By Intelligent Collector Staff | June 29, 2016
Guillaume Seignac’s Le secret d’Amour realized $250,000 at Heritage Auctions’ June 24 Fine European Art sale, establishing a world auction record for the French Academic painter. The auction totaled more than $1.3 million.
The life-size composition depicts a nymph listening as Cupid whispers to her and reflects the academic tradition associated with Seignac’s teacher, William Bouguereau. The painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1903, where Seignac received a Third Class medal. Before its Heritage appearance, it had remained in a private Dallas collection for 45 years. It ultimately realized four times its pre-auction estimate.
Barend Cornelis Koekkoek’s Winter landscape with wood gatherers and skaters brought $225,000. Painted in 1854, the work dates from the mature period of the Dutch Romantic landscape painter’s career.
Louis Béroud’s Louvre interior Au Musée du Louvre — les Murillo reached $75,000, more than twice its estimate. Other strong results included works by Édouard Vuillard, Paul Signac and Franz Richard Unterberger.
The sale demonstrates the importance of freshness to market, exhibition history and long-term provenance for European paintings emerging from private collections.
For owners of an important painting, those factors explain why Heritage Auctions can be the best place to sell fine art. Scholarship and detailed cataloging can bring an artist’s exhibition history, attribution and provenance into the discussion before collectors determine value.
Source: Heritage Auctions press release (June 29, 2016).