Sotheby’s- Old Master Paintings

June 3rd, 2011 by

The June 9th sale of Old Master Paintings in New York includes a variety of offerings spanning a wide range of collecting interests. Among the highlights is a beautiful canvas by Giovanni Paolo Panini from the Estate of Jan Mitchell, owner of the legendary New York restaurant, Lüchow’s. Depicting a capriccio of Roman monuments, including the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine, it is a fine example of the kind of painting avidly collected by the 18th century Grand Tourists to commemorate their trips to Rome. The sale also features a number of beautiful floral still lifes, notably a group from the collection of Steve and Linda Horn which includes outstanding examples by Jan van Os and Jacobus Linthorst. British paintings are also well represented, with fine examples of portraiture by Reynolds, Romney, Lawrence, Raeburn, and Cotes, among others, and a mythological scene of the Birth of Venus by Benjamin West. Other highlights include a large and impressive canvas by Hubert Robert from his Roman period depicting the Pyramid of Cestius and an early still of fruit by Luis Meléndez, the greatest Spanish still life painter of the 18th century.