Enfilade

Claude-Joseph Vernet, Un port de mer au clair de lune, 1774, oil on canvas, 115 × 163 cm
(Lot 33: sold for €416,000)

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Press release, via Art Daily:

Tableaux anciens et du XIXème siècle (Sale 17586)
Christie’s, Paris, 25 June 2019

The top lot of the Old Masters Paintings sale (17586) in Paris was Diane découvrant la grossesse de Callisto by Denys Van Alsloot (1570–1620), which sold for €454,000, four times its pre-sale estimate.

Attributed to François Boucher, Jeune garçon noir de profil, oil on canvas, 45 × 38 cm (Lot 33: sold for €43,750; estimate €20,000–30,000).

Pierre Etienne, International director of the department, stated: “We are proud of the results achieved today for the first sale of our new team, under the hammer of François de Ricqlès for which this auction was the last of his career at Christie’s. These strong results demonstrate that international buyers, from thirteen countries, are always attracted by high-quality paintings from private provenances and fresh to the market such as the beautiful painting by Claude-Joseph Vernet, which was acquired for €416,000 and for le Baron Gérard’s Portrait of the Countess Starzenska coming from the Counts Doria collection which realised €200,000.”

The young painter Théodore Chassériau was also represented in the sale with a beautiful replica of La Joconde executed when the artist was only seventeen years old. It sold for €162,500 against a pre-sale estimate of €50,000–70,000.

Astrid Centner, Director of the department added: “We were pleased to see the constant very positive response of the market for early Flemish paintings that realised great results today such as for a Portrait of a Man Holding a Carnation, which realised €298,000 against a pre-sale estimate of €40,000–60,000, and a portrait of Saint Magdalene executed by the Flemish school ca. 1530, which achieved €162,500.”

We can also notice the preemption made by the Hyacinthe Rigaud Museum for Portrait d’homme à l’habit bleu executed by Hyacinthe Rigaud ca. 1700–15, which sold for €25,000.

Sale total including buyer’s premium: €3.5million

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Sculpture et Objets d’Art européens (Sale 17587)
Christie’s, Paris, 25 June 2019

Jean-Antoine Houdon, Marble Bust of the Countess Jean-Isaac de Thellusson de Sorcy, ca. 1791 (Lot 147: sold for €562,000; estimate €200,000–300,000).

The top lot of the Sculpture and Objets d’Art sale (17587) was a bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon representing the Countess Jean-Isaac de Thellusson de Sorcy, executed ca. 1791, which sold for €562,000.

Isabelle d’Amécourt, Director of the department, stated: “We are pleased with these great results illustrating the continuing high demand for European sculptures and works of art. This auction, which attracted buyers from twenty countries, put forward religious iconography as seen with a stone group of Mary Magdalene and a donor (probably Jacqueline de Bavière), which sold for €478,000, and underlined also the immense talent of 18th-century artists such as Jean-Antoine Houdon or Joseph Chinard, whose bust representing the portrait of a lady artist was recently restituted to the Seligmann family thanks to great work of Christie’s teams.”

Further highlights included two impressive terracotta sculptures of allegorical figures by Mathieu de Tombay, which achieved €112,500 against a pre-sale estimate of €50,000–80,000, and a linden and walnut wood relief of the Abduction of Ganymede executed by Guiseppe Maria Bonzanigo, which realised €47,500.

A real enthusiasm was seen once again for beautiful walnut staircase models. The important group of sixteen staircase models from Henri Klinger’s collection achieved a total of €243,375. Among the highlights was a walnut double staircase executed by Ernst Pinedo in 1897, which was sold for €40,000 against a pre-sale estimate of €5,000–8,000, and another double staircase realised in Amiens ca. 1925, which achieved €37,500 against a pre-sale estimate of €6,000–9,000.

Sale total including buyer’s premium: €2.5million