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LONDON.- Christie’s inaugural Old Masters
and 19th Century Art Evening Sale realised £20,284,400 / $32,840,444 /
€23,550,188, and was 76% sold by lot and 91% sold by value. Offering
important paintings, drawings and watercolours representing nearly 700
years of European history, the sale took place in a packed
saleroom and saw 4 works sell for over £1 million. The top lots were The
Madonna and Child in a landscape with Saint Elizabeth and the infant Saint
John the Baptist by Fra Bartolommeo (1472-1517) and a masterpiece Venetian
view by Michele Marieschi (1710-1743), both of which realised £2,169,250 /
$3,512,016 / €2,518,499.
Richard Knight, International co-Head of
Old Masters and 19th century Art at Christie’s and Paul Raison, Director
and Head of Old Masters and 19th Century Art at Christie’s, London: “We
saw a deep pool of both new and established international collectors
participating in this evening’s auction, and we are pleased to have
produced strong results throughout. We are continuing to see a very strong
demand for classical paintings, drawings and watercolours and this evening
we saw a noticeable increase in new clients and cross-over buying as we
presented the first Old Masters and 19th Century Art evening sale. The
exhibition leading up to the auction was as busy as we have seen for some
years, and we were pleased to welcome both new and established private
collectors from Europe, South America and the United States, many of whom
had travelled to London for Master Paintings Week.”
 Highlights of the sale:
- The Madonna and
Child in a landscape with Saint Elizabeth and the infant Saint John the
Baptist, a signed and dated picture by the Florentine Renaissance master
Fra Bartolommeo (1472-1517) realised £2,169,250 / $3,512,016 / €2,518,499,
a world record price for the artist at auction. It was offered from the
distinguished collection of Brenda, Lady Cook having once formed a part of
the renowned Cook Collection at Doughty House, Richmond.
- A
masterpiece by Michele Marieschi (1710-1743) which was commissioned by
Field Marshal Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (1661-1747) one of
the great patrons of the 18th century, and which hung in the entrance hall
of his home in Venice, realised £2,169,250 / $3,512,016 / €2,518,499.
- Saint John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness by Pieter
Brueghel II (1564/5-1637/8) was offered at auction for the first time in
70 years from the collection of Baron Coppée and sold for £1,497,250 /
$2,424,048 / €1,738,307.
- An exquisite still life by Willem
Claesz. Heda (1594-1680) realised £1,385,250 / $2,242,720 / €1,608,275
against a pre-sale estimate of £300,000 to £500,000, setting a world
record price for the artist at auction.
- Portrait of Mrs. Oliver
St. John, later Lady Poulett by Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), an
impressive full length portrait by the great Flemish master, sold for
£881,250 / $1,426,744 / €1,023,131. The picture was formerly in the
collection of the 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609-1674), the historian,
statesman and collector whose daughter married the future King James II of
England, King James VII of Scotland. It had been unseen in public since
1929.
Further highlights included an intimate drawing by
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) of Joseph Marcotte, the son of
his close friend and patron Charles Marcotte, which was offered at auction
for the first time having passed by family descent, and which sold for
£313,250 / $507,152 / €363,683; ‘Off Yarmouth’: A Steamship off the Coast
in Rough Weather, a dynamic watercolour by J.M.W. Turner, R.A.
(1775-1851), which realised £301,250 / $487,724 / €349,751; A cornfield
with windmill and spire seen under a crescent moon by Samuel Palmer
(1805-1881) which sold for £121,250 / $196,304 / €140,771; and the
impressive Portrait of a lady with a fan by Franz-Xavier Winterhalter
(1805-1873), one of the most celebrated portraitists of the 19th century,
which realised £229,250 / $371,156 / €266,159.
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