how did a portrait by one of the greatest artists of all time, of one of the most influential women of his lifetime, go unnoticed for 300 years?
Art News
After over 50 years hidden from the public view, three works by one of Britain’s greatest painters are headed to the auction block. John Constable’s (1776-1837) oil landscapes of the British countryside are some of the most famous in the genre, and his works are highly valued in his homeland and beyond.
Hot on the heels of last month’s record-setting auction of Claude Monet’s 1891 Meules, Sotheby’s is hoping for another big sale with his 1908 Nymphéas. Estimated to sell for $31.9-44.6 million, the canvas likely won't touch the $110.7 million record for Monet that Meules set. But water lilies, along with haystacks, are some of Monet’s most famous subjects, and with the market primed for Monet works, the sale could exceed its high estimate.
A stunning Impressionist work from Pissarro’s series of Paris paintings will be auctioned by Sotheby’s on June 19 at the auction house’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening sale.
Discovered after decades stashed in a drawer, one of the world’s most famous and valuable chesspieces in coming to auction. Offered by Sotheby’s in their upcoming Old Master Sculpture & Works of Art sale, a newly rediscovered carved ivory chessmen dating to the 12th century is estimated to sell for $700,000 to $1.2 million.
Leading Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on May 14 is a rare masterpiece from Claude Monet’s Haystacks series. Meules (French for ‘stacks’) from 1890 is one of 25 canvasses the artist painted on the subject.
The inaugural “Oddities” auction at Doyle on May 7 is headlined by a sign–an enamel-painted wooden placard beckoning visitors into “Mr. Potter’s Museum of Curiosities,” the twice defunct museum in England that showcased, as the sign indicates, “A Two Headed Lamb,” “A Murderers Truncheon,” and “The Famous Tableaux of Walter Potter.”
The history of the cutting of the Cullinan diamond, the largest gem-quality stone ever found, is captured in documents being offered at Bonhams London on April 30, 2019.
As one would expect, the semi-annual Oak Interior auction at Bonhams London is chockful of sturdy chairs and clunky chests. There’s also plenty of antique iron, brass, pewter, stone, and copper–if you happen to be furnishing a castle, this is the sale for you–but the lot with the most presence is this rough-hewn English oak jail door dating from the 1630s (or earlier) and showing “fascinating and macabre prisoner graffiti,” according to the auctioneer.
Moove over, Manhattan, cow coming through! And not just any cow, this one’s a molded plaster bovine sculpture drawn and painted by beloved children’s author/illustrator Maurice Sendak in the manner of his Caldecott Medal-winning book, Where the Wild Things Are.
