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An important sapphire and diamond pendant necklace

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An important sapphire and diamond pendant necklace. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013.

Suspending a cushion-cut sapphire, weighing approximately 91.38 carats, from horizontally-set graduated baguette-cut diamonds, to the baguette-cut diamondneckchain, joined by a circular-cut diamond clasp, mounted in 18k white gold. Estimate: $800,000 – $1,200,000

With report CS 81948 dated 25 September 2013 from the American Gemological Laboratories stating that it is of the opinion of the Laboratory that the origin of the sapphire would be classified as Burma (Myanmar). Heat Enhancement: None.

With report 71001 dated 8 September 2013 from the SSEF Swiss Gemmological Institute stating that the analysed properties confirm the authenticity of the transparent sapphire. No indications of heating. Origin: Burma (Myanmar). Accompanied by a supplemental letter from the SSEF Swiss Gemmological Institute attesting to the rarity and prestige of the sapphire. 

Christie's. MAGNIFICENT JEWELS. 10 December 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza -www.christies.com


A pair of natural pearl and diamond ear pendants, by David Webb

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A pair of natural pearl and diamond ear pendants, by David Webb. Photo Christie's ImageLtd 2013

Each suspending a detachable drop-shaped natural pearl, measuring approximately 12.57 x 18.37 mm, with a marquise-cut diamond cap, to the surmount set with a natural pearl, measuring approximately 12.09 mm, within a circular-cut diamond and sculpted gold foliate surround, mounted in gold and platinum. Signed Webb for David Webb. Estimate: $100,000 – $150,000

With report 71516 dated 30 October 2013 from SSEF Swiss Gemmological Institute stating that the analysed properties confirm the authenticity of these four saltwater natural pearls 

With report 2155728567 dated 14 October 2013 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the pearls are natural saltwater pearls. No indications of treatment 

Christie's. MAGNIFICENT JEWELS. 10 December 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza -www.christies.com

A pair of coral and diamond ear pendants, by David Webb

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A pair of coral and diamond ear pendants, by David Webb. Photo Christie's ImageLtd 2013 

Each suspending a detachable pear-shaped cabochon coral drop, within a graduated circular-cut diamond surround, swinging within a detachable graduated circular and baguette-cut frame, to the sugarloaf cabochon coral surmount, within a circular-cut diamond surround, mounted in platinum, in a David Webb brown suede pouch. Signed Webb for David Webb. Estimate: $30,000 – $50,000 

Christie's. MAGNIFICENT JEWELS. 10 December 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza -www.christies.com

Pierre Soulages (N. 1919), Gouache et encre sur papier 65 x 50 cm, 1957

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Pierre Soulages (N. 1919), Gouache et encre sur papier 65 x 50 cm, 1957. Photo Sotheby's 

signé; encre et gouache sur papier; 65 x 50 cm; 25 5/8 x 19 11/16 in. Exécuté en 1957. Signed; ink and gouache on paper. executed in 1957. Estimation 100 000 — 150 000 EUR

Cette oeuvre sera incluse dans le catalogue raisonné des peintures sur papier de Pierre Soulages, actuellement en préparation par Pierre Encrevé. 

Provenance: Collection particulière, New York
Collection particulière, Suisse 

"Le développement de l'oeuvre sur papier peut se lire d'abord comme une tension dialectique entre le traitement pictural par le signe et le traitement par la surface, l'un et l'autre coexistant, mais inégalement, tout au long des trois premières décennies, et intervenant parfois dans les mêmes peintures. Au long des années 1950, la tendance à occuper par la peinture la plus grande partie de l'espace ne fera, en effet, que s'affirmer, notamment dans les gouaches, souvent par l'utilisation d'un fond coloré semi-transparent sur lequel s'inscrit une structure statique de traces noires, conférant à la puissance dans la présence une monumentalité impressionnante."
Pierre Encrevé in Soulages, 90 peintures sur papier, Paris, 2007, p.8 

Sotheby's. Art Contemporain. Paris | 03 déc. 2013www.sothebys.com

Pierre Soulages (N. 1919), Peinture 55 x 46 cm, 3 avril 1994

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Pierre Soulages (N. 1919), Peinture 55 x 46 cm, 3 avril 1994. Photo Sotheby's 

signé, titré et daté 3.4.94 au dos; huile sur toile;55 x 46 cm; 21 5/8 x 18 1/8 in. Signed, titled and dated 3.4.94 on the back; oil on canvas. Estimation 70 000 — 90 000 EUR

Provenance: Collection particulière, Paris. 

Litterature: Pierre Encrevé, Soulages - L'Oeuvre complet - Peintures, Tome III.1979-1997, p.304, no.1117, illustré en couleurs 

Sotheby's. Art Contemporain. Paris | 03 déc. 2013www.sothebys.com

A ruby, diamond, emerald and gold sautoir, by David Webb

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A ruby, diamond, emerald and gold sautoir, by David Webb. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013 

Suspending a detachable pendant, centering upon an oval cabochon ruby within a circular-cut diamond surround, to a circular-cut diamond and emerald foliate link, from a neckchain of similarly set links alternating with cabochon rubies and circular-cut diamonds, mounted in 18k gold, 24½ ins., (two segments detach, may be also be worn as two shorter necklaces of 19 and 14 ins.). Neckchain signed David Webb (3). Estimate: $40,000 – $60,000 

Christie's. MAGNIFICENT JEWELS. 10 December 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza -www.christies.com

A sapphire and diamond necklace, by David Webb.

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A sapphire and diamond necklace, by David Webb. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013 

Set at the front with an oval cabochon sapphire, within a circular and baguette-cut diamond two-tiered surround, to the five-strand sapphire bead neckchain, intersected by two plaques and joined by a clasp of similar design, mounted in platinum and 18k gold, 16 ins., in a David Webb black leather box. Signed Webb for David Webb. Estimate: $120,000 – $180,000

With report CS 57102-1 dated 1 October 2013 from the American Gemological Laboratories stating that it is of the opinion of the Laboratory that the origin of the four cabochon sapphires would be classified as Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The largest cabochon sapphire and the cabochon sapphire in the clasp: No gemological evidence of heat. Two other cabochon sapphires: Heat

With report CS 57102-2 dated 1 October 2013 from the Americn Gemological Laboratories stating it is the opinion of the Laboratory that numerous polished beads (an excess of 50 tested at random) would be classifed as a combination, with a minority from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and a majority originating from Burma (Myanmar). A majority of the sapphire beads: No gemological evidence of heat. A minority of the sapphire beads: Heat 

Christie's. MAGNIFICENT JEWELS. 10 December 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza -www.christies.com

Olivier Debré (1920 – 1999), Petite Noire Opaque

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Olivier Debré (1920 – 1999), Petite Noire Opaque. Photo Sotheby's

signé, titré, inscrit et daté 78 au dos;huile sur toile; 54 x 64,5 cm; 21 1/4 x 25 3/8 in. Signed, titled, inscribed and dated 78 on the back; oil on canvas. Estimation 6 000 — 8 000 EUR

Provenance: Vente: Perrin, Royere, Lajeunesse - Versailles Enchères, Importants Tableaux Abstraits et Contemporain, Sculptures, 5 juillet 2009 , lot 102
Acquis lors de cette vente par le propriétaire actuel

Sotheby's. Art Contemporain. Paris | 03 déc. 2013www.sothebys.com


Olivier Debré (1920 – 1999), Ouarzazate Rose.

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Olivier Debré (1920 – 1999), Ouarzazate Rose. Photo Sotheby's 

signé des initiales et daté 71; signé, titré et daté avril 71 au dos; huile sur toile; 100 x 100 cm; 39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in. Signed with the initials and dated 71; signed, titled and dated april 71 on the back; oil on canvas. Estimation 10 000 — 15 000 EUR

Sotheby's. Art Contemporain. Paris | 03 déc. 2013www.sothebys.com

A labradorite, diamond and gold bird brooch, by Sterlé

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A labradorite, diamond and gold bird brooch, by Sterlé. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013 

Designed as a sculpted labradorite bird, with a circular-cut diamond beak and eye, enhanced by circular-cut diamond and textured 18k gold wings and plumage, circa 1960, with French assay marks and maker’s mark. With maker’s mark for Sterlé and Cie. Estimate: $10,000 – $15,000

Christie's. MAGNIFICENT JEWELS. 10 December 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza -www.christies.com

A diamond, blister pearl and emerald gazelle brooch, by David Webb

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A diamond, blister pearl and emerald gazelle brooch, by David Webb. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013

Designed as a circular-cut diamond and blister pearl gazelle with a cabochon emerald eye and sculpted 18k gold detail, mounted in platinum and 18k gold. Signed David Webb. Estimate: $10,000 – $15,000

Christie's. MAGNIFICENT JEWELS. 10 December 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza -www.christies.com

Lucas Cranach the Younger (Wittenberg 1515 - 1586), Virgin and Child with a bunch of grapes

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Lucas Cranach the Younger (Wittenberg 1515 - 1586), Virgin and Child with a bunch of grapes. Photo Sotheby's

signed centre right with the artist's device of a winged serpent, in the style used after 1537, and inscribed on a label on the reverse in an old hand: Tabla original de Luca Cranach./ Lla... Muller/ Nacio en Cranach cliosesi...e barnberg nEn 1472, Nacio Murio/ en Weimar en 1552 Escu...Alemana/La firma del autur...convales y/ pintor del Duque de Savolla...de 1509; oil on beechwood panel; 77.7 by 57.1 cm. : 30 5/8 by 22 1/2 in. Estimation 800,000 — 1,200,000 GBP

Provenance: With Pico Cellini Gallery, Rome, 1959;
Munich art market, 1967;
Acquired there or soon after by Friedrich Flick (1883-1972);
Bequeathed by the above to the grandfather of the present owner. 

Litterature: M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, London 1978, p.147, no. 389, reproduced (as Lucas Cranach the Elder).

Cranach’s depictions of the Virgin and child are amongst his most inventive, and this beautifully preserved example is no exception. Certain parts of the painting reveal a finesse of modelling that may explain both Max J. Friedlander and Ernst Buchner’s elevation of it into the oeuvre of Lucas Cranach the Elder. Particularly, the face, hands and feet of the Christ child are both supremely well drawn and brilliantly executed. The translucency of some of the glazes reveals the original underdrawing around both mouths: Christ’s was originally conceived as wider open, and the Virgin’s with a slightly more pronounced smile, such that it would have resembled more closely a related version recorded by Friedlander as in the collection of Baron von Grundherr, Vienna.1 

The design was popularised in the Cranach workshop and several versions by the younger Cranach are known.2 All other versions differ from the present in showing the Virgin tilting her head to our left, and in all but one of them Christ glances to the side and the Virgin, instead, makes eye contact with us. Our direct interaction with Christ, rather than the Virgin, accentuates the power of the message before us, a message made plainer still by the simplicity of the design and the jet-black setting, foregoing all extraneous detail. The painting would have had as its purpose the stimulation of religious devotion in its spectators, both through the very overt connection between Christ and the viewer and through our contemplation of the Eucharist that he acts out before us. The triangular design, formed by the Virgin’s beautifully rendered hair that flows down in two diagonals from the top of her head, joined beneath by the horizontal of her forearms, is a direct reference to the Holy Trinity and this underscores the yet more overt reference to the Eucharist as Christ plucks a grape and places it within his lips as if acting out the words 'this is my blood' that he spoke at the Last Supper. The Virgin, relegated to a supporting role, is serene and contemplative before this, as we should be too.

Through the preceding centuries, both in northern and southern European art, the infant Christ was most commonly portrayed cradled in His mother’s arms, suckling or asleep on her chest, locked in a tender embrace, or seated in benediction of the infant St. John. While there are many prior portrayals of the Christ child standing on His mother’s lap in western art - in the north by Rogier, Schongauer, and Dürer, and in the south by Bellini, Vivarini, and other, mostly Venetian, trailblazers - the combination here of factors that elevate the Christ child to dominate three-quarters of the composition, to display himself full-frontal, and to make direct eye-contact with us, is hitherto untried and makes for one of the most explicit and unambiguous symbols of its kind in the language of Christian art to date. 

The form of the serpent device, showing the wings raised and folded, dates the painting to after 1537, the point at which Lucas Cranach the Younger gained control of the workshop following the untimely death of his elder brother Hans in 1535.

The painting was certified by the late E. Buchner on 30 December 1960 when he dated it to 1525-30, the mark not mentioned and more latterly has been confirmed as the work of Lucas Cranach the Younger by both Dr. Dieter Koepplin and Dr. Werner Schade.

1. Friedlander, op. cit., p. 147, no. 388, reproduced.
2. Other than the version mentioned above, these are last recorded by Friedlander as in the N. Caro collection, Berlin (1932), and a private collection, Dortmund (1975): seeIbid., pp. 146-7, nos. 386-7, both reproduced. All are of the broadly the same width and only the Caro version is significantly taller, measuring 85cm where the others measure between 75cm and 78cm. 

Sotheby's. Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale including Three Victorian Masterpieces from the Leverhulme Collection. London | 04 déc. 2013 -www.sothebys.com

JAR emerald brooch

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JAR emerald brooch

The form, scale and narrative of this imposing brooch and the ingenuity of its craftsmanship show the brilliance of Joel Arthur Rosenthal of JAR, the most influential jeweller of modern times. The evocative architectural silhouette contrasts with the crisp form of the rare antique emerald. Amazingly, the emerald is held in place between two slices of rock crystal over carved white agate. Intricate soft-gold openwork on the back of the brooch replicates an Indian jali, the type of screen through which at one time the women of the Indian court would watch ceremonies or comings and goings in public spaces.

(source: Beyond Extravagance: Gems and Jewels of Royal India (Assouline)

JAR geranium brooch, 2007

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JAR geranium brooch, 2007 - private collection

Lucas Cranach the Younger (Wittenberg 1515 - 1586), The Crucifixion.

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Lucas Cranach the Younger (Wittenberg 1515 - 1586), The Crucifixion. Photo Sotheby's

oil on pinewood panel; 120.8 by 90.5 cm.; 47 1/2 by 35 5/8 in. Estimation 300,000 — 500,000 GBP

PROPERTY FROM A SPANISH PRIVATE COLLECTION 

Provenance: In the collection of family of the present owners for several generations. 

"Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. 
And ...Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
(Matthew 27:45-46) 

Against a jigsaw of jagged-edged clouds, rising ever denser into a thunderous mass of gloom, hangs the crucified Christ, flanked on either side by a thief in three-quarter profile. Beneath them crowd an impossible arrangement of figures, lovers, loathers, and the merely curious. In their amorphous arrangement Cranach manifests a blatant disregard for visual perspective, indeed of any understanding of space whatsoever; his interest, instead, lies in the attainment of the greatest possible visual impact. Thus piled on top, and squashed up against, one another are a cacophony of moustachioed and bearded onlookers, families and soldiers clad in armour, their spears and axes breaking the horizon formed by the tops of the myriad of heads, hats and helmets. As an exercise in perspective it is a peculiarity that works neither from below nor above but which achieves the effect of an uproarious denouement of shock, anger, gloating and motherly anguish. 

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The formula, in fact, varies little from that of Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Crucifixion of 1538 in the Art Institute, Chicago1 (fig. 1) which itself is the culmination of over twenty years’ worth of compositional evolution, starting with the Dürer-esque 1503 Crucifixion in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich which shows the scene side on.2 Next is the now frontal but meagrely populated work of 1515-20 in the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt,3 and the central panel to a triptych formerly with Goudstikker,4 both of which are still spatially legible. Then comes the now perspectively defunct panel of 1532 in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana5 and finally the culmination in the Chicago panel. The later of these works, and particularly those in Chicago and Indianapolis, are characterised more and more by the effervescent sky that so dramatically sets off the three crucified figures in the younger Cranach’s interpretation. This version is, too, of the same dimensions as the Chicago panel and of several other treatments by the younger Cranach, namely those in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden and the Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie, Dessau.

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Another version to which the present lot closely corresponds is in the Museo Lazaro Galdiano, Madrid, though that version is no longer unanimously considered an autograph work by the elder Cranach (fig. 2). 

Each of the other versions, by both father and son, show the thieves’ crosses at the extreme left and right margins; here however Cranach has, in modern parlance, ‘zoomed out’ so as to push them to the centre, allowing him to include ever more foreground and even more figures. The figures are vastly more numerous here than in all other versions, and animated and characterised beyond those of all precursors. We see here the emergence of the artistic personality of Lucas Cranach the Younger who, by the time this was most likely painted, in the late 1540s or 1550s, was in sole charge of the Cranach workshop and enterprise in Wittenberg. Gone is the slavish imitator of the elder Cranach, replaced by an artist driven by his own volition. Though always founded in his father’s idiom, his mature work soon finds its own idiosyncrasies; Cranach steps out of the paternal shadow to form his own artistic language and style.  

Such a large and highly detailed panel would inevitably have been completed with a degree of workshop assistance and here some figures are clearly better conceived than others. Dr. Dieter Koepplin concurs with a dating to the artist’s maturity and likewise considers elements of the painting executed by an assistant. Conversely, Dr. Werner Schade dates the work much earlier, to before 1515, noting the archaic setting and the use of a number of strange mediaeval elements such as the ray-like aureoles emanating from Christ, the Virgin and St. John. Furthermore, he argues that the juxtaposition between the Penitent and Impenitent thieves, which becomes the standard iconography for the scene of the Crucifixion at a later date, is not yet applicable in this work. On the basis of photographs, Dr. Schade has identified certain parts, such as the thief on the right, to have been executed by Lucas Cranach the Elder. The large majority of the composition however he attributes to a talented member of the master's workshop. 

1. See M.J. Friedländer, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, London 1978, pp. 144-5, no. 377, reproduced.
2. Ibid., p. 66, no. 5, reproduced.
3. Ibid., p. 88, no. 92, reproduced.
4. Ibid., p. 88, no. 95, reproduced.
5. Ibid., p. 112, no. 218, reproduced.

Sotheby's. Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale including Three Victorian Masterpieces from the Leverhulme Collection. London | 04 déc. 2013 -www.sothebys.com


JAR Paris.

Frans Hals (Antwerp 1581/5 - 1666 Haarlem), Portrait of a gentleman, half-length in black with lace collar and cuffs, and wearin

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Frans Hals (Antwerp 1581/5 - 1666 Haarlem), Portrait of a gentleman, half-length in black with lace collar and cuffs, and wearing a broad-brimmed black hat. Photo Sotheby's

oil on canvas, in a magnificent German or Netherlandish boxwood mirror frame; 79.5 by 58.5 cm.; 31 1/4 by 23 in. Estimation 2,000,000 — 3,000,000 GBP

Provenance: The Counts Branicki, Warsaw (noted by Bredius by whom cited in Hofstede de Groot as in Warsaw);
Count Konstanty Branicki, Paris, 1882;
Count Xavier Branicki, Paris;
His nephew, Count Xavier Rey;
Countess Rey, Chateau de Montrésor, Indre-et-Loire, France;
By whom offered, London, Sotheby’s, 26 March 1969, lot 86, unsold;
Count Raszynski (father-in-law of Count Xavier Rey), London, 1972;
Gerald and Linda Guterman, Park Avenue, New York, by whom acquired in 1984;
Their sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 14 January 1988, lot 18;
Acquired by the present owner then or shortly afterwards.

Exposition: Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum, De Gouden Eeuw begint in Haarlem, 11th October 2008 – 1stFebruary 2009, no. 72;
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Frans Hals und Haarlems Meister der Goldenen Zeit, 13th February – 7th June 2009, no. 72.

Litterature: E.W. Moes, Frans Hals, sa vie et son oeuvre, Brussels 1909, no. 183;
W. von Bode & E.J. Binder, Frans Hals, sein Leben und seine Werke, Berlin 1914, no. 205;
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné…, vol. III, London 1910, p. 91, no. 319;
W.R. Valentiner, Frans Hals. Des Meisters Gemälde (Klassiker der Kunst, vol. 28), 2nd ed., Berlin & Leipzig 1923, pp. 200, 318, reproduced p. 200 (as possibly a pendant to the Woman holding a Fan in the National Gallery, London);
F. Dülberg, Frans Hals. Ein Leben und ein Werk, Stuttgart 1930, p. 166, as circa 1643;
N. MacLaren, National Gallery Catalogues. The Dutch School, London 1960, p. 148, under no. 2529 (rejecting Valentiner's suggestion that the National Gallery picture is its pendant);
C. Grimm, 'Frans Hals und seine “Schule,”’ in Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, vol. XXII, 1971, pp. 146-178 (as Johannes Hals);
S. Slive, Frans Hals, vol. 3, Catalogue, London 1974, p. 148, no. D 56, reproduced fig. 177 (as perhaps a copy of a lost original of the first half of the 1640s);
C. Grimm, L’opera completa di Frans Hals, Milan 1974, p. 107, no. 185, reproduced p. 106 (as circa 1650-1);
C. Grimm & T. Brachert, in Maltechnik, July 1975, pp. 150-1, reproduced figs. 2 & 4;
S. Slive, Frans Hals, exhibition catalogue, Munich 1989, p. 282, under no. 53, n1 (as by Frans Hals);
C. Grimm, Frans Hals. Das Gesamtwerk, Stuttgart & Zurich 1989, pp. 24, 193-4, 281, no. 125, reproduced in colour plates 45 & 68 (detail), (as circa 1644);
C. Grimm, Frans Hals. The Complete Work, New York 1990 (English ed. of the above), pp. 24, 193-4, 287, no. 125, reproduced in colour plates 45, 68 (detail), (as circa 1644);
P. Biesboer, De Gouden Eeuw begint in Haarlem, exhibition catalogue, Rotterdam 2008, p. 104, no. 72, reproduced in colour p. 105, (as circa 1638);
P. Biesboer, Frans Hals und Haarlems Meister der Goldenen Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Munich 2008, p. 104, no. 72, reproduced in colour p. 105, (as circa 1638 (text) and circa 1635/8 (illustration caption)).

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Apart from his large-scale portraits of civic companies and guards, Frans Hals is best known for his intimate portraits of single figures, such as this one. Although the majority of his sitters are in fact conventionally posed, we associate him above all with jovial larger-than-life characters such as this evidently prosperous and well-fed fellow, who beams at the viewer from under his broad-brimmed hat, his right arm projecting towards us, his forearm resting comfortably on his substantial torso. Hals’ unidentified sitter fills the picture frame, with nothing beyond or behind him other than his shadow mapped in a few broad strokes on the neutral khaki background to distract the viewer. His mouth is closed, but he looks as if he is about to speak; it is the twinkle in his eyes which transforms his expression into a smile. 

Much has been written about Frans Hals’ bravura brushwork, which is the overriding hallmark of his style.  Hals was able to create an impression of richness and density of texture with a remarkable economy of brushstrokes, and although we do not in fact know how quickly he painted, his brushwork conveys a forceful impression of speed of execution, without hesitation or revision.  The present sitter’s right hand, for example, which vanishes beneath his coat, is mostly formed of a single thick stroke of the brush. 

Following cleaning, Grimm’s initial view was that this painting dates from around 1650-51, but subsequently both Grimm and Slive (see below) have arrived at a consensus that it should be dated around or just before the mid-1640s.  This would make it approximately coeval with the three-quarter length portraits of Paulus Verschuur, dated 1643, in New York, and Adriaen van Ostade of circa 1644 in Washington, and the bust-length portrait of Willem Coymans, dated 1645, also in Washington.1  More recently, Pieter Biesboer has broken with this consensus, proposing an earlier dating of around 1638 or before.2  He compares it with the half-length portrait of Claes Duyst in New York, of circa 1635-8.  Duyst wears a similar elaborate lace collar, and the detailed photograph of his face published by Grimm (and indeed the detail of the oval portrait of an unidentified man of circa1638 in Frankfurt) does lend support to his argument.3 Biesboer further suggests that a portrait of an unidentied woman in Berlin on a canvas of approximately similar dimensions, also dated circa 1635-8, may be a pendant to the present work, although the proportions and mise-en-page of the Berlin painting are quite different, and she has a pendant, also in Berlin.4    Support for Biesboer's dating can be found in the costume of the sitter.  Marieke de Winkel has kindly pointed out that the deep scalloping of the Flemish bobbin lace collar is typical of the years 1635-8, and its patterning much less dense than its usage in circa 1640 and later.5  

On the basis of old photographs, both of the great late 20thCentury scholars of Frans Hals, Claus Grimm and Seymour Slive, had at one time rejected the attribution to Hals of this work: Grimm relegating it to Johannes Hals, and Slive seeing it as probably a copy of a lost work of the first half of the 1640s.6  Following careful cleaning by Thomas Brachert in Zurich in 1973-4, which removed much accumulated over-paint and revealed the true pictorial quality of the work, Claus Grimm, who had arranged for the work to be done, recognised Hals’ authorship straightaway.  Seymour Slive did not have the opportunity to examine the painting in the original until September 1984, when he was able to study it at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  He immediately confirmed in a letter dated 1 October 1984 (which he has given permission for us to quote) that in his view it is “an original work by Frans Hals painted in the early or mid-1640s", and he repeated in print his view that it is autograph in 1989.7  All scholars now accept the work as autograph, and all scholars other than Biesboer date it to the early to mid-1640s 

This picture will be included in Claus Grimm's forthcoming revised and expanded catalogue raisonné of Frans Hals' work as no. A1-114, datable 1645-6. 

1.  New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 26.101.11; see W. Liedtke, Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven & London 2007, vol. I, pp. 288-292, no. 66, reproduced in colour; Washington, National Gallery of Art, inv. 1937.1.70 & 1937.1.71; see A.K. Wheelock, Jr., Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century, New York & Oxford 1995, pp. 79-85, nos. 70 & 71, both reproduced in colour; see also Slive under Literature, vol. 3, p. 75, no. 144, reproduced vol. 2, plate 247 (New York), vol. 3, pp. 78-9, 99-100, no. 192, reproduced vol. 2, plate. 303,  vol. 3, pp. 86-7, no. 167, reproduced vol. 2, plate 256 (Washington); see also Grimm under Literature, 1990, pp. 286-8, nos. 118, 123, 127, all reproduced.
2.  See Biesboer under Literature, 2009, p. 104.
3.  New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 49.7.33; see Liedtke, op. cit., pp. 285-8, no. 65, reproduced in colour; see also Slive, op. cit., vol. 3, pp. 63-4, no. 119, reproduced vol. 2, plates 195, 197; Grimm, op. cit., 1990, pp. 282, 284, nos. 81, 97, reproduced, reproduced colour plates 59 & 60b.
4.  Berlin, SMPK, Gemäldegalerie; see Slive, op. cit., vol. 3, p. 53, nos. 89 & 90, reproduced vol. 2, plates 150 & 151; see also Grimm, op. cit., 1990, p. 281, no. 78.
5.  Email dated 28th October 2013. Dr De Winkel discussed a pair of Frans Hals portraits of circa 1638, in which the man wears an almost identical costume to the rpesent sitter: M. de Winkel, in Face Book.  Studies on Dutch and Flemish Portraiture of the 16th-18th Centuries (Liber Amicorum for Rudolf E.O. Ekkart), Leiden 2012, pp. 141-150, figs. 4 & 5.
6.  See under Literature, Grimm, 1971, and Slive, 1974.
7.  Letter to Gerald Guterman dated 1st October 1984.  A photocopy is available upon request.  Professor Slive gave his permission for his letter to be quoted in an email dated 14th October 2013.  See also Slive under Literature, 1989.

Sotheby's. Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale including Three Victorian Masterpieces from the Leverhulme Collection. London | 04 déc. 2013 -www.sothebys.com

Rose bangle by Joel Arthur Rosenthal, JAR Paris

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02b27a63a41c66517cd6987ccdf70d4b

Rose bangle by Joel Arthur Rosenthal, JAR Paris

Jacopo Robusti, called Jacopo Tintoretto and studio (Venice 1518 – 1594), Portrait of a nobleman in armour, standing three quart

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2b8a0e81d890a9c410e773e251a55fa0

Jacopo Robusti, called Jacopo Tintoretto and studio (Venice 1518 – 1594), Portrait of a nobleman in armour, standing three quarter length, beside him his helmet. Photo Sotheby's

inscribed upper left: FIDES.MEA.IN.DEO.EST; inscribed lower right with the monogram of Prince Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rittberg. oil on canvas; 127.6 by 106 cm.; 50 1/4 by 41 3/4 in. Estimation 60,000 — 80,000 GBP

Provenance: Prince Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rittberg (1711-1794), Vienna;
Prince Alois Wenzel von Kaunitz (1774-1848), Vienna;
His sale, Vienna, Artaria & Cie, 13 March 1820, lot 176;
August Artaria (1807-1893), Vienna;
His sale, Vienna, H.O. Miethke, 12 January 1886, lot 79;
Consul-General Eduard Friedrich Weber (1830-1907), Hamburg;
His Deceased sale, Berlin, Rudolph Lepke’s Kunst-Auctions-Haus, 20-22 February 1912, lot 133;
Michel van Gelder, Uccle, Belgium, from whom acquired. 

Exposition: Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Italiaansche Kunst in nederlandsche bezit, 1 July-1 October 1934, no. 381. 

Litterature: Italiaansche Kunst in nederlandsche bezit, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam 1934, cat. no. 381, reproduced fig. 381;
F. Harck, 'Quadri di maestri italiani nelle gallerie private di Germania – La Galleria Weber di Amburgo', in Archivio storico dell’arte, vol. IV, 1891, p. 89;
T. von Frimmel, Geschichte der Wiener Gemäldesammlungen, I, part 3, Berlin and Leipzig 1899, pp. 108/110;
K. Woermann, Wissenschaftlichen Verzeichnisses der älteren Gemälde der Galerie Weber in Hamburg, Dresden 1907, pp. 124-125, cat. no. 133;
B. Berenson, The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance, New York 1910, p. 136;
E. Schaeffer, 'La Vendita della collezione Weber a Berlino', in Rassegna d’arte, vol. XII, 1912, p. 73;
T. von Frimmel, Lexicon der Wiener Gemäldesammlungen, vol. I, Munich 1913, p. 65; vol. II, 1914, pp. 352-353;
S. Reinach, Répertoire de peintures du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance, vol. IV, Paris 1918, p. 468, cat. no. 2, reproduced p. 468;
L. Venturi, 'Nell’esposizione d’arte italiana ad Amsterdam', in L’Arte, vol. XXXVII, 1934, p. 496;
R. van Marle, 'Le pitture all’esposizione d’arte antica italiana di Amsterdam', in Bollettino d’arte, vol. XXVIII, March 1935, p. 398, reproduced p. 397, fig. 12;
G. Matthiae, 'In margine all’esposizione d’arte italiana ad Amsterdam', in Rivista del Reale Istituto d’Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte, vol. V, nos. 1/2, 1935, pp. 224-225;
E. von der Bercken, Die Gemälde des Jacopo Tintoretto, Munich 1942, p. 106, cat. no. 51;
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School, London 1957, vol. I, p. 170 (this, and all the above, as Jacopo Tintoretto);
P. Rossi, Jacopo Tintoretto, vol. I (Portraits), Venice 1974, p. 140, reproduced fig. 189 (with no first-hand knowledge of the portrait, author places it among the works of uncertain attribution). 

This engaging portrait of an unknown nobleman, painted by Tintoretto between the years 1550-55, was in the early literature thought to depict Ottavio Farnese (1524-1586), Duke of Parma and Piacenza.1 This relatively early work in Tintoretto’s long career can be compared to other portraits from the period such as his Portrait of a young man at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, and the Portrait of a Gentleman holding a bust of Lucretia in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.2 

The device on the crest of the helmet, a female figure pouring water from one vessel into another, is the emblem of the cardinal virtue of Temperence. 

Provenance: The first recorded owner of the painting, Prince Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rittberg, whose monogram is found lower right (see fig. 1), was chancellor and foreign minister of the Austrian Empire under Maria Theresa and her sons, Joseph II and Leopold II. He was also a keen patron of the Arts and served as Protector for the Akademie der bildenden Kunste, Vienna, and assembled a notable collection.3 In the nineteenth century the painting passed into the collection of Consul-General Eduard Friedrich Weber who also amassed an important collection.

1. See, for example, Woermann, under Literature.
2. See Rossi, under Literature, p. 103, reproduced fig. 79, and p. 115, reproduced fig. 80 respectively.
3. See Trimmel, under Literature

Sotheby's. Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale including Three Victorian Masterpieces from the Leverhulme Collection. London | 04 déc. 2013 -www.sothebys.com

A violet-shaped amethyst-and-diamond ring. JAR Paris.

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2dc334591a895c0350a0d4bf9ee3f1fa

A violet-shaped amethyst-and-diamond ring. JAR Paris.

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