18th Century and Earlier Paintings

Highly important American pastel portrait painting by James Sharples Senior (1751-1811), of American politician General William Lyman (1755-1811), painted circa 1795. This painting h...

Portrait of a Noble Lady English artist, mid 18th century circle of Thomas Gainsborough (English 1727-1788) oil on canvas, unframed canvas: 30 x 25 inches provenance: private collect...

This superb Old Master later 17th/early 18th century oil painting is attributed to Baroque painter and German born animal artist Philipp Peter Roos. He was active in and near Rome fr...

Oil on Canvas. North Italian school of the 17th century. The large painting presents as its subject a well-known Old Testament theme, the wealth of King Solomon, recounted in the Fir...

A Rare and Significant Discovery. We are pleased to offer this newly discovered vanitas still life by the enigmatic German artist Johann Andreas von Düwens (?-1716). Titled "Vanitas...

We are grateful to Prof. Daniele Sanguineti for suggesting the attribution to Domenico Parodi (1672 - 1742). He dates the painting into the period between 1730 and 1740. Domenico Par...

Pair of large painting oil on canvas with the Wedding Feast of Bacchus and Ariadne scene . Italy 18' century . Amazing landscape background and roman Temple with classical archite...

Portrait of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), 17th century circle of Robert WALKER (1599-1658) Large 17th Century English Civil War portrait of Oliver ...

Signed lower right - Julius Caesar Ibbetson (1759 – 1817). The majority of Ibbetson’s Lakeland scenes were painted to order after he had moved away to Yorkshire, and therefore lack the immediacy of the present canvas. This work is painted, with his own, inimitably pleasing style. Antique oil painting on wood panel...

Allegorical Scene is a superb original oil painting on canvas, realized by an anonymous artist during Neoclassicism's years. This old master's artwork offers us un unprecedented ap...

Jan Van Huchtenburg Battle of Peterwardein, 1716 Oil on canvas, 45 x 64 cm monogrammed "HB" n 1670 he settled at Haarlem, where he married Elisabeth Mommes. It seems he practised and kept a dealers...

In 2001 the German art historian Art historian and Raphael Expert, Prof. Jürg Meyer zur Capellen, published the painting "Die Heilige Familie" in a monographic article, ascribing the present work to the Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Pittoni (1687 -Venice - 1767). (Newspaper "Weltkunst", October 2001, No 12, p. 1850 f. ill.) He describes it as a typical work by this artist. Pittoni was one of the most influential and successful artists of the Venetian Settecento. He was a pupil of the Veronese Master Giovanni Balestra (1666-1740). His style is influenced by Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734) and Giambattista Tiepolo (1696-1770). Giovanni Battista Pittoni was already successful at a young age and soon lead his own workshop. He created large-scale hitoria paintings, as well as large, religious altarpieces. In addition to Venetian and Upper Italian patrons, Pittoni also had many interested parties from Europe. His work is accordingly scattered in many different museums and private collections today. Pittoni - like other painter colleagues of his time - repeated his own compositions both by hand and with the help of his workshop. He repeatedly incorporated details into other pictures and contexts. Prof. Meyer zur Capellen noted the very good condition of the present work and the high quality of the paint with fine graduations and the vivid brushstrokes. Provenance: The panting has not been on the art market for at least 300 years. In the year 2000 the work was donated by the Münster-based, Noble Family Ketteler zu Harkotten to a private collection in Westphalia. Most probably the canon Nikolaus Hermann von Ketteler zu Harkotten bought the piece in Venice in 1750 together with the altarpiece of the Clemens Church in Münster. On the reverse of the work is a fideicommissum number by Ketteler zu Harkotten. As it belonged to the family commission, the painting was inalienable until 1919, when the corresponding law was repealed, and after that time it remained in the family's possession without interruption. Pittoni's only direct relationship to Münster is the commission for the high altar painting of the Baroque St. Clemens Church. It can be assumed that then canon von Ketteler saw this painting in the artist's workshop during his stay in Venice and acquired it for himself. This would also explain the discrepancy in dating. (ca. 1735/1750). However, it is also possible that the painting originated in the possession of Ferdinand von Plettenberg...

Ornamental Fowl Fighting, circa 1700 attributed to MARMADUKE CRADOCK (1660-1716) Large circa 1700 Scene of ornamental fowl defending the hen and chicks, oil on canvas attributed to...

Signed and dated lower left. Includes a beautiful later wooden frame cm. 137x8x182. Very Good conditions. Prov. Christie's London, February 15th 1974, n. 19. This artwork is shippe...

The Roman Court French School, circa 1780-1820 period pencil/charcoal/white chalk drawing on artist paper stamped with a name (either a collector or the artist) size: 18 x 24 inches ...

Outstanding still life Salami, Bread, Biscuits Glass and Glass Bottles, realized with the technique of Oil on Canvas and surrounded by a modern wooden frame. With its soft tones and...

Cesare Pronti (Cattolica, Italy, 1626 - Ravenna, Italy, 1708) Title: Martyrdom of Saint Agatha Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: Without frame 57.7 x 37 cm – with frame 64 x 42.7 x 3...

Enoch Seeman Oil on Canvas Canvas Size: 30 x 25" (76 x 64cm) Outside Framed Size: 37 x 32" (94 x 82cm) He was born in Danzig, now Gdansk, Poland, around 1694. His father, also En...

The Military Encampment Circle of Carel van Falens (1683-1733, Flemish) oil on canvas, unframed canvas: 8 x 10.5 inches provenance: private collection, UK condition: very good and so...

Philipp Peter Roos, known as Rosa da Tivoli (Sankt Goar, August 30, 1657 - Rome, January 17, 1706) Pair of landscapes of the Roman countryside with catkins (2) Oil on canvas, 22 x ...

The painting depicts James (Jacques) Dalbiac, his wife Louise (ne de la Porte) and their five children, James, Charles, Louise, Marianne and Martha in the ornamental gardens of a grand country estate. The extensive gardens extend into the distance with gardeners working in the background and figures strolling through the avenues of trees. A peacock and peahen can be seen on the wall to the left and a potted orange tree to the right. Louise Dalbiac holds an orange taken from the orange tree, aluding to the family's faith and their loyalty to the protestant King William of Orange and their adopted country. The Dalbiacs were wealthy London silk and velvet merchants of French Huguenot origin who had fled France at the end of the 17th century to escape persecution for their protestant faith. England offered safe refuge and their skills and industriousness allowed them to establish one of the most successful businesses in London's Spitalfields which became a new centre of the silk trade, effectively leading to the collapse of the once dominant French silk industry. Both sons, James and Charles followed their father and Uncle into the family business, successfully growing the family's fortune and each going on to own their own country estates. A conversation piece is a genre of painting used to describe group portraits of families and friends, often depicted with their servants and family pets and set within an elegantly furnished interior or the garden of a grand country house. They were a celebration of the intimacy of family relations as well as a sign of status, property and the power of succession. The informality of conversation pieces grew popular in 18th century England, allowing the sitters to present themselves in a more relaxed pose, perhaps engaged in intellectual conversation or showing their talents or interests. In this present portrait, the Dalbiacs are shown richly dressed and and at leisure in a grand country house setting, conveying their success and cultural and social aspirations. Charles Philips (c.1703–1747) was an English artist known for painting a number of portraits and conversation pieces for noble and Royal patrons in the mid-eighteenth century. He was the son of portrait painter Richard Philips...

Miniature Portrait French School, late 18th/ early 19th century framed: 5.5 x 5.5 inches board: 2 x 2 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: very good and sound c...

Workshop of Johann Anton Eismann (1604-1698) Landscape with ruins and figures Oil on canvas, 110.5 x 93 cm Framed, 123 x 104 cm The background depicts a rocky shoreline facing th...

A Tibetan Yamantaka Thangka 17th/18th Century The thangka is coloured and gilt with the fierce deity depicted striding in alidhasana surrounded by a fiery aureole. Numerous other de...

This is a superb Italian Old Master portrait oil painting attributed to circle of Guido Reni. It is a half length portrait of the penitent Mary Magdalene...

17th century Italian School The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist Oil on canvas Dimensions: h. 106 cm, l. 77 cm Important 17th century Italian carved giltwood frame Fram...

Saint Nazarius & Celsus (350AD), 18th Century Diptych Of The Christian Knights & Martyrs after lost work by Bartolomeo Montagna (1450-1523) Large 18th Century Italian Old Master de...

Portrait Of Gilbert Talbot 7th Earl of Shrewsbury (1552-1616), 16th Century Circle of George Gower (c.1540–1596) Huge 16th Century Portrait Of Gil...

Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641, Flemish) Study of a Head of Man Circa 1627-32, Van Dyck’s second Antwerp period Oil on paper, laid down on canvas Dimensions 15 x 14 inches (38.1 x 3...

Cain & The Death Of Abel, 18th Century School of William Blake (1757-1827) Circa 1790 English School depiction of Cain and the Death Of Abel, oil on canvas. Rare biblical depiction...

In this masterly painting, Francesco de Mura presents the meeting of Erminia and the shepherds, a famous episode taken from the seventh canto of Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered....

Joris Abrahamsz van der Haagen Heron Shoot in a Landscape 1615-1669 Oil on oak panel, signed 'JAH' lower left Image size: 16 x 21 inches (41 x 53 cm) Dutch ebonised frame Provenance...

A fine pair of huge Italian 18' century Capriccio with Classical ruins, tempera oil on canvas . Atr.Pietro Paltronieri, il Mirandolese (Mirandola 1673-1741 Bologna). Measurements ...

Bartolomeo Guidobono (Savona, Italy, 1654 - Turin, Italy, 1709) Title: Bacchanal with Maenads, Satyrs and Nymphs Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: without frame 120 x 110 cm - with f...

Giovanni Battista Paggi (Genoa 1554 – Genoa 1627) Venus, Bacchus and Ceres (Parallel title: ‘Sine Cerere et Baccho, friget Venus’) Oil on canvas 103 x 78 cm. - Framed 125 x 100 cm. ...

Grand Tour Study Italian School, 18th century monogrammed, lower right hand corner, Watercolour wash painting on board, glazed frame Framed size: 9 x 11 inches The painting captures...

Antique Italian painting from the second half of the 17th century. Oil on canvas artwork depicting a religious subject, Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus is traveling...

Old Master Drawing by the Circle of Lambert Lombard. Drawing/ Study of a Man in Renaissance Style, later signed "F. Floris". Study of a Man Lombard li...

Aftrer Anthony VAN DYCK - maybe Studio (1599, Antwerp – 1641, London) Flemish Double Portrait of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1628-1687) & Lord Francis Villiers (1629-1648) Oil on Canvas 170 x 147 cm Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) No painter has done more to define an era than Anthony van Dyck. He spent only seven and a half years of his short life (1599- 1641) in England. He grew up in Antwerp, where his precocious talent was recognised by Peter Paul Rubens, the greatest painter of his age. He worked in Rubens’s studio and imitated his style as a religious artist, painting biblical scenes redolent of the lush piety of the counter-reformation. But soon he was on the move. In 1620, he visited London for a few months, long enough to paint a history picture, The Continence of Scipio, for the royal favourite, George Villiers, Marquess of Buckingham, and a portrait of his other English patron, the great art collector, Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel. After a stint in Italy, making imposing portraits of the wealthy aristocracy and sketching and copying works by Titian, he returned to the Spanish Netherlands in 1627, becoming court artist to Archduchess Isabella before departing for The Hague in 1631 to paint the Dutch ruler Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. Charles I’s invitation in 1632 led Van Dyck back to London where he was knighted, paid an annual salary of £200 and installed in a house in Blackfriars with a special jetty at which the royal barge might tie up when the King was visiting his studio. By this time Van Dyck was recognised as the leading court painter in Europe, with Velazquez at the court of Philip IV of Spain his only rival. He also excelled as a superbly observant painter of children and dogs. Van Dyck’s notoriety in depicting children led to the introduction of groups of children without their parents as a new genre into English painting (amongst other new genres). For the next 300 years, Van Dyck was the major influence on English portraiture. Nearly all the great 18th Century portraitists, from Pompeo Batoni and Allan Ramsay to Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds, copied Van Dyck’s costumes, poses and compositions. George Duke of Buckingham & his brother Francis Villiers Painted in 1635, this double portrait was originally commissioned by Charles I, who raised the two brothers after their father, George Villiers, was assassinated in 1628. Together with their sister, Lady Mary Villiers, they enjoyed the King’s favour absolutely. Francis whose absolute ‘inimitable handsomeness’ was noted by Marvell (who was killed in a skirmish near Kingston upon Thames). The young duke who commanded a regiment of horse at the Battle of Worcester, remained closely associated with Charles II, held a number of high offices after the Restoration and was one of the most cynical and brilliant members of the King’s entourage, immortalised as ‘Zimri’ in Dryden’s Absalom and Achitopbel. As a young man he had sold his father’s great collection of pictures in the Spanish Netherlands, many of them to the Archduke Leopold Willhelm. Painted for Charles I and placed near the portrait of their sister in the Gallery at St James’ Palace. The handling of both costumes is very rich, and the heads are very carefully and sensitively worked. That of the younger boy in particular is more solidly built up than the lower part of the figure. A preparatory drawing for the younger boy is in the British Museum. There are copies at, e.g., Highclere Castle...

PORTRAIT OF BARBARA PALMER, THE DUCHESS OF CLEVELAND, workshop of Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680) Oil on canvas, excellent coniditon in a gilded frame...

Baroque Landscape with Figures French School, 17th century oil on canvas, framed Framed: 29.5 x 23.5 inches Canvas : 25.5 x 19 inches Provenance: private collection, France Condition...

Théobald Michou (Tournai, 1676 – Antwerp, 1765) River landscape with village Oil on canvas 62 x 98 Framed 74 x 110 cm We present this vast and harmonious composition, where ...

Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – 1680 London) Portrait of lady with a crown, possibly Bridget Drury Lady Shaw, formerly Viscountess Kilmorey, later Lady Baber (d.1696) c.1665 Oil on canvas 46 1/2 x 40 3/4 inches, Framed 42 1/4 x 36 1/4 inches, Unframed Inscribed left [……….]Isabella James Mulraine wrote the following for this piece: This portrait dates to the middle of the 1660s, the decade when Lely’s career took off as successor to Sir Anthony van Dyck. At the Restoration Charles II had appointed him Principal Painter to the King and paid a pension £200 per annum ‘as formerly to Sr. Vandyke...’1 Lely had trained in Haarlem and he was in his early twenties when he came to London in 1643. He was an astute businessman and a wise courtier. In 1650 he painted a portrait of Oliver Cromwell (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) while maintaining links with the Royalist exiles through the 1650s. He had arrived in England as a painter of small-scale portraits and lush scenes of nymphs in landscapes in a Dutch style. His experience of Van Dyck in English collections transformed his painting. His lavish and alluring vision of Arcadia exactly captured the spirit of the Court and as Principal Painter he dominated English portraiture for the next twenty years. Lely ran a highly efficient studio along Netherlandish lines, employing a team of specialists like the drapery painter John Baptist Gaspars and young artists-in-training like Nicolas de Largilliere. He had numerous rivals during that period, and by 1670 he had introduced numbered standard poses to speed up production, while collaborating with printmakers for further revenue and advertising. He died in 1680 of a stroke while painting, working to the last. The portrait, painted at a date when Lely’s poses and execution were still individual and inventive shows a lady sitting at three-quarter length facing away from the viewer. She has begun to turn towards the viewer, a pose with a long pedigree in art, first used by Leonardo da Vinci in the Mona Lisa (Louvre). She steadies her blue drapery where it might slip from her arm with the movement, a flash of realism beautifully captured. Like Van Dyck, Lely painted his female sitters in a timeless costume rather than contemporary fashion, showing a loose gown and floating silk draperies. It presented the sitter as a classical ideal. The portrait would not date. The saffron dress may be the work of a drapery painter but the brown scarf must be by Lely himself, and appears unfinished, broadly sketched in behind the shoulder. The delicate blue glaze and nervous highlights suggest shimmering translucence. Lely was a master of painting hands – his hand studies are marvels of drawing – and the lady’s hands are superb, exactly drawn, delicately modelled and expressive. The fidgety gestures, clutching the gown, fiddling with the edge of the scarf, give the portrait psychological bite, suggesting the personality behind the calm courtier’s expression, adding to the sense shown in the look of the eyes and mouth that the lady is about to speak. The portrait’s language is Vandykian. The inspiration comes directly from Van Dyck’s English portraits of women. Lely owned Van Dyck’s Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Thimbleby and Dorothy Viscountess Andover (National Gallery, London) and the sitter’s costume quotes Lady Andover’s saffron dress and brown scarf. But Lely paints a generation who sat nearer to the ground and through a dialogue of expression and gesture he shows sitters who are more flesh and blood than Van Dyck’s. The background with a column and curtain is different to those shown in most of Lely’s portraits of women. They tend to include trees or fountains, with a glimpse of landscape. But there are other examples. A portrait of the King’s reigning mistress, Barbara Villiers Duchess of Cleveland...

16th Century Venetian Maestro Title: Deposition of Christ Medium: Oil on panel Dimensions: without frame 40 x 25 cm Formerly Canesso Collection, Paris. Fairs: The International Biennial of Antiques in Florence 2022 (BIAF, Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato di Firenze) Publications: Bozzetti, modelletti, sketches: dalla collezione di Giorgio Baratti (From the Giorgio Baratti Collection) curated by Anna Orlando, Agnese Marengo and Annalisa Scarpa, Genoa, 2022, pp. 22, 23. In this precious panel we can admire a lament over the body of Christ by a large group of bystanders among whom we can recognise the Virgin and, in the foreground, St Catherine of Alexandria...

Sacred Conversation: Madonna with child with St. John with idealized landscape background with mountains. Early XVI century. Oil on wooden panel of Venetian conifers. Marco Bello, attributed. (Venezia, 1470 - 1523, Udine), pupil and follower of Giovanni Bellini. Venetian school. Madonna with child with St. John with idealized landscape background with mountains. Dimentions: 57cm x 68cm x 6cm Beautiful late Renaissance frame...

Edmund Garvey (Kilkenny 1740-1813) A view of Bath Oil on canvas Canvas Size 20 x 28 in Framed Size 26 x 33 in Edmund Garvey (1740 – 28 May 1813) was an Irish landscape painter whose...

This stunning 17th century Dutch Old Master Golden Age floral oil painting is by noted Dutch artist Simon Pietersz Verelst. The full attribution...

Venetian painter (18th century) - River landscape with characters. 34 x 26 cm without frame, 43 x 35 cm with frame. Ancient oil painting on canvas, ...

Artist/ School: Dutch School, early 1700's. Title: Elegant Court Figures at a Musical Soiree. Medium: oil painting on canvas, unframed. Size: painting: 40 x 49.5 inches Provenanc...

After a copper engraving (46 x 34 cm) by Gilles Rousselet after Van Dyck, ca. 1640 Paris. Oil on cardboard, 44 x 35 cm Trompe-l'oeils are pictures whose depicted objects are painte...

original impressionist acrylic painting. SOLÁ paints in a natural way, which reflects the Old Masters, soaking up the colour, air, smell and the pure scent of his environment. He d...

Luis de Morales, called 'El Divino' (Badajoz 1509 - 1586) workshop of La Pietà with Saint John Oil on panel (82 x 65 cm /In frame 109 x 92 cm) STATE OF CONSERVATION: The panel is in good condition, with restorations and cracks clearly visible from the pictures. Gilded and lacquered wooden frame, in good condition. We present this intense Pietà executed on wood panel, the work of a painter of the late Spanish Renaissance who drew on the celebrated iconographic model created by Luis de Morales, known as El Divino (Badajoz 1509-1586), a subject reproposed by the artist and then by his flourishing workshop in numerous versions. This is an extraordinary work, in which the author demonstrates incredible realism and emotional depth in his portrayal of the Madonna and Christ, accompanied by Saint John the Evangelist. In an extremely devout Spain, Luis de Morales counts himself as one of the painters most interested in the dramatic aspects of Christ's life, from his painful Passion journey to his death. This devotional subject, the Pieta, so frequent in Christian art, is renewed in Morales' art with enormous expressive force; it is not for nothing that the artist was nicknamed the Divine, and not only for the creation of a devotional iconography in line with the spirituality of the time, but also for the intrinsic intensity of his religious paintings. The depiction, to great dramatic effect, shows Christ, immediately after being deposed from the cross, gently welcomed into the arms of the Virgin. The intense maternal compassion is also evident in the expression on her face, which, always aware of her son's fate, exudes suffering, melancholy but also serene resignation. Christ, abandoned in his mother's embrace, shows an emaciated and sorrowful face, made even more ghostly by his half-open mouth. The tree of the cross looms over the figures, emphasised by an evocative dark, completely monochrome background, to which the three figures are contrasted with strong lighting. Evident in Morales' painting is the devotional slant typical of Counter-Reformation painting, accentuated by a style that recalls both Italian painting for its research and chiaroscuro effects, and Flemish and German painting for its strongly accentuated dramatic tones. The work shows a strong physical and psychological characterisation of the characters, rendered by the marked chiaroscuro effects and the plastic construction of the figures, also using a sfumato technique, which show the primary influence of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Sebastiano del Piombo. On the other hand, his Flemish training is evident in the anatomical modelling and treatment of the folds of the Virgin's dress, which retain the sharpness of the Nordic painting tradition. We can mention, among the most beautiful versions similar to our composition: - Fig.1 Luis de Morales (c. 1520-1586), La Piedad, c. 1568, Óleo sobre tabla 72 x 50 cm.
Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao - Fig.2 Luis de Morales, La Piedad, c. 1560, Óleo sobre tabla 126 x 98 cm.
Real Academia de Bellas - Fig.3 Luis de Morales, La Piedad, 1565 - 1570, Oil on panel 42 x 30 cm.
Museo del Prado - Fig.4 Luis de Morales, Triptych of the Pietà St John and St Mary Magdalene...

Circle of Sir Godfrey Kneller Dutch, (1646-1723) Portrait of a Lady in an Ermine Trimmed Cloak Oil on canvas Image size: 26.5 inches x 22.5 inches Size including frame: 33.5 inches x 29.5 inches A well-executed half-length portrait of a lady painted in a feigned oval, circle of Sir Godfrey Kneller. The use of a feigned oval was a device used in portraiture to give a sense of depth and add an intimacy to the painting, drawing your attention to the sitter. The subject, posed without her wig in the undressed fashion of the day, wears a blue ermine trimmed blue cloak over a white silk robe...

Coastal view at sunset with fishermen and boats Atelier of Charles François Grenier De Lacroix, called de Marseille (Marseille 1700 - Berlin 1782) Oil on canvas 50 x 62 cm. - in fra...

This superb British Old Master oil painting is attributed to circle of Sir Thomas Lawrence. Painted circa 1795, the sitter is Major-General James Hanson Salmond (1766–1837) an office...

This stunning 18th century Dutch Old Master Golden Age floral oil painting is attributed to a circle of Simon Pietersz Verelst. Painted circa 1720 it is a still life floral of a mixe...

Grand 17th-Century Style Genre Scene – Oil on Canvas A magnificent large-scale oil painting depicting an elegant gathering of noble figures in an architectural setting. This historic...

This superb Dutch Old Master portrait oil painting is attributed to circle of Nicolaes Maes. Painted circa 1670, the painting is of a lady, sat by a classical fountain with statue an...

Portrait of a lady by Dutch Golden Age painter Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693). Half-length, within a feigned oval, the lady wears a pearl necklace and earrings, an ivory silk gown adorned...

Domenico Maria Canuti (Bologna, Italy, 1626 – 1684) Title: Assumption of the Virgin Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 138 x 104.5 cm without frame Expertise by Professor Micaela Li...