NYC23414 Old Masters and 19th Century Paintings

OLD MASTERS AND 19TH CENTURY PAINTINGS N E W YO R K

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2 1 M AY 2 0 2 5

OL D M AS TE RS AN D 19 T H CEN TU RY PAI N T I NGS

AUCTION Wednesday 21 May 2025 at 2.00pm (Lots 101-237) 20 Rockefeller Plaza | New York, New York, 10020

VIEWING Saturday, 17 May 10.00am–5.00pm Sunday, 18 May 1.00pm–5.00pm Monday, 19 May 10.00am–5.00pm Tuesday, 20 May 10.00am–5.00pm Wednesday, 21 May 10.00am–2.00pm For further information regarding view dates and times, please visit christies.com or contact: info@christies.com | +1 212 636 2000

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HEAD OF DEPARTMENT

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Jennifer Wright

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POST-SALE COORDINATOR

Taylor Alessio

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FURTHER INFORMATION The sale of each lot is subject to the Conditions of Sale, Important Notices and Explanation of Cataloguing Practice which are set out online, with other important sale information at christies.com. Please see Conditions of Sale at christies.com for full descriptions of symbols used in this publication.

PROPERTY FROM AN ESTATE

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CIRCLE OF LUCAS CRANACH I (KRONACH 1472-1553 WEIMAR)

Portrait of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1519-1588), bust-length, in a gold-trimmed black robe, and velvet cap with a badge oil and gold on panel, arched top 18 x 14 in. (45.7 x 35.5 cm.) $50,000-70,000

£38,000-53,000 €45,000-62,000

PROVENANCE:

(Possibly) Albert Joliet, Dijon, by 1899.

Anonymous sale; Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 28 January 1953, lot 22, as Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Anonymous sale; Kunsthaus Lempertz, Cologne, 5-12 November 1956, lot 24, as Lucas Cranach the Elder. with French & Co., New York, likely where acquired by the following, Guillermo Butler Sherwell (1899-1963), New York; Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 11-12 October 1963, lot 314, as Lucas Cranach the Elder, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

(Possibly) Dresden, Gemäldegalerie, Cranach-Austellung, 1899, no. 124, as Cranach?, noting the remains of an inscription.

Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum, A group of paintings

by Lucas Cranach the Elder, in memory of Erwin Panofsky, 16 March-13 April 1969, no. 5, as Lucas Cranach the Elder and dated circa 1550.

LITERATURE:

M.J. Friedländer, Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach, Berlin, 1932, p. 80, under no. 279, as a later copy.

'The Sale-Room', Apollo, December 1963, p. 515, illustrated, as Lucas Cranach the Elder, dated circa 1550.

M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, Ithaca, 1979, p. 137, no. 345, as a later copy.

This portrait of Charles V, arguably the most powerful ruler of his time and one of the most significant figures in early modern history, depicts the emperor bust-length against a rich green background. Heir to the great Burgundian territories of the fifteenth century, inherited through his paternal grandmother, Mary of Burgundy; to the Kingdom of Spain, through his father, Philip the Fair; and to the Holy Roman Empire, through his grandfather, Maximillian I of Hapsburg, Charles ruled over extensive and prosperous territories across Europe. The emperor here is instantly recognizable thanks to his extraordinarily pronounced jaw, which according to some contemporary accounts protruded to such an extent that it was impossible for him to fully close his mouth. Around his neck he wears the emblem of the Order of the Golden Fleece, which hangs from a wide

necklace decorated with the Burgundian flint and sparks, an emblem which had been adopted during the Armagnac Civil War (1407-1419) and likewise appears on his hat badge.

Since its discovery in the late 19th century, this portrait has consistently been associated with Lucas Cranach the Elder. Max J. Friedländer and Jakob Rosenberg cited it in their 1932 catalogue raisonné (loc. cit.) under their entry for the version in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, which is signed with Cranach’s serpent device and dated 1533, describing it as a later copy. Notably, when the work sold at Parke Bernet in 1953, the auction catalogue stated that it was accompanied by a certificate by Friedländer, `written in Holland in 1948…in it he states that this portrait is, in his opinion, after careful study, a characteristic and well-preserved work by the master dating from about 1550’ (see Provenance). The panel, which at some stage was cut along the upper edge, modifying its original corners into its present, arched top, appears to be beech, and is reinforced on the reverse with horizontal fibers, conforming to a practice often employed by Lucas Cranach and his workshop. Yet the technique, while highly refined, particularly in the subtle modeling of the face, does not perfectly conform to that of the master. Working from photographs in 2012, Dieter Koepplin suggested that the painting was `most probably not by Cranach'.

Lucas Cranach is documented to have painted his first portrait of Charles V in 1508, during a trip to the Netherlands. Now lost, that portrait showed the future emperor at age 8, when he was Archduke at the court of Margaret of Austria. Cranach met the emperor a second time years later, after the Elector John Frederick of Saxony was captured at the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547, when the artist participated in negotiations for his patron’s release.

While the present portrait and the 1533 portrait of Charles V in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza are compositionally similar enough to suggest a common source, their precise relationship remains unclear. If Charles V did not sit for Cranach in 1533, and there is no documentary evidence to support such an interaction, then the possibility that for his Madrid painting, he was using a yet-undiscovered prototype, possibly of Flemish origin, must be considered.

The question of the present painting’s relationship to that source remains unresolved.

We are grateful to Bodo Brinkmann, Joshua Waterman and Gunnar Heidenreich for their assistance in researching this painting.

PROPERTY FROM THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

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ATTRIBUTED TO ADRIAEN BROUWER (OUDENAARDE 1605/61638 ANTWERP)

Peasants carousing in a tavern oil on panel 13 x 19Ω in. (33 x 49.5 cm.) $20,000-30,000

£16,000-23,000 €18,000-26,000

PROVENANCE:

(Probably) acquired in 1790 by Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston (1739-1802), Broadlands, Hampshire, and by descent to, Wilfred William Ashley, Baron Mount Temple (1867-1939), Broadlands, Hampshire, and by descent to his daughter, Edwina Cynthia Annette Mountbatten, Vicereine of India, and later Countess of Burma (1901-1960), Broadlands, Hampshire.

(Probably) with Captain Ernest Vivian Joseph, by 1949, and by whom sold on behalf of 17th Century Masters, Ltd., London, to the following, with W.E. Duits, London, where acquired for £5,000 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, on 13 December 1956.

LITERATURE:

'Notable Works of Art Now on the Market,' The Burlington Magazine, December 1953, pl. XV, as Adriaen Brouwer.

'Accessions of American and Canadian Museums: OctoberDecember 1956,' Art Quarterly, Spring 1957, p. 94.

Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Autumn 1958, p. 105, illustrated.

G. Knuttel, Adriaen Brouwer: The Master and His Work, The Hague, 1962, pp. 58-59 and 185, no. 33, illustrated, as 'a studio repetition after Brouwer, possibly with his cooperation'.

J. Spear, The Fine Arts Cookbook II, Boston, 1981, p.58, illustrated.

J. Edwards, Expert et marchand de tableaux à la fin de XVIIIe siècle Alexandre-Joseph Paillet, Paris, 1984, p. 256, no. 7.

A.R. Murphy, European Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue, Boston, 1985, p. 40, illustrated, as Adriaen Brouwer.

J. Welu and P. Biesboer, Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and her World, Zwolle, 1993, pp. 329-330, fig. 36d.

M. Adelman, Getting High: The Seventeenth Century Tavern Scenes of Adriaen Brouwer, unpublished M.A. Thesis, Temple University, 2000, p. 35, fig. 12, as Adriaen Brower.

D. Carr and C. Hartley, 'The Netherlands and Scandinavia,' A New World: Art of the Americas, Boston, 2010, pp. 225-226 and 330, illustrated, as Adriaen Brouwer.

Adriaen Brouwer's paintings are rare, with only about sixty securely attributed works known today, most of which depict peasants in taverns or kitchens. Brouwer's particular flair for capturing the comedy and color of everyday life was recognized by his fellow painters. Both Sir Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt van Rijn, for example, owned paintings by him. Here, merry-makers in a humble kitchen raise their tankard, prepare tobacco and blow smoke through their noses.

Two additional versions of the present composition are known, one in a private collection in Berlin (sold Koller, Zurich, 22 March 2024, lot 3040), and another formerly in the collection of S. von Schidlowski, St. Petersburg. Gerard Knuttel considered all three to be copies after an untraced prime, with the present example potentially including the master's participation (loc. cit.).

Dendrochronological examination of the single-board panel undertaken by Peter Klein on 23 May 2014 on behalf of the museum shows 256 growth rings, including 12 sapwood rings, with an earliest felling date of 1636, when Brouwer was still active.

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE

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MASTER OF THE BOB JONES UNIVERSITY ADORATION (ACTIVE BRUSSELS 16TH CENTURY)

A triptych, central panel: The Adoration of the Magi; the wings: The Nativity; and The Rest on the Flight into Egypt oil on panel, with the wings in engaged frames 41√ x 54æ in. (106.5 x 139 cm.), with the wings extended $80,000-120,000

£61,000-90,000 €71,000-110,000

PROVENANCE:

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (1920-1993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in 1965 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

LITERATURE:

G. Marlier, La Renaissance flamande: Pierre Coeck d'Alost, Brussels, 1966, pp. 411414, fig. a378.

Georges Marlier compiles the oeuvres of a number of unidentified artists working in and around the workshop of Pieter Coecke van Aelst in the appendix to his 1966 monograph on the influential Flemish master. He identifies half a dozen paintings by the anonymous hand he names after a triptych housed in the collection of Bob Jones University, Greenville (loc. cit., p. 412, fig. 377), including the present work. Another highly comparable triptych attributed to the Master was sold at Koller, Geneva (23 March 2008, lot 3007). All three works share the same three scenes from the early life of Christ: The Nativity, The Adoration of the Magi, and The Flight into Egypt, with only slight changes in the distant landscapes, ruins, and the positions and clothing of the figures. A fourth triptych in the Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota (inv. no. SN203), has a similar central panel with wings depicting The Passion of Christ, and preserved outer wings featuring The Annunciation painted in grisaille.

The Master, clearly influenced by the prevailing Antwerp Mannerist style, combines Flemish naturalism with exuberant decorative details. Here, the artist delights in describing the exotic dress of the three magi, marble columns, distant mountains, and the curls of the Virgin’s golden hair. The Adoration of the Magi was a particularly favored subject among Antwerp painters of the period, likely because the theme of travelers from distant lands bringing luxurious gifts would have resonated with the merchants and traders — who themselves formed the city’s largest group of patrons. Interest in the Magi within the urban mercantile elite appears to have been so strong that the traditional names of the three kings — Balthasar, Casper and Melchior — were frequently found in Antwerp merchant families.

THE COLLECTION OF ANNE H. BASS

LITERATURE:

104 LEARN MORE

ANTOINE CARON (BEAUVAIS 1521-1599 PARIS)

Le Triomphe de l’Hiver (The Triumph of Winter) oil on canvas 41 x 71º in. (104.2 x 181 cm.) $300,000-500,000

£230,000-380,000 €270,000-440,000

PROVENANCE:

Alexandre Olivier (1568-1607), Paris, and by descent to his widow, Marguerite Olivier, neé de Héry, and by whom sold in 1612 to her son, Aubin Olivier (d. 1620), Paris, and by descent to his sons, Alexandre Olivier (b. 1614) and Aubin Olivier (b. 1615).

Simon de Vaulx, by 1651.

René Holtzer, by 1938.

Private collection, Paris.

Gustave Lebel (1870-1945), Paris, by 1939, and by descent to his son-in-law, Jean Ehrmann (1902-1984), Paris.

Anonymous sale, Mess. Couturier, Nicolay, Daussy & Ricqles, Drouot Richelieu, Paris, 15 December 1992, lot 49. with Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York, by 1993.

EXHIBITED:

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Het Franse Landschap van Poussin tot Cézanne, 18 March-4 June 1951, no. 9.

Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries, Le Cabinet de L’Amateur, February-April 1956, no. 23.

Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Fem Sekler Fransk Konst, 15 August-9 September 1958, no. 28.

Bordeaux, Musée de Bordeaux, La découverte de la lumière des Primitifs aux Impressionnistes, 20 May-31 July 1959, no. 13.

Paris, Institute Pédagogique National, La vie théâtrale au temps de la Renaissance, March-May 1963, no. 118.

Fort Worth, Fort Worth Art Center, and Austin, University of Texas Art Museum, The School of Fontainebleau, 15 September-5 December 1965.

Paris, Grand Palais, L’École de Fontainebleau, Paris, 17 October 1972-15 January 1973, no. 35.

G. Lebel, ‘Nouvelles précisions sur Antoine Caron’, L’amour de l’Art, XIX, Paris, 1938, pp. 278 and 280, fig. 15.

G. Lebel, ‘Séance du 8 Juin’, Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de France, 1938, p. 160, 274, and 279.

G. Lebel, ‘Notes sur Antoine Caron et son Oeuvre’, Bulletin de la Société d’histoire de l’Art Français, 1940, p. 25-28 and 31, illustrated.

R. Rosenblum, ‘The Paintings of Antoine Caron’, Marsyas, VI, 1950-1953, pp. 6-7, pl. III, fig. 1.

A. Blunt, Art and Architecture in France 1500-1700, London and Baltimore, 1953, p. 108, note 62.

J. Ehrmann, Antoine Caron. Peintre à la Cour de Valois, Paris, 1955, pp. 8, 13, 22 and 44, pl. II. G. Wildenstein, ‘Inventaire des tableaux de Simon de Vaulx (1651)’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, XLIX, February 1957, p. 112, under no. 49.

R. Huyghe ed., Larousse Encylopedia of Renaissance and Baroque Art, New York, 1964, p. 169, fig. 374.

F. Würtenberger, Der Manierismus, Vienna and Munich, 1962, pp. 227 and 235, illustrated; English edition, New York, 1963, pp.

227 and 235, illustrated.

A. Châtelet and J. Thuillier, French Painting. From Fouquet to Poussin, I, Geneva, 1963, p. 142, illustrated; 1992 edition, p. 122, illustrated.

A. P. de Mirimonde, ‘Les Allégories de la Musique II. Le Retour de Mercure et les allégories des beaux-arts’, Gazette des BeauxArts, June 1969, p. 341, fig. 1 (detail).

M. Brion, Antoine Caron. Les Muses, December 1970, p. 1253, illustrated.

J. Ehrmann, ‘Artistes franco-flamands de l’École de Fontainebleau et actes notariaux sur la famille d’Antoine Caron’, Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art Français, 1972, pp. 74 and 76-77.

J. Ehrmann, L’École de Fontainebleau, 1972, p. 35, no. 35, illustrated, pl. 35.

J. Ehrmann, Antoine Caron: Peintre des Fêtes et des Masques, Paris, 1986, p. 107.

F. A. Yates, The French Academy of the Sixteenth Century, New York, 1986, p. 212.

Advertisement, La Gazette Drouot, 4 December 1992, p. 30, illustrated.

Drouot Annuaire 1993, Paris, 1993, pp. 10-11, illustrated.

E. Leutrat, ‘De Fontainebleau à Paris: Les Saisons d’Antoine Caron. Images du Temps, du Roi et des Arts pour un médailleur’, Peindre en France à la Renaissance II .

Fontainebleau et son rayonnement, Geneva, 2012, pp. 63-73, fig. 34.

F. Hueber, Antoine Caron, peintre de ville, pientre de cour, 15211599, Tours and Rennes, 2018, pp. 106-113 and 268, no. 12.1.

M. Gianeselli ed., Antoine Caron, 1521-1599. Le théâtre de l’histoire, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2023, pp. 29, 100, 210 and 213.

This large, highly refined and brilliantly colored Allegory of Winter is among the comparatively few easel paintings from the School of Fontainebleau that can be confidently ascribed to an identified artist. One of a set of four paintings depicting the Triumphs of the Seasons, it is a mature work dating from between 1570-1580 by Antoine Caron, and displays the festival atmosphere, stage-like architectural and landscape setting, and lively parade of small, elongated and nervously rendered mythological figures that characterize most of the artist’s surviving paintings.

Born in Beauvais in 1521, Antoine Caron (d. 1599) was an illustrator, tapestry designer, prolific draftsman, master glassmaker and painter. He began his career in his teens making frescos for local churches and designing cartoons for stained-glass windows, but received his real training at Fontainebleau, where he worked throughout the 1540s and ‘50s beside Niccolo dell’Abbate, executing frescos for the royal chateau under the direction of Primaticcio. From this apprenticeship, Caron developed an essentially Italianate style (with Flemish flourishes) characterized by the gaiety of his coloring, and he specialized in memorializing the major events and great celebrations of the day through sophisticated and sometimes obscure allegories. In 1561, he withdrew from the official équipe of artists at Fontainebleau and was appointed court painter to the French king and queen, Henry II and Catherine de’Medici, a role which also carried the duties of designing the court pageants and festivals. Caron organized the festivities for the marriage of Marguerite de Valois and the King of Navarre, the future Henry IV (1572); for Henry III’s entry into Paris and the receptions of the Polish ambassadors (1573); and the celebrations for the marriage of the Duc de Joyeuse (1581). His paintings–all of which seem to date from the 1560s through the 1580s–increasingly reflect these public rejoicings, which were beloved by the queen.

Caron’s career as a painter was largely obscure until the mid1930s, when through the art-historical detective work of Gustave Lebel, followed by Jean Ehrmann (who once owned the present picture), a small corpus of Caron’s paintings (fewer than 20) was established. Only a single painting by the artist–Massacres of the Triumvirate (Louvre)–is signed and dated (1566), but using it as a launching point, Lebel (and later Ehrmann) employed inventories and archival records, as well as a close study of Caron’s many drawings, illustrations and prints after his works to identify his paintings and establish their chronology. Although Caron is recorded as having made a number of portraits, none is convincingly ascribed to him, and of his surviving paintings all are multi-figural allegorical and historical subjects, court ceremonies or astrological scenes. His paintings invariably incorporate everything he learned from his many other occupations–illustrator, tapestry and print designer, and pageant master. As Chatelet and Thuillier observed, ‘his color has a theatrical brilliance and his architectural settings have the meticulous precision and emphatic perspective effects of maquettes for stage sets, while the clean-cut, rhythmic groupings of his tiny figures recalls the ballets then so much à la mode….Caron’s themes, too, are somewhat in the spirit of the state receptions and pageantry in which outstanding events of the time were transmuted into allegories, based on mythology or famous episodes of ancient history’ (loc. cit.).

The Triumph of Winter is among Antoine Caron’s finest paintings and a masterpiece of French Mannerism, displaying the artist’s abundance of talents and interests in a fantastical and witty painted pageant. In a frosty, snow-covered garden, a line of mythological deities process toward a bridge which transverses a freezing canal (or perhaps the pond of Fontainebleau) and leads to a small round temple inspired by the Tempietto of Bramante (1502).

Four nude putti greet the two-faced Janus, who leads the procession. Looking to both the future and the past, Janus is the Roman god of beginnings for whom the first month of the year is named. Behind him follows Apollo playing his viol, then Mercury who holds a caduceus in one hand and a tortoise shell in the other, a symbol of music. Next is Minerva, goddess of wisdom and an embodiment of royalty; followed by three blacksmiths accompanying Vulcan, god of fire, who brings with him warmth; and a mysterious figure holding a smoking, ball-shaped vessel. Finally, the withered Goddess of Winter herself enters, seated regally on a golden chariot drawn by five herons, emblems of wisdom and rebirth. The zodiacal signs representing the winter months circle in the sky above her. The elegant, nimble figures of the gods reflect the elongated figural types of Niccolo dell’Abbate, but the imaginative addition of their footprints in the fresh snow–like the tiny figures on the distant right side of the composition who engage in a snowball fight–displays Caron’s distinctively light touch. Although encrusted with snow and ice, the picture is warmed by the palette of strong reds, saffron and rose in which Caron dresses his balletic gods.

The present Winter is likely from a group of four Triumphs of the Seasons, first documented in 1607. Two others paintings long associated with the set are extant: a Triumph of Summer (private collection; sold Christie’s New York, 30 May 2003, lot 33) and a Triumph of Spring (private collection; sold Christie’s New York, 30 May 2003, lot 37).

A fragment from a replica of the Triumph of Spring is in the Musée de Nantes, suggesting that Caron (or his entourage) may have produced more than one series of the compositions. According to Ehrmann, a now-lost Triumph of Autumn might have been in a Paris collection prior to 1939, but no photograph of it is known (loc. cit.). In the recent catalogue raisonné of Caron’s works by Frédéric Hueber

(loc. cit.), the author considers only the present Triumph of Winter to be an autograph original actually from Caron’s hand and believes the aforementioned Triumph of Summer and Triumph of Spring, as well as the Nantes fragment, to be fine old copies by anonymous painters, after lost originals by Caron. Indeed, the three Seasons do appear to be from different hands, with the present Triumph of Winter the finest and most accomplished of the pictures, and entirely in keeping with the handling and execution of Caron’s other undisputed paintings.

Hueber suggests that Caron’s Seasons may have been executed as a temporary room décor, perhaps for the château de Blois, and tentatively links the group to three receipts for payments from the royal treasury for paintings of unidentified subjects made to Caron in 1572. However, the earliest indisputable reference to Caron’s Seasons is in documents uncovered

by Madeleine Jurgens at the Archives Nationales in Paris.

Four paintings of the Seasons by Caron are mentioned as being in the collection of Alexandre Olivier, médailleur at the Monnaie, at the time of his death in 1607 when they were deeded to his widow, Marguerite de Héry. On 28 July 1612, they were acquired from her for the sum of 252 livres by her son as part of the final settlement of the estate. They are subsequently recorded in an inventory made in Olivier Aubin’s house ‘vis à vis de la galerie du Louvre’ at the time of his death in 1620, when they were presumably inherited by his two sons, Olivier fils and Alexandre.

The Triumph of the Seasons are later documented as the property of Simon de Vaulx, perfumer to Queen Marie de Medici, in his house on the Île de la Cité, ‘a la descente du Pont Notre-Dame, près la Madeleine’ (G. Wildenstein, loc. cit.). De Vaulx began to acquire works of art in about 1608 and assembled a sizable collection that is detailed in an inventory of 1651. The collection was dispersed shortly thereafter.

PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTOR

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NUREMBERG SCHOOL, EARLY 16TH CENTURY

Portrait of Hans VI Imhoff (1488-1526), half-length, in a fur-lined cloak oil on panel 13º x 9º in. (33.6 x 23.5 cm.) $70,000-100,000

£53,000-75,000 €62,000-88,000

PROVENANCE:

André J. Seligmann (1898-1945), Paris, by 1929.

Seized from the above by the Devisenschutzkommando after May 1940 and transferred to the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg at the Jeu de Paume (ERR no Salt. 161), Recovered by Monuments, Fine Art and Archives Section of the mine Altausee salt (No. 291/9) and registered at the central collecting point of Munich on June 23, 1945 (MCCP No. 365/9), returned to France on 23 May 1946 and returned to the Seligmann family on 27 December 1946.

[Ancienne Collection Seligmann]; Christie's, Paris, 25 June 2019, lot 1, where acquired by the present owner.

This refined portrait represents Hans VI Imhoff (1488-1526), a member of one of the most prominent patrician families of 16th century Nuremberg. The identification is possible thanks to a later portrait, datable to circa 1627/28, which is incorporated along with other ancestral portraits into the epitaph of Hans VII Imhoff, the sitter’s grandson, in the Rochuskapelle, Nuremberg (see K. Pilz, St Johannis and St Rochus in Nürnberg, Nuremberg, 1984, pp. 165-166). A nearly identical likeness of Hans VI appears in the upper left corner of the monument, where he is shown facing the opposite direction with his hands cropped out of the composition and wears a doublet in addition to the clothes seen here. In the Nuremberg epitaph, Hans VI appears across from his wife, Felicitas Pirckheimer (1497-1530), the daughter of the jurist and humanist, Willibald Pirckheimer (1470-1530), the famed friend of Erasmus and Dürer. Their son was the great art collector Willibald Imhoff (1519-1580), who inherited much of Willibald Pirckheimer’s library and art collection and in 1560 acquired Dürer’s estate.

The portrait of Hans VI from the Imhoff epitaph bears the inscription `HANS IM HOFF | AE 23’, indicating that it represents Hans at the age of 23. Working from the sitter’s birth year of 1488 (see P. Fleischmann, Rat und Patriziat in Nürnberg, Neustadt an der Aisch, 2008, p. 610), it seems likely that that the present likeness was captured in 1511, four years before his marriage to Felicitas.

We are grateful to Dr. Joshua P. Waterman for identifying the sitter of this portrait and for providing additional information relating to this lot.

CENTURIES OF TASTE: LEGACY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION

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ATTRIBUTED TO JACOB GRIMMER (ANTWERP 1525-1590) Allegory of Summer

oil on canvas 59º x 103æ in. (150.5 x 262 cm.) $250,000-350,000

£190,000-260,000 €230,000-310,000

PROVENANCE:

Private collection, central Europe.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 16 December 1999, lot 7. with Bernheimer Fine Old Masters, Munich, as Pieter Baltens, where acquired in 2000 by the present owner.

fig. 1 Pieter van der Heyden, after Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Summer (Aestas), from ‘The Seasons’, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

This delightful depiction of peasants harvesting, stacking, and storing their grain, picnicking near their fields, shearing sheep, with others bathing in the river beyond reflects Jacob Grimmer's familiarity with the rhythms of life in the Flemish countryside. Walter Gibson and Reine de Bertier de Sauvigny first proposed the attribution to Grimmer when this painting appeared at auction in 1999 (see Provenance), noting the composition’s relationship to another Allegory of Summer in the Landesmuseum, Salzburg (see R. de Bertier de Sauvigny, Jacob et Abel Grimmer catalogue raisonné, Brussels, 1991, p. 20, pl. 2.). Both works employ a small cluster of trees at center to divide the composition, with further registers separated by broad blocks of color. The winding river disappearing into the distance at left and the gentle slope of the hills rising at right work in concert with the coloristic effects and structural conceits to create a sense of expansiveness in the unfolding landscape.

When this work reappeared on the Munich art market in 2000, it was given an attribution to Peeter Baltens, a frequent collaborator of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The motif of a central tree to structure a composition is also found

fig. 2 Pieter van der Heyden, after Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Sleeping Pedler Robbed by Monkeys, British Museum, London.

in Baltens' A village fair (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, inv. no. 7631) and Landscape with Satan sowing tares (Private collection); however, an attribution to Balten has recently been dismissed by Stephen J. Kostyshyn (Private communication, March 2025).

The figures—likely painted by a different hand— take inspiration from Pieter Bruegel the Elder, whose compositions would have been well known to Grimmer, either through the paintings produced by the former's extensive workshop or, more likely, through widely circulated prints. The man drinking from the jug at center and the farmer seen from behind cutting wheat with a scythe are borrowed from Bruegel’s Summer (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, fig. 1), while the cheeky nude boy pickpocketing the sleeping man recalls The Sleeping Pedler Robbed by Monkeys (The British Museum, London, fig. 2). At the time of the 1999 sale, it was speculated that the figures were painted by Gillis Mostaert. Marten van Cleve has also been suggested as a possible collaborator—the distinctive expressive eyes and red noses, particularly of the children, recall the features of his own figures.

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LORENZO VENEZIANO (ACTIVE VENICE C.1343-1379/82) The Marriage of the Virgin

tempera and gold on panel, in an engaged frame 24º x 13.5 in. (61.6 x 34.3 cm.) $80,000-120,000

£61,000-90,000 €71,000-110,000

PROVENANCE:

with Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence. with Gualtiero Volterra, Florence, by 1925. with Erich Galleries, New York, by 1927; their sale, American Art Association, New York, 20 November 1931, lot 53.

Private collection, New Jersey, and by descent to the present owner.

LITERATURE:

E. Sandberg-Vavalà, 'A Contribution to the Study of Giovanni da Bologna', Art in America, XX, 1931, p. 194, as Giovanni da Bologna.

M. Muraro, Paolo da Venezia, Milan, 1970, p. 136, as Circle of Lorenzo Veneziano.

M. Tamassia, Collezione d’arte tra Ottocento e Novecento: Jacquier fotografi a Firenze 1870–1935, Naples, 1995, pp. 69-70, no. 50536, illustrated.

C.B. Strehlke, Italian Paintings 1250–1450, in the John G. Johnson Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 2004, p. 234.

C. Guarnieri, 'Le polyptyque pour l’église de San Giacomo de Bologne dans l’œuvre de Lorenzo Veneziano', Autour de Lorenzo Veneziano: Fragments de polyptyques vénitiens du XIVe siècle, exhibition catalogue, Tours, 2005, p. 60.

C. Guarnieri, Lorenzo Veneziano, Milan, 2006, p. 201, no. 31, illustrated.

Known to scholars only through black-and-white photographs, and untraced since its 1931 sale in New York, this refined panel by Lorenzo Veneziano is an important rediscovery (see Fondazione Federico Zeri, Archivio fotografico, inv. nos. 26079, 26271). Unquestionably the leading painter in Venice during the second half of the trecento, Lorenzo was widely admired both within the city and across the terraferma. By around 1360/70, the approximate date of this work, he had assimilated artistic developments from beyond the Lagoon, particularly those emerging from Padua and Treviso, and the innovations of Guariento di Arpo and Tommaso da Modena. This influence is reflected in the dynamic figural interplay, subtly volumetric drapery, and architectonic idiosyncrasies that animate the present composition. As the principal successor to Paolo Veneziano, Lorenzo is credited with introducing a new naturalism and spatial sophistication to the Italo-Byzantine tradition of trecento Venice and is accordingly regarded as one of the city’s seminal and most innovative artists.

The present painting depicts the Marriage of the Virgin before a marble parapet that marks the threshold of the Temple. The Virgin, her head gently inclined, receives a ring from Joseph, who holds the flowering rod upon which a dove has alighted. The narrative is enriched with Lorenzo’s characteristically expressive detail: at left, a disappointed suitor angrily breaks his barren staff, while at right, a group of maidens observes the ritual in composed silence. Behind them rises a stylized structure comprising a sharply raked staircase ascending to a circular drum with a balustrade flanked by pointed arches.

Notably, the panel retains its original engaged frame with a cusped gable and foliate motifs, which, along with its

vertical wood grain, trilobed format, and traces of a now-removed crossbar on the reverse, clearly indicate its original function in the upper register of a polyptych (we are grateful to Emmanuele Zappasodi for first suggesting the presence of crossbar marks based on photographs; written communication, 17 April 2025). Andrea De Marchi associates this panel with a Nativity of the Virgin formerly in a Venetian private collection (C. Guarnieri, op. cit., 2006, p. 201, no. 30); both share nearly identical dimensions, trilobed shapes, and closely comparable halos and facial types, strongly suggesting a common origin.

While Cristina Guarnieri and Zappasodi date the present painting to circa 1370 (C. Guarnieri, op. cit., 2006, p. 201; E. Zappasodi, written communication, 17 April 2025), Christopher Platts proposes an earlier date, circa 1360, citing its relatively schematic architecture and figure types in contrast to Lorenzo’s signed and dated Madonna della Rosa (1372; Musée du Louvre, inv. MI 395l; written communication, 25 April 2025).

Although earlier scholars—among them Evelyn SandbergVavalà (op. cit., 1931), Michelangelo Muraro (op. cit., 1970), and Marilena Tamassia (op. cit., 1995)—expressed concern about the painting’s condition based on blackand-white photographs, direct examination now confirms its fine state of preservation, previously not visible in reproduction.

We are grateful to Christopher Platts for generously sharing his observations and for his assistance in cataloguing this painting. We also extend our gratitude to Emmanuele Zappasodi for his observations and for his help in clarifying the provenance.

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GIOVANNI DI PAOLO (SIENA 1399-1482) The Resurrection of Christ tempera and gold on panel 29æ x 18æ in. (75.5 x 48 cm.) $80,000-120,000

£61,000-90,000 €71,000-110,000

PROVENANCE:

Bashford Dean, New York.

G.A. Douglas, Riverside, Connecticut.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 2 June 1989, lot 11.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 11 January 1996, lot 49. with Sarti Gallery, London and Paris, by 1998, where acquired by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

K. Christiansen, L.B. Kanter and C.B. Strehlke, Painting in Renaissance Siena 1420-1500, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1988, pp. 142 and 172, fig. 1.

Trente-trois primitifs italiens de 1310 à 1500: du Sacré au Profane, G. Sarti Antiques Ltd., Paris, 1998, pp. 120-123, no. 19.

G. Sarti, 40 Years of Discoveries, Paris, 2018, pp. 40-41, no. 13.

This panel dates from Giovanni di Paolo’s early maturity, when his career began to flourish in Siena. Although working independently, Giovanni was influenced

by Taddeo di Bartolo and Gentile da Fabriano, and likely had contact with French and Lombard painters. Indeed, his earliest known patron was the Lombard Anna Castiglione who was also a significant patron of the Sienese painter, sculptor, and architect Vecchietta (1410–1480).

As Keith Christiansen observes, this painting closely adheres to traditional Sienese iconography of the Resurrection, depicting Christ before the cave’s entrance, with the open tomb clearly visible behind (K. Christiansen, op. cit., p. 142). Christiansen identifies compositional affinities between this panel and two other Sienese depictions of the subject: one by Andrea di Bartolo in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (inv. no. 37.741), and another by Sano di Pietro in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne (inv. no. 726; ibid.). Unusually, however, Christ here is clothed in a richly patterned damask robe instead of the conventional white drapery of a burial shroud.

Christiansen dates the present work to the late 1420s, placing it within the formative phase of Giovanni di Paolo’s artistic career (ibid.). Carl Brandon Strehlke, by contrast, proposes a slightly later dating, to the early 1430s. He notes stylistic parallels between figures in this panel and those in securely dated works of that decade, particularly the Madonna of Mercy (1431) in Santa Maria dei Servi, Siena, and the panel depicting Saints Matthew and Francis of Assisi in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 88.3.11; C.B. Strehlke, op. cit., p. 172).

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GIOVANNI SANTI (COLBORDOLA NEAR URBINO C.1440-1494 URBINO) Christ as the Man of Sorrows oil on panel, in an engaged frame Painted surface: 13æ x 9º in. (34.9 x 23.5 cm.)

Engaged frame: 16√ x 12¡ in. (42.9 x 31.4 cm.) $60,000-80,000

£46,000-60,000 €53,000-71,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Neumeister, Munich, 18 September 1991, lot 439, as Northern Italian School, second half 15th century.

Private collection, Tuscany, by 1992. with Altomani, Pesaro, by 1993, where acquired in 1995 by, Private collection, and by whom sold, Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 5 December 2013, lot 159, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Turin, Lingotto Fiere, Arte Antica '93. Biennale di Antiquario, 27 February-7 March 1993.

Pesaro, Musei Civici di Pesaro, Il Cristo morto: opera inedita di Giovanni Santi, 22 July-2 October 1994.

LITERATURE:

C. Giardini, Il Cristo morto: opera inedita di Giovanni Santi, exhibition catalogue, Pesaro 1994, cover.

R. Varese, Giovanni Santi, Pesaro, 1994, pp. 143 and 232, fig. 9 (incorrectly listed as in the Pinacoteca Civica, Pesaro).

C. Limentani Virdis, 'Alcune note e proposte sul fiamminghismo di Giovanni Santi', Giovanni Santi: Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, R. Varese ed., Milan 1999, p. 118.

A. Tempestini, 'L'Iconografia del Cristo morto nelle regioni adriatiche occidentali', Giovanni Santi: Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, R. Varese ed., Milan 1999, p. 175, fig. 8, reproduced in reverse (incorrectly listed as in the Pinacoteca Civica, Pesaro).

R. Varese, I Della Rovere. Piero della Francesca, Raffaello, Tiziano, P. Dal Poggetto ed., exhibition catalogue, 2004, p. 278, under no. II.5 (incorrectly listed as in the Pinacoteca Civica, Pesaro).

M.R. Valazzi, Raffaello e Urbino, L. Mochi Onori ed., exhibition catalogue, Milan 2009, pp. 55 and 57, fig. 5.

Giovanni Santi was a prominent poet, writer and painter at the ducal court of Federico da Montefeltro in Urbino and was father of the celebrated Italian Renaissance painter, Raphael. The Urbino court brought Santi into contact with Flemish painters such as Joos van Ghent and Pedro Berruguete, whose northern influence can be seen in his own works, and with Perugino, in whose workshop Raphael would later work. He also met Piero della Francesca and is said to have hosted the artist during his sojourn in the city. Santi ran a large and productive workshop which became a bustling center for humanist culture in Urbino, monopolizing the market for painting in the city after the 1480s (Valazzi, 2009, op. cit.).

The iconography of Christ as the Man of Sorrows, so diffuse in Flemish painting, was also popular in Italy throughout the fifteenth century and Santi and his workshop produced numerous such images to satisfy demand. Santi’s compositions contemplating the dead Christ often followed similar formats with some variations, at times including the edges of the stone tomb or the instruments of the Passion, such as the Pietà in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino, or with angels supporting his lifeless body as in the example now in the Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest.

Paintings like the present panel, which is relatively small in scale, were used either for private devotion in a domestic setting or for individual worship within a church.

Professor Filippo Todini pointed out before the 2013 sale of this painting that there is a probable pendant, depicting Saint Anthony of Padua, in a private collection (loc. cit.).

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TOMMASO DEL MAZZA, FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE MASTER OF SAINT VERDIANA (ACTIVE FLORENCE, PRATO AND PISA 1377-1392) The Madonna and Child in glory with Saint Anthony Abbot, Catherine, Margaret and Julian with four angels tempera and gold on panel, arched top 30Ω x 16Ω in. (77.5 x 42 cm.) $100,000-150,000

£76,000-110,000 €89,000-130,000

PROVENANCE:

with Julius Weitzner, New York, 1954. with Xavier Scheidwimmer, Munich, circa 1958, where acquired in 1959 by a private collector; [The Property of a Gentleman]; Sotheby's, London, 11 December 1996, lot 2. with Sarti Gallery, London and Paris, where acquired by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

F. Zeri, 'Il Maestro di Santa Verdiana', Studies in the History of Art Dedicated to W.E. Suida on his Eightieth Birthday, London, 1959, p. 37.

M. Boskovits, 'Der Meister der Santa Verdiana - Beiträge zur Geschichte der fiorentinischen Malerei um die Wende des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 1967, XIII, pp. 36 and 38, fig. 4.

M. Boskovits, Pittura Fiorentina alla Vigilia del Rinascimento, 1370-1400, Florence, 1975, pp. 107, 385, fig. 347.

R. Offner, Corpus of Florentine Painting: A Legacy of Attributions (Supplement), New York, 1981, p.

45, as ‘the Master of the Louvre Coronation’.

B. Deimling, `Tradition and Innovation in Florentine Painting: Giovanni Bonsi - Tommaso del Mazza', Corpus of Florentine Painting, Miklós Boskovits ed., Florence, 2000, IV, vol. VIII, pp. 197198, pl. 31 F. Todini, Primitifs et maniéristes italiens (1370-1570), G. Sarti ed., Paris, 2000, pp. 28-30 and 32-33.

This panel is a refined work by Tommaso del Mazza, formerly known as the Master of Saint Verdiana—an artist active in Florence during the last decades of the fourteenth century.

His oeuvre was initially reconstructed by Miklós Boskovits, who grouped the pictures under the name of the anonymous master, in reference to a panel of the Madonna and Child with Six Saints, which included a rare representation of Saint Verdiana, in the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Subsequently the artist was identified by Barbara Deimling as Tommaso del Mazza, who is recorded between 1377 and 1392, and was active in Florence, Prato and Pisa (see B. Deimling, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting.

Section IV: The Fourteenth Century. Volume VIII: Tradition and Innovation in Florentine Trecento Painting: Giovanni Bonsi – Tommaso del Mazza, Florence, 2000, pp. 107–369).

Documents were found that showed Tommaso was responsible for the altarpiece for the ospedale founded by Bonifazio Lupi in Florence, a work identified as the triptych in the Musée du Petit Palais in Avignon, which up until that point had been given to the Master of Saint Verdiana.

Dated circa 1385-90, this panel exemplifies the sophisticated devotional art flourishing in Florence toward the close of the trecento. While Tommaso's artistic style drew significantly upon the influential workshops of Agnolo Gaddi, the Master of the Straus Madonna, and Niccolò Gerini, his paintings reveal a distinctive individuality, profoundly influenced by Orcagna’s legacy and enriched by the courtly elegance and intricate decorative techniques characteristic of the period.

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NICCOLO DI TOMMASO (ACTIVE FLORENCE C. 1346-1376) Saints Peter and Paul; and Saints John and Anthony Abbot

tempera and gold on panel the first 35º x 21√ in. (89.5 x 55.6 cm.); the second 35¿ x 21¿ in. (89.2 x 53.6 cm.) $200,000-300,000

a pair

£160,000-230,000 €180,000-260,000

PROVENANCE:

with Severino Spinelli, Florence.

Private Collection, Switzerland. with Rob Smeets, Milan, by 2001. with Blue Art, Ltd., London, until May 2013, when acquired by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

M. Boskovits, Pittura Fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento, Florence, 1975, p. 203, note 108, figs. 64-65.

First published by Miklós Boskovits (loc. cit.), who significantly enlarged the corpus of the artist's work, and studied most recently by Milvia Bollati, these accomplished panels evidently formed part of a major altarpiece by Niccolò di Tommaso, most likely with a central panel depicting an enthroned Madonna and Child. One of the more successful Florentine painters of the mid-trecento, Niccolò was influenced at the outset of his career by Maso di Banco and Nardo di Cione and was clearly an associate of the latter, witnessing his will in 1365. Bollati rightly senses in the grandeur of the forms in these panels, as well as in the plausibility and plasticity of their modelling, evidence of the painter's debt to Nardo. She proposes a date in the 1360s, thus earlier than the artist's first dated works: a triptych for the church of Sant'Antonio Abate in Foria of 1371 (Museo di Capodimonte, Naples) and the frescoes of the following year at the Convento del Tau, Pistoia. More specifically, she compares the Saint Paul with the panel of the same saint in the Museo Horne, Florence, which is in turn closely related to the triptych depicting the Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine at the Museo Fesch, Ajaccio.

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE

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BERNARDINO ZAGANELLI (COTIGNOLA C. 1470-1513) Saint Helena

oil on panel 37 x 16 in. (94 x 40.6 cm.) $120,000-180,000

£91,000-140,000 €110,000-160,000

PROVENANCE:

with E. and A. Silberman Galleries, New York.

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (1920-1993), Scottsdale, and by whom gifted in 1959 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

EXHIBITED:

Hagerstown, MD, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, European Masterpieces, October-November 1956, as Cotignola.

Tempe, Arizona State University Art Museum, The Painters' Craft: Renaissance and Baroque Paintings in the Permanent Collection, 23 August-6 December 2003.

Tempe, Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramics Research Center, Luster and Light, 5 November 2021-8 January 2023.

LITERATURE:

'7 Art Masterpieces, valued at $250,000, Given to ASU', The Arizona Republic, 27 November 1958, p. 1, as Cotignola.

E. Johnson, 'College Museum Notes', College Art Journal, Spring 1959, p. 257, as Cotignola.

R. Roli, 'Sul problema di Bernardino e Francesco Zaganelli', Arte Antica e Moderna, XXXI, 1965, p. 231.

B.B. Fredricksen and F. Zeri, Census of pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, 1972, pp.

212 and 614, as Francesco Zaganelli.

R. Zama, Zaganelli e dintorni, per una ricerca sui dipinti di Francesco e Bernardino, fra Cotignola e Ravenna, exhibition catalogue, Faenza, 1989, p. 9.

R. Zama, 'Note su Bernardino Zaganelli', Romagna Arte e Storia, XXXIII, 1991, pp. 40-41, fig. 5.

R. Zama, Gli Zaganelli, Rimini, 1994, pp. 143-144, no. 36, illustrated, as Girolamo Marchesi with the possible participation of Bernardino Zaganelli in the background.

A. De Marchi, Da Allegretto Nuzi a Pietro Perugino, F. Moretti ed., Florence, 2005, pp. 142-145, illustrated.

This Saint Helena formed the left wing of a now-dispersed triptych, first reconstructed by Everett Fahy (as cited in Christie’s, Paris, 24 June 2004, lot 55) and subsequently discussed by Andrea De Marchi (op. cit.). The central panel (Madonna and Child with Two Angels, private collection) and the right wing (Saint Simeon, Faringdon Collection, Buscot Park, Oxfordshire) share a largely continuous marble parapet and mountainous landscape, which, along with their nearly identical height, matching arched tops, and unified compositional structure, strongly support their common origin. De Marchi, who hypothesizes that these panels may originally have formed part of a polyptych, dates the ensemble to after 1507, the period in which Bernardino’s style shifted toward greater monumentality and a cooler, more translucent palette (De Marchi, op. cit., pp. 147-148).

The œuvre of Bernardino Zaganelli is now better understood, and increasingly distinguished from that of his brother Francesco, with whom he occasionally collaborated.

Initially close to the circle of Ercole de' Roberti, Bernardino’s paintings gradually softened toward the classicizing spirit of Perugino. In the present panel, the crisp, angular folds of the saint’s vermilion and green draperies recall the more sculptural handling associated with his brother Francesco, yet the gentle modelling of Helena’s flesh, the restrained gilding of her diadem, and the delicate rendering of the donor’s jeweled headdress are characteristic of Bernardino’s later work (De Marchi, op. cit., p. 148).

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GIANNICOLA DI PAOLO MANNI, CALLED SMICCA (PERUGIA C. 1460-1544) The Entombment of Christ, with the Virgin, Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, Saint John the Evangelist and other Saints oil on panel 40º x 39Ω in. (102.2 x 100.3 cm.) $200,000-300,000

£160,000-230,000 €180,000-260,000

PROVENANCE:

Conte Andrea di Robilant (1899-1977), Palazzo Mocenigo, Venice, and later Rio de Janiero; his sale, Bellini, Florence, 22-27 May 1933, lot 175, as 'Pietro Perugino' (unsold), [The Property of Count Andrea Robilant removed from the Palazzo Mocenigo, Venice], Christie's, London, 29 June 1962, lot 68, as 'Pietro Perugino', where acquired for 1,900 gns. by, Ivan Oswald Chance (1910-1984), London, and by inheritance until, [The Property of a Lady]; Christie's, London, 10 July 1987, lot 103, as 'Giovanni Battista Caporali'.

Private collection, New York, by 1989.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 3 July 2019, lot 3, where acquired by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

C. Castellaneta and E. Camesasca, L'opera completa del Perugino, Milan, 1969, p. 123, no. 282, illustrated, as 'Attributed to Pietro Perugino.'

F. Todini, La Pittura Umbra: dal duecento al primo cinquecento, I, Milan, 1989, p. 79.

Giannicola di Paolo, who trained under Pietro Perugino with whom he collaborated, was the most able–and productive–of the Perugian near-contemporaries of Raphael. His independent development can be followed from such works as the Ognissanti altarpiece of 1506-07 from San Domenico at Perugia (Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia), still strongly Peruginesque, to the frescoes of the vault of the chapel of the Collegio del Cambio at Perugia (1513-5) and those of the lateral walls there (1526-8), in which he responded to recent developments in both Florence and Siena. While he may have lacked the intellectual interests of his fellow Perugian, Giovanni Battista Caporali, an early translator of Vitriuvius, he was for Prof. Filippo Todini the greatest Perugian artist of the early cinquecento (‘il maggior artista del primo Cinquecento’).

This panel, presumably intended as the altarpiece in a relatively small chapel, was considered in 1933 by Giuseppe Fiocco to be a work of about 1495 by Perugino, a view that reflects its exceptional quality. Todini published it as by Giannicola in 1989 (loc. cit.) and confirmed this view at the time of its sale in 2019 (see provenance). While deeply Peruginesque in character, the painting does not depend on either of the altarpieces of related subjects Perugino supplied in the 1490s for Florentine churches, the San Giusto fuori le Mura Pietà and the Santa Chiara Lamentation (Palazzo Pitti, Florence), both of which Giannicola would have known, or the Williamstown Pietà (Clark Art Institute, Williamstown Massachusetts, inv. no. 1955.947), which was likely unknown to him, as it was painted in Venice. But Giannicola clearly sought to emulate the skilfully compacted composition of the Santa Chiara picture. The present painting is datable to circa 1510.

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BENVENUTO TISI, CALLED GAROFALO (FERRARA 1481-1559) The Holy Family

oil on panel 19º x 14¡ in. (48.9 x 36.7 cm.) $100,000-150,000

£76,000-110,000 €89,000-130,000

PROVENANCE:

Charles Brinsley Marlay (1831-1912), St Katherine's Lodge, Regent's Park, London, by 1907, by whom bequeathed with the rest of his collection to, The University of Cambridge, but not retained.

The Marlay Bequest to The Fitzwilliam Museum and by which sold, [The Property of a Gentleman, deceased]; Christie's, London, 1 February 1924, lot 17, as 'Dosso', where acquired for 75 gns. by, with Horace Buttery (1902-1962), London.

Otto Lanz (1865-1935), Amsterdam, by 1934, and by inheritance to his wife, Anna Willi-Lanz (1870-1954), by whom deposited in 1935 with her entire collection at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Acquired with the rest of the Lanz collection on 28 March 1941 via her son G.B. Lanz by Hans Posse on behalf of Adolf Hitler for the Führer-Museum at Linz for RM 2,000.

Recovered by the Monuments Fine Art & Archives Section from the salt mines at AltAussee (no .2769) and transferred to the Munich Central Collection Point on 13 July 1945 (MCCP no. 4032), as 'Ortolano’; Repatriated to The Netherlands from the above, 15 February 1946.

Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, Amsterdam, [Provenant de l'ancienne collection du Professeur Otto Lanz, à Amsterdam]; Frederik Muller, 13-15 March 1951, lot 192, as 'Ortolano', where acquired for f 1,650 by the following, with Kunsthandel Staal, Amsterdam, where acquired by, Dr. Hans A. Wetzlar, Amsterdam, by descent until, [Property from a Private Collection]; Sotheby's, London, 4 July 2018, lot 42, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Italiaansche kunst uit Nederlandsch bezit, 1 January-1 October 1934, no. 264, as 'Ortolano'.

LITERATURE:

B. Berenson, North Italian painters of the Renaissance, New York, 1907, p. 226.

O. Sirén, 'Early Italian pictures at Cambridge', The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, XXXVII, 1920, p. 298, 303, no. 213, pl. IV-K, as 'Chiodarolo'.

R. Van Marle, 'La pittura all'Esposizione d'arte antica italiana di Amsterdam', Bolletino d'arte, XXVIII, 1935, p. 452, as 'Ortolano'.

G. Bargellesi, Notizie di opere d'arte Ferrarese, Rovigo, 1955, pp. 83-86, fig. 25.

A. Neppi, Il Garofalo, Milan, 1959, pp. 13-14.

G. Mazzariol, Il Garofalo, Venice, 1960, p. 15, note 15.

G. Frabetti, L'Ortolano, Milan, 1966, pp. 19, 52, 67, under no. 29, fig. 24b.

E. Sambo, 'Sull'attivita giovanile di Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo', Paragone, XXIV, no. 395, 1983, p. 27, notes 24 and 25, incorrectly assuming the Marlay and Lanz pictures to be separate works.

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, I, Central Italian and North Italian Schools, London, 1968, p. 153.

P.D. Matthiesen, ed., From Borso to Cesare d'Este: The School of Ferrara, 1450-1628, exhibition catalogue, London, 1984, p. 78, under no. 23.

A.M. Fioravanti Baraldi, Il Garofalo, Rimini, 1993, pp. 94-96, no. 19, illustrated.

Garofalo was one of the leading painters working in Ferrara in the early sixteenth century, a period when Ferrarese art was flourishing under the patronage of the ruling d’Este family. Born Benvenuto Tisi, the artist is normally referred to by his nickname, Garofalo, which is thought to have derived from his habit of signing some works with a picture of a carnation — in Italian, garofano. Ferrara at this moment was bustling with creative energy, and his artistic rivals were Ludovico Mazzolino and Ortolano, and later Dosso and Battista Dossi. Despite this, Garofalo was clearly also looking to artists outside the city for inspiration and we see the influence of Bolognese classicism on his painting during this period, particularly the works of Francesco Francia and Lorenzo Costa the elder. Garofalo may have travelled to Venice circa 1506-8, as during these years his work starts to show resemblances to work of Giorgione.

Like many Ferrarese Renaissance paintings, the present work has been assigned to several different artists before scholars correctly reverted to the opinion first forwarded

by Berenson in 1907, that this is a characteristic early work

by Garofalo. It was probably painted around the time of his Nativity with Shepherds in Strasbourg, generally dated to around 1510, as suggested by Baraldi (loc. cit.). Typical of Garofalo’s Ferrarese training is the almost miniaturist detail of the folds of the cloth and the deft, free touches of the brush to the vegetation in the landscape. The glorious evening light holding over the blue mountains suggests

Giorgione’s naturalistic landscapes had a lasting impact on Garofalo.

Reverse en grisaille: The reverse of the panel is painted en grisaille with the monogram ihs surrounded by elaborate grotesques, which may have been painted by Garofalo himself. Garofalo was strongly involved in several decorative schemes in Ferrara and these grotesques recall his grisaille decorations of the inside door of a cupboard which displays his Annunciation in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice.

A note on the provenance: The present painting was owned by a fascinating cast of twentieth-century collectors, including Charles Brinsley Marlay (1831-1912) and Otto Lanz (1865-1935), from whose collection it was acquired by Hans Posse on behalf of Adolf Hitler for the Führer-Museum at Linz. It was later discovered by the Allied forces in the salt mines at Alt-Aussee in Austria in March 1945 and subsequently restituted back to the Lanz family. A painting of this description ('Garofalo. The Holy Family - Mary and Joseph are kneeling before the Infant Jesus, placed in a cradle between them') was recorded in the collection of John Rushout, 2nd Baron Northwick (1770– 1859) at Thirlestaine House, and was sold in his late sale at Phillips, 19 August 1859, lot 1572, where it was acquired by C.F. Beauclerk, Esq. It may have been from Beauclerk that Charles Brinsley Marlay acquired the painting.

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE

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EMILIAN SCHOOL, 16TH CENTURY

Portrait of a gentleman, three-quarter-length, in a furlined coat and feathered cap, with a dog by his side oil on panel 46 x 34Ω in. (116.8 x 87.6 cm.) $60,000-80,000

£46,000-60,000 €53,000-71,000

PROVENANCE:

Sir John Leslie, 1st Baronet of Glasslough (1822-1916), Castle Leslie, Co. Monaghan, by 1877, and by descent until sold; [Property of Sir John Leslie, Bart.], Christie’s, London, 15 June 1923, lot 88, as 'Pontormo (Jacopo Carrucci.) Portrait of Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici', to Hopkins.

[Property of David James, Esq.]; Sotheby's, London, 21 June 1950, lot 85. with Satin Bros, London, by 1951.

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (19201993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in 1969 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

EXHIBITED:

London, Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition of works by the old masters and by deceased masters of the British school, Winter 1877, no. 257, as Jacopo da Pontormo, 'Portrait of Ippolito de' Medici'.

LITERATURE:

B.B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, 1972, pp. 159 and 641, as Follower of Parmigianino.

A. Nesi, 'Michelangelo Membrini, Bernardino Detti, Zacchia il Vecchio, e Benedetto Pagni: Note sulla pittura tra Lucca e Pistoia nel Cinquecento', Arte cristiana, XCVII, no.

855, 2009, note 28, as Bernardino Detti.

While this portrait exhibits clear Emilian stylistic influences deriving from Parmigianino, certain elements, such as the intricate floral arrangement and detailed depiction of the dog, suggest potential French artistic influences, possibly linked to the circle of Niccolò dell’Abate. Alessandro Nesi published the portrait with an attribution to Bernardino Detti, but has subsequently rejected the attribution upon reviewing color photographs (A. Nesi, op. cit.; written communication, 28 March 2024). Alternatively, connections to artists active in Cremona have been proposed.

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SCIPIONE PULZONE (GAETA 1544-1598 ROME) Portrait of a lady, bust-length oil on panel 20 x 14 in. (50.8 x 35.6 cm.) $80,000-120,000

£61,000-90,000 €71,000-110,000

PROVENANCE:

with Antiques Inc., where acquired in 1953 by the following, with French & Co., New York (stock 53724-X), where acquired by the following, with Central Picture Gallery, New York, in 1957.

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (1920-1993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in 1959 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

LITERATURE:

'7 Art Masterpieces, valued at $250,000, Given to ASU', The Arizona Republic, 27 November 1958, p. 1, as Alessandro Allori.

E. Johnson, 'College Museum Notes', College Art Journal, Spring 1959, p. 257, as Alessandro Allori.

B.B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, 1972, pp.

171, 641.

A. Vannugli, 'Scipione Pulzone ritrattista', Scipione Pulzone: Da Gaeta a Rome alle Corti europee, exhibition catalogue, A. Acconci and A. Zuccari eds., Rome 2013, p. 33, note 63.

This refined bust-length portrait of an unidentified noblewoman exemplifies the meticulous precision and naturalistic sensitivity for which Scipione Pulzone was celebrated in late sixteenth-century Rome. The sitter engages the viewer directly, her softly modeled features enhanced by gently flushed cheeks, coral lips, and expressive, luminous eyes. Her elaborate white lace ruff, sumptuous dark-blue velvet gown richly embroidered with gold thread, and pearl jewelry all attest to her elevated social standing.

Pulzone’s portraiture eschewed the exaggerated stylization of contemporary Roman Mannerism, embracing instead a refined realism indebted to the legacies of Raphael and Titian. His approach was further informed by the international portrait tradition of the Habsburg court, particularly the works of the Flemish painter Anthonis Mor, whose influence is evident in Pulzone's psychological characterization and rich, vibrant palette.

Active mainly in Rome, Pulzone trained under Jacopino del Conte and became a prominent member of the Accademia di San Luca by 1567. According to Giovanni Baglione, Pulzone had no equal in capturing the lifelike presence and exquisite detail of his sitters — qualities superbly demonstrated here in the virtuoso rendering of textile and ornament (G. Baglione, Le Vite de' Pittori, Scultori et Architetti: Dal Pontificato di Gregorio XIII. del 1572 in fino a' tempi di Papa Urbano VIII nel 1642, Rome, 1642, p. 53). Writing in 1584, Raffaello Borghini likewise praised Pulzone as 'very excellent in painting portraits [which] seem to be alive' ('che paiono vivi'), noting that his portraits were sought by 'the most important gentlemen of Rome and all of the beautiful women' ('Signori principali di Roma, e tutte le belle donne'; Il riposo, Florence, 1584, p. 578). The artist's reputation extended throughout Italy, and he received portrait commissions from some of the most eminent ecclesiastical and aristocratic patrons of his time, including Popes Pius V and Gregory XIII, Cardinals Alessandro Farnese and Giovanni Ricci, Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Juana of Austria, Christine of Lorraine, and Marie de’ Medici. His fame also led to prestigious summons to the Aragonese court in Naples in 1584 and later to the Medici court in Florence.

We are grateful to Antonio Vannugli, who previously published the portrait (op. cit.), for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs; he proposes a date in the early 1570s (written communication, 28 April 2025).

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JACOPO ROBUSTI, CALLED JACOPO TINTORETTO (VENICE 1518/19-1594) Portrait of Vincenzo Morosini (1511-1588), three-quarter-length oil on canvas 461/2 × 39 in. (118 x 99 cm.) $300,000-500,000

£230,000-380,000 €270,000-440,000

PROVENANCE:

with Giorgio Rovelli, Rome, by 1967.

Private collection, Florida, from whom acquired by the present owner circa 2020.

LITERATURE:

P. Humfrey, 'Some portraits by the Tintoretto family: Jacopo, Marietta, Domenico', Artibus et Historiae, forthcoming article.

We are grateful to John Marciari, who first identified the sitter and attributed this portrait to Jacopo Tintoretto, for sharing his as-yet unpublished essay on this painting and for granting us permission to reproduce it below. We are also thankful to Peter Humfrey (written communication, 10 April 2025, on the basis of photographs), Keith Christiansen (written communication, 8 April 2025, on the basis of photographs), and Mattia Vinco (written communication, 8 April 2025, on the basis of photographs) for endorsing the attribution.

The painting was included in the catalogue of the 5th Biennale dell'Antiquariato in Florence (Palazzo Strozzi, 22 September – 22 October 1967) as a Portrait of a Magistrate

by Jacopo Tintoretto, citing Roberto Longhi (1964) and Luigi Coletti (1962) as having supported the attribution. ________

Jacopo Tintoretto is today among the most highly esteemed artists of the Italian Renaissance, but his fame rests largely on narrative paintings such as the Miracle of the Slave (Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice), his altarpieces, his large murals and ceiling paintings in the Palazzo Ducale, and above all on the great decorative cycle at the Scuola di San Rocco. Yet, although his portraits have received less critical attention than almost any other aspect of his work, he was nonetheless the foremost portrait painter in Venice during the later cinquecento, and contemporaries such as Cristoforo Sorte

and Gian Paolo Lomazzo praised Tintoretto’s perfettissimo giudicio nei ritratti (‘most perfect judgment in portaits’) and identified him as a ritrattista d’eterna fama (‘portraitist of eternal fame’).[i] He was responsible for fixing the images of doges, senators, and procurators—the aristocratic elite and ruling class of Venice—as well as leading intellectuals and artists. Despite the importance of their sitters, however, Tintoretto’s portraits demonstrate a remarkable restraint, often eschewing props and details of a setting. While the ceremonial garb of the patriciate was necessarily part of many pictures, rarely did Tintoretto obsess over the details of ermine or silk brocade, choosing to indicate these markers of status but to focus especially on the direct gaze and distinctive facial qualities of his sitters. Similarly, while Tintoretto’s painting in general is characterized by slashing brushwork that often separates forms into broad strokes of contrasting bright color, his portraits exhibit a more restricted palette and, at least in the faces, a delicate—if still painterly—network of strokes.

The present canvas, hitherto unpublished, demonstrates these essential qualities of a Tintoretto portrait. Tintoretto’s subject was Vincenzo Morosini (1511–1589), military commander, ambassador, Cavaliere of the Stola d’Oro, Procurator de Citra of San Marco, and patron of the arts. [ii] Typically, Tintoretto has concentrated his energies on the face of the sitter, capturing Morosini’s shrewd glaucous stare, his face unmoving but still full of expression; he is positioned at an angle, his body turning to the left, so that he fixes the viewer with a sideward gaze. As in other late portraits by the artist such as the Procurator of Saint Mark’s in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the paint is thickest in the flesh of the face, while the thin strokes that depict the man’s beard barely cover the ground layer of the canvas. Details of the costume are treated in a still more summary manner: Morosini’s stola d’oro is almost impressionistic, as are the folds of his rich red robes,[iii] though they are counterbalanced by the delicate flicks of white and black paint capturing the ermine lining of the heavy garment. The featureless background is thinnest of all, although as in the NGA Procurator and other late portraits, Tintoretto has reinforced the background around the head and shoulders of the sitter.

Morosini’s visage is a familiar one, for a version of this portrait has been in the collection of the National Gallery since 1924 and has often been published in previous studies of Tintoretto’s portraiture (fig. 1).[iv] The London canvas

exhibition helped affirm that in many cases both versions of a portrait were by Tintoretto himself. It seems likely that the small portraits were painted from life but kept in the studio, where they could be used to create additional portraits of the important men whose faces they capture. Other works that exist in similar relationships are the circa 1570 portraits of Jacopo Sansovino in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Weimar and the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence, and the circa 1576 portraits of Marco Grimani at the Museo del Prado and the Kunsthistorisches Museum.[v]

fig. 1 Jacopo Tintoretto, Portrait of Vincenzo Morosini, National Gallery, London.

is cropped more tightly around the bust of the sitter and slightly smaller in scale, but the position of the sitter’s body, the fall of light, and the details of the face—hollowed cheeks, furrowed brow, and red-rimmed eyes—are the same. Yet, the present work is no mere copy of the London portrait. There is no attempt to replicate the London painting strokeby-stoke, for example: consider how differently the stola d’oro is treated in each. There are also pentimenti in both works, most clearly visible around the shoulders of the larger canvas. One can easily imagine Tintoretto using the smaller London head study to produce the larger painting, for the interpretation of the beard or the wrinkled flesh of Morosini’s face is slightly different from that in the London canvas, but it is still entirely Tintoretto’s own.

The two Morosini portraits would thus be a parallel case to several other instances in Tintoretto’s work in which both a small head sketch and a larger, more elaborate portrait— both by the master himself—survive. The relationship of such pairs was the subject of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Celebrating Tintoretto: Portrait Paintings and Studio Drawings exhibition in 2018-19, in which the Metropolitan’s own Portrait of a Man, for example, was juxtaposed with the related head study from the British Royal Collection. The

In the case of Morosini, for example, the same head study seems clearly to have served also as the model for portraits of the procurator in the Resurrection altarpiece of his chapel in San Giorgio Maggiore (a work executed largely

by Domenico Tintoretto around 1587-88), and for his appearance in Palma Giovane’s painting at the Ospedaletto dei Crociferi of Doge Pasquale Cicogna and Other Dignataries Visiting the Oratory, as well as Palma’s Pope Alexander III and Doge Sebastiani Ziani send the Young Otto to Frederick Barbarossa of circa 1583 in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio at the Palazzo Ducale, among other works.[vi] Obviously, not all of these were by Tintoretto himself, and a further painting formerly at the Palazzo Ducale and now in the Galleria Franchetti at the Ca’ d’Oro (fig. 2)—three-quarter length like the present painting, but clearly based on the London sketch with its landscape view (albeit in reverse)—is also clearly a workshop production, stiff in execution and lower in quality, nothing at all like the grand portrait presented here. The Ca d’Oro version does, however, bear the date 1580, giving a terminus ante quem for the London sketch and also, in all likelihood, for the present work. It is plausible to suggest that they might date to around 1579-80, after Morosini became a procurator, and also when he was active as one of the supervisors for the reconstruction of the Palazzo Ducale after the great fire in late 1577. As Francesco Mozzetti and Giovanna Sarti have proposed, Morosini’s role in the latter project likely also explains his appearance in a number of the grand paintings executed by Tintoretto and Palma for the redecoration of the palace. The Ca’ d’Oro canvas was presumably made as part of a series of portraits for a ceremonial setting, with the inscription and the change of orientation to make it consistent with others in that set.[vii] We might also thus compare the three portraits of Morosini to those that Tintoretto made of Doge Pietro Loredan around 1567-70. It has been suggested that the version in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne was a modello

kept in the studio, and the version now at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth—also by Tintoretto himself, with changes and pentimenti—was intended for the sitter or his family, while a third version was placed in the Palazzo Ducale, where it was destroyed in the 1577 fire.[viii] Might the present version of Vincenzo Morosini’s portrait be a parallel case, a painting made for the sitter himself, while the Ca’ d’Oro version was for an official setting in the dark palace?

Whatever the circumstances for the creation of the portraits, Morosini must have been pleased with them, for his association with Tintoretto would continue. In addition to his likely role in commissioning Tintoretto’s paintings in the Palazzo Ducale, and the abovementioned altarpiece at San Giorgio Maggiore, Carlo Ridolfi noted that Morosini also owned a Madonna and Child with many Saints in a circle, a Figure of Vulcan, and a San Lorenzo on the Grill that had been made for the altar of the Bonomi family in San Francesco della Vigna, but which Morosini acquired after it was rejected by the original patron.[ix] The Portrait of Vincenzo Morosini is thus an exciting addition to Tintoretto’s known work, a strong yet subtle image of one of Tintoretto’s great patrons, who was also a major figure in the world of Venetian politics and culture in the 1570s and 80s. As Mozzettti and Sarti noted in their discussion of Morosini, ‘his is a proud and melancholy face, which touches a chord in the heart and imprints itself in the memory of the observer’.

John Marciari Endnotes: [i] The quotations from Sorti’s Osservationi nella pittura of 1580 and Lomazzo’s Trattato dell’arte della pittura of 1584 are both cited in M. Falomir, ‘Tintoretto’s Portraiture’, Tintoretto, exhibition catalogue, Madrid, 2007, pp. 95114; this essay remains the best concise introduction to Tintoretto’s work as a portraitist. See also P. Rossi, Tintoretto: I ritratti, Milan, 1990; Jacopo Tintoretto: Ritratti, exhibition catalogue, Milan, 1994; W.R. Rearick, ‘Reflections on Tintoretto as a Portraitist', Artibus et Historiae, XVI, 1995, pp. 51-68; F. Del Torre Scheuch, ‘Volti Veneziani: I ritratti di Jacopo Tintoretto', Tintoretto, exhibition catalogue, Rome, 2012, pp. 157-63 ; and R. Echols and F. Ilchman, ‘Portraitist’, Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice, exhibition catalogue, New Haven and London, 2018, pp. 145-69. [ii] On Morosini, see F. Mozzetti and G. Sarti, ‘Biografia, immagine e memoria: storia di Vincenzo Morosini’, Venezia

fig. 2 Workshop of Jacopo Tintoretto, Portrait of Procurator Vincenzo Morosini, Franchetti Gallery, Venice.

Cinquecento: studi di storia dell'arte e della cultura, VII, no.

13, 1997, pp. 141-58. [iii] A red lake glaze that would originally have toned back the white highlights, integrating them with the red body of the robe, but as in many of Tintoretto’s portraits, this delicate glaze survives only in part. [iv] On the National Gallery canvas, see N. Penny, The Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings: II: Venice 1540-1600, London and New Haven, 2007, pp. 176-85. [v] For discussion of the Sansovino portraits, see M. Falomir, op. cit., 2007, cat. 35; for the Grimani portraits, see Jacopo Tintoretto: Ritratti, 1994, nos. 37-38, and M. Falomir, op. cit., 2007, pp. 105-7. [vi] See F. Mozzetti and G. Sarti, op. cit., 1997, and N. Penny, op. cit., 2007, pp. 183-84. On the close relationship of Palma and Tintoretto at the time, see, for example, J. Marciari, Drawing in Tintoretto’s Venice, New York, 2018, pp. 190-95. [vii] A damaged portrait of Marco Grimani by Tintoretto’s workshop, now in the deposits of the Gallerie dell’Accademia, as well as a portrait of Alessandro Bon at the Ca d’Oro, also by Tintoretto’s workshop, are similar to the Ca d’Oro Morosini, with coats of arms and inscription. The Accademia painting is said to have come from the Procuratoria de Citra; one wonders whether all these lesser-quality portraits may have formerly hung together there. [viii] M. Falomir, op. cit., 2007, p. 105. [ix] C. Ridolfi, Le Maraviglie dell’Arte, Venice, 1648, p. 44.

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VITTORE CARPACCIO (VENICE 1460/6-1525/6) Portrait of a kneeling donor oil on panel, a fragment 14Ω x 11º in. (37 x 28.6 cm.) $150,000-250,000

£120,000-190,000 €140,000-220,000

PROVENANCE:

with Sekeyan, Paris, by 1916, and from whom acquired by, Cartier, Paris.

Anonymous sale; Bailly-Pommery & Vouttier Associés, Paris, 12 December 2012, lot 1, as Italian School, circa 1500.

LITERATURE:

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, A list of the principal artists and their works with an index of places: Central Italian and North Italian Schools, I, Edinburgh, 1968, p. 412; III, pl.

1441, as Andrea Solario.

P. Humfrey and G. Matino, 'Introduction', Vittore Carpaccio.

Contesto, iconografia, fortuna, P. Humfrey and G. Matino eds., Venice, 2024, pp. I, VI, and VIII, fig. 1.

M. Vinco, 'Carpaccio versus Andrea Solario e la nascita delle Sacre Conversazioni narrative en plein air', Scritti di amici per Maria Cristina Rodeschini, Bergamo, 2025, pp. 238-246, figs. 1-2.

Best known today for his monumental narrative cycles painted for Venetian devotional confraternities (scuole), Vittore Carpaccio was also celebrated in his lifetime as a portrait painter. Giorgio Vasari praised Carpaccio in his Lives of the Artists (1550/1568) for his 'portraits from life'. During Carpaccio’s lifetime, the Tuscan poet Girolama Corsi Ramos composed a sonnet about his portrait of her, admiring how it 'seemed about to speak' ('per far la lingua pronta parlare'; cited in P. Humfrey, 'The Portrait in Fifteenth-Century Venice', in K. Christiansen and S. Weppelmann, eds., The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini, exhibition catalogue, New Haven and London, 2011, p. 61). Though our understanding of Carpaccio’s work in the genre is limited by the lack of surviving independent portraits by his hand, the numerous portraits that populate his narrative and religious paintings in the form of participants and donors bear witness to his achievement in this field, confirming that alongside the Bellinis and later Titian and Giorgione, Carpaccio played a critical role in the development of Venetian Renaissance portraiture.

fig. 1 Vittore Carpaccio, Salvator Mundi, Fondazione Sorlini, Calvagese della Riviera.

The present painting constitutes an exciting discovery, having been virtually unknown to scholars until its recent reemergence. A young man is portrayed in a verdant landscape with two deer and a river in the distance. His stylish haircut and formal red Venetian toga signal that he is a gentleman of not inconsiderable wealth and standing, though his identity is otherwise uncertain. He places his hands against his chest in a gesture of veneration, while directing his solemn gaze upward. The brilliant blue swath of drapery that runs along the left edge suggests the presence of an additional figure, likely the Virgin Mary, next to whom the sitter would have knelt before this painting became a fragment.

The painting was included in Bernard Berenson’s 1968 Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, where it was listed as ‘homeless’ and given an erroneous attribution to Andrea Solario (loc. cit.), though it seems unlikely that this attribution came from Berenson himself as the book was published

nine years after his death and photographs of the work in his archives at Villa I Tatti, Florence, are not annotated by his hand. The portrait recently sold in France, with a generic attribution to an artist of the 'Italian School, c. 1500'. Mattia Vinco was the first to recognize the painting as an early work by Vittore Carpaccio (written correspondence, on the basis of photographs, March 2023), and this attribution was endorsed soon thereafter by Peter Humfrey (written correspondence, on the basis of photographs, March 2023), both of whom have now included it in recent publications (see Literature).

As Vinco and Humfrey observe, the attribution to Carpaccio is confirmed by the treatment of the landscape, with its high horizon line and tightly arranged tufts of grass that are entirely characteristic of the artist’s paintings from around 1490. Similar flora and fauna can be found, for instance, in the background of Carpaccio's Meditation on the Passion of 1490 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the

fig. 2 Vittore Carpaccio, Meditation on the Passion, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

somewhat later Madonna and Child of around 1505/10 in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. Both Vinco and Humfrey have further noted the compelling resemblance of the sitter in the present portrait to the bearded saint seen to the right of Christ in the Salvator Mundi with four saints in the Fondazione Luciano e Agnese Sorlini, Carzago di Calvagese (fig. 1), who similarly is depicted in three-quarter profile, with a strong nose, arched eyebrows and almondshaped eyes that gaze upwardly in adoration.

Turning to the question of the format of the original painting from which the fragment was removed, Vinco and Humfrey agree that the scale suggests that it was intended for private devotion, rather than for use as an altarpiece. Humfrey observes that the proximity of the donor to the Virgin may indicate that the painting was vertically oriented (like the great majority of domestic Madonnas), and as such may not have included other figures. Vinco, however, considering the

presumptive vast landscape in the background, suggests the possibility of a horizontal orientation, and proposes that the original painting would have likely included another donor or saints shown in half-length as a sacra conversazione. The decision to situate these holy figures in a vast landscape in this manner may have been inspired by the innovations of Giovanni Bellini, seen in works such as his c. 1480 Saint Francis in Ecstasy (The Frick Collection, New York), as well as the paintings of Andrea Mantegna. Vinco explores the development of this iconography as it relates to the present painting in his recent publication (op. cit.).

We are grateful to Keith Christiansen for his assistance in researching this lot, as well as to Mattia Vinco and Peter Humfrey for respectively suggesting and endorsing the attribution to Vittore Carpaccio, and for generously sharing their scholarship on this painting.

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GIOVANNI FRANCESCO DI NICCOLÒ DI LUTERI, CALLED DOSSO DOSSI (TRAMUSCHIO C. 1486-1541/2 FERRARA) Portrait of a gentleman, half-length oil on panel 39º x 317/8 in. (99.6 x 81 cm.) $120,000-180,000

£91,000-140,000 €110,000-160,000

PROVENANCE:

David B. Abbate (1949-2013), New York.

Art market, New York, where acquired in 2014 by the following, Private collection, until, Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 14 October 2021, lot 19, where acquired by the present owner.

Giovanni de Lutero, known as Dosso Dossi, was unrivaled in Renaissance Ferrara, where he flourished as court artist to dukes Alfonso I d’Este (r. 1505-34) and his son, Ercole II (r. 1534-59). Celebrated for his vibrant, idiosyncratic landscapes, as well as his ability to paint freely, improvising directly on his canvas without preparatory drawings, Dosso is perhaps best known for his contributions to one of the most important commissions of the Italian Renaissance: the painting program for Alfonso d’Este’s Camerino in the Castello Estense. Like his contemporaries Titian, Giorgione, and Raphael, Dosso was also active in the challenging genre of portraiture. Payment records in the Este account books indicate that he painted several lost portraits of important sitters, including the daughters of Isabella of Aragon, the former queen of Naples who was residing at the court of Alfonso I (1524), two portraits of Ercole d’Este and one of a certain 'M. Libo' (April-June 1527), and Alfonso II d’Este (painted in collaboration with his brother, Battista in April 1540; see M. Lucco, 'Portraits', in P. Humfrey and M. Lucco et al., Dosso Dossi: Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1998, p. 229). Over the centuries, numerous portraits have been ascribed to Dosso’s hand, though nearly every candidate has been rejected by modern scholarship. A coherent group was put forward by Roberto Longhi ('Nuovo ampliamenti (1940-1955)', in Officina ferrarese 1934, seguita dagli Ampliamenti 1940 e dai Nuovi ampliamenti 1940-55, pp. 173-95. Edizione delle opera complete di Roberto Longhi, V, Florence, 1956), who signaled portraits in the Musée du Louvre, Paris; Nationalmuseum, Stockholm; Wichita Center for the Arts, and one in a private collection in Connecticut as the most

likely candidates to be considered as autograph. Subsequent scholars have added a portrait in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, and a final work in a private collection in Milan to this group.

The present portrait has only recently come to the attention of scholars, and constitutes an exciting addition to this small corpus of portraits by Dosso Dossi. Working from photographs, Mauro Lucco has noted that its pictorial execution is very similar to Dosso’s paintings from the end of the second decade of the sixteenth-century (private communication, 16 June 2021). Accordingly, he suggests that it should be viewed alongside the Portrait of a man (Musée du Louvre, Paris) and the Portrait of an old man in a fur collar (private collection, Milan; nos. 45 and 46 respectively in the 1998 exhibition catalogue, op. cit.) as the most securely attributable of the group. In particular, he points to similarities of the present portrait with the handling of the seven rhomboidal panel fragments that were once set into the ceiling of the first ducal apartment in the Via Coperta, such as the figure of Drunkness at the Galleria Estense, Modena. Lucco also has observed that the unusual manner in which the sitter poses with one glove only partially removed from his left hand is especially consistent with Dosso’s witty pictorial inventions. Taking into account the large size of the panel, Lucco tentatively suggests a date of about 1520.

We are grateful to Mauro Lucco and Peter Humfrey for endorsing the attribution to Dosso Dossi on the basis of photographs and to Keith Christiansen, for endorsing the attribution following firsthand examination of the painting.

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ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI (ROME 1593-AFTER 1654 NAPLES) Galatea - a fragment

oil on canvas 20æ x 18Ω in. (53 x 47 cm.) $50,000-70,000

£38,000-53,000 €45,000-62,000

PROVENANCE:

Private collection, Paris.

Acquired by the present owner, circa 2019.

LITERATURE:

G. Porzio, 'Artemisia a Napoli. Nuovi dipinti, vecchie questioni', Ricerche sull’arte a Napoli in età moderna saggi e documenti 2020-2021, P. Rivazio ed., Naples, 2021, pp. 113-115, fig. 7.

This recently discovered canvas, preserving the bust of Galatea from a composition once representing the nymph’s marine apotheosis, is a fascinating addition to Artemisia Gentileschi's Neapolitan corpus. The fluid modelling of flesh combined with the luminous tonality of the drapery are consistent with Gentileschi’s work in Naples during the 1630s/40s—a period marked by her close collaboration with local painters such as Bernardo Cavallino and Onofrio Palumbo (G. Porzio, op. cit., pp. 106, 111). Though reduced in format, the present painting retains the expressive core of the original design: Galatea’s rapt gaze and parted lips evoke the moment of ecstatic transformation celebrated in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Giuseppe Porzio first published the present painting, identifying it unequivocally as autograph (ibid., p. 114) and noting that the upward-turned face, pearl earring, and ultramarine drapery correspond closely to the central figure in two large Triumphs of Galatea produced in Artemisia’s Neapolitan workshop: the canvas in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (inv. no. 2000.61.1) and a variant recently acquired by the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles (Christie’s, New York, 15 October 2020, lot 50, $2,130,000; ibid., pp. 108-109, 114).

Contemporary sources record four Galateas painted by Artemisia in Naples; two of these documents explicitly name Artemisia as the artist, while the remaining two, though the artist is not specified, have been widely associated with her in modern scholarship: (1) A canvas delivered by January 1649 to Antonio Ruffo, by some identified with the Los Angeles picture (ibid.).

(2) A request for a replica mentioned by Artemisia in letter dated 13 November 1649; its execution remains uncertain and the work remains untraced (ibid., citing Lettere di Artemisia, Solinas ed., 2021) (3) A painting listed simply as ‘Galatea’ in Bernardino Belprato’s 1667 inventory, without dimensions, currently untraced (ibid.).

(4) A large picture recorded in the 1710 probate of Gennaro D’Andrea, also presently unlocated (ibid.).

An additional Galatea, recorded in the 1744 inventory of Antonio Arici with an attribution to Cavallino, has been associated with the Washington canvas, though this identification remains debated (ibid., pp. 114–115). Despite the clear subject matter, due to its fragmentary state and the vague nature of these sources, the present painting cannot be definitively linked to a specific reference.

In addition to Giuseppe Porzio, we are grateful to Maria Cristina Terzaghi (written communication, 1 May 2025; following first-hand inspection) and Riccardo Lattuada (written communication, 24 April 2025; on the basis of photographs) and for endorsing the attribution to Artemisia Gentileschi.

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION

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DANIELE CRESPI (BUSTO ARSIZIO 1598-1630 MILAN)

The Head of Saint John the Baptist on a charger with a cartellino and a sword nearby oil on panel 15æ x 21º in. (40 x 54 cm.) $40,000-60,000

£31,000-45,000 €36,000-53,000

PROVENANCE:

Dugnani collection, Milan, from whom acquired by Camillo Schiavini in 1851 (according to an inscription on the reverse).

Private collection, Rome, and by descent to the present owner.

This recently rediscovered Head of Saint John the Baptist, executed with charged, controlled brushwork, belongs to a series of paintings by Daniele Crespi depicting decapitated martyrs. The artist’s attention to anatomy and realism is evident in the Baptist’s pallid complexion and serene expression, as well as in the precise rendering of muscles and veins. Despite his limited output, Crespi’s brief yet influential career—cut short by the plague in 1630 at the age of 32—helped shape the development of Lombard painting by bridging the Mannerist influence of Correggio with the emerging Baroque style.

According to an inscription on the reverse of the panel, Camillo Schiavini— podestà of Crema from 1835 to 1837—acquired the painting in Milan in 1851 for 230 Milanese lire from the Dugnani estate. The Dugnani family were prominent patrons of the arts in Milan during the 18th and 19th centuries, and their collection—encompassing Old Masters, antiquities, and rare manuscripts—was dispersed after the death of Marchesa Teresa Dugnani in the mid-19th century. Schiavini’s own collection included notable treasures such as Antonio Canova’s Terpsichore (acquired from the illustrious Sommariva collection) and even a fragment of the Parthenon, obtained during a trip to Constantinople in 1840. He later bequeathed his extensive library and other cultural assets to the hospital in Crema.

We are grateful to Francesco Frangi for endorsing the attribution of the present work to Daniele Crespi on the basis of photographs (written communication, 19 January 2025).

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LUIS DE MORALES, CALLED EL DIVINO (BADAJOZ C. 1520-?1586) Ecce Homo

oil on panel 19¡ x 13¿ in. (49.2 x 33.3 cm.) $200,000-300,000

£160,000-230,000 €180,000-260,000

PROVENANCE:

(Probably) Convent of Santa Fe de Comendadoras de Santiago, Toledo.

Rafael García, Madrid, by 1917.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 25 January 2001, lot 90, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Madrid, Museo del Prado, Exposición de obras del Divino Morales celebrada en el Museo del Prado de Madrid, 1917, no. 19.

LITERATURE:

J. Francés, 'El Divino Morales', La ilustración Española y Americana, LXI, 1917, pp. 295.

J. Francés, 'La Exposición del Divino Morales', El Año Artistico, no. 110, 1917, pp.

194.

J. Blanco Coris, 'La Exposición del Divino Morales', Heraldo de Madrid, 1917, pp.

2, 5.

E. Tormo y Monzó, 'El Divino Morales', Museum, V, 1918, pp. 215-32.

D. Berjano Escobar, El Pintor Luis de Morales (El Divino), Madrid, 1926, p. 100.

J. Francés, 'Evocación del Divino Morales', Año Artistico, 1925-26, pp. 139-141.

I. Bäcksbacka, 'Kristus-och Mater Dolorosa-typen i Morales måleri', Konsthistorisk Tidskrift, XXIII, 1954, p. 70.

I. Bäcksbacka, Luis de Morales, Helsinki, 1962, pp. 94 and 162, no. 23, fig. 59.

J. M. Serrera, Obras Maestras de la Coleccion Masaveau, A. E. Pérez Sánchez ed., Madrid, 1989, pp. 52 and 54, illustrated.

C. Solís Rodríguez, Luis de Morales, Badajoz, 1999, pp. 154-157. Á. Arterido, 'Luis de Morales, San Francisco de Asís y san Pedro de Alcántara, ca. 1575', Colección Masaveu: del románico al la Ilustración. Imagen y materia, Madrid, 2013, p. 78. Á. Arterido, The Divine Morales, L. Ruiz Gómez ed., exhibition catalogue, Madrid, 2015, pp. 183-84, under nos. 50 and 51, fig. 46.

Luis de Morales painted this refined panel in the 1560s, when he was at the height of his powers. The subject, Ecce Homo (‘Behold the Man’), is derived from the words uttered

by Pontius Pilate as he presented the scourged Christ to a hostile crowd shortly before His Crucifixion, as recounted in the Gospel of John (XIX: 5). Set against a dark background, the Saviour’s tortured figure is illuminated by an unseen light source that emanates from upper left, heightening the painting’s profound spirituality. Christ appears bust-length, with his head turned downwards and his eyes lowered. His crown of thorns has been removed, leaving a trail of cuts from which blood runs down his forehead and over his right shoulder. Morales has reduced his composition to a bare minimum–Christ’s only attribute is the reed staff with which he was beaten and mockingly given as sceptre–so that the viewer is forced to focus directly on the emotional experience of Christ’s suffering.

The art historian Juan Miguel Serrera first suggested in 1988 (loc. cit.) that the present Ecce Homo originally formed the central panel of a triptych, flanked by the two panels representing St. Francis of Assisi and St. Peter of Verona.

Today housed in the Colección Masaveu, Madrid, these two half-length representations of Mendicant saints would have created a meaningful conversation with the present image, as both are evocative of Christ’s Passion – Francis through his stigmatization and Peter through his martyrdom. In the early 20th century, all three works were in the collection of Rafael García in Madrid. The St. Francis of Assisi and St. Peter of Verona were both formerly documented in the convent of Santa Fe de Comendadoras de Santiago in Toledo and evidence suggests that the present work also shares this early provenance, though as Ángel Aterido notes (loc. cit., 2015), the documentation is inconsistent. One early source speaks of an Ecce Homo paired with `the Most Holy Mary’ in the Toledo cloister, while another only cites the Ecce Homo, and a third records the two saints and not the image of Christ (ibid.). In 1999, Solís Rodríguez (loc. cit.) expressed hesitation about the theory that the three panels originally formed a triptych, noting the difference in scale (the Masaveu panels each measure approximately 77 x 34 cm) and a lack of connection between the figures. Aterido correctly observes, however, that this disparity in scale is

entirely consistent with Morales’s practice, as evidenced by the Triptych of Bishop Juan de Ribera in the Museo de Cádiz, Cádiz and the Triptych of the Pietà, St. John and St. Mary Magdalene in the Prado, Madrid (loc. cit., 2015).

Morales’ intensely spiritual and highly-refined paintings reflect the profoundly religious atmosphere that saturated Counter-Reformation Spain. As objects of meditation suited to the mystical reflection championed by contemporary religious luminaries such as St. Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582), St. Peter of Alcántara (1499-1562), and Fray Luis de Granada (1504-1588), since at least the beginning of the eighteenth century, Morales’ paintings earned him the epithet ‘The Divine’. As Antonio Palomino (1653-1726), Morales’ early biographer wrote: ‘He was given the sobriquet of El Divino, both because all his paintings were of sacred subjects, and because he made heads of Christ with hair of such great delicacy and subtlety that those with a curiosity for art are tempted to try to make it move by blowing on it, since it seems to have the same subtlety as natural hair...’ (quoted in L. Ruiz Gomez, op. cit., p. 34).

As evidenced by the present Ecce Homo, Morales’ paintings blend the expressive realism of fifteenth- and sixteenthcentury Flemish painters with the innovations of High Renaissance masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael to create powerful, almost iconic images. Throughout his career, Morales returned to the subject of the Ecce Homo and its counterpart, the Mater Dolorosa, on numerous occasions, all with slight variations to the figures’ pose and attributes. Though the iconography was well-established by the sixteenth century, Morales’ treatment here was heavily informed by Sebastiano del Piombo’s Christ Bearing the Cross, which had been painted in Rome around 1536-37 for the Fourth Count of Cifuentes. It is uncertain whether or not Morales would have seen Sebastiano’s painting in person, or whether he would only have known it from copies, such as one by his contemporary in the Spanish court, the Portuguese painter Manuel Denís. Another Italian source was likely the Mocking of Christ by Giampietrino (c.

1495-1540), now in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan (loc. cit., pp. 133-136).

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ADRIAEN VAN OSTADE (HAARLEM 1610–1685 HAARLEM) Killing the calf

signed and dated 'Av Ostade 1639' (lower right) oil on panel 14 x 16Ω in. (35.5 x 42 cm.) $40,000-60,000

£31,000-45,000 €36,000-53,000

PROVENANCE:

(Possibly) Antoine Poullain (d. 1780), Receveur général des Domaines du Roi, Paris; his deceased sale, Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 17 March 1780 (=3rd day), lot 49 (1,070 FF to Langlier), as 'Isack van Ostade'.

(Possibly) Jean-Corneille Landgraff (d. after 1790), Paris; his sale, Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 21 December 1784, lot 89, (899 FF), as 'Isack van Ostade'.

(Possibly) Jean-Benjamin de Laborde (1734–1794), Paris; his sale, Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 14 June 1784, lot 44 (800 FF to Paillet), as 'Isack van Ostade'.

(Possibly) Jean Dubois (active 1768-1789), Paris; his sale, Lebrun Julliot fils, Paris, 20 December 1785, lot 47 (to Constantin), as 'Isack van Ostade'.

(Possibly) Chevalier John Lambert (1728–1799) and M. Du Porail, Paris; their sale, Lebrun, Paris, 27 March 1787, lot 67 (4,000 FF to Lebrun), as 'Isack van Ostade'.

(Possibly) Anonymous sale; Amsterdam, 13 July 1799 (fl. 37½ to J. Yver), lot 159, as 'Isack van Ostade'.

(Possibly) Jean-Louis Laneuville (1748–1826), Paris; his sale, JB.P. Le Brun, Paris, 6 November 1811, lot 67 (to Constantin), as 'Isack van Ostade'.

(Possibly) Comte Auguste-Charles-Joseph de Flahault de la Billarderie (1785–1870), Paris and London, and by descent to the following, Alexander Edward Hamilton Digby (A.E.H. Digby); his deceased sale, Sotheby’s, London, 20 June 1951, lot 27, where acquired by the below, with W. Katz, London, until at least 1953.

Acquired by the present owner, circa 2023.

LITERATURE:

(Possibly) C. Blanc, Le trésor de la curiosité, II, Paris, 1858, pp. 106, 113, 284, as 'Isack van Ostade'.

(Possibly) C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, III, London, 1910, p. 265, no. 413a, as 'Adriaen van Ostade', and p. 480, no. 143, as 'Isack van Ostade'.

The Burlington Magazine, December 1953, pl. XIV, illustrated.

Signed and dated 1639, this panel exemplifies the vigorous style and realism of Adriaen van Ostade’s early maturity. Its dramatic lighting, vivid characterization, and compelling narrative typify the artist’s distinctive approach to genre painting.

This painting is likely identifiable with the work cited by Charles Blanc and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot under an erroneous attribution to Isack van Ostade (C. Blanc, op. cit.; C. Hofstede de Groot, op. cit.). The confusion appears to stem from an engraving by François Basan listing the work as by Isack. However, details in the engraving, notably the positioning of the figures and the distinctive horns of the calf, align precisely with the present painting and differ significantly from Isack’s known variant (sold Dorotheum, Vienna, 12 October 2011, lot 720).

PROPERTY FROM A LADY

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AERT VAN DER NEER (GORINCHEM 1603/04-1677 AMSTERDAM)

A winter landscape with skaters and kolf players on a frozen river oil on panel 20º x 36Ω in. (51.4 x 92.8 cm.) $150,000-250,000

£120,000-190,000 €140,000-220,000

PROVENANCE:

with Leonard Koetser Gallery, London, by 1964.

(Possibly) Dr. M.G. Stratford; his sale, Christie's, London, 21 June 1968, lot 98.

EXHIBITED:

(Almost certainly) London, Leonard Koetser Gallery, Autumn Exhibition of Flemish, Dutch and Italianate Old Masters, 1964, no. 2.

LITERATURE:

Advertisement, The Connoisseur, October 1964, unpaginated, illustrated.

Advertisement, Apollo, October 1964, p. xlv, illustrated.

(Possibly) F. Bachmann, Aert van der Neer, Bremen, 1982, p. 32, fig. 10.

W. Schultz, Aert van der Neer, Doornspijk, 2002, p. 177, no. 172, with partially incorrect provenance, as an 18th century copy.

Beginning in the 1630s, Aert van der Neer began to include winter scenes in his repertoire, no doubt in response to the growing popularity of the theme and to compete with the increasing number of artists who treated it. The artist’s views of skaters on frozen waterways, of which the present panel is a lovely example, are clearly Flemish in origin, reminiscent of Hendrick Avercamp's rendering of the same subject, painted some fifty years earlier, and themselves in the tradition of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Van der Neer lowers his horizon-line, however, allowing for considerably more sky, and opens up his compositions far more than his earlier counterparts, thus making them more convincingly naturalistic. His works from the early to mid-1640s suggest another source of inspiration, too: that of the Haarlem 'tonal' phase of landscape painting, developed in the 1620s and 1630s by the likes of Esiais van de Velde, Pieter Molijn, Salomon van Ruysdael and Jan van Goyen. In his typical fashion, van der Neer here uses a number of Flemish devices, such as the closing off of his composition with repoussoir elements of the two trees at left and the lines of buildings at right, and the placement of isolated figures on the frozen path.

Perhaps van der Neer's greatest contribution to Dutch landscape painting, and an area in which some say he is unsurpassed, is his sensitivity to colored light and the rich nuances of atmosphere. This is complimented by his ability to represent light, either with heavy cloud formations, or simply using a subdued palette of pinks and browns, as in the present painting, that imbues his scene with a glow that suggests a fleeting moment of warmth in a long winter season. Van der Neer captures the nature of northern light in winter by using incredibly subtle tonal changes in a way that few other Dutch artists managed to reproduce with equal success, with the exceptions of Rembrandt (his only known winter landscape of 1646, now in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel), Jacob van Ruisdael, and Jan van der Cappelle.

The present panel must have been particularly admired both at the time of its creation and over the centuries that followed. As a result, multiple versions and later copies have survived, whose existence have led to much confusion regarding their individual identities and provenances. There appear to be at least three surviving examples of this composition by Aert van der Neer and his followers. Our panel is generally identified as the one published by Fredo Bachmann in his seminal catalogue raisonné (F. Bachmann, loc. cit.; see also W. Schulz, loc. cit.). Bachmann records it as being signed in monogram and dated 1641. As visual inspection was unable to confirm the presence of these inscriptions, one must suppose that Bachmann was either working from erroneous cataloguing, or that the signature and date were subsequently removed in the course of a cleaning or of a restoration. Very minor differences between the present painting and the black and white photograph in Bachmann’s catalogue, however, must be considered.

Certain features are visible in the photograph, but not in our painting, including a structure with a triangular roof to the right of the gate at center and the buildings in the far

distance on the horizon of the frozen canal to the right of the large tree. A painting sold at Knight, Frank & Rutley, London, 14 April 1964, lot 593, may be the same as the one cited by Bachmann. That same painting possibly sold at Christie’s, London, on 21 June 1968, lot 98. A second (or third) panel, measuring 51 x 93 cm., was last recorded as in a private collection in Kiel (W. Schulz, op. cit., no. 75, as signed and dated (lower left) and `probably authentic’).

Most recently, a final panel measuring 51 x 91 cm., also bearing a signature and dated (lower left) was sold at Maigret, Paris, 21 June 2023, lot 122, as 18th-century in the style of Aert van der Neer. Writing in 2002, Wolfgang Schulz identified the present panel as the one cited by Bachmann, suggesting that it was an 18th-century copy after the panel in Kiel, and connecting its provenance with that of the one sold at Knight, Frank & Rutley. Based on all of the available evidence, our painting is almost certainly the work exhibited by Leonard Koetser in 1964.

Turning to the present panel itself, its quality is readily apparent. Certain elements, such as the large tree at right which is stylistically reminiscent of Roelandt Savery (15761639), suggest that this might be an early work. Typical of van der Neer is his preference for lively staffage in his paintings. The group of the man and girl carrying sticks with their dog in the foreground, the solitary woman at left, and the old man with a walking stick by the gate find counterparts in several of van der Neer’s paintings, and might correspond to drawings kept in the artist’s workshop. Participants in the game of kolf are also depicted on the frozen canal. This game was played by two or four people and with two or four balls, and the aim was to cover a fixed distance or to reach a fixed goal, a post for instance, with as few strokes as possible. Because a smooth surface was necessary, kolf was played in Holland only in winter, on the ice, but this is the origin of the modern game of golf.

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE HONORABLE HORST DENK AND THE HONORABLE RUTH E. DENK

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GERRIT ADRIAENSZ. BERCKHEYDE (HAARLEM 1638-1698)

Amsterdam, a view from the Haarlemersluis on the Singel with the Round Lutheran Church and the Jan Roodenpoortstoren in the distance signed 'Gerrit Berck Heyde' (lower right) oil on canvas 20æ x 24æ in. (52.8 x 62.9 cm.) $250,000-350,000

£190,000-260,000 €230,000-310,000

PROVENANCE:

Hendrik Jan Antoni Raedt van Oldenbarnevelt (1860-1936), The Hague; his sale, F. Muller & Cie., Amsterdam, 6-7 November 1900, lot 7.

Mr. and Mrs. Clinton L. Walker, and by whom gifted to, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; and by which deaccessioned, [Property from the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco]; Sotheby's Parke Bernet, New York, 4 June 1980, lot 166, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

(Possibly) Basel, Kunstmuseum, Meisterwerke holländischer Malerei des 16. bis 18.

Jahrhunderts im Kunstmuseum, 23 June-19 August 1945, no. 4.

Allentown, PA, Allentown Art Museum, Seventeenth Century Painters of Haarlem 15901790, 2 April-13 June 1965, no. 6 LITERATURE:

European Works of Art in the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Berkley, 1966, p. 132, illustrated.

C. Lawrence, Gerrit Berckheyde, Doornspijk, 1991, p. 61, note 66a.

Gerrit Berckheyde, along with Jan van der Heyden, pioneered the townscape as a genre in its own right during the latter half of the seventeenth century. In addition to his native Haarlem, Berckheyde painted cities across the Netherlands including Amsterdam and The Hague, and turned his brush further afield while in the employ of Karl Ludwig Elector Palatine, depicting Heidelberg, Bonn and Cologne. His earliest compositions of Amsterdam date to the 1660s and feature Dam square with the Nieuwe Kerck and Town Hall. It is no surprise Berckheyde was drawn to Amsterdam, as it provided new subjects and new markets for his art, fueled by the city’s growing trade activity.

The present painting is listed among six autograph versions of this particular view in Cynthia Lawrence’s 1991 monograph on the artist: one is in the collections of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (inv. no. 1952.77) and another in the Staatliche Galerie, Dessau, the other three have not resurfaced on the art market since one of them last appeared in London in 1959 (loc. cit.). The Singel canal would have been particularly familiar to Berckheyde as the

lock was the main point of entry for barges making the nineteen-mile journey from Haarlem to Amsterdam. The Round Lutheran Church, with its soaring copper dome depicted at left, provides a terminus post quem for the painting as its construction was not completed until 1671.

At the far end of the canal the Jan Roodenpoortstoren is visible, its prominent clock face recognizable even at a distance. First erected as a medieval defensive tower along the city walls, the Jan Roodenpoortstoren was revitalized in 1616 when the clock and chimes were added at the instance of Mayor Reynier Pauw, who oversaw the Third Expansion of Amsterdam that began in 1610. It is likely that Berckheyde sketched these buildings on one of his trips to the city, only to work up his final compositions from drawings in his studio in Haarlem. While no drawings of the present view appear to survive, this working method is evidenced by other drawings of Amsterdam such as one now in the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap, Amsterdam, which relates to finished paintings in the Amsterdam Museum (inv.nr. SA 7455 ) and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid (inv. no.42 1959.3).

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE

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WILLEM KALF (ROTTERDAM 1619-1693 AMSTERDAM)

A gilt cup and cover, a roemer, a façon-de-venise glass, peaches, oranges and a peeled lemon in a porcelain bowl on a partially draped table signed 'W. KALF' (lower left) oil on canvas 30 x 25Ω in. (76.2 x 64.2 cm.) $300,000-500,000

£230,000-380,000 €270,000-440,000

PROVENANCE:

(Probably) J. E. Fiseau, Amsterdam; his sale, Phillipe van der Schley et al., Amsterdam, 30 August 1797, lot 108.

Marczell de Nemes (1866-1930), Budapest; his sale, Galerie Manzi, Paris, 17 June 1913, lot 54.

Federico Gentile di Guiseppe (1868-1940); his sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 5 April 1938, lot 39. with Nathan Katz, Dieren, by 1938, and by whose estate sold; [Succession N. K...], Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 25 April 1951, lot 33.

Dr. Otto Wertheimer, Paris, and by whom sold to the following, with Knoedler & Co., New York (their label on the reverse), owned in 1/2 shares with Pinakos, and by whom sold on 12 March 1956 to, Gilbert A. Harrison, Washington, D.C. and later Scottsdale, by whom gifted in December 1991 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

EXHIBITED:

Amsterdam, Kunsthandel D. Katz, Arti e Amicitiae,Tentoonstelling van 16de en 17de eeuwsche Hollandsche en Vlaamsche schilderijen, 7 May-4 June 1938, no. 36.

Dieren, Kunsthandel D. Katz, Tentoonstelling van Belangrijke 16e en 17e eeuwsche Hollandsche en Vlaamsche Schilderijen, 2 July-15 September 1938, no. 47.

Providence, Rhode Island School of Design, Dutch Painting in the 17th Century, December 1938-25 January 1939, no. 25.

Zurich, Kunsthaus Zürich, Holländer des 17 Jahrhunderts, 4 November-20 December 1953, no. 72.

Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts, House of Art, 17 October-28 November 1954, no. 22.

Albuquerque, The Albuquerque Museum, Silent Things, Secret Things: Still Life from Rembrandt to the Millennium, 19 September 1999-31 January 2000, no. 27.

LITERATURE:

W. Stechow, Dutch Painting in the 17th Century, exhibition catalogue, Providence,1938, unpaginated, no. 25, pl. 25.

H.E. van Gelder, W.C. Heda, A. van Beyeren, W. Kalf, Amsterdam, 1940, p. 45.

K.-H. Hering, Silberschmiedgefasse auf neidlandischen Stilleben des seibzehnten Jahrunderts, Ph.D. dissertation, 1955, p. 40.

L. Griesbach, Willem Kalf, Berlin, 1975, pp. 258-259, no. 103, fig. 112.

Willem Kalf was one of the most significant and successful Dutch still-life painters of the 17th century. Immensely celebrated in his lifetime, his virtuoso ability to create the illusion of reality in paint has inspired comparisons of his work to that of Vermeer and ensured that Kalf’s reputation, unlike that of most Dutch still-life painters, never waned. Kalf was born in Rotterdam and travelled to Paris in the late 1630s and resided there until 1646, when he returned permanently to the Netherlands. Despite his close contact with contemporary French still-life painters, such as Jacques Linard (1597-1645), their paintings left comparatively little trace on Kalf’s activity in the period.

Kalf’s elegantly composed still lifes brimming with costly objects arranged on a partially draped table, however, appear to have had a lasting influence on French stilllife painters like Pierre Dupuis (1610-1682) and Meiffren Conte (circa 1630-1705) and were subsequently admired by painters like Antoine Coypel (1661-1722), who offered unreserved praise for the 'object imitated after nature' and noted that Kalf spoke 'the language of painting as well as Giorgione and Titian' (quoted in C.B. Bailey, 'Surveying Genre in Eighteenth-Century French Painting', The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting, exhibition catalogue, Ottawa, Washington and Berlin, 2003, p. 18). Employing a relatively restricted palette, Kalf became the leading painter of pronkstilleven (sumptuous and ornate still lifes), of which the present painting is an excellent example. In these works, rare and extravagant objects seem to emerge from dark backgrounds as if lit by flickering light, and are painted with such skill that, writing in 1797, the German poet Johann van Goethe remarked that to view a painting by Kalf was `to understand in what sense art is superior to nature and what the spirit of mankind imparts to objects, which it view with creative eyes. For me, at least, there is no question but that should I have the choice of the golden vessels or the picture, I would choose the picture' (`Zur Erinnerung des Stëdelschen Kabinetts’, 19 August 1797).

Kalf seems to have acted as an appraiser as well as a dealer in objets d’art and engravings, and it has been suggested that he may have employed some of this stock in his paintings (see A.J. Adams, Dutch and Flemish Paintings from New

York Private Collections, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1988, p. 76). Rather than arranging these objects on a table, Kalf probably produced drawings of individual objects which could then be employed as aids in developing his compositions. It is therefore unsurprising that several of the treasured items found in the present painting also appear in other paintings by Kalf. The silver platter, for instance, is likely the same as the one in several of his still lifes, including one in the Musée Crozatier, Le Puy-enVelay. The silver-gilt covered cup – a ceremonial vessel known as a Buckelpokal (knobby goblet), likely produced in Augsburg or Nuremberg – is nearly identical to the ones seen in the paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

The Chinese porcelain blue and white bowl, which dates from the Wan-Li dynasty, appears repeatedly in Kalf 's works produced in this period, such as that in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.

In a letter dated 8 July 1990, the renowned Kalf scholar Lucius Grisebach reconfirmed the attribution of the present painting, specifying that he considered it to be 'ein charakteristiches Stilleben Willem Kalfs aus seiner besten Zeit und in bester Qualität (a characteristic still life

by Willem Kalf of his best period and of the finest quality)’.

Grisebach furthermore revised his previous opinion regarding the painting’s condition, which he had stated in his 1974 catalogue raisonné (loc. cit.), explaining that he was misled by poor black and white photographs. Working from better, color images, in 1990 he recognized that the background details remained in good state, and that they are entirely representative of the 'charakteristischen Handschrift Willem Kalf (characteristic handling of Willem Kalf)’. Likewise, he affirmed that the signature, which he had previously questioned, corresponds to the type typically used by the artist around 1660 (a copy of this letter is available, upon request).

We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer for endorsing the attribution to Kalf on the basis of photographs (written communication, 23 April 2025). Dr. Meijer considers the painting to be a good example of Kalf 's works from around 1663.

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PIETER HERMANSZ. VERELST (SORSRECHT 1618-1678) A brothel scene

signed 'P. verelst f' (upper center, on the mantle) oil on canvas 17¡ x 14º in. (44.1 x 35.9 cm.) $30,000-50,000

£23,000-38,000 €27,000-44,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 17 January 1992, lot 26. with Richard Green, London, where acquired in 1997 by the present owner.

This interior scene of merrymaking fits into the seventeenth-century tradition of brothel scenes, where revelry and sexual suggestion are often veiled in symbolic details. In the present picture, the sexual tension is heightened by the symbolic inclusion of the peach on the table, with the man appearing to squeeze the juice of the fruit into the woman’s drink. The woman gesturing toward his midsection makes the innuendo explicit.

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SIMON JACOBSZ. DE VLIEGER (ROTTERDAM 1600/ 01-1653 WEESP) Seascape

signed 'S De. VLIEGER' (lower center, on a spur) oil on panel 14Ω x 20¬ in. (36.8 x 52.4 cm.) $80,000-120,000

£61,000-90,000 €71,000-110,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 2 August 1940, lot 170.

Private collection, Netherlands.

Anonymous sale; Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 23-24 April 1998, lot 2016. with Salomon Lilian, Amsterdam, by 2000, where acquired by the present owner.

While Simon de Vlieger was probably the most important Dutch marine painter of the first half of the 17th century, little is known of his early career, although his paintings of the 1620s and 1630s reveal a clear debt to Jan Porcellis. By the 1640s, he had evolved his own style, recognizable for its silvery light, cool palette and strong draftsmanship. De Vlieger formed a link between the second and third generations of Dutch marine painters, influencing Willem van de Velde II, who worked in his studio at Weesp, as well as Hendrick Dubbels and Jan van de Cappelle (who owned numerous paintings and more than 1,300 drawings by de Vlieger), who also probably trained in de Vlieger’s studio.

One of the most appealing aspects of de Vlieger’s finest works is the quantity of observational details that he included in his paintings, imparting them with a particularly lively and engaging realism. These include here, for example, the two men in the small boat at left, who brace themselves as they row against the choppy seas, and the wispy sheets of rain that shroud the boats in a misty haze in the left background. These are complemented by close attention to naturalistic details, for example the way in which the sun, obscured by heavy dark clouds, seemingly lights the picture from behind, with patches of sunlight escaping here and there to illuminate the right side of the composition. Particularly successful is the carefully-observed treatment of light and shadow seen in the sails of the two boats in the foreground.

The impression of realism is underpinned by a carefully thought-out composition, in which the two large boats at right are balanced by the larger ships in the distance at left. These visual bookends create an avenue leading the eye into the low horizon at the center of the composition, a device that de Vlieger would also develop in his later naval parade pictures.

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JAN STEEN (LEIDEN 1626-1679) Prayer before a meal

signed 'JSteen' ('JS' linked, lower right) oil on canvas 18¿ x 22Ω in. (46 x 57.2 cm.) $300,000-500,000

£230,000-380,000 €270,000-440,000

PROVENANCE:

Harriet, Lady Wantage (1837-1920), wife of Robert James Lindsay, subsequently LoydLindsay, 1st Lord Wantage, V.C., K.C.B. (1832-1901), Lockinge House, Berkshire.

A. von Keller, Hamburg; his deceased sale, Rudolf Bangel, Frankfurt-am-Main, 17 May 1904, lot 83.

Sir George Donaldson (1845-1925), London.

André de Ridder, Cronberg (1868-1921); his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 2 June 1924, lot 70, to Lugt.

Robert Langton Douglas (1864-1951), London, by 1934. with D. Katz, Dieren, by 1937.

Private collection, Switzerland, by 1942. with Leonard Koetser, London, by 1947 and where acquired in 1964 by the following, Private collection, and by descent until, [Property from a Family Collection]; Christie's, London, 5 July 2018, lot 5, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Dieren, D. Katz, Tentoonstelling van Belangrijke 16e en 17e Eeuwsche Hollandsche Schilderijen, 3 July-15 September 1937, no. 93.

Basel, Kunstmuseum, Meisterwerke holländischer Malerei des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts im Kunstmuseum, 23 June-19 August 1945, no. 91.

London, Leonard Koetser Ltd., Twelfth Annual Spring Exhibition of Flemish, Dutch and Italian Old Masters, 18 March-18 May 1964, no. 15.

LITERATURE:

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, etc., I, London, 1908, pp. 101-102, no. 383a, 'from the description it seems of very doubtful authenticity'.

W.V. Bode, The Collection of Pictures of the late Herr. A. de Ridder in his Villa at Schönberg near Cronberg in the Taunus, Berlin, 1913, pp.17 and 47, no. 30.

A. Bredius, Jan Steen, Amsterdam, 1926, III, pp. 62-63, fig. 64, as 'a magnificent work'.

Advertisement, The Connoisseur, October 1963, vol. 154, p. xlii.

Advertisement, Die Weltkunst, April 1964, p. 236, illustrated.

Advertisement, The Connoisseur, April 1964, p. lvi, illustrated.

'Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions', The Burlington Magazine, April 1964, p. 193, fig.

61.

L.D. Vries, Jan Steen ' de Kluchtschilder, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Groningen, 1977, pp. 36-37 and 157, no. 38.

K. Braun, Alle tot nu toe bekende schilderijen van Jan Steen, Rotterdam, 1980, p. 169, no.

B-105, as a rejected work.

P.C. Sutton and M.H. Butler, 'The Life and Art of Jan Steen', Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin, LXXVIII, Winter 1982-Spring 1983, p. 31, under note 7.

Described by the great Dutch connoisseur Abraham Bredius as ‘a magnificent work’, this Prayer before a Meal is one of the least well known of Jan Steen’s interpretations of his most pious subject. At least four other treatments are known, all compositionally different, including those in the Leiden Collection (formerly Sotheby’s, London, 5 December 1012, lot 9, £5,641,250); the collection of the Duke of Rutland, Belvoir Castle; the John G. Johnson collection, Philadelphia; and the National Gallery, London–all of which date to the 1660s. The superlative quality of those versions (the first two in particular) gives an indication of the importance that Steen, himself a Catholic, attached to the subject. This picture, having remained out of the public eye in the same collection since 1964, was inexplicably rejected

by Karel Braun in his 1980 monograph (op. cit.) and can only now be reconsidered properly in the context of these other versions. Both Guido Jansen and Wouter Kloek for endorsed the attribution on the basis of photographs at the time of the 2018 sale (see Provenance). Both independently proposed a date in the late 1650s, making this possibly Steen’s earliest painting of the subject.

The didactic intent behind all these works was underlined in the Belvoir and Leiden pictures with the inclusion

of inscriptions of verses from the Bible or the Lord’s Prayer, expounding the virtues of a simple, honest life, underpinned by humility and a love of God. The message is no less hard-hitting in this example despite the absence of any text. In a humble yet well-ordered interior, lit from the outside window, a mother is shown praying next to her infant daughter, the latter imitating the gesture of the former, whilst the son stands clasping his hands together gazing up towards the light in an act of devotion. The father is shown hunched at the table respectfully holding his cap, a key hanging on the wall behind him emblematic of his trustworthiness. His place in the composition is balanced on the right by the newest addition to the family–a baby shown asleep in a wicker crib, which is described in admirable detail in half-light falling from the open window.

Steen has taken characteristic care throughout to describe the unadorned setting as a functioning domestic interior.

Various culinary implements are shown on shelves, in an open cupboard or hanging on the wall, while the simple meal itself consisting of root vegetables, bread and cheese is meticulously rendered on the crisp white tablecloth which has recently been unfolded. This truthfulness serves to enhance the effect of restrained piety and of a family living modestly and with dignity.

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WILLEM CLAESZ. HEDA (HAARLEM 1594-1680)

Three pewter plates with oysters, an over-turned stoneware jug, a silver salt cellar, a glass carafe, a roemer on a gilt cupholder and a Venetian-style wine glass, hazelnuts and a knife on a partially draped table signed and dated '·HEDA·1637·' (lower center, on the tablecloth) oil on panel 19Ω x 25º in. (49.4 x 64.1 cm.) $400,000-600,000

£310,000-450,000 €360,000-530,000

PROVENANCE:

with Walter F. Altschul, New York, where acquired in September 1962 by the below, with Schaeffer Galleries, New York, where acquired 10 June 1963 by, Mr Hoos, Wassenaar or Mr H. A. Klatte-Hoos, Amsterdam, 10 June 1963.

Dutch private collection, Lausanne, and by whom sold, [The Property of a Gentleman]; Sotheby's, London, 17 December 1998, lot 40, where acquired by the below, with Richard Green, London, where acquired in March 1999 by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Maastricht, TEFAF, March 1999.

LITERATURE:

N.R.A. Vroom, A Modest Message, as intimated by the painters of the 'Monochrome Banketje', II, Schiedam, 1980, p. 71, no. 357b, incorrectly identified as a replica.

Executed with consummate assurance, this painting exemplifies Willem Claesz. Heda’s unrivalled ability to evoke a spectrum of textures within a restrained palette. His subtle modulation of tone creates an atmosphere of serene luxury that would inspire generations of still-life painters.

Fred G. Meijer first identified the present panel as the prime version of this celebrated composition at the time of its 1998 sale (see Provenance). Until then, scholars had considered the autograph painting to be the version now in the Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp (signed and dated 1637; inv. no. 483; see Vroom, op. cit., I, p. 73, fig. 90).

Of the ten additional variants catalogued by Vroom (ibid., pp. 66–68, nos. 357a–j), most are attributed to unidentified followers.

The unusually high number of replicas underscores the composition’s popularity and influence. Its structure is quintessential of Heda’s paintings in the 1630s: a cool, near-monochrome harmony of greys, silvers, and muted greens, animated by the scintillating play of light across pewter, glass, and silver. Characteristic motifs, such as dishes of oysters and nuts, appear in several other works from this period. Two objects, however, are less frequently represented by Heda: the earthenware jug at center, which recurs only in a still life dated 1633 in the Museo del Prado (inv. no. P002754; ibid., p. 71, fig. 87), and the elegant silver salt cellar, which also appears only in Heda’s Still Life with Wine Glass dated 1637 in the Musée du Louvre (inv. no.

1319; ibid., p. 60, fig. 75).

We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer for confirming his attribution and for sharing his unpublished essay on the painting (written communication, 23 April 2025).

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JAN VAN GOYEN (LEIDEN 1596-1656 THE HAGUE)

An extensive view of The Hague with the Grote Kerk in the distance signed and dated 'VGOYEN. 1638' (lower centre) oil on panel 23 x 38Ω in. (58.4 x 97.8 cm.) $200,000-300,000

£160,000-230,000 €180,000-260,000

PROVENANCE:

Jacques-Victor, comte de la Béraudière (1808-1884); his deceased sale, Féral, a.o., Paris, 18 May 1885, lot 132, as 'Vue d'un ville de Hollande' (FF 1,400 to Blondel).

Art market, Paris, circa 1939.

Private collection, Switzerland, by 1980. with Noortman Master Paintings, Maastricht, where acquired by the present owner on 25 February 2005.

LITERATURE:

P. Eudel, L'Hotel Drouot et la Curiosité en 1884-1885, Paris, 1886, p. 411, as 'Vue d'un ville de Hollande'.

C. Hofstede de Goot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, VIII, London, 1927, p. 288, no. 1148b, as 'View of a Town'.

H.-U. Beck, Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656, II, Amsterdam, 1973, p. 160, no. 325, illustrated; III, Doornspijk, 1987, p. 180, no. 325.

Cityscapes formed an important part of van Goyen’s artistic activity from 1633, the year of his earliest dated paintings of this type (see Beck, op. cit., II, nos. 272, 290 and 342), until the year before his death (op. cit., no. 396). However, the majority of these works, which account for roughly fifteen percent of his known paintings, were executed in the 1640s. Views of Arnheim, Dordrecht, Nijmegen and Rhenen predominate, with comparatively fewer views of major artistic centres like Leiden, The Hague and Amsterdam, the last of which is known exclusively through a late painting of 1655 (op. cit., no. 421).

The comparative scarcity of depictions of The Hague–Beck records only nine such views (op. cit., nos. 324-332)–is particularly surprising in light of the artist’s long-term residence in the city, where he settled in 1631 and largely resided until his death. Van Goyen’s earliest view of The Hague dates to 1637, with further dated examples known until 1653. The present example, much like the majority of van Goyen’s depictions of The Hague, shows the city from a distance, with the tower of the city’s Grote Kerk dominating the skyline. To its right can be seen the tower of the old city hall. Van Goyen had painted a near identical view of The Hague lacking only the foreground figures and on a smaller scale the previous year (op. cit., II, no. 324). A similar view from the southwest also appears in a somewhat larger painting dated 1644 (op. cit., no. 327) as well as a drawing datable to circa 1645, the latter of which is today in the Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (op. cit., I, no. 607).

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SALOMON VAN RUYSDAEL (NAARDEN 1600-1670 HAARLEM)

A smalschip in an estuary with two fishermen in the foreground signed with monogram and indistinctly dated 'SR 1[6...]' (lower left) oil on panel 16º x 14 in. (41 x 35.6 cm.) $100,000-150,000

£76,000-110,000 €89,000-130,000

PROVENANCE:

with P. de Boer, Amsterdam, where acquired on 18 October 1958 by, Private collection, Europe.

[The Property of a Family Trust]; Christie's, London, 13 December 1996, lot 8. with Richard Green, London, where acquired in July 1997 by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

London, Richard Green, Important Old Master Paintings, 1997, no. 9.

LITERATURE:

W. Stechow, Salomon van Ruysdael, Berlin, 1975, pp. 77-78, no. 59A, without mention of the monogram and date.

Although best known for his landscapes and river views, Salomon van Ruysdael also painted a small number of marines depicting vessels in estuaries. These intimately scaled works employ a lower horizon line marked by a small strip of land in the distance, allowing more space to be dedicated to the depiction of the sky and billowing clouds. Some of these estuary pictures feature recognizable cities in the distance, but here Ruysdael chooses to focus on the everyday activities of the fishermen with their baskets and the play of light on water rather than topographical accuracy. To achieve his distinctive atmospheric effects, Ruysdael painted rapidly, wet-over-wet, on a buff or pink ground. This characteristic technique is visible here, especially in the thick white clouds at upper right.

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GIOVANNI PAOLO PANINI (PIACENZA 1691-1765 ROME)

A Capriccio with the Arch of Constantine and the Capitoline Lion Group signed 'JPP' (lower right, on the stone) oil on canvas 21æ x 16¡ in. (55.5 x 41.7 cm.) $70,000-100,000

£53,000-75,000 €62,000-88,000

PROVENANCE:

Giovanni Treccani, Milan, by 1929 until circa 1960.

Art market, France.

Private collection, Piacenza, until 2008.

Private collection, England, by 2010, where acquired by the present owner in 2019.

EXHIBITED:

Venice, Palazzo delle Biennali ai Giardini Pubblici, Il Settecento Italiano: Venice, 18 July10 October 1929, no. 10.

LITERATURE:

Il Settecento Italiano, exhibition catalogue, Venice, 1929, p. 31, no. 10.

G. Fiocco, 'La pittura veneziana alla mostra del Settecento', Rivista della città di Venezia, VIII, no. 9, 1929, p. 518.

F. Arisi, Giovanni Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma nel ‘700, Rome, 1986, p. 440, no. 420, pl. 197.

G. Sestieri, Il capriccio architettonico in Italia nel XVII e XVIII secolo, III, Rome, 2015, p.

103, fig. 170.

Giovanni Paolo Panini was the foremost painter of capricci in Rome during the mid-eighteenth century. He trained in his native Piacenza under the quadraturisti Giuseppe Natali and Andrea Galluzzi, from whom he mastered perspective, and the set designer Francesco Galli Bibiena, from whom he learned to stage his compositions for optimal dramatic effect. In 1711, he settled in Rome, where he rapidly became one of the city’s most successful painters, securing the patronage of leading collectors such as Pope Innocent XIII, for whom he decorated the mezzanine apartment of the Palazzo Quirinale in 1742-43, and the connoisseur and French ambassador to Rome, Étienne François, Duc de Choiseul.

In this painting, the Arch of Constantine is depicted with striking monumentality through an engaging diagonal perspective. Panini animates the scene with four elegantly positioned figures set amidst architectural fragments, punctuated by the dynamic sculptural motif of a lion attacking a horse—modeled after the celebrated marble group in the Capitoline Museums, Rome (inv. no. MC1182).

Characteristic of Panini’s finest work, the painting is animated by swift, precise brushwork and a masterful handling of light, capturing both the grandeur and the picturesque decay of ancient Rome with verisimilitude and flair.

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GIULIO CESARE PROCACCINI (BOLOGNA 1574-1625 MILAN) The Assumption of the Virgin oil on copper 13 x 9¿ in. (33 x 23.2 cm.) $60,000-80,000

£46,000-60,000 €53,000-71,000

PROVENANCE:

[The Property of a Religious Institution]; Sotheby's, London, 8 December 2005, lot 311, as Attributed to Giulio Cesare Procaccini.

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 30 April 2010, lot 89, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

New York, Nicholas Hall Ltd., All that Glistens, 31 March-20 May 2022.

LITERATURE:

H. Brigstocke, 'Giulio Cesare Procaccini reconsidered', Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, XVIII, 1976, p.

130, as a lost work.

H. Brigstocke, in Capturing the Sublime: Italian Drawings of the Renaissance and Baroque, S. Folds McCullagh ed., exhibition catalogue, Chicago, 2012, p. 139, note 12.

O. D'Albo, Giulio Cesare Procaccini: Per un catalogo dei Dipinti, Ph.D. dissertation, Milan, 2016, p.

125, no. 4.

H. Brigstocke and O. D'Albo, Giulio Cesare Procaccini Life and Work with a Catalogue of his Paintings, Turin, 2020, pp. 166, 298-299, no. 6.

Giulio Cesare Procaccini was one of the most distinctive talents of north Italian painting at the turn of the seventeenth century. Raised in Bologna, he moved together with his father Ercole to Milan, in around 1585, and initially trained as a sculptor, the only member of the Procaccini artistic dynasty to do so. By around 1600, however, he had turned to painting and in short time became a key figure in a flourishing artistic movement in Lombardy, displaying compelling Mannerist tendencies and anticipating the dramatic energy of the Baroque.

It was testament to Procaccini’s talent that the artist attracted the patronage of the most discerning collectors of the day, both in Milan, receiving commissions from Scipione Toso, Pirro and Fabio Visconti, and in Genoa from connoisseur Giovanni Carlo Doria. Doria’s posthumous inventory recorded over 25 pictures by the artist and, in his correspondence, Procaccini is described as his ‘amicho commune di molto vallore’ (‘our mutual friend of much value’). Perhaps his most significant commission came in 1610, when he was charged to make six monumental canvases for the Duomo in Milan to celebrate the canonization of Carlo Borromeo.

He was equally adept, however, when working on a more intimate scale, as this finely executed copper beautifully illustrates. Dating to the early part of his career, the composition relates closely to his altarpiece Assumption of the Virgin with saints, made for the Church of San Bartolomeo in Como (now Como, Musei Civici), with the similarities especially evident in the Madonna’s outstretched arms, her tilted head and the billowing drapery. As noted in the recent catalogue raisonné, there are also likenesses to be found between the angels holding the Madonna here and those frescoed for the church of Santa Maria presso San Celso, a project commissioned in 1601 (op. cit.). A preparatory drawing for the angel at left is in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice (inv. no. 723; see H. Brigstocke, Procaccini in America, London and New York, 2002, p. 21, pl. 35; and N. Ward Neilson, Giulio Cesare Procaccini disegnatore, Busto Arsizio, 2004, p. 97, no. 50, fig. 74).

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GAETANO GANDOLFI (BOLOGNA 1734-1802)

The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and an angel oil on canvas, an oval, unlined 31æ x 32¬ in. (81 x 83 cm.) $220,000-280,000

£170,000-210,000 €200,000-250,000

PROVENANCE:

Alfredo Benni, Bologna, by 1936.

Private collection, England, by 2000, where acquired by the present owner in 2015.

LITERATURE:

L. Bianchi, I Gandolfi, Rome, 1936, pp. 82, 154.

D.B. Maino, Gaetano Gandolfi, Turin, 1995, p. 385, no. 148, fig. 167.

This remarkably well-preserved Holy Family exemplifies what Donatella Biagi Maino described as Gandolfi’s 'refined grace' and 'measured compositional balance' (D.B. Maino, loc. cit.). At the painting’s center, the Christ Child affectionately kisses the Infant Saint John, a tender motif reminiscent of Gandolfi’s Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, Saint Anne, and Saint James the Greater at the Uffizi, Florence (inv. no. 1890.1549).

Gandolfi’s fluid brushwork and subtle chromatic harmony clearly reflect the impact of his journey to Venice in 1760, sponsored by the Bolognese merchant Antonio Buratti. There, Gandolfi studied first-hand the luminous palettes and dynamic techniques of Giambattista Tiepolo, Sebastiano Ricci, and Giovanni Battista Pittoni. Upon returning to Bologna, he successfully integrated Venetian colorism with the rigorous, disegno-oriented tradition promoted by the Accademia Clementina. The result was a mature style distinguished by classical restraint and luminous expressiveness, qualities perfectly illustrated by this elegant composition.

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FRANCESCO GUARDI (VENICE 1712-1793)

Venice, a view of the Piazzetta toward the Libreria, with the eastern tip of the Giudecca beyond signed 'Fran.co Guardi' (lower left) oil on canvas 12¡ x 20æ in. (31.4 x 52.7 cm.) $120,000-180,000

£91,000-140,000 €110,000-160,000

PROVENANCE:

(Possibly) Viscount Eversley (1794-1888), Heckfield Place, Hampshire.

(Possibly) Schaeffer, France; (Possibly) Mr. Deurbergue, Paris, 1982.

Private collection, United Kingdom. with Newhouse Galleries, New York, where acquired by the present owner in 1984.

This is a characteristic work of about 1760 by Francesco Guardi. The view is taken from in front of the Basilica, the southernmost column of which frames the composition on the left; to the right of this are the Pietra del Bando, from which proclamations were announced, and the columns of Saint Mark and Saint Theodore; seen in diagonal perspective across the Piazzetta are Sansovino’s great Libreria, with to the right part of the Loggetta and behind this a section of the Campanile; across the Bacino is the eastern tip of the Giudecca island, now the site of the Cipriani Hotel.

This is one of a number of canvases of the period that reveal Guardi’s close study of his predecessors, most notably Luca Carlevarijs and Canaletto. As Charles Beddington has observed, the composition here depends on the latter’s etching of the subject ‘la Libreria V’ (W.G. Constable, Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697-1768, 2nd ed., revised by J.G. Links, Oxford, 1976, II, p. 656, no. 15, I, pl. 226), but Guardi adjusts his viewpoint to include the column of Saint Mark, which is not shown in the etching.

Guardi was long thought to have turned to painting views by the mid-1740s, but it is now generally accepted that he did not do so until the following decade.

That at least three significant English patrons acquired views by him in the late 1750s suggests that the British consul, Joseph Smith, may have had a role in such commissions. Like other painters of his time, Guardi used canvases of standard sizes; roughly 71.3 by 119 cm., 61 by 96.5 cm. and 51 by 86 cm. for those supplied to the three English patrons. This picture is on a smaller scale, measuring approximately 32 by 53.5 cm., conforming to the format of eight other works - six of which are not of ascertainable English provenance and two of which probably are (see F. Russell, ‘Guardi and the English Tourist’, The Burlington Magazine, CXXXVIII, January 1996, pp. 7-8 for specific references).

We are grateful to Charles Beddington for sharing his observations about this painting and for endorsing the attribution on the basis of firsthand inspection (1 February 2024).

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THOMAS HUDSON (DEVON 1701-1779 TWICKENHAM)

Portrait of Penelope Bayfield of Dedham Grove, Essex, three-quarter-length oil on canvas 49æ x 39Ω in. (126.5 x 100.5 cm.) $20,000-30,000

£16,000-23,000 €18,000-26,000

PROVENANCE:

with Agnew's, London, by 1933. with James A. Lewis & Son, New York.

Baron Carl Gottfried Eduard von Seidlitz (1874-1954) and Baroness Frieda Frash Constantino von Seidlitz (1879-1951), The Ritz Carlton Hotel, New York; their sale, ParkeBernet, New York, 3 May 1947, lot 106, when acquired for $650 by the following, Dr. W. Philipp, Great Neck Estates, Long Island. with Leggatt, where acquired in 1984 by the following, Private collection; [The Property of a Gentleman], Christie's, New York, 31 October 2017, lot 49, where acquired by the present owner.

The sitter's pose and the background rock ledge are close to Thomas Hudson's well-known portrait of Mary Panton, Duchess of Ancaster (Grimsthorpe Castle, Ancaster Collection), dated 1757, as well as a portrait of Margaret Oxenden by Hudson's pupil, Joseph Wright of Derby (Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales). The present painting probably dates to the second half of the 1750s, when Hudson was in competition with his greatest pupil, Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), for prominent London portrait commissions.

A portrait of similar size by Hudson said to depict William Bayfield was with Agnew's in 1921.

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SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS P.R.A. (PLYMPTON, DEVON 1723-1792 LONDON)

Portrait of Aubrey Beauclerk, 5th Duke of St. Albans (1740-1802), half-length, wearing a green coat and holding a flintlock oil on canvas 30º x 25º in. (76.8 x 64.1 cm.) $25,000-35,000

£19,000-26,000 €23,000-31,000

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family of the sitter until, Charles Frederick Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk, 13th Duke of St. Albans (1915-1988); [The Property of the Duke of St. Albans], Christie's, London, 23 June 1978, lot 123.

[A Mansion Overlooking a Royal Park]; Sotheby's, London, 28 April 2015, lot 86, where acquired after the sale by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Nottingham, Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Art & Antiques in Nottinghamshire, 6 May-20 June 1937, no. 531.

LITERATURE:

A. Graves and W.V. Cronin, The Life and Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, III, London, 1899, p.1006.

E.K. Waterhouse, Reynolds, London 1941, p. 70.

D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, New Haven and London, 2000, I, p. 80, no. 139, II, p. 486, fig. 1252.

The present portrait was likely painted in 1778, with a payment made by Lord Vere on 22 November 1781 for 35 guineas. Aubrey Beauclerk succeeded his father as the 2nd Lord Vere Beauclerk on 2 October 1781 and later became the 5th Duke of St. Albans on 16 February 1787, following the death of his cousin, George Beauclerk (1758-1787), 4th Duke of St. Albans, who died unmarried.

PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN

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MELCHIOR D'HONDECOETER (UTRECHT 1636-1695 AMSTERDAM)

Sheldrake ducks and ducklings with a magpie in a garden, a village beyond signed `M.d.hondecoeter' (center left) oil on canvas 46√ x 38æ in. (119.1 x 98.4 cm.) $100,000-150,000

£76,000-110,000 €89,000-130,000

PROVENANCE:

with Paula de Koenigsberg, Buenos Aires, from whom acquired in 1945 by, Private collection, Buenos Aires, and by whom sold, [Property of a Family]; Christie's, New York, 29 October 2019, lot 743, as attributed to Melchior d'Hondecoeter, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Exposición de Obras Maestras: Colleción Paola de Koenigsberg, October 1945, no. 38.

Prominently signed by the artist on the stone ledge at center, this dynamic painting is a superlative example of Melchior’s work from the early 1660s, shortly after his relocation to Amsterdam. The starkly realistic rendering of animals in the foreground, the Italianate landscape, and the emphasis on maternal tenderness are hallmarks of the artist’s mature style.

High-energy vignettes—such as the duck mid-takeoff at upper left—are offset by quieter moments, like the mother duck watchfully tending to her ducklings swimming in the foreground. Commenting on these characteristics in 1945, William R. Valentiner described the painting as “an excellent work of Melchior de Hondecoeter, the best Dutch painter of birds and farmyards in the seventeenth century. The painting is fully signed, rich in color, and in a fine state of preservation” (written communication, 6 August 1945).

Although Melchior is not known to have produced preparatory sketches for his paintings, he did create oil studies of animals from life, often reusing these poses in subsequent works. A figure identical to the duckling lying on the rocks at right appears in a charming oil sketch, also datable to his Amsterdam period, which was on the art market in the 1990s (Lempertz, Cologne, 20 May 1995, lot 864; Zurich, Galerie Koller, 19–21 March 1997, lot 29; RKD illustration no.

0000013053).

PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION

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SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A (PLYMPTON 1723-1792 LONDON) Portrait of General William John Kerr (1737-1815), 5th Marquess of Lothian, styled Lord Newbottle and later Earl of Ancram, half-length indistinctly inscribed 'Willm Earl of Ancram, Son of / Willm 4th Marquess of Lothian' (upper left) oil on canvas 30¿ x 25 in. (76.5 x 63.5 cm.) $60,000-80,000

£46,000-60,000 €53,000-71,000

PROVENANCE:

The sitter, and by descent until, [The Property of Mrs. Kellett, of Rotherby, Leicestershire, a greatgreat-grand-daughter of the sitter]; Christie's, London, 12 June 1931, lot 58, 1,650 gns. to the following, with Gooden & Fox, London. with Scott & Fowles, New York, by 1933. with Knoedler, New York, where acquired on 5 January 1938 by, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (1874-1948), New York, and by descent in the family until 1960, when bequeathed to, William Kelly Simpson (1928-2017), New Haven, CT; [Property from the Estate of William Kelly Simpson], Christie's, New York, 31 October 2017, lot 46, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Edinburgh, Board of Manufactures, Works by Old Masters and Scottish National Portraits, 1883, no. 198.

San Francisco, The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Loan Exhibition of English Painting of the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries, 6 June-9 July 1933, no. 43.

LITERATURE:

E.K. Waterhouse, Reynolds, London, 1941, p. 46.

D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A complete catalogue of his paintings, New Haven and London, 2000, I, p. 294, under no.

1066.

General William John Kerr, 5th Marquess of Lothian, was the only son of General William Henry, 4th Marquess of Lothian, and Lady Caroline, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Holderness. He had an illustrious military career, rising from the rank of Major-General, to Colonel of the 1st Horse Guards in 1777, and attained the rank of General in 1796. He married Elizabeth, only daughter of Chichester Fortescue, of Dromisken, County Louth, in 1762.

In his 2000 catalogue raisonné of paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Mannings, who at the time knew the picture only from an old photograph in the Waterhouse archive in the Paul Mellon Centre, London, expressed some reservations about the attribution. After receiving a photograph of the picture post-conservation, in 2001, he was compelled to observe that the picture looked 'quite different, and much better.' (see Christie's, New York, 31 October 2017).

At the time of the 2017 sale, Dr. Martin Postle dated the work to the late 1750s, when the sitter was in his early twenties (see Provenance). It may have been commissionedin 1759 to commemorate his promotion to Major of the 11th Dragoons, which would conform to the sittings to Reynolds recorded that year. The portrait was later in the collection of the sitter's great-great-granddaughter, Mrs. Kellett, née Atherley, of Rotherby, Leicestershire, a direct descendent of Arthur Atherley, who married Lord Ancram's daughter, Louisa. Two further autograph portraits of the Marquess are known, although both are untraced (see D. Mannings, loc. cit.).

PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION

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JOSEPH HIGHMORE (LONDON 1692-1780 CANTERBURY)

Portrait of Mr. Edward Pryce (b.1723), Gunley and Mrs. Frances Pryce, neé Egerton, Trelydan, half-length, with a landscape beyond signed and dated 'Jos Highmore / pinx 1752' (lower right, on the ledge) oil on canvas 39æ x 50¿ in. (101 x 127.4 cm.) $30,000-50,000

£23,000-38,000 €27,000-44,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, 4 April 2007, lot 359.

Joseph Highmore was encouraged by his family to train as a lawyer and took a clerkship at the age of 17, while still attending Godfrey Kneller's Drawing Academy. By 1715 Highmore abandoned his law career, and began work as a portrait painter in London. From 1720 he attended the St. Martin's Lane Academy, where he was able to study contemporary French styles in art and design, particularly that of Gravelot. He also attended William Cheselden's anatomy lectures and contributed designs to that author's Anatomy of the Human Body (1722). Highmore traveled to the Low Countries to study works by Rubens and van Dyck, and later went to Paris, where he saw the art collections at Versailles, the Palais du Luxembourg and the Louvre. In the following years he secured important commissions from the Royal family, such as Queen Caroline of Ansbach (circa 1735; Royal Collection, Hampton Court). Although little is known of the sitters in the present painting, it seems likely that it was was commissioned on the occasion of their marriage in 1751.

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JEAN-JACQUES-FRANÇOIS LE BARBIER (ROUEN 1738-1826 PARIS)

The Education of the children of Sparta signed and dated 'Le Barbier L.é 1796' (lower left) oil on panel 18¿ x 21æ in. (46 x 55.2 cm.) with inventory number '10' (on the reverse) $60,000-80,000

£46,000-60,000 €53,000-71,000

PROVENANCE:

Private collection, Poland and New York, and by descent until sold circa 2000 to the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Paris, Salon du Musée central des Arts, 1796, no. 256.

The present work is an exciting rediscovery and is a highly-refined example of the nationalistic, Neoclassical history paintings that Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier produced in his maturity. Meticulously painted on a large wooden panel, the work is signed and dated 1796, the year in which it was exhibited at the Paris Salon. Until now, it has only been known from a description from the Salon’s Livret: `no. 256: L’éducation des enfans à Sparte. On les berçait sur un bouclier et la mère fesait briller à leurs yeux les armes de leur père’ (`The Education of the children of Sparta. They were rocked upon a shield and the mother made their father’s weapons shine in their eyes’). It was one of two works submitted by Le Barbier that year, the other being no. 255, `Virginie dans le moment qu’Icilius son amant l’enlève en présance du décemvir Appius, et que les dames Romaines prennet sa défense’ (`Verginia, at the moment when Icilius, her lover, abducts her in the presence of the decemvir Appius, and the Roman ladies take up her defense’).

The myth of Sparta was source of immense inspiration for writers and artists in Revolutionary France. Spartans were frequently portrayed as emblems of the virtuous selfsacrifice that was crucial to the formation and survival of the ancient Republic. Spartan women, whose patriotism was so fierce that they famously sent their children to war with the instruction “Come back with your shield, or on it!”, were especially favored as subjects. Here, Le Barbier

arranges his figures in a frieze-like manner against a sober, stony interior, following a pictorial convention for narrative history paintings popularized by Jacques-Louis David with works such as his Death of Socrates (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and Oath of the Horatii (Musée du Louvre, Paris). A strong, cool light descends from upper left, casting the standing maiden holding a distaff at left into shadow while drawing attention to the seated woman who holds the spear and sword. With one breast bare, this idealized figure takes on the appearance of a goddess, an epitome of strength and conviction as she gazes down at her newborn child. Behind her, a muscular young boy tries on his father’s helmet, twisting his torso in a manner reminiscent of a Greek statue.

Born in Rouen on 29 November 1738, Le Barbier studied painting in and around the city in his youth. Arriving in Paris, he trained with Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre at the École de l’Académie Royale. In 1780, he was made an associate member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture, becoming a full member in 1785. Le Barbier first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1789 and, with the exception of one year, continued to do so until 1799. His earliest works are rococo-inflected history paintings in the fashionable neo-grec style of Joseph Marie Vien, but soon thereafter he embraced the more rigorous Neoclassical manner of Jacques-Louis David, as Le Barbier — by then in his forties — took up subjects from ancient history and patriotic themes related to the French Revolution. He was a partisan of the Revolution and an active participant, serving as a member of the Paris Commune (1789-1795) and chosen, along with David, to assist in the ‘regeneration’ of the Académie Royale. Roughly 90 paintings by the artist survive or are recorded, and he was a prolific draftsman, illustrator and writer. He died in Paris on 7 May 1826 and is buried in Pére Lachaise Cemetery.

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JACQUES-LAURENT AGASSE (GENEVA 1767-1849 LONDON) Androcles and the lion oil on canvas 50 x 39√ in. (127 x 101.3 cm.) $100,000-150,000

£76,000-110,000 €89,000-130,000

PROVENANCE:

(Probably) William Danby II (1752-1833), Swinton Park, Masham, Yorkshire, from whom possibly acquired in situ by the following, Samuel Cunliffe Lister (1815-1906), 1st Baron Masham, Swinton Park, Masham, Yorkshire, and by descent to, Philip Cunliffe-Lister (1884-1972), 1st Earl of Swinton, Swinton Park, Masham, Yorkshire. with Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London, where acquired on 1 November 1963 by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

London, Oscar and Peter Johnson Ltd., Pictures and Drawings from Yorkshire Houses in aid of The Paraplegic Sports Endowment Fund, 4 April - 2 May 1963, no. 1, lent by the Rt. Hon. the Earl and Countess of Swinton.

LITERATURE:

J.L. Agasse, Catalogue autographe de son oeuvre 1800-1849, Geneva, recoded under either 17 May 1811 or 1 October 1813.

D. Baud-Bovy, Peintres Genevois 1766-1849, II, Geneva, 19031905, p. 155.

Advertisement, The Connoisseur, CLIV, 1963, p. XLIV, illustrated.

L. Boissonnas, Jacques-Laurent Agasse 1767-1849, exhibition catalogue, 1988, p. 76, under no. 18.

Born in Geneva to a patrician family of Huguenot origin, Jacques-Laurent Agasse trained in his hometown before moving to Paris in 1786. In Paris he completed his artistic education in the studio of Jacques-Louis David, while also studying animal anatomy and dissection. The outbreak of the French Revolution put an end to his French sojourn and he returned to Geneva in 1789. Having secured the patronage of George Pitt, after impressing him with a painting of his favorite greyhound, Agasse came to London and settled there in 1800, establishing himself there as a sporting painter. In addition to horse and dog portraiture, the artist developed an interest in more exotic animals, which at that time were being imported to England for public display and study.

On a number of occasions Agasse visited the menagerie at the Exeter Exchange on the Strand in London and formed a friendship with its owner, Edward Cross. Cross’ menagerie was a leading attraction in Georgian London, boasting lions, tigers, hyenas, ostriches, cheetahs, kangaroos and even an

elephant on their broadside advertisements. There, Agasse studied the animals firsthand and painted lions on at least six occasions according to his manuscript record book.

Though history paintings by Agasse are rare, the theme of Androcles and the lion appears twice in the artist's record book. Androcles, according to folklore first recorded in the 2nd century, was a runaway slave who took shelter in a wounded lion’s den. After removing a large thorn from the lion’s paw, the animal returned the favor and became tame, sharing with Androcles the spoils of his hunts. When Androcles returned to Rome years later, he was condemned to be devoured by beasts for abandoning his master. By pure chance, however, the animal turned loose to attack him was the very same lion he had aided. The lion refused to pounce. The emperor, awestruck, pardoned Androcles and gave him the lion, as a testimony to the power of friendship.

Agasse captured this moment of tenderness between man and beast with the exacting naturalism so characteristic of his work.

CENTURIES OF TASTE: LEGACY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION

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ÉTIENNE BOUHOT (BARD-LÈS-ÉPOISSES 1780–1862 SEMUR-ENAUXOIS)

The 'Salle de dessin' of the Collège Sainte-Barbe, Paris signed and dated 'E Bouhot/1822.' (lower left) oil on canvas 16 x 12æ in. (40.64 x 32.39 cm.) $10,000-15,000

£7,600-11,000 €8,900-13,000

PROVENANCE:

(possibly) Collège Sainte-Barbe, Paris.

Anonymous Sale; Coutier & Nicolay, Paris, 29 March 2000, lot 46, as Entrée du collège sainte Barbe à la époque de la Restauration. with Daxer und Marschall, Munich.

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner.

The Collège Sainte-Barbe was founded in 1460 on Montagne Sainte-Geneviève in the 5th arrondissement in Paris. Until its closure in June 1999 it was the oldest identified college of Paris. Bouhot was taking drawing classes at the school in 1822 when the present work was painted. A related painting, of circa 1824, is preserved in the collection of the Musée Carnavalet (Peinture du musée Carnavalet, catalogue sommaire, Paris, p. 93f, inv. no. P18).

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JEAN-AUGUSTE-DOMINIQUE INGRES (MONTAUBAN 1780-1867 PARIS)

Deux études de bras pour la figure d'Apelles dans le tableau de 'L'apothéose d'Homère' signed 'Ingres' (lower right) oil on canvas with sections laid down on canvas and an extension by the artist on panel 17√ x 11¬ in. (45.4 x 29.5 cm.)

Painted circa 1826-1827. $100,000-150,000

£76,000-110,000 €89,000-130,000

PROVENANCE:

The artist. Étienne-François Haro (1827-1897) and Henri Haro (1855-1911), acquired directly from the above, 13 October 1866 (but possibly never collected from the artist's studio).

The artist's estate sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 6 May 1867, lot 24, as Deux études de bras pour la figure d'Apelles.

Henri Lehmann (1814-1882), Paris, acquired at the above sale.

His sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 2-3 March 1883, lot 137. Étienne-Edmond Martin, baron de Beurnonville (1825-1906), Paris, probably acquired at the above sale.

His sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 30-31 January 1885, lot 153, as Deux études de bras.

[C?]lauzel, acquired at the above sale.

Hippolyte Adam (1828-1901), Boulogne and Paris.

Private collection, Paris, by 1956, until at least 1980.

Anonymous sale; Hôtel des Ventes, Saumur, 18 June 1983, as Étude pour L'apothéose d'Homère. with E.V. Thaw & Co. Inc., New York.

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner, 28 November 1983.

EXHIBITED:

Paris, Palais de l'École impériale des beaux-arts, Des tableaux, études peintes, dessins et croquis de J.-A.-D. Ingres, 1867, p. 10, no. 42, as Deux études de bras pour les figures d'Apelles et de Platon.

Montauban, Musée Ingres, L'Etude pour la tête de Boileau de J.A.D. Ingres et les esquisses peintes pour L'Apothéose d'Homère, 22 February-12 May 1991, p. 37, no. 49, illustrated, as Double études du tronc et du bras droit d'Apelle, avec la main de Raphaël.

LITERATURE:

H. Delaborde, Ingres, sa vie et ses travaux, sa doctrine, d'après les notes manuscrites et les lettres du maitre, Paris, 1870, p. 205.

H. Lapauze, Ingres: sa vie et son œuvre, Paris, 1911, p. 552, no. 21, as Bras.

G. Wildenstein, Ingres, London, 1956, pp. 198, 200, no. 170, fig. 101, illustrated, as Two Studies for the Arm of Apelles.

E. Radius, L'opera completa di Ingres, Milan, 1968, pp. 104-105, no. 120e, illustrated, as Studi per la figura di Apelle.

E. Camasasca, Tout l'œuvre peint d'Ingres, Paris, 1971, pp. 104-105, no. 121e, illustrated, as Étude pour Apelle.

D. Ternois, Ingres, Verona, 1980, p. 180, no. 184, illustrated, as L'apothéose d'Homère.

fig. 1 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Apotheosis of Homer, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

In 1826, on the heels of his critical breakthrough with the Le vœu de Louis XIII, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres received the commission for L'apothéose d'Homère, which was to be a ceiling decoration for the Musée Charles X in the Palais du Louvre. Ingres had recently returned from nearly 20 years away from the French capital, having relocated to Italy in 1806 after winning the Prix de Rome.

The work he had sent back to Paris during his time away – a requirement of winners of the prize so that the Academy in Paris could keep track of their progress – had been largely panned, with critics complaining that his art was too backwards looking, his style too flat and airless. In Le vœu de Louis XIII, Ingres experimented with a new style, consciously imitating Raphael, and it was this Renaissanceinspired Classicism which finally brought Ingres the official recognition he had long-sought. Heralded as ‘the essential character of the new style’, Le vœu de Louis XIII led in quick succession to the artist being awarded the Légion

d'honneur and elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts; an official commission from the State was the crowning glory of Ingres’s newly-revived career.

In L'apothéose d'Homère, Ingres, one of the 19th century’s most avid interpreters of history and antiquity, turned again to the example of Raphael. Depicting great figures of art, poetry, music and philosophy from antiquity to modernity surrounding the seated Homer as a winged figure representing either victory or the universe crowns him with a laurel wreath, Ingres drew heavily on Raphael’s Parnassus in his conception of the composition. Though Ingres was a notorious perfectionist and often took years in working out his paintings (Le vœu de Louis XIII had taken the artist some four years), he was given only a year to complete L'apothéose d'Homère as part of the commission, and it was a point of pride for the artist that he had done an initial sketch for the work in about an hour. Still, in spite

of this short time frame, Ingres would not compromise his preparatory process, and more than 100 preparatory sketches and oil sketches, the present work among them, survive for this important commission.

An avowed self-editor, Ingres would make numerous studies for his most important compositions, an academic exercise to help him work out the most minute details, particularly focusing on hands, arms, and facial expressions. The multisupport technique evidenced in Deux études de bras pour la figure d'Apelles dans le tableau de 'L'apothéose d'Homère' is one that recurs regularly in oil sketches by the artist.

Ingres would often use small format canvases to experiment with gestures and facial expressions for his figures. He would then trim out the most successful of these premières pensées and lay them down on to another support so that he could enlarge his smaller detail studies into more finished studies illustrating a larger area of the planned composition, as he has done with the present work. The addition by the artist at the top of the composition, painting directly on to a strip of unprimed panel to study the neck and lower profile of the figure of Apelles is more unusual, but still entirely in keeping with a working preparatory study by the artist.

While the present study has long been identified as two studies for the arm of Apelles, careful study of the finished composition demonstrates that it actually depicts the arms of two separate figures. The study at left, grasping the hand at lower left, is indeed a study for the figure of the great ancient Greek painter Apelles of Kos, the hand he grasps is that of Raphael, situated behind him in the final composition, both to the left of the figure of Homer. By connecting the two, Ingres was hoping to illustrate that the art of Raphael was directly connected to the art of the ancient world, a lineage that Ingres, conspicuously imitating Raphael in this work, hoped to illustrate himself as part of as well. The arm at right, however, is probably actually a study for the arm of Plato, who can be found to the right of Homer in the final composition. In the finished work, Plato faces toward the viewer as he converses with the figure of Socrates, he is wearing a toga of the same yellow as in the present study (the figure of Apelles, here wearing a mauve toga, is depicted in light blue in the final work). In the final composition, the artist has made some minor changes to Plato’s figure as seen in this work, whereas Apelles is left unchanged. Instead of grasping the paper the philosopher is holding in his proper left hand as in this study, Plato instead holds it in his right, with his left hand grasping the wrist of his right arm.

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JEAN-BAPTISTE-CAMILLE COROT (PARIS 1796-1875)

Paysage montagneux vu à travers les arbres signed 'COROT' (lower left) oil on paper on canvas 13¿ x 15¬ in. (33.3 x 39.7 cm.)

Painted circa 1840-1845. $150,000-250,000

£120,000-190,000 €140,000-220,000

PROVENANCE:

(probably) Anonymous sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 29 April 1882, lot 12, as Route sous bois.

James Staats Forbes (1823-1904), London, by June 1891. with Galerie Brame and Lorenceau, Paris. with Alfred Daber, Paris. with M. Knoedler and Co., New York, acquired directly from the above, 30 July 1953.

Elizabeth Randon Rice Farish (1888-1978), Houston, TX, acquired directly from the above, 9 October 1953. with Acquavella Galleries, New York, by 1988.

EXHIBITED:

New York, Acquavella Galleries, XIX & XX Century Master Paintings and Sculptures, 1 November-1 December 1988, no. 2, as Mountain Landscape Seen Through the Trees.

LITERATURE:

A. Robaut, L'Œuvre de Corot, Catalogue raisonné et illustré, vol.

II, Paris, 1905, p. 196-197, no. 544, illustrated.

Corot’s work in the 1840s is today recognized as some of his most distinctive, demonstrating beautiful light and a clarity of line illustrative of the artist at the naissance of his artistic maturity. The present work is an exquisite example of Corot’s innate ability to capture the very essence of light and clearly demonstrates why he was so influential for the artists of the Impressionist movement who followed in his footsteps. Paul Valéry, the great poet and critic wrote, ‘Nature was for Corot a model, but from several points of view. First, he stood for the utmost precision in respect to light…He is, besides, one of those painters who studied the lie of the land most closely. Rock, sand, folds of terrain… the continuous accidental sweep presented by natural formations, are for him objects of the first importance.

Furthermore: for Corot, Nature, at her best, is both a model and an exemplar of the singular poetic value of certain harmonies between visible things. ‘Beauty’ is one of the names for this universal yet accidental quality to be seen from a point of vantage' (P. Valéry, Degas, Monet, Morisot, Princeton, 1960, p. 140).

While Corot’s later works are defined by their poetic vision and loose brushwork, the works from the 1840s and 1850s are remarkable for their naturalism which suggests more direct observation. The present work, dating from the first half of the 1840s, around the time of his last trip to Italy, demonstrates the extraordinary originality found in his work during these formative years. Though the landscape is not specifically identified (it bears an inscription on the reverse suggesting it depicts the field of Waterloo, which Robaut dismisses as the decription of a 'fantasist'), it is probably Morvan or Auvergne, and it is a masterful study in sunlight and shadow. The work presages the hallmarks of Corot’s approach to landscape painting, with his clear delineation between foreground, middle ground and background, which some scholars have suggested may have been influenced by his interest in theater sets. The darkened foreground, the patches of warm dappled light which cut through the middle ground, and the clarity of the background, rendered with an economy of painterly means and warmed by the late afternoon sun, are reflective of Corot at his best.

The light in the middle ground is breathtaking and has a naturalism which belies the careful study it must have taken for the artist to get it just right. It passes over the wheatfield and the figure of a gleaner in broad sweeps of the artist’s brush, with highlights where the light reflects off the top of the shafts carefully picked out, and is interspersed with darker areas, suggestive of passing clouds or the sun passing through unseen trees. Where it passes through the trees of the allée at left, it plays on the ground in warm patches, drawing the eye pointedly back through the composition to the sweeping vista beyond. The careful touches of light on the tree trunks where small streams of light are able to peek through the leaves and branches are a tour de force. The two figures – one of a distant gleaner in the fields, and one of a shepherd or fieldworker resting under the tree at left brought close to the picture plane – are a continuation of Corot’s experiments in the 1830s with how best to include figures in plein air landscape. With the figure nearest to us, Corot has arrived at a harmonious solution, directing his gaze out toward the viewer without the confrontational effect some of the early examples sometimes demonstrate.

The distant landscape is rendered with relatively few brushstrokes, but its intermingled tones of mauve, violet, peach, sandy brown, and slate blue still capture a remarkably detailed topography.

PROPERTY FROM A MID-ATLANTIC COLLECTION

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GUSTAVE COURBET (ORNANS 1819-1877 LA TOUR-DEPEILZ) Les sources de la Loire signed 'G. Courbet.' (lower left) oil on canvas 21º x 25¬ in. (54 x 65.1 cm.)

Painted circa 1865. $80,000-120,000

£61,000-90,000 €71,000-110,000

PROVENANCE:

(probably) Germain Payen, Malmerspach, Alsace.

Ferdinand Tempelaere (1874-1955), Paris. with Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York, by 1920.

Josef Stransky (1874-1936), New York, by 1931. with Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1938 (possibly just on consignment) Estate sale of Josef Stransky; Sotheby's Park Bernet, New York, 13 March 1957, lot 77.

Louis A. Green (d. 1968), New York.

Evelyn Green Davis (1903-1985), New York, by descent.

Her estate sale; Sotheby's, New York, 22 May 1986, lot 14. with Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York.

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner, 1993.

EXHIBITED:

New York, Kraushaar Art Galleries, 29 December 1920-16 January 1921, no. 1, as Landscape, Ornans.

New York, Kraushaar Art Galleries, 3-31 December 1921, no. 3, as Landscape, Ornans.

New York, Fearon Galleries, Loan Exhibition of Works by Gustave Courbet, 12-26 April 1924, no. 4, as The Source of the River Loire.

Worcester, MA, Worcester Art Museum, on loan, 1933.

New York, Gallery Mary Harriman, Courbet and Delacroix, 7-25 November 1933, no. 6. (probably) Hartford, CT, Wadsworth Atheneum, on loan, 1940s.

LITERATURE:

The Arts, vol. I, no. 2, January 1921, pp. 40-41, illustrated.

'Courbet Show at Fearon's', Art News, vol. XXII, no. 28, 19 April 1924, p. 2, as The Source of the River Loire.

R. Flint, 'The Private Collection of Josef Stransky', Art News, vol.

XXIX, no. 33, 16 May 1931, pp. 87-88, 91, illustrated.

R. Fernier, La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet, catalogue raisonné, Paris and Lausanne, 1977-78, vol II, supplément, pp.

254-255, no. 7, illustrated.

Although perhaps best-known and most notorious for his enormous, public figural paintings, Gustave Courbet was throughout his long career first and foremost a landscape painter. In the preface to the catalogue for the posthumous Courbet exhibition held at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1882, Jules Castagnary stated, ‘[Courbet] discovered virgin territory where no one had yet to set foot, aspects and forms of landscape of which one could say were unknown before

him. He climbed up to the free heights where the lungs expanded; he plunged into mysterious dens, he was curious about unnamed places, unknown retreats’.

Almost three-quarters of the artist’s oeuvre are landscapes.

Courbet’s intimate knowledge of the landscape in and around his native Ornans in the Franche-Comté came from his meanderings through the forest and streams and from his hunting expeditions in the area. He understood the need to understand the countryside and wrote ‘To paint a landscape you have to know it. I know my country. I paint it!’

Courbet was at the same time an old master and a key figure in modernism. He was deeply rooted in artistic tradition and technique, and was particularly drawn to the work of Delacroix, Géricault, Prud’hon and the Dutch masters, while at the same time being violently opposed to tradition.

Courbet’s art defies definition, but above all things it must be considered as the very beginning of 'modern' painting.

Picasso, Cézanne and Monet all saw Courbet’s work in exhibitions in 1855, 1867 and 1882, and the impact of his landscapes on avant-garde painting practices extend well into the 20th century. Maier-Graefe regarded Courbet as the father of modern painting not only in France but also across Europe as well.

Courbet's landscapes are sensually perceived manifestations of his idea of the vitality and dynamism of the landscape itself. This is demonstrated through the materiality of the actual painting - just as Courbet's relationship with the land is physical, so is the process of transferring that vision onto canvas. Courbet used dark grounds to prime his canvas, learned from the Dutch Old Masters in the Louvre, and built his landscapes from dark to light, bringing the painting to life the same way sunlight brightens the greens of the forest from almost black, to emerald, to chartreuse. Throughout his career, Courbet used brushes, knives, sometimes rags and even his fingers to recreate natural processes that had taken millennia to evolve. This juxtaposition of the use of a completely modern technique to celebrate the pace of glacial time is quintessential Courbet. The artist’s paint handling is enormously complex and carefully considered, belying the overall impression of spontaneity and freshness.

In many of Courbet's landscapes, including the present work, the artist found that nature was so dramatic in its own right there was little need for figures. The rock formations and autumnal trees along the small waterfall and stream are more alive and dynamic than any figure. The land itself has a physiognomy, like the features of a sitter's face, and Courbet has presented the viewer with a lovingly painted portrait of the strange beauty of his childhood land.

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JEAN-BAPTISTE-CAMILLE COROT (PARIS 1796-1875) Bords de rivière

signed 'COROT' (lower center) oil on canvas 9¬ x 11æ in. (24.5 x 29.9 cm.)

Painted circa 1860. $60,000-80,000

£46,000-60,000 €53,000-71,000

PROVENANCE:

with Arnold and Tripp, Paris, 1889.

Dr. Brunoy, Paris, 1892. with Gustave Tempelaere, Paris, 1903. with Arnold and Tripp, Paris, 1905. with Arthur Tooth and Sons, London, 1906. with F. and J. Tempelaere, Paris. with C. W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York, acquired directly from the above, by 1922. with Richard Green, London.

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner, 23 October 1995.

EXHIBITED:

New York, C. W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, An Important Collection of Paintings and Bronzes by Modern Masters of American and European Art, 4-30 December 1922, unnumbered, n.p., illustrated, as Les bords de la rivière.

LITERATURE:

A. Robaut, L'Œuvre de Corot: catalogue raisonné et illustré, Paris, 1905, vol. IV, pp.

404-405, no. E, illustrated.

During the last 15 years of the artist's life, affection for Corot deepened among his fellow artists and the public at large. Charles Blanc wrote in 1876, the year Corot's death, 'He is beloved like a comrade and respected like a master.' By this point in his career, Corot no longer retained his previous distinctions between the techniques he used for informal plein air sketches and imagined works painted in the studio, though he was still regularly working out of doors. Thus, the leaves in the trees of this landscape along an unidentified river are painted in the same way the artist painted the leaves of his invented trees. The foreground of the landscape and the buildings at right, however, have a solidity and a specificity that suggests they were likely directly observed by the artist. In reviews of the Salons during the last decade of Corot's life, commentators routinely remarked that small plein air studies like this one were truer reflections of the artist's talent than the more elaborate compositions he exhibited at the Salons.

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GUSTAVE COURBET (ORNANS 1819-1877 LA TOUR-DE-PEILZ) La forêt en hiver

signed 'G. Courbet.' (lower right) oil on canvas 21æ x 28Ω in. (55.2 x 72.4 cm.)

Painted circa 1872-1873. $500,000-700,000

£380,000-530,000 €450,000-620,000

PROVENANCE:

Mme. Kauffman.

Her sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 5 May 1902, lot 15.

Mme. Albert Esnault-Pelterie, née Gabrielle Testart (1853-1936), Paris, acquired at the above sale. with Kunsthandel Huinck & Scherjon, Amsterdam.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 23 October 2007, lot 144.

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

L. Rouart, 'Collection de Madame Esnault-Pelterie,' Les Arts, no. 54, June 1906, p. 20, as Effet de niege.

R. Fernier, La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet, catalogue raisonné, Paris and Lausanne, 1977-1978, vol. II, pp. 166-167, no. 866, illustrated.

P. Courthion, L'opera completa di Courbet, Milan, 1985, p. 121, no. 855.

Courbet’s paintings of his native Franche-Comté blanched with a crisp layer of snow were a striking departure from precedent in French painting. The artist’s christening of the winter landscape both inspired his Impressionist successors and irrevocably altered the course of the genre; no landscape painter after Courbet could consider their oeuvre complete without a snow-filled winter landscape.

Claude Monet was considered the undisputed master of the Impressionist ‘effet de neige’, but he was not alone in his fascination with the subject: Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Gustave Caillebotte and others also produced images that depicted the special character of the air, light and delicate chromatic effects associated with landscapes blanketed with snow.

Courbet first painted the subject in the cold winter of 1856-7, but it was only in the 1860s that he engaged more deeply with the theme, exploring snow and its textures in a series of paintings that would ultimately number eighty scenes, observed first in the Franche-Comté and later, during the artist’s self-imposed exile, in the Swiss Alps. While his later works in this theme are stark and desolate, conveying the desperation of the artist’s condition in the final years of his life, his earlier paintings of snow, including La fôret en hiver, are bright and glisten with sunlit shades of pure white and blue. For Courbet, these scenes of nature at its greatest intensity offered matchless scope for his immense ambitions and the snow-swept Franche-Comté landscape quickly became a personal trademark.

The self-declared bad boy of French Realist art, Courbet spent the first decades of his career in noisy subversion. Hunting scenes were ever bolder, bigger and

bloodier, nudes shocked with their fleshiness. ‘When I am no longer controversial, I will no longer be important,’ wrote Courbet to his parents in 1852 (P. ten-Doesschat Chu, Letters of Gustave Courbet, Chicago, 1992, p. 106, no. 5253). By the mid-1860s, with his reputation secure, Courbet now was at greater liberty to focus on his own artistry.

Yet, he never ceased to prod and poke at the Bonapartist establishment, both with his subjects and his technique.

For Courbet, one of the great technical innovators of his generation, the application of paint to canvas was a process deeply embroiled with his innate sense of his own artistry.

In an open letter to his students, Courbet explained that paint and its own materiality was of central importance to the images he created with it: 'Painting’ he explained ‘is essentially a concrete art and can only consist of the representation of real and existing things. It is a completely physical language, which is made up not by words, but of all physical objects. An abstract object, being invisible and nonexistent, does not form part of the domain of painting' (Le Courrier du dimanche, Paris, 25 December 1861). Cézanne observed of Courbet’s occupation with the fabrication of art, he was ‘a builder, a rude troweller of plaster, a crusher of color’ (P. M. Doran, Conversations avec Cezanne, Paris, 1978, p. 142). In the layering of paint on canvas, he explained and paraphrased the process of nature. Courbet welcomed spectators to his studio and those who witnessed the artist at work described his use of unconventional techniques and tools. Courbet began his compositions on a dark layer of color. ‘You’re astonished that my canvas is black!’ he challenged, ‘nature without the sun is black and dark: I do what light does, I light up the prominent points, and the painting is done’ (M. Claudet, Souvenirs: Gustave Courbet, Paris, 1878, p. 9). Courbet laid down his paint with palette knife, spatula, sponges and blotting rags, building up an image out of darkness and creating a richly textured surface.

His paintings of landscapes chilled by winter afforded him the opportunity to employ these techniques in the spirit of mimicking nature most creatively and to greatest effect.

Having played the part of the sun, illuminating his subjects from blackness, Courbet’s elemental role also encompassed that of the snowstorm which blustered through his compositions, blanketing Franche-Comté’s limestone ravines and tree-lined watering spots. In La fôret en hiver, Courbet’s varied application of paint perfectly captures the irregularity and complexity of his natural subject. Snow is flaked onto the canvas with a palette knife in its various textures, forming crunchy snow-packed banks and feathery sprays on winter-stripped trees. Cool blue ice is slicked smooth with large soft brushes. Drawing on the palette

Courbet had introduced earlier in the decade, the painting is a harmony of tinted whites, steely greys and blues. A gifted colorist, Courbet laced the startling whiteness of the painting with the rusted browns and black of rock and earth which peek darkly from underneath a blanket of snow white.

Landscape painting was the driving force of the second half of Courbet’s career. His passion for the subject was motivated in part by his attachment to his native FrancheComté. He found great freedom in the unexplored territories of the Jura mountains and delighted in the mystery of the region’s undiscovered places. As JulesAntoine Castagnary described in his preface to the retrospective exhibition at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1882,‘[T]he landscape according to Courbet does not hand itself over easily. It uses its secrets, its metaphors, and its double meanings carefully, and remains, like the entire oeuvre, fundamentally open to interpretation’ (J. Castagnary, cited in Exposition des oeuvres de Gustave Courbet à l’Ecole des beaux arts, Paris, 1882, pp. 17-18).

Partly as a consequence of its unspoiled secrecy, landscape subjects provided Courbet with a powerful platform from which to continue his project of social dissent. The Oak at Flagey, painted in 1864, is a comparable example of a landscape painting saturated with political symbolism.

The subject recalls the Tree of Liberty, an icon of the 1848 Revolution and connects the radicalism of this symbol to Courbet’s provincial landscape.

In its tranquility and clarity, La fôret en hiver differs in emotion from the more traditional hunting scenes which emphasize the conflict between the human and the natural. However, close inspection reveals Courbet’s use of a loose, dashed-on brushstroke and spots of color applied with a palette knife which gives an impression of instability. The snow-covered trees appear on the verge of dropping their mantle of white; the water appears to be firm and compact, yet it is not clear if it is completely iced over. This inversion of stability and instability, which is a manifestation of Courbet’s own skeptical philosophy of art and life, steer the eye of the viewer to the figures of the deer. Here, too, Courbet creates a tension: a doe lies peacefully at the edge of the water, while her mate turns to face the forest, on high alert for potential predators.

We are grateful to the Institut Gustave Courbet for confirming the authenticity of this work. It is accompanied by a certificate from the Institut Gustave Courbet dated 24 June 2019, and will be included in their forthcoming Gustave Courbet catalogue raisonné.

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HENRY PETHER (LONDON 1800–1880)

The Band Stand, Vauxhall Royal Gardens signed '..henry Pether..' (lower left) oil on canvas on board 24æ x 29√ in. (62.9 x 75.9 cm.) $30,000-50,000

£23,000-38,000 €27,000-44,000

PROVENANCE:

George Stevens (1805-1880), London, last owner of Vauxhall Royal Gardens.

By descent to the present owner.

From musical performances, to hot air ballons, to fireworks and battle reenactments, Vauxhall Gardens (later Vauxhall Royal Gardens) was one of the world’s most famous ‘pleasure gardens’ and a center of public entertainment in London for over 200 years. Opened in 1729 under the management of Jonathan Tyers, until its final closure in 1859, Vauxhall provided a place for the fashionable members of all levels of London society to see and be seen, and in the case of lovers meeting secretly on its notoriously dark paths, to remain unseen. Written about by Dickens and Thackery (it is included in a scene in Vanity Fair as well as Pendennis), in its day Vauxhall would have been something like a dream world, filled with music and art. Central to Vauxhall’s existence was music, and the present painting depicts the incredible band stand (sometimes referred to as the Orchestra), now lost, which was located at the center of the gardens.

As John Barrell notes, ‘under the management of Jonathan Tyers, property developer, impresario, patron of the arts, the gardens grew into an extraordinary business, a cradle of modern painting and architecture, and ... music .... A pioneer of mass entertainment, Tyers had to become also a pioneer of mass catering, of outdoor lighting, of advertising, and of all the logistics involved in running one of the most complex and profitable business ventures of the eighteenth century in Britain.’ The intricate gothic band stand had been rebuilt in 1758, replacing a more modest structure, and would host such musical luminaries such as Handel and Paganini during its lifetime. While music was the central

attraction, as with many public events in the 18th and 19th centuries, the elegantly dressed crowd provided its own entertainment, and the pauses between musical numbers were intentionally long enough to allow patrons to circulate the gardens during the break. The marvelous sounding board above the performers, designed in the shape of a large shell supported by two caryatids, was added in 1824, bringing new meaning to the phrase ‘band shell.’

Though the appeal of the gardens had faded somewhat as the 19th century went on – the garden was no longer as ‘rural’ and idyllic as it had once seemed as the growing city grew increasingly close, George Stevens, the head gardener and proprietor, and this painting’s first owner, tried valiantly to restore it to its former glory. Unfortunately, the whims of its former patrons, difficulties in permitting as well as continual struggles with the weather (it was joked that farmers could always count on rain for the opening day of the Vauxhall season) led to its ultimate closure in July of 1859. It is this summer in which Pether situates the viewer, via a discarded poster showing the date of August 1859 – almost certainly the auction of the garden’s contents on the 22nd of that month – alongside a broken bottle on the ground at lower left.

The band stand was sold during the auction, though it has not been seen since. Its importance is underscored by the fact that it is depicted in one of only two photographs we have of the Vauxhall Gardens before their eventual destruction. The auction described the impressive structure, which was catalogued as ‘The entire erection of the elegant Circular Orchestra with minarets, leaded cupola roof, and gallery, American, Stout and Oyster Bars, with the fittings, shelves, and 2 beer engines and pipes, metal top counter, stairs frontispiece, and pipes, and machinery of organ, bellows, & 2 figures on pedestals, supporting shell soundingboard, 4 looking-glass panels, &c., &c.’ It was sold for £99, roughly two years worth of wages for the average worker at the time. David E. Coke, the great scholar of Vauxhall Gardens speculates that it is possible it may have ended up in Australia with other of the Gardens’ decorations.

The painting has remained in the family of George Stevens since its creation. It is tempting to speculate that the couple standing under the bandstand, dressed in dark clothing as if in mourning, may have been Mr. Stevens and his wife, taking one last look at their wonderland that once was.

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SIR JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS, BT, P.R.A., R.W.S. (SOUTHAMPTON 1829-1896 LONDON) Love Birds ("Une Grande Dame") signed with the artist's monogram and dated '1883' oil on canvas 36¬ x 25¬ in. (93 x 65.1 cm.) $50,000-70,000

£38,000-53,000 €45,000-62,000

PROVENANCE:

The artist. with Arthur Tooth and Sons, London, acquired directly from the above, May 1883. with Fletcher's of Collins Street, Melbourne, by October 1885. with Arthur Tooth and Sons, London, by January 1887.

George Ingraham Seney (1826-1893), New York.

His sale; American Art Association, New York, 11-13 February 1891, lot 267, as The Love-bird.

Joseph Foxcroft Cole (1837–1892), Boston, acquired at the above sale.

Matthew C. D. Borden, (1842-1912), New York and Fall River, MA. His sale; American Art Association at the Plaza Hotel, New York, 13-14 February 1913, lot 31, as The Pet Bird.

William W. Seaman (1854-c.1919), art agent, acquired at the above sale. with the Sporting Gallery, Middleburg, VA, before 1986.

Marguerite Neel Williams (1917-1999), Thomasville, GA, acquired directly from the above, 16 February 1989.

By descent to the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

London, Royal Academy, 1883, no. 37, as "Une Grand Dame".

Glasgow, James McClure & Son, February-March 1885.

Melbourne, Fletcher's of Collins Street, 1885-1886.

LITERATURE:

Montezuma, "My Note Book", The Art Amateur, New York, August 1883, p. 46, as "Une Grande Dame".

E. A. C., "Monthly Notes: Art", Once a Month: A Magazine for Australasia, vol. 4, no. 2, Melbourne, 1 February 1886, p. 167, as The Love Birds.

M. H. Spielmann, Millais and His Works, Edinburgh and London, 1898, pp. 65, 175, no. 248, as Love Birds (originally "Une Grande Dame").

J. G. Millais, The Life and Letters of Sir John Millais, New York, 1899, vol. II, pp. 344-345, 348349, 481, illustrated with the artist's photographs in 4 different states, as "Une Grand Dame" and Love Birds (Originally "Une Grande Dame").

A. L. Baldry, Sir John Everett Millais, His Art and Influence, London, 1899, pp. 58, 116, as Love Birds (erroneously catalogued as dated 1882).

W. R. Valentiner and A. F. Jaccaci, Old and Modern Masters in the Collection of M. C. D. Borden, vol. I, New York, 1911, pp. 134-135, no. 32, illustrated.

Love Birds ("Une Grande Dame") is one of Sir John Everett Millais’s so-called ‘fancy pictures.’ Fancy pictures were originally a sub-genre of painting within 18th century English art. The name was coined by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who, alongside Thomas Gainsborough, was one of the great practitioners of the subject. These kinds of pictures were primarily inspired by 18th-century French painting, including Chardin and Greuze. ‘Fancy pictures’ generally featured children as their subjects, and while purporting to depict everyday life, they also usually included an imaginative element which gave them a contrived innocence. The notion of a ‘childhood’ had only begun to develop in the 18th century, and thus a painting that took a contemporary child as its subject was inherently new.

Striving, late in his career, to achieve the same reputation as a painter that Reynolds had, Millais was to become the ‘fancy picture’s’ greatest practitioner among 19th century painters, and with eight children at home to choose from, the artist was rarely short of child models.

Unlike their 18th century antecedents, Millais’s paintings generally take a view on childhood which is less focused on underprivileged children, though they are undercut with a sense of the fragility of life and childhood which reflected the concerns of his era about a loss of innocence among children. His paintings too tend to be portrait-like studies of single children in settings or costumes gently suggestive of narrative but without actually providing a specific story or message, and they are conspicuously nostalgic – as for example in the brocade silk dress and lace cap and collar of the sitter in the current painting, which harken back to the 18th century rather than his own time.

Long dismissed as simple Victorian sentimentality, Millais’s ‘fancy pictures’ are in fact best described by Alison Smith who noted, ‘In taking a genre widely considered to have degenerated into something trite and feminine, Millais sought to aggrandize it by imbuing his child subjects with a prescience of mortality but with the aim of giving visual pleasure rather than preaching a moral lesson.’ Emblems of the fragility of existence – bubbles, flowers, and, as in the present picture, birds, appear frequently in his work, and his children’s neutral and sometimes introspective expressions were crucial in keeping both narrative and moralizing at bay. Though at first blush it appears to be simply a sweet painting of a child holding a love bird (a type of small parrot), in fact Millais was quoting directly from the Old Masters in creating the present picture – the pose was said to have been inspired by the work attributed to the school of Philippe de Champaigne in the Louvre, Enfant au faucon – an attempt to monumentalize and elevate his subject matter.

The picture was included in two very important late 19thand early 20th-century American collections – that of George Ingraham Seney, an early donor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Matthew C. D. Borden, a Fall River cloth industrialist known as the ‘The Calico King’ during his lifetime. Prior to Seney’s acquisition, it was shipped to Australia, where it was considered for acquisition by The National Gallery of Victoria only a few years after being painted. In spite of Millais’s concerted attempts to avoid sentimentality and narrative, in a delightful twist of perhaps nominative determinist fate, this work titled Love Birds has been sold on three separate occasions within a day or two of Valentine’s Day.

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EUGENE VON BLAAS (ALBANO LAZIALE 18431931 VENICE) Der Blumenverkäufer

signed and dated 'Eugo. de Blaas. 1910' (lower right) oil on canvas 37Ω x 46 in. (95.2 x 116.8 cm.) $200,000-300,000

£160,000-230,000 €180,000-260,000

PROVENANCE:

The artist. with Galerie Heinemann, Munich, acquired directly from the above, 25 June 1910.

George Washington Watts (1851-1921), Durham, NC, acquired directly from the above, 16 August 1910.

John Sprunt Hill (1869-1961) and Annie Watts Hill (1876-1940), Durham, NC, gifted by the above.

By descent to the present owner.

Eugene von Blaas was born into a family of accomplished artists. His father, Karl, was a renowned portrait, history and fresco painter as well as a sculptor, and a professor at the Venice Academy of Fine Art. Eugene's brother, Julius, also an artist, specialized in military scenes and became a professor at the Accademia in Rome. The family had its roots in the Tyrol region of Austria just north of Italy, but both Eugene and his brother were born in Rome and the family later moved to Venice when Karl was hired at the Academy.

Eugene received his early artistic education in Rome and he too became a professor at the Accademia. During his lifetime, his paintings were well-received internationally and he exhibited regularly across Europe.

Von Blaas is best known and most loved for his images of Venetian women. His women are striking in their youth and unadorned beauty and they are depicted with a high degree of finish which demonstrates the artist's unique abilities as both draftsman and painter. The realism in the work of von Blaas is almost photographic and it is clearly the artist's intent to show these women going about their daily routines oblivious of their own beauty and that of their surroundings.

The artist’s paintings also reflect the tenderness and affinity he felt for the ordinary people of the city who inspired his work. In this, Venice was the ideal setting; due to its wealth in architectural and artistic inheritance together with an inability to expand, the city remained relatively unaffected

by the fast-paced changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution during the artist’s lifetime. This time capsule allowed von Blaas to paint idyllic scenes without being consumed by a sense of melancholic nostalgia.

Like many of the artist's genre scenes, Der Blumenverkäufer (the flower seller) creates a sense of an ongoing narrative.

Three young women seated on a terrace have been interrupted at their work – their sewing set aside – by a young man selling flowers. Through the use of the distinctly Venetian skyline and beautiful flowering trees behind the figures, as well as their detailed, beautifully colored costumes, von Blaas is able to create a rich contextual setting for the viewer. Yet while these details, coupled with the artist's tight figural composition, set the scene, it is the postures, gestures, facial expressions and the delicate emotive language which fully animate the world that von Blaas has created. The flower salesman leans in flirtatiously toward one woman, her hand on her chin while she considers his offerings, while her friend watches on with interest, a hint of wistfulness on her face. A third, her beautiful ruffled pink blouse echoing the pinks of the flower that surround her, crouches down to examine the pansies, cosmos and geraniums the man has brought with him, a few of their stray petals scattered before her on the ground.

One can almost hear the conversation being carried on as the group goes about their day untroubled by the viewer’s presence, and this vibrant depiction allows the viewer to formulate and project their own narrative onto this simple exchange frozen in time.

The present work has not appeared on the market since the year in which it was painted. It was purchased directly from Galerie Heinemann, Munich in June of 1910 by George Washington Watts, a businessman, financier and philanthropist from North Carolina. Alongside James B. Duke, he co-founded the American Tobacco Company, and also founded Watts Hospital, which was the first hospital in Durham, North Carolina. The hospital’s quality of care and philanthropic mission to provide healthcare to the working poor was so well-regarded that James B. Duke and North Carolina Governor Cameron Morrison proposed the creation of the state's first four-year medical college, Duke University, with the goal of educating students in conjunction with the services provided at Watts Hospital. It was gifted to Watts’s daughter Annie Louise Watts and her husband and has remained in the family since.

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JOAQUÍN SOROLLA Y BASTIDA (VALENCIA 1863-1923 CERCEDILLA)

Retrato del Príncipe de Asturias. Alfonso de Borbón Battenberg a los dos meses signed 'J. Sorolla Bastida' (lower right); inscribed 'SAR. Principe de Asturias/à los 2 meses 10 July 1907' (lower left) oil on canvas, oval 18Ω x 24 in. (47 x 61 cm.) $70,000-100,000

£53,000-75,000 €62,000-88,000

PROVENANCE:

Alfonso XIII of Spain (1886-1941) and Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, Queen of Spain (1887-1969), Madrid and Rome, the parents of the sitter.

By descent to the present owner.

The present painting depicts Alfonso, Prince of Asturias (10 May 1907 – 6 September 1938), later the Count of Covadonga, who was, until the abolition of the monarchy in 1931, the heir apparent to the Spanish throne. Painted on the 10th of July 1907 at the Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso when the young prince was exactly 2 months old, it has been retained by the descendants of King Alfonso XIII of Spain since it was painted. The prince is depicted wearing the Insigne Orden del Toisón de Oro (The Order of the Golden Fleece), which was conferred on him at his baptism at only 8 days old.

Though the Royal family was deposed and went into exile in 1931 when Spain became a republic, Alfonso renounced his rights to the then-defunct throne to marry a commoner in 1933, not unlike his second cousin, Edward VIII of England. They divorced in 1937, and Alfonso married again, though the marriage lasted only 6 months. In 1938 during the Spanish Civil War, he publicly stated his willingness to accept the Spanish crown if called upon, reversing his renunciation and leading to his disavowal by his father. In September of that same year Alfonso met his untimely end at only 31 years old as a result of a car crash in Miami.

Though he appeared only to have sustained minor injuries, his hemophilia, inherited through his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, ultimately led to fatal internal bleeding.

Sorolla made three portraits of the prince during this sitting. Writing to his good friend Pedro Gil Moreno de Mora on 1-2 July 1907 he said, 'I am also going to make a large painting of the little prince, who is very pretty and chubby, he looks very much like his mother, he has blue eyes and is very blond' (translated, Epistolarios de Sorolla I, 2007, pp. 240-242, letter 260). The large painting the artist referenced was never completed, the three wonderfully fresh studies stand on their own.

We are grateful to Blanca Pons-Sorolla for confirming the authenticity of this work, which will be included as no. BPS 3940 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné.

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SANO DI PIETRO (SIENA 1405-1481)

The Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and two angels, with Christ at the tomb above tempera and gold on panel, in an engaged frame 23º x 16æ in. (59 x 25.5 cm.) $40,000-60,000

£31,000-45,000 €36,000-53,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 10 December 1980, lot 130, as Studio of Sano di Pietro. with Sarti Gallery, London and Paris, from whom acquired by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

Primitifs et Manieristes Italiens (1370-1570), G. Sarti ed., Paris, 2000, pp. 84-89, cat. 10.

Ansano di Pietro di Mencio, known as Sano di Pietro, was the most consistently productive Sienese master of the mid-fifteenth century. While less is known about his early years, his work is well documented from 1444 onward. He received numerous commissions in and around Siena, and his compositions reveal the influence of Sienese contemporaries and predecessors, notably Sassetta and Domenico di Bartolo.

In this panel, the Virgin’s delicately drawn face and almond-shaped eyes closely echo those in the artist's Virgin and Child with Angels (Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena, inv. no. 224) as well as his polyptych in the same museum (inv. no. 231).

The meticulous design of the Christ Child’s garment is similar to that worn by the infant Christ in Sano’s Virgin and Child with Saint Jerome, Saint Bernardino, and Four Angels at the Art Institute of Chicago (inv. no. 1933.1027). The present work also includes Saint Jerome, identified by his rosary and the stone with which he beats his breast, while above, the depiction of Christ in the Sepulcher subtly foreshadows the Child's Passion.

Datable to around 1460—close to Sano's signed polyptych for San Giorgio in Montemerano (1458) and his 1463 altarpiece in Pienza Cathedral—this panel was painted at a time when the artist led a highly active and stylistically cohesive workshop. While his vast output has prompted occasional distinctions between the master’s hand and those of his assistants, the assured quality and refinement in this painting are characteristic of Sano’s mature oeuvre.

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ZANINO DI PIETRO (ACTIVE BOLOGNA 1389-1448 VENICE) The Crucifixion

tempera and gold on panel, shaped top 20¬ x 14√ in. (52.5 x 38 cm.) $60,000-80,000

£46,000-60,000 €53,000-71,000

PROVENANCE:

Private collection, Innsbruck.

Art market, Kufstein, by 2010, where acquired by the following, with Kunsthandel Mehringer, Munich, where acquired by following, with Benappi Fine Art, London, where acquired by the present owner circa 2013.

LITERATURE:

V. Baradel, Zanino di Pietro nel contesto della cultura figurativa veneziana fra Tre e Quattrocento, doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Padova, 2018, no. 13 V. Baradel, 'Zanino di Pietro. Riflessioni a margine del trittico di Rieti, un’opera poco nota e una ritrovata', Arte Veneta, LXXV, 2018, pp. 8–23.

M. Minardi, 'Zanino di Pietro e un insolito canone iconografico dell’Imago pietatis nella Venezia di primo Quattrocento', Ricche Minere, VI, no. 12, December 2019, pp. 5-23.

A significant figure in late Gothic painting in Venice, Zanino di Pietro established his career there following an early period of activity in Bologna. His distinctive style blended local Venetian traditions with influences from Gentile da Fabriano and the broader International Gothic, resulting in compositions of distinct emotional intensity and refined technique.

In this intimately scaled Crucifixion, Zanino condenses a complex narrative into a narrow pictorial field. At left, the Virgin collapses in grief, supported by one of the mourning women; opposite them stand Saint John the Evangelist and Stephaton, with two additional figures pressed behind. At the center, a blonde Mary Magdalene lifts her tearful gaze toward the lifeless body of Christ, rendered in stark, pale tones. The panel's iconography and format suggest it originally formed the central pinnacle of a polyptych, likely flanked by narrower wings in keeping with Venetian practice. Its unusually small size, however, also supports the possibility that it was intended for private devotion.

The softly modeled forms, restrained naturalism, and distinctive physiognomies— seen in the heavy-lidded eyes and full lips of the female figures and the robust anatomy of Christ—are characteristic of Zanino’s later paintings. The panel can be dated to circa 1411-12 based on its close affinities with the artist’s documented work for the Franciscans at Fonte Colombo.

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BARTOLOMEO CAPORALI (PERUGIA 1420-1505)

The Madonna and Child with angels tempera, oil and gold on panel 34Ω x 12 in. (87.8 × 30.6 cm.) $40,000-60,000

£31,000-45,000 €36,000-53,000

PROVENANCE:

with Pardo, Paris, circa 1955.

Anonymous sale; Tajan, Paris, 17 December 1997, lot 333, as 'Benedetto Bonfigli'. with Sarti Gallery, London and Paris, where acquired by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

F. Todini, Primitifs et maniéristes italiens (1370-1570), G. Sarti ed., Paris, 2000, pp. 78-83

This panel, a private devotional work, reflects Bartolomeo Caporali’s early engagement with the refined Gothic tradition shaped by local adaptations of Florentine painting, particularly that of Benozzo Gozzoli. The elongated hands and elegantly tooled gold ground closely parallel the arcing folds and wheel-spoke haloes of Caporali’s triptych for the Confraternity of Justice (Perugia, Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, inv. no. 230), while the delicately modeled features echo those in his Virgin and Child with Two Angels (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, inv. no.

137A).

Particularly striking is this painting's finely punched, brocade-like background, its swirling vegetal motifs recalling the luminous surfaces of the artist’s Virgin and Child Surrounded by Four Angels (Florence, Museo di San Marco, inv. 1890: no. 3250) and his Adoration of the Magi with a Crucifix (London, National Gallery, inv. no. 1843). Likely datable to circa 1450, this panel predates Caporali’s documented collaboration with Benedetto Bonfigli, underscoring its importance as an early example of the painter’s transition from Gothic elegance toward the more naturalistic style that would characterize Umbrian art in the latter half of the fifteenth century.

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MASTER OF RONCAIETTE (ACTIVE VENETO LATE 14TH-EARLY 15TH CENTURY) The Sermon of Saint Peter Martyr tempera, oil and gold on panel 24√ x 16 in. (63.2 x 40.6 cm.) $60,000-80,000

£46,000-60,000 €53,000-71,000

PROVENANCE:

Friedrich Lippmann (1839-1903), Berlin; his deceased sale, Rudolph Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus, Berlin, 26 November 1912, lot 12, as School of Giotto and described as Saint Francis preaching.

Private collection, Rhineland.

Anonymous sale; Lempertz, Cologne, 19 May 2001, lot 1041, as Emilian Master, middle of the 15th century, where acquired by the following, with Moretti Fine Art, Florence, where acquired in 2007 by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Florence, Moretti Fine Art, Da Ambrogio Lorenzetti a Sandro Botticelli, 2003.

LITERATURE:

S. Padovani, 'Materiale per la storia della pittura ferrarese nel primo Quattrocento', Antichità viva, XIII,1974, p. 10, fig. 32, as Giovanni di Francia, in a moment of affinity with the Master of Roncaiette.

M. Lucco, 'Padova', La pittura nel Veneto. Il Quattrocento, II, pt. 1, Milan, 1989, p. 97, note 23.

D. Benati in, Da Ambrogio Lorenzetti a Sandro Botticelli, exhibition catalogue, Florence, 2003, pp. 104-107, illustrated.

The Master of Roncaiette, active in Verona and Padua in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, was first identified by Roberto Longhi in 1947. His anonymous name derives from a group of paintings linked with the large polyptych at the church of San Fidenzio at Roncaiette, outside of Padua. His style follows that of Altichiero, a gothic follower of Giotto.

The present panel was first attributed to the School of Giotto, and was thought to depict Saint Francis, when it was up for sale in Berlin in 1912. It was later published by Serena Padovani in 1974, who attributed it to Giovanni di Francia, in a moment of close affinity with the Master of Roncaiette (loc. cit.). It was not until 1989 that Mauro Lucco identified the panel as the work of the anonymous master, a suggestion which Padovani later accepted (see D.

Benati, loc. cit.). Daniele Benati proposes that the panel may have originally formed part of a dossal, which would have included a larger central image of Saint Peter Martyr and additional side panels depicting other episodes from his life. He believes it was likely completed in the Veneto circa 1410-1420. When the painting was at auction in 2021, Mauro Lucco suggested an alternative date of 1404-1410 based on the figures' clothing (see Sotheby’s, New York, 30 January 2021, lot 508).

This panel depicts an episode from the life of the Saint Peter Martyr of Verona, who was canonized in 1253 by Pope Innocent IV, just a year after his death. In this scene, Saint Peter stands before a crowd gathered around a pulpit, set against a rocky landscape. The onlookers gaze upward in astonishment as the saint forms clouds, providing relief from the intense heat of the sun. This miraculous act was performed in response to a heretic – shown below the pulpit, remorseful and accompanied by his dog – who had challenged Peter to prove his sanctity.

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MASTER OF THE APOLLO AND DAPHNE LEGEND (ACTIVE FLORENCE C. 1480-1510) Ulysses taking leave of Penelope and Telemachus before setting sail for Troy tempera on panel 36 x 78¡ in. (91.5 x 199 cm.) $100,000-150,000

£76,000-110,000 €89,000-130,000

PROVENANCE:

Laurence Trent Cave (1824-1899), Ditcham Park, Patersfield, and St. Nicholas Abbey, Barbados, Charles John Philip Cave, F.S.A. (1871-1950), Ditcham Park, Patersfield, and St. Nicholas Abbey, Barbados, Laurence Charles Henry Cave (1896-1981), Bletchingley, Surrey, and St. Nicholas Abbey, Barbados.

Lt.-Col. Stephen Cave, O.B.E.; Christie's, London, 9 December 1988, lot 9. with Sarti Gallery, London and Paris, by 1990, where acquired by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

G. Sarti ed., Trente-trois Primitifs Italianes de 1310 a 1500: du Sacre au Profane, Paris, 1990, pp. 204-215, no. 33 M. Nasoni, Pittura italiana dal ‘300 al ‘500, M. Natale ed., Turin, 1991, p. 169.

This splendid spalliera panel, datable to circa 1500, by the Master of the Apollo and Daphne Legend, depicts a pivotal moment from the Trojan War: the departure of Ulysses (Odysseus) for Troy. The composition unfolds across an expansive coastal landscape, with ships at anchor, a fortified city rising at right, and a group of carefully observed figures dressed in elegant late quattrocento costume. In Renaissance Florence, episodes from the Trojan War could be adapted—no less than biblical scenes—to underscore virtues suited to a nuptial context. Here, Ulysses’s departure (and, by implication, his eventual reunion with Penelope) evokes themes of courage, loyalty, and conjugal fidelity.

Federico Zeri and Everett Fahy simultaneously constructed the oeuvre of the artist now known as the Master of the Apollo and Daphne Legend—an anonymous painter active in late fifteenth-century Florence, working in the orbit of Bartolomeo di Giovanni, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Sandro Botticelli.

Fahy initially designated the artist as the 'Master of the Ryerson Panels,' but later adopted Zeri’s name, derived from the painter’s Apollo and Daphne cycle, formerly in the Samuel H. Kress Collection (now in the Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago). Although the Master’s identity remains unknown, Fahy proposed that he may correspond to one of Ghirlandaio’s documented but otherwise elusive pupils—Niccolò Cieco, Jacopo dell’Indaco, or Baldino Baldinetti. More recently, Dr. Nicoletta Pons has advanced Giovanni di Benedetto Cianfanini (1462–1542) as a possible candidate; a follower of Botticelli who later collaborated with Lorenzo di Credi and Fra’ Bartolommeo.

We are grateful to Christopher Daly for bringing additional literature to our attention.

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JACOPO DA PONTE, CALLED JACOPO BASSANO (BASSANO DEL GRAPPA C.1510-1592) The Mocking of Christ

oil on canvas 43º x 31Ω in. (110 x 80 cm.) $60,000-80,000

£46,000-60,000 €53,000-71,000

PROVENANCE:

Villa Brunswick Collection, Nice, by whom sold, [From the Villa Brunswick Collection, Nice]; Christie's, London, 25 January 1957, lot 117 as Francesco Bassano.

Anonymous sale; Dorotheum, Vienna, 25 October 2023, lot 38, as Francesco Bassano and Workshop, where acquired by the present owner.

This beautifully preserved and recently rediscovered Mocking of Christ is a powerful demonstration of Jacopo Bassano’s innovative nocturnal compositions, exemplifying the artist’s mastery of dramatic illumination, psychological intensity, and bravura painterly execution.

Particularly striking, as observed by Mattia Vinco—who first recognized the painting as an autograph work by Jacopo—is the virtuoso handling of the soldier’s green garment behind Christ, painted with boldly informal brushstrokes that anticipate the experimental techniques of Bassano’s late period and recall the expressive freedom of Titian’s final works (M. Vinco, unpublished study, 2024).

The subject, drawn from Luke (22:63-65) and Matthew (27:27-31), was frequently treated by Jacopo Bassano, his sons, and their studio; however, as Vinco notes, this exact compositional arrangement is otherwise unknown in their extensive corpus. Only two works partially approximate it: a horizontally oriented canvas formerly in the Spencer Collection at Althorp, Northamptonshire (Fototeca Zeri, no. 40507), and a related workshop drawing preserved in the Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence (I disegni dei secoli XV e XVI della Biblioteca Marucelliana di Firenze, Rome, 1990, no. 343). Vinco further highlights three distinctive elements setting this composition apart from Bassano’s more frequently encountered variants: the tormentor immediately behind Christ, aggressively leaning forward and grasping a staff; the figure kneeling at lower left;

and, notably, the central youth whose candle dramatically illuminates the nocturnal scene (M. Vinco, 2024).

Recent scholarship, especially Alessandro Ballarin’s pivotal reassessment of Bassano’s workshop, has restored Jacopo’s primacy in such complex nocturnal paintings, correcting earlier misconceptions regarding the role of his son Francesco (A. Ballarin, ‘La bottega di Jacopo Bassano negli anni Settanta: un tentativo di bilancio con qualche esempio’, Jacopo Bassano. Scritti 1964-1995, Cittadella, 1995, pp. 335-359). Contemporary accounts, such as Lorenzo Marucini (1577), praised Jacopo explicitly as the 'inventor of true nocturnes' on both canvas and pietra di paragone (L. Marucini, Il Bassano, Venice, 1577; see A. Ballarin, ‘La vecchiaia di Jacopo Bassano: le fonti e la critica’, Jacopo Bassano. Scritti 1964-1995, 1995, p. 67).

Likewise, Karel van Mander, visiting Rome around 1575, described Jacopo’s candle-lit Passion scenes, noting the artist’s virtuoso handling of illumination and narrative drama (A. Ballarin, op. cit., p. 67).

Vinco persuasively situates the present canvas among Jacopo’s documented masterpieces from the mid-1570s, citing stylistic affinities with the altarpiece of Saint Martin and the Beggar (formerly Valmarino, Treviso) and the Baptism of Saint Lucilla (Museo Civico, Bassano del Grappa; A. Ballarin, op. cit., figs. 102-103). Alessandro Ballarin tentatively proposed a slightly later dating (15851592), contemporaneous with Jacopo’s altarpiece at Poggiana (written communication, 4 April 2025).

We are grateful to Mattia Vinco for proposing the attribution to Jacopo Bassano and for providing his unpublished study (available upon request) on which this catalogue entry is based. We are also thankful to Alessandro Ballarin for endorsing the attribution on the basis of digital images.

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TOMMASO DI CREDI, CALLED TOMMASO (ACTIVE FLORENCE LATE 15TH-EARLY 16TH CENTURY) The Lamentation oil on panel 29º x 41¡ in. (74.3 x 105.1 cm.) $60,000-80,000

£46,000-60,000 €53,000-71,000

PROVENANCE:

with Salvadori, Florence, where acquired in Spring 1920 by the following, H.W. Jürgens, Nijmegen. with Dover Street Gallery, London, by 2001.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 4 December 2008, lot 158, where acquired by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: a list of the principal artists and their works with an index of places, Oxford, 1932, p. 578.

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School, Oxford, 1963, I, p.

208, pl. 1182.

G. Dalli Regoli, Lorenzo di Credi, Pisa, 1966, p. 191, no. 235, as 'Maestro della Conversazione di S. Spirito'.

Sometimes identified as the 'Master of the Santo Spirito Sacra Conversazione' after an altarpiece in the church of Santo Spirito in Florence, depicting the Madonna and Child enthroned, Tommaso was an accomplished follower of Lorenzo di Credi, working either in his close circle or in his workshop itself, where he may have trained. Lorenzo’s influence is visible throughout the composition, from the expansive landscape to the figures' expressions and facial types. These are particularly comparable to those in a tondo from the Louvre collection (inv.

M.I. 600), on long-term loan to the Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon, which had historically been attributed to Lorenzo di Credi before Everett Fahy associated it with Tommaso. Everett Fahy confirmed the attribution of the present work to Tommaso on the basis of first-hand inspection at the time of its previous appearance at auction in 2008.

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LIPPO D'ANDREA (FLORENCE 1370-BEFORE 1451) The Vision of Saint Bridget of Sweden tempera and gold on panel 25 x 18Ω in. (63.5 x 47 cm.) $80,000-120,000

£61,000-90,000 €71,000-110,000

PROVENANCE:

with Galleria Bellini, Florence, by 1962, as 'Giovanni dal Ponte' and with the subject identified as The Temptation of the Beata Umiliana de’ Cerchi.

Private collection, Florence.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 11 July 1973, lot 57, as 'Ambrogio di Baldesi' and with the subject identified as A Miracle of St. Monica (£2,500 to Albert). with Blue Art Ltd., London, where acquired in 2015 by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

Antichità Viva, I, April 1962, p. 3, as 'Giovanni dal Ponte'.

L. Pisani, 'Pittura tardogotica a Firenze negli anni trenta del Quattrocento: il caso dello pseudo-Ambrogio di baldese', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 2001, pp. 15 and 24, note 49, fig. 26, described as The Tempatation of Saint Giuliana Falconieri (?).

S. Chiodo, 'Lippo d'Andrea: problemi di iconografia e stile', Arte cristiana, XC, 2002, pp. 7-16, fig. 14.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, who was born in 1303 and belonged to a branch of the Swedish royal family, was the wife of Ulf, or ‘Ulpho’, Gudmarsson, Lord of Ulfasa in Sweden, by whom she had eight children. In 1341 she and her husband made the pilgrimage to Compostella. On their return both led monastic lives: Ulf entered the Cistercian house at Alvastra, where he died in 1344; while Bridget joined the same monastery where she had the first of her visions of Christ instructing her to found a religious order.

The rule of her Order of the Holy Savior, the Bridgettines, based on that of the Augustinians, was confirmed by Pope Urban V in 1370. It says much for Bridget’s reputation with her contemporaries that she was in a position to write to the kings of both England and France to urge the two to make peace. She died at Rome in 1373 and was canonized by Pope Boniface IX in 1391. Roughly half of her order’s monasteries were in Scandinavia but significant houses were founded elsewhere, including that at Syon endowed by King Henry V in 1415. Surviving panels demonstrate that the cult of Saint Bridget was widely diffused in Italy during the decades that followed her canonization.

Lippo d’Andrea was a significant Florentine master, documentary evidence establishing an independent activity from the beginning of the fifteenth century until the early 1440s. In the past, pictures by him have been variously attributed to Ambrogio di Baldese or – as in this case – to a ‘Pseudo-Ambrogio di Baldese’, Ventura di Moro and Rossello di Jacopo Franchi. He was based in Florence but also worked in Prato and elsewhere in Tuscany. Chiodo in her major article on the artist of 2002 established a coherent chronology for the extant corpus of his oeuvre. She dated about 1420 or slightly later a coherent group of four panels of scenes from the life of Saint Bridget. The first of these to be recognized as by Lippo – by Andrea de Marchi – is the dramatic panel of Saint Bridget appearing to cure a woman afflicted by a demon, formerly in the Rothermere collection: subsequently, by 1991, Miklòs Boskovits proposed that the Saint Bridget borne to Heaven by Angels observed by a Monk at Budapest was from the same series (Chiodo, op. cit., figs. 17 and 16, respectively). Both panels were thought to represent scenes from the life of Saint Monica. Boskovits later identified two further components of the series, also in private collections, this panel, showing the saint kneeling in prayer experiencing her vision of Christ while confronted by the Devil, and the Saint Bridget crowned by the Virgin, also arched.

Chiodo recognized that the four panels illustrate the life not of Santa Monica but of Saint Bridget, as documented in the biography compiled by the Beata Birger Gregerssonn, a nun of Wadstena, who followed Saint Bridget to Rome and in other early lives of her. As Chiodo noted, this panel does not depend on a specific scene recorded by Gregersonn, but ingeniously conflates her vision of Christ with references to temptation in her and other early biographies of the saint: the composition is closely related to that of an earlier illuminated initial by a Neapolitan hand at Palermo (Biblioteca Centrale della Regione Siciliana, ms. IV G 2, Initial ‘F’: Chiodo, op. cit., p. 14, fig. 15) in which the Devil is also shown as if endeavoring to argue with the saint who kneels serenely in prayer while experiencing her vision.

Chiodo plausibly suggests that the four panels may have flanked a full-length representation of the saint, the arched top of which would have been echoed by those of this panel and the Saint Bridget crowned by the Virgin. The Budapest and ex-Rothermere panels would have been placed below these.

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FOLLOWER OF GIOVANNI PIETRO RIZZOLI, CALLED GIAMPIETRINO Mary Magdalene

inscribed 'MELIVS EST SPERARE / IN IEHOVA / QVAM CONFIDERE / IN PRINCIPIBVS' (upper right) oil on panel 28Ω x 20Ω in. (72.4 x 52.1 cm.) $20,000-30,000

£16,000-23,000 €18,000-26,000

PROVENANCE:

with O. Klein, New York.

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (1920-1993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in June 1969 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

LITERATURE:

N. Mao and D. Wolfthal, 'A newly discovered Penitent Magdalene by Giampietrino', Notes in the History of Art, Summer 2016, pp. 311-321, as Giampietrino.

The composition loosely follows that of Giampietrino’s half-length Mary Magdalene in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.

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CIRCLE OF GIOVANNI FRANCESCO BARBIERI, IL GUERCINO (CENTO 1591-1666 BOLOGNA) Portrait of Guercino

traces of an inscription (upper right) oil on canvas 23 x 19º in. (58.4 x 48.9 cm.) $20,000-30,000

£16,000-23,000 €18,000-26,000

PROVENANCE:

Dawton Guerault, London. with T. Rodgers & Co., London.

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 20 July 1956, lot 67, as Guercino.

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (19201993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in 1965 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

EXHIBITED:

Tempe, Arizona State University, Board of Regents Office, 1968.

Tempe, Hayden Library at Arizona State University, Portraits from the ASU Art Collection, 18 July 1968.

LITERATURE:

B.B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, 1972, pp. 99 and 641, as a copy after Guercino.

G. Finaldi, Discovering the Italian baroque: The Denis Mahon Collection, exhibition catalogue, London, 1997, p. 72.

G. Finaldi, Percorsi del barocco. Acquisti, doni e depositi alla Pinacoteca nazionale di Bologna 1990-1999, Y. Bentini ed., Bologna, 1999, pp. 60-61.

G. Agostini, Sir Denis Mahon per la Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Una donazione compiuta, Rimini, 2016, p. 59.

This portrait of Guercino, depicting the master holding a palette and brushes, derives from a prototype by his nephew and pupil, Benedetto Gennari (Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, inv. no. 32535). Based on Guercino’s own self-portrait (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., inv. no. 2005.13.1), this composition became widely admired and was replicated in numerous variants, as noted by Gabriele Finaldi (op. cit.).

At upper right, faint traces of a three-line Latin inscription, partially legible under infrared light, read: IOˢ FRANCˢ A C…O PICTVRE LVMEN V..…A PICTO The inscription can be plausibly reconstructed as ‘Ioannes Franciscus a Cento / Picturae lumen / Vivit a picto’ ('Giovanni Francesco of Cento, light of painting, lives on through this portrait'). Below the inscription is a fleur-de-lis surmounted by a coronet.

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CARLO DOLCI (FLORENCE 1616-1687) The penitent Saint Jerome

oil on panel, an oval 11Ω x 8Ω in. (29 x 21.6 cm.) inscribed '1647 il 14 di febbraio [...] restano [...] / che questo farsi [...] di quanto / gli fussi stato debitore sin a [quest?]o giorno' (on the reverse) $40,000-60,000

£31,000-45,000 €36,000-53,000

PROVENANCE:

(Possibly) Antonio Lorenzi, Florence, by 1647.

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 20 April 1951, lot 156, as 'Dolci'.

Mrs. E. Hooper, Vancouver, and by whom sold, [The Property of Mrs. E. Hooper of Vancouver]; Sotheby's, London, 6 April 1977, lot 2. with Richard L. Feigen & New York, by 1980.

Anonymous sale; Doyle, New York, 30 January 2019, lot 15, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Princeton, The Art Museum, Princeton University, Italian Baroque Paintings from New York Private Collections, 27 April- 7 September, 1980, no. 18.

New Have, Yale University Art Gallery, Italian Paintings from the Richard L. Feigen Collection, 28 May-12 September 2010, no. 50.

LITERATURE:

(Possibly) Baldinucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno, V, Florence, 1847, p. 351.

C. McCorquodale, ‘Some Unpublished Works by Carlo Dolci’, The Burlington Magazine, CXXI, no. 912, March 1979, pp. 144-46, note 16, fig. 8.

C. McCorquodale, Painting in Florence 1600-1700, exhibition catalogue, London, 1979, p. 48, under no. 16.

J. Spike, Italian Baroque Paintings from New York Private Collections, exhibition catalogue, Princeton, 1980, pp. 52-53, no.

18.

G. Cantelli, Repertorio della pittura fiorentina del Seicento, Florence, 1983, p. 72.

C. McCorquodale, 'Carlo Dolci', Il Seicento fiorentino: arte a Firenze da Ferdinando I a Cosimo III, III, Florence, 1986, p. 82.

F. Baldassari, in La Pittura in Italia: il seicento, II, Milan, 1988, p.

726.

M.B. Guerrieri Borsoi, ‘Dolci Carlo’, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, XL, Rome, 1991, p. 422.

F. Baldassari, Carlo Dolci, Turin, 1995, pp. 101-103, no. 72.

C. McCorquodale, 'Carlo Dolci', The Dictionary of Art, J. Turner, ed., London and New York, 1996, p. 77.

F. Baldassari, Un inedito San Girolamo e altre aggiunte al catalogo di Carlo Dolci, exhibition catalogue, Siena, 2002, pp.

14-16, fig. 14.

F. Baldassari, La pittura del Seicento a Firenze. Indice degli artisti e delle loro opere, Turin 2009, pp. 334 and 348, fig. 157 L. Kanter and J. Marciari, Italian paintings from the Richard L. Feigen collection, New Haven, 2010, pp. 163-164, no. 50.

F. Baldassari, Carlo Dolci: Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, Florence, 2015, pp. 180 and 346, no. 83.

This intimately scaled, oval panel by Carlo Dolci is inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own hand. Highly unusual in the context of 17th-century Italian painting, the practice of inscribing the reverses of paintings seems to have been one employed regularly by Dolci, who often included personalized details and biblical references (see R. Spear, ‘Carlo Dolci’s inscriptions – I: Dolci’s signatures and prices in context’; L. Treves, ‘Carlo Dolci’s inscriptions – II: Diligence and devotion in “The Adoration of the Kings” in the National Gallery, London,’ The Burlington Magazine, CLXIV, 1426, January 2022, pp. 4-21).

In the inscription here, Dolci provides a date, 14 February 1647, and informs the reader that this represented the last of all the days he had been in debt, suggesting the painting was presented to its new owner by the artist in settlement.

Charles McCorquodale proposed in 1979 (loc. cit.) that the panel might be identifiable as the ‘San Girolamo in atto di battersi il petto col sasso,’ (‘Saint Jerome in the act of beating his breast with a stone’) mentioned by Dolci’s friend and biographer, Filippo Baldinucci as having been painted for Antonio Lorenzi, the artist’s physician (loc. cit.).

As Francesca Baldassari indicated, however, Baldinucci describes Lorenzi’s painting as being half-length which does not correspond with the full length, kneeling saint seen here (loc. cit.).

Dolci based his composition for this Penitent Saint Jerome on a painting of the same subject by Cigoli, painted in 1603 and now in the collection of the Cassa di Risparmio, Pisa (see L. Kanter and J. Marciari, op. cit., p. 164, fig. 1). Despite the painting’s debt to Cigoli, the treatment of the subject is more reminiscent of Jacopo Vignali, in whose workshop Dolci trained from the age of just nine. Here, the master’s influence is evident in the more painterly approach to the figure and landscape, diverging from Dolci’s typically polished, luminous style. The intensity of the saint’s gaze, however, and the meticulous naturalism with which the stilllife elements are described are immediately recognizable hallmarks of Dolci’s hand.

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CESARE GENNARI (CENTO 1637-1688 BOLOGNA) The Personification of Astrology oil on canvas, unframed 31Ω x 25Ω in. (80 x 65 cm.) $20,000-30,000

£16,000-23,000 €18,000-26,000

PROVENANCE:

Private collection, France, where acquired by the present owner circa 2016.

This painting follows the composition of Guercino’s Personification of Astrology (Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, inv. no. 1984.57), which Barbara Ghelfi associates with the following entry in the artist’s libro dei conti ('account book'), dated 1658: 'Dal Ill: Sig Co: Girolamo Ranuzi si è ricevuto Ducatoni trenta, per la Strologia che fu fatta li Anni passati e questi fanno Scudi 37' ('From the Illustrious Lord Count Girolamo Ranuzi, thirty Ducatoni were received for Astrology, which was painted in past years, totaling 37 Scudi.'; Il libro dei conti del Guercino (1629–1666), B. Ghelfi ed., Venice, 1997, p. 183, no. 537).

According to Guercino’s account book, he painted an earlier version of this subject—still untraced—which is recorded in a 1635 entry: 'Dal Em. Sig. Card.

Spada, si è ricevuto Zanfroni n. 30. Per compim. della Astrologia, fanno Scudi 34' ('From the Most Eminent Lord Cardinal Spada, 30 Zanfroni were received. For the completion of Astrology, totaling 34 Scudi.'; op. cit., p. 79, no. 113).

We are grateful to Daniele Benati for endorsing the attribution to Cesare Gennari on the basis of images.

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A PARCEL-GILT AND SILVERED BRONZE CORPUS AFTER A MODEL BY GIAMBOLOGNA, POSSIBLY FLORENTINE, LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY 10Ω in. (26.7 cm.) high, 10º in. (26 cm.) wide $10,000-15,000

£7,600-11,000 €8,900-13,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 05 December 2012, lot 49.

LITERATURE:

RELATED LITERATURE C. Avery, A. Radcliffe, and K. Watson, Giambologna 1529-1608.

Sculptor to the Medici, exhib. cat. Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, and Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1978, pp.

45-47 and 140-146, nos. 98-111.

C. Avery, M. Leithe-Jasper and A. Radcliffe, Giambologna 15291608. Ein Wendepunkt der europäischen Plastik, exhib. cat.

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1979, pp. 190-199, nos. 98-111.

H. Keutner and G. Romano, Firenze 1592. Un nuovo crocifisso in argento del Giambologna, exhib. cat. Antichi Maestri Pittori di Giancarlo Gallini, Turin, 1999, pp. 24-30.

•

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A PATINATED CARVED OAK FIGURE OF SAINT BARBARA PROBABLY 19TH CENTURY 22.18 in. (56.3 cm.) high $5,000-8,000

£3,800-6,000 €4,500-7,100

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE •

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FOLLOWER OF AMBROSIUS BENSON The Nativity

oil on panel 42 x 27æ in. (106.7 x 75 cm.) $15,000-20,000

£12,000-15,000 €14,000-18,000

PROVENANCE:

(Possibly) Ami Linker, Bilbao. with Juan Lafora, Madrid, by 1929. with Hugo Perls and Käthe Perls, Berlin, and in storage at De Gruyter, The Hague, Confiscated by 'Heim Holland', The Hague, not before November 1941.

Anonymous sale; Frederick Muller & Co., Amsterdam, 24-27 March 1942, lot 36, as Follower of Hugo van der Goes.

Restituted to the Perls family, circa 1950. with Shaeffer Galleries, New York.

Anonymous sale; Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 29 February 1956, lot 10, as Ambrosius Benson.

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (19201993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in 1958 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

LITERATURE:

M.J. Friedländer, Die Altniederländische Malerei, XI, Berlin, 1933, p. 142, no. 242, as Ambrosius Benson.

G. Marlier, Ambrosius Benson et la Peinture a Bruges au Temps de Charles-Quint, Damme, 1957, pp. 123-125, no. 20, pl. XXII, as Ambrosius Benson.

'7 Art Masterpieces, valued at $250,000, Given to ASU' The Arizona Republic, 27 November 1958, p. 1, as Ambrosius Benson.

E. Johnson, 'College Museum Notes', College Art Journal, XVIII, no. 3, Spring 1959, p. 257, as Ambrosius Benson.

M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting: The Antwerp Mannerists, New York and Washington, 1974, p. 95, no. 242, pl. 164, as Ambrosius Benson.

J.-L. Pypaert, 'Early Netherlandish Painting XV ? Joseph van der Veken', Autour de la 'Madelene Renders': Un Aspect de l'Histoire des Colelctions, de la Restuaration et de la Contrefaçon en Belgique dans la Première Moité du XXe Siècle, p. 258, no. 204, illustrated, as Ambrosius Benson.

This panel was identified as a work by Ambrosius Benson by Max J. Friedländer in 1933, who described the painting as 'free after David' (loc. cit.). The composition is comparable to Gerard David’s Nativity, which forms the central panel of a triptych at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 49.7.20a–c). In both works, architectural ruins divide the composition: in the foreground, the Holy Family is watched over by angels, while shepherds observe from beyond.

Benson revisited the nocturnal Nativity theme on several occasions; one such example, now in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (inv. no. 1948.297), features the figures of Mary and Joseph in reverse. The unknown painter of the present work could have known these compositions through drawings, which freely circulated in Flemish workshops.

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE

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MASTER OF THE PRODIGAL SON (ACTIVE ANTWERP C. 1530-1560) The Adoration of the Shepherds oil on panel 40 x 30æ in. (101.6 x 80.7 cm.) $20,000-30,000

£16,000-23,000 €18,000-26,000

PROVENANCE:

Bourssault Collection, 1830 (according to a note in the Arizona State University Art Museum files).

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (19201993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in 1965 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

EXHIBITED:

Tempe, Arizona State University Gamage Auditorium Foyer, Christmas in Art, 4-7 December 1965, as Lambert Lombard.

Tempe, Arizona State University Gamage Auditorium Foyer, Christmas Pictures, December 1966, as Lambert Lombard.

LITERATURE:

'Renaissance Art', Tempe Daily News, 12 January 1973, illustrated, as Lambert Lombard.

Named after a large panel depicting the parable of the Prodigal Son (Vienna, Kunsthistoriches Museum, inv. no. 986), which had previously been attributed to Jan Mandijn, the as yet unidentified artist of the present work was given his placeholder name by George Hulin de Loo in 1909 (Catalogue du Musée des Beaux-Arts de Gand, Ghent, pp. 55-56). The artist ran a prosperous workshop in Antwerp, working as a painter as well as a designer of tapestries and stained glass.

The Master’s work is grounded in the aesthetic championed by Pieter Coecke van Aelst in the 1530s and likely began his training in Coecke’s workshop, or in that of one of Coecke’s close followers.

A less refined version of the present composition was sold at De Vuyst, Lokeren, 15 May 2021, lot 1.

We are grateful to Peter van den Brink for endorsing the attribution to the Master of the Prodigal Son on the basis of photographs (written communication, 23 April 2025).

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HANS ROTTENHAMMER I (MUNICH 1564/1565-1625 AUGSBURG) AND STUDIO The Baptism of Christ oil on panel 13Ω × 18√ in. (34.3 x 48 cm.) $30,000-50,000

£23,000-38,000 €27,000-44,000

PROVENANCE:

Private collection, Germany, from whom acquired by the present owner circa 2024.

Executed during or shortly after Rottenhammer’s Venetian sojourn, this composition reflects his assimilation of Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto’s grand prototypes. The invention is known through at least ten extant variants, attesting to its popularity within his studio (see M. Jandlová, Hans Rottenhammer: Begehrt – Vergessen – Neu Entdeckt, exhibition catalogue, Lemgo and Prague, 2008–09, pp. 124–26). A preparatory pen-and-wash drawing by Rottenhammer survives in the Národní galerie, Prague (ibid., fig. 174). The prime version is generally considered to be the panel in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, executed in collaboration with Jan Brueghel the Elder; another version, on copper, was sold at Christie’s, London, 3 December 2008, lot 21.

As observed by Luuk Pijl: 'compared to these...works the execution of the figures in our painting is slightly less fluid and the landscape elements somewhat harsh.

These observations must lead to the conclusion the work under discussion is executed by Rottenhammer with some assistance of a painter active in his studio' (Drs. Luuk Pijl, unpublished report, 31 March 2025; available on request)

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF CLAES HENRIK DOHLMAN

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CIRCLE OF PIETER BRUEGHEL II (BRUSSELS 1564/5-1637/8 ANTWERP) The Wedding Dance oil on panel 15 x 21º in. (38.2 x 54 cm.) $30,000-50,000

£23,000-38,000 €27,000-44,000

PROVENANCE:

with Dr. C. Benedict, Berlin, by 1925.

Acquired before 1951 by a private collector, Sweden and Massachusetts, and by descent to the present owner.

LITERATURE:

G. Marlier, Pierre Brueghel le Jeune, Brussels, 1969, p. 190, no. 14, as Pieter Brueghel II. K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere (1564-1637/38): die gemälde mit ouevrekatalog, II, Lingen, 1988, p. 728, no. F949, under questionable attributions.

With its myriad playful details, bawdy humor, and acute narrative sensibility, The Outdoor Wedding Dance has long been celebrated as the high point of Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s oeuvre and has rightly been described by Georges Marlier, the great early twentieth-century scholar of Flemish art, as ‘one of the most popular of all subjects in Flemish painting at the beginning of the seventeenth century’ (G. Marlier, Pierre Brueghel le Jeune, Brussels, 1969, p. 188). Whirling dancers in the foreground cavort tipsily, enjoying the bagpipe music and festive mood, a few tipping back large jugs of wine for a swig. Some, carried away, embrace amorously, while a few men at left, their backs to the viewer, relieve themselves discreetly at the party's edge. At background center, before a colored sheet strung up between two trees, is the focus of all the revelry: the bride, sitting beneath a makeshift crown that honors her as "Queen for a Day", bemusedly watches guests place coins on the pewter plate before her. She is surrounded by eager onlookers, who survey the offerings while a robed man who diligently records her gifts.

The Outdoor Wedding Dance is one of the Brueghel family’s most enduringly popular compositions, with at least 30 recorded autograph versions by Pieter the Younger, and many contemporary copies by his followers, such as the present work. This spectacular success has been credited by some to the serious moral undertone of this seemingly joyful celebration, warning of the attendant perils of overindulgence, lust or greed. Yet this interpretation is far from certain. Instead, these works can be regarded as exemplifying the witty and intelligently observed

combination of naturalism and humor that has ensured their undiminished popularity and relevance from the seventeenth century until the present day.

Considered by Marlier to be an autograph version by Pieter the Younger (loc. cit.), and catalogued under questioned attributions by Klaus Ertz (loc. cit.), the present panel appears to have been painted by a distinctive hand that is close to Brueghel, but who exhibits delightful idiosyncrasies, such as the tendency to paint his figures with blushed noses.

The composition of The Wedding Dance relates to an untraced drawing or painting by Pieter Bruegel I, known from an engraving by Pieter van der Heyden, published by Hieronymus Cock. A painted panel and a gouache derived from the same source are also known by Jan Breughel I (Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts; Paris, Musée du Louvre).

Pieter II's works of this type, along with copies by his contemporary followers, such as the present panel, can be divided into two groups: those painted in the same sense as Van der Heyden's engraving, and those in reverse. The present picture, together with the majority of autograph versions, belongs to the latter group, all believed ultimately to derive from a lost work by Pieter I rather than from the engraving.

One painting by Pieter Bruegel I has been proposed as the original Wedding Dance (Detroit, Detroit Institute of Fine Arts, inv. 30.374) after which Pieter II modeled his highly popular version. However, the composition of the Detroit picture differs in numerous ways from that of the present painting, including being oriented in the opposite direction.

Recent research into Pieter II's career has shed light his working practices: as access to his father's original paintings was not always possible, it seems likely that he often worked from detailed drawings his father had made in preparation for his own paintings. Given the differences between the present Wedding Dance and the Pieter I version in Detroit, it seems likely that for his paintings Pieter II was working from one of his father's meticulous drawings rather than from the painted panel.

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE

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CORNELIUS JOHNSON VAN CEULEN (LONDON 1593-1661 UTRECHT)

Portrait of a gentleman, possibly Philip Herbert, 1st Earl of Montgomery and 4th Earl of Pembroke (1584-1650), bust-length, with a white lace collar and wearing the badge and star of the Order of the Garter, in a feigned oval oil on canvas 32¿ x 26º in. (81.6 x 66.6 cm.) $20,000-30,000

£16,000-23,000 €18,000-26,000

PROVENANCE:

with Leggatt Brothers, London (according to a label on the reverse).

Samuel Friedenberg (1886-1957), Byram, CT; his deceased sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 23 April 1958, lot 31, probably where acquired by the following, Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (19201993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in 1959 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

LITERATURE:

'7 Art Masterpieces, valued at $250,000, Given to ASU', The Arizona Republic, 27 November 1958, p. 1.

E. Johnson, 'College Museum Notes', College Art Journal, Spring 1959, p. 257.

Despite his reputation for violent outbursts and gambling, Philip Herbert maintained a prominent position in the courts of both King James I and King Charles I, earning a number of official appointments. He took interest in English colonial ventures by way of several joint stock companies including the Virginia Company, the Northwest Passage Company, the East India Company, and later the Guiana Company. He was a great patron and lover of the arts, supporting the artistic career of his own page and miniaturist, Robert Gibson among others.

Cornelius Johnson van Ceulen established himself as a portrait painter in London around 1618. He produced portraits for the emerging English gentry, professionals, courtiers, and even completed a number of royal commissions.

By 1643 he moved to the Netherlands, fleeing the English Civil War, eventually settling in Utrecht where he remained until his death in 1661.

Another version of this portrait, signed with the artist's initials and dated 1635, appeared at auction at Christie's London, 15 April 2015, lot 556.

CENTURIES OF TASTE: LEGACY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION

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ANTHONIE PALAMEDESZ. (LEITH 1602-1673 AMSTERDAM)

Cavaliers and ladies making music signed and dated 'A.Palamedes 1634' (upper right, on the cabinet) oil on panel 21º x 26Ω in. (54 x 67.3 cm.) $40,000-60,000

£31,000-45,000 €36,000-53,000

PROVENANCE:

Sir Mile Talbot Stapleton, 9th Baronet (1893-1977), Greys Court, Henley-on-Thames; [Property of Sir Miles Stapleton, Bart., of Greys. Henley on Thames], Christie's, London, 26 March 1926, lot 15, (290 gns. to Glen). with Leggatt Brothers, London, by 1927.

Private collection, Australia.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's Australia, Melbourne, 19-20 April 1994, lot 194. with Richard Green, London, by 1994, where acquired in February 1995 by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

London, Richard Green, Important Old Master Paintings, January 1994, no. 8.

LITERATURE:

Advertisement, The Burlington Magazine, December 1994, unpaginated, illustrated.

P. Sutton, Important Old Master Paintings, exhibition catalogue, London, 1994, unpaginated, no. 8, illustrated.

Anthonie Palamedesz. is best known for his genre scenes depicting taverns, card players and music makers. Here, elegantly dressed women and cavaliers gather in a richly decorated interior. Maps were popular decorations in the seventeenth century, and the one depicted here may be an impression of the Leo Belgicus or the slightly later Leo Hollandicus. These maps depicted the Seventeen Provinces of the Low Countries in the shape of a rearing lion, an allegory for the courage and perseverance of the Dutch resisting Spanish rule—perhaps the reason behind this merry company's boisterous celebrations.

CENTURIES OF TASTE: LEGACY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION

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BALTHASAR VAN DER AST (MIDDELBURG 1593/4-1657 DELFT)

Grapes, apples, peaches and apricots in a Wan-li bowl, with quinces, a frog, a caterpillar, a fly and a beetle on a stone ledge signed and indistinctly dated ‘B v.d. Ast 16[17]’ (lower right, on the ledge) oil on panel 22√ x 35º in. (58.2 x 89.4 cm.) $40,000-60,000

£31,000-45,000 €36,000-53,000

PROVENANCE:

A. Veldman, Winschoten, by 1954.

Private collection, Europe. with Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder, The Hague, by 1995, where acquired in 1996 by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

L.J. Bol, The Bosschaert Dynasty, Leigh-on-Sea, 1960, p. 77, no.

57.

fig. 1 Ambrosius Bosschaert I, Peaches, apples, apricots and grapes in a Wan Li bowl with cherries, pears, apricots and an apple on a ledge, sold Christie’s, New York, 19 April 2018, lot 103.

Laurens J. Bol, the great historian of Dutch Golden Age stilllife painters, lists this work among Balthasar van der Ast’s earliest signed and dated paintings (loc. cit.). Van der Ast was trained as a painter by his brother-in-law, Ambrosius Bosschaert I, in whose home he was raised and where he remained until at least 1619, when he is first recorded among the members of the Guild of Saint Luke in Utrecht. His earliest paintings are influenced by both Bosschaert I, and the floral still lifes of his son (and van der Ast’s nephew), Ambrosius Bosschaert II. The high vantage point and slightly muted palette mimic the style of Bosschaert I’s fruit paintings, as exemplified by a similarly dated painting in a private collection (fig. 1, sold Chirstie’s, New York, 19 April 2018, lot 103). The sparseness of this early composition is also indebted to Bosschaert I’s example, each item carefully arranged along the stone ledge, allowing for the fruits to be observed individually. Van der Ast’s later works include a greater variety of objects, frequently merging multiple elements, such as a bowl of fruit, a floral arrangement and a selection of shells. The beginnings of these more varied and complex compositions can be seen here, with the addition of the realistically depicted toad and insects included alongside the fruits.

PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTOR

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CIRCLE OF REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (LEIDEN 1606-1669 AMSTERDAM)

Portrait of a gentleman, bust-length, in a black coat with lace collar and black hat dated '1636' (upper left) oil on copper 4¿ x 3º in. (10.5 x 8.3 cm.) $10,000-15,000

£7,600-11,000 €8,900-13,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 4 October 2007, lot 6, where acquired by the present owner.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

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NICOLAES BERCHEM (HAARLEM 1621-1683 AMSTERDAM)

An Italianate wooded landscape with a woman riding an ox and a drover beside with his animals signed 'Berchem' (lower right) oil on canvas 21¿ x 24√ in. (53.7 x 63.2 cm.) $40,000-60,000

£31,000-45,000 €36,000-53,000

PROVENANCE:

LITERATURE:

Ambrose Hussey-Freke (1865-1939), Hannington Hall, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, by 1891 (according to a label on the reverse).

D.L. Hussey-Freke, Marlborough.

Anonymous sale (probably Hussey-Freke); Wooley and Wallis, Salisbury, 5 May 1978. with Agnew's, London, by 1980.

J. Feilding Ltd, London, 1981.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 2 July 1986, lot 152, as Nicolaes Berchem and Jan Both. with Heide Hubner, Wurzburg, by 1988.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 8 July 2004, lot 124, where acquired by, Norman and Suzanne Hascoe, Greenwich, by 2005; [Property from the Hascoe Family Collection], Christie's, New York, 4 June 2014, lot 33, where acquired by the present owner.

'The Sale-Room', Apollo, August 1978, p. 145, no. 13, illustrated.

J. Ingamells, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Pictures, 1992, IV, pp. 30-31, under no. P186.

P. Sutton, Old Master Paintings from the Hascoe Collection, exhibition catalogue, Greenwich, 2005, pp. 28-29, no. 10.

EXHIBITED:

London, Agnew's, Old Master Paintings and Drawings, Autumn Exhibition, 21 October-12 December 1980, no. 6.

Greenwich, Bruce Museum, Old Master Paintings from the Hascoe Collection, 2 April-29 May 2005, no. 10.

fig. 1 Nicolaes Berchem, An Italianate landscape with figures, Wallace Collection, London.

Nicolaes Berchem, son of the Haarlem still-life painter Pieter Claesz, was one of the most important members of the second generation of Dutch Italianate painters.

Although Arnold Houbraken asserted that Berchem undertook two journeys to Italy, neither can be confirmed through documentary evidence. It is possible that such a visit took place sometime between 1651 and 1653, as Berchem’s palette underwent a notable transformation during this period.

The figures and animals in this painting are nearly identical to those in another work by Berchem from 1654, now in the Wallace Collection, London (fig. 1; inv. no. P186). While the Wallace picture depicts an expansive vista rather than the forestry seen here, it is likely that this painting dates to the same moment in Berchem’s career. Whether or not Berchem had direct exposure to Rome, his artistry was undoubtedly shaped by his contemporaries who returned to Haarlem, bringing the Italianate style with them. At this point in his career, Jan Both’s depictions of the Italian countryside had a significant impact of Berchem’s approach, so much so that when this painting was sold in 1986, it was catalogued as a collaboration between both artists. However, as Peter Sutton has noted, ‘the treatment of the leaves and foreground foliage is entirely consistent with Berchem’s more delicate and rapid touch’ (loc. cit.).

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JAN VICTORS (AMSTERDAM 1619-1676 EAST INDIES) Portrait of a gentleman, seated at a table signed and dated '[...] Victors 1640' (upper right) oil on canvas 41Ω x 35Ω in. (105.4 x 90.2 cm.) $20,000-30,000

£16,000-23,000 €18,000-26,000

PROVENANCE:

Lieutenant-Colonel Henry William Edmund Petty-Fitzmaurice (1872-1936), 6th Marquess of Lansdowne, Landsdowne House, Berkeley Square; his sale, Christie's, London, 7 March 1930, lot 35, as Ferdinand Bol, 750 gns. to the following, with P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, by 1936.

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 19 January 1945, lot 133.

Carlos A. Zemborain, Buenos Aires, before 1989.

Anonymous sale; J.C. Naón & Cía S.A, Buenos Aires, 13 November 2024, lot 20, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

London, Royal Academy, Winter Exhibition, 1884, no. 76, as Albert Cuyp.

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Tentoonstelling Oude Kunst uit het bezit van den internationalen handel, 1936, no. 162.

LITERATURE:

W. Bürger-Thoré, Musées de la Hollande, II, Brussels, 1858-1860, p. 29.

A. Blankert, Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680): Rembrandt's Pupil, Doornspijk, 1982, p. 181, no.

174, as Dutch School 17th century, unsigned and undated.

D. Miller, Jan Victors, 1619-1676, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Delaware, 1985, pp. 37, 82, 114 and 279, no. A 2, illustrated.

W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, IV, Landau/Pfalz, 1989, pp. 2616 and 2712, illustrated.

This portrait is first recorded in the 1884 Royal Academy exhibition as by Aelbert Cuyp, before appearing in the 1930 collection sale of Henry William Edmund Petty-Fitzmaurice, 6th Marquess of Landsdowne, as the work of Ferdinand Bol (loc. cit.). The painting must have been cleaned at some point before it reappeared at auction fifteen years later, as Jan Victors' signature and the date were revealed at upper right, having previously been hidden under a crest that had been added at a later date. In her 1985 PhD dissertation, Debra Miller recognized this painting among Victors' earliest portraits (loc. cit.). Victors, like Bol, is thought to have trained in the workshop of Rembrandt van Rijn, though there is no documentary evidence to support this. While he started and ended his career painting portraits, in the intervening thirty years he focused on large-scale biblical subjects and everyday scenes. After the mid-1650s Victors abandoned his painting career and became ziekentrooster ('comforter of the sick'), for the Dutch East India Company. He travelled to the East Indies in 1676 and likely spent the rest of his life there.

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE •

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ATTRIBUTED TO ABRAHAM LIEDTS (HOORN 1604/5-1668)

Portrait of a lady, three-quarter length, holding a fan oil on canvas 49Ω x 35Ω in. (125.7 x 90.2 cm.) with signature and date 'F. Bol / 1650' (lower right) $12,000-18,000

£9,100-14,000 €11,000-16,000

PROVENANCE:

with Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris.

John Wanamker (1838-1893), Philadelphia and by descent to his son, Lewis Rodman Wanamaker (1863-1928), Philadelphia; their deceased sale, [From the Collection of the Late John Wanamaker and the Late Rodman Wanmaker, sold by the order of John Wanamker Philadelphia], Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 2 November 1939, lot 48, as Ferdinand Bol. Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (19201993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in 1979 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

EXHIBITED:

Tempe, Arizona State University Art Museum, The Painters' Craft: Renaissance and Baroque Paintings in the Permanent Collection, 23 August-6 December 2003, as Ferdinand Bol.

This portrait is highly comparable to another by the Hoorn-based portraitist Abraham Liedts depicting Brigitta de Groot (1638-1686) holding a fan, now in the Westfries Museusm, Hoorn (inv. no. 02108). In both portraits Liedts employs analogous brushwork in his depictions of the lace, ribbons, feathers, and jewels in the sitter's ensembles.

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF GUSTAV BERGER

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ESAIAS VAN DE VELDE (AMSTERDAM 1587-1630 THE HAGUE)

Riders on a road beside a pool, a landscape beyond signed and dated 'E. V. VELDE. / 1619.' (lower left) oil on panel 11æ x 14¬ in. (30 x 37.2 cm.) $15,000-20,000

£12,000-15,000 €14,000-18,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 19 March 1972, lot 109, where acquired by the following, with Alfred Brod Gallery, London, circa 1972.

Dr. Eberhard Ernst, Munich. with K. & V. Waterman, Amsterdam, by 1982.

Private collection, Germany, circa 1984.

Private collection, New York, by 1984.

Linda and Gerald Guterman, Bedford, CT, their sale; Sotheby's, New York, 14 January 1988, lot 43, where acquired by the parents of the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

New York, Minskoff Cultural Center, The Golden Ambience: Dutch Landscape Painting in the Seventeenth Century, 1985, no. 3.

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Dawn of the Golden Age Northern Netherlandish Art: 15801620, 11 December 1993-6 March 1994, no. 338.

LITERATURE:

G.S. Keyes, Esaias van de Velde, 1587-1630, Doornspijk, 1984, pp. 57 and 155, no. 131, pls.

IX and 83.

W. Liedke, The Golden Ambience: Dutch Landscape Painting in the Seventeenth Century, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1985, unpaginated, no. 3, illustrated.

J. Briels, Vlaamse Schilders in de Noordelijke Nederlanden in het begin van de Gouden Eeuw, 1585-1630, Antwerp, 1987, p. 376 and 378, no. 495, illustrated.

W. Kloek, Dawn of the Golden Age Northern Netherlandish Art: 1580-1620, G. Luijten et. al. ed., exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam and Zwolle, 1993, pp. 291, 667-668, no. 338, illustrated.

M. Neumeister, Holländische Gemälde im Städel, I, Petersberg, 2005, pp. 267 and 271, fig. 249.

This charming panel displays the inventive compositional effects for which Esaias van de Velde is best remembered. The clump of trees at left and the ruined tower at right act as coulisses framing the flat landscape beyond. The neat rows of farm plots are the only clue to the vanishing point, just to the right of the church in the far distance. Despite being on an intimate scale, these motifs, together with the winding path and the wisp of trees along the horizon, all work in concert to convey a deep sense of space.

This characteristic work by van de Velde was acquired from the celebrated collection of Linda and Gerald Guterman by the New York based conservator Gustav Berger and his wife Mira. Berger began his career as a conservator in the studio of Julius Lowy, later working for Kress conservator Mario Modestini, for whom he built one of the first hot tables in America. While working as an assistant for William Suhr, conservator at The Frick Collection, he was challenged to invent a new adhesive and BEVA 371 (Berger ethylene vinyl acetate) was created. BEVA quickly became the favored adhesive among conservation professionals and is still in use today.

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE •

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STUDIO OF THOMAS DE KEYSER (AMSTERDAM 1596/97-1667)

Portrait of a gentleman, three-quarter-length, holding a pair of white leather gloves dated and inscribed 'Anno. 1627 / AEtatis. 65' ('AE' linked, center left) oil on panel 47√ x 34æ in. (120.9 x 88.3 cm.) $10,000-15,000

£7,600-11,000 €8,900-13,000

PROVENANCE:

Eugène Fischoff (1853-1926), Paris; his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 14 June 1913, lot 57, as Thomas de Keyser.

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (1920-1993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in December 1979 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE •

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CIRCLE OF BARTOLOMEUS VAN DER HELST (HAARLEM C. 1613-1670 AMSTERDAM) Portrait of a gentleman, half-length, wearing a white linen lace-trimmed falling band

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (1920-1993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in 1959 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

LITERATURE:

oil on canvas 32 x 26 in. (81.3 x 66 cm.) $7,000-10,000

PROVENANCE:

£5,300-7,500 €6,200-8,800

'7 Art Masterpieces, valued at $250,000, Given to ASU', The Arizona Republic, 27 November 1958, p. 1.

E. Johnson, 'College Museum Notes', College Art Journal, Spring 1959, p. 257.

PROPERTY OF AN AMERICAN COLLECTOR •

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WORKSHOP OF DAVID TENIERS II (ANTWERP 1610-1690 BRUSSELS) Unequal lovers

signed 'D. Teniers.' (lower center, on the table) oil on panel 10º x 81/8 in. (26 x 20.7 cm.) $6,000-8,000

£4,600-6,000 €5,300-7,100

PROVENANCE:

with Abraham Preyer, The Hague. with Wallis & Son, London.

Anonymous sale; Anderson Galleries, New York, 11-12 April 1928, lot 138, as David Teniers the Younger.

Fred Fillmore French (1883-1936), New York, and by descent.

Anonymous sale; Brunk Auctions, Asheville, NC, 18 January 2015, lot 637, as Follower of David Teniers the Younger, where acquired by the present owner.

The theme of 'unequal love' was a popular moralizing motif in Northern Europe, appearing frequently in paintings, prints, and literature. In this scene, an older man makes advances towards a young woman, while in the background, an older woman—perhaps his wife or a procuress—looks on from a window. Another version of this composition, now in a private collection in Madrid, includes more obvious erotic symbolism, such as a pot and stirrer, along with a cat seated at the woman's feet, looking out at the viewer (see M. Klinge, David Teniers the Younger: Paintings, Drawings, exhibition catalogue, Antwerp, 1991, no. 12).

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QUIRINGH VAN BREKELENKAM (?ZWAMMERDAM, NEAR LEIDEN AFTER 1622-?1669 OR AFTER LEIDEN) An elderly woman scaling fish in an interior signed in monogram and dated 'Q · B · 1660' (lower left) oil on panel 18º x 14º in. (46.5 x 36.3 cm.) $15,000-20,000

£12,000-15,000 €14,000-18,000

PROVENANCE:

Maria Stategaart, Alkmaar; her deceased sale, J.P. van Horstok, Alkmaar, 27 July 1802, lot 6.

Walter de Zoete, Esq., Layer Breton Lodge, Clochester and Blenheim House, North Berwick; his deceased sale, Christie's, London, 5 April 1935, lot 49 as dated 1668, 160 gns. to the following, with A. Staal, Amsterdam.

A. Popper, by whom bequeathed in 1952 to the following, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, [The property of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Sold to Benefit Future Acquisitions]; Christie's, New York, 15 May 1996, lot 46, where acquired by the parents of the present owner.

LITERATURE:

A Catalogue of Flemish, German, Dutch and English Paintings XV-XVIII Century, Los Angeles, 1954, p. 59, fig. 63.

W. Stechow, 'A Genre Painting by Brekelenkam', Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin, Winter 1973, pp. 81 and 83, fig. 6, note 21a.

A. Lasius, Quiringh van Brekelenkam, 1992, pp. 114-115, no. 122, pl. 30.

PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTOR

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JACOB VAN RUISDAEL (HAARLEM 1628-1682 AMSTERDAM)

Sailing vessels in a stormy sea, with a jetty to the right oil on canvas 16¿ x 23Ω in. (41 x 59.5 cm.) $40,000-60,000

£31,000-45,000 €36,000-53,000

PROVENANCE:

[The Property of a Gentleman]; Christie's, London, 4 December 2019, lot 135, where acquired by the present owner.

Jacob van Ruisdael painted only around thirty marine pictures throughout his career. Though forming only a small group of his larger oeuvre, they were widely praised by contemporaries, and only decades after his death, Arnold Houbraken wrote in his famed De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718-1721), that Ruisdael ‘could also depict the sea, and when he chose, a tempestuous sea with violent waves lashing against rocks and dunes. In this type of painting he was one of the very best’ (S. Slive, Jacob van Ruisdael: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, Drawings and Etchings, New Haven and London, 2001, p. 449). This picture shows the painter’s great facility for rendering the crashing waves of a turbulent sea. The painting is part of a small group of Ruisdael’s seascapes which include a jetty, populated with figures, painted in the late 1650s and early 1660s (others are at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; formerly Museum of Art of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kiev; and City Art Gallery, Manchester).

As so often the case in the rich emblematic and intellectual traditions of Dutch painting, depictions of storms at sea were often imbued with symbolic associations. Such marines were frequently included in genre paintings as a commentary on the protagonists’ state of mind and often too on their affairs of the heart. Likening human emotions to the changeability of the sea became a popular trope, and was also used by poets in the Netherlands like Jan Hermansz.

Krul, who published an illustration of Cupid guiding the rudder of a ship in his Minne-beelden of 1640. His accompanying verses furthered this idea, explaining that love, like the sea, might ‘one hour cause hope / the next fear’ through its changeability (P. Sutton ed., Love Letters: Dutch Genre Paintings in the Age of Vermeer, exhibition catalogue, Dublin, 2003, pp. 45 and 82).

PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTOR

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BARENT FABRITIUS (MIDDENBEEMSTER 1624-1673 AMSTERDAM) Portrait of a gentleman, bust-length signed and dated ‘B / fabritius / 1656’ (center right) oil on panel 12ºx 9¿ in. (31.1 x 23 cm.), an oval $10,000-15,000

£7,600-11,000 €8,900-13,000

PROVENANCE:

with Daan Cevat (1913-1990), Jersey, by 1962, as Carel Fabritius.

[The Property of a Lady]; Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 13 November 2007, lot 55, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, on loan, 1962-1970, as Carel Fabritius Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Rondom Rembrandt: de verzameling Daan Cevat, 11 April-16 June 1968, no. 10, as Carel Fabritius.

LITERATURE:

'Aanwinsten', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum, X, 1962, p. 151, as Carel Fabritius.W. Sumowski, 'Zu einem Gemälde von Carel Fabritius', Pantheon, XXVI, 1968, p. 282, note 2.

C. Brown, Carel Fabritius, Oxford, 1981, p. 134, no. R13, fig. 71, as Gerbrandt Ban, and as reading the signature 'Gerbrandt Ban 1650'.

W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, II, Landau, 1983, pp. 926, 978, no. 600, illustrated.

R.E.O. Ekkart, 'Gerbrand Ban', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum, XXXIX, 1991, p. 432, note 19.

Barent Fabritius was the younger brother of the well-known and short-lived Rembrandt pupil, Carel Fabritius, to whom this portrait was long attributed following a misreading of the signature. Christopher Brown (loc. cit.) was the first scholar to question the attribution to Carel, proposing instead an attribution to the little-known Amsterdam painter Gerbrand Ban, who did at times produce similarly conceived small-scale portraits in oval, including the Portrait of a young man of 1650 in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. However, in his seminal multivolume work on paintings by Rembrandt pupils, Werner Sumowski correctly suggested the name of Barent Fabritius (loc. cit.), an idea to which Rudi Ekkart was equally sympathetic nearly a decade later (loc. cit.). As such, it constitutes a rare portrait within Barent’s oeuvre.

When the painting appeared at auction in the 1970s, it was noted that X-rays revealed that Barent reused an earlier panel on which an entirely different portrait had been painted (see Christie's, London, 30 November 1973, lot 67, unsold). On account of the sitter’s dress, that portrait likely pre-dated 1640.

CENTURIES OF TASTE: LEGACY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION

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JACOB VAN MOSCHER (ACTIVE HAARLEM 16351655)

A dune landscape with three travelers and a dog at rest signed 'J van mosh'er' (lower left) oil on panel 15¬ x 21√ in. (39.7 x 55.5 cm.) $30,000-50,000

£23,000-38,000 €27,000-44,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 21 March 1973, lot 96.

Anonymous sale; Neumeister, Munich, 23 April 1975, lot 975.

Private collection, Berlin, by 1984. with Salomon Lilian, Amsterdam, where acquired in 2001 by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

H.U. Beck, Künstler um Jan van Goyen, Doornspijk, 1991, p. 322, no. 893, illustrated.

Very little is known about Jacob van Moscher’s life and training. Active in Haarlem circa 1635-55, he adopted a monochromatic palette and compositional motifs featuring sloping dunes, generally anchored by a large tree in the middle ground. Van Moscher's approach was influenced by artists like Jan van Goyen, Pieter Molijn and Salomon van Ruysdael.

PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN

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MELCHIOR D'HONDECOETER (UTRECHT 1636-1695 AMSTERDAM) A study of a helmetshrike on a branch indistinctly signed with initials 'M.[d.H]' (lower right) oil on panel 9¿ x 71/4 in. (23.1 x 18.4 cm.) $15,000-25,000

£12,000-19,000 €14,000-22,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Drouot, Paris, 24 March 1999, lot 33, as Dutch school, early 18th century. with Bob Haboldt, New York, from whom acquired in 1999 by the following, with Eugene V. Thaw, New York; his sale, Christie's, New York, 30 October 2018, lot 237, where acquired by the present owner.

This painting depicts a helmetshrike, a species native to sub-Saharan Africa. Its distinctive facial bristles and crest, rendered with animated precision, reflect the artist’s fascination with avian physiognomy. Melchior d’Hondecoeter’s access to exotic species—either through menageries or the collections of wealthy patrons— allowed him to observe and record rare birds with remarkable fidelity.

We are grateful to Dr. Fred G. Meijer for endorsing the attribution to Melchior d’Hondecoeter (written communication, 20 April 2025, on the basis of photographs)

PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION

188

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GEORGE ROMNEY (DALTON-IN-FURNESS, LANCASHIRE 1734-1802 KENDAL, CUMBRIA)

Portrait of Francis Lind (1752/3-1840), three-quarterlength, seated at a window, a one-keyed Simpson ivory flute in his right hand oil on canvas 49æ x 40 in. (126.3 x 101.7 cm.) in a contemporary Maratta frame $60,000-80,000

£46,000-60,000 €53,000-71,000

PROVENANCE:

Painted for the sitter’s mother, Elizabeth Lind, née Farrer, and by inheritance to the sitter’s niece, Elizabeth Lind, wife of George Denys, and by descent to their daughter, Juliana Louisa Denys, wife of Arthur Montagu, and by descent to their son, Leopold Agar Denys Montague (1861-1940), and by descent until, Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 13 June 1994, lot 54.

Anonymous sale; Christie’s, London, 26 November 2003, lot 6, where acquired by the following, Private collection, Europe, and by whom sold, Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 7 July 2017, lot 169.

Private collection, New York.

LITERATURE:

H. Ward & W. Roberts, Romney. A Biographical and Critical Essay with a Catalogue Raisonné of his Works, II, London, 1904, p. 95.

M. Pastoureau, Green: The History of a Color, Princeton, 2013, p. 169, illustrated.

A. Kidson, George Romney, A complete catalogue of his paintings, II, New Haven and London, 2015, pp. 367-68, no. 803.

The sitter was the son of Captain Francis Lind, M.D., of the 14th Regiment of Foot and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Major Montague Farrer. He was born on 13 February 1753 and married his cousin, Ann Cooper, on 12 October 1785.

He served in the Indian Civil Service. Dated by Alex Kidson to 1775-6 (op. cit., p. 367), the sitter is depicted reclining before a music stand, holding in his right hand a one-keyed Simpson ivory flute. Kidson notes that the romantic view through the window behind the sitter probably represents a scene in the Lake District. The sitter’s mother, who commissioned this portrait and one of his younger brother, Edward George Lind (Ibid, no. 801), was living in Cumberland at the time. Edward’s wife, Elizabeth, daughter of James Ainslie, M.D., later sat for Romney in the spring of 1787 and 1788 (Ibid, no. 802). There is a memorandum on the fly-leaf to Romney’s 1776 diary: ‘Mrs. Lind, Carlisle, to be sent on Friday morning to the Castle Inn’ - presumably the address to which the portraits of the Lind brothers were to be sent.

CENTURIES OF TASTE: LEGACY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION

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GEORGE LAMBERT (KENT 1700?-1765 LONDON)

A South-east view of Leybourne Grange, Kent signed and dated 'G. Lambert. / 1737.' (lower left) oil on canvas 28Ω x 43¿ in. (72.4 x 109.5 cm.) $30,000-50,000

£23,000-38,000 €27,000-44,000

PROVENANCE:

(Probably) Commissioned from the artist by Francis Whitworth (1684-1742), Leybourne Grange, Kent, and by descent to his son, Charles Whitworth, 1st Earl Whitworth (1752-1825), Leybourne Grange, Kent, and by whom sold with Leybourne Grange in 1776 to the following, James Hawley (1705/6-1777), Leybourne Grange, Kent, and by descent until anonymously sold, [The Property of a Lady]; Christie's, London, 14 July 1989, lot 52, where acquired by the following, with Richard Green, London, where acquired in 1995 by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

London, Richard Green, Exhibition of Old Master and English Paintings, 1989, no. 19.

LITERATURE:

M.-L. Schnackenburg, Der englische Landschaftsmaler George Lambert, Ph.D. dissertation, Osnarbrück, 1995, pp. 69 and 115-116, no. 65, fig. 61.

E. Einberg, 'Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of George Lambert', The Volume of the Walpole Society, 2001, pp. 121 and 139, no. P1737A, fig. 44.

The present painting was likely commissioned directly from the artist, as one of a group of three views of Leybourne Grange in Kent, by Francis Whitworth who purchased the house in 1724. The other views include this painting's pendant, a view of the house from the north-east (Private collection, England), and a 'chimney piece' depicting the ruins of Leybourne Castle (Government Art Collection, United Kingdom). In addition to his work as a landscape painter, George Lambert was also a celebrated scene painter, working for the actormanager John Rich for much of his career. Lambert's sets were cited in playbills by the Covent Garden theater for years after his death, until they were lost to a fire in 1808. Lambert collaborated with many artists during his theatrical career, including Jacopo Amigoni, Franz de Paula Ferg, and William Hogarth, all of whom may have contributed figures to his landscape paintings. While it has been speculated that the lively figures in the present work were painted by William Hogarth, Elizabeth Einberg notes the staffage for the Leybourne Grange pictures, as well as those for Dunton Hall (1739), Fonthill (1740) and Clock's House (1742), among others, are stylistically closer to signed and dated works by Joseph Nickolls (see Einberg, loc. cit.).

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

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SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A. (PLYMPTON, DEVON 1723-1792 LONDON)

Portrait of Mrs. Elizabeth Bradshaw, née Wilson (d.

1802), half-length, in a white silk dress with an erminelined blue cloak oil on canvas 30º x 25¿ in. (76.8 x 63.8 cm.) $40,000-60,000

£31,000-45,000 €36,000-53,000

PROVENANCE:

Thomas Buller Bradshaw (1866-1927), Lifton Park, Devon; [Sold by Order of the Trustees of the Will of T.B. Bradshaw, Esq., deceased, late of Lifton Park, Devon] Christie's, London, 18 July 1930, lot 81, where acquired for 756 gns. by the following, with Agnew's, London (stockbook no. 12393), from whom acquired by the following on 4 July 1947, with Newhouse Galleries, New York (stockbook no. 16618).

Christie's, New York, 30 January 2014, lot 251, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

London, J. Leger & Son, 13 Old Bond Street, English Painters: Hogarth to Turner, 19 February- 30 March 1943, no. 5.

LITERATURE:

A. Graves and W.V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reyolds, London, 1899, I, no. 112.

E.K. Waterhouse, Reynolds, London, 1941, p. 45.

D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, New Haven and London, 2000, I, p. 104, no. 241, II, p. 246, fig. 413.

The present portrait was painted in 1759, and Mrs. Bradshaw sat for Reynolds on at least six occasions in November and December of that year (D. Mannings, loc. cit.). A portrait of her husband, Thomas Bradshaw (1733-74), was painted in the same year (ibid., no. 240)

PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

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ANGELICA KAUFFMAN, R.A. (CHUR, GRAUBÜNDEN 1741-1807 ROME)

Portrait of Anne Stewart, née Dashwood, Countess of Galloway (1743-1830), three-quarter-length, in a blue dress adorned with pearls, with her daughter, Lady Susan Stewart, later Duchess of Marlborough (17671841), in a white dress, holding a sketchbook and stylus oil on canvas, unlined 38º x 29¡ in. (97.2 x 74.6 cm.) $30,000-50,000

£23,000-38,000 €27,000-44,000

PROVENANCE:

By descent from the sitter at Galloway House, Galloway and Cumloden House, Dumfries to the present owner.

Anne, Countess of Galloway, was the third daughter of Sir James Dashwood, 2nd Bt., M.P. (1715–1779), of Kirtlington, Oxfordshire and his wife, Elizabeth, co-heiress with her sister, Anne, Duchess of Hamilton, of Edward Spencer of Rendlesham. In 1764 she married, as his second wife, John Stewart, Lord Garlies, later 7th Earl of Galloway (1736-1806), who had been painted at Rome by Mengs in 1758 (Los Angeles Countly Museum of Art, inv. no. M.2001.21) and would inherit Galloway House, designed by William Adam, with extensive estates in Wigtonshire. In 1791 their child Lady Susan Stewart, shown here as a young girl, married George Spencer Churchill, Marquess of Blandford, later 5th Duke of Marlborough (1766-1840), who no doubt had come to know her because the Dashwoods at Kirtlington were close neighbors. An extravagant collector of early books, the duke would unfortunately not prove a faithful husband. The duchess, on the other hand, was widely respected and inspired a deep loyalty in her children. Her family was extensive, many of her children and grandchildren serving as officers in the British Army and in the Houses of Parliament, including her third-great grandson, Sir Winston Churchill. For an authoritative account on the life of Lady Susan see Mary Soames, The Profligate Duke, George Spencer Churchill, fifth Duke of Marlborough and his Duchess, London, 1987. In this relaxed family portrait, Anne poses with her daughter Susan and places one arm gently around the girl's shoulders. Susan leans into an open sketchbook that rests on her mother's lap and holds a stylus in mid-air, as if interrupted whilst drawing.

Kauffman brings a particularly maternal and feminine touch to such portraits, conveying the easy intimacy between a mother and her daughter.

We are grateful to Dr. Bettina Baumgärtel and Professor Wendy Wassying Roworth who independently confirmed the attribution to Kauffman after inspection of the original in 2014.

PROPERTY FROM A NORTHEASTERN COLLECTION

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GÉZA VASTAGH (CLUJ-NAPOCA 1866-1919 BUDAPEST) A Lion and Lioness after the Kill signed 'Vastagh Géza' (lower left) oil on canvas 55Ω x 75º in. (141 x 191.1 cm.) $40,000-60,000

£31,000-45,000 €36,000-53,000

PROVENANCE:

Private collection, US, circa 1970.

By descent to the present owner.

Like many of his fellow Hungarian artists in the 19th century, Géza Vastagh worked throughout Europe before returning to his homeland later in his career.

After receiving his initial artistic training under his father, who was also an artist, the young Vastagh was sent to Munich, alongside his brother György, for formal training. He made his exhibition debut there in 1883 at only 17 years old.

A trip to Tunisia and Algeria in 1890 would prove formative for the artist, as it was there that he began painting lions, the subject for which he is best known today. Eventually he would come to travel extensively though the Middle East but maintained a regular presence at the major artistic exhibitions in Europe throughout his lifetime. He exhibited at the Paris Salon and received an honorable mention at the Exposition Universelle in 1900. The present work is a typical example of the artist's ability to capture the majesty and brute strength of the big cats he so often made his subject. While both lions and tigers make appearances in Vastagh’s oeuvre, the present work possibly depicts a liger, a hybrid between the two animals, as illustrated by the stripes on the back legs of the male.

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CHARLES COLLINS (DUBLIN C.1680-1744 LONDON) A sporting cockerel and hen

signed and dated 'Chr.s Collins. Fec.it / 1732' (upper right) oil on canvas 27æ x 36 in. (70.5 x 91.8 cm.) $15,000-20,000

£12,000-15,000 €14,000-18,000

PROVENANCE:

Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood, Devon, 30 June, 1993, lot 750. with Richard Green, London, where acquired in November 1993 by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

London, Richard Green Fine Paintings, Annual Exhibition of Sporting Paintings, 12 October 1993, no. 2.

Charles Collins was an Irish artist known for his depictions of exotic animals and game. He was influenced by the Dutch masters Jan Baptist Weenix and Melchior Hondecoeter.

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE •

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AFTER GEORGE ROMNEY

Portrait of Anne, Marchioness Townshend, halflength, in a white gown and white muslin cap oil on canvas 36 x 27√ in. (91.8 x 70.8 cm.) $6,000-8,000

£4,600-6,000 €5,300-7,100

PROVENANCE:

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (19201993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in 1980 to Arizona State University Art Museum.

EXHIBITED:

Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, on loan, circa 1940.

LITERATURE:

B. Maclean-Eltham, Romney Paintings in Public Collections, Kendal, 1996, p. 57, as George Romney.

A. Kidson, George Romney: A complete catalogue of his paintings, II, New Haven and London, 2015, p. 585, no. 1311c, illustrated.

The present painting is a copy after a full-length portrait by George Romney, dated 1793-94, previously with Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York (see A. Kidson, loc. cit.).

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE •

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CIRCLE OF FRANÇOIS DE TROY (TOULOUSE 1645-1730 PARIS)

Portrait of a man in armor, half-length, traditionally identified as James Fitzjames, 1st Duke of Berwick, Marshal of France (1670-1734) oil on canvas 29æ x 23Ω in. (75.5 x 59.7 cm.) $6,000-8,000

£4,600-6,000 €5,300-7,100

PROVENANCE:

Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar (1867-1931), H.R.H. The Princess Royal, the Duchess of Fife; her deceased sale, Christie's, London, 18 December 1931, lot 123, as N. de Largillere. with Vicars Brothers, London, by 1936.

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (19201993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in 1979 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

LITERATURE:

J. W. Lane, 'Notes and Comments', Apollo, August 1936, pp. 107 and 115, illustrated on the cover, as Nicolas de Largillère.

James Fitzjames was the illegitimate son of King James II, born in France to his mistress Arabella Churchill before his ascension to the throne in 1685. He was educated in France at the College of Juilly, the Collège du Plessis (the Sorbonne), and at the Jesuit College of La Flèche. After his studies, he began a long and illustrious military career. He was present at the Siege of Buda (1686) in the service of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine. He later returned to Hungary to participate in the Battle of Mohács (1687). After the Glorious Revolution (1688), which saw his father deposed, Berwick followed the ex-king into exile in France, and later accompanied him into battle during the Irish Campaign. After his father's final exile, Berwick served the French military under Marshal FrançoisHenri de Montmorency, Duke of Luxembourg. He was esteemed for his courage and integrity on the battlefield, where he eventually lost his life at the Siege of Phillipsburg (1734) during the War of Polish Succession.

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED NEW YORK COLLECTION •

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ADAM FRANS VAN DER MEULEN (BRUSSELS 1632-1690 PARIS)

A nobleman in a state coach at rest escorted by his men and horses, with a gentleman on a white horse approaching and landscape beyond, traditionally identified as the meeting of the Duke of Lorraine and Marshal Turenne, an incident of the Thirty-Years' War signed 'A.F.V. Mevlen.' (lower center, strengthened) oil on canvas 32æ x 48º in. (83.3 x 122.7 cm.) $15,000-20,000

£12,000-15,000 €14,000-18,000

PROVENANCE:

Lord Buckland collection. with Blakeslee Gallery, New York, where acquired in 1910 by, Thomas Barlow (T.B.) Walker (1840-1928), by 1912, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and by whom sold, [Property of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis]; Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 22 October 1970, lot 37.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 22 January 2004, lot 195, where acquired by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

Descriptive Catalogue of the Thomas B. Walker Art Collection, Minneapolis, 1912, p.

127-128, no. 191.

Descriptive Catalogue of the Thomas B. Walker Art Collection, Minneapolis, 1913, p.

148-149, no. 148.

E. Neuhaus, The T.B. Walker Art Collection, Minneapolis, 1919, p. 21.

The Walker Art Galleries, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1927, p. 107, no. 198.

I. Richefort, Adam-Francois Van der Meulen: peintre flamand au service de Louis XIV, Rennes and Brussels, 2004, p. 58, illustrated.

The present composition is similar to another by Adam Frans van der Meulen, Philippe François d'Arenberg meeting Troops, now in the National Gallery London (inv. no. NG1447).

The attribution of the present work was endorsed at the time of the 2004 sale by Marijke C. de Kinkelder, on the basis of photographs.

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FRENCH SCHOOL, EARLY 18TH CENTURY Cupid and Psyche

oil on canvas 21æ x 30º in. (55.2 x 76.8 cm.) $8,000-12,000

£6,100-9,000 €7,100-11,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 10 September 1969, lot 67, as 'Attributed to Louis Michel van Loo'.

198 LEARN MORE

FRENCH SCHOOL, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY The Coronation of the Virgin oil on copper 8.3/5in. (22 cm.) diam. $8,000-12,000 PROVENANCE:

Acquired by the present owner circa 2000.

£6,100-9,000 €7,100-11,000

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199 LEARN MORE

FOLLOWER OF EVARISTO BASCHENIS

Still life of a violin and bow, with a recorder, a lute and an open music score upon a table top oil on canvas, unframed 16¿ x 18¿ in. (40.8 x 46.2 cm.) $6,000-8,000

£4,600-6,000 €5,300-7,100

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 26 April 2001, lot 527, as 'Follower of Pierre Nicolas Huilliot', where acquired by the present owner.

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200 LEARN MORE

JEAN-BAPTISTE GREUZE (TOURNUS 1725-1805 PARIS) Portrait of a girl, bust-length oil on canvas 16º x 13¿ in. (41.3 x 33.3 cm.) $30,000-50,000

£23,000-38,000 €27,000-44,000

PROVENANCE:

Lady Eva Dugdale (1860-1940), London.

Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928), London; his deceased sale, Sotheby's, London, 2 July 1941, lot 204, as J.B. Greuze.

Private collection, United States. with Newhouse Galleries, New York, where acquired by the present owner in 1985.

EXHIBITED:

London, Grafton Galleries, Fair Children, 1895, no. 174.

Nottingham Art Museum (according to a label on the reverse).

LITERATURE:

A. Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813-1912, I, London, 1913, p. 450, no. 174.

H. Yates Thompson, An Illustrated Catalogue of Pictures and Portraits now at 19 Portman Square, London, 1921, p. 10, pl. VI.

Sensitively executed with a luminous palette, this delightful bust of a child in a white satin blouse is characteristic of the many têtes d’expression that Greuze produced from the 1760s onwards, and that were a source of the tremendous popularity he enjoyed in his lifetime. The image displays the artist’s deeply felt and well-observed ability to capture the fleeting expressions and individual character of children.

With her hair tied back with a bright blue ribbon, the child gazes out of the picture frame, seemingly fixated on a person she loves or some object of affection which brings a serene smile to her face. Painted with fluid and energetic brushstrokes, the painting immerses the child in an atmosphere of cool, soft light and gentle, enveloping shadows. The beauty of Greuze’s handling of paint, his effortless mastery of anatomy and his profound insight into human emotion seemed something entirely new and remarkable to 18th-century critics and public alike, more authentic and insightful than the works of any of his contemporaries. Indeed, Diderot would praise these very qualities in writing about a similar painting in the Salon of 1765: 'What truth! What tonal variety! And these red

blotches, who hasn't seen them on the faces of children who are cold or in pain from teeth coming in? And these tearful eyes and these blond tresses on her forehead, all mused, they're so light and one wants to push them back under her cap. Monsieur Drouais, come here, do you see this child? She's made of flesh. For truth and vitality of color, a little Rubens'.

This portrait was formerly in the collection of Lady Eva Dugdale of Snitterfield Hose, Stratford on Avon. The daughter of George Greville, 4th Earl of Warwick, she was Lady-in-Waiting to the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary). The portrait subsequently entered the collection of Henry Yates Thompson, one of the late 19th- and early 20th-century's great bibliophiles and collectors of medieval manuscripts. Yates was the proprietor of the Pall Mall Gazette which his father-in-law made over to him in 1880. Newspaper ownership evidently gave him little reward and in 1892 he sold the firm, not unprofitably, to William Waldorf Astor. He married in 1878, Elizabeth, daughter of George Smith, founder of the Dictionary of National Biography. They lived at 19 Portman Square and Oving, Buckinghamshire. A group of forty-six illuminated manuscripts was left by his wife to the British Museum, known as the Yates Thompson collection (A. Bell, 'Thompson, Henry Yates (1838-1928)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004).

THE ESTATE OF CAROL BROWNING AND EDMUND WATTIS DUMKE •

201 LEARN MORE

FOLLOWER OF FRANÇOIS BOUCHER A set of three fantasy monochrome chinoiseries oil on canvas, oval 48Ω x 32æ in. (123.2 x 83.2 cm.), each $12,000-18,000

a set of three (3) £9,100-14,000 €11,000-16,000

PROVENANCE:

with John J. Nelson Antiques, Los Angeles, where acquired by the present owner in 2000.

These paintings were inspired by François Boucher's famous blue chinoiseries.

The composition of the lady at her birdcage is based on an engraving after Boucher by Pierre Alexandre Aveline (1679-1722) representing Air in a group of the four elements.

202 LEARN MORE

BARON FRANÇOIS-PASCALSIMON GÉRARD (ROME 1770-1837 PARIS)

Portrait of Comtesse Julie Hugo, née Montferrier (1797-1865), bust-length, in a brown dress with a black shawl oil on canvas 25æ x 21º in. (65.5 x 54 cm.) $15,000-25,000

£12,000-19,000 €14,000-22,000

PROVENANCE:

Marquis Jean-Cecil de Montferrier, Paris. with Galerie Pardo, Paris.

EXHIBITED:

Paris, Galerie Jean Charpentier, L'Art et la Vie Romantique, 25 February-25 March 1923, no. 209.

LITERATURE:

L. Gurdus, 'Mlle Duvidal de Montiferrier, a newly discovered portrait by Gérard', The Connoisseur, October 1967, p. 130, fig. 5.

François Gérard was one of the most important and influential neoclassical painters in France from the Revolution through the Bourbon Restoration, displaying an uncanny ability to navigate the shifting political and cultural waters of the day. The present portrait depicts Julie Hugo (1797-1865), sister-in-law of the novelist Victor Hugo, and herself a distinguished painter, onetime pupil of JacquesLouis David, Marie-Éléonore Godefroid, and Gérard himself. Born Louise-Rose-Julie Duvidal de Montferrier in Paris in 1797, daughter of Jean-Jacques Duvidal de Montferrier (1752-1829) and Jeanne Delon (c.1770-1831), Julie was educated in Écouen before studying painting with David and Gérard. Following her training, she served as an official copiest of works by Ingres and Delacroix, and made copies of paintings by Gérard for the Crown. She exhibited her original compositions–mostly portraits and history paintings–at the Paris Salon from 1819 to 1827; two of her mythologies, commissioned as overdoors for Rambouillet, are today in the Louvre. Her large religious composition, The Vow of St. Clothilde (1819), hangs to this day in the Assemblée Nationale.

Working as the art tutor of Victor Hugo’s wife, Julie married the celebrated writer’s older brother Abel Hugo (1798-1855)

in 1827. A French military officer and historian, Abel served as a page to Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain, later working in the administration of the Comte d’Artois, future Charles X, King of France. Upon his father’s death in 1828, Abel was ennobled ‘Count Hugo’, and from 1835 to 1843, published three multivolume histories of France. Julie and Abel Hugo had two sons, Léopold-Armand (1828-1895), a graphic designer, and Joseph-Napoléon (1835-1863), a Jesuit priest.

Julie Hugo died in Brussels on 10 April 1865, age 68.

François Gérard’s romantic image of his young pupil probably dates to circa 1815-1820, when Julie would have been around 20 years old, a date suggested by her obvious youth, as well as her center-parted, curled coiffure à la greque, cashmere shawl and low-cut, high-waisted velvet gown with short, puff sleeves, all the height of fashion in Paris in the final years of the Empire. Gérard emphasizes his sitter’s upturned, almond eyes, strong eyebrows and long, graceful neck, striking physical characteristics found again in Julie’s own Self Portrait (private collection), a painting which certainly dates from approximately the same time. A later portrait of Julie Hugo by Gérard portraying the nowmature wife and mother, is in the collection of the Maison de Victor Hugo in the Place de Vosges, Paris.

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED NEW YORK COLLECTION •

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CIRCLE OF CLAUDE-JOSEPH VERNET (AVIGNON 1714-1789 PARIS)

A Mediterranean harbor scene at dusk, with figures along the shore and fishermen launching a boat oil on canvas 28¬ x 36¿ in. (72.7 x 91.7 cm.) $7,000-10,000

£5,300-7,500 €6,200-8,800

A nearly identical composition, also attributed to an artist in the Circle of Claude-Joseph Vernet, most recently sold in 2017 (see Sotheby's, New York, 8 June 2017, lot 62).

204 LEARN MORE

JEAN-PIERRE PEQUIGNOT (BEAUME-LES-DAMES, DOUBS 1765-1807 NAPLES) An extensive lake landscape at dawn with Orpheus and Eurydice, a castle beyond signed, inscribed and dated 'P. Pequignot / à Naples. 1802' (lower left, on a rock) oil on canvas 46¿ x 67 (117.2 x 170.2 cm.) $60,000-80,000

£46,000-60,000 €53,000-71,000

PROVENANCE:

with Simon C. Dickinson Ltd., London. with Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London, where acquired on 25 September 2002 by the present owner.

LITERATURE:

E.B. Saiello, Jean-Pierre Pequignot, Baume-les-Dames 1765 - Naples 1807, Turin, 2005, pp. 90-93, no. T.15, illustrated (in reverse), where erroneously said to be dated 1805.

Jean-Pierre Pequignot first studied with Johann Melchior Wyrsch, the founder of the painting and sculpture academy at Besançon, between 1775 and 1780. He then went to Paris, where he worked in the studio of Claude-Joseph Vernet and was also accepted in the studio of Jacques-Louis David. He later went to Rome, where he met Anne-Louis Girodet, the winner of the Grand Prix de Rome in 1789, who arrived there in May 1790. Both artists came from the Franche-Comté and became close friends. Girodet's growing interest in landscape painting might have been influenced by Pequignot. In 1791, the two fled from the turmoil of the Revolution and the resulting persecution of French citizens to Naples, where they worked together in the surrounding countryside. They collaborated to the extent that Pequignot painted the landscape in Girodet's Sleep of Endymion of 1791, a work that met with great success at the Salon the following years (Louvre, Paris).

After Girodet left for Paris in 1794, Pequignot remained in Naples until his death in 1807.

Pequignot's few surviving works suggest that he was a follower of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, who promoted the en plein air study as the basis for sophisticated compositions executed in his studio. The present painting is a masterful example of the artist's composite heroic landscapes which form a part of a tradition going back to Poussin and Claude.

This painting forms a pendant with a landscape depicting figures before a tomb dated '1801', with which it remained until recently (see Saiello, op. cit., no. T.14).

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE

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THOMAS COUTURE (SENLIS 1815-1879 VILLIERS-LEBEL) Portrait of a Lady, probably a Study of the Artist's Daughter, Berthe signed with the artist's initials 'T.C.' (center left) oil on canvas 20Ω x 15√ in. (52.1 x 40.3 cm.) $15,000-20,000

£12,000-15,000 €14,000-18,000

PROVENANCE:

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and Lenore Ginsburg Ruskin Heavenrich (1920-1993), Scottsdale, AZ. Gifted by the above to the present owner, December 1979.

EXHIBITED:

Springfield, MA, Museum of Fine Arts, Enrollment of the Volunteers: Thomas Couture and the Painting of History, 13 April-8 June 1980; also Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1 July-30 August 1980; and Williamstown, MA, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; 20 September 2 November 1980, n.p., unnumbered, as Portrait of a Lady (Study for the Promises).

Flagstaff, AZ, Coconino Center for the Arts, on loan, 14 November-24 December 1989.

The present painting almost certainly depicts Thomas Couture’s daughter Berthe, costumed in a laurel wreath and in a pose initially conceived for one of the figures of ‘The Promises’ as a study for the artist’s The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792 (1848-1851, Musée Départmental de l’Oise, Beauvais) and ultimately found in his Autumn (1848, The Wadsworth Atheneum). The previous year, 1847, had seen Couture establish himself as one of France’s most important and forward-thinking artists through the exhibition of his monumental canvas, Romains de la décadence (1847, Musée d’Orsay, Paris), a thinly veiled critique of French society and the decline of French culture under the July Monarchy.

At the time of the revolution of 1848, Couture was thus regarded as one of the country’s greatest artists, heir to his teacher Antoine Gros and Theodore Géricault. Given

his popularity and sympathetic politics to the Second Empire, Couture was commissioned to paint a grand history painting for the Hall of Sessions of the National Assembly which would emphasize the relationship between the Revolution of 1789 and the Second Republic. The work was to express a unifying message of patriotism by highlighting the historical moment when, amid the turbulence of the Revolution, Frenchmen of many classes came together in defense of the Republic, then at war with Austria. Couture’s enthusiasm for the project is reflected in the sheer number of studies and compositional sketches that were made in preparation for the finished work.

The most complete preparatory sketch, and the one the artist identified as his preferred composition for the final painting is The Enrollment (1848, Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA). In the center of this version of the composition an allegorical figure of Liberty sits astride a cannon, and behind her, as if being protected, are the figures of two girls, referred to as ‘The Promises’ reflecting Couture’s optimism for the future. Given the quickly shifting climate of the political landscape in France at the time, which saw the Second Republic transformed into the Second Empire, the ultimate significance of Couture’s painting was lost, and the final composition was heavily reworked and in places unfinished, with the figures of both ‘the Promises’ and Liberty rather ominously removed from the painting.

Nevertheless, the figure and the pose for which Berthe sat are preserved in Couture’s Autumn, painted in the same year that The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792 was begun. Now crowned with a laurel wreath, as seen in the present study, she remains perhaps as a reflection of the optimism and revolutionary victory which Couture had felt in the autumn of 1848 when he conceived the figures of ‘The Promises’ and which was undone with the election of Louis Napoleon to the presidency in December of that same year.

PROPERTY OF A SOUTHERN COLLECTOR

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JOHAN BARTHOLD JONGKIND (LATTROP 1819–1891 CÔTE-SAINT-ANDRÉ) Moulin et scierie, Hollande signed 'J. B. Jongkind' (lower left) oil on panel 17Ω x 19√ in. (44.4 x 50.4 cm.)

Painted in 1843. $30,000-50,000

£23,000-38,000 €27,000-44,000

PROVENANCE:

(possibly) Nicolas Toussaint Hadengue (1817-1877) and Marie Sandras Hadengue (18271893), Paris. (possibly) Their sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Feb. 2-3, 1880, lot 52, as Une scierie aux environs de Rotterdam. with Kunsthandel D. Sala & Zonen, The Hague, by 1948.

G. Veltman, Bussum.

Vles collection, Switzerland.

Ms. P. Bolken, Amsterdam.

Anonymous sale; Paul Brandt B.V., Amsterdam, 24-25 June 1959, lot 207, as Le moulinscierie. (possibly) Anonymous sale; Paul Brandt B.V., Amsterdam, 18 November 1985, lot 2, as A Dutch Saw-Mill.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 25 February 1987, lot 4, Moulin près de la rivière.

Galerie Bellefontaine, S. A., Lausanne.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 12 February 1997, lot 27, as Moulin au bord de l'eau.

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 2 July 2008, lot 176.

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Johan Barthold Jongkind 1819-1891, 3 July-5 September 1948, no. 1 as Molen aan het water.

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Johan Barthold Jongkind 1819-1891, 8 October-15 November 1948, no. 1.

LITERATURE:

V. Hefting, Jongkind: Sa vie, son oeuvre, son époque, Paris, 1975, p. 66, no. 25, illustrated (with incorrect dimensions).

A. Stein, Jongkind: Catalogue critique de l'oeuvre, Peintures, Paris, 2003, vol. I, p. 71, no.

28, illustrated.

Datable to 1843, the present work is a beautiful example of Jongkind's early Romantic style. The artist had received his early training from the Romantic artist Andreas Schelfhout, and the older artist's influence can still be felt in the young Jongkind's work. Schelfhout introduced Jongkind to the maritime painter Eugene Isabey, and the two traveled together to Normandy in 1846 before Jongkind settled in Paris in that same year to continue to train under Isabey.

An important pioneer of Impressionism, Jongkind's understanding of light and reflection is already evident in his work at this early date.

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MAURICE LELOIR (PARIS 1853-1940) Les patineurs (Winter)

signed and dated 'Maurice Leloir 1909' (lower right) oil on canvas, oval 43¿ x 31º in. (109.5 x 79.4 cm.) $15,000-20,000 PROVENANCE:

with César C. Gaona, Buenos Aires.

Acquired by the present owner, 2025.

£12,000-15,000 €14,000-18,000

CENTURIES OF TASTE: LEGACY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION

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BENJAMIN WILLIAMS LEADER, R.A. (WORCESTER 1831-1923 SHERE) Kempsey Church on the River Severn signed and dated 'B. W. LEADER.1883.' (lower left) oil on canvas 43√ x 72 in. (111.46 x 182.88 cm.) $15,000-20,000

£12,000-15,000 €14,000-18,000

PROVENANCE:

The artist.

Cox, acquired directly from the above, November 1883. (probably) Edmund Levy. (probably) His sale; Christie's, London, 20 April 1896, lot 109, as Kempsey Church on the Severn. (probably) with Agnews, London, acquired at the above sale. (probably) James Gresham, acquired directly from the above, 26 April 1897. (probably) His sale; Christie's, London, 12 July 1917, lot 87, as The Evening Hour. (probably) Michell, acquired at the above sale. with MacConnal-Mason and Sons, London.

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 13 June 2000, lot 86A. with Richard Green, London.

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner, 12 December 2000.

The present work depicts the church of St. Mary the Virgin in Kempsey, south of Worcester. There are at least two other paintings by the artist depicting this same view of the River Severn at the crossing point of the Pixham Ferry, looking toward the south. Leader exhibited other river scenes at the Royal Academy in 1883, however he did not choose to exhibit the present picture. In 1889 he returned to the same scene again for another large work entitled Sabrina's Stream (Sabrina being the Roman name given to the River Severn) which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in that year. Leader would return to the subject at least one other time, in a smaller version painted in 1896. Ruth Wood confirmed the authorship of this work when it was sold in 2000.

PROPERTY OF A FAMILY

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HENDRIK WILLEM MESDAG (GRONINGEN 1831-1915 THE HAGUE) Dichtbij Huis (Nearing Home) signed 'H W Mesdag' (lower right) oil on canvas 19¿ x 31 in. (48.6 x 78.7 cm.)

Painted circa 1887. $30,000-50,000

£23,000-38,000 €27,000-44,000

PROVENANCE:

Charles Schlumberger (1861-1934) and Emilie Vischer Schlumberger (1867-1946), Basel.

By descent to the present owner.

LITERATURE:

J. Poort, Hendrik Willem Mesdag 1831-1915. Oeuvrecatalogus in beeld, Wassenaar 2001, p. 45, no. 2021.14, illustrated.

PROPERTY OF A SOUTHERN COLLECTOR

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JOHAN BARTHOLD JONGKIND (LATTROP 1819–1891 CÔTE-SAINT-ANDRÉ) Chantier naval

signed and dated 'Jongkind.1855.' (lower right) oil on canvas 12√ x 18¬ in. (32.7 x 47.4 cm.) $20,000-30,000

£16,000-23,000 €18,000-26,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Naon & Cia, Buenos Aires, 9 September 2015, lot 155, as Barca en reparación al borde de un rio en Holanda.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 22 May 2018, lot 71.

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

We are grateful to Galerie Brame & Lorenceau for confirming the authenticity of this work. This work will be included in their forthcoming supplement to the Jongkind catalogue raisonné now in preparation.

PROPERTY FROM A TEXAS COLLECTION

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FEDERICO DEL CAMPO (LIMA 1837-1927 LONDON) Il Ponte dei Sospiri

signed, inscribed and dated 'F. del Campo./Venecia 1898.' (lower right) oil on canvas 23¬ x 14Ω in. (60 x 36.8 cm.) $12,000-18,000

£9,100-14,000 €11,000-16,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Christies, New York, 25 May 1984, lot 150A, as The Bridge of Sighs, Venice.

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT JAPANESE PRIVATE COLLECTION •

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JAMES JACQUES JOSEPH TISSOT (NANTES 1836-1902 DOUBS) Château de Buillon gouache and oil on card 20Ω x 14º in. (52 x 36.2 cm.) $6,000-8,000

£4,600-6,000 €5,300-7,100

PROVENANCE:

The artist.

Jeanne Tissot (d. 1964), Besançon, his niece, by descent, 1902.

Her estate sale; Besançon, Château de Buillon, 8-9 November 1964.

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 16 June 1982, lot 272.

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 23 June 1989, lot 136.

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

London, The Barbican Art Gallery, James Tissot, 15 November 1984 - 20 January 1985; also Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, 1 February-16 March 1985; Paris, Musée du Petit Palais, 5 April-30 June 1985, p. 244, no. 168.

Following his father's death in 1888, Tissot inherited the Château de Buillon in Doubs, France. In his later years, Tissot would go on to make a wide range of alterations to the estate, using the designs of the English architect John Brydon, who had designed the studio at his Grove End Road house, London, in 1873 (see W. E. Misfeldt, 'James Tissot's Abbaye de Buillon', Apollo, January 1984, pp. 249). The Château featured several times in the architectural magazine The Builder (15 June 1895, pp. 452-453, illustrated; 1 May 1897, p. 390, illustrated; 1 June 1901, p. 540).

We are grateful to Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz for her assistance with cataloguing this lot.

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JEAN-BAPTISTE-CAMILLE COROT (PARIS 1796-1875) Un coin de verger (Auvergne) signed 'COROT' (lower left) oil on canvas on board 11¡ x 6º in. (28.9 x 15.9 cm.)

Painted circa 1850-1855. $30,000-50,000

£23,000-38,000 €27,000-44,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 24-27 March 1953. with Alfred Daber, Paris. with M. Knoedler and Co., New York, acquired directly from the above, 28 July 1955.

Acquired directly from the above by the current owner, 15 July 1963.

LITERATURE:

A. Robaut, L'Œuvre de Corot, catalogue raisonné et illustré, Paris, 1905, vol. II, pp. 226227, no. 651, illustrated.

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE •

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GUSTAVE DORÉ (STRASBOURG 1832-1883 PARIS) April in the Engadine signed 'G. Doré' (lower left) oil on canvas 25¿ x 39¡ (63.8 x 100 cm.) $15,000-20,000

£12,000-15,000 €14,000-18,000

PROVENANCE:

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and Lenore Ginsburg Ruskin Heavenrich (1920-1993), Scottsdale, AZ. Gifted by the above to the present owner, December 1979.

We are grateful to Dan Malan for confirming the authenticity of this work.

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT AMERICAN COLLECTION

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CHARLES MAURIN (LE PUY-EN-VELAY, HAUTE-LOIRE 1856-1914 GRASSE) Au cabaret

inscribed and signed 'Concert Ramponneau/Maurin' (lower right) pastel over pencil on paper on board 19¬ x 25Ω x in. (49.9 x 64.9 cm.) $15,000-20,000

£12,000-15,000 €14,000-18,000

PROVENANCE:

(possibly) Henry Laurent, Paris.

Private collection, San Francisco.

By descent to the present owner, 1988.

LITERATURE:

(possibly) U. Rouchon, Charles Maurin (1856-1914), Le Puy-en-Velay, 1922, p. 67, as Intérieur de Café-Concert.

SOLD WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART TO BENEFIT ACQUISITION FUNDS

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IGNACIO ZULOAGA Y ZABALETA (EIBAR 1870-1945 MADRID) Portrait of Mrs. Julia G. Fahnestock signed 'I. Zuloaga' (lower left) oil on canvas 82 x 54 in. (208.3 x 137.2 cm.)

Painted circa 1920s. $40,000-60,000

£31,000-45,000 €36,000-53,000

PROVENANCE:

William Fahnestock (1857-1936) and Julia Stong Goetchius Fahnestock (1868-1959), commissioned from the artist.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art, donated by Julia G. Fahnestock in memory of her husband, 1940.

EXHIBITED:

New York, The Spanish Institute, Ignacio Zuloaga in America, 1909-1925, 2 February-29 April 1989, p. 49, no. 19, as Mrs. William Fahnestock.

LITERATURE:

E. Lafuente Ferrari, The Life and Work of Ignacio Zuloaga, Barcelona, 1991, p. 517, no.

495, as Retrato de Mrs. Fahnestock.

Zuloaga painted two portraits of Julia Stong Goetchius Fahnestock, wife of the financier and investment banker William Fahnestock. One was painted in Cannes in 1923, while less is known about the creation of the other, though it must have been painted by 1930, when the Fahnestocks were noted as having their New York home re-done. The other known portrait of Julia Fahnestock hangs today at Rosecliff in Newport, where the Fahnestocks had a home (along with homes in New York City and Katonah, NY). The Newport picture is more somber, with a less detailed background and the sitter depicted wearing a dark, unadorned dress, and was exhibited in New York in 1928. The coastal setting and slightly younger appearance of the sitter suggest that this might be the 1923 portrait.

Like many other wealthy Americans at the time, the Fahnestocks were eager to have their portrait painted by Zuloaga. He painted a number of American patrons during his lifetime, generally on quite a large scale, and he was championed among American collectors by no less a portraitist than John Singer Sargent, who was instrumental in organizing Zuloaga's first exhibition in America in 1909.

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FRANCESCO LIANI (ACTIVE NAPLES 1755-AFTER 1783)

Portrait of Francisco Javier de Borbón, Prince of Spain (1757-1771), holding a cymbal, full-length, seated oil on canvas 37æ x 29√ in. (96 x 76 cm.) $5,000-8,000

£3,800-6,000 €4,500-7,100

The Infante Francisco Javier was the youngest son of Maria Amalia of Saxony and Charles VII of Naples who, from 1759, became King Charles III of Spain. He was born at Caserta but moved to Spain in 1759 when his father was crowned king. He lost his mother a year later, when he was just three years old, and died of smallpox at the age of fourteen. Here, Francisco Javier is shown as a toddler: his pose derives from the double portrait of him and his older brother painted before 1759 by Giuseppe Bonito (formerly at Museo di San Martino, Naples, and now at the Royal Palace at Caserta).

We are grateful to prof. Nicola Spinosa for proposing an attribution to Francesco Liani on the basis of photographs. Born in Emilia-Romagna, Liani moved to Naples in the 1750s and worked as a portraitist at the royal court of Charles VII (and later that of Ferdinand IV of Bourbon). This portrait must once have belonged to a series depicting the monarch's children: others by Liani, in halflength format and depicting different siblings, are in Capua, Museo Campana (see N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento dal Rococò al Classicismo, Naples, 1987, p. 128, cat. 176, figs. 217 and 218).

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE •

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ATTRIBUTED TO PIETER NASON (AMSTERDAM 1612-1688/1690 THE HAGUE)

Portrait of a boy, possibly William III, Prince of Orange, later King of England (1650-1702), three-quarter-length, in armor, with a fort burning in the distance oil on canvas 32 x 25Ω in. (81.3 x 64.8 cm.) $10,000-15,000

£7,600-11,000 €8,900-13,000

PROVENANCE:

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (19201993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in 1970 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTOR

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CIRCLE OF JAN MOSTAERT (HAARLEM 1475-1552/3) Christ in Limbo blessing the Virgin oil on panel 4º x 3Ω in. (10.8 x 9 cm.) $15,000-20,000

£12,000-15,000 €14,000-18,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 18 December 1980, lot 23.

Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 23 January 2004, lot 111, where acquired by the present owner.

PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTOR

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FLEMISH SCHOOL, 16TH CENTURY Adam and Eve

oil on panel 17º x 10º in. (44 x 26.1 cm.) $10,000-15,000

£7,600-11,000 €8,900-13,000

PROVENANCE:

with Emanuel von Baeyer, London, from whom acquired by the present owner.

This painting follows a 1504 engraving by Albrecht Dürer, with some changes in the landscape at upper right.

PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTOR

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NETHERLANDISH SCHOOL, 16TH CENTURY The Lamentation oil on panel 16Ω x 9√ in. (42 x 25.2 cm.) $12,000-18,000

£9,100-14,000 €11,000-16,000

PROVENANCE:

Robert Langston Douglas (1846-1951), Levenham, Cheshire and later Florence; his sale, Christie's, London, 5 July 1935, lot 112, as Early Dutch School, 80 gns. to Leggatt, probably on behalf of the following, Captain E. G. Spencer Churchill (1876-1964), Northwick Park.

Private collection, United Kingdom.

Anonymous sale; Dorotheum, Vienna, 25 April 2017, lot 4, as Netherlandish School circa 1510, where acquired by the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Bristol, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Art Treasures of the West Country, 1937, no. 187, as School of Rogier van der Weyden.

Manchester, City Art Gallery, Art Treasures Centenary Exhibition, European Old Masters, 1957, no. 34, as School of Rogier van der Weyden.

The general composition of this deeply expressive painting is reminiscent of the group of figures in a Lamentation ascribed to Adriaen Isenbrandt in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp. There are marked similarities in the position of the three figures, the background view and the way in which Saint John's hand is placed on Christ's head. A comparable arrangement of figures in the space, although not with these poses, can be found in Gerard David's Lamentation in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF DR. BRUCE WILSON •

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STUDIO OF SIMON VOUET (PARIS 1590-1649)

The Virgin and Child with an angel (The Rest on the Flight into Egypt) oil on canvas 31¬ x 38√ in. (80.3 x 98.7 cm.) $8,000-12,000

£6,100-9,000 €7,100-11,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 3 June 2010, lot 71, as Simon Vouet and Studio, where acquired by the present owner.

There are many versions of this apocryphal scene from the infancy of Christ which follow Simon Vouet's painting, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen (inv. no. 80.9.2). The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, as it is depicted in the present composition, is known from extrabibilical narratives dating from the eighth and ninth centuries. According to these stories, the Holy Family was overcome by fatigue and hunger and settled for the night under a fruiting date palm. There, the infant Christ performed an early miracle, causing a branch of the palm to bend down so that the fruit could be reached.

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ROMAN SCHOOL, LATE 17TH CENTURY The Assumption of the Virgin oil on canvas, oval, unframed 18¿ x 15æ in. (46 x 40 cm.) $6,000-8,000 PROVENANCE:

Acquired by the present owner circa 2015.

£4,600-6,000 €5,300-7,100

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FERRARESE SCHOOL, EARLY 16TH CENTURY Saint Sebastian

oil on panel, unframed 17Ω x 13 in. (44.5 x 33 cm.) $15,000-20,000 PROVENANCE:

Acquired by the present owner in France circa 2015.

£12,000-15,000 €14,000-18,000

PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTOR

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FOLLOWER OF GIOVANNI BATTISTA CIMA, CALLED CIMA DA CONEGLIANO Christ supported by two angels oil on panel 5Ω x 4æ in. (13.9 x 11.8 cm.) $20,000-30,000

£16,000-23,000 €18,000-26,000

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's New York, 27 January 2005, lot 121, as Circle of Giovannu Battista Cima, where acquired by the present owner.

This composition is relates to another intimately-scaled panel, published by Peter Humfrey, as a workshop picture (see Cima Da Conegliano, Cambridge, 1983, p. 172, no. 189, pl. 68b). A third panel, of the same composition with similar dimensions, attributed to Cima appeared at auction in Zurich in 1995 (Koller Auktionen AG, 3 November 1995, lot 3015).

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE •

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A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE GROUP OF AENEAS CARRYING ANCHISES FROM BURNING TROY AFTER PIERRE LEPAUTRE, FRENCH, 19TH CENTURY Bearing Lepautre to the base 21º in. (54 cm.) high, overall $2,500-3,500 PROVENANCE:

Private Collection, Paris.

Acquried from Mallett, London, 1964 or 65.

£1,900-2,600 €2,300-3,100

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A WHITE MARBLE FIGURE GROUP OF TROILOS ON HORSEBACK AFTER THE ANTIQUE, 20TH CENTURY 20º in. (51.5 cm.) high, overall $5,000-8,000

£3,800-6,000 €4,500-7,100

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A WHITE MARBLE BUST OF THE EMPEROR BRUTUS ITALIAN, LATE 18TH CENTURY On a later column, possibly alabaster 24æ in. (63cm.) high, 17in. (43cm.) wide, the bust $3,000-5,000

£2,300-3,800 €2,700-4,400

PROVENANCE:

Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 24 May 2001, lot 139.

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ANTONIO BELLUCCI (PIEVE DI SOLIGO 1654-1726) Cupid and Psyche oil on canvas, unframed 25º x 66√ in. (64 x 170 cm.) $20,000-30,000

£16,000-23,000 €18,000-26,000

PROVENANCE:

W.A.G. Cunliffe, as 'Benedetto Luti' (according to a label on the reverse).

Private collection, Mexico City, since 1979.

This subject is based on the text by Lucius Apulcius (2nd century A.D.) in the Metamorphoses (Books 4-6), which recounts the myth of Psyche, a maiden whose extraordinary beauty aroused the jealousy of Venus. In retaliation, Venus ordered Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with a mortal, but Cupid himself was captivated by her. He carried Psyche to his palace, visiting her only under cover of darkness.

Longing to see her lover’s face, Psyche lit a lamp while he slept, but a drop of oil fell onto Cupid, waking him and causing him to flee. Determined to win him back, Psyche submitted to a series of arduous tasks set by Venus, including a descent into Hades. After falling into an enchanted sleep, she was ultimately rescued by Jupiter, reunited with Cupid, and married at a celestial banquet. Renaissance humanists

treated the story as a philosophical allegory of the search by the Soul (Psyche) for union with Desire (Cupid), the outcome of which is Pleasure (their offspring).

Bellucci’s paintings bridge the Venetian late Baroque and Rococo, reviving the luminous palette of Veronese and Titian, and anticipating the style of Antonio Balestra and Sebastiano Ricci. The present painting, closely related to Bellucci’s Cupid and Psyche in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich (inv. no. 915), is datable to the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Its elongated horizontal format suggests that it was originally conceived as an overdoor, intended to be viewed from below.

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE •

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FOLLOWER OF ANDREA DEL SARTO

Madonna and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist oil on canvas 44 x 33 in. (111.8 x 83.8 cm.) $6,000-8,000

£4,600-6,000 €5,300-7,100

PROVENANCE:

Lewis J. Ruskin (1903-1981) and his wife, Lenore Ruskin Heavenrich, née Ginsburg (19201993), Scottsdale, by whom gifted in 1959 to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

EXHIBITED:

Tempe, Arizona State University Art Museum, The Painters' Craft: Renaissance and Baroque Paintings in the Permanent Collection, 23 August-6 December 2003, as Domenico Puligo, with erroneous provenance.

LITERATURE:

'7 Art Masterpieces, valued at $250,000, Given to ASU', The Arizona Republic, 27 November 1958, p. 1, as Domenico Puligo.

E. Johnson, 'College Museum Notes', College Art Journal, Spring 1959, p. 257, as Domenico Puligo.

B.B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge, 1972, p. 641, as School of Andrea del Sarto.

This composition derives from a lost painting by Andrea del Sarto, known as The Barbadori Holy Family, first recorded by Giorgio Vasari in the Florentine collection of Baccio Barbadori. The lost painting, probably a tondo, included figures of Saint Elizabeth and Saint Joseph in addition to those depicted here. A second autograph version by Andrea del Sarto is preserved in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 714), and a variant by Franciabigio is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. 208).

PROPERTY FROM A MID-ATLANTIC COLLECTION •

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JACOBUS MELCHIOR VAN HERCK (ACTIVE ANTWERP 1698-1735) Flowers in a clay urn on a ledge

Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s New York, 5 April 1990, lot 312, as 'Gaspar Pieter Verbruggen II', where acquired by the present owner.

with signature 'Huysum J.' (lower right) oil on canvas 27æ x 30 in. (70.5 x 76 cm.) $8,000-12,000

PROVENANCE:

£6,100-9,000 €7,100-11,000

We are grateful to Dr. Fred G. Meijer for proposing the attribution on the basis of photographs (written communication, 25 March 2024).

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CIRCLE OF SANTI DI TITO

Portrait of a young man, bust-length, in a white ruff oil on panel 28.2/5 x 22 in. (72 x 56 cm.) $20,000-30,000 PROVENANCE:

Acquired by the present owner in France circa 2021.

£16,000-23,000 €18,000-26,000

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FOLLOWER OF GIULIO CESARE PROCACCINI Venus and Cupid oil on canvas 30æ x 35 in. (78 x 89 cm.) $8,000-12,000

£6,100-9,000 €7,100-11,000

PROVENANCE:

Private collection, New York, where acquired by the present owner circa 2014.

This painting relates to Giulio Cesare Procaccini's Venus and Cupid in a private collection (see H. Brigstocke and O. D’Albo, Giulio Cesare Procaccini, Life and Work, Turin, 2020, no. 161)

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ANTONIO FRANCESCO PERUZZINI (ANCONA 1643/6-1724 MILAN)

A Mediterranean landscape with figures boarding a boat in choppy seas, a fragment oil on canvas 20¿ x 26æ in. (51.1 x 67.9 cm.) $20,000-30,000

£16,000-23,000 €18,000-26,000

PROVENANCE:

Charles Frederick Taft Seaverns (1878-1956) and Mary Bushnell Hillyer Seaverns (18801947), Hartford, by 1930, and by descent to the present owner.

EXHIBITED:

Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, Exhibition of Italian Painting of the Sei- and Settecento, 22 January- 5 February 1930, no. 20, as Alessandro Magnasco.

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tiepolo and his Contemporaries, 14 March- 24 April 1938, no. 7, as Alessandro Magnasco.

New York, Durlacher Brothers, A Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Alessandro Magnasco, 9 January- 3 February 1940, no. 16, as Alessandro Magnasco.

LITERATURE:

B. Geiger, Magnasco, Bergamo, 1949, p. 96, as Alessandro Magnasco.

L. Muti and D. de Sarno Prignano, Alessandro Magnasco, Ravenna, 1994, p. 298, no. R. 170, under rejected attributions, as Circle of Alessandro Magnasco.

Antonio Francesco Peruzzini’s painterly style, marked by spiky and staccato handling of paint, has often been confused with the loose and swift brushwork of his collaborator, Alessandro Magnasco. The two artists crossed paths in Florence where they were patronized by the great lover of art and literature Ferdinand de’ Medici, for whom they produced a number of paintings. The landscapes were supplied by Peruzzini and figures by Magnasco – two of these collaborations, featuring hermits in forested landscapes, remain in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence (inv. nos. 5870 and 6247).

The present painting is perhaps the lower corner of a larger composition which has been cropped along the upper and left edges. The quick, short and almost frenzied brushstrokes as well as the mossy green palette and ochre ground are recognizable hallmarks of Peruzzini’s style. When the painting was published by Laura Murti and Daniele de Sarno Prignano in 1994, it was known to the authors only from a black-and-white photograph. We are grateful to Daniele de Sarno Prignano and Laura Muti who, on the basis of high-resolution color photographs, have revised their opinion and now consider the painting may be a product of collaboration between Antonio Francesco Peruzzini and Alessandro Magnasco (for the figures) (private communication, April 2025).

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MANNER OF PAOLO VERONESE Bathsheba at her bath oil on panel 31 x 24 in. (78.7 x 61 cm.) $7,000-10,000

£5,300-7,500 €6,200-8,800

PROVENANCE:

The Roerich Museum, New York; their sale, American Art Association Anderson Galleries Inc., New York, 27-28 March 1930, lot 59, as Attributed to Paolo Caliari, called Paolo Veronese.

Acquired by the Arizona State University Art Museum circa 1970.

PROPERTY FROM THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SOLD TO BENEFIT ACQUISITIONS AND DIRECT COLLECTIONS CARE •

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AFTER GUIDO RENI

An allegory of Fortune holding a crown oil on canvas 401/8 x 313/4 in. (101.9 x 80.6 cm.) $3,000-5,000

£2,300-3,800 €2,700-4,400

PROVENANCE:

Fritz Scholder (1937-2005), by whom gifted 31 December 1991 to, the Arizona State University Museum of Art.

The present painting is after Guido Reni's composition of the subject, of which he is known to have painted two versions. One where Fortune holds a purse, now in the Vatican Pinacoteca, Rome (inv. no. MV.40653.0.0), and the other where she holds a crown. The latter was last seen at auction in 2019 (Christie's, London, 3 December 2019, lot 36). Another version with the crown also carries the attribution to Reni, and is kept at the Accademia di San Luca, Rome (inv. no. 429).

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FOLLOWER OF LUCA GIORDANO, 17TH CENTURY

A bacchanal with Bacchus and Ariadne in the background; and A bacchanal with putti and a monkey oil on canvas, unframed 48 x 61¬ in. (121.9 x 156.5), each $10,000-15,000

a pair (2) £7,600-11,000 €8,900-13,000