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Detail "Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat"​ Rembrandt van Rijn, 1633 - Photograph by Dan Morgan for Sotheby's in 1998

prov·e·nance

Published on July 27, 2019 

Dan Morgan Reports

"Portrait of a Man in a Red Coat" - Rembrandt van Rijn, 1633

There is a long history of this painting, and I am happy and proud to have been one of the few lucky people in the world to have handled it by the edges of the oval, without the frame, with my bare hands. I nervously placed the masterpiece, on this easel, for the Old Masters Department of Sotheby's NY, in January1998.

I had only been working, as one of several of the auction house's catalog photographers, for a few weeks. I was summoned to Sotheby's paintings studio. The piece was just consigned for auction, and we had to get a good shot of it, before it was trotted around the morning news programs. Imagine my delight, seeing this painting the very next morning on the Today show, and my photo in the NY Times, announcing the acquisition.

I shot it with an 8x10 camera I had never used before, loading 8"x10" film sheets, individually, into several film holders, so I could shoot a range of exposures. I was a nervous wreck, but the process became "old hat" to me after a few months. "Orange Marilyn" by Andy Warhol (link below) was just one of the many important works of art that lay ahead for me. The painting broke records for the sale of an old masters painting, going for over six million dollars.

The provenance:

Sir Philip John William Miles, 2nd Baronet (1825–88), Leigh Court, Somerset; by descent to his eldest daughter, Alice Catherine Miles, wife of Lt. Colonel Gerard Vivian Ames, of the Hyde, 

Herfordshire; by descent to their son, Captain Lionel Gerard Ames (born 1889) [Vicars Brothers, London, 1929; The Howard Young Galleries, New York, 1930].

David Loew, Beverly Hills [Findlay Gallery, New York, 1954].

Amon G. Carter Sr., Fort Worth, Texas, from 1954, and by descent to his third wife, Minnie Meacham Smith (sale Sotheby’s, New York, 30 January 1998, no. 18).

Dr. Alfred Bader, on behalf of Otto Naumann Ltd., New York, 1999.

The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Arts, Las Vegas, 1999 (sale, Christie’s, New York, 26 January 2001, no. 81 - Noortman Master Paintings, Maastricht, until 2008. From whom acquired by the present owner in 2008.

This article features a remarkable brush with greatness in the form of my brother's photography of a valuable Rembrandt. He shared the story with us in July - in a conversation with our brother (Greg) and during my High School reunion weekend in Lakewood, Ohio. 

 

Note: The Rembrandt went for over $6 million and the Warhol Marilyn went for more than $17 million in 1998.