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Lot Essay
The first decades of the twentieth century were highly successful for the Amsterdam based auction house Frederik Muller & Co. Under the energetic leadership of Anton W.M. Mensing (1866-1936) the auction house succeeded in attracting various famous (inter)national collections to Amsterdam. The first sales were held in the building de Brakke Grond at the Nes. Soon those rooms were not big enough for the growing number of art loving visitors and from 1880 the firm was located to the Nieuwe Doelenstraat where they bought and renovated the neighbouring buildings in 1905 at nos. 16 and 18. Mensing build an impressive saleroom designed by the brothers Johan Godart van Gendt (1866-1925) and Adolf Daniël Nicolaas van Gendt (1870-1932). From this room the visitors had a beautiful view on the Binnen Amstel and the Halvemaansbrug. Mensings first assistants were Frits Lugt (1884-1970) (paintings, drawings and prints), W.A. van Buuren (decorative arts department) and Frederik Casparus Wieder (1874-1943) (books and manuscripts). In 1923 his son Bernard joined the firm. Together with his hardworking team he organised one auction after another. Only a few images of this great saleroom are known, as we can see in the present lot depicting an impression of the auction of the Viennese collector Camillo Castiglioni in 1925.
This famous collection was auctioned in various sessions between 17th and 20th November 1925. Camillo Castiglioni (1879-1957) was the son of a rabbi from Trieste who established a rubber factory in Vienna around 1900. He also invested in mines, factories and newspapers. After World War I Castiglioni lived in an impressive palace on the Prinz Eugenstrasse in Vienna which he decorated with his immense art collection. In 1924 Castiglioni got into financial problems and was forced to sell his collection. The majority of his treasures were sold at auction, but he also inventively managed to ship a selection to Italy.
Presumably Nicolaas van der Waay (1855-1936) made the present painting (which also shows the artist himself in the back of the room on the left) after a photograph of the sale in the impressive saleroom. A journalist of the magazine Eigen Haard wrote: ‘(…) the buyers are sitting pompous as if in a church and the auctioneers throne on a platform as if they were on a tribunal’. To attend this auction special tickets were required. Several hundreds of visitors were assigned seats in the great room, the others – invisible in the painting – were standing in the back of the room. A large number of potential clients were not even allowed to enter as there was no room available. Among the privileged visitors were international museum directors, art collectors, dealers and a small group of art scholars. The greatest and most powerful antiquarian and art dealer Duveen, with firms based in London and New York, was also present and acquired some important items. Furthermore the following dealers were represented: Agnew from London, Cassirer from Berlin, Drey from Munich, Warneck from Paris and a few dealers from Amsterdam and The Hague such as Staal, Goudstikker and Bachstitz.
On the 17th of November 76 paintings from the collection of the Austrian millionaire were auctioned. The fiercest battle was waged over a Portrait of a notary painted by Rembrandt in 1635. The American firms Knoedler and Duveen both wouldn’t give in. At a starting bid of f 60.000, - the auctioneer Adolph Antoine Edmond Schlüter (1884-1942) eventually sold the painting to Duveen for f 214.000,-. A record prize! The sculptures were auctioned the following day on November 18th from 2.00 p.m. That afternoon is depicted in the present lot. It has been suggested Frederik Muller & Co ordered Nicolaas van der Waay, who was a well-known professor at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam at that time, to paint this special event. Lot LXXIX in the catalogue of bronzes, Giovanni da Bologna’s Architecture (sold for f 3.400), is brought forward and shown to the audience. In front of the stage lot X, Romulus and Remus nursed by the wolf, is presented, which was sold that afternoon for f 47.000,-.
To the right, between the windows, the marble sculpture of Daedalus and Icarus (German, 17th century) is shown. Behind the auctioneers-table are seated (from left to right): Bernard Mensing, the usher F. Th. Menagé Challa, Adolph Schlüter and the director of Frederik Muller & Co. Anton Mensing. Probably the notary is sitting on the far right. The Rotterdam collector Daniël George van Beuningen (1877-1955) is looking at the bronze sculpture in the aisle, while the auctioneer is occupied with the bidders in the room. According to a journalist from the Algemeen Handelsblad, Schlüter was ‘perfect for leading large international auctions; because his father was a German, his mother French and he himself was raised in England.’ He could effortlessly switch from one language to another. The profit of that day was over f 400.000,-. Van der Waay was not the only artist in the auction-room that day. Jo Spier (1900-1978) made ‘’snapshots’’ for Handelsblad and De Telegraaf of some important individuals in the room (fig.1).
Mensing, who lead the auction house Frederik Muller & Co that October for over 25 years, later said that bringing in the collection of Castiglioni was a difficult task as the Viennese dealers with whom he was negotiating in Vienna wanted to have the auction in their own city. After promising a guaranteed profit of two million guilders he succeeded in bringing the collection to Amsterdam. The Castiglioni sale indeed fetched the promised amount. This resulted in a second sale of the Viennese collection a year later. The total sum of profits at Frederik Muller & Co broke all records during the Interbellum and was only surpassed by the Collection Six in 1928. It might be possible that the present painting by Van der Waay was made as the crown on the career of Anton W.M. Mensing.
We would like to thank Mr J.F. Heijbroek for writing the present catalogue text.
This famous collection was auctioned in various sessions between 17th and 20th November 1925. Camillo Castiglioni (1879-1957) was the son of a rabbi from Trieste who established a rubber factory in Vienna around 1900. He also invested in mines, factories and newspapers. After World War I Castiglioni lived in an impressive palace on the Prinz Eugenstrasse in Vienna which he decorated with his immense art collection. In 1924 Castiglioni got into financial problems and was forced to sell his collection. The majority of his treasures were sold at auction, but he also inventively managed to ship a selection to Italy.
Presumably Nicolaas van der Waay (1855-1936) made the present painting (which also shows the artist himself in the back of the room on the left) after a photograph of the sale in the impressive saleroom. A journalist of the magazine Eigen Haard wrote: ‘(…) the buyers are sitting pompous as if in a church and the auctioneers throne on a platform as if they were on a tribunal’. To attend this auction special tickets were required. Several hundreds of visitors were assigned seats in the great room, the others – invisible in the painting – were standing in the back of the room. A large number of potential clients were not even allowed to enter as there was no room available. Among the privileged visitors were international museum directors, art collectors, dealers and a small group of art scholars. The greatest and most powerful antiquarian and art dealer Duveen, with firms based in London and New York, was also present and acquired some important items. Furthermore the following dealers were represented: Agnew from London, Cassirer from Berlin, Drey from Munich, Warneck from Paris and a few dealers from Amsterdam and The Hague such as Staal, Goudstikker and Bachstitz.
On the 17th of November 76 paintings from the collection of the Austrian millionaire were auctioned. The fiercest battle was waged over a Portrait of a notary painted by Rembrandt in 1635. The American firms Knoedler and Duveen both wouldn’t give in. At a starting bid of f 60.000, - the auctioneer Adolph Antoine Edmond Schlüter (1884-1942) eventually sold the painting to Duveen for f 214.000,-. A record prize! The sculptures were auctioned the following day on November 18th from 2.00 p.m. That afternoon is depicted in the present lot. It has been suggested Frederik Muller & Co ordered Nicolaas van der Waay, who was a well-known professor at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam at that time, to paint this special event. Lot LXXIX in the catalogue of bronzes, Giovanni da Bologna’s Architecture (sold for f 3.400), is brought forward and shown to the audience. In front of the stage lot X, Romulus and Remus nursed by the wolf, is presented, which was sold that afternoon for f 47.000,-.
To the right, between the windows, the marble sculpture of Daedalus and Icarus (German, 17th century) is shown. Behind the auctioneers-table are seated (from left to right): Bernard Mensing, the usher F. Th. Menagé Challa, Adolph Schlüter and the director of Frederik Muller & Co. Anton Mensing. Probably the notary is sitting on the far right. The Rotterdam collector Daniël George van Beuningen (1877-1955) is looking at the bronze sculpture in the aisle, while the auctioneer is occupied with the bidders in the room. According to a journalist from the Algemeen Handelsblad, Schlüter was ‘perfect for leading large international auctions; because his father was a German, his mother French and he himself was raised in England.’ He could effortlessly switch from one language to another. The profit of that day was over f 400.000,-. Van der Waay was not the only artist in the auction-room that day. Jo Spier (1900-1978) made ‘’snapshots’’ for Handelsblad and De Telegraaf of some important individuals in the room (fig.1).
Mensing, who lead the auction house Frederik Muller & Co that October for over 25 years, later said that bringing in the collection of Castiglioni was a difficult task as the Viennese dealers with whom he was negotiating in Vienna wanted to have the auction in their own city. After promising a guaranteed profit of two million guilders he succeeded in bringing the collection to Amsterdam. The Castiglioni sale indeed fetched the promised amount. This resulted in a second sale of the Viennese collection a year later. The total sum of profits at Frederik Muller & Co broke all records during the Interbellum and was only surpassed by the Collection Six in 1928. It might be possible that the present painting by Van der Waay was made as the crown on the career of Anton W.M. Mensing.
We would like to thank Mr J.F. Heijbroek for writing the present catalogue text.