19th Century European Art

MADAM – I am writing to inform your readers of my search for the paintings of the Croatian artist Vlaho Bukovac (1855-1922). His two main patrons in this country were Samson Fox in Harrogate and Richard LeDoux in Liverpool.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

The unexpected highlight of a recent sale at Beurret & Bailly (20% buyer’s premium) in Basel was a work by the Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) which had been considered lost for over a century.

The biggest sensation at Scheublein (26% buyer’s premium) in Munich on June 30 was caused by an oil painting of American Indians from the mid-19th century. It was an oil study for a famous painting by Carl Ferdinand Wimar (1828-62), who also went by the name of Charles Wimar.

More 19th century art was offered in London when over 120 lots of European and Orientalist pictures went under the hammer at Christie’s.

It is high season for sales in Paris and the Drouot auction centre, home to 75 firms, is busy with its usual roster across all disciplines.

It is tempting to write off 19th century pictures as passé. A field relegated to the dusty corners of the art market, while contemporary art reigns supreme.

More 19th century pictures will go under the hammer this summer at auction houses in London. Christie’s dedicated sale in King Street on July 13 is led by a collection of 46 Orientalist works.

Consigned from a deceased estate, a 19th century oil of a popular Venetian view topped Mitchells’ (20% buyer’s premium) June 1 auction in Cockermouth, Cumbria.

A major work by French academy painter Edouard Joseph Dantan (1846-97), unseen for over a century, has emerged at an auction in Colchester.

A Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-78) painting that had been in the same private collection since 1963 topped Nesbits’ (19% buyer’s premium) sale in Portsmouth on May 17.

On May 19, not for the first time, Van Ham in Cologne is selling a painting by Raden Saleh Ben Jaggia (1811-80), a Javanese prince who made a career for himself during the 22 years he spent in Europe, mainly in The Netherlands and Germany.

Salisbury is latest auction house finding a sense of optimism despite some patchy areas

Private works on a European theme yield strong prices in Cambridgeshire sale...

This large, 6ft (1.8m) diameter circular oil on canvas, 'April' is the work of the Nabis painter Maurice Denis. It is one of three ceiling panels commissioned from the artist by the musician Ernest Chausson for his Parisian town house between 1894 and 1899.

Owing to today’s minimalist taste, Continental views of 19th century ports are not an easy sell. This pair of canvases proved otherwise when they topped Thomson Roddick’s (15% buyer’s premium) March 18 sale in Carlisle, Cumbria.