Freeman’s Old Masters Sale Totals Over $1.58 Million, with Alfred Gilbert’s Eros Leading at $108,800

Freeman’s auction of Old Masters & 19th Century European Art, Including Works from the Collection of Ambassador J. William Middendorf II achieved $1,586,176 in total sales (hammer plus buyer’s premium) on November 10. The auction saw more than half of lots sell above their low estimates and drew a broad international audience. The 92 buyers bid from 12 separate countries, and 35% were new to Freeman’s.

Jelena James, Senior Specialist, Head of Sale, 19th Century European and Old Master Paintings, stated, “It was encouraging to see the level of interest and spirited bidding across such a diverse offering of European paintings, drawings, and sculpture. The results demonstrate that works with compelling histories, artistic merit, and traditional subject matter continue to resonate with both established and emerging collectors. It was especially exciting to witness the reception of works of art from the collection of J. William Middendorf II, proving that compelling provenance and engaging storytelling continue to play an important role in where the gavel falls.”

Eros Rises to the Top

Leading the sale was a life-size cast aluminum replica of Eros after Alfred Gilbert (British, 1854–1934), which sold for $108,800 against an estimate of $40,000–60,000 (Lot 157). It is one of ten life-size replicas of Gilbert’s 1893 sculpture issued by The Fine Art Society, London, in the late 1980s. The original, atop the fountain at Piccadilly Circus, is among London’s best-known sculptures and was the first public statue cast in aluminum.

The series grew out of the 1983 restoration of the statue, which the Greater London Council began. During that work, a set of plaster casts of the sculpture was found in the basement of the Victoria & Albert Museum. The Fine Art Society had represented Gilbert during his career and held both a retrospective and a memorial exhibition for him in the 1930s. Inspired by the discovery, the Society produced ten cast aluminum copies, with advice from George Mancini, who had worked with Sir Alfred Gilbert in the 1920s.

The Collection of Ambassador J. William Middendorf II

The collection of Ambassador J. William Middendorf II (1924–2025) achieved $448,960 (hammer plus buyer’s premium). Half of the lots sold above their low estimates, with four works from the collection placed among the sale’s top results.

Middendorf was a singular figure whose influence spanned finance, government, the military, and the arts. He advised five presidents, served as ambassador to the Netherlands, the Organization of American States, and the European Community, and, as Secretary of the Navy from 1974 to 1977, sponsored programs that continue to define the American fleet. He was also an accomplished composer who wrote at least 80 marches for Navy ships and eight symphonies, and a lifelong draftsman who filled 620 sketchbooks. He began studying and collecting Dutch Old Masters while serving as ambassador in The Hague, and his collection grew to reflect a wide range of European painting. He served on the boards of the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art and was founding chairman of the Friends of the American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He lived in Little Compton, Rhode Island, for more than 70 years and died on October 24, 2025, at the age of 101.

Among the many highlights from the collection, Johann Liss’s (German, 1595–1631) Lute Player sold for $57,600 (Lot 40, estimate $60,000–80,000). The nearly life-size painting was likely executed in Venice, where Liss, one of the leading German artists of the Baroque, settled in the early 1620s.

Circle of Frans Hals (Dutch, 1582–1666), Portrait of a Lady, Three Quarter Length with a Hood and Ruff, sold for $49,920 (Lot 48, estimate $20,000–30,000), nearly two and a half times its low estimate. The painting has a lively scholarly history. Bode-Binder and Valentiner accepted it as an autograph work by Hals, dating it to around 1619–1620 and around 1626–1628, respectively. Slive considered it the work of a follower, while Grimm placed it among Hals’s earliest autograph portraits of a woman, around 1618, noting that the sitter’s face was repainted at a later date.

Lot 5 | Master of the Little Cologne Passion (German, 15th Century) | Christ on the Cross (The Crucifixion) | Sold for $38,400

The Master of the Little Cologne Passion (German, 15th century), Christ on the Cross (The Crucifixion), sold for $38,400 (Lot 5, estimate $25,000–35,000). The work was originally one of the outer wings of a triptych of Passion scenes now in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, which includes a closely related Crucifixion. It is painted on linen in the Tüchlein (“little cloth”) technique, which Cologne workshops used for portable devotional pictures meant for permanent display. Few survive because the material is fragile. With its elongated figures, jewel-like palette, and delicate gold leaf, the painting shows the Cologne School’s blend of International Gothic elegance, Sienese lyricism, and Byzantine tradition.

Three Miniatures from an Illuminated Book of Hours: The Annunciation, King David, and The Flight into Egypt by a 15th-century Spanish (Castilian) hand sold for $35,200, nearly four times its estimate of $7,000–9,000 (Lot 31).

Dutch Masterworks Continue Sale Success

Dutch 19th-century painting was a standout during the auction. Petrus van Schendel’s (Dutch, 1806–1870) Night Market, 1852, took the top honors in the category, surpassing its presale estimate and selling for $57,600 (Lot 104, estimate $30,000–50,000). Van Schendel’s moonlit landscapes and candle-lit market scenes earned him the nickname “Monsieur Chandelle” in France. His night markets look back to the 17th-century Dutch candlelight tradition of Godfried Schalcken, and they also reflect the Romantic fascination with the dark and mysterious. Van Schendel often painted the Groenmarket in The Hague, near his home on the Prinsengracht, and continued to do so after moving to Brussels to meet demand. In the present work he renders the gleam of fish scales, the sheen of fabric, and candlelight flaring across the faces of the market women. He worked in a Brussels studio with one brightly lit room for painting and another he could darken and light artificially for his models. Van Schendel won gold at the 1845 Brussels Exhibition, was honored at the 1857 Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester, and exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was also an inventor who patented a device to improve steamship blades.

Another highlight in the category was Cornelis Springer’s (Dutch, 1817–1891) A View of the Town of Woerden, 1857, which sold for $51,200 (Lot 106, estimate $35,000–50,000). Springer was one of the preeminent Dutch townscape painters of the 19th century. His carefully rendered streets and buildings, filled with townspeople at their daily business, pay homage to the Golden Age architectural painters, including Gerrit Berckheyde. They also reflected the national pride of a Netherlands freed from French rule only decades earlier. Woerden, on the Oude Rijn south of Amsterdam, was then changing from a Napoleonic-era border fortress into an industrializing town and a hub for a growing Jewish community of shopkeepers and traders, with its own synagogue and cemetery.

About Freeman’s
Freeman’s is a premier American auction house offering services in multiple categories including fine art, jewelry, design, books and manuscripts, furniture, decorative arts, antiquities, couture, and Asian works of art. With 15 regional locations nationwide, the firm provides auctions, appraisals, private sales, and art advisory services, connecting clients to the global art market. Freeman’s strives to bring art, history, and design to life by connecting people with extraordinary objects through exceptional service and expertise.