PARIS.- The top lot of the Old Masters Paintings sale was Diane découvrant la grossesse de Callisto by Denys Van Alsloot (1570-1620) which sold for four times its pre-sale estimate, €454,000.

Pierre Etienne, International director of the department: “We are proud of the results achieved today for the first sale of our new team, under the hammer of François de Ricqlès for which this auction was the last of his career at Christie’s. These strong results demonstrate that international buyers, from 13 countries, are always attracted by high-quality paintings from private provenances and fresh to the market such as the beautiful painting by Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), which was acquired for €416,000 and for le Baron Gérard’s Portrait of the Countess Starzenska coming from the Counts Doria collection which realised €200,000”.

The young painter Théodore Chassériau was also represented in the sale with a beautiful replica of La Joconde executed when the artist was only 17 years old. It was sold for €162,500 against a presale estimate of €50,000-70,000.

Astrid Centner, Director of the department added: “We were pleased to see the constant very positive response of the market for early Flemish paintings which realised great results today such as for a Portrait of man holding a carnation which realised €298,000 against a presale estimate of €40,000-60,000 and a portrait of Saint Magdalene executed by the Flemish school circa 1530 which achieved €162,500”.

We can also notice the preemption made by the Hyacinthe Rigaud Museum for Portrait d’homme à l’habit bleu executed by Hyacinthe Rigaud circa 1700-1715, which sold for €25,000.

SCULPTURE ET OBJETS D’ART EUROPEENS
25 June 2019
TOTAL : €2,513,375
£2,248,099/$2,864,078
73% sold by lot and 89% sold by value
The Top lot of the sale was a bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) representing the Countess Jean-Isaac de Thellusson de Sorcy executed circa 1791 which sold for €562,000.

Isabelle d’Amécourt, Director of the department: “We are pleased with these great results illustrating the continuing high demand for European sculptures and works of art. This auction, which attracted buyers from 20 countries, put forward religious iconography as seen with a stone group of Mary Magdalene and a donor, probably Jacqueline de Bavière sold €478,000 and underlined also the immense talent of 18th century artists such as Jean-Antoine Houdon or Joseph Chinard whose bust representing the portrait of a lady artist was recently restituted to the Seligmann family thanks to great work of Christie’s teams”.

Further highlights included two impressive terracotta sculptures of allegorical figures by Mathieu de Tombay which achieved €112,500 against a presale estimate of €50,000-80,000 and a linden and walnut wood relief of the abduction of Ganymede executed by Guiseppe Maria Bonzanigo which realised €47,500.

A real enthusiasm was seen once again for beautiful walnut staircase models. The important group of 16 staircase models coming from Henri Klinger’s collection achieved a total of €243,375. Amongst the highlights was a walnut double staircase executed by Ernst Pinedo in 1897 which was sold for €40,000 against a presale estimate of €5,000-8,000 and another double staircase realised in Amiens circa 1925 achieved €37,500 against a presale estimate of €6,000-9,000.