The Wolff Collection of Master Drawings

This May, a large number of works from the collection of the Danish lawyer and art collector Benjamin Wolff will come under the hammer at Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers in Copenhagen. The selection includes master drawings from Mannerism to the Danish Golden Age.

Johan Zoffany: Claude Martin's Zoffany Album. A collection of 53 drawings. A few signed, dated and/or inscribed. Black chalk or "trois crayons". 410 x 280 mm. Estimate: DKK 400,000-600,000.

C. W. Eckersberg: Naked woman taking her slippers on. 1843. Unsigned. Verso inscribed Eckersberg 461. Drawing ink and pencil on paper. Sheet size 166 x 120 mm. Estimate: DKK 60,000-80,000 (€ 8,000-11,000).

2 images

 

After a twelve-year posting in 1817–1829 with the English trade agency Cruttenden, Mackillop & Co. in India, the Danish lawyer and avid art collector Benjamin Wolff (1790–1866) returned to Denmark as a wealthy man and acquired Engelholm Manor south of Copenhagen.

Over the course of 30 years, Wolff assembled an extraordinary collection of drawings ranging from 16th century Old Masters to 19th century Danish Golden Age. Except for a national bequest in 1915 and two minor exhibitions in the 1980s, the corpus of the collection, numbering over 2,000 drawings, has remained in the family since Wollf’s death in 1866, intact and unpublished for five generations until today.

Art Purchased Abroad and at Danish Auctions

Wolff, a zealous administrator and an avid traveler, is known to have purchased drawings when abroad. Of noteworthy mention is a collection of drawings by the German neoclassical painter Johan Zoffany – one highlight being an intriguing self-portrait. The majority, however, including a fine collection of Mannerist drawings and prints, were acquired at auctions in Copenhagen, including the estate sales of the following: The art collector and Keeper of the Kunstkammer J.C. Spengler (1839), the art collector and architect Gottfried Schaper (1853), the Danish Golden Age painter C.W. Eckersberg (1854) and the art collector, High Commissioner of War and auctioneer Johan Christian Fick (1866).

Preview in Paris

A number of the drawings from The Wolff Collection will be on view at 12 rue Drouot, Paris 9e., opposite of Hotel Drouot:

  • Wednesday 21 March 11 am – 6 pm

  • Thursday 22 March 11 am – 9 pm

Preview and Auction in Copenhagen

All of the collection up for auction will be on preview at Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers of Fine Art, Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen:

  • Thursday 24 May 3 pm - 6 pm

  • Friday 25 May 11 am - 5 pm

  • Saturday 26 May 11 am - 4 pm

  • Sunday 27 May 11 am - 4 pm

  • Monday 28 May 11 am - 5 pm


The auction takes place at the same address on Wednesday 30 May at 3 pm

Catalogue

The catalogue of the Wolff Collection will be published mid-May 2018. To order it, please send an email to: catalogues@bruun-rasmussen.dk or call our customer service on: +45 8818 1111.

 

For further information, please contact:

Julie Arendse Voss: +45 8818 1123 · jav@bruun-rasmussen.dk

Søren Kjerk Holmstrup: +45 8818 1127 · skh@bruun-rasmussen.dk