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22 août 2018

Old Master discoveries revealed in Koller's Autumn Auctions

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Lot 3034. Antwerp Master, circa 1610-15. A study of the head of a monk looking upwards. Oil on panel. 47,5 x 37,7 cm. Estimate on request

ZURICH.- A series of discoveries highlight the Old Master & 19th Century Paintings auction at Koller on 28 September. Perhaps the most exciting is a small oil study of the head of a monk, which was recently identified as the model for the head of St Dominic in Peter Paul Rubens’ 1618 altarpiece “Saints Dominic and Francis Saving the World from Christ’s Anger”, today in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. The painting on panel is striking in its use of minimal brushstrokes and highlighting to create a striking portrait, which still after four centuries appears distinctly modern. 

Provenance: European Private Collection.

Peter Paul Rubens used this virtuoso study of a head painted from life as a model for Saint Dominic for the altarpiece "Saints Dominic and Francis Saving the World from Christ’s Anger", painted circa 1618 and now in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Lyon (inv. no. A194, see fig. 1). The head of Saint Augustin on Rubens’ altarpiece of the same name of circa 1615 (see fig. 2), today in the Real Accademia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid (inv. no. 685, see Vlieghe, Hans: Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard. Part VIII: Saints, vol. 1, London/New York 1972 pp. 97-98, no. 66, ill. 117) is also based on the painting offered here at auction, which has only recently come to the attention of art historians. 

In the inventory which was compiled after the death of Rubens for the sale of his estate, there were several studies of heads: "Une quantité de visages au vif, sur toile, & fonds de bois, tant de Mons. Rubens …" (Denucé, J.: De Antwerpsche "Konstkamers," Inventarissen van Kunstverzamelingen te Antwerpen in de 16. en 17. eeuwen, Antwerp 1932, p. 70). Some of these heads showed monks which were listed in a document of 1641 in connection with the auction of Rubens’ estate: "Dry Trognien van capucinen, geteeckent no. 916, no. 998 ende no. 999, by den heer afflyvigen geteeckent“ (“Three tronies of Capuchin monks, listed under nos 916, 998 and 999, painted by the deceased”. These were sold for 48 guilders, see: Pierre Génard, "De Nalatenschap van P.P. Rubens", Antwerpsch Archievenblad - Bulletin des Archives d'Anvers, 2, 1865, p. 87, no. LXII). 

These studies were produced mostly using life models around 1610-20 (Held, Julius S.: The Oil-Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens. A Critical Catalogue (2 vol.), Washington/Princeton 1980, vol. 1, pp. 597-599), after Rubens, having spent many years in Italy, returned to Antwerp in the autumn of 1608, and shortly afterwards was appointed court painter to the Archdukes. 
What is remarkable in the study offered here is the use of a technique which aims to create a sense of distance. As in Rubens’ study of the head of Saint Ambrose in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (inv. no. NG 2097), in our study the left eye and ear are heightened in white and there are brown brushstrokes on the upper lip, applied as final accents. These were conceived not as anatomical details, but suggest, viewed from a distance, the corresponding plasticity of the head (art historical analysis, Dr. Jaco Rutgers, 15.6.2018/ 12.7.2018). In addition, the alternating nuances of colour in the skin tone, composed of partly opaque white and orange tones on a pink base, make the skin come to life. 

A recent dendrochronological analysis of the wooden panel by Prof. Dr. J. Klein dates the felling of the tree from which the panel was made to between 1594 and 1604, indicating a fabrication date for the panel of 1602/1612.

The appearance of this expressive and artistically masterful study of a head presents us with a valuable insight into the creative process of Peter Paul Rubens, who was at one time the leading history painter of Antwerp, and whose works were sought after far beyond the borders of Flanders. From today’s point of view, this study also captivates through its modernity, due to the essential features of the living model being reduced to individual brushstrokes.

 

A second small-format oil painting also turned out to be an important art historical find. Depicting the Visitation, its composition is identical to an altarpiece in the church of St Jacob in Antwerp. This parish church serves as a Pantheon for many famous Flemish artists, housng the tombs of Peter Paul Rubens and his wife among others. Painted in 1639, the altarpiece was until now considered to be the work of Victor Wolfvoet. The present oil on panel, however, has been identified as the work of Antwerp artist Simon de Vos. This is not only a significant addition to the oeuvre of de Vos, but an important piece of information which may further the scholarship concerning Flemish painting in Antwerp at this time. 

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Lot 3044. Simon de Vos (1603 Antwerp 1676), The Visitation, circa 1639. Oil on wood. 23 x 17.3 cm. Estimate CHF 10 000 / 15 000 (€ 8 330 / 12 500)

ProvenanceSwiss private property for approx. 40 years.

Other highlights of the auction include: a rediscovered landscape by Meindert Hobbema, which was formerly in the prestigious collection of the Earl of Lonsdale before entering a Swiss private collection in the 1960s, where it has remained until now; a large-format painting of an alchemist by Caravaggio-influenced Utrecht artist Johannes Moreelse, and one of the earliest church interiors in the history of art, by Hans Vredeman de Vries. A 16th-century Madonna and Child by Willem Benson is an intimate and touching scene by this Flemish artist, very few of whose works are extant. 

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Lot 3038. Meindert Hobbema (1638 Amsterdam 1709), A wooded dune path with a farmhouse. Oil on panel. Signed lower right: M Hobbema. 61.7 x 93 cm. Estimate CHF 70 000 / 100 000 | (€ 58 330 / 83 330)

Provenance: - Earl of Lonsdale Collection, Lowther Castle.
- Max Rothschild Collection.
- Baron von Grundherr Collection, until 1924.
- Fischer auction, Lucerne, 8.9.1924, Lot 141.
- Frey Collection, Schloss Meggenhorn, Lucerne.
- W. Drack Collection, Zurich, 1959.
- Fischer auction, Lucerne, 18.-22.6.1963, Lot 1828.
- Swiss private collection.

Literature: Broulhiet, Georges: Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709), Paris 1938, cat. no. 395, ill. p. 299.

An arctic landscape by Russian painter Ivan Federovich Choultsé is particularly interesting, as it was painted from the sketches he made while on an expedition to Spitsbergen in 1907/08. Choultsé painted a dozen paintings following this expedition, some of which were used as diorama backdrops for the Alexander Koenig natural history museum in Bonn, Germany.  

The Fine Furniture auction on 27 September will offer a very rare German Neoclassical double globe clock by Philipp Matthäus Hahn. Executed in Echterdingen in circa 1785, with its elaborate, complicated movement and celestial and terrestrial globes it is a brilliant example of the desire to understand the workings of the universe in the Age of Enlightenment. Among the Porcelain & Silver to be auctioned on 25 September is a selection of important maiolica from a prestigious Italian collection, including a large Italian Renaissance plate from circa 1561-65 depicting the Massacre of the Innocents in a unique style of decoration. The Jewellery auction on 25 September features a pair of 3 carat fancy intense yellow diamonds, a colour which is highly sought after at the moment.

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