is clearly not good enough to be by Rembrandt or anyone near him, and which is also clearly simply a copy after Rembrandt.

That auction houses use the attributed to for unsigned but very good works in the style of, is normal. That they use it for works which have a name on the frame and where the attribution isn't totally ridiculous or harder to confirm or reject, fine, no problem. But with one the masterpieces by Rembrandt, which a simple Google search finds in 10 seconds, no such excuses exist.

It is a poor copy, from the 19th or more likely 20th century, and worth a few hundred Euro at most.

UPDATE: sold for 2,600 Euro, pure madness.

Rembrandt's "Ecce Homo" hundred years older than previously thought!

Duran, from Spain, sells on 22 December 2016 a "Lucas van Leyden" Christ before Pilatus (i.e. an Ecce Homo), estimated at 18,000 Euro.

Lucas van Leyden is a great Dutch engraver who has also left a limited number of paintings. An original painting by him like this should be worth 500,000 Euro probably, if not much much more (the estimate is what good followers or "circle of" works fetch: no real Leyden painting has come on the market in years it seems).

Lucas van Leyden made a few Ecce Homo's, like the Large Ecce Homo (image from the Met), which directly influenced Rembrandt (work from the Rijksmuseum shown below).

The work for sale here is a painted version of another Rembrandt depiction of the Ecce Homo scene: this version comes from the National Gallery.

Could it be that this one as well is based on a Lucas van Leyden painting, and much more closely still than the other one? Do we need to rewrite art history and severely diminish the genius of Rembrandt, who was often simply a copyist? Probably not.

The painting for sale has little resemblance to other Van Leyden works, and is much more in the dark style of the Dutch Golden Age, where colour takes precedence over line (unlike the work of Van Leyden).

So, can it be an unknown Rembrandt? Well, I did fail to spot the "Senses" sleeper that shook the auction world recently, but still I'm fairly certain that no, this isn't a sleeper Rembrandt. The work for sale is fairly well painted, but I think it is 18th century, and worth a few thousand Euro at the very most.

"Follower of Rembrandt" portrait: is it Saskia? And can we identify the painter?

Doyle, from New York, sells on 27 January 2016 a "Follower of Rembrandt" portrait of a woman, estimated at $3,000 to $5,000.

It is a very nice portrait, much better than the usual Rembrandt-style paintings one sees, and for a very reasonable price for this quality. It's not a hidden Rembrandt probably, the painting is a bit too flat when seen in detail, not painted lively enough; but it is a very competent, striking image nevertheless.

First question it raises; is it Saskia, Rembrandts wife and muse? The above portrait of Saskia by Carel Fabritius could well be the same woman, but it's hard to be sure.  

Searching among the pupils of Rembrandt to find possible matches, I noticed different possible matches, like Aert de Gelder, Leveck or Samuel van Hoogstraten. Perhaps the most likely candidate is Isaac de Jouderville. He uses less of the flou artistique so beloved by many pupils of Rembrandt, as can be seen in the portrait pictured above.

Other pupils also made similar works, but their style is less close to the one for sale. For instance the above portrait is by Willem Drost, who seems to have a much looser touch of the pencil. Other works by Drost come closer to the one for sale though, these artists didn't stick to one fixed style sadly (for us, now, I mean).

I don't think, based solely on the picture on the website, that it can be attributed to Jouderville or any other painter  (perhaps by a real specialist in these portraits, certainly not by me). But it is a very good example of this style and should be worth a lot more.

UPDATE: sold for $11,250, more than three times the estimate: nice to see that the bidders for once agree with me ;-)

Expensive "Van Veerendael" is copy after Rembrandt

Loeckx, auction house from Ghent, Belgium, sells on 15 September 2015 a "Flemish School, exceptionally large work on copper" Christ with Pilatus (68 by 85 cm is indeed a rather large oil on copper). It is signed "Van Veerendael 1675" and estimated at a hefty 27,000 to 30,000 Euro (lot 309).

This lot was brought to my attention by a blog reader who remarked that all known works by Nicolaes Van Veerendael (Antwerp, 1640-1691) are either flower pieces, either separately or together with other artists in a larger work, or in a few exceptional cases "monkey pieces", allegorical pieces with monkeys instead of humans. One "Vanitas" is also sometimes said to be by Veerendael. However, not one historical or religious painting by Veerendael seems to be known.

It turns out that this work is not a new composition, but a copy after a Rembrandt engraving. Whether the copy is made by Veerendael is not clear (the auction house seems to have doubts about it as well), it certainly is competently painted, but I don't think a copy after an engraving is worth the estimate given. A real flower piece by Veerendael often fetches 100,000 Euro or more, but this? I wouldn't give more than 5,000 Euro for it.