Follower Of Hieronymus Bosch Painting Leads Strong Old Masters Week In New York

A small panel of hellish imagery by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch became the standout lot in this week's Old Masters sales in New York, selling at Sotheby's for $537,600 against an estimate of $30,000 to $50,000. The result came after 10 bidders competed for six minutes, pushing the work to more than 10 times its high estimate and making it one of the clearest signs of renewed appetite for image-driven Old Masters material.

The painting, titled“Hell,” is packed with the lurid inventions associated with Bosch's circle: grotesque creatures, demons, punishments, a ferocious hell mouth, and figures writhing on its tongue. Angels appear to flee in the foreground, while armies clash near a medieval castle in the distance. The work was not painted by Bosch himself, but the association with one of the most recognizable names in Northern Renaissance art proved powerful enough to draw aggressive bidding.

David Pollack, Sotheby's head of Old Master paintings, said the result reflected“this image-driven market,” adding that the work's technical quality mattered, but that its Bosch-like imagery made it“truly irresistible.” He said the lot attracted interest from collectors, dealers, curators, and cross-category bidders who usually focus on Contemporary and Modern art.

The Bosch follower panel was not the only work to outperform expectations. At Christie's,“Elijah and the Angel” by the little-known 17th-century Neapolitan painter Francesco Glielmo sold for $114,300 against an estimate of $15,000 to $20,000 after scholar Giuseppe Porzio identified the painting and gave bidders a fresh attribution to consider. A moonlit river landscape by Aert van der Neer brought $120,650, while Jean Benner's“A Profusion of Beauty” sold for $82,550.

Works on paper also found eager buyers. Sotheby's sold a drawing by Giulio Benso for $53,760, more than 13 times its high estimate of $4,000, after it was offered without reserve from the estate of poet, dealer, and collector Stanley Moss.

The broader sales picture was similarly firm. Christie's Old Masters and 19th Century Paintings sale totaled nearly $7 million with an 89 percent sell-through rate. Sotheby's Old Masters sale reached $6.4 million with a 92 percent sell-through rate. An attributed portrait of El Greco sold at Christie's for $635,000, within estimate, while works by Guido Reni, Guercino, Francesco Guardi, and Paulus Potter also drew healthy bidding.

Taken together, the results suggest that Old Masters remain especially competitive when a work combines visual force with scholarship, provenance, or a newly sharpened attribution - a reminder that the market still responds to connoisseurship as much as to name recognition.

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