$78.8m in New York and a John Vanderbank in Wolverhampton
May 23 2025
Picture: Wolverhampton Art Gallery via. ArtUK
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This was quite a week for the sale of Old Master Paintings. Totting up the recent four big sales in New York shows that $78.86m of art was sold during the past five days. Although less than forecasts had projected, this is still a rather colossal amount for a period which is usually considered 'mid-season' (not to mention the breaking of several artist records also). With lots of exciting announcements made for the July season in London, and surely many more to come, will 2025 be a record year for our small corner of the art world?
In less significant news, I've had the pleasure to spend quite a bit of time in the early-eighteenth century recently (for reasons I'll explain another time). One of the accidental 'finds' on my journey has been this beautifully painted head study by John Vanderbank (1694-1739). The Wolverhampton Art Gallery, where the picture has been since 1887, had catalogued it as by 'an unknown artist'. Vanderbank's vigorous brushwork, which he may have picked up whilst studying at Kneller's academy, is very distinctive along with the rather pointy face pattern he uses. It's quite possible this is a preliminary study for the full-length portrait of James, 2nd Duke of Hamilton, dated 1732, which was sold from Hamilton Palace in 1919 (2). An example, perhaps, that some artists really couldn't rise to the challenge of scaling up sometimes.
Wishing readers of AHN a very good weekend ahead.
