A small painting by Titian that has been coveted by aristocrats, archdukes, emperors – and even modern art thieves – set a new auction high for the Venetian Renaissance master when it sold for £17.56 million (US$22.2 million) at Christie's Old Masters Part I sale last night (2 July).
The previous record for the artist stood at US$16.8 million, set by A Sacra Conversazione: The Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria at Sotheby's New York in 2011.
Titled Rest on the Flight into Egypt, the present lot is one of the last religious paintings from the artist's celebrated early years to remain in private hands. Impeccable provenance aside, the work is noted for demonstrating Titian's pioneering approach to using vivid color and depicting human form in nature, the artistic vocabularies that secured his status as the first Venetian painter to gain international recognition during his lifetime.
Lot 8 | Tiziano Vecellio, Called Titian (Pieve Di Cadore circa 1485/90-1576 Venice) | The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Oil on canvas, laid on panel (Auction record for the artist)
46.2 x 62.9 cm
Provenance:
- Bartolomeo della Nave (1571/9-1632), Venice, from whom acquired in 1638, through Basil Feilding, 2nd Earl of Denbigh (c. 1608-1675), by,
- Sir James Hamilton, 3rd Marquess of Hamilton and later 1st Duke of Hamilton (1606-1649), first Hereditary Keeper of the Palace of Holyroodhouse (listed in the inventory of 1649, inv. no. 22), where acquired by the following before 1651,
- Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands (1614-1662), Brussels and Vienna (listed in the inventory of the Imperial Collection of 1659, inv. no. 96), recorded in the Stallburg Gallery, and by descent in the Habsburg Collection to,
- Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1685-1740), Vienna, and by descent in the Habsburg collection to,
- Maria Theresa (1717-1780), Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia (listed in the inventory of the Imperial Collection of 1772, inv. no. 918(?)), and by descent in the Habsburg collection to,
- Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (1741-1790), and transferred to Belvedere Palace, by 1781 (listed in the ‘second room’), and looted by French troops in 1809 for the Musée Napoléon, when held in the church of Saint Elisabeth, Rue du Temple, Paris, and returned to Vienna in 1815
- Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar (1797-1864), by 1851; Christie’s, London, 1 June 1878, lot 124 (350 gns. to Colnaghi)
- John Alexander Thynne, 4th Marquess of Bath (1831-1896), Longleat House, Warminster, Wiltshire, and by descent
Estimate: £15,000,000 - 25,000,000
Hammer Price: £15,0000,000
Sold: £17,560,000 (US$22.2 million)
Auction House: Christie's London
Sale: Old Masters Part I
Date: 2 July 2024
Painted when Titian was in his late teens, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt was inspired by an event recounted in the Gospel of Matthew (2:13-23), where Joseph fled to Egypt with Mary and the infant Jesus to protect the young Christ from King Herod. Against a luminous sky counterbalanced by a receding pastoral landscape, the artist portrays the Holy Family in a rural spot en route, likely taking a break on their arduous journey.
Like its subject, the work would embark on an eventful and adventurous journey – from passing into the hands of various aristocrats and archdukes across Europe, to being looted by Napoléon, to recently losing and resurfacing at a bus stop in southwest London.
Titian | A Sacra Conversazione: the Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria | Sold: US$16,882,500, Sotheby's New York, 2011 (Previous auction record for the artist)
Titian's Self-portrait (circa 1562) | Collection of Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
While it is not known exactly when and for whom it was commissioned, the painting's small format suggests it had a domestic function and was likely intended for a private patron in Venice.
It is first documented in the early decades of the 17th century in the collection of Venetian spice merchant Bartolomeo della Nave – one that is described as "perhaps the finest then in Venice" and "seen by all the virtuoso of Venice." That was a spectacular collection of more than 230 paintings, with works by all the city's major Renaissance painters and no fewer than fifteen Titians.
Interestingly, the present work was valued at £200 in della Nave's inventory, a figure even higher than a significantly larger and later picture, The Death of Actaeon, now in the National Gallery in London.
Titian | The Death of Actaeon | 178.4 x 198.1 cm | The collection of National Gallery, London
After della Nave's passing, his collection sparked a bidding war between British and Spanish aristocrats, and it was James Hamilton, 3rd Marquess and 1st Duke of Hamilton, who won most of the artworks. In July 1638, the ship carrying such precious cargo left Venice for England, arriving three months later.
The pictures were not to remain on the walls for long, however: he was a Scottish Royalist who would be executed in 1649 by Parliament during the English Civil War. His collection then went into the hands of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, the Habsburg governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1647 to 1656.
During that time, he was assembling one of the finest art collections of his age, with well over 1,300 paintings that included masterpieces by the likes of Raphael and Jan van Eyck.
It was a source of great pride for the archduke that he not only displayed the collection across several galleries in his palace but also asked Flemish Baroque artist David Teniers the Younger to commemorate it in a set of kunstkammer paintings, works that depict gallery interiors with artworks in situ on the walls. The Rest on the Flight into Egypt was duly featured in one of those.
David Teniers | The Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Picture Gallery in Brussels (circa 1651), a catalogue of highlights from the archduke’s collection | Collection of Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
The present lot is featured on the doorway's right side
The present lot was found in a carrier bag at a London bus stop seven years after it had been stolen
When the archduke relocated to Vienna in the mid-1650s, he took his collection with him and it ended up at the Belvedere Palace in the late 1780s. Not that the Titian found a stable home: it was soon looted by French troops for the Musée Napoléon, only returning to Venice in 1815 after Napoléon's fall.
The painting's subsequent owner was Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro, a Scottish landowner who was one of J.M.W. Turner's most important patrons and the painter's close friend. At his death in 1864, his collection was auctioned at Christie's in 1878, with the Titian being acquired by John Alexander Thynne, 4th Marquess of Bath. The picture was taken to Longleat House in Warminster, where it has hung in the State Drawing Room ever since.
In 1995, the work made newspaper headlines when it was stolen from Longleat. The owners enlisted Charles Hill, the widely respected art detective who found The Scream, to search for the Titian, which was valued at £5 million at the time.
Following a £100,000 reward being announced for information leading to the picture's safe return, some seven years later it made a dramatic reappearance: it was found in a carrier bag at a bus stop in London, frameless. After returning to Longleat, the painting has since been treasured by the heirs of Lord Bath, who released it to the market for the first time in more than 145 years.