January 2009

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Christie’s flourished the Old Master painting of the season – a long-lost, beautifully preserved Watteau panel of around 1718, La Surprise, which I illustrated in the July/August Apollo. As expected, this glorious little rarity generated a bidding battle, which seemed almost over when London dealer Luca Baroni nonchalantly raised his hand to claim the prize. Estimated at £3m-£5m, it realised a phenomenal £12.4m, a world-record price for any French Old Master at auction. It was, however, the only real high point in a lacklustre sale that saw over a third of the lots fail to find buyers and many others sell on a single bid.

Sotheby’s mammoth sale the following evening could not have been more different. Most lots were vigorously contested – 58% sold over their high estimate – and some 19 new artist’s records were set. Indeed, the £51.5m total was the second-highest for any single-session sale of Old Master paintings ever sold in London. Unsurprisingly, it was the season’s second great rediscovery, Frans Hals’s panel Portrait of Willem van Hethuysen, which proved its top lot, selling way over its £3m-£5m estimate to London dealer Richard Nagy for just over £7m. Perhaps less expected was the £2.1m – 10 times the estimate – paid by London dealers Colnaghi for Lucas Cranach the Elder’s David and Bathsheba of 1534. The Misers, one of the finest among the vast number of versions of an evidently famous lost original panel painted in the early 16th century went for £2m – 20 times the estimate (Fig. 2). This one is by a follower of Marinus van Reymerswaele. It is a compelling image of high quality, and a painting that has not been on the market since the 18th century, but it was a hefty price for a work that is neither an original composition nor by a well-known hand – evidence again that buyers in this market will pay handsomely for images with ‘wall power’.

The consistently high quality of the sale was due in large part to its various single-owner collections, not least that of the remarkable German collector and philanthropist Dr Gustav Rau. His exquisite and perfectly preserved small-scale gold-ground triptych by the Sienese master Taddeo di Bartoli of around 1400 (Fig. 1), the central panel of which shows the Madonna and Child surrounded by music-making angels, was another highlight. Intended as a private devotional piece, this intimate work spiralled beyond its £300,000-£500,000 estimate to fetch £1.89m. Another small-scale tour-de-force was the portrait of an old bearded man by Tintoretto. That, too, drew great competition, eventually selling to Luca Baroni for £1.6m. Turner’s view of Pope’s Villa, also illustrated in the July/August apollo, appeared to sell on a single bid for £5.4m. Strikingly, a substantial 45% of the sale went to UK buyers, 35 % sold to the rest of Europe, 16 % to the US.

Figures

1 Triptych with Madonna and Child by Taddeo di Bartolo (1362/3-1422), c. 1400. Tempera on panel, gold ground, central panel: 52 x 24.7 cm, wings: 50.3 x 12.4 cm. Sotheby’s, London, Property from the Collection formed by the late Dr Gustav Rau, Old Master Paintings Evening Sale (9 July), £1.89m

2 The Misers by a follower of Marinus van Reynerswaele, mid-16th century. Oil on panel 86.4 x 71.2 cm. Sotheby’s, London, Property from the Estate of the late 11th Viscount Cobham, Old Master Paintings Evening Sale (9 July), £2.057m

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