Outside of The Female Triumphant, the evening sale featured a group of Dutch masterworks emerging from a distinguished private collection. The selection was led by Joachim Anthonisz. Wtewael’s work on copper A Banquet of the Gods, which sold for $5.9 million (estimate $5/7 million) to the Centraal Museum in Utrecht. Its elegant forms, classical subject, and refined technique of this oil on copper exemplify the Dutch Mannerist movement, which included the most important artists in the Netherlands from 1580 to 1620. The collection also featured Jan van de Cappelle’s A shipping scene on a calm sea, with a number of vessels and figures, and a jetty on the left, which fetched $4.8 million (estimate $4/6 million) – the second-highest price ever achieved for the artist at auction. The luminous scene is a particularly evocative and successful example of the calm, expansive seascapes that distinguished Jan van de Cappelle as one of the leading marine painters of the Dutch Golden Age.

Further Dutch masterworks in the sale included Pieter Claesz’s Still life of lemons and olives, pewter plates, a roemer and a façon-de-Venise wine glass on a ledge, which soared past its pre-sale high estimate of $900,000, realizing $2.5 million and establishing a new auction record for the artist. The works that Pieter Claesz. painted between 1628 and 1630, of which this is an outstanding example, came to define the classical Haarlem ontbijtje (breakfast piece).

The evening’s offering of Italian works was led by Orazio Gentileschi’s dynamic and dramatic Fall of the Rebel Angels, which realized $3.3 million (estimate $2.5/3.5 million). Painted on a large piece of alabaster circa 1601/2, the work displays the artist’s shift from his mannerist beginnings to a more naturalistic style, due in part to his burgeoning friendship with Caravaggio.

Master Paintings & Sculpture Day Sale
Auction Total: $10.8 Million

Wednesday’s Master Paintings & Sculpture Day sale was led by a 17th century replica of Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic Mona Lisa, which smashed its pre-sale high estimate of $120,000 after a ten minute bidding battle, selling for $1.7 million. Amongst the most recognizable images in the world, thought to depict Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the Florentine silk merchant Francesco Giocondo, the numerous copies made after the original in 1503, are a testament to its timeless appeal. It is believed that the work was formerly in the collection of the Pistoj family, an old aristocratic family from the city of Pistoia that dates back to the fourteenth century, where it remained in the family for over 260 years until the passing of the last descendant.

OLD MASTER DRAWINGS
Auction Total: $15.1 Million
* Record for Any Old Master Drawings Sale at Sotheby’s *

Gregory Rubinstein, Head of Sotheby’s Old Master Drawings Department, commented: “We are thrilled with the results of our sale, which marks the highest total for an Old Master Drawings auction at Sotheby’s worldwide. Anchored by the significant record-breaking Rubens study, we saw market demand for additional blue-chip, fresh-to-market works from all corners of the globe, led by bidding among private collectors from America, China, Russia and Europe. The market for Old Master Drawings is strong, and today’s results reflect just that.”

The morning’s auction was highlighted by a magnificent collection of drawings assembled by King William II of the Netherlands and his wife Anna Pavlovna, who together amassed one of the finest collections formed anywhere in Europe in the 19th century. Twelve drawings together totaled $11 million –  three times their collective high estimate of $3.7 million. While many of the works they owned now reside in major museums, both in the Netherlands and around the world, these drawings are among those that passed down privately through the family.

The collection was led by Sir Peter Paul Rubens’s Nude Study of Young Man with Raised Arms – one of the most important drawings by the iconic artist to appear on the open market in over 50 years – which sold for $8.2 million after intense competition between two bidders. That price more than doubled the work’s high estimate of $3.5 million, and established a new world auction record for a drawing by the artist. Drawn by the artist shortly after his return to Antwerp from Italy in late 1608 and in preparation for his monumental altarpiece, The Raising of the Cross, the drawing provides the viewer with a fascinating insight into Rubens’s working methods, as well as the energy and vigor employed by the artist in his best drawings.

Further highlights from the collection include a red chalk Portrait of a youth, attributed to Agostino Caracci, which sold for $1.5 million – more than 40 times its pre-sale estimate of $35/45,000 – and an Italian 16th-century drawing of The Fight For The Standard (The Battle Of Anghiari), After Leonardo, which achieved $795,000 – more than 20 times it estimate of $25/35,000.

Outside of the King William II and Anna Pavlovna collection, museum-quality works by Raphael and Cornelis Troost also fetched top prices. A substantial, newly-discovered drawing of a Standing Figure in Armor by Raphael brought $795,000. Dated to the artist’s early career in Florence (circa 1506-7), the drawing shows all the unpredictable originality that characterizes Raphael’s works of this period. Corenlis Troost’s highly entertaining and visually engaging Drinkenburg achieved $639,000 – smashing the artist’s previous world auction record, which was established by this same drawing when it was last sold at auction in 1999.

19th Century European Art
Auction Total: $16.1 million

Master Week Feb. 2019