19th Century European Art

Helped by conservatively pitched estimates, a clutch of middle-market Orientalist pictures achieved some modest growth in value on their first return to auction in three decades.

Bonhams’ (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) latest sale of 19th century pictures in London may have been small – running to just over 100 lots – but what it lacked in size it made up with the broad scope of its contents.

Much of the pre-sale interest in the 19th century paintings offered at the major London rooms centred on two landscapes by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) at Sotheby’s (25/20/12.9% buyer’s premium).

The Old Masters section of Doyle’s auction in New York on October 31 will include a portrait by the French 19th century artist Eugène Delacroix.

Portraiture was not the preferred genre of the Valencian artist Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923), but early in his career he recognised its value as a reliable source of income and persisted with it throughout his lifetime.

Spurred on by Middle Eastern demand, Orientalist art came out top at Christie’s 19th century European & Orientalist Art auction in London.

Christie’s has added a top-end sale of 19th century art to its calendar of New York auctions in October.

Dogny Auction in Lausanne will be offering this portrait by Albert Anker (1831-1910) as a highlight of its June 5 summer auction.

In its auction series in Madrid from May 22-24, Segre Subastas will offer 'The Pyramids of Giza' by the Orientalist artist Charles-Théodore Frère (Paris 1814-88).

Exotic visions are Orientalist art’s stock-in-trade. Bustling bazaars and colourful mosques, lavish harems and sun-drenched deserts populate the canvases in this field.

Good things come to those who wait. That is exactly what happened for Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts. At last year’s TEFAF Maastricht a Dutch collector showed interest in a painting on his stand by Jacob Henricus Maris.

There is, of course, no shortage of works on paper to be found on sale at the Drouot auction centre either in the form of dedicated auctions or as sections within mixed-discipline sales.

An 1894 pencil drawing of a street in Antwerp by Walter Frederick Osborne (1859-1903) was among the last contents offered at auction from West Horsley Place, the Grade I-listed mansion in Surrey owned by historian and broadcaster Bamber Gascoigne.

Strong competition emerged for an oil sketch for Eugène Delacroix’s 'Liberty Leading the People' at Christie’s in London on December 14.