For many decades, Rudolf was not only one of Germany’s most renowned auctioneers; he was also a passionate collector. In his will he decreed that his works of art should be put up for sale, quite a task for Katrin.
As she put it: “With pride and a little wistfulness, my two sisters and I are respecting the legacy of our father who instructed us to put his collection back on the market.
“Some of these items have been familiar to us since our childhood and will now – to our great pleasure – find a place in new surroundings and nourish a love of fine art and exquisite craftsmanship.”
Hundreds of works
The upcoming sale contains some 800 works. Neumeister was particularly interested in works of art by German painters, in silver and ceramics from many parts of Europe and in early religious sculptures.
In 1979, for instance, he bought an early-18th century carved limewood figure of Flora by Balthasar Permoser (1651-1732), who created several series of The Seasons in various materials. The 9in (23cm) high figure, which was on loan to the Bavarian National Museum from 1979-2001, is now estimated at €150,000- 200,000.
Worthy of note among the ceramics is a pewter-mounted Nuremberg faience jug with hausmaler decoration of the Marriage at Cana surrounded by four cornucopias, attributed to Justus Alexander Ernst Glüer and dated 1729. It has a guide of €14,000-16,000.
Along with many of his colleagues, the German Romantic painter Carl Blechen was fascinated by the light and landscapes of Italy.
During an extensive journey through southern Italy in 1828-29 he painted around a hundred small-format landscapes in oil, two of which are coming up for sale: a 3½ x 4in (9 x 11cm) View of the Gulf of Naples shown here, estimated at €15,000-20,000, and the slightly smaller Valle de Mulini near Amalfi (€10,000-15,000).
Blechen’s career was tragically short. Long troubled by depression, he was later admitted to a mental institution and died in Berlin in 1840 at the age of 42.
