Old Master Prints

Christie’s Old Master Prints sale returns to London on 2 July 2024, for a live auction offering a large and varied selection of important works which shaped the history of printmaking in Europe.
 
The sale selection traces the evolution of the printed image over a period of five centuries: from German engravings of High Renaissance to British Prints of the early 19th century. Many of the works come with important provenances, from both public and private collections; among them the fabled print-holdings of Sam Josefowitz: Part I of his incomparable collection of Rembrandt’s etchings was offered in a landmark sale in December 2023, to be followed by Part II in December this year. The depth and quality of the Josefowitz Collection is exemplified in the present sale by the very rare engraving Shepherds in a Landscape by Giulio and Domenico Campagnola; by two interpretations of Christ carrying the Cross by Martin Schongauer and Jacques Bellange, respectively; and other rarities by Lucas van Leyden, Camillo Procaccini, Jacques Callot and many others.
 
At the core of the sale is a very fine and substantial group of engravings by Albrecht Dürer: a magnificent Saint Eustace, a very fine Melencolia I, a brilliant, early example of Hercules (or: The Effects of Jealousy) and a fine impression of the The ill-assorted Couple, as well as a complete set of the Engraved Passion. Dürer’s activity as a designer of woodcuts, which completely transformed the medium and elevated it to a fine art, is represented by a beautiful set of the Small Woodcut Passion, published by the artist in Nuremberg in 1511.
 
The exchange of styles and techniques between different European schools and traditions –German, Italian and French - becomes apparent in such rarities as the Virgin and Child by Jacopo da Barbari’s, a German working in Venice, Antonio Fantuzzi’s etching of the Gladiators, produced at the court of François I at Fontainebleau, and the strangely whimsical Pyramide de cinq hommes by the elusive Juste de Juste. The Low Countries are represented by prints after the quirky compositions and landscapes of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Anthony van Dyck’s Self-Portrait in the most desirable first, unfinished state, and some majestic prints after paintings by Peter Paul Rubens. 
 
Barely a generation later, Rembrandt brings a human sensitivity and psychological insight to both religious and secular subjects not expressed in the print medium before or - arguably – after. This sale allows a comparison between three of his most penetrating depictions of himself: Self-Portrait leaning on a Stone Sill; Self-Portrait with Saskia; and Self-Portrait etching at a Window.
 
The sale concludes with masterpieces of printmaking of the 18th and 19th centuries: Jean-Etienne Liotard’s highly expressive and experimental Large Self-Portrait, here in a rich, unrecorded proof impression; a complete First Edition of Goya’s virtuoso and darkly visionary Los Caprichos; and a proof set of William Blake’s most inspired spiritual challenge, the Illustrations of the Book of Job, printed on India paper. 
 
The auction presents an opportunity to acquire some of the most striking and celebrated images of European art, as well as some rather eccentric and surprising finds, with estimates ranging from £500 to £250,000.

Explore Classic Week London auction series