High Price Realised for a portrait by Hermann Winterhalter

High Price Realised for a portrait by Hermann Winterhalter

Before I resume blog entries on the Winterhalter brothers, I would like to share a quick update on one of the previous posts.

The splendid painting by Hermann Winterhalter, Portrait of Mme Furtado-Heine (late 1850s / early 1860s, oil on canvas, 137.5 x 99.5 cm, Cat. No. HW 16), was sold at Christie’s Tableaux Anciens et du XIXe Siècle, in Paris, on 15 April 2013 (lot 61), for €121,500 (against the estimate of €30,000 – €50,000).

It is a the highest price ever paid for a single-figure portrait by Hermann Winterhalter, and the second highest price ever paid for any work by this artist (the highest price being USD$211,000 (against the estimate of US$180,000-220,000), paid for the Trois demoiselles de la famille de Châteaubourg (1850, oil on canvas, 102.2 x 81.3 cm, Cat. No. HW 117), at Christie’s 19^th Century European Art, 8 April 2008, New York (lot 11).

While this price is still short of some of the more spectacular prices realised for the portraits of his famous brother, Franz Xaver Winterhalter, for me it shows that Hermann is also slowly getting the recognition that he so justly deserves.

As expressed before, I humbly hope that this work has gone to an institutional or an important private collection.

www.christies.com

© Eugene Barilo von Reisberg, 2013.

Portrait of Cecile Furtado-Heine @ Christie’s Paris, 15 April 2013 (cat. no. H 16)

Hermann Winterhalter

H 16: Mme Cécile Furtado-Heine (1821-1896), née Furtado

 Oil on canvas, 137.5 x 99.5 cm

Signed lower left: H. Winterhalter

Private Collection

Christie’s Paris is featuring in their Tableaux Anciens et du XIXe siècle sale in Paris, on 15 April 2013, lot 61, arguably one of the most important works by Hermann Winterhalter, Portrait of Mme Cécile Furtado-Heine (1821-1896), née Furtado.

Mme Furtado-Heine is depicted standing three-quarter-length to the left, against a neutrally coloured background, facing the viewer. Her hair is parted in the middle and arranged in ringlets on the sides. She is wearing an evening black and white silk and taffeta dress decorated with a black silk bow and a pearl brooch with a drop pearl pendant at her corsage. A pelt of brown fur (possibly of sable), is covering her arms.

The portrait is considered among Hermann Winterhalter’s finest: in the foreword to the Winterhalter Exhibition in 1928, Armad Dayot wrote: “Sa clientèle de modèles n’atteignit pas à la hauteur hiérarchique de celle de son frère, mais il trouva parfois cependant de flatteuses occasions d’exercer avec succès son réel talent de peintre de la figure, comme dans l’exécution des beaux portraits d’Amaury Duval et de Mme Furtado, pour ne citer que deux de ses meilleures peintures… L’une des toiles plus réussies de l’œuvre iconographique d’Hermann, le portrait de Mme Furtado, … d’une belle générosité d’exécution…”

This important work of institutional quality and significance is estimated at € 30,000-50,000. Should it reach these estimates, it will be the second highest price ever achieved for a work by Hermann Winterhalter on the art market.

http://www.christies.com/

© Eugene Barilo von Reisberg, 2013