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VAN HAM

Press release

Advance report on the auction ‘Fine Art’ on 16 May 2019 Preview: 10 –13 May 2019

European diversity At the spring auction, Van Ham can already offer exciting works by various European artists such as Émile Bernard, Otto Grashof, Albert Lebourg and Franz Roubaud. Among the Old Masters, a work by Hieronymus III Francken from a private collection in Spain and a Madonna with grapes by the Master of the Parrot stand out.

In the mid-19th century, Otto Grashof made a name for himself as a painter of literary histori- cal themes, including thrilling hunting scenes such as this winter bear hunt by Tsarevich Alexan- der Nikolaevich (estimate: 40,000–60,000) euros. From 1838 until 1845 Grashof repeatedly spent time in Russia – both in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, where he painted portraits of members of the upper class. Several of his paintings were ultimately added to the collection of Tsar Nicholas I.

Since the publication of the catalogue of works of Franz Roubaud at our own publishing house, Van Ham Art Publications, at the latest, this Russian-German painter has been one of Van Ham’s house painters. Roubaud is known for his battle motifs and representations of life in the Caucasus. Rest in the steppe , which is being offered as part of the spring auction, is a fine example of this (estimate: 40,000–60,000 euros).

May 2019 If you have any questions: VAN HAM Fine Art Auctioneers Anne Rinckens Press and Public Relations Hitzelerstrasse 2 50968 Cologne | Germany Tel. +49 (0)221 92 58 62-88 Fax +49 (0)221 92 58 62-4 [email protected] www.van-ham.com VAN HAM

Albert Lebourg is the best known representative of the Rouen School, who gained renown particularly through his atmospheric depictions of the Seine. The oil painting being offered now thus shows one of the characteristic motifs of this artist: The Seine near Rouen (estimate: 5,000–7,000 euros). In 1876 Lebourg made his debut at the Impressionist exhibition in Mont- martre alongside such immortal legends as Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro. Today works of the artist can be found at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among other places.

Among Émile Bernard’s friends and colleagues were such great masters as Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. At a young age Bernard travelled from France to Italy, from there to Istanbul and on to Egypt. He painted The four bathers shortly after returning to France (estimate: 40,000–60,000 euros). The painting is a thrilling work which places the women’s naked bodies in a context with soft fabrics and delicate plants amidst untamed nature, a symbiosis perfected by a dreamy gaze into the distance.

Following in the footsteps of Impressionism and Claude Monet, the French artist Henry Moret arrived at a luminous colourfulness in 1891 which was to mark the atmospheric moods of his coastal landscapes. Colourful pictures of the landscape on the coast of Brittany became his trademark. Moret’s enthusiasm for dramatic lighting conditions and the sea surf is also evident in the work offered here, Un village à Ploemeur, Morbihan (estimate: 60,000–80,000 euros), which was painted in 1896, just one year after his fruitful encounter with the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. Henry Moret created over 600 wonderful impressionistic works for his galleries in Paris and New York.

The panel Madonna with the grapes was in the hands of a noble family in North Rhine-West- phalia for many generations and remained unpublished until now. While the frame still identi- fies the ‘Master of the Female Half-Lengths’ as the author, the painting is rather a characteristic work by the so-called Master of the Parrot , a contemporary who lived in Antwerp, along with Bruges the most important centre of Flemish painting in the early 16th century. Today, it is as- sumed that the name refers to a productive and high-quality workshop in which several painters worked together and where pre-defined formulations for devotional pictures for the middle class were varied over and over again. The artists used the opportunity to luxuriously embellish their works, as also demonstrated in our painting. The gilded corner cartouches, the rich cloth- ing of the Mother of God, the transparent cloth adorning Mary’s head and the strand of hair falling in a charming curl mark the painting – which was hitherto unknown – as a characteristic May 2019 If you have any questions: VAN HAM Fine Art Auctioneers Anne Rinckens Press and Public Relations Hitzelerstrasse 2 50968 Cologne | Germany Tel. +49 (0)221 92 58 62-88 Fax +49 (0)221 92 58 62-4 [email protected] www.van-ham.com VAN HAM

example of the art of the Master of the Parrot and of Antwerp art in the early 16th century (estimate: 40,000–60,000 euros).

Two works by the Old Master Hieronymus Francken III are from a private collection in north- ern Spain. The painting The Israelites with the coffin of Joseph after the passage through the Red Sea was once part of another private collection, also in Spain, which contains several such large copper plates (estimate: 10,000–15,000 euros). People who originally commissioned these kinds of large-scale copper plates ordered them directly from the contemporary dealers. The requested motifs were modelled on the work of Frans Francken II, produced in the workshop of his sons and also exported to Spain. In this way the works reached Spain via the Netherlands, probably shortly after they were produced. Both paintings – as well as presumably the frames – are authentic commissioned works from that period.

Highlights of the ‘Fine Art’ spring auction on 16 May 2019

Hieronymus Francken III Master of the Parrot (1611–after 1661) (Lived and worked in Antwerp 1520–1540) The Israelites with the coffin of Joseph after the passage through Madonna with the grapes | Oil on wood | 45.5 x 35.5 cm the Red Sea | Oil on copper | 50 x 68 cm Estimate: 40,000–60,000 euros Estimate: 10,000–15,000 euros

Franz Roubaud (1856–1928) Otto Grashof (1812–1876) Rest in the steppe | Oil on canvas | 46.8 x 76.3 cm Winter bear hunt by Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich Estimate: 40,000–60,000 euros Oil on canvas | 107 x 146 cm Estimate: 40,000–60,000 euros

Émile Bernard (1868–1941) Henry Moret (1856–1913) The four bathers | Oil on canvas Un village à Ploemeur, Morbihan | Oil on canvas | 47 x 55 cm 178 x 122.5 cm | Catalogue of works number 749 Estimate: 60,000–80,000 euros Estimate: 40,000–60,000 euros

May 2019 If you have any questions: VAN HAM Fine Art Auctioneers Anne Rinckens Press and Public Relations 60 Years Van Ham – About us Hitzelerstrasse 2 Van Ham Fine Art Auctioneers, founded in 1959, is a family business run by Markus Eisenbeis in the second generation. 50968 Cologne | Germany Every year about 18 internationally renowned auctions take place in the fields of Modern, Post War & Contemporary, Tel. +49 (0)221 92 58 62-88 Fine Art, European Applied Arts, Jewellery & Watches, Asian Art and Art & Interior. With an overall result of ca. 37 million Fax +49 (0)221 92 58 62-4 euros in 2018, Van Ham again increased its turnover. Regular auction records make Van Ham one of the leading [email protected] German auction houses. www.van-ham.com