Rare Finds from Private Collections at Christie's Old Master Paintings Sale

Sunday, 18 January 2009 21:54

 

NEW YORK, NY - Christie’s announced details of its upcoming Important Old Master Paintings and Sculpture sale on January 28, 2009. The sale of over 200 items brings together a remarkable selection of artwork from the leading masters of European art, including a number of rare, privately sourced, and historically significant items not seen on the market for decades. Highlights of the sale include an altarpiece study by Barocci, landscapes by Turner and Constable, portraits by Girodet and Van Dyck, still lifes by Chardin and van Veerendael, and an excellent selection of bronze and wooden sculpture.

Old Masters Week at Christie’s New York begins Monday, January 26, with a 6 p.m. lecture on J.M.W. Turner entitled, "Continuing Revolution: A Life in Watercolor" by Andrew Wilton, Former Curator of the Turner Collection, Tate Britain. On Tuesday, January 27 the sales begin with Part I of The Scholar’s Eye: Property from the Julius Held Collection. Important Old Master Paintings and Sculpture on January 28 is followed by Old Master and 19th Century Drawings on Thursday, January 29, and Part II of The Scholar’s Eye on Friday, January 30.

Turner and Constable
From the collection of Chicago philanthropists William and Eleanor Wood Prince, Christie's offers a group of spectacular watercolors by the great 19th century British artist J.M.W. Turner. Viewed together, the five watercolors present a cross-section of Turner’s painting career from an early Lake District view to a majestic late-career painting of the Swiss Alps. Three landscapes in the group bear the distinction of having been originally owned by John Ruskin, the Victorian-era art critic and collector who championed Turner’s distinctive style of landscape painting. The Brunig Pass from Meiringen, Switzerland (estimate: $1,500,000–2,500,000) is recognized by experts as one of the most evocative of Turner’s Swiss watercolors. Originally owned by Ruskin, The Brunig Pass has been in the Wood Prince private collection for more than 50 years.

Some of John Constable’s most iconic and beloved works were painted at the Salisbury Close home of his friend John Fisher. A View of Salisbury from the Wood Prince collection is a plein air sketch by Constable that re-creates the setting near the river Avon with lively brushwork and a rich impasto of paint (estimate: $500,000-800,000). Capturing the fleeting effects of light and weather was Constable’s constant ambition, and in this sketch he achieves maximum effect, capturing a dramatic sunburst breaking through cloud cover with just a few rapid, brilliant strokes.

Barocci’s Head of Saint John the Evangelist
A thrilling recent discovery from a private collection, Head of Saint John the Evangelist is a full-scale study in oil on paper by the 16th century Italian painter Federico Barocci. The study is believed to be a fully-realized modello, a last step in Barocci’s preparatory process before he began painting his Senigallia altarpiece, The Entombment of Christ. Inspired by Raphael’s original composition for The Entombment, Barocci portrays Saint John as a beautiful youth with gorgeous flowing locks (estimate: $400,000-600,000). The other known full-size version of Head of Saint John is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Remarkable Portraiture
A significant portrait included in the sale is a striking full-length depiction of Anne Cavendish, Lady Rich by Sir Anthony Van Dyck (estimate: $500,000-700,000). Executed by the painter at his creative peak during the years 1635 to 1639, the picture has a remarkable early history, having been commissioned or purchased by Philip, 4th Baron Wharton, whose collection of royal portraits was renowned. Among its later owners was Sir Robert Walpole, Prime Minister (1721-42).

Still Life Masterpiece
An exceptional still life by Jean Siméon Chardin (Paris 1699-1779), Still Life with a copper pot, a pitcher, fish, a glass, two nuts and an onion, rejects the traditional lavishness of still life composition in favor of a spare setting suggestive of a simple stone kitchen. It is among the earliest works by Chardin in which he deployed the quotidian household utensils that would become characteristic of his later kitchen still lifes. Despite the apparent casualness of this depiction of mundane elements – a copper cauldron, an earthenware pitcher, two perch waiting to be gutted – Chardin has in fact arranged them with great artistry into an eloquent composition of unexpected monumentality (estimate: $1,200,000-1,800,000 ).

Sculpture Highlights
From the collection of Professor and Mrs. Clifford Truesdell of Baltimore comes Saturn Devouring One of His Sons, a late-Baroque bronze after Pietro Francavilla that is both gorgeous and terrible in form. Despite its apparent narrative of infanticide and cannibalism, the composition was intended as an embodiment of winter, the season of destruction and renewal. Only three other versions of the Saturn model are known to exist, including one in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The Truesdell version – acquired in the 1960’s for the couple’s private collection – bears the distinction of having once been owned by Queen Marie of Romania, and later Prince Nicholas (estimate: $700,000-900,000).

Visit Christie's at : http://www.christies.com/

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