Soot-Covered Barn Discovery Sets Artist Record
An important lamp by Frank Lloyd Wright set an artist record at auction and points to a new trend among art collectors.
It takes a lot of knowledge, excellent instincts, and a leap of faith to look at a soot-covered painting and see a masterpiece. Fortunately for art collectors Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III, that’s exactly what George Watcher, Co-Chairman of Old Master Paintings at Sotheby’s auction house, had when he helped them assemble their collection. The painting proved to be View of Olinda, Brazil, with Ruins of the Jesuit Church by Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Post and sold for over $7 million, a record for the artist, at a Sotheby’s auction on May 21.
In 1998, Watcher learned of an oil on panel painting discovered in a barn attic in Connecticut. Watcher told Robb Report magazine that, at the time, the painting “was filthy, black, dirty,” and “You could hardly see it.” He was still certain that something valuable was under the grime and encouraged the Saunderses to buy it. According to Artnet, they paid $2.2 million.
The painting was cleaned by New York-based art restorer Nancy Krieg, an expert in Dutch and Flemish paintings. Using cotton swabs and solvents, she gradually revealed the vibrant colors and detailed features of the landscape, plus the signature “F. Post” and the date of 1666.
Following its restoration, the painting was a perfect fit for the Saunders’ collection. Although they also collected antiques like silver, Chinese Export porcelain, and European furniture, they specialized in Old Master paintings. On May 21, after a tour of galleries around the world, a selection of fifty-six of these paintings came to the auction block at the “Elegance & Wonder: Masterpieces from the Collection of Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III” sale at Sotheby’s. The sale came to a total of $64.7 million, with View of Olinda, Brazil, with Ruins of the Jesuit Church selling for $7.4 million, the highest ever price for a Frans Post painting.
Frans Post (1612-1680), born in Haarlem in the Netherlands, was the son of a glass painter and brother of prominent architect Pieter Post. In 1630, the Netherlands took control of part of Brazil, which had been colonized by Portugal. John Maurice of Nassau was appointed governor of this new Dutch territory, and Frans Post was one of the artists he sponsored to travel there. Historians believe that he painted View of Olinda, Brazil, with Ruins of the Jesuit Church after he returned to the Netherlands, working from sketches he made in Brazil.
A statement from Sotheby’s quoted Jordan Saunders as saying of Old Master paintings, “I do know that I am in awe of the artists’ techniques, the stories the pictures tell, al the tiny details and, in some, the hidden symbolism. Is it not remarkable the sheer beauty and freshness they all have, even after being on a canvas for hundreds of years?” From the scope of the landscape to the details in every tiny plant, animal, and human figure, Post’s painting is a fantastic example of this outlook. It’s lucky that Watcher and the Saunderses took a chance on what looked like a dirty old canvas.
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