100 Top Treasures
November 2007
63 Light Effects
Four kinds of light—the glow of a campfire, the beam from a lighthouse, the radiance of the moon and its soft reflection playing on the water’s surface—are depicted in Joseph Vernet’s haunting "A Harbor in Moonlight," a work that was given in September 2006 to the Saint Louis Art Museum as a gift from museum trustee Christian B. Peper. The painting is rumored to be worth an amount in the mid-six figures. Although Judith Mann, the museum’s curator of European art to 1800, explains that the scene evokes Naples, she also points out that "Vernet sought to blend poetic reverie with details suggestive of a particular place. Often, the artist used elements evocative of the Neapolitan coastline without the specificity of a particular view." In 1734, the French-born Vernet began a 20-year stay in Italy where, as Mann, says, he supplied "the gentlemen of the Grand Tour with picturesque representations of some of Italy’s most popular sites." —D.M.
64 Salem’s Lot
A 13-inch silver flagon (c. 1769), made a round trip from Salem, Massachusetts, in January. The exquisitely crafted piece was sold by the First Church of Salem at Christie’s New York for $102,000. The purchaser: the Peabody-Essex Museum of Salem. The sinuous baluster-shape flagon was made by John Andrew, considered Salem’s most important 18th-century silversmith. Discussing its relevance, Patricia E. Kane, curator of American decorative arts at the Yale University Art Gallery and author of a book on Colonial Massachusetts silver, called the flagon "the finest extant example of Salem silver known to date." —D.K.
65 Precious Seating
At Sotheby’s New York sale of Russian works of art last April, a tiny Fabergé gold-and-enamel bonbonnière sold for $2.28 million. Considering its diminutive size (2 l/4" high), that translates to approximately $1 million per inch. Created by Michael Perchin, one of the House of Fabergé’s leading workmasters, in St. Petersburg between 1899 and 1903, it is shaped like a miniature French Empire–style armchair, its back formed by a series of golden lyres. "It is the rarest of Fabergé’s creations," says Gerard Hill, head of Sotheby’s Russian works of art department. —D.G.
66 Florentine Figure
It’s a commanding visage. The face on the 60-inch glazed terracotta statue of San Giovanni da Capestrano (c. 1550) exudes intensity and intelligence. The acquisition of the sculpture by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was finalized in January. It was purchased from Salander-O’Reilly Galleries in New York for about $1.2 million, according to art-market sources. Attributed to Florentine sculptor Santi Buglioni, the piece has "a compelling expressiveness," says Mary Levkoff, LACMA’s curator of European sculpture and classical antiquities. —D.K.
67 Rare Representation
A watercolor painting depicts a girl of about 10 years old as she stands in a field, a wooden tub balanced on top of her head. Penciled on her white apron is the name "Topsy." What makes the portrait of the girl so remarkable is that it is one of the very few known representations of an enslaved African-American girl, especially one from which caricature and stereotyping are absent. The little girl was painted in 1830 by Mary Anna Randolph Custis, the future wife of General Robert E. Lee and the daughter of George Washington’s step-grandson. Topsy, whose name may have been added later in reference to the character of the same name who appears in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is likely one of the slaves who served at Arlington House, the Custis and Lee family plantation. It had once belonged to the Confederate general J.E.B. Stuart. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation purchased the work in April from Alexander Gallery in New York; it was part of a large cache of ephemera that had been secured by the gallery and was reputedly for sale together for "about $400,000," says Jim Bradley, a spokesperson for Colonial Williamsburg. He would not comment on the value of the painting alone, but it was the most valuable item in the archive, easily worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. —D.M.
68 Divine Image
A 64-inch-high granite sculpture of Shiva as Brahma offered at Sotheby’s New York sale of Indian and Southeast Asian art in March sold for $4 million. Formerly in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, it was purchased by London Asian art dealer John Eskenazi on behalf of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The sculpture dates from the Chola period in the 10th century, the "golden age" of South Indian history. Sotheby’s specialist Theresa McCullough calls the work "intricately and beautifully carved and very sensuous, which is one of the features of Indian sculpture. The stone is highly polished and adds to the feeling of flesh." —D.G.
69 Striking Earpiece
For a day in the market, a wealthy woman in ancient Greece (c. 220–130 B.C.) might have donned these gold pendant earrings molded into the shape of an eagle grasping thunderbolts. According to Sandra Knudsen, associate curator of ancient art at the Toledo Museum of Art, which purchased the remaining earring in March from Antiquarium Ltd. in New York, the eagles represent Zeus, king of the gods. Similar pieces of Hellenistic-era jewelry have sold at recent auctions in mid-five figures. —D.M.
70 Luminous Landscape
It has been a long journey for J.M.W. Turner’s painting "Glaucus and Scylla" (1841). Since 1966 it had been in the collection of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, but in 2006 was returned to the heirs of John and Anna Jaffé. John Jaffé, a British subject, had purchased it from a Paris dealer in 1902, and after his death, the painting was left to his wife, who bequeathed it to her nephews and niece. But she was trapped in France in 1942, and the contents of her home confiscated by the Vichy authorities. The painting reappeared on the market in 1956, when Emile Leitz of Paris sold it to Agnew’s of London. A year later, the painting was sold to Howard Young Galleries of New York and was privately owned until 1966, when Newhouse Galleries in New York sold it to the Kimbell Art Foundation. Following its restitution, the heirs consigned the painting to Christie’s, which offered it in its Important Old Masters sale in New York in April. There, it was repurchased by the Kimbell for $6.4 million. The work, which is the most important British 19th-century painting in the museum’s collection, shows a mythological scene of unrequited love set in a dazzling golden landscape. "In the context of a European art collection in the U.S., the late works by Turner have special resonance because they were much admired by the Abstract Expressionists, who saw Turner losing interest in detail and moving toward more abstract effects," says Malcolm Warner, the museum’s deputy director. —D.G.
Four kinds of light—the glow of a campfire, the beam from a lighthouse, the radiance of the moon and its soft reflection playing on the water’s surface—are depicted in Joseph Vernet’s haunting "A Harbor in Moonlight," a work that was given in September 2006 to the Saint Louis Art Museum as a gift from museum trustee Christian B. Peper. The painting is rumored to be worth an amount in the mid-six figures. Although Judith Mann, the museum’s curator of European art to 1800, explains that the scene evokes Naples, she also points out that "Vernet sought to blend poetic reverie with details suggestive of a particular place. Often, the artist used elements evocative of the Neapolitan coastline without the specificity of a particular view." In 1734, the French-born Vernet began a 20-year stay in Italy where, as Mann, says, he supplied "the gentlemen of the Grand Tour with picturesque representations of some of Italy’s most popular sites." —D.M.
64 Salem’s Lot
A 13-inch silver flagon (c. 1769), made a round trip from Salem, Massachusetts, in January. The exquisitely crafted piece was sold by the First Church of Salem at Christie’s New York for $102,000. The purchaser: the Peabody-Essex Museum of Salem. The sinuous baluster-shape flagon was made by John Andrew, considered Salem’s most important 18th-century silversmith. Discussing its relevance, Patricia E. Kane, curator of American decorative arts at the Yale University Art Gallery and author of a book on Colonial Massachusetts silver, called the flagon "the finest extant example of Salem silver known to date." —D.K.
65 Precious Seating
At Sotheby’s New York sale of Russian works of art last April, a tiny Fabergé gold-and-enamel bonbonnière sold for $2.28 million. Considering its diminutive size (2 l/4" high), that translates to approximately $1 million per inch. Created by Michael Perchin, one of the House of Fabergé’s leading workmasters, in St. Petersburg between 1899 and 1903, it is shaped like a miniature French Empire–style armchair, its back formed by a series of golden lyres. "It is the rarest of Fabergé’s creations," says Gerard Hill, head of Sotheby’s Russian works of art department. —D.G.
66 Florentine Figure
It’s a commanding visage. The face on the 60-inch glazed terracotta statue of San Giovanni da Capestrano (c. 1550) exudes intensity and intelligence. The acquisition of the sculpture by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was finalized in January. It was purchased from Salander-O’Reilly Galleries in New York for about $1.2 million, according to art-market sources. Attributed to Florentine sculptor Santi Buglioni, the piece has "a compelling expressiveness," says Mary Levkoff, LACMA’s curator of European sculpture and classical antiquities. —D.K.
67 Rare Representation
A watercolor painting depicts a girl of about 10 years old as she stands in a field, a wooden tub balanced on top of her head. Penciled on her white apron is the name "Topsy." What makes the portrait of the girl so remarkable is that it is one of the very few known representations of an enslaved African-American girl, especially one from which caricature and stereotyping are absent. The little girl was painted in 1830 by Mary Anna Randolph Custis, the future wife of General Robert E. Lee and the daughter of George Washington’s step-grandson. Topsy, whose name may have been added later in reference to the character of the same name who appears in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is likely one of the slaves who served at Arlington House, the Custis and Lee family plantation. It had once belonged to the Confederate general J.E.B. Stuart. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation purchased the work in April from Alexander Gallery in New York; it was part of a large cache of ephemera that had been secured by the gallery and was reputedly for sale together for "about $400,000," says Jim Bradley, a spokesperson for Colonial Williamsburg. He would not comment on the value of the painting alone, but it was the most valuable item in the archive, easily worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. —D.M.
68 Divine Image
A 64-inch-high granite sculpture of Shiva as Brahma offered at Sotheby’s New York sale of Indian and Southeast Asian art in March sold for $4 million. Formerly in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, it was purchased by London Asian art dealer John Eskenazi on behalf of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The sculpture dates from the Chola period in the 10th century, the "golden age" of South Indian history. Sotheby’s specialist Theresa McCullough calls the work "intricately and beautifully carved and very sensuous, which is one of the features of Indian sculpture. The stone is highly polished and adds to the feeling of flesh." —D.G.
69 Striking Earpiece
For a day in the market, a wealthy woman in ancient Greece (c. 220–130 B.C.) might have donned these gold pendant earrings molded into the shape of an eagle grasping thunderbolts. According to Sandra Knudsen, associate curator of ancient art at the Toledo Museum of Art, which purchased the remaining earring in March from Antiquarium Ltd. in New York, the eagles represent Zeus, king of the gods. Similar pieces of Hellenistic-era jewelry have sold at recent auctions in mid-five figures. —D.M.
70 Luminous Landscape
It has been a long journey for J.M.W. Turner’s painting "Glaucus and Scylla" (1841). Since 1966 it had been in the collection of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, but in 2006 was returned to the heirs of John and Anna Jaffé. John Jaffé, a British subject, had purchased it from a Paris dealer in 1902, and after his death, the painting was left to his wife, who bequeathed it to her nephews and niece. But she was trapped in France in 1942, and the contents of her home confiscated by the Vichy authorities. The painting reappeared on the market in 1956, when Emile Leitz of Paris sold it to Agnew’s of London. A year later, the painting was sold to Howard Young Galleries of New York and was privately owned until 1966, when Newhouse Galleries in New York sold it to the Kimbell Art Foundation. Following its restitution, the heirs consigned the painting to Christie’s, which offered it in its Important Old Masters sale in New York in April. There, it was repurchased by the Kimbell for $6.4 million. The work, which is the most important British 19th-century painting in the museum’s collection, shows a mythological scene of unrequited love set in a dazzling golden landscape. "In the context of a European art collection in the U.S., the late works by Turner have special resonance because they were much admired by the Abstract Expressionists, who saw Turner losing interest in detail and moving toward more abstract effects," says Malcolm Warner, the museum’s deputy director. —D.G.
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