Reflections on Assembling the Saunders Collection from George Wachter

A Collecting Journey

Still lifes are a particular strength of the Saunders collection. Among the highlights are masterpieces by Jan Davidsz. de Heem and Luis Meléndez—the greatest eighteenth-century Spanish still-life painter—along with superb examples by Ambrosius Bosschaert, Adriaen Coorte, and others. Through meticulous observation and refined technique, these artists capture the fleeting beauty of flowers, fruits, and everyday objects, transforming the ordinary into images redolent with symbolic, moralizing, and even political meaning.

The Art of the Still Life

The Saunders assembled a superb group of portraits of children that span from the early-seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. Winsome and tender, these works both convey the personality and character of their young sitters and transcend mere physical likeness to reflect changing views of childhood over time. The portraits reflect familial wealth, aristocratic lineage, and dynastic ambition, while also capturing the joy and innocence of youth with remarkable sensitivity.

The Fashioning of Youth

The Saunders collection includes a remarkable group of view paintings—landscapes, vedute, and capricci—that range from Frans Post’s lush vista of Olinda, Brazil, to Salomon van Ruysdael’s historic depiction of the Valkhof at Nijmegen. These works fuse topographic accuracy with artistic imagination, capturing historically significant sites and events, including an early-eighteenth-century view of Warren Hill at Newmarket, the home of English horseracing, and the triumphal Roman entry of the imperial ambassador Ercole Ludovico Turinetti, Marquis of Prié, in Saint Peter’s Square. Of particular importance are the exceptional views of Venice by Francesco Guardi, whose luminous, atmospheric renderings exemplify the genre at its finest.

Sight & Spectacle

Antwerp painter Jan van Kessel the Elder produced this brilliantly colored and meticulously detailed copper in the later half of the seventeenth century. Executed on an ambitious scale with exceptional technical finesse, the painting illustrates forty-one different insects, reptiles, and beestjes (or “little beasts”).

Explore Jan van Kessel’s depiction of insects, reptiles and little beasts&nbsp;

Monstrous Creatures and Diverse Strange Things

New York

Chairman, Americas

George Wachter

International Head of Old Masters Division

Christopher Apostle

Head of Department, NY

David Pollack

Specialist &amp; Director of International Strategy, Old Masters

Calvine Harvey

Specialist, Old Master Paintings

Daria Rose Foner, PhD

Cataloguer, Old Master Paintings

Emma Woodberry

Pre-Sale Coordinator

Katie Pepi

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This selection of forty-three outstanding paintings from the Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III collection reflects a profound commitment to exceptional quality and superb condition. Featuring works by the most esteemed artists of their day, the collection extends from early sixteenth-century Germany to nineteenth-century England, with a particular focus on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch, Flemish, and Italian works of the highest caliber.

Elegance & Wonder: Masterpieces from the Collection of Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III