Sotheby’s will offer more than 100 works from many of the world’s leading Old Master dealers across two concurrent online sales, The Dealer’s Eye: London and The Dealer’s Eye: New York, open for bidding from 18 to 25 June 2020.
The sales bring together 39 dealers, each of whom selected three works for inclusion, spanning Old Master and 19th century paintings and drawings. The Dealer’s Eye: London features more than 66 lots representing 22 galleries, with works by Jacopo Bassano, Thomas Gainsborough and Anthony Van Dyck. The Dealer’s Eye: New York offers 51 works from 17 dealers, including pieces by Govert Flinck and Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun.
The format follows a period when galleries were temporarily closed and art fairs postponed. In the two preceding months, Sotheby’s held two online sales for Old Master dealers: in April, a group of works from the gallery of Rafael Valls more than tripled its pre-sale estimate to reach £1.6 million, while in May Refining Taste: Works Selected by Danny Katz sold 92 percent by lot, with more than 60 percent of lots selling above their high estimates.
Highlights in New York include a bust-length portrait of a young girl in antique costume by Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, estimated at $60,000 to $80,000, consigned by Wildenstein & Co.; a pair of flower still lifes by the 17th century French painter Jean Michel Picart, estimated at $80,000 to $120,000, consigned by Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts; and a full-length portrait of James Abbott Mc Neill Whistler by Walter Greaves, estimated at $70,000 to $90,000, consigned by Adam Williams Fine Art.
The New York sale also includes a genre scene of a shepherdess holding plums by Gerrit van Honthorst, consigned by Salomon Lilian and estimated at $60,000 to $80,000, and The Wood of Fontainebleau by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, consigned by Galerie Sanct Lucas and estimated at $70,000 to $90,000.
In London, offerings include Still Life with Shells by Antonio Ponce from the Caylus Gallery in Madrid, estimated at £40,000 to £60,000; a costume drawing by Henri de Gissey consigned by Day & Faber, estimated at £60,000 to £80,000; and a view of Florence and the Ponte alle Grazie by Thomas Patch offered by Robilant Fine Art, estimated at £200,000 to £300,000. Further portraits include John Hamilton Mortimer’s partially completed self-portrait from Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker, estimated at £30,000 to £50,000.
(Press Release)
