Jack Kilgore

Courtesy Jack Kilgore & Co. Inc., New York

Jack Kilgore

Philippe de Champaigne Hugo van der Goes Frans Hals Salomon van Ruysdael Konrad Bernheimer Bullish Bidders Keeping It Cool Hals Mark

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What was your most important sale of the season?

We sold Salomon van Ruysdael’s Halt Before the Inn, 1644, a very solid blue-chip Dutch landscape, to an American collector for around $650,000.

What was the surprise hit of the season?

A beautifully painted Frans Hals portrait of a preacher [Conradus Viëtor], at Christie’s London last December was memorable [£1.1 million ($1.4 million); est. £1.2-1.8 million ($2.1-3.1 million)].

What is your best picture still unsold?

We have Portrait of a Gentleman by Philippe de Champaigne, the 17th-century history painter and portraitist, that’s in fantastic condition in the $600,000 range. You can look at the sitter and feel his intellect.

What do you tell your clients to look for in a painting?

Art is a form of communication, and the pictures must have a soul. They have to have something special. You know it when you see it.

What work speaks to you that way?

The 15th-century Portinari Triptych by Hugo van der Goes, in the Uffizi, in Florence. There’s great artistic and spiritual beauty, but behind that lurks an intense emotional drama — something profoundly disturbing, even melancholy.

"Jack Kilgore" originally appeared in the June 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's June 2009 Table of Contents.