19/10/2001
by Andrew Moore

As the auction houses fight like cats to see who can bring in the most attractive paintings, there will undoubtedly be mixed feelings in London with the gradual winding down of Phillips’ UK (currently Phillips, de Pury and Luxembourg) operations as it merges with its junior rival Bonhams and Brooks. Though this leaves the other auction houses in the UK capital with a bigger slice of the pie as they vie to attract Phillip’s ex-client base, the unstable times won’t help market confidence with the merger likely to trigger staff cuts. The bigger auction houses however hardly fare any better with Sotheby’s announcing global redundancies of 14% on the 11^th of October.

Optimists may point to recent upbeat sales such as the auction of art on paper in September at Swann’s, New York or Christie’s and Sotheby’s German expressionist auctions in London in October as a sign of comfort-buying, but the world economic slowdown can only kerb extravagant spending. Phillips has been silent as the inevitable end approaches and their swan song can only be deduced in the coded texts of their sales catalogues. On the first page of the Phillips, de Pury and Luxembourg German expressionist catalogue (Hoener collection, 5^th of November in New York) it clearly states that the de Pury and Luxembourg half of the company is now solely a New York and Swiss affair. Turn to the back of the catalogue and the company’s Old Master and 19^th century paintings departments have mysteriously been erased, with the leaner and meaner company limited to Impressionist, modern and contemporary painting departments. The Old Master and 19^th century market will now shift to the other remaining players, Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams in London and to the smaller European auction houses.

In attracting this market Finarte, Rome is first up on the 23^rd of October with a sale of Old Master paintings, furniture and decorative household odds and ends. Of great note is Bernardo Strozzi’s (1581-1644) Madonna and Child with the infant St John, an oil on canvas measuring 54 x 44 cm and estimated at $ 27,200-36,280 (€ 30,000-40,000) and a joint work by Nicolò Codazzi and Theodor Helmbreker entitled Architectural view with a figure, an oil on canvas measuring 30 x 170 cm and estimated at the same price. Tajan in Paris follow with their Old Master sale on the 25^th of October, but for all the talk of rich pickings this sale struggles to offer any significant pieces with prices averaging at $ 5,000 (€ 5,520). "Rich pickings" in the sense that the French market has finally been opened up to international intervention by the national auction authorities, the Commissaires Priseurs.

More interesting is Christie’s, South Kensington (London) sale of Old Master paintings on the 31^st of October which has two flower still-lifes of note, one a circle of Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636-1699) estimated at $ 14,500-21,760 (€ 16,000-24,000) and the other by a follower of Mario Nuzzi, (alias Mario de'Fiori, 1603-1673). Another decorative work, but this time of aquatic fowl, is Peacocks, swallows, kingfishers, ducks, and ducklings beside a stone ledge and column in a landscape attributed to the Hungarian artist, Jacob Bogdani (1658-1724). This is an oil on canvas measuring 82.1 x 116 cm. With a low quote of $ 8,700-11,600 (€ 9,600-12,800) this is a recommended buy. For an even better bargain try A Portrait of a gentleman, aged 23, half-length, wearing black by a "follower of Sébastien Bourdon" (1616-1671). The striking pose of the sitter is painted in oil on canvas and measures 68.6 x 52.8 cm. Estimate $ 3,000-4,350 (€ 3,300-4,800).

The day after Bonhams stages its sale of 19^th century oil paintings in London. Their star lot is the catalogue cover painting entitled Haymaking, an oil on canvas signed by Julien Dupré (1851-1910) and estimated at $ 14,510-21,760 (€ 16,000-24,000). Other highlights include the moonlit Victoriana of John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893) with his view of Chelsea Church with a Chelsea pensioner in the foreground. Despite a punchy estimate of $ 57,770-86,660 (€ 64,000-96,000), the singularly local subject matter limits its prospects as a healthy investment. More interesting is Rubens Santoro’s (1859-1942) airy view of Venice is to be recommended with an estimate of $ 30,000-43,500 (€ 48,000-69,590). The artist spent little time in a studio, preferring the experience of painting out of doors and thus his works are characterised by a windy freshness and an array of bright colours. That same day Christie’s, New York offer The Grand Canal, looking towards Santa Maria della Salute, Venice also by Santoro with an estimate of $ 70,000-90,000 (€ 77,160-99,200) and this is undoubtedly one of the highlights of their sale too. Other important works in this sale include Hermanus Koekkoek’s (1815-1882) Mending nets by the shore at $ 100,000-150,000 (€ 110,220-165,300) in a sale of 85 lots. Nearly a quarter of the sale consists of Orientalist scenes with Arab and Middle Eastern subjects such as The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem by Gustav Bauernfeind (1848-1904) with an estimate of $ 500,000-700,000 (€ 551,120-771,570) or John Bagnold Burgess’ (1830-1897) The Meeting of East and West, an $ 80,000-120,000 (€ 89,000 –133,500) oil on canvas measuring 112.5 x 53.6 cm, showing a contrived scene of an Arab and a British family meeting in a courtyard. How New Yorkers will take to this painting, however is anybody’s guess.