London Auction: Sorolla soars above estimate, Rubens reaps $13 million

6 July 2010 - by ArtfixDaily Staff

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (Spanish, 1863-1923) Niña en la playa, Valencia, fetched £1,441,250 ($2,186,376) at Christie's London.

(Christie's)

click to enlarge

Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen, Westphalia 1577-1640 Antwerp) Portrait of a commander, three-quarter-length, being dressed for battle, brought £9,001,250 ($13,654,896) at Christie's London.

(Christies)

A Peter Paul Rubens portrait of a bearded commander in battle armor led the charge at Christie's Old Master & 19th c. Paintings sale Tuesday evening. A solid total of £42.3 million ($64.2 million) fell within the £36.9–55.3 million pre-sale estimate, marking the third highest-grossing sale for Christie's London in the category, according to artinfo.

Fetching £9,001,250 ($13,654,896; with buyer's premium), against a pre-sale estimate of £8,000,000 - £12,000,000, the Rubens came from the Spencer family collection, and hung at Althorp, the childhood home of Princess Diana, since 1802.

The 52-lot auction (70% sold) was also buoyed by another picture from the Althorp collection. Slightly exceeding its low estimate, reaching £5,193,250($7,878,160), was "King David" by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, nicknamed 'il Guercino.'

Pencz’s Portrait of Sigismund Baldinger, garnered a strong £5,641,250 ($8.6 million) for the robust sitter and an auction record for the artist. Bellini’s Madonna and Child in a Landscape also snagged an auction record for the artist with a final price of £3,513,250 ($5.3 million) with buyer's premium.

Among the lots exceeding estimates was a light, bright impresssionist scene by Joaquín Sorolla Featuring a little girl on the beach in Valencia, Spain, the seascape was painted in the summer of 1908, at the peak of Sorolla's career, for his highly-successful 1909 exhibition at the Hispanic Society of America. The final price of £1,441,250($2,186,376) soared past an estimate of £800,000 - £1,200,000.

More News Feed Headlines

Julien Hudson, 1811-1844 American. Creole Boy With A Moth, 1835, oil on canvas, courtesy of a private collection; photo courtesy of Fodera Fine Art Conservation, Ltd.

First Retrospective of Early African American Artist Julien Hudson at Worcester Art Museum

A groundbreaking exhibition opened Dec. 9 at the Worcester Art Museum entitled “In Search of Julien Hudson: Free Artist of Color in Pre-Civil War New Orleans.” Julien Hudson (1811-1844) is the second-earliest documented portrait painter of African descent to work in the United States. Little-known today, Hudson died an untimely, somewhat mysterious death, and only fragments of his oeuvre survive to tell his story.

'May,' by Alexander Motyl, $25/month to rent ($550 to buy), artsicle.com.

Virtual Art Buying Gets a Boost From New Websites

A bevy of new online ventures are helping to streamline the process of buying art for both beginners and established collectors, facilitating keyboard-click access to information and galleries.

An installation view of the new Tuscaloosa Museum of Art: Home of the Westervelt Collection.

New Tuscaloosa Museum of Art to Showcase Important American Art

Last week, the Tuscaloosa Museum of Art opened its doors, finally giving a home to the art collection assembled by Jack Warner. Earlier this year, the Jack Warner Foundation and Westervelt Company separated, leaving the fate undetermined as to where their respective collections would be housed. Several key works were sold by the Westervelt Co. at auction and privately. Now, more than 800 pieces...

Portrait of a Man and Woman in an Interior, painted about 1666, by Eglon van der Neer (Dutch, 1634–1703). Oil on panel. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Seth K. Sweetser Fund.

Museum Curator as Art Detective

At the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Victoria Reed is the first and only endowed curator of provenance at an American museum. Since 2010, her role has been to research objects in the museum's collections, and new acquisitions, in order to determine the right of ownership. At times, Reed's findings have led to restitution...