Masters Across Centuries: Highlights from the February Old Master Part I Auction
Spanning six centuries of European art, the February Old Master Part I auction will include the best examples from the 15th to the early 19th century. Leading the sale is a late masterpiece by El Greco. Executed with the virtuosic, expressive brushwork of his mature style, this Saint Sebastian has been hidden from public view for over four decades.The sale features a wide array of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age, featuring landscape, townscapes, genre scenes and still live compositions.
Among the most important are a group 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), including a major Italianate landscape by Jan Both, an atmospheric interior view of the Amsterdam Nieuwe Kerk by Emanuel de Witte, and a sizeable tonal still life by Pieter Claesz.Additional Dutch 17th-century masterpieces come from a distinguished private collection, led by a lively high life scene of Card players at a table by Pieter de Hooch and a detailed interior scene by Caspar Netscher, entitled The Seduction, with provenance extending to the 17th century. From the same collection are notable 16th-century paintings including Lucas Cranach’s profound Hercules and Omphale and Parmigianino’s meticulously observed Portrait of a bearded man on copper, one of two portraits by the artist in the sale.Mattia Preti’s The Liberation of St Peter is a masterpiece from the artist’s early period when he had already absorbed the influence of Caravaggio.
Portrait of a gentleman, possibly Dirck Dircksz Tjark is a rediscovery by the Dutch Baroque master portraitist, Frans Hals, as is the elegant Woman in Venetian costume by the Venetian leader of the Rococo, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. François Boucher’s seductive Sleeping Diana is among the highlights of French 18th-century works in the sale. The auction also includes a striking portrait of George the Bearded by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop, recently restituted to the heirs of Henry Bromberg and sold in agreement with the Allentown Art Museum. 19th-century European art is represented by a melancholic landscape, La solitude by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, dating from the 1860s when the artist was at the height of his popularity.
