Old Master dealer Otto Naumann.
It is the second time he has chosen the auction house to disperse a collection, having consigned Sotheby’s to disperse a group of Dutch and Flemish paintings and decorative arts in 2007.
Naumann’s decision to step down after almost four decades in the trade has been made in part to allow his son, Ambrose, to establish Ambrose Naumann Fine Arts as a new venture. However, Naumann has not ruled out continuing in the art world either as a consultant or in another capacity.
The works offered at Sotheby’s include Dutch, Italian, and Spanish paintings which have come from both the gallery in Manhattan’s Upper East Side and also Naumann’s personal collection.
A selection of six highlights appear below:
1. Giovanni Baglione’s Saint John the Baptist
Giovanni Baglione’s 1566-1643) Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness is a recent addition to the artist’s oeuvre. The painting was rediscovered in a private collection where it had remained since 1970, bearing a later inscription reading ‘Carracci’, before later featuring in a Sotheby’s sale in 2012. With its starkly lit figure and pronounced chiaroscuro effect, the 1.94 x 1.51m oil on canvas is believed to be an early reaction to Caravaggio’s revolutionary style in Rome.
Estimate: $400/600,000
2. Giovanni Bilivert’s Venus
Giovanni Bilivert’s (1585-1644) small-scale painting on copper, Venus, Cupid and Pan, depicts the goddess of love dipping her feet in a shallow pond. With its highly-polished surface, it displays the artist’s use of vivid colours.
Estimate $300/500,000
3. Charlotte Vignon’s Still Life
A still life by Charlotte Vignon (b.1639) will feature in the sale of the Naumann collection at Sotheby’s. The artist was one of the 24 children of the better known French artist Claude Vignon (1593-1670). Peaches and Grapes on a Table draped with a Red Velvet Cloth is a 27 x 35.5cm oil on panel.
Estimate: $150,000-200,000
4. Denys Calvaert’s Holy Family
A painting of The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and an Angel by Denys Calvaert (1540-1619) in the Naumann sale depicts one of the most popular subject in the Flemish painter’s body of work. This 58 x 41cm oil on canvas with its tight composition and rich palette resembles another Holy Family by the artist in the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva.
Estimate: $100,000-150,000
5. Antonio Mancini’s Portrait
Woman in a Straw Hat by Antonio Mancini (1852-1930) is one of a number of works by 19th century artists in the Naumann sale. The brightly coloured 48 x 38cm signed oil on canvas dates from 1880, two after the artist's final return to Italy from Paris.
Estimate: $100,000-150,000
6. Joaquin Sorolla’s Old Man
Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida’s (1863-1923) Viejo castellano sirviéndose vino (The Old Man of Castille) is one of a group of major life-sized figural compositions that the artist painted in 1907. Sorolla began the series in El Pardo, north of Madrid, and later Segovia, before traveling further north to Léon, where he made extensive oil sketches and drawings of local life. These studies demonstrated the artist’s interest in ethnography and variations in Spain’s regional dress, customs, and culture.
Estimate: $200,000-300,000
