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Oil painting


War was mere childsplay for Habsburg emperor

26 July 2002

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller’s small 1832 child portrait of the future Kaiser Franz Joseph as a Small Grenadier playing with toy soldiers, right, panel 13 x 11in (33.5 x 28cm), led the Wiener Kunst sale in Vienna on June 11 with a low-estimate €150,000 (£97,000).

Hole in one for Scottish gallery

24 July 2002

JUST as the world’s top golfers were teeing off for The Open at Muirfield last week, Scotland was celebrating another hole in one. Grants totalling more than £2m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Arts Collection Fund, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, St Andrews and private benefactors meant that the Scottish National Portrait Gallery could acquire the nation’s most important golfing painting, Charles Lees’ (1800-1880) oil on canvas, The Golfers (1847).

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Rubens masterpiece joins the world record holders at £45m

17 July 2002

History was made at Sotheby’s July 10 Old Master Paintings sale when Sir Peter Paul Rubens’ long-lost masterpiece, The Massacre of the Innocents, sold in the room to the Mayfair-based book dealer Sam Fogg for £45m, the highest auction price ever achieved for a work of art in the UK.

Reading between the cracks

12 July 2002

Every picture tells a story, but in the case of Théodore Chassériau’s large portrait of Comtesse de Latour-Maubourg, it was condition as much as content that revealed the artist’s state of mind at the time.

£360,000 Osborne backs claims of Irish Sellers

19 June 2002

IRISH auctioneers have long been adamant that Irish pictures sell better in Ireland and certainly the 71 per cent sold by lot achieved at James Adam (15% buyer’s premium) in Dublin on May 29 was only just shy of the 76 per cent by lot selling rate taken at Christie’s Irish sale in London on May 17.

Auctioneer sues vendor after settling buyer’s claim over painting

12 June 2002

A VENDOR has been ordered to pay more than £10,000 legal costs after a picture he sold at auction proved not to be by the famous German artist to whom it was attributed.

Back in the provinces, a more traditional view-halloo

23 May 2002

THE ongoing calls for a ban against fox hunting have failed to dent the popularity of hunting and equestrian pictures at auction. Cecil Aldin (1870-1935) and Snaffles (Charlie Johnson Payne) (1884-1967) are just two of the artists for whom demand is strong and after Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) it is Lionel Edwards (1878-1966) whose work is taking consistently high prices in the salerooms.

Lavery’s lucky touch wins again...

15 May 2002

Sir John Lavery R.A. (1856-1941) is one of the hottest names in the booming Irish picture market and back in 1998 The Bridge at Grez, a large oil on canvas, took a record £1.3m at Christie’s London.

Driving up Walpole

25 April 2002

One of the earliest known portraits of Sir Robert Walpole, England’s first Prime Minister, is to be sold at Cheffin’s Cambridge salerooms on May 14, as part of the collection of Cambridge academic Sir John Plumb.

£1.7m reject returns

24 April 2002

ONE of the most important oils by Irish artist Louis le Brocquy (b.1916) is to return to Ireland after spending nearly 50 years in Italy.

The coming woman – and one to watch out for

17 April 2002

THE names of two women artists, one very well known, the other undeservedly obscure, provided talking points at two provincial sales in March.

...and in Amsterdam

27 March 2002

Look at the differences between the modern-day perspective of Amsterdam’s Nieuw Voorburgwaal, and the 1759 depiction by Dutch artist Jan de Beyer (c.1703-85) to be offered for sale from the Anton Dressman collection at Christie’s Amsterdam on April 16 with an estimate of €45,000-75,000.

You can still get value out of the Victorians

26 March 2002

What will £1500 buy in today’s picture market? If quality is going to be my criterion and oil painting is my medium, then not very much, one might be forced to conclude after reading the latest report on how the market is polarising between an increasingly expensive best and a totally undesirable rest.

Prado loans Philip IV of Spain’s portrait to Parham House

22 March 2002

A ROYAL remarriage will take place at Parham House in Sussex at the end of this month between King Philip IV of Spain and Elizabeth of France.

US link lifts Peele to five times hopes

22 March 2002

Artists with any kind of American connection almost invariably attract an extra level of interest when their work comes up for sale at a UK provincial saleroom. This was certainly the case when this 2ft 53/4in by 223/4in (75 x 57cm) genre canvas, right, by John Thomas Peele (1822-1897) came up for sale at the Heathfield, East Sussex rooms of Watsons (10% buyer’s premium) on March 7.

Montague Dawson and Americana survive squalls

14 March 2002

NEW YORK: MARINE paintings are a specialist area which have received plenty of attention from auction houses eager to tap into the wealth of those rich enough to enjoy mucking around in boats.

Scene set for Dutch topography

07 March 2002

HOLLAND: IN honour of the Netherlands’ long tradition of landscapes and town scenes Christie’s Amsterdam (buyer’s premium 20.825 per cent) had a topographical theme to its pictures sale on January 22.

St Francis fires up Continental trade

07 March 2002

THE relative strength of Old Master paintings in comparison to other sectors of the market has been noted at a number of recent auctions, but this new-found strength, it seems, is not just restricted to top-end sales in London and New York.

Mucha and more

04 March 2002

A large desert Caravane by Victor Huguet (c.1895), 4ft 4in x 6ft 8in (1.31 x 2.02m) and inspired by Fromentin, led the Delorme-Fraysse picture sale on February 12 with €82,000 (£51,200).

Lost Rubens could make as much as £20m

04 March 2002

Sotheby’s July 11 Old Master sale will include the re-discovered Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) oil on panel The Massacre of the Innocents, pictured right.