The Value of Pictures

New Zealand Tablet, 1 November 1906, Page 13

The Value of Pictures

The splendid collection of pictures which has been' got together for the Christchurch International Exhibition reminds us that pictures have always been a profitable investment either for the individual or the nation, for, if good, they invariably increase in value- with age. As a general rule an artist' must have been dea-d for many years before his work is appreciated at its true worth. At a recent sale At Christie's, London some of the canvases brought double" what they were purchased for a few years ago. Two portraits by the Dutch artist, Nicholas Elias, which had been purchased originally for £1200, were knocked down for £3UOO guineas ; a landscape by Constable realised £l0f(0 more than was paid for it ; while Gainsborough's ' Viscountess Tracy » was sold for 6000 guineas, or, roughly, twice the sum for which its late owner purchased Similar cases of pictures doubling and trebling their value might be multiplied indefinitely, but more interesting are the cases in which the increase in value has been fifty and a hundredfold. Thus, Reynolds' asked but 150 guineas for his famous canvas, « Mrs.- Siddons as the Tragic Muse.' Not long ago this picture was secured for Xl 7 000 by a dealer, who within a week had parted with it it a profit of £5000, or approximately £7 for every shilling of its original cost In 1863 Gainsborough's portrait . of Frederick Duke of York was acquired at the Bicknell sale for sixty- • s»x guineas to find 1 a purchaser at Christie's forty years later for 251^ guineas. At the same sale two ' landscapes by < Old Chrome ' realized 2,050 guineas, or considerably more than a guinea for every shilling which the ex-errand boy of Norwich received for themand four Gainsboroughs were bought for 8900 guineas ' for which the artist \ would have been delighted to re^ ceive anything like £IQO apiece. . „ * At # a r not !j el l ;, 1:1 :' ecent s aie a portrait of Georeiana, wife of Lord J. Townshend, which Romney painted .for J forty guineas was sold for £3,207 lfis, or nearly ?tm y Mn£f?« i/^ inal «C 0« C 0* st ; and more remarkable . hf'2 rfiT^T/ Angeius,' which it -is- said j S! n g fi? artis ! %°} d ■ forty-seven years ago for - less "j than five pounds (the J exact sum paid for it does . not thfftf JS^.knownk was bought at the Secretan sale I thirty years later for the enormous, sum of £23,266, | ■JEL^l lUlllß ° f i he original .having- 'thus i grown to. more than £232. Compared with such an ft^wMch 1 „" iS ' Wt i he C , ase of RoiuSS • stsibiJ ! Ity, which grew in value from 100 guineas to X 3045 32S* *%"?*& W . Orth "' ™» iio ™S> although the same - cannot be said of many, of Chrome's beautiful . land- i SS 88 ' 'tm^ il s s^,,the artist Sved less i fetch to^iy 8 lor every fly< HX> un a they, would are^^^S 7^?*^ exa . m P les ot lu <*7 investments S2n 'SSfcS^,,« y f the r f^ es in whi <* Old Masters have : 'w a? » .U R for h £ te mote than the money equivaSa? P " plr«c ld S .°- ng> IhtlSi a dealer in the Rue z&T. ' Lazaie, Paris, paw a carpenter 50 francs for an- old -canvas, which proved to be a variant of one of Rap? hael's works, known as the < Vatican Adam and Eve,' ,

„ original of Raphael's 'La Belie Jardiniere ' a oictur^ s W eSn h d hS^i th ° USai }? S - Of Pounds, a was pfeked $ttt second-hand shop m Paris for 44 francs • half a fran£ ?u UU rr r e C^ S LI gf ss PDP DD h vu a f el ' SHS H ?r? r 4 ginaL d^gi tohlijSLii '?K fc/uuu was knocked down for a five^pound note: -