Category: Auctions
Van Dyck - or Rubens?
June 11 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
Sotheby's announced today a highlight of their forthcoming July Old Master sales. Portrait of a Carmelite Monk (oil on panel, 62.3 x 48 cm) is being hailed as a new discovery of an early work by Van Dyck. The estimate is £600-800,000.
It is an exquisite painting, and looks to be in fine condition. Colours on panel tend to last better than when on canvas, and here one senses the freshness of the painting, as if it was made only recently. One also sees how the paint has been physically worked up with layers of impasto, in an almost sculptural manner.
Traditionally, the painting has been attributed to Rubens. But Sotheby's has given it instead to Van Dyck, and dated it to c.1617-20. George Gordon, Sotheby's co-Chairman, observes:
...that while Rubens’ portraits are always formally composed, the current work, especially the way the young monk’s head is turned to one side, creates an impression of spontaneity. In addition, the brushwork in the present picture, which is painted in oil on oak panel, is clearly legible throughout most of the painting and is more reminiscent of Anthony Van Dyck when he worked in Rubens’ studio, than of his teacher. Specifically, the use of thick paint to denote highlights in the sitter’s habit is a characteristic of Van Dyck’s personal style at this date, and can be seen in a series of paintings the artist made of the Apostles.
It has become something of a fashion to re-attribute Rubens's made between c.1616-21 to Van Dyck, who was by far Ruben's best pupil. I haven't seen the painting myself, but to be honest my initial hunch from the image is that this leans more towards Rubens.
Either way, it looks like a bargain at that estimate, and will surely sell for more.
Angelica Kauffman slips through the net in NY?
June 11 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
I was interested to see that up for auction a second time in New York was this pair of portraits called 'Circle of Benjamin West.' They were offered at Sotheby's in December, with an estimate of (if I recall correctly) $30-50,000, but failed to sell.
This time they comfortably exceeded their estimate of $10-15,000 to make $28,125 (inc. premium). Despite the obvious damage in the Lady, the condition is actually pretty good. I think the new owner has something of a bargain, for they are, in my opinion, by Angelica Kauffmann (Italian period). You read it here first...
Van Dyck found
June 11 2011
Picture: Philip Mould Ltd
Breaking news! I'll post more on this later, but here is a piece appearing in tomorrow's Observer on a few discoveries a certain blogger has been involved with...
Repin it in
June 7 2011
Picture: Christie's
Forgive the rubbish pun, but yesterday Christie's set a new record for a work by Ilya Repin (1844-1930). A Parisian Cafe, 1875, had been estimated at £3-5m, and sold for £4.5m (inc. premium). The strong price is - thankfully - a sign of the continuing strength of the Russian market.
Sotheby's also sold a fine Repin yesterday, a portrait of his wife, Vera, for £1.1m. And they too set a new record for a work by the Russian artist Vasilya Vereschagin. His The Taj Mahal, Evening sold for £2.28m. It had been estimated at just £250-450,000.
From £3m to £12m to £17.5m - Watteau continues to Surprise
June 7 2011
Picture: Christie's
The government has put a temporary export bar on Watteau's La Surprise. The picture, which was an exciting new discovery when first sold at Christie's in July 2008, is priced at £17.5m, should any public galleries be interested in raising the funds to buy it.
Thought to have been lost for over 200 years, the picture was estimated by Christie's at £3-5m in 2008. It sold for £12.3m (inc. premium).
Of course, with today's non-existent acquisition budgets, you have to wonder whether the whole process is something of a charade. I'll eat my trousers if any museum raises the money to buy it - so what, really, is the point in pretending we might be able to stop the picture being exported?
Lowry self-portrait
June 6 2011
Picture: Bonhams
There's a touching self-portrait of L S Lowry coming up for sale at Bonhams. In Group of People with the Artist, 1961, Lowry is seen on the left, in profile, very clearly standing apart from the group. Says the catalogue:
[Lowry] is the only figure not physically connected on the picture plane to any of the other people. It is almost as if he has been rejected by the assemblage and is staring into a lonely abyss. This is no coincidence as it is surely symbolic of Lowry's state of mind and how viewed himself within society.
Yours for £100-150,000, on 29th June.
'Now, lot 32 - the really rubbish fake. Do I hear €500k?'
June 1 2011
Picture: Der Spiegel
German police have smashed a highly succesful forgery racket. Believed to be Germany's largest ever forgery scandal, the victims included Hollywood actor Steve Martin, and Christie's.
The above painting, 'Landscape with Horses', was sold as a genuine work by Heinrich Campendonk at Christie's in 2006 for €500,000. (I would link to it on their website, but, mysteriously, the lot has been removed). It had in fact been knocked up by Wolfgang Beltracchi, and his accomplice Otto Schulte-Kellinghaus. They had been producing high-quality fake modern and contemporary art since 2001, and possibly earlier. From Der Spiegel:
The accused allegedly attributed almost all of the forged works to artists from the first half of the 20th century, including Campendonk, Max Pechstein, Fernand Léger, Max Ernst and others. Most of the works were sold with now 60-year-old Beltracchi's story that they were part of the art collection of Cologne businessman Werner Jägers, who was the grandfather of the two female suspects in the case. Jägers was said to have bought the works from the renowned art dealer Alfred Flechtheim and hidden them on his estate in the Eifel Mountains of western Germany during the Nazi years. Schulte-Kellinghaus allegedly used a similar ruse, claiming the paintings, which were supposedly lost, originated from the collection of his grandfather, the master tailor Knops from Krefeld.
I've often heard it said that buying modern and contemporary art is a safer investment than old masters, because there are never any doubts over authenticity. But, alas, that's a load of old phooey. And it's practically impossible to fake an old master.
Sketches by Jean Francois de Troy
June 1 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
An important set of seven sketches by Jean Francois de Troy will be offered at Sotheby's in Paris later this month. Brilliantly painted, they were the artist's initial designs for a series of Gobelins tapestries. They mostly carry an estimate of EUR200-3000,000. An eighth is catalogued as 'Studio of de Troy', tho' frankly you'd be hard pushed to tell the difference.
The sketches will be sold under 'Faculte de Reunion' rules: each one will be auctioned in the normal way, but at the end the opportunity will be presented to buy the group by offering them all at the cumulative price. If nobody bids for the lot, then the previous seperate sales go ahead.
Maybe size is everything...
June 1 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
I mentioned earlier a 2 inch high miniature by Frida Kahlo, estimated by Sotheby's at a hefty £800k-£1.2m. But it turns out it didn't sell.
£5m Michelangelo drawing at Christies
June 1 2011
Picture: Christie's
Christies will offer this drawing by Michelangelo, a preparatory study for the abandoned Battle of Cascina fresco, on 5th July. The upper estimate is £5m. Lovely - but a lot of money for a fragmentary sketch.
New Lowry record
May 27 2011
L S Lowry's Football Match was sold yesterday at Christie's for £5,641,250, including buyer's premium. The estimate was £3.5-4.5m.
The previous record was set in 2007, with £3.77m paid for Good Friday, Daisy Nook.
The Churchill boom
May 27 2011
Picture: Christie's
The Beach at Walmer, painted in 1938 by Sir Winston Churchill, has sold for £313,250.
Churchill was certainly a handy painter, and in the list of history's most important figures he ranks near the top. But I wonder if his paintings are becoming a little over-priced?
I can see why, for today's market, his paintings are attractive. But when valuing art you always have to take the long view. So, one has to ask whether the fascination for all things Churcill will be as strong in, say, 100 years, or will he have been eclipsed by a new clutch of popular heroes?
Would a painting by Oliver Cromwell, or Churchill's ancestor the Duke of Marlborough, fetch such sums today? Probably not. The best indicator of value in a painting will always be the quality of the work itself - nothing else really matters.
Pablo who?
May 23 2011
Picture: China Guardian Auctions
Another record price in China seems to confirm the direction of the art market: a work by Qi Baishi (1864-1957) was sold in Beijing yesterday for $65m (or 425.m yuan). Eagle Standing on a Pine Tree, 1946, sets a new record for a modern Chinese painting.
According to Art Price, Qi's work raised $70m worldwide in 2009 - the only artists ranked higher were Warhol and Picasso.
The auction house was China Guardian Auctions.
Guff-watch
May 17 2011
Picture: Christie's
Jonathan Jones on Andy Warhol's 1963 Self-Portrait, recently sold for $38.4m:
It is beautiful – one of his best works. Its cool blue hues lure the eye amid columns of newsprint and pictures in media reports of the sale. It looks spiritual, somehow – at once a piece of popular culture and something more private. The four photos he has used show him hiding behind dark glasses and trying out different poses that all seem a bit churlish, awkward, evasive. It is a self-portrait by someone who either does not want to look at himself, or does not want to truly show himself to others. And what makes it so powerful is the self-knowing explicitness with which it communicates this diffidence and unease.
New York Old Master sales
May 17 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
The catalogues for Sotheby's and Christie's June sales are now online. Included (at Sotheby's) is this rather fine sketch by the genius Thomas Lawrence at $40-60,000.
Christie's $301m vs Sotheby's $128m
May 12 2011
Picture: Christie's
Ouch - Christie's trounced Sotheby's last night in the New York post-war and contemporary evening sales.
Bloomberg has a video about the Sotheby's sale, which they call 'tepid'. It had the lowest total for two years. Contributor Katya Kazakina said that 'the estimates were too aggressive for the quality of works Sotheby's had'.
The patchy results indicate continuing uncertainty at the top end of the contemporary market. At Christie's, some of the big ticket things went at around, or less, than the lower estimate. Warhol's 1986 self-portrait, above, made $27.5m, including premium, which means that bidding in the room didn't exceed the $30m lower estimate. On the other hand, the newly 'discovered' Rothko sold very well at $33.7m, against an estimate of $18-22m. I'd have a Rothko over a Warhol any day.
The Wall Street Journal has a good summary here, but as ever, some reading between the lines is necessary.
25% off*
May 12 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
*at least.
Jeff Koons' Pink Panther didn't live up to the hype at Sotheby's. The estimate was $20-30m, but it sold to one bidder for $16.8m with premium. This means the hammer went down at $15m. Sotheby's had an irrevocable bid going into the sale.
Still, that's a hefty price, and it was a clever move to lower the reserve by 25% - a failure to sell would have been disastrous.
Double-dip?
May 11 2011
Colin Gleadell asks if the recent faltering sales in New York signal a double dip in the art market. He concludes 'no'.
Size isn't everything
May 11 2011
Pictures: Sotheby's
A miniature by Frida Kahlo is to be sold at auction for £800k-1.2m.
A new Lowry record?
May 9 2011
Picture: Christie's
Christie's are aiming for a new record price for a painting by L S Lowry later this month. The Football Match (1949) is estimated at £3.5-4.5m. The current record is £3.7m, paid in 2007 for Good Friday, Daisy Nook.
The Football Match was bought by Lord Walston for £250 in 1951. It was sold from his estate in 1992 for £132,000. Full catalogue details here.
