Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-Portrait
Old Masters, Christie’s, New York, 4 February
Estimate: $2.5m to $3.5m
One of Artemisia Gentileschi’s earliest self-portraits is making its auction debut. Experts believe the painting can be dated to when Gentileschi first moved to Florence as a 20-year-old newlywed in 1613. It was shortly after another artist was convicted of raping Gentileschi in Rome, following a notorious trial in which she was tortured as a means of verifying her testimony, a common practice at the time. Gentileschi’s early years in Florence marked a watershed period in her career, allowing her to define herself separately from her father, the artist Orazio Gentileschi, a contemporary of Caravaggio. She found success as a working painter and was the first woman to join the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence. Gentileschi used her own image in her work to promote herself to wealthy Florentine patrons, like the Medici family, and to save money on hiring models. Here, she has depicted herself as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, holding a martyr’s palm leaf, wearing a crown and royal robes with a peek of a spiked wheel behind her. Gentilschi produced some of her best-known works during her time working in Florence, including the version of Judith beheading Holofernes at the Gallerie degli Uffizi.
Rembrandt, Young Lion Resting
Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries, Sotheby’s, New York, 4 February
Estimate: $15m to $20m
Young Lion Resting is Rembrandt’s last depiction of an animal remaining in private hands and the most important work on paper by the artist to come to market in decades, Sotheby’s says. It comes to sale from the collection of the American billionaire Thomas Kaplan, who, with his wife Daphne Recanati Kaplan, has built the world’s largest private holding of Rembrandt works. Sotheby’s believes the drawing dates back to either the late 1630s or the early to mid-1640s. Proceeds will benefit Panthera, the Kaplans’ wildcat conservation organisation.
Judy Chicago, Mary, Queen of Scots (1973)
Editions & Works on Paper, Phillips, New York, 2 February
Estimate: $1,500 to $2,000
Judy Chicago’s abstract portrait of the ill-fated Scottish royal is part of the artist’s Great Ladies series. Among Chicago’s earliest forays into printmaking, text along the edge of the spiral design states she originally intended to use brighter colours in an ode to Mary Tudor, the first crowned queen of England; however, the work shifted into more subdued tones. “Now it reminds me of Mary, Queen of Scots, the proud woman locked up in the tower for her ambitiousness,” Chicago wrote.
Odilon Redon, Méditation, fillette nue (1906)
Vision Symboliste, Artcurial, Paris, 10 February
Estimate: €60,000 to €80,000
The French Symbolist Odilon Redon is probably best known best for his series of what he called noirs, monochromatic lithographs and drawings of mysterious and nightmarish subject matter, like monsters and other strange creatures. This work on paper stands in sharp contrast with those gloomier subjects; it comes from a later period that when he was using children as subjects to represent innocence and pure emotion.
