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Old Master Paintings

Masters of Europe: Titian to Brueghel

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Led by an arresting Titian portrait thought to be twin boys from the noble Venetian Pesaro family, the forthcoming Old Masters Evening sale promises to offer an exciting session in the saleroom, when some of the finest paintings by European Masters come to market. As well as works from three important private collections formed as early as 1650, works from Italian, Dutch and French schools include religious narrative painting, still lives, landscapes, and Pieter Brueghel the Younger's Return from the Kermesse – one of his finest works to be offered for sale. Click ahead to see highlights from the auction.

Old Masters Evening Sale
7 December | London

 

Masters of Europe: Titian to Brueghel

  • School of Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, A kitchen interior and a woman plucking a chicken with a copper pot, baskets and a plate of fish, circa 1650. Estimate: £100,000–150,000.
    As early as 1737, only 80 years or so after it was painted, this hung in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence as a Rembrandt. The chicken and fish are painted with amazing speed and confidence, while the chain and more intricate objects are finely detailed.



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  • Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian, and workshop, Portrait of two boys, said to be members of the Pesaro family. Estimate: £1,000,000–1,500,000.
    Titian has captured the character of each brother beautifully, one more self-assured than the other. It is perhaps unique for the time in being a double portrait of two brothers, possibly even twins. 



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  • Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait of an architect. Estimate: £200,000–300,000.
    Acquired by an ancestor of the present owner in 1827 as a Titian, this is in fact one of two Lorenzo Lottos he unwittingly acquired, the other now being the National Gallery. His set square and compass identify the sitter as an architect.



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  • Master of the Osservanza, The Flagellation. Estimate: £400,000–600,000.
    This is a gabella, used to cover the city of Siena's tax documents accumulated by a particular Gabella Generale whose coats-of-arms adorn the lower register. The majority of 14th and 15th century gabellas belong to the city of the Siena and only a tiny handful are in private hands. 



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  • Giovanni Battista Salvi, called Sassoferrato, Madonna and Child.
    Estimate: £60,000–80,000.
    Sassoferrato continued the classical tradition of Raphael into the 17th century. This example is exceptional for its state of preservation, particularly for the survival of the fragile blue pigment. 



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  • Jacob Savery the Elder, The Season of Winter: a snowy landscape with a wedding procession and figures playing on the ice outside a walled town. Estimate: £200,000–300,000.
    This was originally one of a set of four panels depicting the Seasons. Here the townsfolk go about a myriad of winter rituals including skating, chopping firewood and dancing through the snow covered steets.



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  • Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Return from the Kermesse.
    Estimate: £2,000,000–3,000,000.
    Brueghel was the master of narrative and here he has filled his composition with so much detail, from the boisterous crowd in the foreground returning home, which includes several figures worse for wear, to the more sedate fair activities of hockey and archery enjoyed by the background figures. 



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  • Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, Still life of tulips, wild roses, cyclamen, yellow ranunculus, forget-me-not and other flowers, in a glass beaker. Estimate: £800,000–1,200,000.
    In a perfectly balanced composition, a small selection of blooms sit peacefully in a glass beaker, disturbed only by a butterfly and a fly. Bosschaert was the pioneer of flower painting and this is one of the earliest examples of this genre that would become one of the most popular art forms of the Golden Age.  



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