NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s will present the sale of The Weldon Collection, a remarkable collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings assembled by the late Henry and June “Jimmy” Weldon over a period of several decades. Consummate and celebrated collectors across numerous categories, including Asian Art and Staffordshire pottery, the Weldons took great care with every acquisition and numerous American institutions have benefitted greatly from generous gifts over the years. Their collecting journey began in the 1950s with an initial focus on 17th century Dutch and Flemish pictures, seeking out works by Balthasar Van der Ast, Rachel Ruysch and Salomon van Ruysdael. Over the years, as their taste broadened, they added remarkable gems including an early still life by the German artist Ludger Tom Ring the Elder, a pair of paintings by Jean-Antoine Watteau and an extraordinary collaborative work by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Younger. Yet, their love of the Dutch Golden Age remained a constant with masterworks by Hendrick Avercamp and Aelbert Cuyp entering the collection within the last decade. Together, the collection of more than 70 works is estimated in the region of $25 million. The collection with be on view 17 - 21 April 2015 at the York Avenue headquarters.

The Weldon's interest in collecting paintings by the great Dutch and Flemish masters was sparked in 1951 by one of Willem van Aelst’s early works. Entitled Peaches, a Plum, and Grapes on a Ledge (est. $60/80,000), the couple bought the painting for $16 at a small auction in New York. Upon cleaning it, the Weldons discovered it was signed and dated by Van Aelst, and with the thrill of that discovery was born a lifetime of collecting. This charming still life's use of muted colors suggests the influence Ambrosius Bosschaert and Balthasar van der Ast in the artist's work.

A number of small, jewel-like paintings, which lined the walls of the Weldon's Park Avenue apartment, are present throughout the sale including a beautiful work by Adriaen Coorte - Wild strawberries on a ledge (est. $800,000/1,200,000). While Coorte's still lifes often depict fruit, nuts, vegetables or shells on a stone ledge set against a plain dark background, one of his favorite subjects was wild strawberries (fragaria vesca). Known to have created nearly sixty-four paintings, the still life offered in The Weldon Collection is one of only three illustrating the strawberries as uncontained and casually piled on the corner of a stone ledge. Having fallen into obscurity in the 18th and 19th centuries, Coorte resurfaced when the first catalogue of the artist’s work was published in 1952-53 by Laurens Bol, ultimately securing his reputation as one of the foremost Netherlandish still life painters.

A rare and important still life by the Westphalian artist Ludger tom Ring, Still Life with Wild Roses, Peonies and Other Flowers in a White Earthenware Vase (est. $800,000/1,200,000), gifted to Mrs. Weldon by her husband, marks a shift when the subject matter of flowers become an independent genre of painting. Ring is credited with the first depictions of flower still lifes and his earliest dated examples are a pair of paintings from 1562. The painting offered in The Weldon Collection is one of only eight existing still lifes by the artist. Four of the remaining paintings are in a single museum, the Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, in Münster.

Henry Weldon originally purchased many of the works in the collection as gifts for his wife, Jimmy, including the first in a pair of paintings by Jean Antoine Watteau. Following her husband's passing, Jimmy continued to collect and later completed the pair, buying the second work herself. The two small canvases, sold together and with an estimate of $800,000/1,200,000, are the only known surviving works created by Watteau for a small room in the Château de la Muette, a 16th century hunting lodge on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne. Until the reappearance of these exotic works, Chinese Musician in 1996 and Chinese Woman in 2009, the designs for the château were known only from a series of thirty prints advertised for sale in the Mercure in 1731 and later published in the Recueil Jullienne in 1734. Watteau created thirty paintings for the room, twenty six of which were of small rectangular format. Of these twenty six, all depict a single figure in a landscape setting, except the present pair which each has two figures. The Weldon pair were exhibited in 201314 at the Palais de Beaux-Arts, Brussels, and the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris.

Landscape with Pan and Syrinx (est. $3/5,000,000) is an exquisite collaboration between Sir Paul Rubens and Jan Breughel the Younger. The work portrays the story of Pan and Syrinx – a satyr-like god pursuing a beautiful nymph – a narrative Rubens returned to over the course of his career. In the present work, datable to about 1626, Rubens provides the figures of Pan and Syrinx and Jan Brueghel the Younger captures the landscape, flowers and animals. The quality of the landscape and animals is so high that it was previously attributed to Jan Brueghel the Younger’s father, Jan Brueghel the Elder. However, Jan the Elder died of cholera in 1625, and the Weldon Pan and Syrinx would have been completed upon his son’s return from a formative trip to Italy, most likely on his father’s design.

The Weldon Collection, a stunning group of works by important Old Masters, reflects a lifetime and love of collecting.