Previous Posts: February 2019
Is this a fake??
February 4 2019
Picture: National Gallery
Almost certainly not, but The Guardian had a big splash on the suggestion it is by the art historian Christopher Wright. He produces not much evidence, save the haircut of the sitter, which is apparently from the 1960s. Judge for yourself on the high-res image here. Wright is best known for seeing fakes in many places, especially works claiming to be by Georges De La Tour (for example this picture in The Met).
Update - a sharp-eyed reader makes this point:
I am puzzled by the wooden shutter with its studded nails that, totally by coincidence, form the monogram EH.
Yikes!
Battle for the Battle of Anghiari
February 1 2019
Picture: Sotheby's
There was a fierce bidding battle for a drawing copy of Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari at Sotheby's drawing sale in New York. It made $795k against an estimate of $25k-$35k. The drawing had once been thought to be by Rubens, and had belonged to Sir Thomas Lawrence before entering the Dutch royal collection. But a long line of current Rubens scholars have said it's certainly not by Rubens. Does the market think it knows something else? Or was it just a combination of Leonardo's lure, some royal provenance, and a dash of speculation? See a high res of the drawing here.
An undoubted Rubens drawing from the same Dutch royal collection made $8.2m at Sotheby's, a new record.
