Unknown

Portrait of Frederik II (The Great) King of Prussia (1712-1786)

Circle of Godfrey Kneller (German, 1646 – 1723) Amelie Sophia von Wendt as Aphrodite in the judgement of Paris, later as King George II’s Courtesan, bestowed the title of the Countes...

French school, 17th Century Portrait of the Marquise de Grugieres Oil on canvas 26.1/4 x 21.5/8 in. (66.7 x 54.8 cm.) In a gilded composite frame, later production (possible early 1...

Spanish School (16th century) Saint Fermin of Pamplona oil on canvas 40.1/8 x 32.½ in. (102 x 82.5 cm.) Condition: oil on canvas re-lined. Extensive surface dirt and varnish discolouration, craquelure throughout, possible stretcher bar marks. Probable retouches in a 17th century wood frame with painted decoration to corners and central spans. The frame has abrasions and knocks but suits the painting well. There is some shrinkage to some of the paint on the frame. Following some detailed research, we are confident this is a portrait of San Fermin...

Attributed to Pierre Paul Prud’hon (French, 1758-1823) 'La belle musicienne' Oil on canvas, oval Signed ‘P. P. Prudon’ (lower left) 28.3/4 x 23.1/2 in. (73 x 59.5 cm.) Pierre Paul Prud'hon is considered a prime example of early French Romanticism. He was born as the seventh and last child of a master tailor. At the age of 16 he was a pupil of the painter and sculptor Francois Devosge. After finishing his studies he moved to Paris, where he first worked for an engraver and became friends with the Baron of Joursanvault, who became his patron. He also made a friendship with the "incorruptible", the politician and revolutionary Maximilien de Robespierre. Despite important friendships and the care of some cardinals, Prud'hon plunges into loneliness and melancholy. He has a good reputation and produces allegorical paintings, but his attachment to Robespierre forces him to leave the French capital. He now lives in the Free County of Burgundy, where he makes portraits and illustrations for Pierre Didot, the owner of the printing house. After a few years he moved back to Paris and his career received a new impetus. In the Louvre, Prud'hon is provided with a studio in which he paints "La sagesse et la vérité descendant sur la terre" (Wisdom and Truth descend to earth) for one year, as well as some ceilings of the Louvre. The government assigns him a studio in the Sorbonne, where his wife Jeanne, whom he married at the age of 19, comes looking for him. To escape her, he asks the museum director for protection. In 1808 he wrote "La justice et la vengeance divine poursuivant le crime" (Justice and divine revenge pursue the crime). In the same year he is also named Knight of the Legion of Honour and is able to break with his grumpy wife once and for all. He soon reconnects with his student and painter of neoclassicism Constance Mayer. Pierre is commissioned to paint a portrait of the Empress and wife of Napoleon, Joséphine de Beauharnais, which can still be seen today in the Louvre. He also paints the small "Roi de Rome" (King of Rome). In 1816 the Academy of Fine Arts elected him a member, where he took over the armchair in the painting section of François-André Vincent. A few years later his depressed wife commits suicide, and full of pain Prud'hon finishes her last work "Une famille malheureuse" (Engl. An Unhappy Family) and exhibits it. He himself dies soon afterwards and is buried in Paris. Many renowned artists admire Prud'hon for his "clair-obscur", the chiaroscuro painting...

This is a captivating portrait of Samuela Bergsma, executed by the Swiss artist Gottardo Segantini. Painted in the Divisionist style, the artwork em...

A bold and striking portrait of 'Athene' by the notable Modern British artist Ewart Johns. This painting is characterised by strong orange / brown colours, highlighted by whites and...

Circle of Jacques-Louis David (French, 18th Century) Provenance: Private Collection, Buenos Aires Exhibited: “Art of Collecting,” Flint Institute of Art, Flint, Michigan, 23 November 2018 – 6 January 2019. This vibrant portrait of young man was traditionally considered a work by Jacques-Louis David, whose style it recalls, but to whom it cannot be convincingly attributed. Rather, it would appear to be by a painter in his immediate following—an artist likely working in France in the first decade of the nineteenth century. Several names have been proposed as the portrait’s author: François Gérard, Louis Hersent, Anne-Louis Girodet (Fig. 1), Theodore Gericault, and Jean-Baptiste Wicar, among others. Some have thought the artist Italian, and have proposed Andrea Appiani, Gaspare Landi...

Procaccini was born in Bologna, but his family moved to Milan when the artist was eleven years old. His artistic education was evidently familial— from his father Ercole and his elder brothers Camillo and Carlo Antonio, all painters—but his career began as a sculptor, and at an early age: his first known commission, a sculpted saint for the Duomo of Milan, came when he was only seventeen years old. Procaccini’s earliest documented painting, the Pietà for the Church of Santa Maria presso San Celso in Milan, was completed by 1604. By this time the artist had made the trip to Parma recorded by his biographers, where he studied Correggio, Mazzola Bedoli, and especially Parmigianino; reflections of their work are apparent throughout Procaccini's career. As Dr. Hugh Brigstocke has recently indicated, the present oil sketch is preparatory for the figure of the angel seen between the heads of the Virgin and St. Charles Borrommeo in Procaccini's altarpiece in the Church of Santa Afra in Brescia (ill. in Il Seicento Lombardo; Catalogo dei dipinti e delle sculture, exh. cat. Milan 1973, no. 98, pl. 113). As such it is the only known oil sketch of Procaccini's that can be directly connected with an extant altarpiece. The finished canvas, The Virgin and Child with Saints Charles Borrommeo and Latino with Angels, remains in the church for which it was painted; it is one of the most significant works of Procaccini's maturity and is generally dated after the artist's trip to Genoa in 1618. The Head of an Angel is an immediate study, no doubt taken from life, but one stylistically suffused with strong echoes of Correggio and Leonardo. Luigi Lanzi, writing of the completed altarpiece in 1796, specifically commented on Procaccini's indebtedness to Correggio (as well as the expressions of the angels) here: “Di Giulio Cesare...

Signed and dated, lower left: Louise Hersent/ 1823 Provenance: Private Collection, Chicago, by 1996 Private Collection, Florida This charming portrait of a young boy is the work of Louise-Marie-Jeanne Hersent, a little-known woman artist of the French Restoration often identified by her maiden name, Mauduit. While Hersent—as we will call her here following the signature on the painting—has been understudied, the known details of her life and career reveal that she held a privileged position in artistic life in the early nineteenth century in Paris. She exhibited at the Salon from 1810 until 1824, and in 1821 she married the painter Louis Hersent, a successful pupil of Jacques-Louis David who was patronized by Louis XVIII and Charles X. It is likely through her husband’s royal patronage that Hersent’s Louis XIV Visits Peter the Great was purchased for the Royal Collection in Versailles. In 1806, while still Louise Mauduit, she painted a portrait of Napoleon’s youngest sister, Pauline Bonaparte...

Dominicus van der Smissen Early 18th Century Portrait of Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch Oil on canvas Image size: 20½ x 16¼ inches Period gilt frame This is a portrait of Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch, composer, Kapellmeister and organist, whom Van der Smissen most probably portrayed during his stay in Hamburg, Brunswick or Amsterdam. The identification is based on the reproduction of the portrait which was engraved by Pieter Anthony Wakkerdak (1740- 1774). Van der Smissen has reduced the face of the sitters to an egg-shaped oval in three-quarter view, applying diminution to one half of the figure’s torso, which is farther away from the viewer. This partial side view, with the head turned to look at the viewer over the shoulder, creates spatial depth and brings the figure to life by avoiding the stiffness of a frontal depiction. Because the artist chose to highlight the figure from above, a distinct shadow is cast under the tip of the nose, in the shape of a triangle. This is an often recurring and almost ‘signature’-like feature in Van der Smissen’s oeuvre. Hurlebusch's garments are of a very high quality and serve to reflect the sitter’s wealth, status and elegance. During this period, gentlemen often shaved their heads in order to facilitate the wearing of a wig, which wouldbe worn with a suit. Here Hurlebusch has been depicted in a luxurious turban-like cap lined with lynx fur, a highly fashionable and expensive material at the time. Over his shirt, he wears a velvet fur-lined gown adorned with decorative clasps fashioned from silver braid. The elegant informality of his appearance can be seen in his unbuttoned shirt and the unfastened black ribbon hanging from his button hole, which has been artfully arranged into a fluttering drape by the portraitist. The Sitter Hurlebusch was born in Brunswick, Germany. He received the first instructions in his field from his father Heinrich Lorenz Hurlebusch, who was also a musician. As an organ virtuoso, he toured Europe, visiting Vienna, Munich and Italy. From 1723 to 1725 he was Kapellmeister in Stockholm; later he became Kapellmeister in Bayreuth and Brunswick, and lived in Hamburg from 1727 to 1742, where he had contact with fellow composers Johann Mattheson and Georg Philipp Telemann. He made his living composing, performing and teaching. In 1735 and 1736, he is believed to have visited Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig, who promoted Hurlebusch’s compositions as the local seller...

Jacob Huysmans Flemish 1633 - 1696 Portrait of a Lady Oil on canvas Image size: 49 x 40 ¼ inches Gilt frame Huysmans was born in Antwerp and came to England during the reign of Charles II where he became one of the fashionable painters of the court.. The diarist Samual Pepys noted the artist as capable of a more exact likeness than Lely. Certainly the diarist records that by August 1664 in the circle of Queen Catherine...

Portrait of Princess of Bourbon as Hebe Pierre Gobert, circa 1730 Presumed portrait of Elisabeth Thérèse Alexandrine of Bourbon-Condé, Mademoiselle de Sens, depicted as the goddess Hebe kidnapped by Zeus, transformed into an eagle. 18th century French School, around 1730 Pierre Gobert (1662-1744) and workshop Oil on canvas Dimensions: canvas: h. 129 cm, w. 95cm Dimensions: framed: h. 156 cm, w. 124cm Louis XIV style giltwood and cardved wood frame Large and imposing portrait of the young princess portrayed seated on an eagle in the heavens. Seen from the front, the princess is dressed in a low-cut white chiffon dress, exposing her throat. Delicately made-up oval face, dominated by large blue-gray eyes is surrounded by powdered hair, raised, releasing the forehead and the ears, and of which some locks fall on his shoulder. A large blue scarf passed over the shoulder covers her knees and flies in the wind. A garland of flowers coming from the back goes over the knees and down again on the eagle. In her right hand she holds a golden goblet and in her left hand an ewer. The eagle supporting the young woman seizes in its claws the thunderbolt (the beam of fiery lightning), the attribute of Zeus. The figure of the young woman is enlivened by the fluidity of the antique drapes...