10/10/2001
by Fiona Long

A work by the French artist Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) was offered for auction at Galerie Koller, Zurich on the 5^th of October, 2001. Entitled The Holy Family with St John the Baptist, this oil on canvas measuring 53 x 80 cm, was unearthed after having apparently been lost for 200 years. The work however, was known to have existed on the basis of an engraving, reproduced in Anthony Blunt’s 1966 publication, Paintings of Poussin: a Critical Catalogue. Its whereabouts remained unknown until its discovery in the home of a Swiss family last year. Mr Cyril Koller, director of the auction house, commented that it was the first time two renowned experts on Poussin, Mr Pierre Rosenberg and Sir Denis Mahon, had both agreed the authenticity of a Poussin prior to an auction, each dating it to 1626. It eventually sold for $ 1.5 million (€ 1.6 million), within its estimate.

Controversy, however continues to surround the Poussin market. In October 1995, a lot entitled The destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, an oil on canvas measuring 15.8 x 194 cm, was misattributed by Sotheby’s, London to Pietro Testa and sold for $ 205,750 (€ 223,410) against an estimate of $ 14,700-22,000 (€ 16,000-23,930). After being seen by Mahon, the painting was re-sold for a seven-figure-dollar sum to the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

More recently The rest on the Flight into Egypt with the youthful Saint John the Baptist, was offered at Christie’s, London in July 2001. Despite it being classified as a Poussin in the auction catalogue, Christie’s was itself doubtful as to the identity of the artist and felt it necessary to state that Pietro Testa might be the author after all. Its vague and confusing attribution, unfinished state and awkward composition interested no one in the saleroom and it went unsold against a hefty estimate of $ 1.8 million (€ 1.9 million). In the same auction An Arcadian landscape with stories from the legends of Pan and Bacchus, (oil on canvas, 73.6 x 95.6cm.) was confirmed as a Poussin by Sir Denis Mahon shortly before the sale. It, like the Koller Poussin, had been hiding in a house for years, with its owners believing it to be worth a fraction of its final auction sum. This painting fetched $ 662,000 (€ 718,500), twice its top end estimate.

A cursory glance at the market for Poussin as a whole, however, reveals a wide range of prices. The majority of Poussins at auction are attributed to "school of Poussin" or to his "circle" and thus estimates are in the low-to-mid range, a testimony to the enormous influence his style had on his contemporaries. In 1991 at Christie’s, New York, Christ and the Woman of Samaria, (94 x 122 cm) catalogued as "circle of Poussin" went for $ 22,000, (€ 23,900) after an estimate of $ 7,000-9,000 (€ 7,600-9,800). At Christie’s New York, a painting of Moses and the Pharaoh (95 x 126 cm) attributed to the "school of Poussin" made $ 23,500 (€ 25,500) selling within estimate in May of last year, while at Sotheby’s, London in 1998, Mars and Venus, another "school of" (oil on canvas, 142 x 112 cm) sold for $ 23,700 (€ 25,700) against an estimate of $ 10,000-15,000 (€ 10,800-16,300).

Prices fetched by fully attributed Poussins are in a different league, in part due to the works being so rare. Over the last decade, only seven paintings officially recognised as being by the hand of Poussin have come up at auction. Of these, the lowest priced was Putti fighting on goats which sold for $ 73,380 (€ 80,000) with an estimate of $ 73,380-117,140 (€ 80,000-127,850) at Christie’s, London in December 1996, whilst the top selling work, and world record for the artist, was The Agony in the Garden (60 x 47 cm) which sold for $ 6.7 million (€ 7.2 million) against an estimate of $ 4-5 million (€ 4.3-5.4 million) at Sotheby’s, New York in January 1999. With a distinguished provenance (commissioned by Cardinal Barberini), the painting’s value was enhanced by the work being an oil on copper panel, a technique much appreciated by collectors, since the metal surface allows the oil colour to appear richer and facilitates better finishing during production. Furthermore this is the only oil on copper to have come onto the Poussin market, thus boosting its price.