Preview: 18 Artworks to See at TEFAF New York Fall 2018

 Bernardo Strozzi, The Holy Family With the Infant Saint John the Baptist, Circa 1620-32. Oil on canvas, 82.1 x 104.9 cm (32.4 x 41.3 in). Courtesy Adam Williams Fine Art Ltd.

By PAUL LASTER, Oct. 2018

Returning to the Park Avenue Armory for the third edition of the fine art fair from October 27th through October 31st, TEFAF New York Fall features 93 international art and antiques dealers presenting top quality, strictly-vetted works from a variety of collecting areas, including fine and decorative art from antiquity to 1920, as well as rare books and manuscripts, ceramics, jewelry and much more. 

High on our list of must-see works at the fair are Old Master paintings and drawings by Claes van Beresteyn, Jan Breughel the Younger, Cesare Magni, Jan Steen and Bernardo Strozzi. Breughel the Younger’s canvas captures a marvelous bouquet of fresh blooms in a painted pot while Steen’s painting portrays an impoverished alchemist at work as his crying wife and child await the outcome of his foolish, obsessive pursuit of wealth.  

 Jan Breughel the Younger, A Bouquet of Flowers in a Decorated Vase, n.d. Oil on canvas, 124.7 x 96.8 cm (49 x 38.2 in.) Courtesy Haboldt · Pictura 

Standout sculptural works from the same period include Balthasar Permoser’s A Pilgrim as a Memento Mori, which presents a beautifully carved boxwood figure of death dressed in pilgrim garb; a marble bust of a young boy by an artist from the circle of the Italian Renaissance sculptor Desiderio da Settignano; a ceramic sake bottle with European figures by Edo Period, Japanese Raku Master Nonko; and a cabinet of curiosities, featuring finely crafted artefacts arranged by Kunstkammer Georg Laue’s legendary proprietor. 

Notable modernist picks on our list are Pablo Picasso’s Portrait of a Bearded Man, an early painting on panel from 1895 that’s signed P. Ruiz, the way he initially added his name to his work; a silver sculptural table lighter by Carl Fabergé & Julius Rappoport that was inspired by caricatures of Charles Darwin as an ape; Karl Sterrer portrayal of two female nudes lying in a barren landscape; and Edward S. Curtis’ striking portrait of Mosa, a Mohave girl on the copper photogravure printing plate that the photographer used to make his editions. 

Scroll through to see these and more artworks that visitors to the fair will be posting on Instagram—or taking home—later this week. WM
 

Medardo Rosso, Gavroche, circa 1888. Bronze, 45 x 26 x 26 cm (17.7 x 10.2 x 10.2 in.) Courtesy Galleria Carlo Virgilio & Co
 

Karl Sterrer, Two nudes in a landscape, 1919. Mixed media on paper laid down on board, 122 x 137 cm (48 x 53.9 in.) Courtesy Agnews
 

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of a Bearded Man, 1895. Oil on panel, 21.3 x 15.8 cm (8.4 x 6.2 in.) Courtesy Jaime Eguiguren- Arte y Antigüedades
 

 Cabinet of curiosities arranged by Georg Laue according to historical record, 16th-17th centuries. Mixed media, 62 x 78 cm (24.4 x 30.7 in.) Courtesy Kunstkammer Georg Laue
 

George Edwards, A Natural History of Uncommon Birds - Gleanings of Natural History, 1743-1764. Binding in green morocco, 28 x 23 x 3 cm (11 x 9 x 1 in.) Courtesy Librairie Amélie Sourget

Octovien De Saint-Gelais, Epistres D'Ovide, Octovien de Saint-Gelais or François Robertet, Three French Poems. Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, circa 1493. Illuminated manuscript on vellum, 26.5 x 19 cm (10.4 x 7.5 in.) Courtesy Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG
 

 Balthasar Permoser, A Pilgrim as a Memento Mori, Circa 1685. Boxwood Height 38 cm (15 in.) Courtesy Blumka Gallery
 

 Claes van Beresteyn, Knotty old Tree in the Dunes with a Fence, n.d. Pen and brown ink on paper, 15 x 13 cm (6.9 x 5.1 in.) Courtesy Mireille Mosler, Ltd.
 

 Cesare Magni, Madonna and Child, Circa 1520. Oil on panel, 37.3 x 28.2 cm (14.9 x 11 in.) Courtesy Benappi Fine Art
 

Carl Fabergé & Julius Rappoport, Simian silver sculptural table lighter, Circa 1895. Silver, Height 11.4 cm (4.5 in.) Courtesy A La Vieille Russie
 

Feuilles de Choux with Stag, (Flemish, probably Enghien,) Circa 1550-1570. Wool and silk, 278 x 236 cm (109.5 x 92.9 in.) Courtesy Mullany
 

 Hand, Roman - first - second century AD. Gilded bronze, 21 x 10.5 x 11 cm (8.3 x 4.3 x 4.3 in.) Courtesy Axel Vervoordt
 

Edward S. Curtis, Mosa – Mohave, 1903. Copper photogravure printing plate
45.72 x 33.65 cm (18 x 13.25 in.) Courtesy Bruce Kapson Gallery
 

Circle of Desiderio da Settignano, Bust of a Boy, Circa 1480. Marble, 27 x 23 x 17 cm (10.6 x 9.1 x 6.7 in.) Courtesy Benjamin Proust Fine Art Ltd.
 

Jan Steen, The Alchemist, 1668. Oil on canvas, 41.7 x 32.3 cm (106 x 82 in.) Courtesy Daxer & Marschall Kunsthandel
 

Nonko (Raku Dōnyū), A Raku pottery sake bottle with European figures, Japan -17th century, Edo period . Ceramic, 17 x 20 cm (6.7 x 7.9 in.) Courtesy Gregg Baker