Following a successful first two quarters of 2009, the Dorotheum now looks ahead to the autumn season and this year’s third major auction week. At the auction of old master paintings on 6th October 2009, Georg Flegel presents us with an exquisite bouquet, a still life of flowers with a vase decorated in relief, scintillating wine glasses, and a beaker, all rendered in stunning detail. This splendid demonstration of skill by one of the world’s leading painters of still lifes is valued at between 200.000 and 300.000 Euro. Another famous still life painter, Jacopo Ligozzi, court painter to the Medici Family, enriches the auction selection with two of his rare paintings, each depicting a pair of vases with flowers (each € 100.000 – 150.000). Representing an art-historical discovery, Jacob van Ruisdael’s Forest at a River Bend was believed lost for over 100 years (€ 70.000 – 90.000). Francesco Zuccarelli, a prominent proponent of 18th century neoclassical painting who rose to fame in Great Britain likewise features with a painting typical of his style (€ 200.000 – 230.000). The Bolognese painter Michele di Matteo Lambertini depicts John the Baptist and an Apostle in a wealth of detail and brilliant colour; this 15th century painting belongs to the transition period between the Gothic and the Renaissance (price available upon inquiry). An impressive portrait by Alessandro Allori shows a young lady wearing the fashionable clothes of her day and a serious expression; works by this artist are part of the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna (€ 60.000 – 80.000).
Portraits are also the strong suit of the auction of 19th century paintings on 7th October 2009. Pride of place goes to Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller with a Portrait of a young girl in a mountain landscape – „Antonia Seemann vor einer Berglandschaft“ (€ 30.000 – 40.000), sharing the limelight with the Portrait of an Oriental (€ 12.000 – 15.000) by the Viennese artist Franz Xaver Kosler and one of a Spanish Field Marshal by Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz (€ 15.000 – 20.000). Another major genre work by Waldmüller, his Children decorating a Conscript’s hat, is distinguished by the dramatic interplay of light and shadow and by the scene’s breathtakingly life-like quality („Kinder schmücken den Hut eines Konskribierten“, cf. separate press release; € 300.000 – 400.000). Among other figurative compositions, Friedrich Gauermann stands out with a lyrical and perfectly balanced Harvest in the Foothills of the Alps dating to 1835 („Ernteszene im Voralpenland“, € 100.000 – 120.000).
Once again, the Dorotheum auction includes a strikingly beautiful, neoclassical academic painting from the Blaas family of painters: Eugéne de Blaas, famous for his Venetian scenes, mysteriously named his painting The Spider and the Fly, and it is up to the viewer to decide which of the two figures, a lady in folk dress and a barefooted man, is intended to represent which animal („Die Spinne und die Fliege“, € 150.000 – 180.000).
At the antiques auctions on 7th and 8th October 2009, art lovers will be spoiled for choice: The silver auction will be under full sail with a 33cm tall Historism Period centrepiece from Vienna in the form of a sailing ship which awaits a new ‘master and commander’ (€ 14.000 – 18.000). A large lidded tankard from Paris mounted with ivory dates to the same period (€ 12.000 – 16.000). The porcelain selection will win over prospective buyers with a Du-Paquier collection and an important 83cm tall ornamental vase from the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin (€ 25.000 – 45.000). Sculpture includes an extraordinary St Sebastian attributed to Martin Zürn.
The name Josef Danhauser guarantees the finest of Biedermeier furniture. At the furniture auction on 7th October 2009, the Dorotheum presents a pair of candleholders designed in 1805/10 (€ 30.000 – 40.000), along with a very stylish Italian Baroque commode (€ 12.000 – 16.000). At the jewellery auction on 8th October 2009, highlights include a high-carat lady’s platinum bracelet set with several diamonds and brilliants made by A. E. Köchert and valued at between 37.000 and 60.000 Euro, as well as a special kind of hair ornament which can be disassembled and worn in four individual sections; the white gold ensemble is set with diamonds, old-cut diamonds, and sapphires (€ 22.000 – 35.000).
3rd Auction Week:
6th October 2009: Old Masters
7th October 2009: 19th Century Paintings
7th – 8th October 2009: Antiques (Furniture, Silver, Sculpture, Glass & Porcelain)
8th October 2009: Jewellery
Public Viewing:
from 26th September 2009
Venue:
PALAIS DOROTHEUM, Wien 1, Dorotheergasse 17
www.dorotheum.com
