Following the best year in Dorotheum history, Central Europe's largest auction house launches its spring season with auctions of old master paintings, 19th century paintings, and antiques, to be held from 16th to 18th April 2013.

Auction Week 16th to 18th April 2013
19th Century Paintings Tuesday, 16th April 2013, 5:00 p.m.
Works of Art (Furniture, Sculpture) Wednesday, 17th April 2013, 2:00 p.m.
Old Master Paintings Wednesday, 17th April 2013, 5:00 p.m.
Works of Art (Glass, Porcelain) Thursday, 18th April 2013, 2:00 p.m.
Jewellery Thursday, 18th April 2013, 6:00 p.m.

Public Viewing: from Saturday, 6th April 2013
Venue: Palais Dorotheum, Vienna 1, Dorotheergasse 17
Press Office: Doris Krumpl, Tel. +43-1-515 60-406, doris.krumpl@dorotheum.at

NEW DISCOVERIES
Old Master Paintings, Auction 17th April 2013 

One of the exciting highlights of the auction of old master paintings on 17th April 2013 will be a recent discovery, a striking work by the Italian trained Spanish painter Jusepe de Ribera. „The Mocking of Christ“ which represents an important and significant addition to this master's œuvre. The painting's derives its appeal from the stark contrast between the rude and coarse mockers and the scourged, life-like figure of Christ, who meets the viewer's gaze. The painting must date to the period before 1624, when Ribera's style underwent a change, and reveals the influence of Caravaggio. However, Ribera imbues the physical appearance of his figures with a pronounced naturalism and greater force of expression (€ 300,000 - 500,000). 

A particularly attractive work by Alessandro Magnasco, an artist whose style seems almost modern in its flickering, nervous brushstrokes, not merely offers a detailed rendition of an architectural stage setting but also contains a socio-politic element. Experts agree that hidden in the biblical scene of „Joseph's Interpretation of Dreams“, is Magnasco's criticism of the treatment of prisoners. The painting, for the longest time owned by French nobility, also leads us into the fascinating world of Baroque musical theatre. The stage-like aspect of the prison's interior serves as a setting for an episode from the biblical story of Joseph. As a ricordo, the composition almost certainly refers to the scenery or backdrop originally created for the performance of an oratorio (€ 200,000 - 300,000). 

Works by Guercino (as the artist Giovanni Francesco Barbieri was known) have repeatedly achieved top prices at Dorotheum. On this occasion, the auction presents Guercino's Allegory with Venus, Mars, Cupid, and Chronos, valued at between 200,000 and 300,000 Euro. Michele Marieschi's view of Venice, the „Rialto Bridge and Palazzo Camerlenghi“, falls into the same price category. According to Guercino expert, Nicolas Turner, the painter's recently discovered painting is of exceptionally high quality. It appears to be a "full sized trial version for Guercino's more detailed rendition of this subject in Dunham Massey, Great Britain … The composition is not based on a specific source text, but rather addresses the adultery of Venus with Mars, and its discovery by Vulcan, as well as the four ages of life, the punishment of Cupid, and the triumph of Time". 

Dutch and Flemish painting makes a particularly strong showing, first and foremost with a „Village Scene“ by Jan Brueghel II. From a South German noble collection, the so far unpublished painting is described by the expert Klaus Ertz as follows: „The composition combines a number of developments: it is a village landscape, as well as a genre scene, and a flat scenery painting, with something of all these, and in my opinion represents one of the most successful compositions that evoke the work of the father, Jan Brueghel the Elder ...“ (€ 120,000 - 160,000). 

A splendid, large-scale double painting of animal subjects by David de Coninck is valued at 80.000 to 120.000 Euro. The Mannerist, Gillis van Valckenborch, shows masterful skill in combining several scenes in one overflowing, many-figured painting depicting the tragic biblical story of "Jephthah's Return". Cast out by his half-brothers, the freebooter Jephthah is called back to fight their enemies and swears an oath to sacrifice the first thing he sets eyes upon on his return should God grant him victory. Tragically, it is his only daughter, who is at the centre of  Valkenborch's canvas (€ 80,000 -100,000).

GLIMMER OF LIGHT
19th Century Painting, Auction 16th April 2013 

A glimmer of light is quite literally what one of the major paintings at the auction of 19th century painting, on 16th April 2013, offers: In his genre scene „An evening market with vegetable sellers“ of 1851, the Belgian painter Petrus van Schendel displays his consummate skill in rendering light effects. The light-source at the centre shines on the faces of the surrounding figures and the produce while from the moonlit background a capriccio of the city of The Hague arises. Schendel manages to create a quintessential market scene true to the spirit of Romanticism without crossing the fine line into kitsch (€ 150,000 - 200,000). 

„Eighty and Eighteen“ by John William Godward, dating to 1898, might well be regarded as a neoclassical take on the human condition as such, at least according to the artist's biographer, Vern G. Swanson: An 80 year old man, presumably the grandfather of the 18 year old Roman beauty, eats pomegranate kernels and gazes at his granddaughter as she makes ready for her first rendezvous and gazes directly at the viewer with an expression that is at the same time alert and bored. Godward's works celebrate Hellenism and Roman antiquity and were greatly appreciated during his lifetime but have spent many decades in obscurity since. They are currently enjoying something of a Renaissance: he offers decadent salon painting at its best. As in other of his paintings, the Mediterranean serves as a backdrop for Godward's elegiac beauty in the manner of antiquity. In the case of „Eighty and Eighteen“ the setting is provided by Ischia. As a brand new arrival on the art market, the painting is a particular attraction: It was originally purchased directly from the artist at an exhibition in Liverpool, and has remained in the family's possession until being consigned to Dorotheum for auction by the original purchaser's heir. The painting will now be entered into the Godward catalogue raisonné (€ 100,000 - 180,000). 

„The Favourite“, a harem scene by the renowned proponent of Austrian Orientalism, Gustav Ernst, shows a rarely seen side of late 19th century eclecticism. At the centre of the perfectly composed painting an Oriental couple is seen standing beneath an archway - a recurring theme with Ernst - surrounded by a sumptuous setting of lamps, vases, flowers, animal skins, cushions, and a blue tiled wall (€ 80,000 - 100,000). Hans Makart's dramatic „Death of Cleopatra“
(€ 70,000 - 90,000) takes us on an imaginary journey to ancient Egypt. 

One of the highlights of this auction, not least because of the consummate skill of its treatment of light and shadow, will be „Attending Church in Spring“ by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller. Three generations of women - grandmother, mother, and granddaughter - are on their way to church, recognisable by the prayer book one of the women holds up to shade her eyes. 

Waldmüller expert Rupert Feuchtmüller on the true star of this painting: "Indeed, it is the overgrown hillside with its bushes, some of it in the shade and some exposed to the slanting light of the morning sun. The radiant red and blue colours of the women's clothes provide a focus and a counterpoint at the edge of the painting, right where the view into the landscape opens itself up." (estimate on request). The other two versions depicting this subject are at the  Salzburg Museum and the Wien Museum.

For Johann Georg Christian Perlberg, the Greek struggle for freedom against the Ottoman Empire, takes the form of a „Young Tambour in Mesolongion - Drums for the Fight for Liberty“ The town of Mesolongion became a symbol for the Greek fight for independence and was a favourite subject of this German artist. Perlberg had moved to Greece during the regency of the Bavarian prince Otto Friedrich Ludwig von Wittelsbach, who between 1832 and 1862 was King of Greece (€ 30,000 - 35,000).

EYECATCHERS
Works of Art Auction on 17th and 18th April 2013 

The antiques selection, coming up for auction on 17th and 18th April 2013, among many other enchanting items, includes an Empire Period set of seats from the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, ca. 1810/20, consisting of a settee and four chairs  (€ 16,000 - 20,000), as well as a charming French lady's writing desk with curving legs, signed Tahan (Jean-Pierre-Alexandre Tahan, Paris) and dating to the second half of the 19th century (€ 6,000 - 8,000).

One of the highlights in the sculpture category will be a Late Gothic Virgin and Child attributed to the South Tyrolean sculptor Hans Klocker (and studio). Almost one meter tall, its face in particular displays a strong resemblance to some of Klocker's other statues, such as the Virgin Enthroned of 1495-1500, now in the collection of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg (€ 55,000 - 70,000).

Eye-catching clocks include a Cartier Art Déco table clock with full calendar, its silver clock case decorated with blue enamel. An identical clock is part of the Cartier Collection (€ 30,000 - 40,000).

At the porcelain auction, one unique piece originated in the early days of Meissen: The Apotheoses of August the Strong at the hands of the Fine Arts, Poetry, Music, and Painting, which comes in several parts. The model was made by Johann Joachim Kändler and Friedrich Elias Meyer around 1750-1760, two of the most influential proponents of early porcelain art. Meissen's founder, August II. the Strong, Prince Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, was a prince who loved pomp and pageantry and a famous patron of the arts, who extended his royal capitals of Dresden and Warsaw based on the model of Versailles, and whose court resembled that of Louis XIV. (€ 50,000 - 90,000).