DEALERS LAUNCH OLD MASTER FAIR IN PARIS

Things are definitely picking up in the Old Master world. Pictures by George Stubbs and Francesco Guardi are going for seven-figure prices at auction, just like paintings by Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso. And the behind-the-scenes maneuvering at last year's fall Biennale des Antiquaires fair in Paris predicted that the launch of a new fair in the alternate years of the biennale might not be far off.

Right on cue we now have Paris Tableau, Nov. 4-8, 2011, a new fair in Paris to be held at the Palais de la Bourse, the neoclassical former stock exchange (sometimes known as the "temple of money"). Ten Paris dealers, led by Maurizio Canesso of Galerie Canesso, have organized the fair, and invited ten additional dealers from other cities.

The other Paris dealers are Didier Aaron et Cie, Éric Coatalem, De Jonckheere, Talabardon & Gautier, Haboldt & Co., Jean-François Heim, Jacques Leegenhoek, Galerie Giovanni Sarti and Galerie Claude Vittet. Additional participants are Charles Beddington Ltd, Derek Johns Ltd, Stair Sainty Gallery and The Weiss Gallery (London); Noortman Master Paintings and Kunsthandel P. de Boer (Amsterdam) joined by David Koetser Gallery (Zurich); Adam Williams Fine Art Ltd (New York), Galleria Cesare Lampronti (Rome); and Galeria Caylus (Madrid).

Highlights include a gold-ground Virgin and Child by Andrea di Nerio from ca. 1330, one of the oldest paintings in the fair, at Sarti; a rare François Clouet portrait of Madeleine Le Clerc, ca. 1515-1572, at Weiss; an ice-skating scene by winter landscape virtuoso Hendrick Avercamp, at De Jonckheere; and works by a host of French painters, including Hubert Robert, Louis-Rolland Trinquesse, Eustache Le Sueur and Jean-Baptiste Oudry.

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