Masters Week 2017 in Review: Records, Results and Celebrations

Star of the Week

Sir Peter Paul Rubens’ Study of a Horse with a Rider went far over its pre-sale estimate of $1–1.5 million selling for $5.1 million. The newly discovered work is a rare example of a large-scale animal study by the artist.

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Medieval works of art soar

This Eucharistic Dove (French, Limoges, circa 1215-35) soared, ultimately selling for $792,500 against a $200,000–300,000 pre-sale estimate. This rare vessel is only one of fifty known examples of doves made by the Limoges workshops in the early 13th Century

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An Evening of Masterly Art, Food & Music

Widely admired as “the soul of the Spanish guitar,” Pablo Sáinz Villegas played to a rapt audience on 24 January at a reception and dinner hosted by Sotheby’s George Wachter and Christopher Apostle in our New York galleries. In honour of the evening, Sáinz Villegas paired four compositions with four works he chose from our upcoming Master Paintings & Sculpture Evening sale. Among the pictures that Sáinz Villegas felt especially connected to were a still life by Velázquez and a Venetian view by Michele Marieschi.

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J.M.W. Turner performs

One of two views by Turner of the same Swiss lake, both made on sketching tours of the early 1840s, this magical, evanescent watercolour seems to have belonged, after Turner’s death, to his devoted housekeeper and companion, Mrs Sophia Booth. The two drawings, which have not been publicly exhibited since the 19th century, have always been together, and have remained in the same collection since 1871. The watercolour ultimately sold for $756,500 – above its high estimate of $250,000.

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Paul Kasmin Gallery and Sotheby’s Celebrate a Collaborative

On 19 January, Old Masters met contemporary art at the opening of Naturalia , a collaboration between Sotheby’s Old Masters department and Paul Kasmin Gallery. On view through 4 March at two of Kasmin’s New York gallery spaces, Naturalia pairs works that consider natural phenomena from the 16th through the 18th centuries to the present.

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Living in a Material World

On 22 January, Sotheby’s Master Paintings specialist Jonquil O’Reilly and New York textile collector Jill Lasersohn enlightened audiences about how luxury was conveyed in the 15th through the 18th centuries. As part of Sotheby’s Masters Week, the duo paired the garments and fabrics depicted in Master Paintings with pieces from Lasersohn’s extensive collection.

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Sunday at Sotheby’s: Masters Week Brunch

On 22 January, hundreds of people spent their Sunday at Sotheby’s where they could delight in mimosas, muffins and, of course, Masters. During the opening weekend of Sotheby’s Masters Week , our New York galleries featured four floors of paintings, sculpture and drawings by legendary artists including Gentileschi, Fragonard and Rubens, as well as a still-life worthy spread of fruit, pastries and more afternoon treats. For the first time, a selection of these monumental works was also paired with equally as rare and illustrious textiles in vignettes throughout our tenth-floor galleries.

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Light and Shadow: A Masterpiece by Adam de Coster

Adam de Coster’s dramatic nocturne, A Young Woman Holding a Distaff Before a Lit Candle, again set a new auction record for the artist when it sold for $4,850,000, surpassing the previous record it had established at Sotheby’s in 1992.

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