Only 26 lots are included in the auction dedicated to Old Masters and 19th century paintings that Sotheby's is holding in London on December 6. But, as is evidenced by the offerings, quality counts more than quantity, with top works by Gustave Courbet and John Singer Sargent, as well as paintings by William Hogarth and Willem Claez. Heda.
The latter is represented by a still life, and it is not the only one in an Old Masters auction. The last lot to be called up is Still life with roses, carnations, tulips, daffodils, irises, misty love, delphiniums and other flowers in a wicker basket, with a butterfly and a cricket, executed on a 32 x 42 cm copper plate and estimated at £500,000-700,000 (about $634,000-888,000). As the signature “Clara P” reveals, it is a work by the important still life painter Clara Peeters, who was active in Antwerp around 1607-1621 or later.
Related: On Rocky Paths: Female Artists from the Renaissance and Enlightenment
Only around 40 works by Peeters are known, and she used copper rarely. The masterpiece was in a Belgian private collection for almost 100 years, which is why it was never documented in specialist literature.
Another discovery or re-attribution comes with Rembrandt's oil painting The Adoration of the Magi, with the estimate of £10-15 million ($12.6-19 million). The extraordinary work on an oak panel was probably created around 1628 when Rembrandt was still at the beginning of his career. It was last offered at a Sotheby's auction in London in 1963 as a work by Rembrandt. Shortly afterwards, an art historian had doubts about the authorship. He considered it more likely that it was a work from Rembrandt's circle and had it deleted from the catalog raisonné.
Related: Rembrandt: Painter of the Soul
Over the following decades, The Adoration of the Magi was auctioned twice as a work from Rembrandt's circle at Christie's in Amsterdam. Most recently it came up for auction online where it was offered with an estimate of €10,000-15,000. The buyer at the time and current consignor probably had a hunch about its true provenance and paid €890,000. A detailed investigation followed, which came to the conclusion that it was a real Rembrandt, so that the small painting is now at Sotheby's with a significantly higher estimate.
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Although not a rediscovery, but also worth mentioning is this exciting Portrait of a Mughal lady, seated in an interior painted by Francesco Renaldi in 1787. Renaldi, born in England with Italian roots, studied at the Royal Academy Schools and then traveled to Italy. In 1786 he was drawn even further afield, and as part of the British East India Company he traveled to India to work as a painter there. From 1786 to 1789 Renaldi worked in Calcutta (now Kolkata). In the following years he traveled around and worked in, among other places, Lucknow and Dacca (now Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh).
By the time he returned to England in 1791, Renaldi had developed an excellent reputation as a painter in India. Although the identity of the young lady in the present portrait is unknown, the work, with its fine lines and tones, impresses with Renaldi's mastery. There is an almost identical work in a private collection.
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