Old Masters Perform at Sotheby’s London
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Frans Hals’s “Portrait of Willem van Heythuysen, Seated on a Chair and Holding a Hunting Crop” sold for $14 million at the Sotheby’s Old Master Paintings Evening Sale Wednesday night in London. The painting sold for $14 million, exceeding its estimate of between $5.8 million and $9.9 million. The subject of the portrait is a wealthy textiles merchant, whom Hals painted in the mid-1630s.
Another highlight of the sale was J.M.W. Turner’s “Pope’s Villa at Twickenham,” which sold for $10.68 million. The painting, depicting the deteriorating home of poet Alexander Pope, had been estimated to sell for between $9.9 million and $13.85 million.
“The Edge of a Village With Figures Dancing on the Bank of a River and a Fish-Seller and a Self Portrait of the Artist in the Foreground,” a small painting with a long title by Jan Brueghel the Elder, sold for $6.9 million. It had been estimated to sell for between $4.95 million and $6.93 million.
The 91-lot sale generated $101.53 million for Sotheby’s.
