Italian School, 16th century, The Fight for the Standard (The Battle of Anghiari), After Leonardo. Estimate $25,000–35,000.
Long regarded as the work of Rubens, this imposing and extensively exhibited and published drawing, is an extremely rare record of Leonardo da Vinci’s lost masterpiece, The Battle of Anghiari. Particularly large in size and dynamic in its execution, this drawing provides a unique insight into this paramount work of the Renaissance.
Circle of Antonio Allegri, called Correggio, Study of the Head of a Woman, Looking Down. Estimate $6,000–8,000.
The taste and admiration for the Parmese artist Correggio influenced and molded generations of artists. This delicate and sophisticated later work appears to have been inspired by the artist’s Danae, today housed in the Galleria Borghese, Rome.
Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Nude Study of a Young Man with Raised Arms. Estimate $2,500,000–3,500,000.
This superb figure study, powerfully drawn in a combination of black chalk heightened with white, is the most important and substantial drawing by Rubens to have appeared on the market in over 50 years. Created by the artist shortly after his return to Antwerp from Italy in late 1608 and in preparation for his monumental altarpiece, The Raising of the Cross, this drawing provides the viewer with a fascinating insight into Rubens’s working methods, as well as the energy and vigor employed by the artist in his best drawings.
Attributed to Agostino Carracci, Portrait of a Youth. Estimate $35,000–45,000.
Drawn from life and with a wonderful immediacy of expression, this red chalk Portrait of a youth, attributed to Agostino Carracci, is a highly engaging and timeless image. What is going through the mind of the young sitter and what is his relationship to the artist? Drawn in the latter half of the 16th century, the sitter is as relatable to us today as he would have been to the artist more than 400 years ago.
Follower of Andrea del Sarto, The Descent from the Cross. Estimate $2,000–3,000.
This sculptural red chalk drawing, depicting The Descent from the Cross, is the work of an artist active in the orbit of the great early 16th-century: Florentine master, Andrea del Sarto. Though it does not correspond to any surviving drawings by del Sarto, it seems highly likely to have been based on a lost original, making its survival a fascinating record of an otherwise lost composition by this revolutionary draughtsman of the High Renaissance.
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino, Saint Peter Receiving the Keys from Christ. Estimate $70,000–90,000.
This elegant and rare early compositional drawing by the great Bolognese Baroque artist Guercino is preparatory for a painting depicting Saint Peter receiving the keys from Christ, in the collection of the Pinacoteca Civica, Cento, dating to 1618. Beyond its illustrious Dutch Royal provenance, this drawing was also previously owned by some of the most celebrated collectors of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including Sir Peter Lely, Pierre Crozat, Pierre Jean Mariette and Sir Thomas Lawrence, illustrating the favor this drawing has enjoyed through generations of connoisseurs and collectors.
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called il Guercino, St. Francis of Assisi, Kneeling in Prayer. Estimate $25,000–35,000.
Red chalk is one of the most successful media with which to represent, with subtlety, the human form. Here, Guercino is paying homage to his namesake, St. Francis, to whom he was especially devoted. This drawing is a marvelous example of the artist’s mature style and perfectly encapsulates the intimacy and religiosity of the subject.
Sotheby’s Old Master Drawings department is honored to be offering a group of 13 drawings from the Collection formed by King William II of the Netherlands (1792-1849) and his Russian wife Anna Pavlovna (1795-1865). Assembled during a period of some 30 years, their collection contained masterpieces on paper by the likes of Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Correggio, Van Dyck and Rubens, whose exceptional figure study leads the group. Preparatory for one of his most celebrated altarpieces, The Raising of the Cross, which today is housed in Antwerp Cathedral, the drawing on offer is one of the most important by the artist to appear on the open market in over 50 years. Click ahead to discover more highlights from this collection, including the highly refined portrait attributed to Agostino Carracci and a superb compositional drawing by Guercino.