May 2012

On June 6th, in New York City, at 5pm, Christie’s will be putting up for auction a collection of Old Master paintings. These works are simply beautiful. Even if they are, for the most painted by students or in the style of the actual old masters.

One of the few exceptions is a painting by none other than the master Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640 Flemish Baroque painter). Portrait of Ferdinando Gonzaga as a boy (Lot #84) is simply beautiful piece of art work.

This work is very a great example of a true master of paint and the brush. His brush strokes are seamless, color choice are amazing, the light and shadow play are done to perfection.

Christie’s current has the est. price from $500,000-$700,000, which according to other sources is a low auction price. I checked on two other Internet sites which both agree on the value of the work at $700,000-$1,000,000. To me, this price seems a little more reasonable for this work than what Christie’s has it valued at.

The above listed observations of the work are a clear understatement of this work. The way that Sir Rubens made Ferdinando’s clothing, as well as the tapestry that hangs behind him, look like actual velvet, the time and skill that it took to do this can only come from a true master at his craft.

The face of the child is very stereotypical of a Rubens painting in the way that it is as lifelike that it can be, but there is something that holds the viewer to knowing that it is still nothing more than a painting.

I could honestly see this work going for the high end of what Christie’s has it listed for, however not all the way up to the $1,000,000 that others have its estimated value listed at. This is a magnificent piece and whoever is the lucky new owner of this piece will surely have a treasure on their hands. This is a piece that if I were the lucky buyer, I would hold on to for generations to come.

For more on the sale, please visit the Christie’s website and view sale #2464.

Please view the work below as another, more popular work, a wedding portrait of Rubens and his wife Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower.

May 2012

In the month of June, there will be several good auctions.  Sotheby’s will have a Fine Books and Manuscripts auction that will be happening on June 15th in New York City to their Impressionist and Modern Art action happening on June 20th in London.  This will be an interesting sale that I will look forward to.  I am not going to lie and say I know a lot about Fine Books and Manuscripts.  I LOVE to read, and I know which books that I would consider a good book and which ones I would not…like right now I’m reading Emile Zola’s Nana, which I’ve just started reading, and I know a few things to look for in a book to see if it is at least considered an okay or good book…but until further notice, I will say that I know nothing in regards to having the ability to say what a book is worth and what it is not.

Yet another sale that Sotherby’s will be doing on Wednesday, June 20th in London will be their Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale (34-35 New Bond Street London W1A 2AA) at 10:30am and 2:30pm. This sale includes work by Jean Arp (from 1960 to ’65) and surrealist Joan Miro (later works, 1970, 1978 and others) to Henri Matisse, Max Ernst and Salvador Dali.

The one constant in the works that Sotheby’s is auctioning off is that the works are by the artist in their later life, not when they were in their prime.  These works seem to be, for the most part (excluding works like Dali’s La Maison Surrealiste c. 1949) as the artist are on their way out or right before they pass. Yes, there is a market for these works, a grim look on life, seeing an artist’s last grasp at something that they were at one point in time renowned for, however when Joan Miro, a surrealist (which had their day from the mid 1920s (some say as early as 1922 with ManRay others when the first Surrealist Manifesto of either 1924 and yet others in the year 1929, that is why I say the Mid 1920s), having his work from 1970 (the work I’m referring to is Tete [Sale Lot #116] which was executed on the 31st of March, 1970), almost 50 years since the Surrealist movement had had it’s day and only 13 years before Miro died, can be appealing to some people, to own the last bit of history of an artist.

However, I remember watching a documentary, I don’t know if it was from the Tate Modern or had a retired curator from the Tate that stated even Andy Warhol, who most consider one of two of the greatest artist of the 20th century, if not the greatest, as well as one of the five artist that changed art forever, couldn’t get an exhibition in the last years of his life, that actually when Warhol passed on, the Tate had been taking steps and scheduled an exhibition of his work, his first one in over five years (and if I am wrong on this, either way far off or if there was another exhibition that came closer to his death than this one that was in the works, please let me know and comment) or longer as he had been all but forgotten about outside of the work that he had done in the late 1950s to the early 1960s.

That is the way that it happens with art.  As the artist grow older and their work no longer fits into the world around it (as Miro’s work Tete was done in the Pop Art era, when screen printing and BenDay Dots were all of the rave), the work can be seen as the artist doing what he/she loves the most, which is art for art’s sake.  For the most part, their work is not being sold for what it was (Example that Tete has an estimated value of $243,000-324,000 and Salvador Dali’s Deesse De La Pluie [Sale Lot #119] is estimated at $40,500-57,000, a price fare less than work created in their prime) can bring the buy to sure that they might be buying a beautiful piece of work, but the price is there namely for the sake of the the artist who created it, and nothing more.

To see the works up for sale, including the catalogue notes and the provenance on the auction, please go to the Sotheby’s Auction Website or to see the exact works that I reference in this article, please visit the following:

Joan Miro’s Tete

Salvador Dali’s Deesse De La Pluie

April 2012

This month’s sales:

With the recent sale at Christie’s Auction House of their prints seemed to go as they predicted. However, there is one sale that I am shocked by. That is the sale of Richard Hamilton’s piece titled Swingeing London III. It went for slightly over the est. price at $74K. However, Hamilton is a fantastic artist. He is not only credited around the world as one of the founders of Pop Art (or according to the Guardian Newspaper when Mr. Hamilton passed away, the Father of Pop art) but also went through and, at least in my mind, gave birth to modern art in Europe after World War II. He brought art back to a part of the world that was devastated by a war that was actually fueled by art and “purifying” the art world. As I watched this work sale, I was surprised that it didn’t come closer to the $100K mark if not exceed it. Whoever was the lucky buyer of this 1972 screen print got one hell of a deal. I feel that even though Pop Art came to the world only a short 65 or so years ago, that work by Mr. Hamilton will for certain increase in price as time moves on. My suggestion, hold on to this work for 20 years at least. By that time, I promise you will see all of your money returned back to you if you choose to sale it plus a possible $20-$30K added on to the final selling price. His work will be seen as a high collector’s item in years to come, if it is continued to be kept in excellent condition.

Next Month’s Sales.
In May, Christie’s is going to have a massive sale. They’re titling it Impressionist and Modern Art, however, from their online catalogue it appears to be mostly impressionistic to surrealism, and it is artwork done by some of the biggest names in those movements, from Dali to Manet, Pissarro to Matisse and Picasso. The each piece in the lot itself is priced on average over a three million in est. sales price with one huge exception. The work by Camille Pissarro titled Vaches s’abreuvant dans un ruisseau, Osny is undervalued. This piece is signed and dated in 1886 by Pissarro himself in the lower left hand corner.

The reason why I see this as undervalued is because Pissarro if a fantastic painter, just as good as Monet, Manet, Degas and other of the Impressionistic movement. With those, what you are buying is the name. With Pissarro, you are buying the work since his name is often overshadowed by before named artist. His work can stem between the Impressionistic to Post Impressionistic movements. His work is simply beautiful. The example of loose brushwork is second to none and the color choice in the painting is gorgeous with bright, almost pastel colors. The subject matter of this painting is a little off from what the norm is for the Impressionists of leaguer instead being a lady with four cows, two of which are drinking from a stream. It is an example of a Realism subject matter painted in Impressionism form.

My personal thoughts are that if the buyer of this piece can get this work under or at the low end of the est. sales price of $500,000 to $700,000 that is a great buy. This work will see its day at the seven figure mark and is a great example of an Impression Masterpiece for anyone’s collection. The only question I have is that Christies has the provenance for this piece dating back to the 1950s when it was bought by the current owner. That can be over looked however since it is signed and dated by the artist, but the history of the piece would be something to look into and to verify the signature on the piece itself. Other than that, the piece is a fantastic one.

This lot is scheduled for auction on May 1st of 2012, auction to start at 7pm, with a sale number of 2554 and lot number 26.