Paintings, drawings, sculptures 14th - 19th c. - Great Art

The highlight of the auction - the wonderful and highly important painting by Bartholomé Esteban Murillo (see press release from last week) - is accompanied by an abundance of six-figure paintings: Jan Miense Molenaer (€ 200/250,000), Maarten van Heemskerck (€ 200/250,000), a South Netherlands master (Brussels), around 1520 (€ 120/140,000), Jan van Goyen (€ 100/130,000), Salvator Rosa (€ 100/120,000), Hendrick Martensz Sorgh (€ 80/120,000), Johannes Goedaert (€ 80/100,000) and Pieter de Ring (€ 70/100,000).

The 19th century is led by an important, orientalist work by Ettore Simonetti valued at € 200/250,000. 32 lots of paintings and drawings by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein are of particular importance, from the estate of Dr Jürgen Hach (1942-2019), a theologian from Lübeck and descendent of the painter.

Important paintings in the auction also include Jan Miense Molenaer’s high-quality Peasant Wedding Feast. The complex painting is full of moral illusions and warnings to the viewer, and the entire scene can be understood as a depiction of licentiousness (lot 2071, € 200/250,000). The same estimate has been attributed to The Holy Trinity by Maarten van Heemskerck (Lot 2009).

The Mass of Saint Gregory by a master of the South Netherlandish School (Brussels) of around 1520 is a densely populated and colourful depiction of one of the most fascinating religious themes of the late Middle Ages: the miracle of the Mass of Pope Gregory the Great (lot 2003, € 120/150,000), whilst a very detailed River Landscape by Jan van Goyen has been valued at € 100/130,000 (lot 2050). The Merry Peasants by Hendrick Martensz Sorgh is a characteristic work by the Dutch genre painter, which can be counted among his finest interior scenes and can be interpreted as a representation of the Five Senses (lot 2072, € 80/120,000).

The auction proceeds from this lot and Lempertz' commission will be donated to the humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

That Johannes Goedaert was an “excellent painter of landscapes” is shown by the present painting Landscape with a Peasant and Cattle by a Farmhouse, the whereabouts of which has long remained unknown. Goedaert left behind a relatively small oeuvre, comprising barely a dozen paintings and drawings, but which follow the tradition of Dutch landscape painting (lot 2070, € 70/90,000). Not much is known about the life of the Leiden painter Pieter de Ring, whose impressive oeuvre includes fruits, shellfish and vessels made of silver, glass and porcelain. He occasionally monogrammed or signed his works, but more often added a ring to his arrangements instead of a signature, as in the present painting (lot 2057, € 70/100,000).

The present, hitherto unpublished Coastal Landscape, probably painted around 1650, is a typical work for Salvator Rosa’s mature output. The artist exerted a great influence on the development of landscape painting. Alongside the classical and sublime 17th century tradition, he introduced a new typology, that of wild, untamed nature with rocky cliffs, craggy and moss-covered trees (lot 2065, €100/120,000).

Ettore Simonetti belongs to a large Roman family of artisans and artists in the second half of the 19th century. He and his brother Attilio admired the Spanish painter Mariano Fortuny, who lived in Venice, and, like him, were interested in textiles of all kinds, collecting carpets, damask and silk fabrics as well as oriental ceramics. Although Ettore apparently never travelled to the north of Africa, he loved to paint bazaar scenes with the typical traders and hagglers of the Orient together with their exotic clothing and the objects that were sold in this region. This painting can be seen as the counterpart of a work by Ettore Simonetti entitled ‘The Carpet Dealer’ (67 x 90 cm), which was auctioned in London in 2008 (Christie's 2.7.2008, estimate 70,000/100,000 GBP, hammer price 553,000 GBP). The setting of both compositions, with the ladies seated on the left being offered their wares over mint tea, together with the lively bustle in the bazaar and the view of the oriental city centre, are very similar: there the customers are presented with carpets, here it is a richly decorated amphora vase (lot 2396, € 200/250,000).

Further paintings are by Gustave Courbet, Friedrich Nerly, Carl Max Gerlach Quaedvlieg, Hans Thoma and Francesco Zanin, et al. (€ 40/70,000).

The offer includes 62 sculptures from the 12th - 18th centuries with the focus on 15th - 16th century wood sculpture from the German-speaking and Flemish art regions. Highlights are a St. John from South Tyrol by Hans Klocker and his workshop (lot 2164, € 25/30,000) and a 14th century French Enthroned Madonna in ivory from the renowned Cologne Schnitzler Collection (lot 2146, € 50/60,000).

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 0221/92 57 29–30.

Edgar Abs
Press and public relations
Cologne, May 2022