Lot 112: Victor Wolfvoet (Antwerp 1612-1652)

A bacchanal in a wooded river landscape
signed 'V. Wolfvoet' (lower right)
oil on copper
13 3/4 x 18 3/8 in. (34.8 x 46.6 cm.)

Victor Wolfvoet was a pupil of Rubens who was active in Antwerp in the mid-seventeenth century as an artist and an art dealer. He joined the Antwerp guild in 1644/5, just seven years prior to his untimely death, so a relatively short career as an independent artist must account for the scarcity of his works. Wolfvoet may in any case have been more active as a dealer. An inventory of his estate made after his death lists over seven hundred items, including twenty oil sketches by Rubens, among them several designs for the ceilings in the Jesuit church in Antwerp and six sketches for Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series. There were many other sketches by different artists, as well as copies after Rubens sketches, some of which must have been in Wolfvoet's own hand, like his copies after Abraham and Melchizedek (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) and Manna from Heaven (Musée Bonnat, Bayonne), both now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague.

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.