A young woman in a golden-brown gown feeds a grey parrot held on her finger, with an open cage beside her and a page boy holding a silver tray in the shadow behind.

Catalogue No. 1706 · Christie's · New York

Woman feeding a parrot

Sold for

$5.1million

Christie's, New York · 4 June 2014 · 250th of 392 in the Record Book

About $7.2 million in today’s money: 82 years of the typical US household’s income. Source

Artist: Caspar Netscher (Dutch, 1639-1684)
Title: Woman feeding a parrot
Date: 1666
Medium: Oil on panel
Size: 46 x 37 cm (18 1/8 x 14 5/8 in.)

Caspar Netscher, a Dutch painter who lived from 1639 to 1684, signed and dated this small oil on panel in 1666. It measures 46 by 37 centimetres. Behind a stone niche, a young woman in a golden-brown gown feeds a grey parrot perched on her finger. An open cage sits beside her, and a page boy with a silver tray waits in shadow.

From the eighteenth century it was in the Elector Palatine collections and later the Royal Bavarian collections, ending at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich in 1936. By 1938 Hugo Andriesse of Brussels owned it, and he deposited it with the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts there in 1939.

Christie's and the National Gallery of Art record that the painting was confiscated after the German occupation, by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg. It was transferred to the Jeu de Paume in Paris on 12 March 1942 and acquired for Hermann Goering on 20 March 1944. In 1952 Rudolf Ziersch gave it to the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal.

In 2014 the painting was returned, by restitution, to the heirs of Hugo and Elisabeth Andriesse. Christie's sold it in New York on 4 June 2014, as lot 16, against an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. The price was $5,093,000, including the buyer's premium, which Christie's gives as a world auction record for the artist at that time. The National Gallery of Art in Washington bought it in October 2016.

The sale

Auction house: Christie's, New York
Date: 4 June 2014
Lot: 16
Estimate: $2,000,000-$3,000,000
Sold for: $5.1 million (including buyer’s premium) · $5,093,000
Record: World auction record for the artist at the time of sale (Christie's) (as of June 2014)

Estimate Price · sold for 70% above the high estimate. Estimates don’t include the buyer’s premium; the price does.

Test your eye on the market: set your estimates

Provenance

1666
Signed and dated 'CNetscher. Ao. 16.66.'; the artist's preparatory drawing is in the British Museum
1674-1675
Purchased 1674 for 140 guilders by Gerrit Uylenburgh, Amsterdam; consigned by 19 April 1675 to Sir Peter Lely, London (NGA) Reported
18th century-1936
Elector Palatine collections (Düsseldorf, Mannheim), then Royal Bavarian collections and the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, until 1936
1936-1937
With Julius Böhler, Munich, 1936; with Katz, Dieren, 1937
by 1938-1939
Hugo Andriesse, Brussels; deposited with the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1939
1942-1944
Confiscated following the German occupation by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR no. HA 9); transferred to the Jeu de Paume, Paris, 12 March 1942; acquired for Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, 20 March 1944
1950-1952
With Galerie Abels, Cologne, 1950; Rudolf Ziersch, Wuppertal, who gave it to the Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, 1952
2014
Restituted to the heirs of Hugo and Elisabeth Andriesse; sold at Christie's, New York, 4 June 2014, lot 16
2016
Bought through Richard Green Fine Paintings, London, by the National Gallery of Art, Washington (October 2016)

Sources

Prices include the buyer’s premium, in US dollars at the time of sale, unless marked as a hammer price.

Correct the record

← The Collection

Something not right?