• Menü
    Stay
Schnellsuche

Sotheby’s To Offer A Rare Biblical Masterpiece By REMBRANDT VAN RIJN

Sotheby’s To Offer A Rare Biblical Masterpiece By REMBRANDT VAN RIJN As a Highlight of Sotheby’s Masters Week Auctions This January in New York

Painted at the Height of His Artistic Powers in 1646, Abraham and the Angels Is 1 of Only 2 Old Testament Scenes by the Artist Remaining in Private Hands

Last Sold at Auction in 1848 for £64, The Painting Is Estimated to Sell for $20/30 Million

Depicting a Pivotal Moment in the Biblical Story of Abraham When God Reveals the Birth of Isaac

Principal Subject of The Frick Museum’s Celebrated 2017 Exhibition Divine Encounter: Rembrandt’s Abraham and the Angels

New York, 29 September 2020 – Sotheby’s is pleased to announce that an extraordinary and rare biblical scene by Dutch Golden Age master Rembrandt van Rijn will be a highlight of our annual New York Masters Week sale series in January 2021.

Measuring just 6 ½ by 8 ⅜ inches (16 x 21cm), Abraham and the Angels is a profoundly beautiful, gem-like painting on panel from 1646 that stands among the finest works by Rembrandt ever to come to auction. The painting last appeared at auction in London in 1848, when it sold for £64, and returns to the block this January with an estimate of $20/30 million. The work was recently the principal subject of an exhibition at the Frick Museum in New York in 2017 dedicated to Rembrandt’s depictions of Abraham from the Book of Genesis.

Of the total 136 biblical paintings Rembrandt produced, the present work is one of only five remaining in private hands, with the large majority in prominent museum collections. Among these biblical paintings, only 29 depict Old Testament scenes, with the present panel representing one of only two examples in private hands – the other being a portrait of King Uzziah stricken with Leprosy, which resides in the Devonshire Collection at Chatsworth House. As such, Sotheby’s January auction of Abraham and the Angels marks an exceedingly rare opportunity for collectors to acquire a masterpiece of this important subject by the artist.

Just this summer, Sotheby’s achieved a new auction record for a self-portrait by Rembrandt when Self-portrait of the artist sold for $18.7 million in our London sale Rembrandt to Richter (July 2020). In December 2018, the Louvre Abu Dhabi acquired the artist’s work Head of a young man, with clasped hands: Study of the figure of Christ from a Sotheby’s London auction for $12.1 million. The work, which was identified as a Rembrandt in the 1930s, belongs to a series of oil sketches referred to as his “Face of Jesus” group. Prior to that sale, the last biblical scene to appear at auction was Saint James the Greater from 1661, which sold for $25.8 million at Sotheby’s New York in 2007.

George Wachter, Sotheby’s Chairman and Co-Worldwide Head of Old Master Paintings, remarked: “We are honored to be entrusted with this exceptionally beautiful image from one of Rembrandt’s celebrated Old Testament scenes. The subject of Abraham visited by three angels proved a fruitful source for etchings and engravings, but this was Rembrandt’s only painting of the story. Painted in the 1640s, when the artist was moving into a more thoughtful and deeply emotional period of his career, this gem-like panel is an outstanding example of the artist’s ability to depict a complex and moving composition on a small scale. With the vast majority of his biblical scenes in institutional collections, it is extremely rare to see such a major work at auction – with this one making its last appearance nearly 175 years ago. Outside of its rarity and condition, which is pristine, it is among the very few works by the artist whose authorship has never been questioned and is an indisputable masterpiece by the artist.”

While Rembrandt is largely known for his portraiture, these works were just one aspect of his artistic expression. It is, arguably, in his historical scenes – comprising mythological, biblical and allegorical scenes, in addition to landscapes – where he found the freedom to express himself, and to experiment more freely. Painted in 1646, during an emotionally-turbulent yet highly productive period of his life, Abraham and the Angels depicts the precise moment when God, the principal source of light in the scene, reveals to Abraham that his elderly wife Sarah will bear him a son, Isaac, within a year. We can almost make out the smile on the disbelieving Sarah’s face, as she leans out of the door to their house and overhears the proclamation of the Lord.

As is typical of the artist's work of the 1640s, in which he moved away from the highly Baroque concept of capturing the most dramatic instance of a story, in favor of a more subtle rendering worthy of thoughtful observation, Rembrandt chose to illustrate the most emotionally poignant moment of the story – conveyed solely by light and a single, gently raised hand.








Neue Kunst Auktionen
Art & Photography Books
It's been a bit quiet the last years - around the...
Gemälde des 19. Jahrhunderts
Unsere Versteigerung der europäischen Malerei des 19....
Bordeaux Greats | Finest
Sotheby’s Wine London is delighted to present our first...
Meistgelesen in Auktionen
VIEL KUNST FÜR DIE SEELE –
Mit rund 3000 ausgewählten Ausrufnummern der vom 28. bis 30....
Kunst, Antiquitäten, Schmuck
Am kommenden Samstag dem, 19. Oktober 2013 ab 11:00 Uhr ist...
Zweitägige Jahresauktion am 22
Freuen Sie sich mit uns auf unsere zweitägige Herbst-Auktion...
  • Sotheby’s To Offer A Rare Biblical Masterpiece By REMBRANDT VAN RIJN As a Highlight of Sotheby’s Masters Week Auctions This January in New York
    Sotheby’s To Offer A Rare Biblical Masterpiece By REMBRANDT VAN RIJN As a Highlight of Sotheby’s Masters Week Auctions This January in New York
    Sotheby’s Auktionshaus