An Unprecedented Two Masterpieces By El Greco Never Previously Offered At Auction To Headline...

7/28/2019 An Unprecedented Two Masterpieces By El Greco Never Previously Offered At Auction To Headline SothebyS Lond

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For Immediate ReleasePress Release London

London | +44 (0)20 7293 6000 |Leyla Daybelge | [email protected]

Mitzi Mina | [email protected]

An Unprecedented

TWO MASTERPIECES BY EL GRECO

NEVER PREVIOUSLY OFFERED AT AUCTION

To Headline Sothebys London

Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale

On July 3rd 2013

I paint because the spirits whisper madly inside my headDomenios Theotokopoulos, called El Greco

On the evening of 3rdJuly 2013, Sothebys London will stage an unprecedented auction event, by

offering for the first time in living memory, two masterworks by El Greco in the same sale. More

than 400 years since they were executed, these two rare and important paintings, estimated at

3-5 million each, will make their auction debuts. The sale includes other outstanding works

including a remarkable set of six monumental gold ground frescoes by Giandomenico Tiepolo

from the Palazzo Porto in Vicenza (est. 3-5 million), Claude-Joseph Vernets magnificent lost

view of Avignon (3-5 million) and the most comprehensive collection of still lifes - including

some of the earliest known examples of the genre, by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder and Jan

Brueghel the Elder - to appear at auction in many decades. Comprising 48 lots, the Old Master and

Domenios Theotokopoulos, called El Greco, Saint

Dominic in Pra er, oil on canvas, est. 3-5mDomenios Theotokopoulos, called El Greco,

Christ on the Cross, oil on canvas, est. 3-5m


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British Paintings Evening Sale has a combined estimate in excess of 23.7 million. It contains three

works owned by Dr Gustav Rau, one of the greatest collectors of the twentieth century.

Alexander Bell, International Head of Sothebys Old Master Paintings Department commented:

There is somethingprofoundly moving about El Grecos art. He was an extraordinarily visionary artist

undoubtedly one of the most powerfully expressive in Western Art - and his works continue to talk to us

today. To have the opportunity to offer our clients two totally fresh, museum-quality El Grecos in the same

sale is quite something. These works make a fascinating juxtaposition. Christ on the Cross is a powerful

and dramatic large scale altarpiece. Saint Dominic in Prayer, from the legendary collection of Dr Gustav

Rau by contrast, is a small, introspective work for private devotion. The composition of the humble kneeling

figure against the luminescent sky is one of El Grecos greatest inventions. A complete cycle of six

luminescent gold-painted Tiepolo frescoes, also owned by Dr Rau, will be sold along with other works from

his collection by Sothebys to benefit UNICEF Germany.

Saint Dominic in Prayer(est. 3-5m) is one of the artists finest depictions of saints, notable for its

encapsulation of his extraordinary imagination and highly individual technique. In this work ElGreco depicts Saint Dominic simply dressed in his black and white habit in a moment of quiet

piety in the wilderness. The very personal and earthy portrayal of the saint, juxtaposed against his

transcendental surroundings, make Saint Dominic the intercessor between us and the divine.

From his arrival in Spain in 1577, El Grecos paintings tackle this question of the dualism between

heaven and earth. There are four known versions of this composition, probably dating from circa

1600 onwards - the other three are in the collection of Placido Arango in Madrid, the Sacristy of

Toledo Cathedral and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Previously in the collection of the Spanish painter Ignacio Zuloaga and dating from the period ofEl Grecos maturity, around 1600-1610, the monumental Christ on the Cross is the last of only

three surviving large-scale versions of this composition by the great master. The others are in the

collection of the Museum of Art, Cleveland and the collection of the Marqus de la Motilla in

Seville. The original source for the figure of Christ is almost certainly a drawing by Michelangelo

now in the British Museum, which El Greco would have known from early in his career.

Combining the international mannerist tradition with his own mystic expressionism, the work

creates an image of great power ideal for spiritual contemplation. A record price at auction for El

Greco (3.85 million) was achieved for a reduced autograph version of this composition at

Sothebys in 2000, which is now held by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Frescoes by their very nature rarely appear at auction, but the Old Masters and British Paintings

Evening Sale will offer a perfectly detached, complete cycle of six magnificent frescoes by

Giandomenico Tiepolo (overleaf). Painted in a wonderfully intense gold palette, these works

literally glow with radiance. Estimated at 3-5 million, they recount the glories and achievements

of the Porto family of Vicenza from the 11th to the 17th centuries. Painted around 1760 by Tiepolo

for the Palazzo da Porto Festa (built by Andrea Palladio), they illustrate the political shifts and

events of Medieval and early modern Europe.


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The frescoes were meticulously removed from the Palazzo circa 1900 when they were acquired by

the Berlin industrialist and collector Eduard Simon, who had been advised by the renowned

curator and historian Wilhelm Von Bode who founded the Kaiser Friedrich Museum. Simon

installed them in his home in Berlin, which was designed by the renowned architect Alfred

Messel. The frescoes were acquired in 1966 by Dr Gustav Rau.

Gustav Rau (1922-2002) was a truly unique collector. Scion of a

family of industrialists, he initially followed his father into the

automotive business, but at the age of 40, decided to train as a

doctor with the intention of working in the developing world. He

sold the family business and moved to the Democratic Republic of

Congo, where he lived and worked for two decades, building a

hospital at Ciriri and serving as a doctor for the surrounding

community. Totally self-taught, Rau also developed a great

passion for art. Several times a year he would leave his isolatedvillage in Africa to return to the salerooms of Europe often

walking from Heathrow to Mayfair to save money on transport

to attend auctions. His taste and eye for quality were

extraordinarily wide ranging and diverse and over several

decades, he established one of the greatest art collections of the

twentieth century, comprising over 2,000 works of art, the greater part of which he bequeathed in

2001 to UNICEF Germany. Proceeds of the sale will be used to fund long-term assistance programs

for children, and especially to further assist the Ciriri hospital in eastern Congo.


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Last offered at auction more than 200 years ago and exhibited only once since then, Claude-JosephVernets outstanding View of Avignon from the right bank of the Rhne is estimated at 3-5 million.

The work is Vernets only recorded painting of his birthplace, the city of Avignon, and was

described by noted art historian Giuliano Briganti in 1970 as one of Vernets finest views.

Executed in 1756, the painting was exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1759 and was engraved by Pietro

Antonio Martini in 1782. In the late 18th century it passed through a number of distinguished

French collections including the celebrated collection of Pierre Louis Paul Randon de Boisset

(1708-1776), Receveur gnral des Finances, and that of Ange-Joseph Aubert (1736-1785), Joallier

de la Couronne. When compiling her seminal catalogue of Vernets works in 1926 Florence

Ingersoll-Smouse traced the painting only to 1790, its subsequent history unknown, andreproduced it via Martinis engraving. It remained lost until it was discovered in 1954 in a

private collection near Bristol and sold by Arthur Tooth & Sons in London. A dedicated press

release on this work is available.

STILL LIFES

The Evening Sale boasts a quite remarkable survey of still life

painting from some of very earliest examples of the genre

dating from the beginning of the 17th Century, to the late 18th

Century. The paintings of flowers in oils arose as an

independent genre quite suddenly in the Netherlands just

after 1600, due in part to an upsurge in interest in the natural

world in Post-Reformation Northern Europe, combined with

new developments in optics.

Executed in 1607-8, Jan Brueghel the Elders Still life with

irises, tulips, roses, narcissi and fritillary in a ceramic vase

(left) is one of his best known compositions. Estimated at

600,000-800,000 it is one of Brueghels earliest works and an

important addition to his oeuvre, painted concurrent with, or shortly after a small version in the

Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The composition is typical of the years 1605-10 when the


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artist painted a small number of similarly arranged

bouquets in ceramic vases. Critics and collectors alike have

admired Jan Breughels flower pieces from their very

inception and their popularity has never waned.

It is generally accepted that Ambrosius Bosschaert the

Elder is likely to have encountered Jan Brueghel and his

work in 1606, because his flower pieces from that year

onwards show an awareness of Brueghels style.Still life of

roses, marigolds, aquilegia, violets, convolvulus,

hollyhocks, peonies, cornflowers, forget-me-nots, Jacobs

ladder, lily of the valley and carnations in a wan-li kraak

porcelain vase with a butterfly and a snail on a ledge

(right), is however one of his very earliest works, painted

circa 1601-5, estimated at 400,000-600,000. It bears many

similarities to a work in the Fairhaven collection atAnglesea Abbey in Cambridgeshire.

Appearing at auction for the first time in over 100 years, Rachel

Ruyschs recently rediscovered masterpiece, Still life of roses,

tulips, a sunflower and other flowers in a glass vase with a bee,

butterfly and other insects upon a marble ledgeof 1710 is expected

to realise 1-1.5 million. The work, without doubt the most

significant addition to her oeuvre in recent years, epitomises the

final and greatest stage of Dutch flower-painting of the GoldenAge, of which Ruysch was one of the finest protagonists. It was

commissioned from the artist by Pieter de la Court van der Voort

for 1,300 guilders and painted at a pivotal moment in Ruyschs

career. From the first decade of the 18th century, she made several

pairs of still lifes and this work and its companion piece were held

in the celebrated De la Court van der Voort collection in Leiden and later owned by the

prodigious Leipzig collector Gottfried Winckler (1731-1795).

Still life with apricots and cherries by LuisMelndez, one of the greatest European still life

painters of the 18th century, is estimated at 1-1.5

million. The work, executed in 1773, was included

in an exhibition of the artists work held at the

National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Los

Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum

of Fine Arts Boston. The work is a variant of a

painting from Melndezs celebrated commission

of 44 still lifes, produced for the Prince of Asturias(the future Charles IV of Spain), the majority of


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which are today in the Prado Museum. The painting is being sold by Rosendo Naseiro, who

assembled one of the greatest collections of Spanish still life painting ever known.

The sale also features A view of the Valkhof

at Nijmegen seen from the west, with a

ferry crossing the river Waal, a superb

example of Salomon Van Ruysdaels

mature style. Painted in 1647, a year before

the Treaty of Munster gave the Dutch

Republic an enduring peace in which to

enjoy its mounting prosperity, the work

presents a boundlessly optimistic view of a

settled world that was at ease with itself.

The work, is estimated to realise 1-1.5

million.

*Estimates do not include buyers premium

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Sothebys has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744. Sothebys became the firstinternational auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in HongKong (1973) and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sothebyspresents auctions in 10 different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris, and SothebysBidNowprogram allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids from anywhere in the world. Sothebysoffers collectors the resources ofSothebys Financial Services,the worlds only full-service art financing company, aswell asprivate saleopportunities in more than 70 categories, includingS|2, the gallery arm of Sotheby's ContemporaryArt department, and two retail businesses,Sothebys DiamondsandSothebys Wine.Sothebys has aglobal networkof 90 offices in 40 countries and is the oldest company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BID).
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