New York auctions in early 2024

The sales in New York at the end of January/beginning of February are very rich this year. The number of works for sale at Sotheby’s and Christie’s is colossal, and while not all are of optimum quality, there are enough important paintings, sculptures and drawings to tempt collectors and museums.
We’ll begin this quick tour at Sotheby’s, where the collection of a well-known New York art historian and specialist in Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun is presented under the title ’A Scholar Collects’, apparently in order to preserve its relative anonymity.

1. Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842)
Self-Portrait In Traveling Costume, 1816
Pastel - 48 x 37.5 cm
Sale Sotheby’s New York, 31/1/24
Photo: Sotheby’s

See the image in its page

2. Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842)
Sky study with a tree, possibly in the Meuse Valley, 1826
Pastel - 17 x 20.4 cm
Sale Sotheby’s New York, 31/1/24
Photo: Sotheby’s

See the image in its page

There are, of course, works by this artist, including a very fine Self-Portrait (ill. 1) in pastel and several delightful landscapes in the same technique (ill. 2), a theme with which we were less familiar from her, but which the retrospective at the Grand Palais (see article) had highlighted. But there are also works by her contemporaries, some better known than others. A magnificent portrait of a man is by Claude Arnulphy (ill. 3), an artist originally from Lyon who spent most of his career in Provence. Although he belongs to the latter category, a painting such as this shows that he could have enjoyed greater renown.

3. Claude Arnulphy (1697-1786)
Portrait of Jean-Baptiste
Boyer de Fonscolombe, 1740
Oil on canvas - 63.8 x 55.6 cm
Sale Sotheby’s New York, 31/1/24
Photo: Didier Rykner

See the image in its page

4. Carlo Maratta (1625-1713)
The Madonna and Child Appearing to Saints Ambrosius, Francis of Sales and Nicholas of Bari
Pen, brown ink and wash, black chalk -…