March 7, 2013
Live AuctionClifton House
1 & 2 Clifton Road
Cambridge, CB1 7EA United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (0)1223 213343
Fax: +44 (0)1223 271949
Email: fine.art@cheffins.co.uk
Viewing NotesSunday 3rd March 10.00 - 12.00 Monday 4th March 10.00 - 17.00 Tuesday 5th March 10.00 - 18.00 Wednesday 6th March 09.00 - 10.45 & 16.00 - 18.00 Thursday 7th March 09.00 - 10.45
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Lot 345: Attributed to Giovanni Battista Lusieri (Italian, 19th Century) - A View of Rome - wa
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Description: Attributed to Giovanni Battista Lusieri (Italian, 19th Century) A View of Rome, with Peasants with Donkeys watercolour h:36 w: 28 cm Provenance: An East Anglian private collection.
Condition Report: Cut down and discoloured. Dirty, unframed, and was damaged in a house fire.
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Lot 346: Attributed to William Henry Hunt, OWS (British, 1790-1864) A Dead Chaffinch, a Bird's Nest, and Flowers on a Bank one signed indistinct
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Description: Attributed to William Henry Hunt, OWS (British, 1790-1864) A Dead Chaffinch, a Bird's Nest, and Flowers on a Bank one signed indistinctly with initials and date of 1856 watercolour (a pair ) h:21 w: 28 cm
Condition Report: Possibly a little damage to the background, colours good. An alternative attribution has been suggested to William Cruickshank (1848-1922).
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Lot 347: Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, il Guercino (Italian, 1591-1666) - Study of Cupid - red chalk on paper laid to canvas
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Description: Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, il Guercino (Italian, 1591-1666) Cupid returning an Arrow to his Quiver red chalk and stumping, laid down on to canvas h:24 w: 15 cm Provenance: From the collection of Ann Gore. The elegance of the figure's pose, the subtlety of the chiaroscuro (from the highlight in the child's body to the velvety shadow in most of his face and to the dark accents in his downcast eyes) and the beautifully counterbalanced angle of the wings to his body contribute to the satisfying way in which the figure fills the compositional space. In a number of drawings by Guercino of Cupid with his quiver, from the mid-1640s, some in red chalk and now mostly lost, but recorded in retouched offsets, it is evident that this sheet is from Guercino's own hand. Two pen-and-ink studies by Guercino show precisely the same figure type, lit in the same way, one in the British Museum, London (inv. no. 1895-9-15-707; N. Turner and C. Plazzotta, Drawings by Guercino from British Collections, London, 1991, p. 264, no. 51; and Capturing the Sublime, Italian Drawings of the Renaissance and Baroque, exh. cat. ed. by S. Folds McCullagh, Art Institute of Chicago, 2012, p. 158, no. 86). Around 1700, a significant proportion of the drawings by Guercino and his two nephews, Benedetto and Cesare Gennari, were displayed in frames on the walls of the two properties belonging to Benedetto and Cesare Gennari - the Casa Gennari, in the centre of Bologna, and their country villa just outside at Bel Poggio. Irrespective of both their authorship and the property in which they were kept, these framed drawings were laid on to canvas, rather than onto a card or paper backing, as was the normal practice in the mounting drawings from the eighteenth century onwards. The drawings of Guercino and his school from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, the largest surviving fragment of the Guercino and Guercino school drawings with a Gennari provenance, includes many examples of drawings by the master and his two main followers laid down in this way. The twentieth-century inscription in biro on the paper backing giving the Cupid Returning an Arrow to his Quiver to Cesare Gennari is incorrect. Although Cesare certainly favoured the medium of red chalk, his use of the medium is routine and does not have the subtleties of execution seen in his uncle's use of the technique. Cesare was an adviser to the Florentine family of the Medici, tipping them off when significant works by Bolognese painters came up for sale in the city. Perhaps Cesare's connection with the Medici explains the existence of the fine group of drawings by Cesare in the Uffizi, many of which are in red chalk. The numerous differences in style between this Uffizi group and the present Cupid Returning an Arrow to his Quiver surely demonstrates that the latter cannot possibly be by him (Guercino, la scuola, la maniera. I disegni agli Uffizi, exh. cat. N. Turner, December, 2008 to February, 2009, pp. 103-10, nos. 59-67).
Condition Report: Under glass and with discolouration, browning, wear and scuff marks. One stain halfway down on the left-hand side.
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Lot 348: Attributed to Ludolf Backhuysen - A Sailing Ship in a Storm - watercolour on paper
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Description: Attributed to Ludolf Backhuysen (1630-1708) A Sailing ship in a storm pencil and grisaille washes on paper h:12 w: 16 cm Provenance: Acquired by a forebear of the current beneficiaries in the middle of the 20th Century, and thence by descent to the present owners. Other Notes: On the basis of a photograph Dr Gerlinde de Beer has suggested that this is a late work (circa 1690-1700) and describes the vessel as a "hoeker" (English: hooker) one common in Dutch and English waters, which Backhuysen generally depicted in combination with an English coastline (see, Gerlinde de Beer, Ludolf Backhuysen (1630-1708): Sein Leben und Werk, p.94, illustration 105). There is a drawing of a comparable vessel in the Royal Collection (ibid. p.95, illustration 106). Whereas the drawing in the Royal Collection and another in Berlin (ibid. p.159, illustration 199) are fully worked up for the market, Dr de Beer proposes the present drawing is a preliminary sketch, probably for a painting.
Condition Report: Unframed. Looks to be stuck down. Tiny chip to the paper lower left-hand corner. OED in red circle lower left - collector's mark in the left-hand corner - probably for the Duits Collection.
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Lot 349: Nicolaus van der Horst (1587-1646) - Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy - pen and ink on paper
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Description: Nicolaus van der Horst (Antwerp 1587-Brussels 1646) Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy signed lower right "Nicolaus van der Horst" pen and ink on paper h:13 w: 9 cm Provenance: Acquired by a forebear of the current beneficiaries in the middle of the 20th Century, and thence by descent to the present owners. Other Notes: Nicolaus van der Horst was a pupil of Rubens. He was a prolific draughtsman but there are less than ten examples of his work in the Witt Library, London.
Condition Report: Corners scuffed and bent. A little browned. Unframed. Collector's inventory numbers 136 and V36 on the reverse.
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