Venus & Adonis by Titian and Workshop
Last week was an exciting time for the Old Masters market, since both Christie's and Sotheby’s hosted their end-of-the-year sales at their London locations. However, the December 7th Sotheby’s evening sale arguably received a little more attention. While works by Pieter Brueghel the Younger and John Constable were featured, much of the attention was drawn towards the sale's expected top lot (w/p = with buyer’s premium).
The much-anticipated Titian work Venus & Adonis is one of a series of mythological scenes created for King Phillip II of Spain (which I mentioned in an article from last year). Versions of Venus & Adonis hang in Madrid’s Prado Museum, Washington’s National Gallery of Art, and Los Angeles’s J. Paul Getty Museum. The version offered at Sotheby’s is known as the “Lausanne version”, named in reference to its previous owner Patrick de Charmant, who housed his art collection in Lausanne, Switzerland. Charmant acquired the work in 1984, and tried to sell it at Christie's London in 1998. It was assigned a pre-sale estimate of £1M to £1.5M, and went unsold. Twenty-four years later, Sotheby's specialists estimated it would sell for between £8M and £12M. The Lausanne Titian, lot 5 in the sale, finally sold for £9.5M / $11.6M (or £11.1M / $13.6M w/p).
Still Life of Flowers in a Glass Vase by Jan Davidsz. de Heem
Sotheby’s success on Wednesday can be attributed mainly to the success of the Titian. But it's important not to forget that exactly half of the available lots came from the same distinguished collection. Seventeen of the thirty-four lots, including two of the three top lots, came from the collection of the late Old Masters connoisseur Juan Manuel Grasset. Among the works featured at Sotheby’s were paintings by Osias Beert the Elder, Barent Avercamp, and Floris Claesz. van Dijck (which Sotheby's used as the banner for the sale’s webpage). The Grasset collection's highlights, and indeed those of the sale, were a still-life of flowers in a glass vase by Jan Davidsz. de Heem and an early Canaletto cityscape. Both were expected to do well, earning estimates of £1M to £1.5M and £3M to £5M, respectively. The Canaletto hit its low estimate of £3M / $3.7M (or £3.7M / $4.5M w/p), while the De Heem exceeded expectations with a hammer price of £2.2M / $2.7M (or £2.7M / $3.3M w/p).
Venice, the Grand Canal by Canaletto
Overall, Sotheby’s achieved a sell-through rate of 85%, and with nine of the thirty-four available lots selling within estimate, the specialists received an accuracy rate of 26%. Eleven lots (32%) sold above estimate, while an additional nine lots (26%) sold below. Sotheby’s ended up bringing in £26.9M / $32.9M against a total low estimate of £22M. It's considered the best Old Masters sale that Sotheby's has hosted in six seasons. However, it's important to keep in mind that the sale had a bit of help from several late nineteenth and early twentieth-century works tacked on at the end, including Orientalist works by Frederic, Lord Leighton and John William Godward. But Sotheby's had to wait a whole day to see how their results compared with the Christie's Old Masters evening sale taking place on December 8th.
London Old Masters Week: Sotheby’s Evening Sale
Venus & Adonis by Titian and Workshop
Last week was an exciting time for the Old Masters market, since both Christie's and Sotheby’s hosted their end-of-the-year sales at their London locations. However, the December 7th Sotheby’s evening sale arguably received a little more attention. While works by Pieter Brueghel the Younger and John Constable were featured, much of the attention was drawn towards the sale's expected top lot (w/p = with buyer’s premium).
The much-anticipated Titian work Venus & Adonis is one of a series of mythological scenes created for King Phillip II of Spain (which I mentioned in an article from last year). Versions of Venus & Adonis hang in Madrid’s Prado Museum, Washington’s National Gallery of Art, and Los Angeles’s J. Paul Getty Museum. The version offered at Sotheby’s is known as the “Lausanne version”, named in reference to its previous owner Patrick de Charmant, who housed his art collection in Lausanne, Switzerland. Charmant acquired the work in 1984, and tried to sell it at Christie's London in 1998. It was assigned a pre-sale estimate of £1M to £1.5M, and went unsold. Twenty-four years later, Sotheby's specialists estimated it would sell for between £8M and £12M. The Lausanne Titian, lot 5 in the sale, finally sold for £9.5M / $11.6M (or £11.1M / $13.6M w/p).
Still Life of Flowers in a Glass Vase by Jan Davidsz. de Heem
Sotheby’s success on Wednesday can be attributed mainly to the success of the Titian. But it's important not to forget that exactly half of the available lots came from the same distinguished collection. Seventeen of the thirty-four lots, including two of the three top lots, came from the collection of the late Old Masters connoisseur Juan Manuel Grasset. Among the works featured at Sotheby’s were paintings by Osias Beert the Elder, Barent Avercamp, and Floris Claesz. van Dijck (which Sotheby's used as the banner for the sale’s webpage). The Grasset collection's highlights, and indeed those of the sale, were a still-life of flowers in a glass vase by Jan Davidsz. de Heem and an early Canaletto cityscape. Both were expected to do well, earning estimates of £1M to £1.5M and £3M to £5M, respectively. The Canaletto hit its low estimate of £3M / $3.7M (or £3.7M / $4.5M w/p), while the De Heem exceeded expectations with a hammer price of £2.2M / $2.7M (or £2.7M / $3.3M w/p).
Venice, the Grand Canal by Canaletto
Overall, Sotheby’s achieved a sell-through rate of 85%, and with nine of the thirty-four available lots selling within estimate, the specialists received an accuracy rate of 26%. Eleven lots (32%) sold above estimate, while an additional nine lots (26%) sold below. Sotheby’s ended up bringing in £26.9M / $32.9M against a total low estimate of £22M. It's considered the best Old Masters sale that Sotheby's has hosted in six seasons. However, it's important to keep in mind that the sale had a bit of help from several late nineteenth and early twentieth-century works tacked on at the end, including Orientalist works by Frederic, Lord Leighton and John William Godward. But Sotheby's had to wait a whole day to see how their results compared with the Christie's Old Masters evening sale taking place on December 8th.