Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Bonhams Old Master Paintings = £4.33m

July 6, 2016 by Marion Maneker

William Dobson Self Portrait (200-300k) 1.1m GBP

 

Bonhams Old Master Paintings 716

Here’s Bonhams’s release on the sale:

  • William Dobson self-portrait sells for £1,106,550 – new world record at auction.
  • Pastoral Landscape by Claude Lorrain sells for £722,500
  • The Entombment by Maerten van Heemskerck makes new world auction price for a work in oil of £482,500
  • Part of the Refectory of Walsingham Abbey Norfolk by John Sell Cotman sets new world auction record price of £338,500

The earliest known self-portrait by William Dobson (1611-1656) sold for £1,106,500 at Bonhams Old Master Paintings sale in London today, 6 July. This is a new world record price for a work by the artist at auction easily surpassing the previous best of £362,500. The painting was bought by a private English collector.

Bonhams Director of Old Master Painting, Andrew McKenzie said, “It is difficult to overestimate the rarity and importance of this work in the history of British art and I am not surprised that it has sold for a such a very high record price.”

Portrait of the Artist is one of the earliest known works that can confidently be attributed to Dobson who was court painter to Charles I during the English Civil War. His early death in 1646 at the age of 45 cut short a dazzling career and not until Hogarth more than seventy years later did Britain produce such a distinctive and important artist. The antiquarian and author of Brief Lives, John Aubrey (1626-1697), described him as “the most excellent painter that England has yet bred.”

At the same sale, Pastoral Landscape by Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) was sold for £722,500 against an estimate of £600,000-800,000. Claude painted Pastoral Landscape between 1635 and 1637 in Rome. It is not known who commissioned the painting, but around this time Claude’s work had begun to attract important patrons, including Pope Urban VIII, the future Pope Clement IX and, perhaps most prestigious of all, King Philip IV of Spain.

Andrew McKenzie commented, “Claude is regarded as the greatest painter of ‘Ideal Landscape’. Pastoral Landscape was a particularly fine example of his ability to create an image that is more beautiful and ordered than nature itself.”

Other notable results included:

  • The Entombment by Maerten van Heemskerck (1498-1574) sold for £482,500. Described by Andrew McKenzie as ‘a powerful and important work by a major artist of the Northern Renaissance” the work set a new world auction record for a work by van Heemskerck in oil.
  • Saint Sebastian by Jusepe de Ribera (1588-1656) sold for £218,500
  • Portrait of Elizabeth Burgoyne by George Romney made £314,500
  • Part of the Refectory of Walsingham Abbey Norfolk by John Sell Cotman (1782-1842) sold for a new world record price of £338,500. The previous record was £80,500.

More from Art Market Monitor

  • How Good Were the Sculls?How Good Were the Sculls?
  • Bellwether PrintsBellwether Prints
  • Speculators Preserve BanksySpeculators Preserve Banksy
  • Cleveland Museum’s David Franklin ResignsCleveland Museum’s David Franklin Resigns
  • Collecting KhanCollecting Khan
  • Pigozzi Recalls How He Came to Own Seydou Keita’s WorkPigozzi Recalls How He Came to Own Seydou Keita’s Work

Filed Under: General

About Marion Maneker

LiveArt

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor
 

Loading Comments...