This section will be available this Autumn.
Verdini Antiques
Enrico Podio (Active 1840-1890 between Rome and Venice) Micromosaic centre table, 1873 Polychrome micromosaic, patinated, cast and chased bronze H 100 x Ø 125 cm Signed and dated 'Enrico Podio fecit' and 'Venezia 1873' This exceptional table is one of the most ambitious expressions of nineteenth-century Venetian micromosaic. Its distinction lies in the rare combination of monumental scale, extraordinary technical refinement, documented authorship and a fully integrated sculptural bronze base. Micromosaic is more often associated with small cabinet objects. Here, Enrico Podio expands the technique to a table, transforming a traditionally intimate art into a commanding architectural statement. The head of Medusa is modelled through minute glass tesserae with subtle changes of flesh tone, shadow, hair and serpent scales. The optical blending approaches the effects of painting while remaining unmistakably mosaic. The inscriptions 'ENRICO PODIO FECIT' and 'VENEZIA 1873' give the work unusual documentary precision, securely identifying the maker, place and date and anchoring the table within the mature Venetian revival of mosaic art. The patinated, cast and chased bronze pedestal is conceived as an integral part of the design. Its classical heads, masks, architectural members and zoomorphic details create a powerful counterpoint to the brilliant colour of the micromosaic top. The synthesis of rarity, scale, technical mastery, documented authorship and visual impact places this table among the most impressive examples of nineteenth-century Italian decorative arts.
Douwes Fine Art b.v.
Andreas Schelfhout (The Hague, 1787-1870) A wooded winter landscape with figures on and along a frozen river, 1856 Oil on panel 37 x 50 cm Signed and dated lower right 'A. Schelfhout '56' Provenance: private collection, United Kingdom; MacConnal Mason, 2003, sold at TEFAF; private collection, The Netherlands; thence by descent
Dr. Nöth kunsthandel
Armand Guillaumin (Paris 1841-1927 Orly) Bords de l'Orge à Epinay, 1890 Oil on canvas 81 x 65 cm Signed lower right Certificate of authenticity from the Comité Guillaumin This work will be included in the second volume of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné currently in preparation Provenance: Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris; Clara de Plessis Whelan, New York; Sale Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 7 November 1946, lot 65; Mr. Jussaume, Buenos Aires; Mr. Foret, Buenos Aires; private collection, France (acquired from the above in 1956); Christie's London 7 February 2001, lot 127; private collection, Texas
Floris van Wanroij Fine Art
Anna Ruysch (The Hague 1666-1754 Amsterdam) Flowers in a glass vase on a partly draped marble ledge Oil on canvas 47 x 37.5 cm Signed Anna Ruysch lower left The present picture is recorded at the RKD in The Hague under n° 194147 as by Anna Ruysch Provenance: sale Piasa, Paris, 27 July 2008, lot 16; Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam, 2008; Kunsthandel Xaver Scheidwimmer, Munich, 2009; private collection, Ohé en Laak, The Netherlands; thence by decent Exhibitions: Kunsthandel Xaver Scheidwimmer, TEFAF Maastricht, 13-22 March 2009; Rachel Ruysch. Artist, Naturalist and Pioneer (traveling exhibition) Munich, Alte Pinakothek, 26 november 2024-16 March 2025; Toledo OH, Toledo Museum of Art, 13 April-27 July 2025; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 23 August-7 December 2025 Literature: Schindler, R., Ebert, B. & Knaap, A. C. (2025). Rachel Ruysch. Nature into Art. Boston: MFA Publications, exh. cat., p. 24, ill. n° 12, identified as by Anna Ruysch
Alexis Lartigue
Pablo Picasso (Malaga 1881-1973 Mougins) Le peintre et son modèle IV, 1970 Pencil on paper 31.6 x 49 cm Signed and dated upper right Provenance: Sala Gaspar, Barcelona; Galerie Louis Leiris, Paris; private collection, Barcelona Literature: Zervos, Christian. Pablo Picasso, Oeuvres de 1970. Vol. 32. Éditions Cahiers d’Art, París, p. 71, n° 214; Wofsy, Alan. The Picasso Project. Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture: The Final Years. 1970-1973. Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, San Francisco 2002, p. 71, fig. 70-245
Dei Bardi Art
Kneeling donor figure South Netherlandish, second half of the 16th century Limestone 67 x 22 x 37 cm Provenance: ancient collector's label on the reverse This rare limestone portrait of a Renaissance donor, kneeling in prayer and remarkably well preserved. Carved in the Southern Netherlands in the second half of the 16th century, the figure combines exceptional quality of execution with a richly detailed costume. The woman wears a huik, the characteristic outer garment of the women of the Low Countries, over a ruff with figure-of-eight pleats. This combination places the work in the last decades of the 16th century, c. 1560-1590. Beneath, a bodice with a central busk and cuffs incised with fine ornament complete an ensemble rendered with great precision. Familiar from painted portraits, such dress is only rarely preserved in such detail in sculpture. The face, with its heavy eyelids and marked features, favours a faithful likeness over an idealized type and lends the figure a quiet gravity and a strong sense of individual presence. The sculptor worked the piece fully in the round, and the crispness of the ruff, the incised cuffs, the hands and the drapery points to an important private commission, most likely from a family of considerable means and standing. The figure bears witness to those families who, in the Renaissance, could commission skilled sculptors to perpetuate their memory. Such images also conveyed the power of their patrons. This secular tradition, so different in spirit from religious sculpture, helped shape the stylistic evolution of Renaissance art. An old collector’s label on the reverse attests to the figure’s long history in collections.
Lemaire
Japanese and Chinese porcelain potpourri Kangxi and Edo periods, circa 1760-1770 Porcelain mounted in gilt-bronze H 23 x Ø 16 cm The piece is composed of two distinct sections. The circular Japanese porcelain base is decorated with a vegetal motif and set within a finely chased gilt-bronze mount, from which rise three small feet. Above, three Chinese biscuit porcelain dogs support a globular potpourri vessel, surmounted by a flower-form finial in porcelain. This work is typical of the marchands-merciers active in Paris during the second half of the 18th century.
F. Baulme Fine Arts
Godfried Maes (Antwerp, 1649-1700) Ceres Transforming the Old Woman’s Son into a Lizard Black chalk, pen and black ink, grey and brown wash on paper 18 x 24 cm Provenance: Maes’s widow sold to Jacob de Wit before 1717; Jacob de Wit sale, Amsterdam, 10 March 1755, n° 87; Cronenburgh sale, 22 March 1762, n° 1; anonymous sale, Mak van Waay collection, Sotheby’s, 15 January 1974, n° 1273; Dr. A. Dreesmann sale, Christie’s, 11 April 2002, n° 668-670 Related works: Engravings by Bernard Picart and Peter van Gunst for the 1732 edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses translated and annotated by Abbé Banier, a member of the French Academy
COLNAGHI
Robert Mapplethorpe (New York 1946-1989 Boston) Female torso, 1978 Silver gelatin photograph 50.8 x 40.6 cm Made in 1978, the photograph belongs to a life-long dialogue in Mapplethorpe’s work between photography and sculpture. The subject would later serve as the opening image of his 1989 volume Some Women, where its classical reference establishes a point of comparison for the contemporary women portrayed in the book. The photograph was produced in an edition of ten. Impressions of the image are held in major public collections, including the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The documented provenance of this impression begins with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in New York, from which it passed into a private collection in Belgium.
Maurice Verbaet Collection (MVC)
Marcel Mariën (Antwerp 1920-1993 Brussels) La Mire, circa 1981-83 Gelatin silver print on paper 18 x 12.5 cm (unframed) 33 x 43 cm (framed) Edition 2/6 Even before meeting the Brussels surrealists at the age of 17, Marcel Mariën (1920-1993) had taken his first steps in photography, having begun an apprenticeship with a photographer in Hoboken at the age of 15. During the 1940s, he began to use photography to create images with the bodies of the women he loved, but it was mainly from the 1980s onwards that he made frequent use of it. The photograph La Mire highlights the remarkable effectiveness of his creations, which, whilst appearing simple, reveal a wealth of meanings the moment one takes a closer look. It also demonstrates the extent to which photography enables Mariën to explore in greater depth the themes he develops in his objects, collages and writings. Indeed, his entire body of work is a reflection on the status of art. In this respect, he builds upon not only the concerns of the surrealists but also those of Marcel Duchamp. The Mona Lisa, the quintessential masterpiece of Western painting, was notably appropriated by Duchamp, who drew a moustache on it and added the inscription ‘L.H.O.O.Q.’ (‘Elle a chaud au cul’ or ‘She’s got a hot arse’) in 1919. Mariën takes this provocative critique of the mythicization surrounding this artwork a step further. The pubic hair encapsulates the moustache and inscription. It emphasizes the distance between the real woman and the painted one, whose identity has been forgotten whilst her depiction has become ubiquitous. The title refers to ‘la mire’ – that is, the image shown on television when channels were off the air –, an ever-present image that nobody looks at, much like the Mona Lisa, of which we have seen so many reproductions that we can no longer truly appreciate the real painting. But it also implies that ‘elle la mire’, which means ‘she is gazing at her’: it echoes Duchamp’s inscription, which can also be read as ‘look’. Furthermore, it plays on the belief that the Mona Lisa follows viewers with her gaze. Mariën presents the Mona Lisa as looking intently at the sex of the flesh-and-blood woman lying in front of her – in a perspective reminiscent of L’Origine du monde by Courbet. Perhaps his photograph enables us to better understand the reason behind the Mona Lisa’s famous mischievous smile?
Vagabond Antiques
Giocondo Albertolli (Bedano 1742-1839 Milan) (Attributed to) Milan, late 18th century Wall lights H 72 x W 45 x D 37 cm These elegant gilt-metal wall sconces are attributed to the Milanese architect, designer and ornamentist Giocondo Albertolli, one of the leading figures of Italian Neo-classicism. Their design closely relates to the engraved ornament published in Albertolli's celebrated pattern books, particularly Ornamenti Diversi (Milan, 1782), which played a central role in disseminating the new classical taste throughout Lombardy and Northern Italy. The sconces display many of the motifs associated with Albertolli's ornamental vocabulary, including scrolling acanthus brances, finely fluted candle sockets and radiating drip pans. Their unusually tall proportions and boldly projecting arms give them a distinctly sculptural character, creating a sense of movement and depth rarely encountered in wall lights of the period. The open voluted arms, enriched with naturalistic foliage, closely resemble a number of Albertolli's published designs for girandoles and wall lights. Born in Bedano, near Lugano, Albertolli settled in Milan in 1774 at the invitation of the architect Giuseppe Piermarini. As Professor of Ornament at the Brera Academy he exerted a profound influence on the decorative arts of Northern Italy, providing designs for architecture, furniture, metalwork and interior decoration. His published engravings became an important source for craftsmen working in the Neoclassical style throughout the late eighteenth century. The present sconces are attributed to Giocondo Albertolli and were almost certainly produced by craftsmen working within the circle of artists and decorators associated with him in late eighteenth century Milan. Their refined design and high quality of execution reflect the sophisticated decorative arts tradition that flourished in Lombardy during the Neoclassical period.
La Galerie URBAN
Maurice Denis (Granville 1870-1943 Saint-Germain-en-Laye) Bucolique d’Automne or L’Heureux Verger Pouldu, 1906 Oil on canvas 82 x 117 cm Signed and dated lower left 'MAVRICE DENIS 1906' This work is accompanied by the certificate of authenticity and it will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist under n° 906.0016 Provenance: Baron Eberhard von Bodenhausen, Berlin (acquired from the artist, 1906-1908); Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (1908-1919); Miss Edwards (1919); Brooklyn Museum, New York (1927); Galerie Philippe Reichenbach, Paris; Walter P. Chrysler Jr., New York (1960); Stuart Pivar, New York (2004-2021); private collection, Switzerland Exhibitions: Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, Grand Palais, 15 April-30 June 1906, p. 19, n° 389 (ill.); Fünfzehnten Ausstellung der Berliner Secession, Berlin, spring 1908, n° 46; Internationale Kunstschau, Vienna, Gebäude der Secession, May-October 1909, n° 15; Nus, Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, 17-28 May 1910, n° 30; Ausstellung Französischer Kunst des 18., 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, Leipziger Kunstverein, October-November 1910, n° 55; Internationale Kunstausstellung der Münchener Secession, Munich, Kgl. Kunstausstellungsgebäude am Königsplatz, 16 May-31 October 1911, n° 36; Exposition d'Art contemporain, Paris, Galerie Manzi-Joyant, 12-31 October 1912, n° 44; Ausstellung französischer Kunst, Zurich, Zürcher Kunsthaus, 16 February-26 March 1913, n° 93; A XIX. Szàzad nagy francia mesterei, Budapest, Ernst-Muzeum, September 1913, n° 78; Le Paysage du Midi, Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, 8-16 June 1914, n° 26; Exposition de peinture, série C, Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, 19-30 June 1916, n° 13; French Paintings 1789-1929 from the collection of Walter P. Chrysler Jr., Dayton Art Institute, 25 March-22 May 1960, p. 102, n° 94 (ill.)
Serge Schoffel - Art Premier
Pendant depicting a trophy head Konyak Naga Northeastern India, 19th century Wood and glass beads H 7 cm Provenance: Alain Schoffel, Paris, France; Philipp Konzett, Vienna, Austria Literature: Schoffel, Alain, Arts Primitifs de l'Asie du Sud-Est, Alain and Françoise Chaffin, eds., Meudon 1981, p. 30
Grusenmeyer-Woliner
Figure of a winged atlas Gandhara, ancient Greco-Buddhist region Pakistan or Afghanistan, 3rd-4th century Grey schist H 34.3 cm Provenance: Shirley Day, New York, 30 January 1992; collection of Martha Sharp Joukowsky, Rhode Island, USA; Christie’s, Paris, property from the Joukowsky collection (sale), 27 September 2023
Douwes Fine Art b.v.
Kees van Dongen (Rotterdam 1877-1968 Monte Carlo) La Rotonde, circa 1949 Unique watercolour over litho on paper 24 x 21.5 cm Signed lower right 'van Dongen.' Provenance: Kloppart collection; private collection, The Netherlands Literature: Roland Dorgelès, ‘Au beaux-temps de la Butte’, Paris, 1949
Repetto Gallery
Christo (Gabrovo 1935-2020 New York) and Jeanne-Claude (Casablanca 1935-2009 New York) The Pont Neuf, Wrapped (Project for Paris), 1985 Graphite, charcoal pastel, wax crayon, fabric, photograph collage on cardboard mounted on a stretcher 144.5 x 165 cm Upper element: 38 x 165 cm Lower element 106.5 x 165 cm Signed, dated and titled lower on the upper element The artwork’s details have been reviewed and confirmed by the Foundation Christo and Jeanne-Claude Provenance: Michael Cullen, London; Deutsche Bank collection, Frankfurt (acquired from the above in 1985)
