Spanning six centuries of European art, the July Old Masters Part I Sale includes a rich array of paintings, sculpture and illuminations across a multitude of themes.
Highlights include the landmark rediscovery of Rembrandt’s Portrait of Jan Willemsz. van der Pluym and Jaapgen Carels, both rare and intimate portrayals of relatives of the artist and the last known pair of portraits by Rembrandt to remain in private hands. It also includes a masterpiece of Northern Mannerism in
Cornelis van Haarlem’s The Raising of Lazarus;
a phantasmagorical vision of Hell in one of Jan Breughel the Elder’s finest examples of his famous Hell landscapes; a beautifully elaborate market scene of bountiful produce by Joachim Beuckelaer; a completely unpublished and unknown canvas by Michael Sweerts, perhaps his greatest picture on the theme of the artist’s studio; and a remarkable panel of The Entombment of Christ by El Greco, the intimate size of a cabinet picture, expressed with the grandeur and brilliant colouring for which El Greco was renowned.
THE LAST PAIR OF PORTRAITS BY REMBRANDT TO REMAIN IN PRIVATE HANDS
Re-discovered after two centuries in a UK collection
Christie’s Old Masters Part I Sale, London 6 July
During Classic Week
Rembrandt Harmensz. Van Rijn (Leiden 1606-1669 Amsterdam)
Portrait of Jan Willemsz. van der Pluym (circa 1565-1644) and
Portrait of Jaapgen Carels (1565-1640)
7.7/8 x 6.1/2 in. (19.9 x 16.5 cm.)
Estimate: £5,000,000-8,000,000
London – Christie’s is proud to announce a landmark re-discovery of the last known pair of portraits by Rembrandt to remain in private hands, which will be highlights in the Old Masters Part I Sale on 6 July, during Classic Week London (estimate: £5,000,000-8,000,000). Exceptionally rare, the portraits of Jan Willemsz. van der Pluym (circa 1565-1644) and Jaapgen Carels (1565-1640), signed and dated 1635, are intimate portrayals of relatives of the artist and provide a unique insight into Rembrandt’s activity as a painter within his inner circle. With a virtually unbroken line of provenance, these pictures were acquired at Christie’s by an ancestor of the present owners almost two centuries ago and have remained completely unknown to scholars ever since. They return to Christie’s now after an extensive scholarly investigation and scientific analysis undertaken at the Rijksmuseum.
Small in scale and painted from life with Rembrandt’s characteristic virtuosity, these pictures offer a tender portrayal of a dignified, elderly couple who were related to the artist. The pictures will tour to New York, where they will be on public view from 10 to 14 June, and Amsterdam from 21 to 24 June, ahead of returning to London for the Classic Week pre-sale exhibition in London, on view from 1 to 6 July.
Henry Pettifer, International Deputy Chairman, Old Master Paintings, Christie’s commented: “This is one of the most exciting discoveries we have made in the Old Masters field in recent years and we are delighted to bring this pair of portraits by Rembrandt to auction this summer, almost 200 years after they were last seen in public. Painted with a deep sense of humanity, these are amongst the smallest and most intimate portraits that we know by Rembrandt, adding something new to our understanding of him as a portraitist of undisputed genius.”
THE SITTERS
The sitters, wealthy Leiden plumber Jan Willemsz. van der Pluym (circa 1565-1644) and his wife Jaapgen Carels (1565-1640), were intimately connected with Rembrandt. The Van der Pluyms were a prominent family in Leiden, with their son Dominicus van der Pluym marrying Cornelia van Suytbroeck, the daughter of Rembrandt’s uncle on his mother’s side, Willem van Suytbroeck. Dominicus and Cornelia had one child, the artist Karel van der Pluym, who is thought to have trained with Rembrandt and included the artist’s only surviving heir, Titus, in his will. Karel’s uncle Willem Jansz van der Pluym also sat for Rembrandt's most finished portrait drawing. In 1635, the year these portraits were painted, Jan Willemsz. van der Pluym and Jaapgen Carels acquired a garden next to that of Rembrandt’s mother in Leiden.
PROVENANCE
The portraits have a remarkable, virtually unbroken line of provenance. They remained in the family of the sitters until 1760, when they were sold at auction in Amsterdam after the death of their great-great grandson Marten ten Hove (1683-1759). From there they passed to the collection of Count Vincent Potocki (circa 1740-1825) in Warsaw, before briefly entering the collection of Baron d’Ivry in Paris in 1820 and then James Murray, 1st Baron Glenlyon (1782-1837), who put them up for sale at Christie’s on 18 June in 1824, lot 76, listed as: ‘Rembrandt – very spirited and finely coloured’, where they were acquired. For the last two centuries they have remained in the same private UK collection.
CHRISTIE’S AND REMBRANDT
Christie’s holds the world auction record for Rembrandt, which was set in 2009 when Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo sold for £20,201,250. In 2016, Christie’s facilitated one of the most important private sales in history with two masterpieces by Rembrandt Van Rijn secured for the Louvre & the Rijksmuseum.
Guido di Piero, Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, posthumously known as Fra Angelico (Near Vicchio, circa 1395/1400-1455, Rome)
The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John the Baptist and the Magdalen at the Foot of the Cross
tempera on gold-ground poplar panel, arched, the original engaged frame regilded
25.1/8 x 15 in. (59.7 x 34.2 cm.)
Estimate: £4,000,000-6,000,000
The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John the Baptist and the Magdalen at the Foot of the Cross, a pioneering early work by Fra Angelico – one of the greatest and most influential masters of the early Florentine Renaissance – will be a highlight in the Old Masters Part I Sale on 6 July, during Classic Week London (estimate: £4 million - 6 million). This panel was discovered and published by Francis Russell, Christie’s UK Deputy Chairman, in the Burlington Magazine in May 1996 (issue CXXXVIII, pp. 315-7). The discovery sparked widespread interest among scholars. Fra Angelico was one of the first painters to learn the lessons of contemporary sculpture and this work presents the market with his significant evolution in painted perspective: depicting the cross straight on in correct, logical, perspective without the false addition of showing the depth of the right cross post that was standard at the time. The work conveys emotional expression and poignancy that is amplified by the exemplary original condition of the figures which, having not been cleaned in recent times, provide the 21st century viewer with a remarkable chance to experience the artist’s wonderful sense of colour. It is thought to have been acquired by the 2nd Lord Ashburton who died in 1864 and has subsequently passed by descent. Pictures of this calibre very rarely come to the market. It will be on public view in New York from 10 to 14 June, before returning to London for the Classic Week pre-sale exhibition in London, on view from 1 to 6 July.
Francis Russell, Christie’s UK Deputy Chairman, commented: “It was a thrilling moment when I realised I was in the presence of an early masterpiece by Fra Angelico. This panel exemplifies his deep religious conviction. Intensely personal, it also expresses his understanding of the revolutionary achievement of the great Florentine sculptors of his time. The tenderness with which Christ is depicted is matched by the raw emotion of the Virgin and the pathos of the kneeling Magdalen clinging to the Cross, the thickness of which is revealed by the position of her arms. Every gesture is perfectly weighed. The sensitivity of the painter’s use of colour is evident in the way the blood both of Christ and the pelican above is matched in the robe of the Magdalen. With Fra Angelico nothing was accidental.”
FRA ANGELICO
Upon taking his vows as a Dominican friar in the small town of Fiesole outside Florence, Guido di Piero adopted the name Fra Giovanni da Fiesole. As a painter, the friar was unrivalled. Giorgio Vasari described him as having ‘a rare and perfect talent’ and his impact on Renaissance Florentine painting, and indeed the History of Art, cannot be overstated. His piety and modesty earned him the posthumous name ‘Fra Angelico’ or ‘Beato Angelico’ (‘Blessed Angelic One’) and in 1982, Pope John Paul II proclaimed his beatification, formally recognising the painter’s dedication to God during his lifetime.
THE PIONEERING CHARACTER OF THE DESIGN
Originally the centre of a devotional triptych commissioned by an unknown patron, the exact date of this panel is not known, but it has been placed in the period between circa 1419 and 1424, by the six scholars who have written about it. It has a significant place in the development of Florentine quattrocento painting. It is not known whether the patron who commissioned this work was aware of its pioneering character of the design.
The perspective of the cross is straight on to the viewer minus any false perspective showing the right hand side of the post, which was a standard element in paintings at the time, evidenced by the work of innumerable masters from Cimabue, Ugolino di Nerio, Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti, to Giotto, Bernardo Daddi and Lorenzo Monaco to whose ‘school’ this Crucifixion was formerly attributed. Fra Angelico’s ‘frontal’ treatment of the Cross in this panel demonstrates what has been long understood: the artist was keenly aware of the work of revolutionary Tuscan sculptors of the early Quattrocento, such as Ghiberti and Brunelleschi. This is further demonstrated in Saint John the Baptist’s cascading mantle (attire) which appears to have been ‘modelled’ in sculptural terms. Art historian Diane Cole Ahl has also noted that the Saint’s features and stance were probably inspired by Ghiberti’s bronze trial piece of 1401-3 for the Sacrifice of Isaac (Florence, Bargello).
With a single exception (the intimate double-sided roundel in the Museo do San Marco), all Fra Angelico’s many subsequent depictions of the Crucifixion, including the twenty frescoes executed by him or under his supervision in the cells at San Marco, were to show the Cross in correct perspective. Many painters, however, continued to adhere to the earlier pattern for some time, particularly in more remote regions.
Fra Angelico used colour for compositional purposes in this panel - with pink, deep blue, greens and red echoed across the attire of the figures and beyond, presenting a fascinating symmetry of colour, subtly deployed to bind the panel with the wings of the triptych. The artist’s wonderful chromatic sense can still be experienced thanks to the remarkable condition of the figures; the timbre (tones and character) illustrates the artist’s personal taste, while the colours of the Virgin’s robes and the Magdalen’s dress were determined by convention.
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El Greco (1541-1614)'The Entombment of Christ'. Estimate: £6,000,000 – £8,000,000
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In a stark landscape, with the three crosses of Golgotha silhouetted against the sky, the artist gathers crowds of mourners around the body of Christ as he is lowered into the tomb, while the Magdalene and Virgin Mary, together with a group of female attendants, grieve. ⠀
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Dating to relatively early in El Greco's career, it was probably painted shortly after his arrival in Rome and shows the influence of his Venetian and Roman periods, encapsulated by the inclusion of a portrait of Titian in the centre of the panel – who had a profound impact on the artist – in the guise of Joseph of Arimathea.⠀
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