The painting depicting the Holy Family in the evening landscape has been owned by the Manhattan family for over 60 years..
“I always thought it was best to look for paintings in France and on Park Avenue,” says Otto Naumann, a former Manhattan dealer, and now vice president of Old Masters at Sotheby's in New York.
Sounds convincing. Last month, at the auction in France, the paintings of Cimabue and Artemisia Gentileschi went for a record € 24.1 million and € 4.8 million, respectively, and now Sotheby's has announced Rubens’s painting “Virgin Mary with a Baby” as one of the top lots in the evening auction of old masters.
A 1.2-meter-high painting entitled Virgin Mary with the Baby Christ, St. Elizabeth and John the Baptist, depicting the Holy Family in an evening landscape, has been owned by the Manhattan family for over 60 years and has not been exhibited since 1951. This composition was most widely known for the painting, which is in the collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid and designated in its catalog as an “original copy” of about 1618.
After consulting with Rubens’s creative specialists, Naumann came to the conclusion that the painting discovered was an original written between 1611 and 1614, shortly after the artist who lived in Antwerp returned home after being deeply influenced by his stay in Italy in 1600–08.
“It was an amazing period in Rubens’s work,” says Naumann, quoted by theartnewspaper. The artist’s works created at the same time, such as “Beating the Babies” (1609–11) or “Lot and His Daughters” (1613–14), were sold at auction for $ 76.7 million and $ 58.2 million in 2002 and 2016..
“He wants to make a strong impression.”. This is a very energetic picture, ”adds Naumann, delighted with the new discovery of the 17th century.. But the modest, straightforwardly religious plot of the painting tempered the financial expectations placed on it, and the auction house will put it with an estimate of $ 6-8 million.
Sotheby's - and another private seller from America - expects more from the altar painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo “Madonna with Rosary and Angels”. In 1989, it was sold for $ 2.1 million, which set an auction record for the works of the Venetian master of the XVIII century..
The canvas, 2.4 m high, signed and dated 1735, depicts the Virgin Mary in a fiery red robe surrounded by three angels. As in the case of Rubens, the name of the customer of this work is unknown.
Since Tiepolo’s large-format paintings are almost never found on the open market, Sotheby's decided to guarantee the seller a minimum price of at least $ 15 million, which is almost three times higher than the artist’s current auction record. At the moment, the guarantee is provided by Sotheby's, but before bidding a third party can offer an irrevocable rate and take risks.
The participation of these expensive lots at the January auction in New York contrasts with the relatively weak London auctions in December. Against the backdrop of the upcoming parliamentary elections and the ongoing tension over Britain’s exit from the European Union, not a single seller ventured to put pictures worth more than $ 5 million at either Sotheby's or Christie's.
Peter Paul Rubens. “The Virgin Mary with the Child Christ, Saint Elizabeth and John the Baptist”. OK. 1618 g. Photo: Sotheby's Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. " 1735. Photo: Sotheby's.