Antiques Trade Gazette 27


Old Master market


Above: Vase of Sunflowers, 3ft 7in x 3ft 7in (1.1 x 1.1m) oil by Anthony Green – £21,000 at the Rye Art Gallery.


Golden days for Green


Joan Porter reports


ONE of the country’s most eminent and best-loved figurative painters is returning for his second selling show at the Rye Art Gallery in the medieval East Sussex town. Anthony Green’s career spans 50 years


Above left: The Arrival of Henri III at the Villa Contarini by Giambattista Tiepolo – $5.2m (£3.5m) at Christie’s.


Above right: Venice, A View from the Churches of the Redentore and San Giacomo... by Canaletto – $5m (£3.4m) at Sotheby’s.


Far left: Portrait of a Gentleman by Thomas de Keyser – at $1.25m (£845,000) at Christie’s New York. Left: Portrait of a Gentleman from Elizabeth Taylor’s collection and recently attributed to Franz Hals – $1.8m (£1.2m) at Christie’s. Right: Saint Jerome in the Wilderness by Fra Bartolommeo – $4.3m (£2.9m) at Sotheby’s.


phone at $5.2m (£3.5m). The previous record, £2.5m ($3.7m) for Portrait of a Lady as Flora, was set at Christie’s London in 2008. Market freshness and rarity garnered


strong interest in A Young Lady Playing a Clavichord by Dutch master Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), a signed 15 x 12½in (39 x 32cm) oil on panel. It was painted in the 1660s and is an


important example of Dou’s late work, which turned from middle-class subjects


to the opulent interiors of the upper classes. The portrait is thought to have


influenced Vermeer’s 1675 painting A Lady Seated at a Virginal, and also closely resembles Dou’s own A Lady at a Clavichord, at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. The latter, with its vibrant colours, hints at the splendour that will be revealed once A Young Lady Playing a Clavichord is cleaned, removing layers of oxidized old varnish. The painting, whose


whereabouts were unknown for decades, emerged from a family where it has been since the 1920s. Estimated at $1m-2m, it sold to London dealer Johnny Van Haeften at $2.9m (£1.95m). There was equally keen competition


for another market-fresh work that hadn’t been seen since 1926 when it last sold at Christie’s, a bust-length Portrait of a Gentleman, by pre-eminent portrait painter Thomas de Keyser (1596- 1667), who was active in Amsterdam in the 1620s. The 11 x 8¾in (28 x 22cm) octagonal oil on copper, monogrammed and dated 1627, probably depicts one of de Keyser’s wealthy patrons, although Dutch archivist S.A.C. Dudok van Heel has suggested the sitter could be the artist Pieter Lastman, who taught Rembrandt. Estimated at $300,000-$500,000, it


was bought at $1.25m (£845,000) by the Lee and Juliet Folger Fund for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, its first de Keyser. In fighting off trade underbidding on the portrait, the Folger Fund set a new record for de Keyser, previously standing at £400,000 ($270,300) bid for Portrait of a Lady in a Black Dress at Christie’s London in 2007. Another highlight of Christie’s


sale came from the one Old Master among the late Elizabeth Taylor’s extensive collection of Impressionist and Modern paintings. This was Portrait of a Gentleman, a half-length portrait which for decades was thought to be


continued on page 28


and his vividly detailed, irregularly shaped, autobiographically humorous paintings, are instantly recognisable. He maintains that the pictures in his mind have no edges and do not have to be contained in a rectangular form; therefore much of his work is painted on free-standing structures. Born in 1939, Anthony Green has been


an RA since 1977, and has works in the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery, the V&A and MOMA. The contents of the exhibition, titled


Lobsters, Terriers, Flowers and Sex, come from the ongoing narrative of the artist’s family life and to celebrate 50 years of married bliss to his wife Mary, who features so often in his works. There are 11 oils for sale priced from


£13,000 to £26,000 but for less deep pockets, 11 limited edition prints from £300 to £840 are bound to attract. Likely to be popular, at £300


unframed, is Anthony’s favourite work in


the exhibition, A Golden Wedding, 12 x 14 in (30.5 x 38 cm) which celebrates his and Mary’s 50th anniversary last year. The exhibition runs from February 18


to March 25 at the Rye Art Gallery at 107 High Street, Rye. Contact gallery manager Sarah Money


on 01797 222433 for more information. www.ryeartgallery.co.uk Rye Art Gallery comprises the Easton


Rooms, a contemporary art and crafts gallery and the Stormont Studio, a permanent collection including works by Modern British artists Edward Burra and Paul Nash, both of whom lived in Rye, Duncan Grant and John Piper.


galleries@ antiquestradegazette.com


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