Pictures from the dutch golden age to the 19th century assembled by the refined eye of the collector.
Christie’s is pleased to announce the centrepiece of Classic Week, a sale offered entirely without reserve, Remastered: Old Masters from the Collection of J.E. Safra. With an eclectic and refined taste, the financier and investor J.E. Safra have an eye for elegant and lavish beauty. His cherished pictures range from luxurious Dutch Golden Age still lifes, to tenebrist Baroque portraits, to sublime Romantic landscapes.
Spanning four centuries of artistic excellence, this sale is offered entirely without reserve, representing a fantastic opportunity to acquire exquisite Old Master paintings at more accessible prices. Characteristic of the refined eye of the collector who assembled them, these works include early northern paintings by masters such as Joos van Cleve, Caravaggist pictures by artists including Pietro Paolini, landscapes by J.M.W. Turner, and 19th-century pieces by artists including Gustave Courbet.
The Splügen Pass
pencil and watercolor heightened with bodycolor and with scratching out on paper
29 x 45 cm (11 7/16 x 17 11/16 in.)
$1,500,000-2,000,000
Le Guitarrero
oil on canvas
22 1/8 x 16 5/8 in. (56.2 x 42.2 cm.)
$500,000-700,000
Lute players with an angel
oil on canvas
39 1/2 x 52 1/2 in. (100.3 x 133.4 cm.)
$500,000-700,000
A Vanitas: As we are born, we die
oil on panel
26 3/8 x 36 in. (67 x 91.5 cm.)
$1,000,000-1,500,000
Album containing a frontispiece and 138 illustrations for books I to VI of the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine
brush and black (in a few cases brown) ink, gray wash, heightened with white, on blue paper; bound in contemporary blue leather gilt
each drawing circa 9 7/16 x 7 1/2 in. (24 x 19 cm.)
$1,500,000-2,500,000
The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis
oil on canvas
60 5/8 x 74 5/8 in. (154 x 189.5 cm.)
$400,000-600,000
“It is an honour to have been entrusted with such a strong selection of the J.E. Safra Collection. Mr Safra’s passion is fueled by an extraordinary curiosity in so many different fields of collecting such as old master paintings, old master drawings, books, British watercolours and 19th-century paintings. Each school is represented by remarkable examples. The Safra collection counts among the finest and most diverse assemblages of old master paintings to come to market in recent memory, and the entire sale will be offered without reserve.”
François de Poortere, Christie’s Head of Old Master Paintings
