PORTRAITS

Daniel Saint (1778-1847) France

Portrait of a French Gentleman

large portait miniature on ivory
signed Saint
panel dimensions 27 x 21.4 cm
frame included 

Conditon:
An impressive restoration by Alan Derbyshire 2021-2023.
Still cracks between the ivory parts, there are some retouching, mostly in the background. Beautiful piece. 

Provenance: 
A Swedish private collection

 

Daniel Saint was a prominent French miniaturist who lived between 1778 and 1847. Born in Paris, Saint was the son of a jeweler and initially began his career as an apprentice in his father's workshop. However, he soon discovered his passion for painting and turned his attention to miniatures, which were highly popular in 18th and 19th-century Europe.

Saint was a highly skilled artist and quickly gained a reputation for his miniature portraits, which were characterized by their delicate detail and fine brushwork. His works often featured prominent figures from French society, including members of the royal family and high-ranking officials. He also painted portraits of wealthy patrons, many of whom commissioned him to create highly personalized works.

Saint's style was highly influenced by the neoclassical movement, which emphasized clarity, simplicity, and rationality. He often used a limited color palette, focusing on soft pastels and muted tones, which helped to accentuate the delicate features of his subjects. His compositions were typically centered around the face, with little background or context to distract from the subject.

Despite his success as a miniaturist, Saint was not immune to the changing tastes of the art world. In the mid-19th century, photography began to gain popularity, and many artists who specialized in portraiture found themselves struggling to compete with the speed and accuracy of this new medium. However, Saint continued to work and develop his craft, adapting his style to the changing tastes of his clients and experimenting with new techniques and materials.

In addition to his work as a miniaturist, Saint was also a skilled draftsman and created a number of highly detailed and intricate drawings and sketches. He was also known for his use of unconventional materials, such as hair, which he would incorporate into his miniature portraits to add texture and depth.

Today, Saint's works are highly prized by collectors and are held in museums and private collections around the world. His legacy as a master of miniature portraiture lives on, and his influence can still be seen in the work of contemporary artists who specialize in this unique and challenging medium.

Martin Eder (1917-1978) Swedish

Portrait of a Man

Martin Eder was a Swedish drawing teacher, artist and ceramicist. Martin was born on the island of Gotland and spent a lot of time there, he also lived in Sala. Martin was a curious artist who made study trips to France, Italy and Tunisia, among other places.
This portrait of Martin Eder is very special, it was painted in 1954 and depicts an unknown man, painted with expressionist brushstrokes with clear fine colours. With a few brushstrokes, he managed to create a portrait that is exciting and powerful.

Gouache on masonite
signed and dated Eder -54
picture dimensions 13.50 x 10.15 inches (34.3 x 25.8 cm)
frame 17.71 x 14.17 inches (45 x 36 cm)

Provenance:
A Swedish Private Collection

John da Costa (1867-1931, England)

oil on canvas
signed John da Costa and dated -02
canvas size 57.87 x 33.46 inches (147 x 85 cm)  
frame dimensions 62.99 x 38.58 inches (160 x 98 cm)  

Provenance:  
Possibly sold at Liverpool Dicksee & Co 1902 (see label), they were both frame makers and art agents;  Christie's, sale 707 GF according to a stencil on the back of the painting; English collection until sold to Sweden 1936; Aquired 1936 by Ingrid and Seth Molander, Sweden;  A private collection Sweden until acquired by Classicartworks Stockholm in the summer of 2021.

 

The story of the Belle époque in one portrait  

When it comes to glamour, no period in the history of art can compete with the Belle époque. A generation of highly talented artists developed new styles of portraiture that not only showed fashionable taste and elegance – but also the tensions and changes to come that lured behind the surface of this glittering age. One of them was John da Costa (1867–1931) also – involuntarily – known as “The John Singer Sargent of children’s portraits”.  

The time period between the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 and the outbreak of the first world war of 1914 was an unusually peaceful and prosperous one – at least on the surface. The decades leading up to the largest and most destructive war the world had ever seen were characterized by a combination of industrial boom, cosmopolitan life, the birth of modern art and literature and political movements that eventually would change society forever. In other words, it was a melting pot for many phenomenon and societal transformations that we still today are affected by, not least in the form of art.  

Breaking away from the more conservative academic traditions, new styles of painting of varying radicality emerged and both chocked and delighted audiences. When it comes to portraiture, names like John Singer Sargent and Anders Zorn conquered international audiences with their electrifying paintings of high society, politicians and celebrities of the era. Their erringly light brushwork created an almost dreamlike atmosphere where everything from the sheerness of dress fabrics, subtle lights of ballroom evenings and dense psychological facial expressions vibrated with the zeitgeist. Initially controversial and breaking with traditional expectations, eventually it was this kind of portraits that became the “dernier cri”, a hallmark of good taste and ultimately the very essence of the Belle époque. And it is here, in the vibrant field of portraiture, that John da Costa finds his place and artistic calling.  

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Dick Beer (b. London 1893 - d. Stockholm 1938) 

Portrait of Gabriele Varese (in Italian uniform), 1919

oil on canvas mounted on panel
116 x 90 cm 
stamp signature

Exhibited:
Solo exhibition, Stockholm, Nov-Dec 1917;
The Royal Academy Stockholm 1973;
Åmells Konsthandel  – En internationell kubist, Stockholm & London 2008
Hälsinglands Museum 2011
Millesgården – Dick Beer – Impressionist & Kubist, 2012

Provenance:
Within the family Beer until today

Cubistic vision:
In the period following the First World War, the artist’s painting underwent a fundamental transformation. Dick Beer was influenced by various modernistic expressions. In Paris, the first wave of cubism, led by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, was established. It was a controversial artistic style. There was a heated debate about cubism, in which the artist broke up the motif into smaller components, sometimes called facets, in order to rebuild it on the flat surface of the pictorial plane. This manner of painting represented a complete break with preceding pictorial conventions and naturalistic painting.

Cubism was governed by theory, not practice, and critics claimed that the style was too intellectual for the general public and they predicted that it would disappear and that artists would return to a rather more classic expression.

The theories surrounding cubism and its various expressions opened up for a number of reinterpretations in the 1910s. Dick Beer was well aware of the cubist discussions. He embraced the ideas but created a varied, personal and emotive cubism in the years around 1918. His painting was often an explosive discharge with playful characteristics and a futuristic dynamism which accentuated the painting’s inherent speed and movement, as for example his works “Dancer” and “The Toy Box”. He also experimented with geometric compositions of buildings and landscapes, which were reminiscent of Paul Cézanne’s more cubic landscapes. Here, Beer’s colours were often muted, in blue, brown and red hues. He frequently returned to earlier motifs and reworked his canvases into a cubist style, as in “Dancer tying her shoes” and “Seated dancer“.

Contemporary art critics were appalled and Beer had to endure severe criticism. At one point, the artist published a reply in the daily Politiken, 1919, where he described his view on art:

“... because love for and understanding of art, ‘l’art pour l’art’, is not easy to achieve, and neither is it easy to comprehend the different movements’ or schools’ origin, goals, characteristic endeavours, etc. – These international phenomena require not only theoretical and art historical knowledge but (...) the ability to empathise with and feel for art, as its practitioners do”.

 

Dick Beer (b. London 1893 - d. Stockholm 1938) 

oil on board
70 x 50 cm
stamp signed 
painted c. 1918-1919

Provenance:
Within the family Beer until today

Dick Beer (1893-1938)

Dick Beer was born in London in 1893. His father, John Beer (1853-1906), was a Swedish painter from Stockholm who had a career mainly as a watercolour painter with motifs of horses from racetracks and fox hunts from the countryside.

Barely fifteen years old, Dick Beer became an orphan and came to Sweden in 1907. Already in 1908-1909, he started at Althin's painting school in Stockholm. And later, at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1910-1912. His teachers were, among others, Gustaf Cederström, Oscar Björk and Alfred Bergström. 

At this time, Many artists went to Paris, and Dick Beer wasn't an exception; he rented a studio and took every spare time to visit academies such as Colarossi and Grande Chaumière and André Lhote. 

Dick Beer travels to Pont Aven in Brittany over the summer of 1913. In September, he went directly to Stockholm for his first solo exhibition with the French title Exposition des tableaux de Bretagne et autour de Paris; The exhibition was a big success with many visitors. 

1914-1917: First World War:

In the spring of 1914, Dick Beer undertook a longer study trip to Italy, Tunisia, Morocco and Spain.

When the French army mobilized, Dick Beer volunteered and was accepted into the French Foreign Legion. He was severely injured at Souain in September 1915, and the war injuries left him with severe deafness and nerve problems, which became increasingly noticeable over the years. During and after the war, he painted in a post-impressionistic style with a light palette, increasingly tuned in blue and green.

1918-1919

Dick Beer and Ruth Öhrling married in February, and in December, their only child, John, was born. During these years, Beer had a studio at Rådmansgatan in Stockholm. During this time, he paints several large Cubist compositions such as "In the Paddock" and "Arab Café". 

He participated in the Februarigruppen exhibition at Liljevalch's in 1919. His palette turned into a darker colour scheme dominated by green, blue, and red. 

Amedeo Modigliani made a pencil portrait of him in Paris in 1919. 

Throughout his short life, Beer spent most of his time in France and exhibited almost annually in Paris.

The Scandinavian motifs were mostly landscapes around Lake Mälaren and from the Stockholm archipelago, cityscapes, many nude studies and some portraits. 

Dick Beer practised many styles during his 30 years as an artist, from post-impressionism, cubism, late cubism, expressionism and naturalism. 

Cubistic vision:
In the period following the First World War, the artist’s painting underwent a fundamental transformation. Dick Beer was influenced by various modernistic expressions. In Paris, the first wave of cubism, led by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, was established. It was a controversial artistic style. There was a heated debate about cubism, in which the artist broke up the motif into smaller components, sometimes called facets, in order to rebuild it on the flat surface of the pictorial plane. This manner of painting represented a complete break with preceding pictorial conventions and naturalistic painting.

Cubism was governed by theory, not practice, and critics claimed that the style was too intellectual for the general public and they predicted that it would disappear and that artists would return to a rather more classic expression.

The theories surrounding cubism and its various expressions opened up for a number of reinterpretations in the 1910s. Dick Beer was well aware of the cubist discussions. He embraced the ideas but created a varied, personal and emotive cubism in the years around 1918. His painting was often an explosive discharge with playful characteristics and a futuristic dynamism which accentuated the painting’s inherent speed and movement, as for example his works “Dancer” and “The Toy Box”. He also experimented with geometric compositions of buildings and landscapes, which were reminiscent of Paul Cézanne’s more cubic landscapes. Here, Beer’s colours were often muted, in blue, brown and red hues. He frequently returned to earlier motifs and reworked his canvases into a cubist style, as in “Dancer tying her shoes” and “Seated dancer“.

Contemporary art critics were appalled and Beer had to endure severe criticism. At one point, the artist published a reply in the daily Politiken, 1919, where he described his view on art:

“... because love for and understanding of art, ‘l’art pour l’art’, is not easy to achieve, and neither is it easy to comprehend the different movements’ or schools’ origin, goals, characteristic endeavours, etc. – These international phenomena require not only theoretical and art historical knowledge but (...) the ability to empathise with and feel for art, as its practitioners do”.

Alfred Ekstam (1878-1935) Swedish

Portrait of Dentist Lisa Axelsson 

oil on panel
panel 41 x 37 cm
frame 50 x 45.5 cm 

Provenance: 
Bukowskis, 14 sep 2009, lot 103;
A Swedish private collection

Alfred Ekstam was a Swedish landscape och portrait painter. He had Gustaf Fjaestad as a teacher and he was part of the artist group De Frie and Rackstadkolonin. 
Ekstam's production was limited and his paintings rarely hit the market. 

Unknown Artist, Possibly Gustaf Brandelius (1833-1884) 

Portrait of a Young Boy With Hat 

oil on tree panel
painted c.1850-70
panel  9.05 x 5.90 inches (23 x 15 cm)
frame 12 x 8.85 inches (30.5 x 22.5 cm)

Condition:
Very good, bright and clear colours. A small scratch in the upper right cloud. 

David Monies (1812-1894) Denmark (Attributed)

An Old Woman Knitting

 

canvas dimensions 11.41 x 8.66 inches (29 x 22 cm)
frame 15.35 x 12.59 inches (39 x 32 cm)

David Monies (1812-1894) was a Danish portrait and genre painter.
His father, Salomon (1786-1853) was a Jewish businessman from the Netherlands. Originally wealthy, the family lost all of its money during the Danish state bankruptcy of 1813 and the children were raised in poverty. He and his brothers were forced to work at their father's small cigar factory and peddle what they made in the street.

However, when he was only twelve, he had already gained access to classes at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts; he soon began painting and exhibiting portraits. During the early 1830s, he gained many supporters and admirers in the professional and artistic communities.
He also began to do genre paintings at this time. Many featured his fellow artists as part of the ensembles.

This painting depicting a yet unknown sitter is proof of Monies' skills in painting portraits with great attention to detail.
It's almost like a photograph; all the skin tones and shadows are remarkably well executed.

In 1847, he became an "Agré" (a type of member candidate) at the Academy and was promoted to full member the following year.

Léon Richet (1847-1907) French

Girl with Flowered Hat

oil on panel 
panel 21.5 x 16 cm
with frame 32.5 x 26.5 cm
signed upper left corner: Leon Richet (see IR image)

Provenance: 
A Swedish private collection

Charles Bouchez (1811-1882) French

A Soldier Blowing the Trumpet

oil on canvas
signed and dated ch. Bouchez 1842
canvas dimensions 6.29 x 4.13 inches (16 x 10.5 cm)
frame 10.23 x 7.87 inches (26 x 20 cm)

Provenance:
A Swedish Private Collection

Sophus Vermehren (Danish, 1866-1950)

A Young Girl Peeling Fruit

oil on canvas
signed S Vermehren
canvas dimensions 49 x 42.5 cm
frame 59.5 x 53 cm

Sophus Vermehren was born as the son of the painter Frederik Vermehren and his wife Thomasine Ludvigne Grüner. He trained as a painter for three years and learned to draw from his father. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1883 to 1892 and made his debut at Charlottenborg in 1893 with a portrait of Professor Adolph Kittendorff. 

Vermehren regularly participated in Charlottenborg's spring exhibition between 1891 and 1915 and several times at Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling. He is represented, among others, at the Statens Museum for Kunst. 

This portrait of A Young Girl Peeling Fruit is a fine piece by this artist, the identity of the sitter is currently unknown. In this painting we see Vermehrens's talent for details, for example how the shadows and the red/pink cheeks on the young girl's face are painted, and the three-dimensional feeling of the fruits and the textiles is painted with confident brush strokes.  

Provenance:
A Swedish Private Collection 

Condition: 
Newly restored by professional art conservator 2022, new frame from 2022. Ready to hang.  

Central European School

Portrait of a Figure in Armour with a Skeleton Head

The figure is based on the painting dated 1588 and attributed to the circle of Anthonis Mor, today in the J. Paul Getty Museum.

oil on canvas
approx 1900's
unframed: 79.2 x 57.5 cm.; 31 1/4 x 22 5/8 in.
framed: 112.5 x 92.5 cm.; 44 1/4 x 36 3/8 in.
frame included in the price.

Provenance:
Sale L20037, Sotheby's Old Master Day Sale, lot 183

Carl Stephan Bennet 1800-1878

Portrait of Agneta Sophia Cederström in a Black Dress

oil on canvas
canvas dimensions 16.14 x 12.40 inches (41 x 31,5 cm)
frame dimensions 22.04 x 18.11 inches (56 x 46 cm)

Registered in the Swedish Portrait Archive: SPA 1918:246

Provenance:
Family Tersmeden, Hessle herrgård, Sweden.

 

Bennet received his artistic education during a trip to Italy from 1829-to 1832, where he stayed in Rome and Naples. His closest contact in Rome was with the sculptors Bengt Erland Fogelberg and Bertel Thorvaldsen and the French painter Horace Vernet. After returning to Sweden, he divided his time between military service and art.

In 1838, after advancing to captain, he resigned from the military and conducted preparatory studies in the field of art in Sweden. He then mainly painted Italian landscape motifs, Stockholm views and views of larger mansions, portraits, animal pictures and cartoon architectural motifs.

Bennet is represented at Malmö Museum, Kalmar Art Museum, Nationalmuseum, Skokloster Castle, Lund University Art Museum, Stockholm Castle, Norrköping Art Museum, and Uppsala University Library.

Alf Wallander (1862-1914) Sweden

Café Scene (Café interiör)

oil on board
signed Alf Wallander
frame 31.49 x 26.77 inches (80 x 68 cm)
panel size 23.89 x 19.29 inches (60.7 x 49 cm)

Provenance:
Sothebys London, lot 178, 07 June 2011, Sale Number: L11112;
Private Collection Sweden

Alf Wallander was the son of the architect Adolf Wallander and Hildegard Sofia Blom. Wallander studied at the Stockholm Royal Academy of Fine Arts 1880–1885, where he had his uncle as a teacher for a while. He further studied for Aimé Morot and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant in Paris 1885–1889, where he also participated in the Paris Salon in 1889. At the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, he was awarded first prize for his pastel painting Tiggargubbe (Today in Göteborgs Konstmuseum collection). When he returned to Sweden in 1890, he stood behind the controversial group "Opponenterna" and participated in the group's exhibitions during the 1890s. He began his artistic career as a painter and was a member of the Swedish Artists' Association. Under the influence of his friend Oscar Björck in the 1890s, he adopted a symbolist style, which later reappeared in his ceramics.

From 1910 until his death, he was also curator of the Swedish General Art Association and, from 1908, headteacher of freehand drawing at the Technical School in Stockholm. With his wife Gerda Wallander, he exhibited at the Artists' House in 1910 and at the Swedish General Art Association in 1914 and with Oscar Björck, Bruno Liljefors and Prince Eugene at Blanch's Art Salon in Stockholm in 1891. He participated in the Art Academy's exhibition in 1885 arranged by Norrland Art Association in Sundsvall and Söderhamn and the Swedish Artists' Association's exhibitions in Gothenburg, Chicago, Munich, Berlin, Malmö and Paris.
Wallander is represented at Gothenburg Art Museum, Hallwylsiska Museet, National Museum Stockholm, Minneapolis Museum, Nordic Museum, Thielska Galleriet, Prince Eugens Waldemarsudde, Norrköping Art Museum, Uppsala University Library, Louvre Abu Dhabi and Behn. -House in Lübeck.

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1815–1891)

Head of a Soldier

Ernest Meissonier (1815–1891) was one of the most internationally successful and celebrated artists of his time – but became almost completely forgotten in the 20th century. Not until now is the name of Meissonier starting to be re-introduced to its rightful place in art history, and this sketch "Head of a Soldier" is an example of why.

“–All of us will be forgotten, but Meissonier will be remembered" the painter Eugène Delacroix once said in a conversation with poet Charles Baudelaire. Back then, it was unthinkable to see Meissonier as anything else than one of the most famous and beloved artists alive. His paintings fetched the highest prices and audiences flocked to see his works on exhibitions. Through reproductions and prints the fame of Meissonier spread even wider, and when new major works were exhibited newspapers around Europe was quick to report. Napoleon III employed him as a member of the imperial court to paint military victories and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, who also collected his works, said that Meissonier was “One of the greatest glories of the entire world”. John Ruskin, one of the most influential art critics of his day, was "marvelling at Meissonier's manual dexterity and eye for fascinating minutiae". So, what was it that captivated the 19th-century audience in the art of Meissonier?

Formally, Meissonier belonged to the academic tradition and is mainly known for his history paintings, motifs of Napoleonic battles and victories, genre pieces and some portraits. He was both a painter and a sculptor, and also an accomplished engraver. But beyond the motifs and techniques there were other, more intangible qualities to his art. Like no one else Meissonier could produce almost cinematic artworks filled with bombastic happenings, calm poetry or psychologically precise portraits; all balancing between an extraordinary sense of detail and striking compositions. He is often compared as an artistic parallel to writer Alexandre Dumas in his unique ability to convey stories of pre-Revolutionary France, with all its honourable chivalry and heroic tales.

Many of his motifs, especially the military scenes, were of great emotional value to the 19th-century audience and filled with symbols and references that have long lost their meaning. Meissonier knew how to set the scene and boil down to the perfect moment in a story where it reached its full dramatic potential. Whether he painted battle scenes or portraits, Meissoniers artworks had a curious ability to make the viewer submerged into the scene. Technically, what first seems like an extremely realistic and slightly formal way of painting is on a closer inspection shaped by fast, playful and almost carelessly performed strokes of paint that make the motifs vibrate of life. His tendency to only paint rather small formats also provided a kind of intimacy even to his more pompous sceneries.

The current sketch " Head of a Soldier" shows how Meissonier masterfully built up the composition with only a few brushstrokes. The man's gaze is determined and radiates self-confidence. A detail with extra fine finesse is the end of the brushstroke that is visible at the bottom right; the stroke goes back and forth almost in a circle until the paint runs out. This technique may look simple but is very difficult to master. Meissonier likely took inspiration for this sketch from Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (called Guercino), who made several similar sketches.

It is currently unknown what specific painting this sketch belong to, but as interest in Meissonier grows more research and comparisons can provide more knowledge in the future. Till then, this sketch remains a fascinating fragment of the working process behind one of the most successful yet forgotten artists of art history.

 

Title: Head of a Soldier
oil on canvas
signed with monogram EM
canvas dimensions 25.3 x 19,8 cm
frame 40,5 x 36 cm

Provenance:
Schmitz-Laurent (S.V.V.), Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, 28 nov 2004, lot 15, Soldat à la bourguignotte; Drouot Paris, July 2021, Auction Art Rémy Le Fur & Associés, Lot 571.

Ferdinand Fagerlin (1825-1907) Sweden  

Portrait of Alice Ritter, The Artists Wife  

oil on canvas
signed with monogram
painted 1862
canvas size 27.95 x 22.83 inches (71 x 58 cm)