Oak and tile stand by Stickley and Grueby, circa 1900, $105,000.

Fourth Annual Old Masters Exhibit at Berry-Hill

NEW YORK CITY – Berry-Hill Galleries will present its fourth annual Old Master exhibition, featuring a selection of European paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, from January 24 to March 3. Also shown will be a group of Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Bolognese drawings from the collection of Aldega/Gordon.

The leading artist of Bologna, Guido Reni (1575-1642), is represented both by a black and red chalk “Head Study” and a rare oil on copper “Magdalene” that epitomizes Reni’s reputation among Seventeenth Century Bolognese painters. Demenico Piola (1627-1703), on of the leading artists in Genoa from the second half of the Seventeenth Century, depicts a variation on the theme of the Holy Family in his “Madonna and Child with St. John.”

The Baroque portraitist Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) is represented by a highly sympathetic portrayal of fellow artist and close friend Lucas de Wael, dating from his Genoese period. Another Italian highlight is “Ship in a Storm off a Rocky Coast” by Monsu Montagna circa 1608-1660, which was commissioned by the 10th Duke of Mantua for the Ducal residence and which has more recently been in the famous Schulenburg Collection in Berlin.

In a similarly romantic vein but of later date are a pair of rare landscapes by the noted English visionary John Martin (1789-1854): “Adam and Eve Driven out of Paradise” and “The Approach of the Archangel Michael” are part of a group of 24 canvases which are preparatory works for the mezzotint illustrations to Milton’s Paradise Lost. A “Forest Still Life” by Elias van den Broeck (1657-1708) exemplifies Dutch naturalist technique – highly focused and precisely depicted insects, snails emerging from their shells, grasshoppers in flight, beetles and butterflies.

The drawings from Aldega/Gordon are accompanied by a catalogue by Professor Daniele Benati, an authority on Bolognese art. From preparatory studies to highly finished works, the drawings cover many subjects and types – designs for architecture, furniture and the stage, and mythical, religious and genre scenes – and represent numerous artists, such as Marcantionio Raimondi, Bartolomeo Passarotti, Annibale Carracci, Guercino, Guido Reni, Simone Cantarini and Donato Creti.

Two pen and ink landscapes are of particular interest: the small “Landscape with Washerwoman” by Annible Carracci (1560-1609), a Seventeenth Century Italian classicist, and “Landscape with a Farmhouse” by Guercino (1591-1666), once part of the famous British Old Master drawings collection at Holkham Hall in Great Britain.

The gallery, at 11 East 70th Street, is open Monday through Friday, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm; Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm.