Decade 1710-1719
See also : 18th century painting Ancient French painting Music in old painting Louis XV and XVI Early Qing Chinese porcelain Qing porcelain Musical instrument Musical instrument II
1700-1720 Cassettes by André-Charles Boulle
2014 SOLD for € 1.67M including premium
The furniture used to store the objects were in old times the armoires (high cabinets) of large capacity for a stationary use, and the coffres (coffers or chests) that accompanied the travelers.
Around 1700, André-Charles Boulle develops new models of furniture for small items: jewelry, medals, collections, bathroom accessories. The cabinet with drawers becomes the precursor of the commode designed by himself circa 1706.
The cassette or coffre de toilette is a small coffer mounted on a base of same area. Sixty years later, when the storage box becomes narrower than the tablet, this model of furniture will become the bonheur-du-jour.
These innovations also precede the flat desk, which should be mentioned here as a reminder that Boulle was the designer of all modern forms of French furniture. The luxury of his inlays in première partie and contrepartie and of his gilded bronzes is also unprecedented.
From 1700 until the fire of 1720 and perhaps a little beyond, the cassette sur piétement was one of Boulle's regular product lines. The coffer and its ornamentation were prepared independently and assembled when the workshop received an order.
A pair of cassettes sur piétement was sold for £ 1.55M including premium at Christie's on December 8, 1994.
Another pair also attributed to Boulle is estimated € 1.5M, for sale by Christie's in Paris on November 5, lot 53. The base with four covered feet is topped with a drawer and equipped with a spacer plate centered by a bronze vase.
Around 1700, André-Charles Boulle develops new models of furniture for small items: jewelry, medals, collections, bathroom accessories. The cabinet with drawers becomes the precursor of the commode designed by himself circa 1706.
The cassette or coffre de toilette is a small coffer mounted on a base of same area. Sixty years later, when the storage box becomes narrower than the tablet, this model of furniture will become the bonheur-du-jour.
These innovations also precede the flat desk, which should be mentioned here as a reminder that Boulle was the designer of all modern forms of French furniture. The luxury of his inlays in première partie and contrepartie and of his gilded bronzes is also unprecedented.
From 1700 until the fire of 1720 and perhaps a little beyond, the cassette sur piétement was one of Boulle's regular product lines. The coffer and its ornamentation were prepared independently and assembled when the workshop received an order.
A pair of cassettes sur piétement was sold for £ 1.55M including premium at Christie's on December 8, 1994.
Another pair also attributed to Boulle is estimated € 1.5M, for sale by Christie's in Paris on November 5, lot 53. The base with four covered feet is topped with a drawer and equipped with a spacer plate centered by a bronze vase.
1705-1715 Invention of the Commode
2015 SOLD for € 1.2M including premium
The need for an easier keeping and storage is at the origin of the invention of the modern French furniture in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. André-Charles Boulleaccompanies and indeed drives this development. His taste and his skill are exceptional.
The flat desk allows the installation of wide drawers. It is a success. The drawers were soon adapted into the coffres in the form of small cabinets mounted on high legs. This furniture in turn becomes wider and lower with larger drawers in a strict vertical alignment.
The novelty is so ahead of its time that the name is hard to coin. Named table en bureau in the 1690s, it becomes in 1705 the bureau en commode characterizing its practical use (commode meaning convenient) and simply the commode from about 1708.
Boulle experimented the shapes for his new type of furniture. A commode en tambour (drum shaped dresser) 89 x 126 x 54 cm executed between 1705 and 1715 is estimated € 800K for sale by Sotheby's in Paris on November 5, lot 305.
Its oval design is ephemeral. It is too complicated with its two groups of three feet each at the ends and its detached montants en fuseaux. It is soon superseded by a simpler rectangular design which will remain the ideal storage furniture throughout the eighteenth century and beyond.
The commode for sale is richly decorated in contre-partie in copper, tortoiseshell, pewter and ebony. It has been improved and consolidated in the 1770s by Etienne Levasseur who stamped it. Like many French luxury furniture from that time, it was an element in a pair and its twin in première partie is also known.
The flat desk allows the installation of wide drawers. It is a success. The drawers were soon adapted into the coffres in the form of small cabinets mounted on high legs. This furniture in turn becomes wider and lower with larger drawers in a strict vertical alignment.
The novelty is so ahead of its time that the name is hard to coin. Named table en bureau in the 1690s, it becomes in 1705 the bureau en commode characterizing its practical use (commode meaning convenient) and simply the commode from about 1708.
Boulle experimented the shapes for his new type of furniture. A commode en tambour (drum shaped dresser) 89 x 126 x 54 cm executed between 1705 and 1715 is estimated € 800K for sale by Sotheby's in Paris on November 5, lot 305.
Its oval design is ephemeral. It is too complicated with its two groups of three feet each at the ends and its detached montants en fuseaux. It is soon superseded by a simpler rectangular design which will remain the ideal storage furniture throughout the eighteenth century and beyond.
The commode for sale is richly decorated in contre-partie in copper, tortoiseshell, pewter and ebony. It has been improved and consolidated in the 1770s by Etienne Levasseur who stamped it. Like many French luxury furniture from that time, it was an element in a pair and its twin in première partie is also known.
"Du mobilier d’exception à Paris" via @Votreargent https://t.co/OTTpUA4Ur1 pic.twitter.com/nOgiAoGwgg
— Sotheby's France (@SothebysFr) November 3, 2015> 1711 The Workshop of the Jesuits
2018 SOLD for HK$ 240M including premium
The Kangxi Emperor and King Louis XIV had similar ambitions. They decided in 1684 to share their scientific and cultural knowledge through Jesuits who accepted the customs of imperial China. The French were interested in brocades and chopsticks and the Chinese in using enamels to cover copper and glass.
The activity is developed in a workshop of the Forbidden City under the direct control of the emperor. A new glassmaker arrived in 1695 brings with him the enamels invented by Glauber to create splendid colors with colloidal gold. The glass pieces colored with the enamel of the foreigners (in Chinese: falangcai) serve as diplomatic gifts.
The potters of Jingdezhen were working with the limited color range of the wucai for a purpose of productivity. It was tempting to apply the new colors to the porcelain for bringing more luxury to the pieces for the personal use (yuzhi) of the emperor. Chinese craftsmen joined the Jesuits of the imperial workshop around 1711 to develop a mixed technology.
Chinese porcelain was unknown in Europe and the Jesuits considered it impossible to affix the enamel over the glaze. They were supplied from Jingdezhen with incompletely glazed pieces to paint the outside wall and the base with the colors unavailable at Jingdezhen. A second heating completed the process.
One of the rarest ground colors of the falangcai is a pink with colloidal gold. Two 14.7 cm diameter bowls, each one decorated with four lobed cartridges showing flowers in front of a blue sky, were probably made side by side. They carry the yuzhi mark of Kangxi. The floral themes are however different, attesting to a close cooperation between Chinese and European artists. The bowl kept at the National Palace Museum in Taipei follows the traditional Chinese auspices of the four seasons.
The other bowl is of European decoration, displaying flowers without symbolic meaning and a perspective effect that is not usual in traditional Chinese art. It will be sold by Sotheby's on April 3 in Hong Kong, lot 1. Please watch the short video shared by the auction house.
The yangcai will be the complete mastery of the falangcai process at Jingdezhen around the sixth year of the Yongzheng emperor, 1729 CE. The participation of foreigners will no longer be necessary.
The activity is developed in a workshop of the Forbidden City under the direct control of the emperor. A new glassmaker arrived in 1695 brings with him the enamels invented by Glauber to create splendid colors with colloidal gold. The glass pieces colored with the enamel of the foreigners (in Chinese: falangcai) serve as diplomatic gifts.
The potters of Jingdezhen were working with the limited color range of the wucai for a purpose of productivity. It was tempting to apply the new colors to the porcelain for bringing more luxury to the pieces for the personal use (yuzhi) of the emperor. Chinese craftsmen joined the Jesuits of the imperial workshop around 1711 to develop a mixed technology.
Chinese porcelain was unknown in Europe and the Jesuits considered it impossible to affix the enamel over the glaze. They were supplied from Jingdezhen with incompletely glazed pieces to paint the outside wall and the base with the colors unavailable at Jingdezhen. A second heating completed the process.
One of the rarest ground colors of the falangcai is a pink with colloidal gold. Two 14.7 cm diameter bowls, each one decorated with four lobed cartridges showing flowers in front of a blue sky, were probably made side by side. They carry the yuzhi mark of Kangxi. The floral themes are however different, attesting to a close cooperation between Chinese and European artists. The bowl kept at the National Palace Museum in Taipei follows the traditional Chinese auspices of the four seasons.
The other bowl is of European decoration, displaying flowers without symbolic meaning and a perspective effect that is not usual in traditional Chinese art. It will be sold by Sotheby's on April 3 in Hong Kong, lot 1. Please watch the short video shared by the auction house.
The yangcai will be the complete mastery of the falangcai process at Jingdezhen around the sixth year of the Yongzheng emperor, 1729 CE. The participation of foreigners will no longer be necessary.
1713 An Imperial Team of Craftsmen
2015 SOLD for HK$ 28.7M including premium
A screen made in the Kangxi-Yongzheng transition time is estimated HK $ 30M for sale by Christie's in Hong Kong on December 2, lot 3128.
Its size, technique, themes and period meet the description of the screen that went unsold in the same auction room on June 1, 2011. In both cases the closer pieces taken as references for that highly rare style are the pair of screens presented to the Kangxi emperor for his 60th birthday.
Here is my 2011 pre-sale discussion that fairly applies also to the the screen of the next sale. I am pretty convinced that it is the same piece.
Furniture, calligraphy, graphic arts: the Qing emperors had a refined approach to luxury and art and were delighted by a gathering of all of them within a unique piece.
This screen is indeed an amazing compendium of techniques for which the most skilled craftsmen have been invited to contribute, each one in his area of know how, achieving together a really collective artwork.
It is a suite of ten hardwood panels 2.90 m high and 61 cm wide, richly polychromed on both sides with a wide variety of imperial themes such as dragons in the clouds, many flowers, bats.
The techniques used therein are painting on paper and on silk, lacquer, gilding, bamboo veneer and kesi. This screen includes no less than nine colors of kesi, this traditional silk embroidery that is prepared in individual colors before sewing the elements.
The reverse of both panels at the ends of the screens includes sixty different characters, all of them signifying longevity. Christie's compares this lot with a pair of screens which were made for the 60th birthday of the Kangxi emperor, 1713 AD in our calendar.
I was excited to appreciate from the catalog that the eyebrows of the dragons and their short hair are typical of that period when the expression of these fabulous creatures was the subject of a specific care.
Its size, technique, themes and period meet the description of the screen that went unsold in the same auction room on June 1, 2011. In both cases the closer pieces taken as references for that highly rare style are the pair of screens presented to the Kangxi emperor for his 60th birthday.
Here is my 2011 pre-sale discussion that fairly applies also to the the screen of the next sale. I am pretty convinced that it is the same piece.
Furniture, calligraphy, graphic arts: the Qing emperors had a refined approach to luxury and art and were delighted by a gathering of all of them within a unique piece.
This screen is indeed an amazing compendium of techniques for which the most skilled craftsmen have been invited to contribute, each one in his area of know how, achieving together a really collective artwork.
It is a suite of ten hardwood panels 2.90 m high and 61 cm wide, richly polychromed on both sides with a wide variety of imperial themes such as dragons in the clouds, many flowers, bats.
The techniques used therein are painting on paper and on silk, lacquer, gilding, bamboo veneer and kesi. This screen includes no less than nine colors of kesi, this traditional silk embroidery that is prepared in individual colors before sewing the elements.
The reverse of both panels at the ends of the screens includes sixty different characters, all of them signifying longevity. Christie's compares this lot with a pair of screens which were made for the 60th birthday of the Kangxi emperor, 1713 AD in our calendar.
I was excited to appreciate from the catalog that the eyebrows of the dragons and their short hair are typical of that period when the expression of these fabulous creatures was the subject of a specific care.
A lacquered hardwood ten-fold screen from our Dec 2 Chinese Works of Art sale. pic.twitter.com/1bTjaXU5Xh
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 30, 20151714 A Tie Pin
2018 SOLD for CHF 6.7M including premium
Unknown to the lovers of antique jewelry, a tie pin has just surfaced in a princely family. It is in its case, accompanied by a silver plaque of the nineteenth century that explains in French the royal origin of its diamond. It is estimated CHF 3.5M for sale by Sotheby's in Geneva on May 15, lot 377.
This pin was created to use a pear-shaped blue diamond that is easily detachable from it. It weighs 6.16 carats, its hue is fancy dark grey-blue in SI1 clarity.
The plaque indicates the origin and provenance of the diamond. It was given by the Philippine Islands to Elisabeth Farnese, Queen of Spain, wife of Philip V of whom the author of the inscription was a great-grandson, the Comte de Villafranca.
This colonial provenance appears to be certainly a wedding present. In 1714 Elisabeth from the reigning family of Parma marries the newly widowed king. Gifts are needed and the colonies are solicited. The American cargo is lost in the Atlantic in August 1715 with fabulous emeralds.
At that date Golconda is still the only source for diamonds. The Farnese Blue has in common with the Wittelsbacher Blue that it does not fall into the most usual categories such as fancy vivid, fancy intense or fancy dark blue.
Comte de Villafranca is the title used by Duke Charles II of Parma after his abdication. He seems to be the first of his line to be interested in this diamond and it is certainly he who had created the pin.
His grandson Robert integrated the Farnese Blue within a diadem composed of diamonds coming according to family tradition from the French queen Marie-Antoinette. This use in the diadem is confirmed later in an inventory of the jewelry owned by his daughter-in-law the archduchess Maria Anna of Austria. It was later reunited with the pin.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's :
This pin was created to use a pear-shaped blue diamond that is easily detachable from it. It weighs 6.16 carats, its hue is fancy dark grey-blue in SI1 clarity.
The plaque indicates the origin and provenance of the diamond. It was given by the Philippine Islands to Elisabeth Farnese, Queen of Spain, wife of Philip V of whom the author of the inscription was a great-grandson, the Comte de Villafranca.
This colonial provenance appears to be certainly a wedding present. In 1714 Elisabeth from the reigning family of Parma marries the newly widowed king. Gifts are needed and the colonies are solicited. The American cargo is lost in the Atlantic in August 1715 with fabulous emeralds.
At that date Golconda is still the only source for diamonds. The Farnese Blue has in common with the Wittelsbacher Blue that it does not fall into the most usual categories such as fancy vivid, fancy intense or fancy dark blue.
Comte de Villafranca is the title used by Duke Charles II of Parma after his abdication. He seems to be the first of his line to be interested in this diamond and it is certainly he who had created the pin.
His grandson Robert integrated the Farnese Blue within a diadem composed of diamonds coming according to family tradition from the French queen Marie-Antoinette. This use in the diadem is confirmed later in an inventory of the jewelry owned by his daughter-in-law the archduchess Maria Anna of Austria. It was later reunited with the pin.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's :
Golconda... Uncover the unique magic of diamonds discovered in this fabled region of India, once the only place in the world where the stones were found. This month in #Geneva, another historic gem joins this rarefied group: The Farnese Blue https://t.co/1smQ3Pviuj pic.twitter.com/jSk2CQuJSL
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) May 3, 2018
1715 pair of Kangxi Dragon ritual bells
2009 SOLD for HK$ 45.5M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2019 before the sale of another bell by Tessier et Sarrou (see below)
The Chinese music, based on a twelve-tone scale, was codified at the time of Confucius. The sound depends on the material of the instrument. The bronze bells or bianzhong constitute chimes. They are suspended from porticoes and struck with mallets. Within a carillon all bells have the same height and it is the thickness of the metal that generates the variety of tones.
Music is the supreme art that offers a perfect interpretation of all elements of nature including yin and yang. The imperial bianzhong are dated, as are the guqin.
In the Qing era, an imperial carillon is composed of sixteen bells including four repeated tones in high and low octaves. The gilt bronze bells are decorated with dragons in high relief.
On May 27, 2009, Christie's sold for HK $ 45.5M including premium from a lower estimate of HK $ 10M a pair of 30 cm high bells giving the 4th and 11th notes, dated Kangxi wushisi nian shi corresponding to 1715 CE, lot 1818.
On December 16, 2019, Tessier et Sarrou sold for € 670K including premium a 21 cm high bell dated Kangxi bing shen nian zhi corresponding to 1716 CE. It is set for the huang zhong which is the basic tone of the scale. The dragons are imperial, with five claws per paw.
Music is the supreme art that offers a perfect interpretation of all elements of nature including yin and yang. The imperial bianzhong are dated, as are the guqin.
In the Qing era, an imperial carillon is composed of sixteen bells including four repeated tones in high and low octaves. The gilt bronze bells are decorated with dragons in high relief.
On May 27, 2009, Christie's sold for HK $ 45.5M including premium from a lower estimate of HK $ 10M a pair of 30 cm high bells giving the 4th and 11th notes, dated Kangxi wushisi nian shi corresponding to 1715 CE, lot 1818.
On December 16, 2019, Tessier et Sarrou sold for € 670K including premium a 21 cm high bell dated Kangxi bing shen nian zhi corresponding to 1716 CE. It is set for the huang zhong which is the basic tone of the scale. The dragons are imperial, with five claws per paw.
1715 The Joiners of Massachusetts
2016 SOLD for $ 1.02M including premium
A tradition of joinery was established from ca 1680 around the town of Hadley, dependent at that time of the territory of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the lower valley of the Connecticut river. Until 1740, the models of furniture for keeping cloth and linen are transmitted from one generation to the next.
These painted cabinets were often presented to brides. Many examples never left the western region of current Massachusetts state. In 1883, a bargain hunter in search of relics of the art of the American colonies buys a piece of furniture in the town of Hadley. He names it his Hadley chest and this perfectly relevant wording passed as the common designation.
The most usual Hadley model is a square chest on four legs with three panels in its upper part and two transverse drawers in its lower part. The front side was painted in foliate and floral motifs within half round patterns prepared with the compass. The original inspiration for these types of furniture has not been identified.
The Hannah Barnard cupboard is a flamboyant example. The top panel is here replaced by a body with columns that can be used as a dresser. The maiden name of the bride is inscribed therein in very large letters amidst hearts and diamonds that are definitely a sign of love from the merry bridegroom. The wedding took place in 1715 in Hadley.
Three other pieces of furniture was certainly executed by the same craftsman as the Hannah Barnard cupboard, as evidenced by the painted patterns and by the similarity of the carpentry techniques. One of them is for sale by Christie's in New York on January 22, lot 56.
This chest of drawers 1.10 m high that also long remained in the Hadley area is in an extraordinary original condition. The analysis of seepage of the paint into the wood shows that it was never overpainted. It still carries the incisions by the dry point compass over which the patterns were painted. The colors are darkened by layers of varnish that modern chemistry may perhaps help to remove.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
These painted cabinets were often presented to brides. Many examples never left the western region of current Massachusetts state. In 1883, a bargain hunter in search of relics of the art of the American colonies buys a piece of furniture in the town of Hadley. He names it his Hadley chest and this perfectly relevant wording passed as the common designation.
The most usual Hadley model is a square chest on four legs with three panels in its upper part and two transverse drawers in its lower part. The front side was painted in foliate and floral motifs within half round patterns prepared with the compass. The original inspiration for these types of furniture has not been identified.
The Hannah Barnard cupboard is a flamboyant example. The top panel is here replaced by a body with columns that can be used as a dresser. The maiden name of the bride is inscribed therein in very large letters amidst hearts and diamonds that are definitely a sign of love from the merry bridegroom. The wedding took place in 1715 in Hadley.
Three other pieces of furniture was certainly executed by the same craftsman as the Hannah Barnard cupboard, as evidenced by the painted patterns and by the similarity of the carpentry techniques. One of them is for sale by Christie's in New York on January 22, lot 56.
This chest of drawers 1.10 m high that also long remained in the Hadley area is in an extraordinary original condition. The analysis of seepage of the paint into the wood shows that it was never overpainted. It still carries the incisions by the dry point compass over which the patterns were painted. The colors are darkened by layers of varnish that modern chemistry may perhaps help to remove.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
This rare early 18th c. "Hadley" chest just sold for $1,025,000. pic.twitter.com/eR51vJczMV
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) January 22, 2016
1718 Perspective in Venice
2011 SOLD 4 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
At the time of Vermeer, Dutch artists had the fertile idea to paint realistic views of the cities. When later the British for their pleasure will tour Italy, they meet with local artists who specialize in such luxurious memories.
So it is no coincidence that the pioneer of this new art in Italy was a Dutchman, Gaspar van Wittel who Italianized hisname as Vanvitelli and worked in Rome and Naples.
In Venice, the first master of the vedute was an Italian who, unlike his colleague, used a Dutch-sounding name: Luca Carlevarijs.
Carlevarijs favorite topic was the Molo, this very prestigious wharf access to the Venetian splendor. The monumental group is a textbook case for the practice of perspective, used with utmost care for accentuating the realism.
A view of the Molo looking west, with the side of the Doge's Palace and the Church of the Salute in the distance, is for sale by Christie's in New York on January 26. The animation is both intense (although a little stereotypical) and distant, making it particularly pleasant.
This large oil on canvas, 102 x 175 cm, sold in 1718 to an English traveler, is estimated $ 3.5 M.
POST SALE COMMENT
It was bold to try to sell a painting by Carlevarijs for the price of a good Canaletto, but this work had the required qualities and the sale is successful: $ 4M including premium.
This view of Venice is shown in the article shared by WorthPoint before the sale.
At the time of Vermeer, Dutch artists had the fertile idea to paint realistic views of the cities. When later the British for their pleasure will tour Italy, they meet with local artists who specialize in such luxurious memories.
So it is no coincidence that the pioneer of this new art in Italy was a Dutchman, Gaspar van Wittel who Italianized hisname as Vanvitelli and worked in Rome and Naples.
In Venice, the first master of the vedute was an Italian who, unlike his colleague, used a Dutch-sounding name: Luca Carlevarijs.
Carlevarijs favorite topic was the Molo, this very prestigious wharf access to the Venetian splendor. The monumental group is a textbook case for the practice of perspective, used with utmost care for accentuating the realism.
A view of the Molo looking west, with the side of the Doge's Palace and the Church of the Salute in the distance, is for sale by Christie's in New York on January 26. The animation is both intense (although a little stereotypical) and distant, making it particularly pleasant.
This large oil on canvas, 102 x 175 cm, sold in 1718 to an English traveler, is estimated $ 3.5 M.
POST SALE COMMENT
It was bold to try to sell a painting by Carlevarijs for the price of a good Canaletto, but this work had the required qualities and the sale is successful: $ 4M including premium.
This view of Venice is shown in the article shared by WorthPoint before the sale.
1718-1719 Christie's discovered a Watteau, what a Surprise!
2008 SOLD 12.3 M£ including premium
At our time, the treasures still exist, on the condition of knowing to see them.
A little more than one month ago, Christie's had announced in a press release the reappearance of a painting of Watteau presumedly destroyed for two centuries. The press had seized this information, rightly. Let us not forget it, but it is necessary to wait two more months for the sale, which will be done in London on July 8.
Entitled "la Surprise", this painting was known through a copy, and the owner was unaware of being in possession of an original. If as it is probable Christie's manages to sell it, the pockets of this happy British countryman will then have filled from at least 3 M£.
Of small size, it is an outdoor scene, elegant and dynamic, with feverish movement, with images typified according to the so specific technique of Watteau: the player of guitar, the couple of lovers, the puppy.
A masterpiece? Yes. One of the great biddings of the year? Probably not. The painting, whose exact dimensions are not revealed in the official statement, appears to be not larger than a paper sheet.
POST SALE COMMENT
The price obtained is also a surprise: £ 12.3 million charge included.
This painting had been announced well in advance by Christie's as one of the highlights of the season. It had the advantage of never being viewed before on the market and disadvantage of being small: 36x28 cm.
The market has thus confirmed the view of Christie's that this painting is a masterpiece of Watteau, and that Watteau is a major painter in the history of art. There is no doubt that we will not soon see a similar one reappear in a sale. A masterpiece that can be considered as single on the market has no price, but I think nobody could reasonably predict that it would be so high.
A little more than one month ago, Christie's had announced in a press release the reappearance of a painting of Watteau presumedly destroyed for two centuries. The press had seized this information, rightly. Let us not forget it, but it is necessary to wait two more months for the sale, which will be done in London on July 8.
Entitled "la Surprise", this painting was known through a copy, and the owner was unaware of being in possession of an original. If as it is probable Christie's manages to sell it, the pockets of this happy British countryman will then have filled from at least 3 M£.
Of small size, it is an outdoor scene, elegant and dynamic, with feverish movement, with images typified according to the so specific technique of Watteau: the player of guitar, the couple of lovers, the puppy.
A masterpiece? Yes. One of the great biddings of the year? Probably not. The painting, whose exact dimensions are not revealed in the official statement, appears to be not larger than a paper sheet.
POST SALE COMMENT
The price obtained is also a surprise: £ 12.3 million charge included.
This painting had been announced well in advance by Christie's as one of the highlights of the season. It had the advantage of never being viewed before on the market and disadvantage of being small: 36x28 cm.
The market has thus confirmed the view of Christie's that this painting is a masterpiece of Watteau, and that Watteau is a major painter in the history of art. There is no doubt that we will not soon see a similar one reappear in a sale. A masterpiece that can be considered as single on the market has no price, but I think nobody could reasonably predict that it would be so high.
Getty Museum Buys $100m Trove of Works https://t.co/bD86lPUUmX pic.twitter.com/lqH9vWiQf1
— Art Market Monitor (@artmarket) July 21, 2017
1718-1722 Fruits and Flowers by Jan van Huysum
2006 SOLD for £ 3.26M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2021
Justus van Huysum is a still life painter based in Amsterdam. His bouquets are of a classic composition on a black background, to better highlight the colors of the flowers according to the taste of the time. His sons Jan and Jacob join him in this specialty.
Justus dies in 1716. Jan van Huysum tries the oil on copper and adds the fruits. His quest for realism includes a great attention to botany, of which his brother will soon become one of the best illustrators. Naturalism prevails over symbolism. Jan thus demonstrates his talent and soon has an international clientele.
An oil on panel 80 x 60 cm was sold for £ 3.26M including premium by Sotheby's on July 5, 2006, lot 37. It was painted between 1718 and 1722, a period of transition in Jan's art before he breaks with tradition by opting for lighter backgrounds.
Fruits in a wide variety of types and colors are placed on a ledge next to a nest filled with eggs. This very dense composition is completed by flowers and leaves in the upper part.
Justus dies in 1716. Jan van Huysum tries the oil on copper and adds the fruits. His quest for realism includes a great attention to botany, of which his brother will soon become one of the best illustrators. Naturalism prevails over symbolism. Jan thus demonstrates his talent and soon has an international clientele.
An oil on panel 80 x 60 cm was sold for £ 3.26M including premium by Sotheby's on July 5, 2006, lot 37. It was painted between 1718 and 1722, a period of transition in Jan's art before he breaks with tradition by opting for lighter backgrounds.
Fruits in a wide variety of types and colors are placed on a ledge next to a nest filled with eggs. This very dense composition is completed by flowers and leaves in the upper part.
