Turks Conversing by the Black Sea at Sunset by Ivan Aivazovsky
On Wednesday, April 15th, Sotheby’s London hosted their Old Master & Nineteenth-Century Paintings sale. Though hosted entirely online, the auction garnered substantial attention, which has unfortunately become a bit of a rarity in the markets for these works.
Of course, the expected stars of the sale were a pair of paintings by the great nineteenth-century seascape painter Ivan Aivazovsky. Aivazovsky’s life and work have been the subject of discussion due to his complex identity. He was ethnically Armenian but was born and lived in Ukraine, which was part of the Russian Empire at the time. Though considered unambiguously Russian for decades, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to more widespread recognition of Ukraine’s national identity as distinct. Therefore, some artists long considered Russian have been hailed as symbols of Ukrainian culture. Aivazovsky, spending most of his life in Crimea, has been an example of this. But the auction’s top lot, Turks Conversing by the Black Sea at Sunset, is not exemplary of the artist’s well-known work. Rather than enormous ocean swells and port cities, here the artist puts the water in the background. Instead, he gives us a genre painting. Aivazovsky shows several figures in Turkish dress standing together on a roof while a pair of women look out over the Black Sea from the structure’s humble portico. The painting is not as meticulously detailed as the artist’s other work, and there are some apparent condition issues. Regardless, given Aivazovsky’s popularity, Sotheby’s gave the painting an estimate range of £60K to £80K. Despite the issues, bidding on the painting sent the price soaring. When the time ran out, the final bid was £240K (or £307.2K / $416.3K w/p), exactly three times the high estimate.
Troika at Sunset by Ivan Aivazovsky
Something similar happened to the other Aivazovsky painting available on Wednesday, titled Troika at Sunset. The artist was known for his portrayal of skies, given their importance in maritime art. He often used the sun or moon to showcase his abilities at rendering light and color, as well as to provide a counterbalance in the upper half of a painting. Although he does not use the sea as a subject in Troika at Sunset, Aivazovsky does the same here. Troika is a Russian word meaning a trio of any kind, but in this case, it refers to a carriage pulled by three horses. The carriage speeds towards the horizon as the sun’s orange glow is diffused through several layers of clouds and haze. It’s a relatively small painting, measuring just over 9 by 12 inches, so Sotheby’s expected it to sell for no more than £60K. But yet again, bidding continued until the timer ran out at £160K (or £204.8K / $277.5K w/p), or 2.7 times the high estimate.
And finally, a rather unusual work by the eighteenth-century German-born British artist John Eckstein the Younger. The artist is mainly known as a portrait and genre painter, making the present painting rather strange. Titled The Vices of the Day, the work offered at Sotheby’s seems more like an allegorical painting showing the different types of sin and social failings in the 1780s. These include slavery, poverty, murder, torture, public executions, drunkenness, gambling, dueling, war, and several others. It’s not exactly a salon piece. It’s closer to William Hogarth than Joshua Reynolds. This is likely why Sotheby’s did not expect it to sell for more than £8K. However, it is such a unique painting, something completely unheard of for someone exhibiting at the Royal Academy. This was likely the reason why buyers became interested, driving up the final price to £70K (or £89.6K / $121.4K w/p). Eckstein’s work is rather rare at auction, none of it selling in excess of £10K, making the sale of The Vices of the Day rather exciting.
The Vices of the Day by John Eckstein the Younger
Twenty of the one hundred seventy-five available lots sold for more than double their high estimates. Four lots sold for more than five times their estimates. The Eckstein was quite the surprise, yet there was one even bigger on Wednesday. A relatively small study of clouds was estimated to sell at Sotheby’s for between £4K and £6K. Measuring barely more than 9 by 14 inches, the painting by an unknown eighteenth-century British artist shows only a thin band of solid earth along the bottom, with a small farmhouse and windmill as the only interruptions to the horizon. It is in rather poor condition cosmetically, with plenty of surface dirt and yellowed varnish. However, Sotheby’s states on the lot’s webpage that it “would benefit from sensitive conservation.” Inexplicably, the study proved popular with online bidders, and as the auction timer ran out, the painting sold for 10 times its initial high estimate: £60K (or £76.8K / $104.1K w/p).
Of the one hundred seventy-five lots available on Wednesday, twenty-eight sold within their estimates, giving Sotheby’s a 16% accuracy rate. A plurality of lots, seventy-two in total (41%), sold below their estimates. This leaves forty-five lots (26%) selling above the estimate. With thirty lots going unsold, Sotheby’s achieved an 83% sell-through rate. In this case, we saw something that, unfortunately, has become rare in the realm of Old Master and nineteenth-century painting sales. An auction that did exceptionally well, at least in terms of estimates versus total hammer price. Sotheby’s anticipated the entire auction to bring in a total of £1,801,700 at most. Given the success of the Aivazovsky paintings and several other lots, the total came to rest just slightly above that, at £1,805,000. With fees, this comes out to £2.3 million, or $4.1 million.
Sotheby’s London Old Masters & 19th Century Paintings
Turks Conversing by the Black Sea at Sunset by Ivan Aivazovsky
On Wednesday, April 15th, Sotheby’s London hosted their Old Master & Nineteenth-Century Paintings sale. Though hosted entirely online, the auction garnered substantial attention, which has unfortunately become a bit of a rarity in the markets for these works.
Of course, the expected stars of the sale were a pair of paintings by the great nineteenth-century seascape painter Ivan Aivazovsky. Aivazovsky’s life and work have been the subject of discussion due to his complex identity. He was ethnically Armenian but was born and lived in Ukraine, which was part of the Russian Empire at the time. Though considered unambiguously Russian for decades, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to more widespread recognition of Ukraine’s national identity as distinct. Therefore, some artists long considered Russian have been hailed as symbols of Ukrainian culture. Aivazovsky, spending most of his life in Crimea, has been an example of this. But the auction’s top lot, Turks Conversing by the Black Sea at Sunset, is not exemplary of the artist’s well-known work. Rather than enormous ocean swells and port cities, here the artist puts the water in the background. Instead, he gives us a genre painting. Aivazovsky shows several figures in Turkish dress standing together on a roof while a pair of women look out over the Black Sea from the structure’s humble portico. The painting is not as meticulously detailed as the artist’s other work, and there are some apparent condition issues. Regardless, given Aivazovsky’s popularity, Sotheby’s gave the painting an estimate range of £60K to £80K. Despite the issues, bidding on the painting sent the price soaring. When the time ran out, the final bid was £240K (or £307.2K / $416.3K w/p), exactly three times the high estimate.
Troika at Sunset by Ivan Aivazovsky
Something similar happened to the other Aivazovsky painting available on Wednesday, titled Troika at Sunset. The artist was known for his portrayal of skies, given their importance in maritime art. He often used the sun or moon to showcase his abilities at rendering light and color, as well as to provide a counterbalance in the upper half of a painting. Although he does not use the sea as a subject in Troika at Sunset, Aivazovsky does the same here. Troika is a Russian word meaning a trio of any kind, but in this case, it refers to a carriage pulled by three horses. The carriage speeds towards the horizon as the sun’s orange glow is diffused through several layers of clouds and haze. It’s a relatively small painting, measuring just over 9 by 12 inches, so Sotheby’s expected it to sell for no more than £60K. But yet again, bidding continued until the timer ran out at £160K (or £204.8K / $277.5K w/p), or 2.7 times the high estimate.
And finally, a rather unusual work by the eighteenth-century German-born British artist John Eckstein the Younger. The artist is mainly known as a portrait and genre painter, making the present painting rather strange. Titled The Vices of the Day, the work offered at Sotheby’s seems more like an allegorical painting showing the different types of sin and social failings in the 1780s. These include slavery, poverty, murder, torture, public executions, drunkenness, gambling, dueling, war, and several others. It’s not exactly a salon piece. It’s closer to William Hogarth than Joshua Reynolds. This is likely why Sotheby’s did not expect it to sell for more than £8K. However, it is such a unique painting, something completely unheard of for someone exhibiting at the Royal Academy. This was likely the reason why buyers became interested, driving up the final price to £70K (or £89.6K / $121.4K w/p). Eckstein’s work is rather rare at auction, none of it selling in excess of £10K, making the sale of The Vices of the Day rather exciting.
The Vices of the Day by John Eckstein the Younger
Twenty of the one hundred seventy-five available lots sold for more than double their high estimates. Four lots sold for more than five times their estimates. The Eckstein was quite the surprise, yet there was one even bigger on Wednesday. A relatively small study of clouds was estimated to sell at Sotheby’s for between £4K and £6K. Measuring barely more than 9 by 14 inches, the painting by an unknown eighteenth-century British artist shows only a thin band of solid earth along the bottom, with a small farmhouse and windmill as the only interruptions to the horizon. It is in rather poor condition cosmetically, with plenty of surface dirt and yellowed varnish. However, Sotheby’s states on the lot’s webpage that it “would benefit from sensitive conservation.” Inexplicably, the study proved popular with online bidders, and as the auction timer ran out, the painting sold for 10 times its initial high estimate: £60K (or £76.8K / $104.1K w/p).
Of the one hundred seventy-five lots available on Wednesday, twenty-eight sold within their estimates, giving Sotheby’s a 16% accuracy rate. A plurality of lots, seventy-two in total (41%), sold below their estimates. This leaves forty-five lots (26%) selling above the estimate. With thirty lots going unsold, Sotheby’s achieved an 83% sell-through rate. In this case, we saw something that, unfortunately, has become rare in the realm of Old Master and nineteenth-century painting sales. An auction that did exceptionally well, at least in terms of estimates versus total hammer price. Sotheby’s anticipated the entire auction to bring in a total of £1,801,700 at most. Given the success of the Aivazovsky paintings and several other lots, the total came to rest just slightly above that, at £1,805,000. With fees, this comes out to £2.3 million, or $4.1 million.