After almost 40 years of collecting and dealing paintings, Otto Naumann steps down from his gallery in New York and has decided to sell 39 pieces of his collection, including Dutch, Italian, and Spanish masterpieces many of which have not been seen on the market for years now.

He rarely bought 19 century paintings but when he has done he had a rule that they should relate to Old Masters as the Drummond or the Sorolla. This collection is noteworthy for his attention to unfinished works and paintings on unusual supports such as glass, stone and slate.

"If I have a core as a collector, it is the interest in how a painting is made. That's why this catalogue has an entire section on unfinished paintings because that reveals how an artist is working. Those are the kind of paintings I always took home and tried not to sell."

Image courtesy Sotheby’s

There is a human intrigue to the unfinished and it is we put so much more aesthetic weight on an unfinished object than we do on a finished one well you know what they were all unfinished at one point.

The Return of Mary Queen of Scots, in its unfinished state, provides a fascinating window into Drummond's working method. While the panel have been abandoned, the costumes of the central figures are essentially complete, with special attention paid to the fall of light across Mary's sumptuous yellow brocade and the armor of the man to her right. The details of the subjects’ heads and hands are mainly rendered in graphite, with some faces and expressions painted with a high degree of finish. We may also notice the unexpected arrangement of these figures on an exposed plane of grey ground, and the economical suggestion of the street’s architecture.

Cristoforo Savolini was born in Cesena and was active there for most of his short life. When he dies there were a number of works left unfinished in his studio, including the present Madonna and Child, which was then purchased by the lawyer Ludovico Ugolini along with two other unfinished paintings. The present work is described in Ugolini's will, drafted 20 May 1720: "An unfinished Madonna with the Child holding her hand in such a way that she may impart a blessing, more than half a figure in height."
A finished painting by Savolini of The Holy Family, now in a private collection, includes an almost identical Christ figure to the one in the present work. In that painting, the Madonna looks away from Christ, toward Joseph, while here she gazes at her son tenderly as she gently holds his hands.

Landseer compulsively sketched, and the majority of his studies are independent works not connected to larger, complete paintings. The present work does not appear to be a preparatory drawing, and instead stands as a work in its own right. This case provides clues to the artist’s working method. The highly finished stag, with each hair of the pelt carefully rendered, is in direct contrast to the loosely painted rocks on which the animal has fallen. Landseer works through the angles and details of the animal, emphasizing the pathos of the quarry. The virtuosity in the quickly rendered ghillie and two hounds evidence the artist’s careful technique and the solid forms contrast with the outlined areas further enforce the composition’s tension.

The Massacre of the Innocent by Giacinto Diano is a preparatory sketch for his large-scale altarpiece in the Santa Maria della Pietà dei Turchini in Naples. The present bozzetto depicts the three central figures on the left side of the Massacre of the Innocents, the largest painting of the cycle. Diano has carefully constructed the triangular composition and is working out the poses of and interactions between the soldier and the women beneath him. His brushwork is fluid and he builds up the dimensions of the figures in some areas while quickly filling in others with blocks of color or shadow. The tone is cooler and overall color scheme more neutral than the finished mural. It is clear that this sketch was a study of the corporal dimensions and composition rather than a color exercise. In the final composition, the figure on the lower right of this sketch has changed positions. She is seen on her stomach, facing out to the viewer and directly underneath the central figure.

Cristoforo Savolini
Italian, 1639-1677i
The Madonna and Child
Oil on canvas
40 ⅝ x 31 ½ in.