Sotheby’s sales of Old Master Paintings include masterpieces from the 14th to the early 19th centuries by many of the greatest names in Western art. From Guido Reni to Vermeer, El Greco to Rubens, Frans Hals to Canaletto, Cranach to J.M.W. Turner, Sotheby’s has consistently led the market in this dynamic and diverse collecting category.

Britain has produced some of the world’s greatest painters and has attracted some of the greatest to its shores. The British Department covers a wide range of paintings and watercolours, including portraits from the age of Holbein to the age of Lawrence. We hold the auction record for many of the top names in British portraiture, including Constable, Lely, Wright of Derby, Romney, Zoffany, Gainsborough and Reynolds. The Department covers landscapes from the first foreign visitors such as Siberechts, and onwards to the age of Constable, Turner and Bonington. Our catalogues are always strong with marine paintings from the age of Van de Velde to Carmichael, and sporting art from Wootton, Seymour, and Stubbs, to Ferneley and Herring.