The sale also featured a lively Portrait of a Fisherman Holding a Beer Keg by Frans Hals and Studio, which sold for $475,000 to benefit the Portland Museum of Art, Maine (estimate $150/200,000). Painted with Hals’s signature bravura brushwork and talent for capturing the character of his subjects, this portrait provides a fascinating insight into life in 17th century Holland as well as the working methods of the artist and his studio practice.

Further highlights included Jusepe de Ribera’s Baroque depiction of the Old Testament subject Job on the Ash Heap, which sold for $437,500 (estimate $300/500,000), and a Portrait of James Stuart, Fourth Duke of Lennox and First Duke of Richmond, from the Studio of Sir Anthony Van Dyck, which achieved $375,000 – more than two times its high estimate.
Sotheby’s Masters Week series continues with Old Masters Online, open for bidding through 4 February.