Tuesday 26th  April 2016

Hello Everyone

Unseen on the market for 250 years, Sotheby’s is to offer at its ‘Old Masters & British Paintings Evening Sale’ London 6th July 2016, a  rare portrait by the artist

Jean-Etienne Liotard, 1702-1798, Swiss

‘A DUTCH GIRL AT BREAKFAST’

Estimated at £4,000,000- £6,000,000.  It was a highlight of the recent Liotard exhibition at the Royal Academy. Believed to have been painted during the artist’s first stay in Holland in 1755-56, it was  acquired by the second Earl of Bessborough in 1774 and has since remained in the possession of the Earl’s descendants.  “The painting’s extraordinary unbroken provenance is matched only by it’s rarity in Liotard’s oeuvre, both in terms of its subject and it’s medium”.

According to Sotheby’s, the painting “Captures his genius and fascination for the Dutch Golden Age”.

Born at the beginning of the 18th century the idiosyncratic Swiss Master, Jean-Etienne Liotard, was in great demand across the European Enlightenment and beyond.  In his painting  ‘A DUTCH GIRL AT BREAKFAST’, the artist conjures up the magnificence and cultural curiosity of the age in vividly lifelike detail.  The work displays Liotard’s unique skill to render the effect of light on different textures and colours and reflects perfectly his approach to painting which earned him the epitaph of “painter of truth”.

Will this exceptionally fine work surpass expectations and reach over and above it’s highest estimate- We shall see!  

Best Wishes

Claire Moore BA(Hons)
GALLERY MANAGER

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FINE ART GALLERY