Further details
INTRODUCTION
Following the success of our first Copy Sale, which took place on 8 October 1994, we are pleased to present herewith the catalogue of another sale in this category. The present sale consists of almost the same number of copies as last year, which have been selected according to the same criteria as specified in our catalogue of 1994; namely that all copies included date from before ca. 1940; when the "Great era of copying as a form of reproduction" came to an end and photography took over this role. By keeping to this date, our aim is to place the painted copy in a better light making clear to the general public that it was never painted for the suggestion of being the original. The act of copying has always existed in art: Rubens copied Raphael; Rembrandt copied Indian miniatures and Van Dyck copied Titian. By doing this, these artists followed the ideas first formulated by Leonardo da Vinci, that only by copying the past masters, one could develop an individual style. After the establishment of the Academies of Art, copying became an essential part of the artist's training, sessions were organised in the Museums which had been opened around the same time and which gave acess to works of art, which untill then were hidden in private collections. Among the general public, who gradually became acquainted with the most important works of art by visiting these art galleries, there was a growing demand to have some sort of souvenir of these visits. The painted copy became, therefore, a commercial enterprise, especially for artists just starting their careers and facing the problem of how to earn a living. The present sale provides us with a good number of examples for this, notably the artists Johan Sonnenberg (lot 1), F.C. Hesterman (lot 3), Heckmann (lot 17), Mihaly Kovacs (lot 22) etc. Also the copy after Rembrandt's Nightwatch (lot 35) of which, unfortunately, the artist is unknown, is to be regarded as painted for this aim. In recent years more scholarly attention has been focused on Old Master Copies and on theories concerning the act and significance of making copies. H. Hutter in Kopie, Replik, Paraphrase, Exhibition Catalogue, Vienna, Akademie der Künste 1980, provides a useful series of definitions of the various terms associated with the genre (see next page).
GLOSSARY
Original
Work of art, of which the composition and execution are the result of the highly personal creative process of its maker
Replica
Repetition of an original work of art executed by the artist himself or under his supervision in his studio, in which minor changes occur
Variant
Repetition of an original work of art, not necessarily by the artist himself or his studio, but still by an artist of his generation, in which the composition is repeated but of which the exectution has undergone changes, due to the personal "hand" of the maker
Version
Repetition of an original work of art, in which the composition is repeated, but which is already subject to new developments
Copy
Repetition of a work of art, excecuted in a later period, which aims at an exact reproduction of the original. However, it cannot appear as the original as its physical appearance is influenced by the techniques provided by the period in which it was executed and by the technical quality of the maker
Quotation
Independant use of individual motifs or details from an original, in other contexts
Pastiche
Work of art which is composed of quotations from different works by an artist
Paraphrase
Free use of earlier pictural examples in a highly personal way
Parody
Ironical use of pictural motifs
Persiflage
Mocking use of pictural motifs
REFERENCE LITERATURE
F. Hartlaub, vom Sinn des Kopierens, zur Mannheimer Ausstellung "Schöpferische Kopieen", Die Kunst für Alle, XLVII, 1932
K.F. Maison, Themes and Variations, five Centuries of Master Copies and Interpretations, 1960/2nd ed 1966
Bild und Abbild -Meisterwerke von Meistern kopiert und umgeschaffen, Munich/Zurich, 1960
W. Schmidt, Chr. Dittrich etc., 'Dialogue'-Kopie, Variation und Metamorphose alter Kunst in Graphik und Zeichnung vom 15. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart, Exhibition Catalogue, Dresden, Kupferstichkabinett, 1970
Albert Boime, The Academy and French Painting in the Nineteenth Century, 1971
J. Foucart, Rubens: Copies, Répliques, pastiches, Reine de l'Art, 1973, no. XXI, pp. 48-55
G. Langemeyer, R. Schleier, Bilder nach Bildern, Druckgrafik und die Vermittlung von Kunst, Exhibition Catalogue, Münster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, 21 March-2 May 1976
B. Nicolson, Art into Art, Works of Art as a Source of Inspiration, Exhibition Catalogue, Sotheby's London, 2-22 September 1977
J. de Vries, B. Broos, E. Meyer etc., Kunstenaars op Herhaling, Openbaar Kunstbezit, XXIII, no. 4, 1979, pp. 97-128
Herbert Hutter, Kopie-Replik-Paraphrase, Exhibition Catalogue, Vienna, Academie der Bildende Kunste, 9 September-5 October 1980
Paul Duro, Copyists in the Louvre in the Middle Decades of the Nineteenth Century, Archives de l'Art Français, XXVI, 1984, pp. 259-265
E. Haverkamp Begemann, Creative Copies, Interpretative Drawings from Michelangelo to Picasso, Exhibition Catalogue, New York, The Drawing Center, 9 April-23 July 1988
Copier Créer, De Turner a Picasso: 300 Oeuvres inspirés par les Maitres du Louvre, Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 26 April-26 July 1993
Schöne Kopieen, gerestaureerde Kopieën naar Oude Meesters door Paul Tétar van Elven, Exhibition Catalogue, Delft, Museum Paul Tétar van Elven, 6 May-21 October 1995
