"German genrepainter" is a copy after Bassano

Von Zengen sells on 11 June 2016 a "German genrepainter, 1st half 17th century" Farmers at Work, estimated at 1,500 Euro.

It is a copy after Francesco Bassano, "Allegory of Spring" (version from Dulwich Galery shown, Bassano painted multiple versions with slight variations), which was very popular in Flanders and apparently also in Germany at the time.

Engravings by e.g. Raphaël Sadeleer I (one of the many talented engravers from the Sadeleer family) spread the image across Europe and explain the colour differences between the original and many copies.

The painting is probably worth the estimate, but don't expect to buy some unusual German composition, just one of many copies of this (and a few other) Bassano classics.

Unknown Flemish Virgin and Child composition, ca. 1550 at Vanderkindere

Vanderkindere, from Brussels, sells on 21 June 2016 a "Circle of Frans Floris I" Virgin and Child, estimated at 3,000 to 4,000 Euro.

A reader pointed out the striking resemblance to a work for sale (but unsold) last year at Alcala, in Spain;  described as "Circle of Jan Gossaert, Antwerp, ca. 1530)" and somewhat bigger than the one for sale here (100 by 75 cm vs. 75 by 63 cm): it had a starting price of 50,000 Euro, which turned out to be too steep.

The weird thing is that I can find no other examples of this composition before these two ones, which come fairly close to one another. Still, both look authentic to me (and the auction houses), so no need to immediately suspect fakes.

The Alcala is the better painting, but that doesn't answer the questions of origin, date, artist... Probably Antwerp, ca. 1530-1550, but beyond that? I have looked at hundreds of Virgin and Childs, paintings and engravings, and one can see similarities with the works of Bartholomeus Spranger, even Jacques Caillot, but these are coincidences and common image language, not any indication of who painted this. 

So, an Antwerp School Virgin and Child, with one other equally anonymous example known; a composition that is unique to those two (nothing remotely similar could be found), but they aren't copies of each other (at most, the Vanderkindere may be a copy of the Alcala, but with enough differences, and by a different hand). Even so, the Vanderkindere one should fetch 10,000 Euro probably as a high quality early 16th century Flemish painting which is unusual but decorative, more so than many of the more traditional Virgin and Child depictions.

UPDATE: sold for 3,000 Euro.

UPDATE 2: now (on 6 August 2016) for sale at Accademia Fine Art in Monaco as "Circle of Maarten van Heemskerck" with an estimate of  4,500 to 6,500 Euro. No idea if Heemskerck is any closer than other contemporary names, it certainly isn't too farfetched, and like I said I believe it to be worth more than the 3,000 Euro it fetched initially. We'll see!

"Flemish, ca. 1600" is a nice Francken with variations

Plückbaum, from Germany, sells on 4 June 2016 a "Flemish School, ca. 1600" Mocking of Christ (lot 985), estimated at 680 Euro.

It is a variation of a work by the Francken family I already discussed last year, and a good one at that. It is also, for this type of work, relatively large (92 by 74cm), compared to the usual 65 by 50 cm of similar works.

The Christ figure can be found nearly identical on multiple other works (one example from Zeller 2007, one from Sotheby's with a different head position, other examples shown in the previous blog linked above). The "clothing", the way the cloth is draped, seems slightly more modern or sophisticated in this example though, perhaps pointing in the direction of Hieronymus Francken II or III?

The main difference with all other versions I could find images of (and there are quite a few of those, e.g. at RKD and Balat) is in the figures facing Christ. The kneeling, jeering man with the red pants has some similarities with other figures in contemporary Mocking of Christ works, but no direct counterpart, which is unusual in these Francken works.

The closest seems to be this copy after Francken work from the Abbey of Tongerlo (picture courtesy of Balat).

This Francken (from the TaxandriaMuseum in Turnhout) also shows a similar composition, but seen from a completely different place. (picture again from Balat).

This makes it clear that such a kneeling figure mocking Christ is not uncommon in the work of the Franckens (and their followers), even though we have no immediate example for the current composition.

Overall, this is one of the better versions of this very popular Francken studio work, with some "unique" (or at least uncommon) elements, and should be worth 3,000 to 5,000 Euro easily instead of the estimated 680.

"Creation of the Animals", the sequel

A few months ago I posted about a "Creation of the Animals" for sale at Hampel (Germany), for which I had found another version in the Musée Calvet in France.

I just realised that yet another version of the same work can be found in Antwerp, in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. It was only gifted to the Museum after the date of my full catalogue, and the Museum is closed for serious renovations (reopens 2017), so that may excuse why I didn't know about it, but still it feels a bit stupid!

The Antwerp version lacks most of the fallen angels, but is otherwise nearly identical. The Hampel version is only 75 by 62 cm though, while the Antwerp one is 133 by 121 cm. It is attributed to an "Anonymous Flemish Master, 16th century, Joachim Patinir, Simone de Myle, Herri met de Bles". The latter three names may indicate an environment they place it in. I hadn't heard of Simone de Myle yet

Searching him brings me to yet another smaller (73 by 63cm) version, this time attributed to "Circle of Simon de Myle" and in much worse condition, which sold at Aguttes in France in 2011 for 4,000 Euro.

Simon de Myle is basically known from one work, a very good "Noach's Ark" which is indeed similar in style, but less naive, more correct in a Dürer-like style (the animals!). Still, we are getting closer to putting a name to this work, and we now have four versions of it, which gets interesting. This de Myle work, by the way, sold at Sotheby's in 2011 for more than 1 million Euros! Just imagine that you bought the Hampel one for 8,000 Euro and would be able to prove that it is by De Myle...

The RKD lists one other work by De Myle, but it is quite different and much further away from the Creation of the Animals.

"Follower of Master of the Parrot" is copy after Bernard van Orley

Millon, in Paris, sells on 17 June 2016 a "Flemish School, 17th century, follower of the Master of the Madonna with the Parrot" Virgin and Child with Female Donor small oil on panel (31 by 37cm) estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Euro.

It is a reasonably well executed copy (probably 16th century) of a work by Bernard van Orley, "Virgin and Child with Margaret of Austria", which exists both a a diptych and as a single panel, like here (similar version from the RKD archives shown s third image). The work has been copied fairly often. The left half f an original diptych is in the Museum of Ottawa (top image).

The estimate is probably about right, but the inspiration for the work and style could have been described better...

UPDATE: and the description has been updated to a correct one! No idea if they saw my blog post or tweet or found it out independently.

Still growing, thanks!

Thank you, dear readers, to keep on reading my blog. While the numbers may be insignificant compared to the big bloggers, it still is heartwarming to see an increase nearly every month, with this May breaking the 2,000 pageviews per month barrier for the first time (and not by a slim margin, 2435 pageviews!).

I'm not always  completely happy with what I can present you, but I'm restricted by what the auctions houses offer, how badly they describe or estimate them, and my limited time. Ans sometimes I know people already going after an interesting one, and then it would be not so nice to share it with others as well ;-) But I'll do my best to find further interesting works where I can tell a bit of a story, and share my often unheeded estimate of them as well.

Schakewits: a real Josef Schakewits?

Rops, from Belgium, sells on 26 June 2016 a "Schakewits" Beach scene estimated at 160 to 240 Euro.

It looks a lot like this Schakewits from Christie's from 2015 which soldfor £5,000 in 2015.

Comparison of some details shows that the Christie's one is painted a lot better. We don't know the dimensions of the Rops one though, which makes it hard to compare this.

The signatures also don't tell a lot. It is certainly quite possible that the two are by the same hand. If the Rops one is a real Josef Schakewits, then it probably is more of a study, or a more rushed work than the Christie's one, and will accordingly be worth a lot less, perhaps closer to 1,000 Euro, which is what many of his beach scenes fetched over the last few years. It has a nasty hole in it as well, which can be restored but will cost a bit extra. If it is a fake, then we might as well burn it.

UPDATE: sold for 360 Euro, I guess we'll never know if it was a bargain or a waste of money unless it reappears in a larger auction.