"Elegantly-dressed figures conversing..." at Sotheby's is another "Flemish Charity"

Sotheby's sells on 28 March 2017 a "Flemish School, early 17th century" "Elegantly-dressed figures conversing in front of a building in a landscape", estimated at £3,000 to £5,000.

While they give the transcript of the"moral verse" beneath the painting, any further explanation is missing. Luckily I have discussed this type of painting already twice, in May 2016 and in January 2017.

It is a "Flemish Charity" or "Poor parents, rich children", and as evidenced by the multiple auctions recently this was a fairly common theme for a while in Flemish and Dutch painting, and one of the most common paintings with long textual explanations, existing in multiple compositions with slightly varying text.

This very composition can be found identical (even the dimensions), though in a worse condition, in the British Royal Collection. The Royal Collection seems slightly better painted, though both are rather primitive, naive works. They are probably by the same artist. The entry there also explains that it is based on an engraving by Bartholomeus Dolendo.

And with that information, I was able to find that engraving in the collections of the Rijksmuseum. It dates to 1590. That version has a text in three languages (French, German and Dutch) and with 4 verses, not the three we get here (the third one is missing here).

The transcription given by Sotheby's has a few small errors, which I'll correct here.

Top text:
Kint nemt waer uus / vaders outheyt / Ende en bedrouft / Hem niet in / Zynen leven / ecclesias[...].
[Ecclesiasticus III] This is a Bible chapter dealing with parents and children, with lines like "Whoever respects a father will in turn be happy with children, the day he prays for help, he will be heard." The text here means
Child see your / fathers old age / and don't disappoint / him in / his life

Bottom text:
 Och lieve kinders g'heeft ons het [should read "Iet" instead of "Het", to rhyme with "overschyet"]/ voor t hulijcx gooet dat wii u gaeven / van tgeen dat u nu overschyet / om ons bedrouft heert te laeven.
Meaning
Oh sweet children give us something / for the marriage goods we gave you / from whatever still remains to you / to sooth our saddened heart

Lieve ouders wij en mogen t niet doen / tis alte dier t sij cost ende cleeren / die kinders costen ons veel te voen / Wij en moghen voor u lien [should be "sien"] niet ontberen.
Meaning
Dear parents we may not do it / it's too expensive either food or clothes / the children cost us too much / we may not deprive them for you

Wie dese leere willen opserveren niet / maer domineren gelijck men hier sal ["Siet", better rhyme and meaning]/ d ouders oneren ende laten int verdriet / Slae ick doot dat een ander ansiet.
Meaning
Who doesn't want to follow this lesson / but dominate as one can see here / shame the parents and let them in sorrow /  I'll smite dead as an example to others

The work for sale is mainly interesting for the iconography, and because it is also nice to see multiple versions of the same painting, which helps to interpret and place them. Artistically, it is a mediocre work and quite badly cracked, although otherwise it is in good condition. It may get the estimated value, as the painting is a nice talking point for whoever gets to display it; but it won't be a sleeper work as the subject isn't that rare and the artist not very interesting.

UPDATE: sold for £5,250, just above the high estimate. Some real sleepers in that auction though, I'll post on a minor sleeper from it tonight.

"18th century school" is copy after Frans Francken

Cambi aste, from Italy, sells on 28 March 2017 an  "18th century school" Marriage of Cana, estimated at 800 to 1,000 Euro.

It is a slightly modified version of a Frans Francken composition I have already discussed a few times. In this case, the canopy is more elaborate, some classical architectural elements are added, and the garden on the left is more a park landscape than usual. The two cartouches on the right, another new element, have a text but it is badly faded and now is illisible.

The work isn't an original Francken (Cana version from the Hermitage shown) but a later copy, but even so it is a low estimate for this work.

J. Wilhelm Jankowsky

Rops, from Belgium, sells on 9 April 2017 a "Signed oil on canvas" View of a city, estimated at 600 to 800 Euro.

The signature and style of painting is that of J. Wilhelm Jankowsky (or Jankowski) (1825-1870), who painted landscapes (either real cities, like Venice or Prague, or Romantic imaginary ones).

His works fetch between 1,000 and 10,000 Euro.

The painting comes in a nice, probably original frame and should be worth 2,000 Euro.

UPDATE: sold for 950 Euro, above the highest estimate but still cheap!

UPDATE 2: now for sale at Carlo Bonte on 21 March 2018 for 1,500 to 1,800 Euro, which seems reasonable.

UPDATE 3: apparently unsold, because again at Bonte on 26 September, but with the original estimate of 500 to 800 Euro. These things are apparently less popular than I thought.

"Italian School, 18th century" is follower of Marcellus Coffermans / Isenbrandt / Benson

Bremens Belleville, from France, sells on 19 March 2017 an "Italian School, 18th century" Virgin and Child, estimated at 800 to 1,200 Euro.

It is a late version of a purely Flemish work, originally by either Ambrosius Benson or Adriaen Isenbrant in Bruges in the early 16th century, and known from many versions of wildly varying quality. This one is far from the best, but the description is so far off that I couldn't resist writing about it anyway. I wrote previously about the same composition, the last time in September 2016.

Rosebery's, from England, sells on 29 March 2017 yet another version of this work, which at first I thought was also incorrectly described as "Follower of Marcellus Coffermans 1520-1578", estimated at £1,500 to £2,500.

Coffermans? Where did they get that idea from? Turns out that Sotheby's sold a similar work (also in an elaborate frame) in 2012 as by a "Follower of Coffermans", for which they got a nice £13,750.

So, what are the two works for sale worth? The French one is the worst of the lot, and probably the latest, and all power of the original composition has been dissolved in some sweet religious marketing colour scheme. Probably about worth the estimate, as it isn't a truly bad painting and somewhat interesting as a late example of this composition, but nothing really attractive either. The Rosebery's one is a lot better, though still a far cry from the Sotheby's version or some of the older versions shown in earlier blog posts. Still, it should be worth £2,000.

Art Detective

Art Detective is a website accompanying the great Art UK project (an online collection of every painting in a public collection in the UK). The aim is to improve the information about these works by sharing knowledge.

For example, yesterday one of the main editors posted the question "Is ‘A Tiger Hunt’ by a follower of Frans Snyders? When was it painted?"

As this is the kind of subject I often blog about, I had a go and found that at least three elements in the work are copies of or closely based on animals painted by Paul de Vos (the son in law of Frans Snyders).

Discussion isn't finished, and final attribution may still change, but this is a fun way to look at art and to give something back to the website and institutions which share lots of information and images with us. The ArtUK website was also the basis for the Hidden Masterpieces series on BBC last year, where Bendor Grosvenor (of Art History News fame) and his team unearthed paintings by a.o. Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Raphael from the vaults of collections. While a potential Paul de Vos is hardly a discovery of the same level, it still is nice to contribute in this way.

Join the fun!

HDKvE = Youth work by Hendrick Dirk Kruseman van Elten

Koller West, from Switzerland, sells on 29 March 2017 a "Holland, 19th century, dated 1848 and monogrammed HDKvE" still life, estimated at 900 to 1400 Euro.

This is a very atypical and early work by Hendrik Dirk Kruseman van Elten (with such a lengthy monogram, finding the right match isn't too hard).

Hendrik van Elten was born in 1829, making him just 19 when he painted this work. In later life, he painted nearly exclusively landscapes, and I couldn't find any other example of a still life by him. he spent most of his career in the United States. I like his etchings better than his too commercial landscapes, but he clearly possessed sufficient technical skill.

The work for sale is a very good academic work by such a young painter, and it seems a pity that he restricted himself to landscapes afterwards. His works aren't extremely valuable though, so this minor discovery won't cause much of a stir and the estimate is probably about right.

"Circle of Frans de Momper" is another Circle of Hendrick van Cleve III Tower of Babel

Schlosser, from Germany, sells on 25 March 2017 a "Circle of Frans de Momper" Tower of Babel as lot 707, estimated at 5,800 Euro.

It is a weaker copy of some works I already showed in a previous blog post, the first of which was sold at Sotheby's in 2016 for 37,500 Euro. The current work uses some of the elements on the right especially, like the arched bridge and the white mountain behind it.

Some other elements come from another Cleve III, this time from the Kroller Muller Museum. Most striking is the arched raised path on the left, with the surrounding buildings. But also the small round pavilion at the corner of the Tower reappears, somewhat to the right, in the work for sale. The Tower itself is closer to the Sotheby's version though.

The work for sale is a bit more sketchy and unfinished than many other Babel paintings, and seems to be a copy: still it is a perpetually popular subject so the estimate may well be right.

UPDATE: the same work is now for sale, on 26 June 2017, at Millon, as a Folllower of Hendrick van Cleve III, estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 Euro. Nice to see my attribution confirmed here!

UPDATE 2: and now, 25 April 2018, for sale at Bonham's as "Circle of Hendrick van Cleve III", estimated at £6,000 to £8,000, or a bit above the original estimate but way below the Millon one. Being offered for sale in Germany, France and the UK in slightly over one year: let's hope it sells now and gets some rest, as it is too good a work to remain unloved.