Oil painting by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1895, of three young women and a bronze sphinx on a marble terrace above the Bay of Naples, with a many-oared vessel in the harbour below.

Catalogue No. 1272 · Christie's · New York

A Coign of Vantage

Sold for

$7.1million

Christie's, New York · 14 June 2023 · 212th of 392 in the Record Book

About $7.8 million in today’s money: 89 years of the typical US household’s income. Source

Artist: Lawrence Alma-Tadema (British, 1836-1912)
Title: A Coign of Vantage
Date: 1895
Medium: Oil on panel
Size: 63.8 x 44.7 cm (25 1/8 x 17 5/8 in.)

Lawrence Alma-Tadema painted A Coign of Vantage in 1895, in oil on a wooden panel of about 64 by 45 centimetres. It is inscribed with the opus number CCCXXXIII. Christie's lot essay describes three young women in flowered garlands and a bronze sphinx on a marble terrace above the Bay of Naples, watching a many-oared pleasure vessel arrive in the harbour below.

Arthur Tooth & Sons in London probably acquired it directly from the artist in 1895. M. Knoedler & Co. in New York acquired it on 23 December 1895, and Clarence Melville Hyde and Lillia Babbitt Hyde on 19 February 1896. After her estate sale at Parke-Bernet in New York on 7 March 1940, it changed hands several times. Ann and Gordon Getty acquired it on 5 April 1977.

Christie's offered it in New York on 14 June 2023, in The Ann and Gordon Getty Collection: Temple of Wings, as lot 26. The estimate was $2.5 million to $3.5 million. Christie's shows a price realised of $7,068,000. The lot page does not say whether that figure includes the buyer's premium.

The sale

Auction house: Christie's, New York
Date: 14 June 2023
Lot: 26
Estimate: $2,500,000-$3,500,000
Sold for: $7.1 million (including buyer’s premium) · $7,068,000

Estimate Price · sold for 2 times the high estimate. Estimates don’t include the buyer’s premium; the price does.

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Provenance

1895
Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, probably acquired directly from the artist.
23 December 1895
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, acquired directly from the above.
19 February 1896
Clarence Melville Hyde and Lillia Babbitt Hyde, New York, acquired directly from the above.
7 March 1940
Her estate sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 7 March 1940, lot 69; acquired by L. J. Marion.
by 1945
Gimbels Art Gallery, New York, by 1945, until at least 1946; then Terrence Harold Robsjohn-Gibbings, New York and Athens.
26 February 1964
His sale, Sotheby's, London, 26 February 1964, lot 85, as On the Terrace; acquired by Charles Jerdein, London.
6 November 1973
Allen Funt sale (collection by 1969), Sotheby's Belgravia, 6 November 1973, lot 27; acquired by The Fine Art Society, London.
5 April 1977
John Stanley Marshall Scott, London, 1974; M. Newman Ltd., London; acquired by Ann and Gordon Getty on 5 April 1977.
14 June 2023
The Ann and Gordon Getty Collection: Temple of Wings, Christie's, New York, lot 26.

Sources

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

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