ZURICH.- Important works that have just now come to the market after spending decades in private collections will be featured in Koller’s September auctions of Old Master & 19th Century Paintings. Highlights include a beautiful floral still life by one of the greatest masters of this genre, Osias Beert the Elder; a rare work by a Dutch artist inspired by Caravaggio, Dirck van Baburen, and two important marine paintings by the great Russian seascape artist Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky.

OSIAS BEERT THE ELDER (circa 1580 Antwerp 1624) Still life with flowers in a woven basket and a bouquet in a glass vase on a table top with dragonfly. Oil on panel. 53.5 x 75 cm.
The Old Master & 19th Century Paintings auction features a floral still life by one of the pioneers of 17th-century still life painting, Osias Beert the Elder. The artist’s arrangement and use of colour is particularly remarkable here for its subtlety and clarity, as well as for the manner in which the subject is tastefully highlighted against its dark brown background. The painting has been in a private collection in the USA for the past thirty years, only now coming to auction. Estimate: CHF 280 000 – 350 000 Auction: 22 September 2017

DIRCK VAN BABUREN (circa 1594 Utrecht 1624) Violin player with a wine glass. 1623. Oil on canvas. 80.4 x 67.1 cm.
A portrait of a violin player by Dirck van Baburen is the product of a brief and fascinating period in 17th-century Dutch painting. Van Baburen was a part of an artistic movement in Utrecht from 1621 – 1626 whose members emulated the dramatic painting style of Caravaggio (1571-1610). The great artist had already died by the time van Baburen and fellow Utrecht artists Gerrit van Honthorst and Hendrik Terbrugghen traveled to Rome, but once there they fell under the spell of his paintings, and when they returned to their homeland they employed his stark chiascuro lighting and monochrome backgrounds in their works, becoming known as the Utrecht Caravaggisti . Since his career was cut short by the plague in his early 30s, very few works by van Baburen are known, which makes this lively portrait, recently rediscovered in a private collection, all the more rare. Estimate: CHF 60 000 – 80 000 Auction: 22 September 2017

IVAN KONSTANTINOVICH AIVAZOVSKY (1817 Feodosia 1900) View of a steep, rocky coast and a rough sea at sunset. 1883. Oil on canvas. 66 x 103 cm.
Two important works from private collections by Russian artist Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky will be offered in this sale, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the artist’s birth. Considered to be one of the greatest marine painters of all time, Aivazovsky’s fame was already well established during his lifetime. The two paintings offered here, “View of a steep, rocky coast and a rough sea at sunset” (1883) and “View of Reval” (1845), are from two distinct periods in the artist’s career, yet both demonstrate the pure mastery of brushstroke and effect which render Aivazovsky’s works immortal. Estimate: CHF 460 000 – 560 000 Auction: 22 September 2017

FURTHER HIGHLIGHTS

• NICCOLÒ DI SEGNA (active in Siena ca. 1331-1348) Crucifixion. 1325-30. Tempera and gold on panel. 35 x 21 cm. CHF 90 000 - 120 000

• WILLEM CLAESZ. HEDA (1594 Haarlem 1680) Still life with Römer, pewter dish and peeled lemon. 1634. Oil on panel. 41 x 31 cm. CHF 40 000 - 60 000

• CARL SPITZWEG (1808 Munich 1885) Der Gratulant. Circa 1860. Oil on oak panel. 28.6 x 14.2 cm. CHF 240 000 - 280 000

• CLAUDE-JOSEPH VERNET (Avignon 1714 - 1789 Paris) Coastal landscape near Marseille by moonlight. 1754. Oil on canvas. 101 x 138 cm. CHF 280 000 - 350 000

• CLAES VAN HEUSSEN (1598/99 Haarlem 1631/34) Still life with fruit in a basket.1630. Oil on panel. 34.3 x 54.6 cm. CHF 60 000 - 90 000

• IVAN KONSTANTINOVICH AIVAZOVSKY (1817 Feodosia 1900) View of Reval. 1845. Oil on canvas. 59 x 81 cm. CHF 500 000 - 700 000