Exceptional Discoveries in the Fine Art Auction on 21st May

On 21^st May, Lempertz will present a selection of significant works by the Old Masters and from the nineteenth century, led by an impressive “Portrait of a Nobleman” by Bernard van Orley. Painted around 1520, the work was long known only through a black-and-white reproduction. Now returning to the market for the first time in nearly fifty years, it offers the rare opportunity to study one of the artist’s important court portraits in the original. 

With further works on offer by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Jan Brueghel the Elder and Frans Francken the Younger, as well as Melancholy after Domenico Fetti, the auction brings together paintings and drawings of outstanding importance.

The finely executed Portrait of a Nobleman by Bernard van Orley ranks among the most remarkable court portraits of the Netherlandish Renaissance. The sitter appears in the elegant fashion of the early sixteenth century, wearing richly woven silk brocade, a dark gown and a black beret; the letter and sword hilt emphasise his status and self-assurance. Van Orley’s mastery is particularly evident in the brilliant rendering of the fabrics, while his portraiture is distinguished by clarity, dignity and an unmistakable courtly presence.

The work remained for many years in the celebrated collection of the Earls of Rosebery at Mentmore Towers. It will be offered for sale at auction by Lempertz in May with an estimate of €100,000 to €150,000.

With The Seven Works of Mercy by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, the auction presents a work that derives from one of the most influential pictorial concepts in Flemish art. The composition combines biblical teaching with vivid narrative detail and demonstrates how Pieter Brueghel the Younger transformed his father’s legacy into a distinctive pictorial language with a stronger genre character. The painting carries an estimated value of €150,000 to €200,000. 

Also of particular interest is the double-sided drawing by Jan Brueghel the Elder depicting a Winter Landscape with Frozen Canal and Skaters and The Bird Trap. The sheet offers a direct insight into the creation of one of the best-known winter scenes in Flemish painting. It was confirmed by Klaus Ertz as an authentic work by the artist dating from around 1600 and is estimated at €40,000 to €60,000.

A monumental floral still life by Jan Brueghel the Elder is also included in the sale. It is presented in a vase which, as in many celebrated examples of the two artists’ collaborations, was contributed to the painting by Frans Francken the Younger. Dating to the 1630s, the work carries an estimate of €90,000 to €120,000.

Following the remarkable discovery last year of a floral still life by Jan Davidsz. de Heem, which has since entered the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the current auction likewise features a magnificent arrangement by this important artist. The sumptuous still life with silver vessels and a Wanli porcelain bowl filled with fruit, oysters on a silver platter, and a lute in the foreground, conveys an impression of the abundance of precious goods to be found in the port city of Antwerp during the 1640s. Yet in his composition Jan Davidsz. de Heem also intertwines this splendour with moral allusions of the kind that are inherent to the paintings of the Dutch Golden Age. The work is estimated at €300,000 to €400,000. 

Melancholy, as depicted by Domenico Fetti, is a motif deeply rooted in cultural history, appearing in the work of Albrecht Dürer as well as in classical antiquity. Domenico Fetti’s early Baroque composition exists in several versions in some of the world’s most important museums; this version attributed to the artist most closely resembles the painting in the Gallerie dell'Accademia and is estimated at €150,000 to €200,000.

The nineteenth century is framed in the catalogue by paintings by Carl Blechen from the early period, including a Rocky Landscape with a Hermit (Evening View), and by a springtime flower meadow by Peder Mørk Mønsted towards the end. Blechen’s painting is a recently rediscovered variant of the work held in the collection of the Stiftung Fürst-Pückler-Park und Schloss Branitz. It belongs to the early phase of Blechen’s oeuvre, in which the influence of Karl Friedrich Schinkel is still discernible. The work will be offered at auction with an estimate of €100,000 to €120,000.

The Flower Meadow by a Stream in Spring, dated 1908, by Peder Mørk Mønsted stands at the end of the long nineteenth century. Here, his painting approaches realism, and together with its perspectival depth, the Danish artist achieves a work of immersive effect. This sense of fascination proved enduring for the family from whose ownership the work is now being offered for sale. Having acquired it shortly after its creation, they are now parting with it on 21st May, when it will appear on the art market for the first time in generations, with an estimate of €50,000 to €70,000.

Jan Bykowski
Press and PR
bykowski@lempertz.com
Tel. 0049 (0)221 925729 -57