Fine Art

While demand for 19th century European art remains selective, recent sales have enjoyed good bidding on the ‘right’ material with appealing estimates

The stand-out lot offered at a recent sale at Piguet (23% buyer’s premium) of Geneva was a female nude by Jean Souverbie (1891-1981).

Works by Albert Anker (1881-1910) are as popular with today’s Swiss collectors as they were in the late 19th century

This oil depicting the Acropolis in Athens by Hermann David Salomon Corrodi (1844-1905) was taken to £13,000 at Roseberys (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

This charcoal drawing of a Normandy milkmaid is one of four works by Jean-François Millet (1814-75) to be included in Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr’s Paris sale of the collection of Alain Delon

French artist Louis Tesson (1820-70) is best known for his genre paintings in the Middle East and north Africa.

This typical genre scene by Italian painter Alessandro Milesi (1856-1945) was taken to a multi-estimate $37,500 (£31,000) at a US auction

This design for a fan leaf painted with two reclining figures of elegant women appeared in an Impressionist and Modern art sale held in Paris

This work is billed as the largest ever nude by Gustave Courbet (1819-77) to be offered at auction

During the second half of the 19th and the early part of the 20th century, the German artist Ferdinand Keller (1842-1922) had a highly successful career as a painter of historical motifs, some imagined, some of a more documentary manner

The biggest surprise at a sale held by Schuler (23/20/16% buyer’s premium) came when the dramatic depiction of The Lion Hunt was offered for SFr3000

I’ve always understood that Gwen Raverat (1885-1957) produced woodcuts, not wood engravings, and The Knight of the Burning Pestle, 1909, (ATG No 2587) is certainly a woodcut

A rediscovered portrait of a leading figure in the fight for women’s suffrage has been purchased for the UK Parliament.

Nelson memorabilia from a private collection in Devon was keenly fought over at Duke’s Spring auction.

A six-figure sum for Belgian Symbolist Fernand Khnopff was the top lot of Christie’s drawing-focused sale.

Also during drawing week, and on the same day and just around the corner from Christie’s, Artcurial held a related art auction.