Mid-season sales
April 12 2011
There are some nice things in this week's mid-season sales at Sotheby's and Christie's, but nothing as exciting as the forthcoming £20m Stubbs at Christie's main sale in July.
Sotheby's sale offers more evidence that the aristocratic sell-off continues apace, with part of the collection of the family of the Marquess of Ailesbury/Earls of Cardigan. The ancestral portraits on offer are of varying quality, however, and it always makes me sad to see centuries of collecting dispersed all at once for not much gain. [More below]
Personal highlights include this pair of early Lely portraits (lots 145 & 146 at £10-15k each). The historical portrait of the 2nd Earl of Cardigan is a chance for a bargain Reynolds at £5-7,000. I could not immediately see Kneller in this curious portrait of Lady Elizabeth Bruce - the drawing of the face appeared more like Dahl, and the handling more like Jervas. Indeed, it's not impossible that it's by Jervas copying Dahl - Jervas did that sort of thing. It has been extended on both sides.
Elsewhere in the Sotheby's sale, I particularly liked this portrait by John Michael Wright, one of my favourite artists, a bargain at £6-8,000, and this full-length of Francesco de Medici by Sofonisba Anguisola at £60-80,000. As a closet Jacobite, I loved the Hugh Douglas Hamilton oils of Bonnie Prince Charlie (£7-9,000) and his brother Cardinal York (£6-8,000) - or Kings Charles III and Henry IX if you're that way inclined. They are repetitions of his finer pastels, but still autograph. I'm afraid I think the other Jacobite portrait of the Old Pretender, James III (£12-18,000), catalogued as by Antonio David, is rather weak, and perhaps a copy.
There are some nice things down at Christie's, such as this trio of reasonably priced Lawrences (lots 59, 61 and 62). Lot 62 I have seen before, and it would benefit from some judicious restoration - a previous attempt has mis-understood the area around the mouth and cheek. If epic horse portraits are your thing, lot 44(£50-80,000) might be of interest. I was quite struck by lot 1, a work enigmatically catalogued as 'attributed to the Studio of El Greco' (£15-20,000), which is really quite good, despite the seemingly off-putting condition. I also liked the small portrait attributed to Catharina van Hemessen (reasonable at £15-25,000), and the good contemporary copy of Van Dyck's portrait of the Duke of Hamilton, lot 42 (£12-18,000). I was not so keen on lot 51, catalogued as by Kauffmann, an attribution with which I disagree. Perhaps it was because of the condition, but I couldn't quite get my head round the portrait of Emma Hamilton by Romney, lot 63 at £30-50,000.
