Best wishes for 2018

My best wishes for 2018, may it bring us many gems at auction!

2017 was again a good year for me and my blog. No truly spectacular finds, but many nice works, and many fine contacts with fellow art lovers.

I ended the year with one discovery on Twitter which didn't make it to my blog yet (I often post things on one but not the other, depending on the time I have and what I have to say about the paintings).

In a small French auction, I noticed a very nice but damaged painting of Saint Jerome estimated at only 1500 Euro, which sold for 10,500 Euro instead. Sleuthing by some Twitterati revealed it to be a work by Gerrit Honthorst (and not some copy after a French artist, as the auction house thought), which was so far only known through a copy in Italy. It seems likely that it will appear in a major auction house (after restoration) pretty soon, with a much higher estimate!

2018 for me starts with a book I found cheap now at auction at the Kolbe & Fanning auction of numismatic books (a niche, but an expensive one, and this is the most important auction of the genre), which is nice. 500 lots, estimated between $150 and $20,000! Mine is somewhere inbetween ;-) and may give me some money to spend on art instead.

The blog passed the 100,000 pageviews in total last year, and has a rather steady readership, thanks! I may try to list the countries which visit it this year, people come from all over the world, so art truly is a global language and love.

UPDATE; sold later in 2018 as an "attributed to Trophime Bigot" for 14300 Euro. 

Almost bought an unknown Rubens' drawing

Marquis-Olivier, from France, sells on 16 December 2017 a "Flemish School, 17th century" drawing (sanguine) of "Angels adoring the Virgin", estimated at 200€ (they first offered it a month ago with a 400€ estimate, but I guess it didn't sell then).

At first, I was very excited about this drawing, as it looked like a work by Rubens, a sketch for his Vallicella Madonna (of which different versions exist).

The drawing is similar enough to be clearly about the same work, but different enough not to be a copy after it but some design for it.

The quality of the drawing was good (though not superb), and the style was typical for Rubens' in his Italian period.

Luckily I contacted someone who knows a lot more about Rubens. At first they were enthusiastic (but realistic), and agreed that this could well be an unknown and unrecognised drawing by Rubens.

But just days before the sale, they came back with bad news: it is almost certainly a copy after all, not after a painting, but after an authentic drawing by Rubens kept in the Albertina in Vienna. That drawing is nearly identical to the one for sale, but better in its execution. They may still be two versions of the same design, with perhaps the one for sale slightly earlier, but the more likely explanation is that the one for sale is a copy after the one in the Albertina (perhaps at best a workshop copy from Rubens' time). So in the end we decided, with some regrets, not to go for it.

And that's how I almost bought an unknown Rubens' drawing!

Old "Attributed to Simone Martini" is copy after Master of the Gold Brocade

Allgäuer, from Germany, sells on 11 January 2018 as lot 1989 a "Painter of the 19th / 20th century" Maria Lactans, estimated at 100 Euro. They indicate that it has an old attribution to Simone Martini.

It actually is a copy after the Master of the Gold Brocade, a composition I discussed at some length in a post from May 2017. The version for sale is probably later (as indicated by the auction house) and in any case definitely not by the Master of the Gold Brocade; but even so it is a very cheap copy (if you exclude shipping costs and the like when you're not based in Germany). If it would turn out to be 16th century, it would of course be worth closer to 5,000 Euro, but without provenance and seeing only the front of the painting in a photo, this is for me impossible to be certain about.

This composition is of course very closely related to the one by the Master of the Magdalen Legend I discussed last week; the main differences are the background, the clothing of the child, and the position of the hands. In every original by the Master of the Gold Brocade, this background brocade is symmetrical left-right, but in this version it is more some loose decoration, again indicating that it isn't an original.

The auction also has a decent and cheap copy after Van Dyck: lot 1997, a work of nearly a square meter. 300 Euro is a bargain for this.

UPDATE: the Master of the Gold Brocade, estimated then at 100 Euro, is now (19 April 2018) for sale at Christie's New York with an estimate of $6,000 to $8,000, described as "South Netherlandish School, last quarter of the 15th century". Good work by whoever bought this!

UPDATE 2: and it sold for a whopping $21,000, or 200 times the estimate it had 3 months earlier!

Wise and Foolish Virgins

Accademia Fine Art, from Monaco, sells on 17 December 2017 an "Attributed to Frans Francken" scene of merrymaking, estimated at 7,000 to 9,000 Euro.

The scene is the Parable of the 5 Wise and the 5 Foolish Virgins, which was quite popular in the 17th century in Flanders and is known from a few recurring compositions (see e.g. my post from April 2015).

This one can indeed be situated with the Franckens, although one sold at Christie's in 2009 was attributed to Pieter Lisaert, according to the RKD. That one fetched $25,000. The main difference, apart from the quality and condition, seems to be the castle scene on the upper right, where the foolish virgins are drinking wine. Daring! The dimensions are nearly identical though (72 by 105 vs. 73 by 104)

Another version is attributed to Francken.

The copy for sale is rather weak and definitely not made by Francken himself, and the estimate seems rather steep. Getting 3,000 to 4,000 for it would be a very good result.

UPDATE: not sold, again for sale on 31 January 2018 (now as a Frans Francken II, not "attributed to"!) with an estimate of 3,200 to 3,800 Euro, which is more realistic but still optimistic.

A nice Flemish drawing at the same auction (which had already been offered last year, if my memory doesn't deceive me), is actually a copy after Gerard Seghers (engraving by Paulus Pontius). The 320 Euro estimate certainly isn't excessive, but don't expect to buy an original design by a master...

"Flemish, 18th century" is probably Dutch, 17th century

Gallerias Arno, from Italy, sells on 13 December 2017 an "18th century Flemish Master" nocturnal village kermesse, estimated at 1,200 Euro.

It isn't really a kermesse (a village feast) but a typical "help, my village is burning" painting. It is also not Flemish, but Dutch, and not 18th century, but first half of the 17th century.

It is the work of or after Pieter de Bloot (1601-1658), and the RKD has a very similar work (but in much better condition) which was sold at Sotheby's in 1958 and 1994, with nearly the same dimensions.

At best, the work for sale needs cleaning to reveal actual de Bloot quality, and the estimate is a relative bargain; at worst, it is a poorer copy where the estimate is the most it will fetch.

"Spinning virgin revisited"

Badisches Auktionshaus, from Germany, sells on 13 December 2017 a "16th / 17th century" Mary with spindle, estimated at 800 Euro.

It immediately reminded me of one of my early blog posts from March 2015, on the "Virgin child spinning", a theme which is popular in so-called Cuzco painting. The painting then was a lot better than the one now (although this one is charming and not too amateuristic, which is often a plague with Cuzco paintings), but then again the estimate was 10,000 Euro, not 800 Euro.

Searching for more information on the one for sale now led me by a happy coincidence to more information on the painting I discussed back then.

I knew that it was sold at the previous auction, but not for how much. The new owner is Robert Simon Fine Art, a major Old Master dealer from New York City.

They have been able to attribute the painting to Juan Simon Gutierrez (1643-1718), and they describe it as "the earliest and most elaborate depiction of the Child Virgin Spinning theme." They also claim that the version in the Prado (which I also discussed in that earlier blog post) is also by Gutierrez. No indication of the current price, but it may be considerable...

They also seem to carry other paintings I discussed, e.g. this one.

The one for sale in Baden is probably a lot more recent than the description thinks, I would guess it is late 18th or 19th century. The value is probably about right. 

UPDATE: The Robert Simon version was sold by them by 2020, no idea of the price, they seemed to be pretty proud of it so I guess it wasn't cheap.   

"Master of the Loire Valley" is Master of the Magdalen Legend

Hampel, from Germany, sells on 7 December 2017 a "Second half of the 15th Century French Master, probably a Master of the Loire Valley" Virgin and Child, estimated at 15,000 to 25,000 Euro.

The composition is a version of a work by the Master of the Magdalen Legend: the position of the child, the way the breast is held, and the jewel on the forehead of the Virgin. The main difference is the thickness and darkness of the shadows, creating a much heavier (and somewhat later) effect than the usual versions by the Master of the Magdalen Legend.

One version (attributed to the Workshop) was sold at Sotheby's in 2013 for $46,000.

Another version was sold again at Sotheby's, in 2010, for $134,000.

Other versions can be found according to the RKD at the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp, on the art market in Berlin, ... Some have a background, most are on a gold ground; most are rounded at the top, some are squared, some are tondos.

This particular version is either the same as or very, very close to one sold by Sotheby's to art dealer Wildenstein in 1948, and was by Friedländer attributed to the Master of the Magdalen Legend (information and image from the RKD). Most telling is the background: it has the same lighter stripe horizontally at the height of the jewel, and the same lighter on the top left and top middle (other lighter patches in the black and white photographs are due to the RKD watermark, the main disadvantage of using pictures from the RKD).

Even though this is one of the most common 15th century Flemish works, and the Master of the Magdalen Legend is a poor man's Hans Memling, it still is a very good and rare example of true Early Netherlandish Painting; and with a provenance going back to at least 1948 (plus the chance that Sotheby's or their 1948 catalogue will have more information), and an attribution by Friedländer himself (he isn't infallible, but he remains the greatest art historian for this period), you can't go wrong at the estimate, and this can easily fetch 50,000 Euro.

UPDATE: sold for 120,000 Euro, more than even I expected!