Dancing to the Tune of Spring - 12th - 14th April 2011: Auction Week of Old Master Paintings, 19th Century Paintings, Works of Art and Jewellery at Dorotheum
Frans Francken II, Ambrosius Francken II,
Hans Jordaens III; Abraham Govaerts,
Alexander Keirincx, Arcadia-The Golden Age,
€ 400.000 - 600.000
Valerio Castello, The Flight to Egypt,
€ 200.000 - 300.000
Evgraf Semenovich Sorokin, A laughing Girl in
South Italian dress, € 250.000 - 350.000
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Still Life of Fruit,
with Amazon Parrot,, € 150.000 - 200.000
Boris Mihailovich Kustodiev, On the volga,
€ 350.000 - 500.000
Relief ca 1520, the Annunciation, limewood,
€ 26.000 - 30.000
A lidded tankard from Augsburg, silver,
encased in ivory, € 38.000 - 48.000
Tiara centre segment or collier, gold/silver,
diamonds, total weight ca. 10 ct, off. Austrian
hallmark 1872 - 1922, € 15.000 - 20.000
Following a record-breaking year of top results, Dorotheum Vienna presents its upcoming major April auctions of old master paintings, 19th century paintings, and works of art.
Auction Week 12th - 14th April 2011:
19th Century Paintings, Tue 12th April 2011, 5:00 P.M.
Works of Art (Furniture, Silver), Wed 13th April 2011, 2:00 + 3:00 P.M.
Old Master Paintings, Wed 13th April 2011, 5:00+6:30 P.M.
Works of Art (Sculpture, Glass, Porcelain), Thu 14th April 2011, 2:00 + 3:00 P.M.
Jewellery, Thu 14th April 2011, 6:00 P.M.
Public Viewing:
from Sat 2nd April 2011
Venue:
PALAIS DOROTHEUM, Vienna 1, Dorotheergasse 17
Press Office:
Mag. Doris Krumpl, Tel. + 43-1-515 60-406, doris.krumpl@dorotheum.at
Shepherds' Idyll - Old Master Paintings on 13th April
A first rate selection of several old masters' finest work - complete with excellent credentials - provides the prime focus of interest for the upcoming auction week.
Wine and women, song and dance have defined the (male) idea of an earthly paradise since time immemorial. This longed-for idyll, raised to the level of mythological Arcadia, is the subject of a particular painting coming up for sale at the Dorotheum auction of old master paintings on 13th April 2011. Titled "The Golden Age", the painting also comes with an illustrious name attached: Frans Francken II., creator of the hellishly attractive allegory on virtue and vice sold last year at Dorotheum for more than € 7 million, the current Continental European auction record for any old master painting.
What sets the present painting apart is that is was the work not of one but of five painters, also involving Frans’ brother Ambrosius Francken, Hans Jordaens III, Abraham Govaerts and Alexander Keirincx. Such collaborative efforts were far from unusual at the time. Each painter specialised in certain subjects, and according to Ursula Härting's report this had practically become a trademark of Antwerp studio painting during the Rubens period. "It ensured that the buyer would benefit from the greatest possible skill in each area of the painting". Govaerts was in charge of the woods, joined by his long-time student Keirincx who attended to the forest and ground around the figures. The brothers Frans and Ambrosius Francken painted the figures around the shepherds, while Frans Francken alone created the still life of pastries and sweetmeats. Animals became the responsibility of Jordaens.
The resulting shepherds' idyll probably represents one of the earliest Arcadian scenes painted north of the Alps. It is fuelled by the vision of an earthly paradise where it is always springtime, where shepherds play music rather than having to toil, in an age of peace, security, and harmony, where war has no place. According to Dorotheum expert Alexander Strasoldo, the painting - with its elegant composition and vivid colours - represents "an exquisite example of the preeminent position that Antwerp painting had achieved in early 17th century Europe" (estimate: € 400.000 - 600.000).
Additional highlights of this auction will include the study of a male head by Annibale Carracci, in which he captures a bearded character in oil on paper, seemingly without effort or artifice. One of Carracci's fellow proponents of Bolognese painting, il Guercino, provides a large-scale spectacle of a special kind: His painting depicts a youth in the dual aspect of virtuous Cupid and allegory of the arts. The work is not only accompanied by lyrics for a song that could still be sung but, more importantly, by a provenance that goes back uninterrupted for 356 years. Many of the other Italian paintings at this auction likewise come from important collections preserved by Europe's nobility.
Valerio Castello (1625-1659) contributes a large-scale Holy Family's Flight to Egypt of matchless dramatic appeal. It represents an art-historical discovery and was attributed based on a study found in the collection of Franz Ferdinand, former heir to the Austrian throne and victim to assassination (€ 200.000 - 300.000). Giovan Francesco Romanelli's museum-quality oil painting Death of Cleopatra joined the other top-lots presented at this auction directly from the family for whom it was originally created (€ 100.000 - 150.000).
19th Century Paintings - Masters of Lighting Effects
This auction will be defined by first-rate examples of Austrian painting as well as the work of internationally renowned proponents of 19th century painting - including a particularly strong presence of leading Russian artists.
Approaching the subject of "wine and women" with some considerable subtlety, Evgraf S. Sorokin depicts his Laughing Girl in South Italian Dress holding a grape surrounded by vineyards; the original frame likewise features gilt grape leaves and grapes. Dating to 1857, the painting is just one of many exceptional lots at the auction of „19th Century Paintings“ on 12th April 2011, and was created during Sorokin's Roman years when he sought to capture the carefree, natural beauty of life in the Italian countryside.
A picturesque dream vision of Naples dates to 1862, the work of the German painter Carl Wilhelm Götzloff (€ 30.000 - 40.000), while Paul Joanovits (Vrsac 1859-1957 Vienna) contributes a Falconer and Falcon. Conveying a sense of the impending advent of modernism, Boris Mihailovich Kustodiev's 1906 painting On the Volga shows bargemen against a background of typically Russian church architecture using a palette of saturated shades of blue and green („An der Wolga“, € 350.000 - 500.000). Uros Predic, an important Yugoslav proponent of Realism, presents the viewer with a portrait of the politically active Queen of Serbia, Natalia Obrenovic, during a visit to Paris (€ 200.000 - 300.000), while „Gartenpartie aus dem Etschtal“ by the Viennese painter Robert Russ, known for his mastery of lighting effects, is content to evoke the sensations of spring near the city of Meran (€ 40.000 - 60.000). Josef Lauer opens our door to nature with his Rose on a forest floor, with bird (€ 40.000 - 50.000).
Two outstanding examples of Austrian period painting respectively show Farmers and Cattle by Lake Attersee and an Alpine Farm on Mt Untersberg, Salzburg, as perceived by another consummate master of light and colour, Friedrich Gauermann. As such the cloud covered sky tends to play an important part in these compositions. "Superimposed lights emphasise important aspects, while line and shadow convey a Romantic and emotionally rarefied experience of the landscape", as a publication of the Gauermann describes the manner of this important proponent of 19th century Austrian painting (€ 200.000 - 250.000 and € 150.000 - 200.000). In 1824, finally, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller captured a decorative Still Life of Fruit, with Amazon Parrot, offering us an exotic feast for the eye
(€ 150.000 - 200.000).
Works of Art 13th and14th April
Select Antiques at the Conclusion of the Auction Week
The model of antiquity
Facing us with a timely reminder of the transitory nature of life, an Italian Baroque night-light clock by „Lodovico Manelli, Bologna“ features painted allegorical scenes, and putti, and represents the passage of time via a turning, back-lit disk (€ 20.000 - 25.000, Auction 14. 4. 2011).
An exquisite Historism Period enamel cabinet from Vienna instead draws on the formal repertory of antiquity, its drawers, doors, and top surfaces decorated with amorous scenes, the whole ensemble surmounted by a vase in the manner of antiquity (€ 80.000 - 100.000, Auction 13. 4.).
Silver master smiths
Several of the lots of the silver auction on 13th April 2011, are further ennobled by the precious materials used to craft them: e.g. a Historism Period rock crystal bowl from Vienna supported by a silver faun and created by the renowned Viennese master Hermann Böhm (Ø 21 cm, € 7.000 - 9.000). A lidded tankard from Augsburg, by Master Emanues Kessbair and bearing the hallmark of 1620-24, is encased in ivory delicately carved with a stag hunt scene (€ 38.000 - 48.000).
Signed L. W. Schulz 1831, an ivory cup with silver mount is decorated with horses in a landscape. The work of this famous ivory carver can, among other places, also be found in the Green Vault in Dresden (€ 12.000 - 15.000).
The sculpture auction on 14th April 2011 includes such impressive pieces as a limewood relief dating to ca. 1520 and depicting the Annunciation. It is the work of a sculptor from the Landshut circle (€ 26.000 - 30.000).
Golden poodle among glass and porcelain
Porcelain paintings by Vienna's foremost master of this art, Josef Nigg, continue to command top prices at Dorotheum auctions. On this occasion, the 14th April 2011 auction features a bouquet of flowers with a butterfly, made by the Imperial Manufactory in Vienna around 1824 (€ 40.000 - 70.000).
Cups by Kothgasser are a regular feature of Dorotheum glass and porcelain auctions. „L’obeissance“ - 'obedience' - is on this glass cup depicted as a poodle fetching a pipe (€ 6.000 - 9.000). In quite the Pompeian style, two swans and two sphinxes pull Cupid's chariot across the lidded cup and saucer made at Vienna's Imperial Manufactory (€ 6.000 - 9.000).
„Meissen, Model by Kändler“, 1740-50 period - for porcelain lovers these terms signal quality and the auction once more offers two candleholders decorated with flowering boughs and parrots meeting the above criteria (€ 15.000 - 20.000).
To be a Princess - Jewellery 14th April
A decorative 'Fancy Briolette' pendant, i.e. a tear-shaped stone encompassed by regular facets, is among the highlights of the jewellery auction on 14th April 2011, accompanied by a wealth of brilliants and diamonds (€ 20.000 - 30.000). Interest will also focus on a pink coloured conch pearl radiating at the heart of a 1900 gold and silver brooch with 3 ct diamonds and brilliants (€ 4.200 - 5.500). Anybody harbouring princess aspirations might want to consider a splendid diamond tiara centre-segment dating to the last third of the 19th century (€ 15.000 - 20.000).
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