An Obscure Portrait of St. Jerome, Purchased for $600 at a Small-Town Auction, Is Actually a Rare Anthony van Dyck Painting

Albert B. Roberts, an 87-year-old art collector in Hudson, New
York, has spent decades snapping up obscure works at auctions and
estate sales. So, as unlikely as it may seem, he wasn’t surprised
when a cracked, weathered oil painting he picked up for just $600
at an auction in Kinderhook back in 2002 proved to be an early work
by Dutch Old Master Anthony van Dyck.

“What’s exciting for me is the chase,” Roberts told the crowd as
the painting was unveiled at the Albany Institute of History & Art this
week, according to the Daily Gazette.
“I’ve devoted the last 30 years of my life to the search for art
that I like to call ‘orphaned’ art, that for one reason or another
has been neglected, overlooked, perhaps lost in the shuffle of the
art world in different countries.”

The newly discovered oil sketch, which features an elderly Saint
Jerome, is on view in a special exhibition at the museum for the
next two-and-a-half weeks, reports the Albany Times Union.
Roberts, a board member, has donated close to 50 works to the
Albany Institute over the years.

Roberts suspected the painting was the work of Van Dyck from the
get-go, but it was several years before he attempted to get a
proper authentication.

With the help of Van Dyck scholar Susan J. Barnes, Roberts was
able to confirm his hunch. The painting is a study for Saint
Jerome With an Angel, completed around 1620, which now belongs
to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in
Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The finished oil painting is about
twice the size of the new-found study.

“Though the artist was about eighteen years old when he painted
it (400 years ago), he was a precocious talent and already a
master,” said Barnes in a statement. “Van Dyck painted his sketch
from a living model, carefully rendering his furrowed,
sun-weathered brow and time-worn body. His goal was to convey the
sense of the saint as a real person—one with whom faithful viewers
could identify and whom they could aspire to emulate.”

The painting is in need of restoration, and hasn’t been framed
for the exhibition. “We wanted you to see the work in its
pristine condition; its pristine condition happens to include bird
droppings on the back,” said Roberts.

But even taking such issues into account, the work is
undoubtedly worth far more than the $600 Roberts shelled out to
purchase it. According to the artnet Price Database, Van Dyck’s auction
record is £8.3 million ($13.5 million), set at Sotheby’s
London in 2009 for a self portrait of the
artist, now housed at London’s
National Portrait Gallery. And even the artist’s studies have
the potential to bring in millions—Van Dyck’s third-biggest sale
was for Two Studies of a
Bearded Man, which brought in $7.25 million at Sotheby’s
New York in 2010.

Roberts says that his decades of snapping up obscure works at
auctions and estate sales have made him an expert on identifying
overlooked masterpieces. “I’ve developed a method for examining
works of art to seek attribution, a sophisticated if highly
unorthodox method that I’ve described in detail in a book I’ve just
written,” he said, adding that he hopes to publish it next
year.

“Al has a keen eye, photographic memory, and a passion for
research. He is also a very patient man. In some cases, he conducts
his research on what he describes as his ‘orphaned art’ for
decades,” said Albany Institute director Tammis K. Groft in a
statement from the museum. “”This story is pretty exciting, and we
are thrilled to host the opportunity to display this remarkable
find.”

“‘An Orphan No More’:
Recently Discovered Oil Sketch by Anthony Van Dyck” on view at
the Albany Institute of History & Art, 125
Washington Ave, Albany, September 18–October 6, 2019. General
admission is $10. 

The post An Obscure Portrait of St. Jerome, Purchased for
$600 at a Small-Town Auction, Is Actually a Rare Anthony van Dyck
Painting appeared first on artnet News.