The Weiss Gallery
A large-scale portrait of the Spanish grandee Gaspar de Guzmán (1587-1645) on horseback is the centrepiece of The Weiss Gallery’s stand at TEFAF this year.
The 8ft 5in x 7ft (2.88 x 2.12m) oil on canvas emerged at Paris auction house Artcurial in September where it was catalogued as ‘17th century Flemish school’ and estimated at €8000-12,000. It sold to the London dealer at €281,800 (£248,000) and has now been attributed to Gaspar de Crayer (1584-1669) – the Flemish artist who became a court painter in the Spanish Netherlands – and dated to c.1625-30.
The sitter was Count of Olivares and Duke of San Lúcar la Mayor, and as the king’s valido (prime minister), the most powerful man in Spain during the reign of Philip IV. It is believed this is the portrait commissioned by the sitter’s cousin Diego Felipez de Guzmán, 1st Marquis of Leganés, and had hung in his palace at Morata de Tajun.
It will be priced at £1m-plus
Sydney L Moss
“It’s a beautiful sculpture of a type that my father had been researching for over 40 years and had never seen one, not even a bad one,” said Oliver Moss of Sydney L Moss when describing a Japanese wood temple sculpture of the Buddhist deity Aizen Myō-ō that the firm is offering at TEFAF Maastricht.
Bought at auction, the dealership has been researching the 2ft 4in (71cm) high figure ever since, with scientific testing and inscription to the base confirming a 15th century date, placing it within the Muromachi period (1392-1573).
The subject of the ‘Esoteric King of Lust’ is depicted as red-skinned, wearing robes of brocade design and with six arms each holding symbols relating to tantric Buddhism.
“TEFAF will be his first trip out and he’ll be right at the front of the stand,” said Moss.
The asking price is £250,000.
James Butterwick
At this year’s TEFAF Maastricht, James Butterwick will be staging a dedicated exhibition of works by the Ukrainian avant-garde artist Boris Kosarev (1897-1994).
The display concentrates on the experimental output he produced in Kharkov during the period 1918-29, before official Soviet art began to fully take root in Ukraine. Butterwick has sourced the pictures directly from the artist’s daughter, Nadezhda Kosareva.
The selection of theatrical works, still lifes, works on paper, collages, drawings and photography includes a 9½ x 7½in (24 x 19cm) watercolour Three Hamlets, Two Villages, which is signed and dated 1921.
It is priced at €15,000.
