AMSTERDAM.- The sale of Old Master Paintings at Sotheby’s Amsterdam on Tuesday 8 May 2007 offers a variety of landscapes, still-lifes, portraits, biblical and genre scenes. Of special interest are and a group of paintings from the J.Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, a recently discovered masterpiece by Jan Lievens and works by Bakhuizen, De Momper and Van Leen.

A recently discovered early signed masterpiece is The Card Players, by Jan Lievens (1607-1674), painted circa 1624. Born in Leiden, Lievens was apprenticed to a local painter at the early age of eight. Between 1617 and 1619 he trained under Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, before returning to Leiden at the age of 12, where he astonished everyone with his painterly skills. He became a close friend of Rembrandt van Rijn with whom he possibly shared a workshop between 1625 and 1631. Lievens’ Card Players, an oil on canvas of 97.6 by 105.6 cm is estimated at €150.000-200.000.

Ludolf Bakhuizen (1630–1708) is represented with a Marine of a Royal English small ship with two Dutch Man-of-wars in Choppy seas with a fisherman’s family to the foreground, a mahogany panel, signed and dated 1691 (€80.000-120.000). Bakhuizen was one of the foremost painters of shipping and marine subjects of the 17th century in Holland. After joining the Amsterdam guild of painters in 1663 his fame as a marine specialist was rapidly established, winning him, for example, the commission in 1665 from the burgomaster of Amsterdam of a 'View of Amsterdam’. When father and son Willem van de Velde moved to England in 1672, Bakhuizen became the leading marine painter in Holland. His success brought him to the attention of many of the leading patrons of Europe, including Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici, King Frederick I of Prussia and Tsar Peter the Great who reputedly took drawing lessons from him. Bakhuizen depicted the perpetually changing weather and the magnificent skies of the Netherlands. Much of his work glorifies Amsterdam and the mercantile trade that had made it great.

Venus mourning Adonis is a beautiful oil on panel by Joos de Momper (Antwerp 1564-1635). De Momper was the outstanding artist of an Antwerp family of artists and dealers, both as a painter, an engraver and draughtsman. His art was popular and influential in his own time and belongs to the transitional period between late 16th-century Mannerism and the tendency towards greater realism in the early 17th century. Trained by his father Bartholomeus, Joos de Momper probably went to Italy in the 1580s. Although he lived and worked in Antwerp, having seen the Alps may have inspired him to paint great blue mountains in the background in many of his works, with a yellowish-green middle distance and a darker foreground with subjects. The present painting is a fine example of his work, estimated €80.000-120.000.

Not much is known about the artist Willem van Leen (Dordrecht 1753-1825 Delfshaven) who specialised in flower and fruit still-lifes. A large and elaborate Still Life with flowers in a stone vase (oil on canvas with rounded top, 207.5 by 86.8 cm) by his hand is estimated €40.000-60.000.

An extensive landscape by Jan Miel is situated near Rome, with the Saint Peters Cathedral in the background. It is a lively scene of numerous people, including members of the Swiss Guard, eating, drinking and making merry on a field near an encampment. The large oil on canvas is estimated € 60.000-80.000. Jan Miel (1599 - 1664), born in the vicinity of Antwerp, later moved to Rome. Most of his pictures are scenes of rural life but Miel also painted frescoes in Roman churches and palaces. In 1658 he was made Court Painter at Turin, where he died in 1664. Works by Miel can be found in the Royal Collection Windsor and in Birmingham, Bologna, Edinburgh, Grenoble, London and Northampton.

A delicate still-life by Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraeten (Haarlem 1630 - 1700 London) pictures such items as a silver urn, a violin, a pearl necklace, a recorder, music sheets, a silver sugar pot, a book, a globe, a copper candlestick, a glass, a porcelain bowl, a pipe, a silver box and almonds, all on a wooden table, draped with a red cloth (€ 70.000-90.000). An apprentice of Frans Hals, Van Roestraeten married his daughter Adriaentje Hals and became one of the more successful of the many Dutch painters who tried to make a living in England during the late seventeenth century. His pictures fetched high prices, enabling him to remain in London for more than thirty years until his death in 1700.

Karel Beschey (Antwerp 1706 – 1770) is represented with a pair of summer and winter landscapes, both with elegant travellers and a horse-drawn wagon near a village, the summer landscape with peasants dancing and eating and the winter landscape with figures skating on a frozen river nearby. The pair of oil on panels, both signed, are estimated € 60.000-80.000.

Paintings from J.Paul Getty Museum
Of interest is a group of paintings from the J.Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Scott Schaeffer, curator of paintings at the Museum, explains: “Not unlike many American Museums, the J.P. Getty Museum has availed itself of the process referred to as ‘de-accessioning’ works of art. Throughout the brief history of the collection, works have been de-accessioned through various means. The Getty Museum was always intended to encourage an intimate relationship between the Museum’s collection and visitors. For this reason the collection will remain select and quite small in scale. The Amsterdam Old Master Paintings sale will feature some paintings to fulfil this mission and to make further funds available to purchase singular works of art better suited to the collection as it has changed over the years”. The works for the J.Paul Getty Museum include an attractive View of Rhenen by Salomon van Ruysdael (Naarden 1600-1670 Haarlem), an oil on canvas of 72.4 by 107,3 cm, signed and dated 1660 (€70.000-90.000). Also Anthonie Jansz van der Croos (Alkmaar 1606-1663 The Hague) is represented with an extensive Landscape with a view of Rhenen, a large oil on canvas, signed and dated 1656 (€30.000-40.000).