20/12/2001
by Andrew Moore

Christie's sale of Old Masters in London on the 12^th of December was a paltry affair that managed to raise just $ 10.2 million (€ 11.2 million), with only one painting fetching over $ 1 million (€ 1.1 million) as 63% of their 87 lot on offer found buyers. These were changed times indeed from exactly one year ago when the same auction house posted a record $ 82.6 million (€ 91.4 million) for an Old Masters auction. The top lot was Jan van de Cappelle’s (1626-1679) A winter landscape with skaters and kolf players on a frozen waterway, an oil on panel measuring 39.1 x 62.2 cm which sold to the Richard Green Gallery, London for $ 1.25 million (€ 1.39 million), well above its top-end estimate of $ 728,600 (€ 807,100). The same gallery went on to purchase Clara Peeters’ Still life Slices of Butter on a Wanli Kraak Porselein Plate, for double its estimate, at $ 774,900 (€ 858,940).

A pair of oil on canvases dating from the late 17^th century and attributed to an anonymous Florentine hand also commanded good prices. The pair of canvases depicting two lions set within landscapes with the coats-of-arms of the Medici, Schinchinelli, and Gonzaga-Guastalla families sold for a massive $ 310,000 (€ 343,400) against an estimate of $ 58,290-87,440 (€ 64,560-98,840). Though of marginally historical interest, these works probably sold well thanks to the decorative embellishment of two cute looking cats. Other big sellers were Bernhard Keil, called Monsù Bernardo (1624-1687) whose Recumbent shepherd boy with a sleeping dog, an oil on canvas, measuring 51.7 x 127 cm sold for $ 173,810 (€ 192,490) against an estimate of $ 21,860-36,440 (€ 24,210-40,360), and Philips Koninck (1619-1688) whose The bleaching fields near Haarlem, indistinctly signed with the artist’s name (oil on canvas, 72.5 x 106.5 cm) fetched $ 197,860 (€ 219,160) twice its pre-sale tag.

Sotheby’s easily outstripped Christie’s the following day (in their part I sale), as 65% of the lots sold in an auction that raised $ 20.4 million (€ 22.6 million) – twice Christie’s sum. The Sotheby’s sale was given a major boost at the end of the auction by eleven vedute, that were all snapped up – prospects of the cities of Naples and Rome, as well as capriccio (or fantasy) paintings of antique ruins and imaginary views. These top sellers included Giovanni Pannini and Francesco Guardi, as well as the lesser known architectural painters Antonio Joli and the Dutch artists Hendrick Frans van Lint and Gaspar van Wittel. The latter of these, also known as Vanvitelli (1653-1736) was the star of the show when his Prospect of Posillipo with the Palazzo Donn'anna and Naples in the Background set a new record, finally selling to the Compton Verney Trust, an 18^th century English mansion in South Warwickshire, in England which paid $ 3.2 million (€ 3.54 million) for the work. Gaspar van Wittel was one in a long line of Dutch artists who had gone to study and work in Rome from the early 17^th century onwards as a member of the bentveughels (translated as "birds of a feather"), a loose grouping of Dutch artists working in Italy.

Though Vanvitelli was particularly popular with Roman patrons and European aristocrats who ventured on the Grand Tour, these two Sotheby’s paintings were commissioned locally, by the 9th Duque de Medinaceli, Viceroy of Naples and it was undoubtedly this impressive provenance and market freshness that ensured success. The second work of the pair entitled A Prospect of Naples from the sea, looking north east towards the Castel Dell’Ovo sold for a respectable $ 2.64 million (€ 2.94 million), just over its top end-estimate. Alexander Bell, Head of Sotheby’s Old Masters Department commented "the exceptional prices achieved by the two prospects of Naples by Vanvitelli underline the strength of the market for Italian view paintings (vedute) of outstanding quality". Otherwise in the Sotheby’s sale, bidding was more restrained. The best prices were for decorative and frivolous subject matter. A fussily-detailed oil study of a rabbit by Jacob Phillip Hackert Prenzlau made $ 218,660 (€ 242,170) while Nicolas Lancret’s whimsical rococo piece, Le concert pastoral went for $ 174,920 (€ 193,760), both works carrying estimates of $ 58,310-87,460 (€ 64,590-96,890). Last but not least, a very good price was seen for Mattia Preti’s A man cutting up tobacco, another smoking behind, as this unframed oil on canvas measuring 100 x 90 cm went for a huge $ 611,620 (€ 678,930), four times its pre-sale guide and reconfirming the ready competition for Caravaggisti paintings.