Wendl part 2: three Old Master paintings

Wendl, from Germany, sells on 2 March 2019 a large selection of Old Master paintings, often with low estimates. This is my second (and final) selection of lots.

Lot 4065 is a typical Dutch still life with a bling bling cup and some glassware. The painting, estimated at only 240 Euro, is extremely brown, presumably actual old varnish or an attempt to make it look older and more interesting. It has a monogram PCH, as said by the auction house.

This is the monogram of Pieter Claesz (1597-1660), the most important Dutch painter of this type of still life together with Willem Claesz Heda. He is coincidentally also the father of Nicolaes Berchem (Pieter Claesz was born in Berchem, now a part of Antwerp).

The same monogram can for example be found on this work, sold at Sotheby's for £175,000! I have not yet found an explanation for the "H" in the monogram. It almost gives the impression as if he was a brother to Willem Cleasz Heda. Perhaps it was added as a reference to Haarlem, the city he worked in.

The painting isn't good enough to be by Claesz though, he was an extremely detailed and convincing painter, while the work for sale is good, but a bit simplistic in the handling of materials and the reflection of light on it.

Even so, 240 Euro is ridiculously cheap and buying it at 1,000 Euro would be a very reasonable gamble that cleaning will reveal a quite fine painting.

Lot 4320 is a view of a sculptor's studio. At first, I was going to attribute it to Balthasar van den Bossche, who is best known for these scenes (sculptor or painter workshops); but he has a small number of sculptures reappearing in nearly every work, and this one doesn't match his other works in that regard. So, an anonymous late 17th century or early 18th century work, which needs cleaning, but which is again very cheap at the estimate of 180 Euro.

Finally, lot 4336, signed P. Veen and dated 1685(?) is a depiction of John the Baptist estimated at 800 Euro. I hoped it would turn out to be an Otto van Veen with a misread date (perhaps 1625?), but it looks to be a P. Veen after all.

This could be a Pieter Veen (1667-1736), but if so the date is probably misread and should be 1695 or 1698 instead. The RKD shows some 10 paintings by or possibly by Veen, like the one above. Most are better than the one for sale, e.g. the hands in the offered work are very weak. The estimate for this one seems about right, but his works are rare so it is interesting to possibly add one work to his oeuvre.

UPDATE; first sold for 2,200 Euro (240 est.), the second for 1,200 Euro (180 est.), and the final for 900 Euro (800 est.)

Good lots at Wendl (part 1)

Wendl, from Germany, sells on 2 March 2019 a large selection of Old Master paintings, often with low estimates. I've selected a few that caught my eye.

Lot 3663 is a Dutch still life, ca. 1700, estimated at only 280 Euro.

It is close to the work of someone like Martinus Nellius (died 1719) or the slightly earlier Harmen Loeding (ca. 1637 - ca. 1673, example via RKD).

The lot for sale should fetch 800 to 1,000 Euro without any problems.

I have trouble finding an artist for lot 3819, but at 750 Euro it is a bargain in any case, as a late 17th or early 18th century Flemish painting, a good example of the post-Rubens, more sentimental style which is a lot less popular (and important),  but still interesting enough.

Lot 3852 is described as an "unsigned genre painting, 19th century", and estimated at 800 Euro.

It is a good but fragmentary old copy (probably 17th century) of an Adoration of the Shepherds, known from a version in the Royal Castle in Warsaw. If it had been complete, it would have been worth 1,500 to 2,000 Euro, but as it stands, the estimate is probably about right. Still, a rather incorrect description for this one.

Tomorrow: three further paintings from the same auction.

UPDATE; the first sold for 14,000 (280 est.), the second for 7,000 (750 estimate), and the third for 1,100 Euro (800 est)

Carl Storch and Cornelius Gurlitt

Wendl, from Germany, sells on 4 March 2017 a "Carl Storch" water colour of a firl, estimated at 90 Euro.

It isn't great art, but the name Carl Storch brought back some memories from my youth.

There is a Hungarian book illustrator Carl Storch (1868-1955). There is also the painter Karl Storch (1864-1954, also known as Karl Storch the Elder). Apparently both used Carl and Karl, so distinguishing the two is very hard (some even claim they may be the same person). Karl was mainly a painter though, and worked in Prussia, Königsberg, basically the North of Germany and thereabouts. Carl was Hungarian (from Budapest) and worked in Austria and München, so the South of Germany and thereabouts. This work is supposedly by Carl.

Carl Storch was an illustrator in the style of the great Wilhelm Busch, and worked like him for the Fliegende Blätter and many other humoristic magazines. For some religious organisations he created Pukchen and Mukchen (or Puk and Muk in Dutch), the adventures of two small creatures (gnomes probably) living with lots of family at "Klaas Vaak", the Sandman. They have lots of adventures all around the world (both the real world and a fairy-tale world), offering hours of mindless funny escapism for small children. The books were written mainly between 1926 and 1940, and looking back at them they offer the typical white colonial image of the world one might expect (though nothing resembling Nazi ideals, the books can be compared more accurately with something like Tintin in Africa); but the artwork is exquisite, and explains why these books have remained popular with many collectors while most other works of the period have been long forgotten.

I've never seen an original illustration by him on the market, and a good Puk and Muk one would fetch good money. The painting here is nothing like these, but I can imagine some hardcore collectors wanting it anyway just to have something tangible by him.
Doing some basic research on Carl Storch, I learned that part of his artwork is now in the Sazlburg Museum, and that the city also has a Carl Storch street. Which gives us another connection to the art world, as the probably most famous inhabitant of that street was...

Cornelius Gurlitt, the infamous "owner" of a massive hoard of Nazi looted art, discovered in 2013. The vast majority (some 1,400 items) were found in Munich, but some 250 works were stored in his house in Salzburg. While it was the smaller set of paintings, it was at the same time the more important one, with oil paintings and water colours by Picasso, Courbet, Corot, Manet, Renoir, Nolde and Monet.

Looted Art shows some of these works, including the Monet and Courbet from Salzburg.

So, from a not really remarkable 1950s watercolour to interbellum children's books to a Nazi art collection and a Monet, it may be unusual for this blog but live is boring when one gets too predictable...