‘LES BELLES DU BAL’
At the March 2025 auction of 19th-century paintings, a large group portrait by Otto Scholderer emerged as the undisputed star of the sale. Created in 1879/80, the painting depicts ten women and two children preparing for a costume ball, and attracted strong interest from both museums and private collectors. Scholderer, who trained at the Städelschule in his native Frankfurt am Main, was a close friend of Édouard Manet, Henri Fantin-Latour, Hans Thoma and Wilhelm Leibl. He is regarded as an important link between Romanticism and Impressionism in German painting of the second half of the 19th century. The final price of CHF 185 000 exceeded the upper estimate by a factor of ten; the large-scale painting was acquired by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
OTTO
SCHOLDERER
Before the costume ball. 1879/80.
Oil on canvas, 137 x 18.5 cm.
Sold for CHF 187 000
to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris
JEAN-BAPTISTE
CAMILLE COROT
La chevrière Italienne.
Circa 1860–65. Oil on canvas.
46.7 × 37.3 cm.
Sold for CHF 150 000
to a collection in western Switzerland.
Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot’s museum-quality painting ‘La chevrière italienne’, created around 1860/65, belongs to the late work of the ‘founding father’ of 19th-century landscape painting. His Italianised depictions of nature enjoyed great success during his lifetime, and the fascination with his landscapes has remained undiminished worldwide ever since. The painting we offered had formed part of the renowned art collection of the philanthropist Estelle Doheny in Los Angeles from 1914 onwards, before entering Switzerland from her estate in 1988. We were thus able to offer it 'fresh to the market'. Entering our September auction with an attractive estimate, it achieved a successful result of CHF 150 000.
A long-lost work by Wilhelm Busch returns to Berlin
WILHELM BUSCH
The Three Robbers.
From: The Miller’s Cunning Daughter.
Black chalk on paper (vellum), 14.7 x 13.8 cm.
© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
A drawing by Wilhelm Busch attracted considerable attention in 2025. Although it never entered one of our auctions, it became one of the most compelling stories of the year. Busch’s ‘The three robbers’ illustrates the poem ‘Die kühne Müllerstochter’ from 1868. The three villains form the second motif in an eleven-part sequence illustrating a macabre story set in a mill at night.
During the provenance research, Franz-Carl Diegelmann, Head of the Old Master Prints and Drawings department at Koller, recognised the drawing as a work that had once belonged to the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. In 1909, the institution had acquired this and other drawings from the artist’s heirs for the Busch exhibition organised by the Verein Berliner Künstler. In 1945, the museum evacuated the drawing together with other works. Amid the turmoil of the war and post-war years, it was lost – like so many other artworks – and was subsequently considered missing.
Koller was able to mediate between the museum and the owner, who had inherited the drawing. In the end, she generously renounced a sale and donated the work to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, to which it had originally belonged.
CONTACT FOR
ENQUIRIES AND
CONSIGNMENTS:
KAROLINE WESER
Head of DepartmentOld Masters & 19th Century Paintings
weser@kollerauktionen.ch
+41 44 445 63 35
CONTACT FOR
ENQUIRIES AND
CONSIGNMENTS:
HAGEN GARHÖFER
19th Century Paintingsgarhoefer@kollerauktionen.ch
+41 44 445 63 07