Not everything in the spring drawings sales required a six-figure bank balance to purchase. Plenty of more affordable works appeared across all the Paris rooms – both Drouot and the independents (and, of course, in the various dealers shows and fairs). Pictured here are some works within the reach of less elevated budgets.
This small pair of 4 x 3in (10 x 8cm) black chalk and wash landscapes measuring 4 x 3in (10 x 8cm), by the 17th century Dutch artist Hermann Saftleven, is monogrammed HS and numbered 33. They show boats on a river and figures, some of whom appear to be sawing wood on the bank. Last under the hammer at Christie’s Amsterdam in 1993, they sold in the auction house’s Paris rooms on March 27 for €4000 (£3420).
Christie’s Images Ltd, 2019.
Hubert Robert’s (1733-1808) red chalk drawing of fashionable lady with her servants drawing in front of a ruined chapel, featured in a small works on paper section in Mirabaud Mercier’s (27.6% buyer’s premium inc VAT) mixed-discipline sale at Drouot on March 28. The 11½ x 15in (29 x 37.5cm) work, featuring a stamp for the framer F Renaud and with a provenance to the collection of Hippolyte Durand Tahier, trebled the low estimate to take €18,000 (£15,385).