Extremely Rare Rubens Nude, Raphael Drawing, Highlight Sale Of Unseen Royal Family Art At Sotheby’s

A previously unknown drawing of a semi-nude man by Flemish Baroque Master Sir Peter Paul Rubens from the collection of King William II of the Netherlands and his Russian wife Anna Pavlovna, is expected to fetch between $2.5 million and $3.5 million at Sotheby’s.

The Jan. 30 Old Masters sale in New York features works from one of the most magnificent collections in the world. The King (1792-1849) and Pavlovna (1795-1865) owned masterpieces by Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens, and Rembrandt, many of which are now on public display in the Netherlands.

Passed down privately through the royal family, “Nude Study of Young Man with Raised Arms” is the first drawing of this magnitude, both in physical size and rarity, to hit the market in a generation. The large drawing of a man in a loincloth meticulously details his stunning muscular physique as he powers to elevate an immense weight above his head. It is similar to the few remaining monumental figure studies that served as the crucial models for the majestic altarpiece representing “The Raising of the Cross,” which Rubens painted for the Antwerp church of Saint Walburga shortly after his return from Italy in late 1608.

Rubens created a vast series of chalk figure studies, but drawings such as “Nude Study of Young Man with Raised Arms” represent a turning point in his career, when he made figure studies that truly depict the splendor of Michelangelo.

“This immensely powerful study shows Rubens actually working out the pose of his figure as he goes along,” said Gregory Rubinstein, Head of Sotheby’s Old Master Drawings Department. “The sense of looking over the artist’s shoulder as he develops one of the most important paintings of his career is incredibly moving, and to be able to offer a drawing like this Rubens alongside a significant, newly identified study by Raphael is an extraordinary thrill.”

Also on public display beginning Jan. 25 ahead of the auction, is High Renaissance Italian painter and architect Raphael’s “Standing Soldier in Armor,” estimated to sell for $800,000 to $1.2 million. The recently discovered drawing dates back the artist’s early career in Florence (circa 1506-1507) and reveals the inimitable inventiveness that typifies his work during that period. Drawing only in pen and ink, Raphael quickly created a fierce and elegant young soldier wielding a sword in his right arm.

Despite the recent official attribution to Raphael of this heroic image previously unknown to scholars, the drawing includes two inscriptions on the backing sheet, one either 16th-century or early 17th-century, and the other likely from the 19th century. Both markings appear to have been shrouded by an earlier mounting, and are now read clearly using infrared light.

The sale also includes a 46-piece collection of 18th-century Dutch drawings and watercolors, owned by an American couple who carefully curated a collection for some forty years. Among the pristine drawings of the Silver Age of Dutch art are: humorous gouaches and theatres scenes by Cornelis Troost; designs for decorative wall-paintings for Amsterdam’s affluent merchants, by leading draftsmen such as Jacob de Wit and Jurriaan Andriessen; flower pieces by Jan van Huysum; and topographical and other landscapes by Jacob Cats. Such works exemplify the unique aesthetic of the 18^th century Holland.

Troost’s “Drinkenburg” is among a small number of works by the artist, who was trained as an actor but became a pupil of Dutch portrait painter Arnold Boonen and began painting in 1723, that are still privately owned. The lively gouache and pastel depicting a gaggle of intoxicated men dispersing after a raucous night at a country house is anticipated to go for between $300,000 and $400,000, which would crush the artist’s auction record of $175,612, set in 1999 when the same drawing was last sold.

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