Sotheby’s Official Results, Sale L08040/Old Master Drawings
OMNP finds it a bit amusing that while the sale of the Goya drawings being sold over at Christie’s received a fair amount of press coverage, there was no mention of Sotheby’s sale of the Parmigianino drawing, shown above. The estimate on this lot can be chalked up to a case of “What Were They Thinking?” The drawing ended up surpassing its high estimate of £12,000 GBP around eight times over. As a London-based dealer friend of OMNP remarked, neither one of us “were the only ones thinking the same thing” in the auction room.
Overall results from this sale seem healthy-152 of 183 lots sold. Selected OMNP items, however, did not fair as well, particularly on the lower priced end. Lots 60, (Rembrandt, Standing Angel with Outstretched Arms) 71, (Nicholas Langneau, Head of an Old Woman in a Turban ) and lot 33 (Pieter Jansz. Quast. Head and Shoulder Study..) all went unsold.
While the Langneau and Quast drawings were both high quality, their respective estimates may have been a bit high for peculiar works by relatively minor names. There is a good chance that the Rembrandt work attracted tepid interest on the basis of its attribution. Attribution issues may have also played a part in the Passerotti drawing of a sea monster (lot 90) going for under its estimate. The work was attributed to, and not confirmed as a genuine work of this pioneer of the Italian Baroque.
A developing market opportunity may have been witnessed with the price results of lots 110 and 130 , by Jusepe di Ribera and Giovanni Battista Tieplo, respectively. As mentioned in OMNP’s preview, such studies are incomplete works, but they still exhibit the style of a master’s hand. Both selling prices, which landed in the middle of each estimate, proved that these are desirable works that are not yet unnattainable.
The fickleness of the small crowd of OMD collectors could be reasoned for the comparative results of two landscape drawings by Dutch artists of equal importance. A placid landscape by Jan Van Goyen (lot 51) did not attract buyers, while a trademark maritime image by Willem van de Velde (lot 9) nearly doubled its high estimate. Signature pieces did not guarantee success on the high end of the sale, either. Collectors were apparently indifferent to the prestige of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, a flag-bearer of Neoclassicism. Three Ingres portraits (lot 135, below) all went unsold, perhaps due to their generous estimates.
LOW END ($10,000 and below)
LOT 60
School of Rembrandt Van Rijn
Standing Angel with Outstretched Arms
ESTIMATE: £4,000—6,000 GBP
LOT 71
Nicolas Langneau
Active circa 1590 – 1630
Head of an Old Woman in a Turban
ESTIMATE: £ 6,000—8,000 GBP
LOT 73
Attributed to Charles Le Brun
Paris 1619 – 1690
A Standing Soldier seen from behind, and a separate study of his left leg
ESTIMATE: £7,000—9,000 GBP
LOT 90
Attributed to Bartolomeo Passarotti
Bologna 1529 – 1592
Study of a Sea Monster
ESTIMATE: £2,000—3,000 GBP
LOT 33
Pieter Jansz. Quast
Amsterdam 1605/6 – 1647
Head and Shoulder Study of a Moustachioed Man in Profile, Wearing a Tall Hat
ESTIMATE: £ 3,000—4,000 GBP
UNSOLD
MIDDLE END ($10,000-$99,000)
Lot 5
German School Mid-16th Century
A Landsknecht in Chain Mail, Seen from Behind
ESTIMATE: £ 8,000—12,000 GBP
LOT 78
Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, called Parmigianino
Parma 1503 – 1540 Casalmaggiore
RECTO: A Seated Young Woman looking to the left
VERSO: A Seated Woman Holding a Child
ESTIMATE: £ 8,000—12,000 GBP
LOT 110
Jusepe De Ribera, called Lo Spagnoletto
Játiva, Valencia 1591 – 1652 Naples
A Sheet of Studies: A Seated Roman Soldier, Another Standing and Pointing, and a Sketch of a Head
ESTIMATE: £ 7,000—9,000 GBP
LOT 130
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Venice 1696 – 1770 Madrid
A Young Man, Seen from below, Straddling a Cloud
ESTIMATE: £ 8,000—12,000 GBP
LOT 51
Jan Josefsz. Van Goyen
Leiden 1596-1656 The Hague
River Landscape with Cattle, The Village of Haeren Beyond
ESTIMATE: £15,000—20,000 GBP
LOT 9
Willem Van de Velde the Elder
Leiden 1611-1693 London
Shipping in Coastal Waters, with the States Yacht VALCK in the Foreground Preceded by a Fleet of Wijdschips
ESTIMATE: £30,000—40,000 GBP
LOT 72
Attributed to Simon Vouet
Paris 1590 – 1649
A Kneeling and Draped Figure of a Woman
ESTIMATE: £8,000—12,000 GBP
UNSOLD
HIGH END ($100,000 and up)
LOT 113
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Venice 1696 – 1770 Madrid
The Holy Family, St. Joseph Reading and Two Angels in the Background
ESTIMATE: £ 50,000—70,000 GBP
LOT 20
Sir Peter Paul Rubens
Siegen 1577 – 1640 Antwerp
Saint Lambert
ESTIMATE: £80,000—120,000 GBP
LOT 135
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Montauban 1780 – 1867 Paris
Portrait of Aristide-Laurent Dumont in Uniform, Holding an Elaborate Helmet
ESTIMATE: £100,000—150,000 GBP
UNSOLD
[...] drawing at Sotheby’s in January, recalled a similar lot that OMNP covered during Sotheby’s Old Master sales in July. Other works mentioned include a chalk study of a young woman by Federico Barocci, a beautifully [...]
[...] Left,” (see image #19) left OMNP grinning, as a possible overreaction to a previous sale result. As we reported two years ago, Sotheby’s put a paltry estimate on a beautiful Parmigianino profile … In turn, a value of 120,000 – 180,000 GBP seems a bit hefty for this piece, a drawing for a [...]