Self-Portraits by Van Dyck, Rubens, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun & More Highlight Sotheby’s Masters Week in NY

NEW YORK, 26 January 2024 –  Spanning paintings, drawings, sculpture, furniture and more, Sotheby’s annual Masters Week sales kick off next week, underscored by works from renowned private collections including Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun’s remarkable self-portrait from private collection of preeminent scholar Joseph Baillio, as well as the collections of Jimmy Younger, Ian Irving, and Jordan Saunders.

This season’s Master Paintings sale is headlined by a strong group of pictures by Spanish artists, led by Luis Meléndez’s lush still-life of Artichokes and Tomatoes in a Landscape – one of only six large-scale still lifes that are set within outdoor settings (estimate $2-3 million); as well as a newly discovered early painting by El Greco, executed circa 1568 or 1569, almost immediately after the artist’s arrival in Venice from Crete (estimate $400-600,000). The sale is further highlighted by a beautiful marine by Salomon van Ruysdael (estimate $2-3 million); a group of five British and Italian works recently deaccessioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and being sold to benefit the Acquisition Fund; and two paintings from the Jacques Goudstikker collection, which were recently restituted to Goudstikker’s heir. This season’s sales are rounded out by recent re-discoveries, rare self-portraits by pioneering women artists, and some exceptional works on paper. 

The One will return for its second iteration, a unique, cross-category sale concept that tells an extraordinary story of excellence in craft, artistry, and endeavor from the great civilizations of antiquity to the sports and entertainment worlds of today. Through each object offered in the sale, The One showcases the very best examples of human ingenuity, achievement, and excellence. Led by The 2nd May 1840 Penny Black – the first piece of mail sent using a prepaid stamp –  the sale features an array of objects ranging from a gilt and painted cassetta dating to 1280 – 1290; The Hope Cup, a magnificent cup carved from the largest block of jasper ever seen, exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1855; and The Dynasty Collection – the complete set of Michael Jordan’s ‘Air Jordan’ Six Championship Sneakers (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 1998).

All works are on public view in Sotheby’s New York galleries beginning today, with auctions taking place from 26 January – 3 February. 

Sotheby’s Masters Week sale series is presented in partnership with Qatar Executive. 

RE-DISCOVERED SELF-PORTRAITS

A recently re-discovered Self-Portrait by Sir Anthony van Dyck, painted in 1637-1639, represents what appears to be the artist’s penultimate self-portrait. The work was also likely a gift to King Charles I from van Dyck, who probably hoped it would be hung in Whitehall Palace alongside a portrait of his former master and rival Sir Peter Paul Rubens. The British Parliament sold the work after King Charles I’s death to Remigius van Leemput, an artist who frequently copied Van Dyck’s works and possibly an assistant to the master in his studio. The painting was later restored to the British Royal family, eventually travelling to Holland with King William III, where it hung in Paleis Het Loo. Sold by the Dutch state after the death of William III, the painting then passed through various collections – including, in a curious turn of fate – part of the collection of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center due to the similarities between the two legendary men’s mustaches. Though the attribution to Van Dyck seems to have fallen away in the 1980s, recent restoration and research has supported a full re-attribution of this late masterpiece by Van Dyck. 

Please find the full details on this work here.

Painted by Sir Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp around 1610-1611, this self-portrait was created while the artist was a young man, approximately age thirty-three, shortly after his return from a transformative eight-year sojourn in Italy. A recent rediscovery, the work was painted in 1610-1611, when the artist was still establishing himself as one of the foremost painters of Northern Europe. It is thought to be the second standalone portrait completed by the artist and it remained in Rubens’s possession and that of his descendants (alongside all of his self-portraits) until 1853.

This artwork is likely contemporaneous with Rubens’s impressive Raising of the Cross triptych, which he painted for the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. This masterpiece, which remains in place today, served as a herald of the Baroque style in Northern Europe, utilizes swift, sketch-like brushstrokes, are evident in both works, characteristic of his intimate portraits from the following decade. 

This remarkable portrait by renowned Mannerist artist Lavinia Fontana is a recently rediscovered work depicting an elegant noblewoman at three-quarter length, holding a lace-trimmed handkerchief in her hand, which she rests on her pregnant belly – practically unparalleled in its portrayal of a visibly expectant mother. Widely regarded as the first professional woman artist and the subject of a recent, major exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland, Fontana directed her own studios, and fully supported her husband and children with her work – which included commissions from nobility and even an appointment as the pope’s portraitist. Remarkably, Fontana’s work commanded prices equal to those of her male counterparts at the time, including those of Anthony van Dyck. Her portraits of important Bolognese figures were the most sought after, first by men and then by the 1580s the noblewomen of the city. This work bears the hallmarks of Fontana’s grand portraits as well as the influence of the artist’s near-contemporary Caravaggio, and it is thought to is thought to represent Lavinia herself, who produced several self-portraits over the course of her career.

Please find the full details on this work here.

WORKS FROM ESTEEMED PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

A Collection of Works by Pioneering Artist Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

A group of paintings, drawings and sculpture from the collection of preeminent scholar Joseph Baillio is highlighted by portraits and landscapes by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. Representing the largest collection of works by the pioneering artist ever to come to auction, the works provide a rare glimpse of the scope of both her illustrious career and incredible life story, as she rose from humble beginnings to take her place at the heart of the French royal circle,  friend of Marie Antoinette, and the most internationally celebrated artist of her day. At the heart of the collection is a remarkable Self-Portrait executed just after she arrived in Italy after fleeing revolutionary Paris, showcasing her determination to succeed as a painter once again (estimate $700,000 – 1,000,000). Portrayed without frills or extravagance and looking younger than her true age, the work powerfully signifies her reinvention in spite of the circumstances that drove her from home. There is also a tender Portrait of the Artist’s Mother  – one of the artist’s earliest surviving paintings, executed when Le Brun was approximately 20 years old – a piece that she treasured and took with her everywhere like her own self-made amulet (estimate $100,000 – 150,000). 

Please find the full Catalogue available here

The Estate of Jimmy Younger

Comprising 16th and 17th century European Mannerist and Baroque drawings, paintings, sculptures, furniture, and works of decorative, The Estate of Jimmy Younger reflects the late Houston-based collector’s decades of passionate and dedicated collecting. Younger began his collecting journey with contemporary American painting, though shifted his focus on the art of the Dutch Golden Age, and later to Italian Mannerist and Baroque paintings and drawings. He became a true connoisseur, and served on boards at The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, The National Gallery, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Leading the sale is ’s large-scale painting of Saint Mary Magdalene, which will make its auction debut this month (estimate $600,000-800,000). A number of rare drawings underscore the collection, including a beautiful oil-on-paper study sheet by the leading Dutch Mannerist painter Cornelis Cornelisz. Van Haarlem – one of just four surviving works of its kind (estimate $350-550,000). Falling between Cornelis’s paintings and his drawings, the work combines the best qualities of both, including completed figures with oil paint, and other figures drawn with pencil. Although small monochrome paintings in oil, sometimes on paper, are not unknown in the works of fellow Haarlem painters, sheets like this of full-color oil figure studies are unprecedented in Dutch or Flemish art of the period. Further highlighting the group is a rare drawing by Perino del Vaga – one of Raphael’s most influential pupils (estimate $300-500,000). Unknown before its appearance on the art market and acquisition by Younger in 2003, the work is an important, double-sided addition to the corpus of his known drawings. 

Please find the full Catalogue available here.

The Pleasure of Objects: The Ian & Carolina Irving Collection

Many are the stories that make a home. For Ian and Carolina Irving, more than for most. In The Pleasure of Objects: The Ian and Carolina Irving Collection, the pair, a prominent expert in rare antique silver and an esteemed textile designer respectively, present a collection of pieces chosen and treasured over the course of the life they shared. There is a particular alchemy in its eclecticism; furniture, textiles, artworks and other objects layering one upon the other, outlining a decades-long trajectory of the couple’s respective tastes, interests and curatorial inclinations. The assortment, rich in tour-de-force craftsmanship, was never hidden in cupboards but out on display and always in use to decorate a quiet corner, host guests, or to elevate a simple family dinner.

Please find the full Catalogue available here.

Elegance & Wonder: The Jordan Saunders Collection

Elegance & Wonder: The Jordan Saunders Collection celebrates the interiors created by the collector and philanthropist Jordan Saunders in her Park Avenue penthouse triplex as a setting for her generous hospitality and distinguished collection of Old Master paintings, which are currently on loan to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia. Classic English and European furniture, silver and ceramics and Chinese Export porcelain combine with an important group of furniture and objects formerly belonging to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, to evoke a sense of Old World refinement not far removed from the Windsors’ own residence outside Paris. Like the Windsors, Mrs Saunders has expertly assembled a collection both beautiful and functional to be used and enjoyed on a daily basis.

Please find the full Catalogue available here.

Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries

The latest iteration of the Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries sale once again presents a selection of drawings, watercolors, gouaches and pastels that together chart in fascinating ways the development of the art of drawing in Europe over the centuries, and the great variety of functions that this many-faceted art form served.

 This sophisticated and well-preserved portrait study of a man in a fur hat, most probably executed shortly before 1500, is a rare example of a type and quality of drawing that is almost unknown outside the context of major museum collections (estimate $300-500,000). Figure drawings and portrait studies in silverpoint were central to the artistic practice of the Netherlandish artist’s studio during the later 15th and early 16th centuries, though only very few Northern European silverpoint drawings such as this example are known. Given the nature of workshop practice, firm attributions to the leading masters themselves are rare: for example, there is only one drawing that is generally accepted as being from the hand of Jan van Eyck, and hardly more by Hugo van der Goes, to whom the present drawing was formerly attributed. As historian Fritz Koreny noted, this outstanding drawing of a man in a fur hat fits most closely into the Van Eyckian tradition, as it developed towards the end of the 15th century.

Pietro da Cortona’s striking study for a figure of Fury in the Palazzo Barberini Ceiling testifies to the artist’s talent as a draftsman (estimate $120 – 150,000). A major addition to the corpus of his graphic works, the drawing will be included in Dr. Jörg Martin Merz’s forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the drawings of the artist. The Barberini ceiling, executed in the  gran salone of the Palazzo Barberini, was the artist’s first monumental commission and considered to be Cortona’s major masterpiece. This study relates to the figure of Fury, in the right foreground of the left cove of the ceiling. Over his years of working on the Barberini ceiling, the artist must have made a large number of preliminary drawings, but almost all of these are now lost, making this drawing a rare survival.

Please find the full Catalogue available here.

CALENDAR OF EXHIBITIONS AND SALES

Exhibitions 

Sotheby’s New York
1334 York Avenue
26 January – 1 February 
Monday–Saturday, 10am–5pm | Sunday, 1pm–5pm

Live Auctions

The Pleasure of Objects: The Ian & Carolina Irving Collection (30 January, 10 AM ET)
A Scholar Collects (31 January, 10 AM ET)
Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries (31 January, 11 AM ET)
The Estate of Jimmy Younger (31 January, 2 PM ET)
Master Paintings & Sculpture Part I (1 February, 10 AM ET)
Master Paintings Part II (1 February, 2 PM ET)
The One (2 February 10 AM ET)
Master Sculpture & Works of Art (2 February, 11 AM ET)
19th Century European Paintings & Sculpture (2 February, 3 PM ET)
Elegance & Wonder: The Jordan Saunders Collection (3 February 10 AM ET)

Online Auctions

Old Master and British Works on Paper (26 January – 2 February)