28/11/2001
by Angelica Poggi

During the course of his career the Belluno-born painter experimented with different pictorial genres and with a variety of techniques which today are appreciated to different extents by collectors. The works on canvas are rarer and therefore more sought after by buyers, both the landscapes and the capricci. Within this category the record hammer prices were fetched by two paintings auctioned by Christie’s in London on the 31^st of January 1997 depicting two Landscapes with figures (oil on canvas, 81 x 112 cm). The two canvases, sold separately even though originally a pair, were respectively hammered at £ 310,000 and £ 270,000 ($ 439,260 and $ 382,600, € 496,190 and € 432,150), prices undoubtedly benefiting from a rich bibliography, including Rodolfo Pallucchini and Annalisa Scarpa Sonino (currently the most credited scholar on the subject) certifying them as autograph works by the artist. A pair of paintings depicting Mountainous landscapes also fetched a top price, selling at Christie’s London on the 13^th of December 2000 for £ 140,000 ($ 198,370, € 224,070). The hammer price of these two works, dating to the artist’s early career and still strongly influenced by Alessandro Magnasco, easily topped the catalogue estimate, once again thanks to attribution by Annalisa Scarpa Sonino. In the artist’s home country the highest price was reserved for the canvas depicting a Landscape (oil on canvas, 64 x 87 cm), offered by Finarte Milan on the 28^th of November 1998 and sold for L. 145,000,000 ($ 66,295, € 74,890), a modest result due to the poor conservation of the piece.

Particularly appreciated by the market are also the tempera paintings on paper, parchment or kid skin. These works, often of small dimensions, are appreciated for their freshness of execution, but do not command the hammer prices of the oils on canvas and are often included in Old Master Drawings auctions, not always being elevated to the status of paintings. In recent years this tendency has begun to invert, perhaps because of the growing rarity of works by the artist on the old master market or perhaps because of a change in buyers’ taste.

A tempera on parchment depicting a Lake (30.7 x 44.7 cm), sold by Christie’s London on the 3^rd of July 1990 for £ 32,000 (at the time about $ 57,800), doubling its estimated price. Another gouache on kid skin depicting a Capriccio with ruins (30 x 44.5 cm), with provenance from the Lefroy collection in London, was hammered by Finarte Milan on the 22^nd November 2000 for L. 165,000,000 ($ 75,400, € 85,200). This was the record auction price for Marco Ricci in Italy, justified not only by the illustrious provenance but also by Annalisa Scarpa Sonino’s publication of the painting in her monograph on the artist. A tempera on paper View of an English villa (28.5 x 42 cm), probably depicting Orleans House in Twickenham and painted by the artist on different occasions during his second visit to England, fetched a hammer price of L. 50,000,000 ($ 22,850, € 25,800) at Finarte Milan on the 31^st of May 2000.

Finally, among the graphic works by the artist, the drawing Two travellers on a coach in a landscape, executed in pen and brown ink on paper (37 x 52.2 cm) and estimated at FF 60-80,000 (at the time about $ 10,770-14,370) by Christie’s Monaco, fetched a record FF 580,000 ($ 104,170) on the 20^th June 1994. This result, however, represents a one-off in the sales of graphic works by Marco Ricci. This type of work does not usually fetch more than $ 40,000 (€ 45,180) on the market, as witness Mountainous landscape (pen and brown ink on paper, 33.6 x 52.7 cm), the drawing auctioned by Sotheby’s New York on the 10^th of January 1995.