"Attributed to Roeland Savery" copies elements from other Flemish Orpheus paintings

Veritas, from Germany, sells on 18 October 2016 an "Attributed to Roeland Savery" Orpheus and the animals, a small panel (18 by 32cm) estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 Euro.

It copies elements from a similar work by Jacob Hoefnagel. The horse and the deer in front of it are nearly the same.

Of course, Hoefnagel did only copy the composition from Jan Brueghel I from ca. 1600.

The painting for sale has some similarities to the work of Savery (e.g. the eyes of the horse), but acks his refinement and sense of luxury. Some aspects, e.g. the deer, are also completely different to how Savery would paint.

I would call this an anonymous Flemish work from ca. 1650, not really good enough to attribute to any specific master. The estimate seems about right.

New graphic novel about Charles-François Daubigny, with exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum, Mesdag Collectie, and Jacob Smitsmuseum

For my 500th post, I make no attempt to present a sleeper masterpiece from some auction, but instead move away from my usual routine to promote a new book by a friend of mine, Luc Cromheecke: "De Tuin van Daubigny" ("The Garden of Daubigny"), published on 12 October 2016 by Blloan.

Cromheecke is a Belgian comics artist with a career spanning more than 30 years and some 20 comic books so far. He has worked for newspapers and magazines in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, and his work was translated in German, Indonesian, ... In 2015, he received the "Bronzen Adhemar", the highest award for a Flemish comics artist. While until now, his work mainly was aimed at the juvenile market and/or filled with absurd humour, he now has published a comic book (or graphic novel, whichever you prefer) about the life and art of Charles-François Daubigny, with the story written by Bruno de Roover, an experienced comics writer. They worked 5 years on the project, in collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum.

Daubigny (1817-1878) was a French plain air painter, leading member of the school of Barbizon and precursor to the Impressionists and Postimpressionists. He was not only close friends with contemporary artists like Corot and honoré Daumier, but also a friend of and influence on Monet and Gauguin, and was much admired by Vincent Van Gogh.

Van Gogh expressed sadness about the death of Daubigny in one of his earliest surviving letters, and discussed Daubigny and his garden in his last letter before his death. The Garden of Daubigny, in Auvers, was still owned by Daubigny's widow when Van Gogh moved there at the end of his life, and he painted it three times, with one version now owned by the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. One of the versions is probably the last work he ever finished.

On 21 October 2016 starts at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam an exhibition about "Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh", with an accompanying exhibition in The Hague at the Mesdag Collectie. Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915) was not only an important landscape painter in his own right, but also a major collector of modern art: his collection, which is now a museum, includes more than 25 works by Daubigny, the largest such collection outside of France. The museum is owned by the Van Gogh Museum. An exhibition from 2 December 2016 until 5 March 2017 will show the original drawings by Cromheecke with the original paintings by Daubigny side by side. The original drawings will then be displayed from the end of 2017 until somewhere in 2018 at the Jacob Smitsmuseum in Mol, Belgium (Jacob Smits was a Dutch landscape painter who moved to Belgium).

The book is for now only available in Dutch, but a French translation is planned and an English and German translation will be promoted at the Frankfurter Buchmesse.

The above are some examples of his regular comic art (I picked some pieces that can work as stand-alone images and are understandable for everyone).

All images on this page (except for the Daubigny and the Van Gogh of course) are copyright Cromheecke and his publishers!

UPDATE: a few minor corrections made after I was very kindly contacted by the Van Gogh Museum. 

Interesting "Garden of Eden" at Mercier

Mercier, France, sells on 16 October 2016 a "Flemish School, 17th century, circle of Nicolas de Bruyn" Garden of Eden, estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 Euro.

They correctly describe it as being related to De Bruyn (and the central figures taken from a very popular engraving of Adam and Eve by Giovanni Battista Paggi), The engraving by De Bruyn (image from the Rijksmuseum) is an Orpheus charming the animals, but by replacing the central figures it became a Garden of Eden (I really love the way these Flemish painters turned the same composition into different subjecs by changing the absolute minimum of elements, see also some posts about the Franckens).

But they fail to mention the quasi-identical but somewhat larger version of this work in the (for them nearby) Museum of Flanders in Cassel (in the historically Flemish speaking parts in the North of France). The work for sale is 88 by 112cm, the Cassel version is 103 by 125cm. The style of the works is very unusual for Flemish paintings, quite distinct from most other artists working at the time.

Oh, and the central figures aren't the only thing changed between the engraving of De Bruyn and the painting for sale. Many smaller details also are changed, but this one is the most amusing probably. Apparently not everything is allowed in the Garden of Eden!

The style of the work for sale (and the work in Cassel) is reminiscent of the style of Jacob Savery, but as he already died in 1603, he can't be responsible for these works. His son Jacob Savery II lived until ca. 1651, so perhaps we should be looking in that direction? The above "Ark" is given to both Savery I and Savery II, depending on the page you visit...

UPDATE: sold for 16,500 Euro. 

UPDATE 2: and now for sale at Dorotheum, on 17 October 2017, with an estimate of 20,000 to 30,000 Euro. They do point to the Cassel work, but not to Nicolaes de Bruyn. They also namedrop Jacob Bouttats. Interesting to see whether it will sell for more than last year (as is usual nowadays, no provenance is given when a work has been on sale so recently).  

UPDATE 3: sold for 186,000 Euro!!! 

"Circle of Hendrick van Cleve III" is by Lucas van Valckenborch

De Vuyst, Belgium, sells on 22 October 2016 a "Circle of Hendrick van Cleve III" Tower of Babel, estimated at 6,000 to 9,000 Euro.

Hendrick van Cleve III is one the most prolific of the Flemish Babel painters, and in June I highlighted a huge work by or after him.

This Tower however is a "Circle of" or even "Attributed to" Lucas van Valckenborch, another of those Babel painters, since the work for sale is a copy or alternative version of a work I already displayed during the discussion of yet another Babel painting sale in March 2015 (many of these were made, but they are still popular and often wonderful to look at). This version can be found in the Museum of Strasbourg.

The one for sale now is much more detailed though, and much more precisely painted, which is unusual for a copy or for the work of a follower. The way the tower is constructed (e.g. the arches, the flying buttresses, ...) and the general look of the work are closer to another work attributed to the hardly known Lucas van Valckenborch II, from the Museum of Geneva.

It looks as if this work is either the original or much closer to the original, and that both the work from the Strasbourg Museum and the work from the Geneva Museum are copies after it. This is to me more likely than the reverse, that a very skilled copyist took elements from two paintings and created this new one. It thus seems to be a work from either Lucas van Valckenborch or his Workshop, and should be worth at least 20,000 Euro.

UPDATE: sold for 14,000 Euro, double the estimate, but if I'm right still a bargain.

"Flemish School" is Circle of Gerrit Van Honthorst

De Vuyst, from Belgium, sells on 22 October 2016 a "Flemish School, 17th cnetury" Saint Cecilia, a nice sized (95 by 119 cm) work estimated at 3,000 to 5,000 Euro.

It is a good copy after Gerrit Van Honthorst. The 1623 original can be found in the Gemäldegalerie in Kassel, Germany (with very similar dimensions, 90 by 116 cm, info from RKD), but different copies from the same period are known.

One such was sold at Sotheby's in 2008 for £10,000. Slightly smaller than the one here (71 by 85 cm), it was at first glance in a worse condition and not in general better painted either (e.g. the highlighting of the clothing of Cecilia is much better in the version for sale). However, the one for sale has some issues (e.g. the hands of Cecilia have two colours, and there is a strange spot or some damage in her mouth), not really clear to me whether she needs some restoration or whether some restoration has gone wrong.

Still, it should easily fetch the upper estimate.

UPDATE: sold for 3,300 Euro, a bit less than I expected.

"Attributed to Peter van Bredael" is copy after Andreas Martin

Sarl May, from France, sells on 17 October 2016 an "Attributed to Peter van Bredael (1629-1719)" theatre in the village market place, estimated at 2,500 to 3,500 Euro. (Lot 144 in this online catalogue).

The same work was, according to the RKD, sold by Phillips of London in 1997 as "Peter van Bredael".

At first I thought it was by a follower of Theobald Michau, as the whole scene and especially the street theatre showed remarkable similarities with the more famous painting by Michau of the same subject.

While such influence is still a possibility, I meanwhile have found that many other paintings of the subject show similar theatres (though most are somewhat more remote cousins). Late 17th century examples from the RKD are by Matthijs Neveu and Gerrit Berkheyde.

But this search unexpectedly lead me to the real origin of this painting. It is a simplified version of a work by Brussels artist Andreas Martin (1699-1763) from ca. 1725 (according to the RKD) or 1750 (according to Christie's, where it was sold in 2009 for £10,000). (Work for sale and a detail from the Martin given for comparison).

Theoretically it could have been another painter painting a similar scene from the same vantagepoint, but having the same theatre at the same spot, with the same principal actor in black (and the same man with cello on the right side and pointing man on the left side of the stage), and the same watchful girl with vegetables in the front right, is just a bit too much...

All this means that it can't be by Peeter van Bredael, and it doesn't look good enough to be by Martin. So, a mid- to late 18th century copy after Andreas Martin in a 17th century style. Value? Certainly not more than the estimate, I guess. But charming nonetheless.

"Attributed to Schut" = Copy after Schut

Horta, from Brussels, sells on 17 October 2016 a "17th c. Antwerp School, attributed to Cornelis Schut" Susanna and the Elders, estimated at 15,000 to 25,000 Euro.

The original version of this work was sold at Sotheby's in 2004 for £128,000, and then in 2008 pre-restauration for sale at Jacques Leegenhoek, and art dealer in Paris. It has since been sold to the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels.

The work for sale now clearly isn't by Schut, but a later, somewhat more academic copy (e.g. the folds of the clothing are much more stylized and stiff). I'm not certain it isn't a recent copy either, but asuming it is old (18th or 19th century), it should be worth around 10,000 Euro.

UPDATE: not sold, the estimate was indeed a bit too high.