December auctions in London are traditionally a crucial time for Old Master paintings. This year, however, the star lot of the paintings sale at Christie’s on December 8 isn’t an oil on canvas, but a watercolor on vellum by Hans Hoffmann. A 16th-century Albrecht Dürer revivalist, Hoffmann’s A Hare Among Plants is inspired by Dürer’s 1502 painting, Hare, at the Albertina museum in Vienna. Hoffmann executed the work in 1582, three years before moving from Nuremberg to Prague, where he was the court painter of Emperor Rudolf II. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was in Nuremberg in the Paul von Praun collection, which held approximately 100 works by Hoffmann.Hopes for the work (est. £4–6 million; $6–9 million) far surpass Hoffmann’s record of $1.7 million (£904,000) for a work on paper, achieved in 2006 at Christie’s London with A Crouching Cat. “A Hare Among Plants certainly stands for one of the most important Hoffmann drawings still in private hands,” notes Benjamin Peronnet, international head of Old Master drawings at Christie’s.The Old Masters and British paintings sale at Sotheby’s follows, on December 9, led by two oil-on-canvas works depicting views of Florence and Naples by the Dutch-born Gaspar van Wittel (also known as Vanvitelli), a pioneer of the vedutismo style in Rome. Both works—one estimated at £1 million to £1.5 million ($1.5–2.3 million) and the other at £800,000 to £1.2 million ($1.2–1.8 million)—have been in only two private collections since they were commissioned in the early 18th century by one of the artist’s major patrons, Don Luís de la Cerda, the 9th Duke of Medinaceli. John Constable’s The Lock, 1824–25, is another highlight of the sale. Part of the small group of landscapes known as the “Six Footers,” the work represents the pinnacle of Constable’s career. After the success of his original depiction of his native Suffolk at the Royal Academy in 1824, Constable made this second version, which he kept in his studio for the remainder of his life. The painting, which has not been on the market since 1855, is expected to fetch £8 million to £12 million ($12.4–18.6 million)—a curiously low estimate relative to that of the original version, which sold for £22 million ($35 million) at Christie’s London in 2012. “The estimate reflects the importance and quality of the work while also remaining at a realistic and conservative enough level to attract all possible bidders,” explains Andrew Fletcher, senior director and head of Old Master paintings at Sotheby’s London. “Given the interest we have already had in the painting, we expect it to perform well against the current estimate.”
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