John Gordon Watson Art

CHRISTOFFEL LUBIENIECKI (1659-1729) Pair of portraits of a gentleman and a lady, both in silk kimono, before a country house (circa 1680) Indistinctly signed “C.......” on a box under the man’s left hand Oil on canvas, 79.5 x 67 cm each Both sitters are portrayed wearing a silk “Japanese” coat. During the second half of the seventeenth the Japanese silk coat, an adapted Japanese kimono, became a real vogue in the Dutch elite. The exclusive Dutch trade contacts with Japan can explain the popularity of the kimono-style silk coats in the Netherlands. Everybody who could afford one, dressed in such a fashionable and comfortable coat and, like the present sitters, some proud owners had themselves portrayed in a “Japanese” coat often together with an oriental carpet to underline their standing and international connections. These portraits are the work of the Polish-born portraitist Christoffel Lubieniecki (also known as Lubienitski, Lubinitski or Lubiniecki) Lubieniecki was first trained in Hamburg under Julian Stuhr and after 1675 in Amsterdam under Adriaen Backer and Gerard de Lairesse. He specialized in landscapes, generally of an Italianate character, and in portraits. The loving execution of these contented burghers, enjoying the garden vistas of their country house, places him alongside Amsterdam portraitists such as Constantijn Netscher and Michiel van Musscher...

This striking devotional image, painted by a follower of Jan Gossaert, represents one of the most influential compositions of the Northern Renaissance: Christ on the Cold Stone, or C...

Ippolito Scarsella, known as Lo Scarsellino (Ferrara, c. 1550 - 1620) workshop Holy Family with the Infant St John oil on arched panel 46 x 29 cm. in a small temple frame 75 x 55 cm This interesting work shows us one of the most sought-after iconographic subjects in the Christian tradition, presented here according to an ancient and proven scheme. We see the Virgin, majestic, in the centre of the scene while holding a chubby child, who is offering a small bird to the young St John (tradition has it that it is a goldfinch, one of the symbols of the passion of Christ) to be caressed. Completing the Holy Family, we can see Saint Joseph in the shadows, apart from the loving everyday scene depicted in the foreground, calmly leaning on his walking stick. Regarding the stylistic characteristics of this small panel, it is easy to recognise the influence of 16th and 17th century Emilian painting, which leads us to confirm its traditional attribution to Ippolito Scarsella (circa 1550 - 1620) from Ferrara, undoubtedly one of the most important artists of this pictorial context. It could very well be a trial sketch...

Provenance : Arnold S. Kirkeby (1901-1962) Donated by Arnold S. Kirkeby to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1955, where it remained until its sale at Sotheby's, New York on Ja...

Portrait of a Gentleman with Blue Cloak and Portrait of a Lady in Russet Dress c.1697 Thomas Murray (1663-1735) These fascinating portraits are exquisite examples of portraiture in ...

Portrait of an Elizabethan Gentleman in a Black Doublet c.1595 Manner of Hieronimo Custodis (died c.1593) Oil on copper Unsigned This exquisite oil on copper portrait, painted around 430 years ago, is a splendid survival from the Elizabethan era - the golden age in England’s history, when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne. It is a time that is sandwiched between two golden ages of English renaissance culture, the reigns of Henry VIII and Charles I. This period produced a style of painting quite unlike that anywhere else in Europe and one that deserves serious assessment. Just a couple of years after our portrait was painted, English painting developed on another course, driven mainly by the artists Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger and Isaac Oliver; they depicted a new mood that was pervading Elizabethan and Jacobean society, which was that of romantic melancholy. Elizabethan painting...

The gentleman in this exquisite oil on canvas portrait, presented by Titan Fine Art, is shown with the grandiloquence characteristic of the English School of painting. He is portray...

Lucas de la Haye, called Luca Fiammingo (Nivelles, 1612-Rome, 1682) Saint Cecilia and two cherubs Oil on canvas 118 x 91 cm. -Framed 129 x 102 cm. Expertise of Prof. Emilio Negro (Bologna) This evocative painting, which we are delighted to exhibit to you, has Saint Cecilia, the Roman noblewoman who later converted to Christianity and a very popular figure in the Baroque period as the patron saint of music, instrumentalists and singers, at the centre of the composition. She is depicted here as a splendid maiden dressed in regal robes...

This compelling portrait, recently studied by Stéphane Pinta of the esteemed Cabinet Turquin in Paris, has been confidently attributed to the Austrian painter Matthäus (Matthias) Lod...

This fine late 17th-century Flemish portrait depicts a distinguished gentleman wearing a justaucorps, black cloak, white shirt, vest, leather gloves, and breeches. He’s carrying a wi...

18th century English painter William Hogarth (London 1697 - 1764) School of Hudibras Triomphante (from the poem by Samuel Butler) Circa 1740, England Oil on canvas (62 x 50 cm. - F...

Provenance: with Leo Blumenreich and Julius Böhler, Munich, 1924 Dr. Frederic Goldstein Oppenheimer (1881-1963), San Antonio, Texas; by whom given to: Abraham M. Adler, New York, until 1985; thence by descent to the present owners While old inscriptions on the verso of this panel propose its author to be Hans Holbein and the sitter Sir John More—a lawyer, judge, and the father of Sir Thomas More—this fine portrait has long been recognized to be by a Flemish hand. Max Friedländer gave the painting to Bernard van Orley (1487/1491 – 1541) in 1924, but did not include it in the volume dedicated to the artist in his Early Netherlandish Paintings...