Two Jan van Huysum flower paintings to lead Christie's London sale in December
Two flower paintings by the Dutch painter Jan van Huysum will lead the Old Masters Evening Sale at Christie's, the London auction house, on 8 December. The auction house expects the pair to sell for between US$8 million and US$10.7 million (£6 million to £8 million). That expected range is called the estimate, the auction house's guide to what a work may fetch.
The paintings are 'A Vase of Flowers' and 'Fruit with Flowers'. They are pendants, meaning two works made to hang as a matched pair. Christie's says they are the only large-scale fruit and flower pendants by van Huysum known to be in private hands, and that they date from 1731 to 1733. Van Huysum worked in Amsterdam from 1682 to 1749.
The two works have passed through some of Europe's best-known families. Earlier owners include the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel, a German princely line, the Barings, a British banking family, and the Rothschilds, another banking dynasty. They are now being offered from a private collection, and the owner has not been named.
Before the December sale, the paintings will travel. They will tour New York until 16 November, then go on public view in London from 4 December. Anyone who wants to see them in person will be able to do so in London before the auction day.
Van Huysum's work has already drawn strong bidding at Christie's. In June, the house sold his 'Peaches and Grapes in a Wicker Basket' for US$8.65 million (£6.52 million) at its Old Masters Evening Sale in London. That painting had a pre-sale estimate of £3 million to £4 million, according to ArtNews. The whole June evening sale totalled US$48.7 million.
Christie's has also pointed to the painter's standing in his own time. In a May press release, the house said that during van Huysum's lifetime, his flower pieces sold for ten times the price of a painting by Rembrandt, the Dutch master whose works are among the most sought after in the world.
For a general reader, the story is simple. Two rare works by one painter, kept out of public sight for generations, are about to be offered to the market. Whoever buys them will also take on their history, which runs through three of Europe's most famous families.
The sale is set for 8 December. Results will be published by Christie's after the auction closes.
