A woodland painting by Albrecht Altdorfer, kept in a Swiss private collection for 70 years, is heading to Sotheby’s in London on 9 December. The auction house estimates its value at 3 million to 5 million pounds. Identified this year, the small Renaissance landscape joins just two other known oil landscapes by the artist.
Sotheby’s, the auction house, will offer a woodland landscape by German Renaissance painter Albrecht Altdorfer in London on 9 December. Dating from around 1520, it emerged from a private Swiss collection and carries an estimate of 3 million to 5 million pounds. Sotheby’s specialist George Gordon says it was identified this year. The work has been out of public view for 70 years.[1], [2]
Painted in oil on vellum, the work measures about 23 by 20 centimetres. Dense trees stand below clouds, sunlight and a rainbow, with no human figures in the scene. The current owner’s father bought it in 1957. Before that, it belonged to the counts of Harrach at Vienna’s Palais Harrach. It is being shown in New York until 19 November and then in London from 4 to 9 December.[1]
Before the identification, Altdorfer’s known pure oil landscapes numbered only two: Landscape With a Footbridge at London’s National Gallery and Landscape of the Danube near Regensburg at Munich’s Alte Pinakothek. Born in Regensburg, Bavaria, in 1480, he began with signed drawings and engravings. He turned towards natural landscapes around 1511 after travelling towards the Alps and later painted The Battle of Alexander at Issus in 1529.[1]
