Tefaf 2023, a great vintage

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In 2020, the fair was shortened due to the pandemic. In 2021, it was cancelled for the same reason. In 2022, it was held in June in a slightly reduced form. In 2023, Tefaf returned to its traditional dates and its usual size. This return to normality goes hand in hand with an exceptional year, in which the masterpieces are as usual - and perhaps even more so - extremely numerous, and with a high-end attendance. Museum curators flocked to the fair, especially from United States, some of whom were returning to Tefaf for the first time since 2019. Our selection will be even richer than usual, and we could have added many more works. It should be noted that a large number of those reproduced here have already been sold. Institutions have bought a lot, and we will of course come back to this in the coming weeks and months.


1. Diana Di Rosa (1602-1643)
St. Cecilia with an Angel
Oil on canvas - 98 x 76 cm
Porcini Gallery
Photo: Porcini Gallery
See the image in its page

The first painting we will discuss here (ill. 1) was in fact quickly acquired by an American museum whose name we will reveal as soon as the transaction has been definitively validated. This painting demonstrates two things that we often repeat: the art market is frequently at the forefront of art history and allows for major discoveries in this discipline, and the important thing for a woman artist is not that she is a woman but that she has talent. This is the case for Diana Di Rosa, two of whose paintings were exhibited by the Porcini Gallery and of whom we will speak again shortly, especially since a complete monograph on this artist - who is the sister of another painter, Pacceco Di Rosa - has been entrusted to the Italian art historian Giuseppe Porzio and published by the gallery.


2. Bartolomeo Manfredi (1582-1622)
The Coronation of Thorns
Oil on canvas
Benappi
Photo: Didier Rykner
See the image in its page
3. Pensionnante del Saraceni
(active around 1610-20)
Saint Jerome
Oil on canvas - 64 x 50 cm
Galerie Canesso
Photo: Galerie Canesso
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Let’s stay in Italian Seicento painting with a Caravaggio painting by Bartolomeo Manfredi, (ill. 2) at Benappi, an excellent dealer from whom we could also have reproduced an important painting by Carlo Saraceni if we had had a proper photograph. Let us nevertheless remain in the Saracenian atmosphere with a remarkable Saint Jerome by the Pensionante del Saraceni (ill. 3), a mysterious painter whose identity and even nationality are still unknown, but whose talent is immense. It is amusing to note that two works by this rare artist - it should be noted that the Louvre does not possess any - are appearing almost simultaneously on the market, since a still life by his hand will soon be offered by Artcurial in Paris (more on this later).


4. Giovanni Battista Salvi,
called Sassoferrato (1609-1685)
Salvator Mundi
Oil on canvas - 75 x 62 cm
Rob Smeets Old Master Paintings
Photo: Rob Smeets Old Master Paintings
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5. Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779)
Christ Carrying the Cross, 1773-1774
Oil on panel - 61 x 48.5 cm
Caylus
Photo: Didier Rykner
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Let us leave caravagesques for a work presented by Paul Smeets, by a painter who is somewhat underestimated, because we often see countless variations of Madonnas by his hand that are very similar to each other. It is Sassoferrato with a Salvator Mundi (ill. 4) of exceptional quality, with the vivid, almost saturated colours of which this artist is a true master.
We shall compare it with another Christ, this time by a German, and from the 18th century, but who worked in Italy: the work, due to Anton Raphaël Mengs, hangs on the stand of the Spanish gallery Caylus (ill. 5).


6. Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749)
Jonas and the Whale, 1720-1725
Oil on canvas - 173 x 229 cm
Galerie Canesso
Photo: Galerie Canesso
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Let us return one last time - but we could cite so many splendid works - to Italian painting, again on the stand of Maurizio Canesso, with a great Alessandro Magnasco, who has painted this tumultuous seascape, his style particularly recognisable in the small figures of the shipwrecked among whom Jonah is close to being swallowed by the monster (ill. 6).


7. Vincenzo Danti (1530-1576)
The Resurrection of Christ, c. 1559
Marble - 43.5 x 30 x 4.5 cm
Daniel Katz Gallery
Photo: Didier Rykner
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8. Massimiliano Soldani Benzi (1656-1740)
The Death of St Joseph
Unbaked clay - H. 58,3 cm
Stuart Lochhead Sculpture
Photo: Stuart Lochhead Sculpture
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9. Antonio Canova (1757-1822)
Sleeping Nymph, c. 1819-1820
Terracotta - 10.5 x 24 x 9.5 cm
Galleria Carlo Virgilio
Photo: Didier Rykner
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Let us nevertheless remain in Italy, with sculpture, as usual particularly well represented at Tefaf. At Daniel Katz, as is often the case, a marble relief by Vincenzo Danti (ill. 7) was much admired by connoisseurs and curators alike, and it is highly likely - if not already the case - that it will soon end up in a major collection or an American museum. This is already the fate of a no less remarkable terracotta relief by Massimiliano Soldani Benzi (ill. 8) reserved by an "important American public institution" to which we shall return. It should be noted that the gallerist who is presenting it, Stuart Lochhead, used to work with Daniel Katz a few years ago. He has now joined him in the importance of the works he exhibits and has also sold a marble by Félicie de Fauveau to another American museum (more on this later). On Carlo Virgilio’s beautiful stand, we will notice a precious small terracotta by Antonio Canova, representing a sleeping nymph (ill. 9).


10. Naples, 17th century
Ecce Homo
Pressed paper, wax, string,
polychromy - 44 x 51 x 39 cm
Benjamin Proust Fine Art
Photo: Benjamin Proust Fine Art
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11. Naples, 17th century
Ecce Homo
Pressed paper, wax, string,
polychromy - 44 x 51 x 39 cm
Benjamin Proust Fine Art
Photo: Benjamin Proust Fine Art
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Finally, let us mention another Italian sculpture (ill. 10 and 11), made in Naples in the 17th century, which is very surprising because it is made from unusual materials: pressed paper, wax, rope that forms the crown of thorns... The whole, polychrome, is of an extraordinary expressiveness. This head of Christ is a masterpiece that it is difficult to describe as "folk art", which is what it seems to have been originally.


12. Alonso Cano (1601-1667)
Immaculate Conception, c. 1628
Oil on canvas - 148.7 x 96 cm
Rob Smeets Old Master Paintings
Photo: Rob Smeets Old Master Paintings
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13. Juan Bautista Maíno (1581-1649)
The Visitation
Oil on canvas - 168.5 x 116 cm
Jaime Eguiguren Art & Antiques
Photo: Jaime Eguiguren Art & Antiques
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Naples was Spanish in the 17th century, so we will travel to Spain to see two high quality paintings. One is on the Paul Smeets stand, by Alonso Cano. This Immaculate Conception (ill. 12) is close to the works of Velázquez, whom he had known in the workshop of Francisco Pacheco. It is certainly one of the most beautiful paintings in the fair. The other is a Visitation by Juan Bautista Maíno (ill. 13), a painter whose retrospective was shown at the Prado thirteen years ago (see article). It can be seen on the stand of the Argentinean gallery owner Jaime Eguiguren.


14. Garcia Fernandes (c. 1514-c. 1565) and Cristóvão de Figueiredo (c. 1490-c. 1555)
The Resurrection of Christ, c. 1530-1535
Oil on panel - 120 x 59 cm
Philippe Mendes Gallery
Photo: Philippe Mendes Gallery
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15. View of the stand of the São Roque Gallery
with a 17th century ceiling
Photo: Mario Roque
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Let’s stay in the Iberian world again to join Portugal with the Philippe Mendes gallery, which is showing a very rare 16th-century painting, an otherwise perfect condition Resurrection of Christ (ill. 14). The work, which was probably part of a dismembered altarpiece, is by two hands: Cristóvão de Figueiredo and Garcia Fernandes. It is an eloquent testimony to the quality of Portuguese painting in the 16th century, to which the Louvre recently devoted a small exhibition (see article).
Let us also mention, still for the Lusitanian world, the stand of Mario Roque, whose decoration is also noteworthy: the ceiling - which is not for sale, as it must have been installed before the intervention of the vetting - comes from an aristocratic house in the north of Portugal in Douro (Santa Rita de Penaguião). It dates from the 17th century and was repainted in the second half of the 18th century (ill. 15).


16. Philippe de Champaigne (1602-1674)
St. Augustine at his Study Treading on Heretics
Oil on canvas, formerly mounted on panel - 99.5 x 80.5 cm
Galerie Éric Coatalem
Photo: Galerie Éric Coatalem
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We come at last to France, and begin with the 17th century, which for once, unless we are mistaken - we do not want to be too affirmative, as there is so much to see that we may have missed some works - seems less present. However, it should be noted that a painting from this period was bought by a French museum, which we will talk about very soon.
Let’s stop at Éric Coatalem’s stand, with its dense display as we like it, to reproduce two very beautiful paintings that have never been seen before: one is a Saint Augustin by Philippe de Champaigne (ill. 16), close to that of LACMA, but presenting in a fascinating way, under the foot of Saint Augustine, the heads of the damned and an infernal monster, whereas in the American version he is content to trample on books propagating heretical doctrines.


17. Louis II de Boullogne (1654-1733)
The Supper at Emmaus
Oil on canvas - 84.5 x 102 cm
Galerie Éric Coatalem
Photo: Galerie Éric Coatalem
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On the same stand, we also can see a rediscovered painting by Louis II de Boullogne (ill. 17), which was exhibited at the 1704 Salon, while the Terrades Gallery presents a fascinating object (ill. 18): it is a copy of the Amiens reliquary made in the seventeenth century, most certainly to serve as a model for the engraving that was until today the only known representation of the reliquary before the Revolution, which has now disappeared. Only the relic itself and the crystal block on which it is placed are now preserved in the treasury of Amiens Cathedral, the missing reliquary having been reconstituted in 1876 by the goldsmith Placide Poussielgue-Rusand. The painting itself is set in a 19th century frame with small miniatures.


18. France, circa 1680
Reliquary of the Head of Saint John the Baptist of Amiens
Oil on canvas - D. 35 cm
Terrades Gallery
Photo: Galerie Terrrades
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From the French eighteenth century, we shall retain among many works a painting of dazzling quality but astonishing (ill. 19), because of an attribution that is not immediately obvious but which can be understood when compared with works from the artist’s youth, including The Death of Pallas from the Galleria Nazionale in Parma, of which an other version is known in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
It is in fact a painting by the Swiss neoclassical painter Jacques Sablet, best known for his portraits, many of them plein air, in the manner of conversation pieces.


19. Jacques Sablet (1749-1803)
Minerve and Diomedes, c. 1778
Oil on canvas - 69 x 100.5 cm
Aaron Gallery
Photo: Aaron Gallery
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A painting had already been reproduced on this site, but that was before it was bought by Marty de Cambiaire and Jean-Luc Baroni. Cleaned up, it came out even more beautiful than it was (and it was, since we had noticed it). It is a work by François Boucher (ill. 20), which unsurprisingly found a private buyer at the opening of Tefaf.
At Wildenstein, we will see - after last year’s extraordinary Saint Pierre repentant by the same artist - four small paintings by Fragonard (ill. 21), real jewels by this painter of unrivalled virtuosity.


20. François Boucher (1703-1770)
Hurdy-gurdy player
Oil on canvas - 39.5 x 32 cm
Jean-Luc Baroni & Marty de Cambiaire
Photo: Jean-Luc Baroni &
Marty de Cambiaire
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21. Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806)
Woman holding a child in her arms
Boy standing on a Windowsill
A Seated Sultana
A Little Girl Reading the Alphabet
Oil on canvas -
approximately 16.5 x 12.5 cm each
Wildenstein & Co
Photo: Wildenstein & Co
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A few more paintings before moving on to the objets d’art: at Michel Descours, whose stands are always remarkable, we have chosen two 19th century religious paintings, of which we are fond. The first is by Louis Janmot, a Saint Jean-Baptiste (ill. 22) which, unsurprisingly for a Lyon masterpiece, is now part of Jérôme Tomaselli’s collection (listen to our podcast).


22. Louis Janmot (1814-1892)
Saint John the Baptist in the Desert, 1845
Oil and gold on panel - 158,5 x 57,3 cm
Galerie Michel Descours
Photo: Didier Rykner
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23. Luc-Olivier Merson (1846-1920)
Christ at Martha and Mary, 1890
Oil on canvas - 107 x 50 cm
Galerie Michel Descours
Photo: Didier Rykner
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The second is a painting by Luc-Olivier Merson (ill. 23) which had been exhibited in the retrospective devoted to him by the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes (see article).


24. Paul Ranson (1861-1909)
Study for "Christ and Buddha", 1890
Pastel - 60 x 70 cm
Galerie Jean-François Heim
Photo: Galerie Jean-François Heim
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We will end this long section devoted to sculptures and paintings with a pastel (ill. 24). It can be admired on the stand of Jean-François Heim, and is a study for Christ and Buddha, a painting kept in the Netherlands at the Triton Foundation. Impressed by Paul Gauguin’s Yellow Christ and Self-Portrait with Yellow Christ, Ranson also produced a mystical work in this painting, but one that seeks religious syncretism by combining two figures that have little to do with one another. The preparatory pastel still only shows the figure of Buddha.


25. Augustin Jean Moreau, called Moreau-Vauthier (1831-1893)
Jewellery Box, 1855
Ivory, brass, steel, silk velvet (modern trim) - H. 60 cm
Aaron Gallery
Photo: Aaron Gallery
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The objets d’art - which are sometimes difficult to separate from the sculptures - give us the opportunity to talk, once again, about ivories, including a remarkable jewellery chest that was presented at the 1855 World Exhibition and is on display here by the Aaron Gallery (ill. 25). Ivory objects are increasingly threatened by aberrant legislations, which will not save a single elephant, but which may well become the cause of senseless vandalism (some even talk of destroying ivory works like Prince William! So it bears repeating for the fools: limiting or banning (as US legislation does) the trade in antique ivory art is idiocy, because the elephants that provided the ivory were killed long ago. Incredible, isn’t it?


26. Johann Michael Egner and Hans Jacob Erhart
Rothschild Oliphant, c. 1645
Ivory and silver gilt - H. 51 cm
Kunstkammer Georg Laue
Photo: Kunstkammer Georg Laue
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We apologise for our irritation, but it is absolutely unbearable that every year ivory objects become rarer at the fair, because they cannot be bought by Americans in particular. Let us also note, in this material which has produced admirable objects, an oliphant, known as Oliphant Rothschild (ill. 26), because it belonged to Baroness Thérèse de Rothschild, exhibited by the Galerie Kunstkammer Georg Laue, which has devoted an entire catalogue to it. The work was executed in Strasbourg around 1645 by the sculptor Johann Michael Egner and the goldsmith Hans Jacob Erhart.


27. Paris or Moulins, c. 1498-1500
Feuille from a Book of Hours for Anne de France
Translucent gold enamel, modern frame - 4.4 x 3.3 cm
Paris, Galerie Brimo de Laroussilhe
Photo: Hugues Dubois
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27. Paris or Moulins, c. 1498-1500
Feuille from a Book of Hours for Anne de France
Translucent gold enamel, modern frame - 4.4 x 3.3 cm
Paris, Galerie Brimo de Laroussilhe
Photo: Hugues Dubois
See the image in its page

Let us go back in time to 1498-1500 with three enamelled gold leaves that we had already been able to admire at the exhibition that the Galerie Brimo de Laroussilhe presented last year (see article), but we cannot resist the pleasure of reproducing here two other leaves (ill. 27 and 28) that we dream of seeing again one day in the Louvre or at Écouen. One can always dream.


29. France, mid-16th century, possibly after Jean Cousin
The Triumph of Diana over Venus and Cupid
Wool and silk - 377 x 246 cm
Wildenstein & Co
Photo: Wildenstein & Co
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30. Brussels, workshop of Cornelis and Jan Mattens, late 16th century
The Whale Hunt
Wool and silk - 415 x 550 cm
De Wit
Photo: De Wit
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Among the tapestries present at the fair, two particularly caught our attention. The first is part of the History of Diana tapestry (ill. 29) commissioned by Diana of Poitiers, of which until recently six pieces were kept. Four pieces that belonged to the Château d’Anet were destroyed in a fire at the Bobin restoration workshop in Boissy-Saint-Léger on 25 February 1997. Two others were kept at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Musée des Antiquités de Rouen, until the reappearance in 2007 of the first two tapestries of the hanging, acquired by the Musée national de la Renaissance in Écouen (see brief of 31/8/07). This one is therefore the last one still in private hands: it was bought by Georges Wildenstein, Guy Wildenstein’s grandfather, more than a century ago! The second tapestry (ill. 30) belongs to the hanging known as the "Grotesques de la Couronne", the first of which was woven in Brussels and comprised ten pieces covered with gold and silver threads, belonging to the French royal collections. They were destroyed during the Revolution to recover the precious metals, but a second weaving, to which this piece belongs, was identified by Jean Vittet some years ago, of which six pieces have been found, but of which this is the only one still intact. If the cartoons were formerly given (by Félibien) to Jules Romain, this attribution is no longer really retained today. Visitors to the last Brafa (see article) will certainly remember La Curée, unfortunately without its border, which was quickly sold in Brussels.


31. Joseph Baumhauer (?-1772) and Philippe Caffiéri (1714-1774),
after Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain (1715-1759)
Coquillier, c. 1758
Oak, ebony and ebony veneer frame, gilt bronze,
brass fillets, mirror, cherry red marble - 94 x 161,5 x 49,5 cm
Steinitz Gallery
Photo: Steinitz Gallery
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Furniture may not be the most represented speciality at Tefaf, but there are some major works on display, particularly from the French 18th century.
The Steinitz Gallery, which is always beautifully furnished with authentic woodwork, presents several important pieces of furniture, the most extraordinary of which is undoubtedly the coquillier (ill. 31) executed in 1758 by Joseph Baumhauer and Philippe Caffiéri to the drawings of Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain for the hôtel particulier of Ange-Laurent de La Live de Jully. In addition to its extreme beauty, this piece of furniture is fascinating for its date: in 1758, it is still in the middle of the Louis XV period. Its lines are already Louis XVI, and it could easily be dated twenty or thirty years later: it is therefore one of the very first neoclassical pieces of furniture, and it constitutes an essential milestone for the knowledge of French furniture. It is undoubtedly a national treasure, in the primary sense of the term, that the Louvre should acquire.


32. Pierre Macret (1727-1796)
Chest of drawers, c. 1770
Oak frame, varnished sheet metal, chased and gilded bronze, violet breccia marble -
91 x 114 x 55.5 cm
Galerie Léage
Photo: Galerie Léage
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33. Pierre Macret (1727-1796)
Royal chest of drawers with leaves, c. 1770
Oak frame, varnished sheet metal, chased and gilded bronze, grey veined white marble -
88.5 x 135 x 61.5 cm
Galerie Perrin
Photo: Galerie Perrin
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34. Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806)
Writing Table, 1780
Oak, amaranth, rosewood, satinwood, fruitwood, gilt bronze - 75.5 x 63 x 41.5 cm
Christophe de Quénetain
Photo: Christophe de Quénetain
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Some coincidences are truly strange because they are so improbable. Only three French chests of drawers in varnished sheet metal are known, and two of them are on display at this year’s Tefaf, one on the Galerie Léage stand (ill. 32), the other on the Galerie Perrin stand (ill. 33). This technique consisted of applying several layers of varnish to a sheet of metal (a laminate of iron and tin), the whole covering the wooden frame. The first is stamped by Gérard Henri Lutz, who was awarded the title of Master in 1766, but was probably made by Pierre Macret. It was probably doubtless commissioned by the Marquise de Béringhen, wife of Louis XV’s first squire. It was also Pierre Macret who made the second one, whose provenance is extremely prestigious since it was designed for Marie-Antoinette’s furnishings at the Château de Compiègne, with its pendant now on display in the Petit Trianon at Versailles. The beauty and importance of these two chests of drawers will not escape anyone, but it is to be feared that they will both escape French museums, despite their immense interest. On the subject of Compiègne and Marie-Antoinette, another piece of furniture from the same château, commissioned for the same queen, should also be mentioned on Christophe de Quénetain’s stand: a writing table by Jean-Henri Riesener, delivered on 30 November 1780 (ill. 34).


35. Giuseppe Viner (1875-1925)
Screen, 1902
Painted and engraved oak, silver-plated copper - 170 x 370 x 56 cm
Gallery Oscar Graf
Photo: Galerie Oscar Graf
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We will end this long review with an exceptional folding screen by the Italian Giuseppe Viner (ill. 35) dating from the Art Nouveau period since 1902, but already coming under the heading of Futurism with its pointillist patterned painting, so luminous that one would swear one was in front of a stained glass window. This remarkable work can be found on the Oscar Graf stand.

In conclusion, we can only note once again that the stands held by French dealers are among the richest and most important of the fair. This is further proof that the ever-growing dynamism of the art market in this country should not be hampered by aberrant tax decisions.

Tefaf takes place from Saturday 11 March to Sunday 19 March. All practical information can be found on its website.

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