OMNP Auction Week Review: Christie’s London OMP and British Pictures Sales

OMNP reviews the outcome of Christie’s London Old Master’s sales last week. Newslinks are above, click MORE at the bottom for full analysis of the sale along with a breakdown of the selected lots from last week’s OMNP preview.

As Souren Melikian noted, this sale exemplified the temperament of a market that is buoyed by the sales of top lots. While the overall outcome of the sale produced satisfactory totals for Christies, over a third of the pictures failed to sell. Top lots, conversely, went for astronomical sums-as trophy pieces for collectors become all the more rarer.

This aspect may have played a part in the price paid for the Watteau painting. What made this work so expensive was not only that it was rare, but that it was being touted as a lost treasure. Its existence had been known about for years, based on the fact that a copy of the painting had existed for years in Buckingham palace. It was not found, however, until very recently, when it turned up in a dusty corner of an English country house during a Christie’s estate valuation.

Other lots that performed well were Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s “The Bad Shepherd,” (lot 38) and Anthony Van Dyck’s “A Rearing Stallion” (lot 44.) The Breughel piece was boosted by its reappearance to the market after a long absence (the last time it had been sold was in 1938), and its modern, surrealist aesthetics. According to Christie’s, the picture was sold for £2.5 million pounds to a contemporary collector, £1 million over its high pre-sale estimate. Another scene by attributed to Breughel the Younger, (lot 37) however, failed to sell.

It is beyond OMNP’s understanding for why the Van Dyck work did so well, other than the fact that it gained attention after being recently reattributed to the master. Such buying rationale, however, did not extend to works by other established names-such as lots 35, 27, and 25; by Pieter de Hooch, Jusepe di Ribera, and Guido Reni respectively. As mentioned in OMNP’s preview of the sale, these works carried trademark motifs, modest estimates, and contemporary appeal. Yet all of these lots went unsold.

Melikian also mentioned the purchase of an unrestored harbor view by Dutch maritime painter, Lieve Verschuier (lot 14) . The purchase, made by veteran dealer Johnny Van Haeften, was of note to OMNP because it underscored a practice common amongst Old Masters connoisseurs. Dirty pictures are bought up, properly restored, and then put back on the market for a tidy profit.

LOW END ($10,000 USD and below)

LOT 167

French School, c.1810
Portrait of a boy, bust-length, in a black coat with a white cravat
oil on canvas
19¾ x 17 in. (50.2 x 43.2 cm.)

ESTIMATE:

£3,000 – £5,000

($5,900 – $9,800)

UNSOLD

LOT 186

Follower of Francisco de Goya
Portrait of King Charles IV of Spain (1788-1808), half-length, wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece
oil on canvas, oval
40 x 31 in. (101.6 x 78.8 cm.)

ESTIMATE:

£3,000 – £5,000

($5,900 – $9,800)

UNSOLD

MIDDLE END ($10,000-$99,000 USD)

LOT 72

Circle of Giovanni Bellini ((?1431/6-1516 Venice)
The Madonna and Child
oil on panel
26¾ x 21¼ in. (68 x 54 cm.)

ESTIMATE:

£8,000 – £12,000

($16,000 – $23,000)

FINAL PRICE: £19,375 ($38,343)

LOT 3

Attributed to Hendrick van Cleve III (Antwerp c.1525-1590/1595)
The Tower of Babel
oil on panel
19¾ x 28 1/8 in. (50.2 x 71.4 cm.)

ESTIMATE:

£6,000 – £8,000

($12,000 – $16,000)

ESTIMATE: £6,250 ($12,369)

UNSOLD

LOT 1

Circle of Jan Breughel II (Antwerp 1601-1678)
The Bird Trap
oil on panel, stamped on the reverse with the coat-of-arms of the city of Antwerp and the maker’s mark of Guilliam Gabron (active Antwerp 1609-1662)
17¾ x 25 in. (45.2 x 63.5 cm.)

ESTIMATE:

£10,000 – £15,000

($20,000 – $29,000

FINAL PRICE: £78,050 ($154,461)

HIGH END ($100,000 USD and up)

LOT 7

Lavinia Fontana (Bologna 1552-1614 Rome)
Portrait of a lady, half-length, in an embroidered gown and white collar, with a dog
oil on canvas, unframed
35¼ x 24 3/8 in. (89.5 x 61.9 cm.)

FINAL PRICE: £157,250 ($310,254)

LOT 35

Pieter de Hooch (Rotterdam 1629-1684 Amsterdam)
A lady nursing a child in an interior
oil on canvas, shaped
20 3/8 x 23 7/8 in (51.8 x 60.7 cm.)

ESTIMATE:

£200,000 – £300,000

($394,600 – $591,900)

UNSOLD

LOT 27

Jusepe de Ribera, lo Spagnoletto (Játiva, Valencia 1591-1652 Naples)
Saint Paul the Hermit
oil on canvas
44¼ x 37 7/8 in. (102.4 x 96.3 cm.)

ESTIMATE:

£100,000 – £150,000

($197,300 – $295,950)

UNSOLD

LOT 34

Adriaen Jansz. van Ostade (Haarlem 1610-1685)
An interior with two boors and a woman conversing, smoking and drinking at a table
oil on panel
17½ x 14½ in. (45 x 36.9 cm.)

ESTIMATE:

£100,000 – £150,000

($197,300 – $295,950)

UNSOLD

LOT 15

Jan Josefsz. van Goyen (Leiden 1596-1656 The Hague)
A winter landscape with figures desporting on the ice by Schloss Montfoort
signed and dated ‘VGOYEN 1634′ (lower left)
oil on panel
22 x 36 in. (55.9 x 91.5 cm.)

FINAL PRICE: £217,250 ($428,635)

LOT 25

Guido Reni (Bologna 1575-1642)
The Penitent Magdalen
oil on canvas
33¼ x 28¾ in. (84.5 x 73 cm.)

ESTIMATE:

£250,000 – £350,000

($493,250 – $690,550)

UNSOLD

LOT 47

Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. (Bristol 1769-1830 London)
Portrait of Frederick William Stewart, 4th Marquess of Londonderry, K.P., M.P. (1805-1872), when a boy, half-length, in a red coat, in a feigned oval
oil on canvas
30 x 24½ in. (76.2 x 62.2 cm.)

FINAL PRICE: £657,250 ($1,296,755)

LOT 37

Attributed to Pieter Brueghel II (Brussels 1564/5-1637/8 Antwerp)
The wedding procession
oil on canvas
61 x 100¾ in. (155 x 256 cm.)

ESTIMATE:

£200,000 – £300,000

($394,600 – $591,900)

UNSOLD

LOT 45

George Stubbs, A.R.A. (Liverpool 1724-1806 London)
Antinoüs, a chestnut racehorse, in a landscape
signed ‘Geo: Stubbs pinxit’ (lower right) and inscribed ‘Antinous’ (lower right, below the horse)
oil on canvas
24 x 27 5/8 in. (61 x 70.2 cm.)

FINAL PRICE: £337,250 ($665,395)

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OMNP’s 2008 Year in Review | OMNP says:

01/15/2009 at 4:00 am

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