The Art Newspaper

All roads lead to Rome

London’s Old Master sales set new records, though great material is scarce

By Charlotte Burns. Web only
Published online: 08 July 2010

Turner's Modern Rome. Campo Vaccino, 1839

Sotheby’s scored a coup this week when Turner’s large canvas Modern Rome. Campo Vaccino, completed in 1839, sold for a record £29.7m (est £12m-£18m) to the J. Paul Getty Museum after fierce bidding over the work at the 7 July old master sale in London. This market relies upon a shrinking supply of great and rare works, and the Turner ticked all the boxes. “It’s a wonderful work, and I wish I’d got it,” said New York dealer Richard Feigen, who was one of several under-bidders vying for the piece.

Modern Rome was one of only a few paintings by Turner of this calibre remaining in private hands—it was once owned by Hannah Rothschild—and has not been on the market for 132 years. The artist produced around 600 oil paintings in his life, and “was incredibly selective about who he sold them to,” said Sotheby’s head of British paintings, Emmeline Hallmark, adding: “He only ever sold around 90 oil paintings, and of that 90 there are probably four or five comparable.” The work is in particularly good condition for a Turner—the artist worked in various media, and it “is very easy to disturb the balance and surface of his pictures,” according to Sotheby’s international department head Alex Bell. “But this has been unusually well-preserved.”

It was the top lot in a 57-work sale that totalled £53.5m against a presale estimate of £33.8m-£49.6m (estimates don not include buyers’ premium, totals do), and was 68% sold by lot.

Aside from the Turner, the sale did as expected. “The things we expected to die, died, and those we expected to do well, did so,” said London-based dealer Johnny van Haeften. He came out on top in a bidding war with Colnaghi’s Conrad Bernheimer and a Russian dealer for Isack van Ostade’s A Frozen river landscape…, 1644, which hammered down at £1.6m (est £600,000-£800,000). Van Haeften said: “It was one of the last opportunities to get an exterior scene by the artist, and this is exceptional. I’ve been watching the work for several years, and was delighted to finally get it,” he said, adding that he bought the work for stock though expected to sell it soon—“I’m clutching my mobile,” he joked.

Bernheimer was more successful at Christie’s sale the previous night, where he bought the top lot—Ruben’s Portrait of a commander being dressed for battle, around 1612-1614, for £9m. The painting, one of two being sold by the trustees of the Spencer Collection, hammered at its £8m low estimate, which some in the trade said was because of the slightly weak portrait of a young boy in the right-hand corner. “It’s a great painting but the estimate was quite high,” said Bernheimer, who was bidding on behalf of a client. “Christie’s obviously had quite a fierce competition with Sotheby’s the get the work, so had to give big prices.”

Christie’s fared less well overall than Sotheby’s, totalling £42m, with 70% of the 67 lots selling. The other work from the Spencer Collection, Guercino’s 7-foot-high canvas King David, 1651 (est £5m-£8m) failed to fly, and was bought by Dickinson for £5.2m. Some were surprised that the work didn’t go for more but Richard Feigen said: “Right now that’s a lot of money for a Guercino. The Italian baroque artists have been undervalued compared with artists such as Picasso or Giacometti. This result could indicate that these works will get more expensive–it’s long overdue.” Trade sources said King David might be heading to the National Gallery.

The second-highest lot at Christie’s was Georg Pencz’s imposing Portrait of Sigismund Baldinger, around 1540, which Milwaukee-based art investor Alfred Bader bought for a record £5.6m (est £5m-£8m). “The condition is unbelievably good,” said Bader after the sale. “It was stolen from the Jews in the 1940s, and has taken until now to come good,” he said, referring to the fact that the work came to auction as the result of a recent restitution after being sold under duress by Baron Herzog in 1941. Pencz, who studied in Dürer’s studio, is better known for his print-making, but the market responded well to both the painting’s condition and commanding presence.

After the mixed results of the London auctions of both post-war and contemporary, and impressionist and modern works, both auction houses have reason to feel relieved. Overall, though, the sales showed the strains of a lack of supply. Mediocre works failed to find a market, and both houses buoyed their old master offerings with works from the 19-th century. “Great paintings these days don’t come out very easily,” said Richard Feigen. ‘You don’t see 19th-century works in an old master auction unless you’re short of material.”