Old Masters

Three works from British vendors were among the most notable lots at Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium + 1% overhead premium) latest Old Master evening sale in London.

A marine battle scene believed to have once been owned by auctioneer James Christie (1730-1803) topped Bonhams’ (27.5%/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) latest Old Master sale in London.

The traditional pre-Christmas Old Masters auctions in London were something of a mixed bag this year.

One of the last Georges de la Tour (1593-1652) paintings in private hands was sold by Cologne auction house Lempertz on December 8.

Two-sided picture now heading to Dijon museum after being given definite attribution

This painted wooden sign dated to the 18th century was one of the highlights of a sale held by the Hôtel des Ventes de Nîmes (22.2% buyer’s premium) in the southern French city.

In the second half of the 19th century, the Normandy coast became a popular destination for Parisians keen to make an excursion from the capital and to enjoy the new leisure activity of sea bathing.

Five bidders – two Americans, one French and one Cypriot – competed to secure a small 15th centry devotional oil on panel of the Virgin and Child by the Italian artist Lazzaro Bastiani.

A painting by the artist known as Salai, one of Leonardo da Vinci’s closest pupils, proved to be the toast of the latest sale of Old Master and 19th century paintings and sculpture at Artcurial (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

A painting from the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens making its second appearance at Dorotheum (28/25/22/18% buyer’s premium) in the space of a decade was the best-seller in the November 10 Old Masters auction in Vienna.

One of the highlights at Ivoire Angers on December 10 will be this small 9 x 13in (23 x 32cm) Flemish school oil on cradled panel.

A painting by the celebrated landscape painter Joseph Vernet (1714-89) depicting Tivoli near Rome which has not been seen since the 19th century is making an appearance in Sotheby’s Paris rooms on December 3.

This 15th century painting of the Virgin and Child was discovered by Léonard Pomez of the Hôtel des Ventes de Troyes during the course of a valuation at a property near Troyes and comes up for auction in the city on November 27.

Lempertz in Cologne is selling 23 paintings from the collection put together by the aviation entrepreneur Hinrich Bischoff and his wife, Ingrid.

Artcurial’s latest staging of its biannual sales of Old Master and 19th century paintings, drawings and sculpture will take place on November 18 as a live, behind-closed-doors auction at the firm’s Paris rooms.

Swiss-born artist Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1733-94) completed his watercolour of The Berkshire House in Putney in 1772 after arriving in London four years earlier.

In the 1620s, Sebastian Vrancx was among the most prominent painters working in Antwerp. He was famed for his landscapes and village scenes, but was also renowned for his often drastically detailed depictions of battles.