Old Master Drawings
As a market leader in Old Master Drawings, Christie’s offer a wide range of European drawings by fifteenth- to nineteenth-century artists, regularly achieving auction records for works by many of history’s greatest draughtsman, from Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael to Francisco de Goya, Anthony van Dyck and Jean-Honoré Fragonard.
Christie’s is the only auction house to present drawings throughout the year across its three international salerooms, with dedicated sales in New York and Paris, and selling alongside Old Master Paintings in London. A focus on quality, scholarship and distinguished provenance ensures that these sales attract a wide audience of collectors and public institutions.
Alongside auctions, the department offers a bespoke private sales service, providing our clients with flexibility and discretion when buying or selling works of art outside of the auction calendar.
Please contact one of the department’s specialists based in London, New York and Paris for any enquiries.
Upcoming auctions
No upcoming Old Master Drawings auctions
Our specialists are currently preparing our next Old Master Drawings auctions. In the meantime, browse results from past auctions.
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Noël Annesley joined Christie’s in 1964. Fifty-four years later he is still working there, and in September 2016 he organised the sale at King Street of the collection of Brian Sewell, his first boss, who had left Christie’s in 1967 and gone on to become a celebrated journalist. Together they set up the department of Prints and Drawings. Over the years Noël has made some exciting discoveries. One of them, a magnificent drawing by the early 16th Century Venetian artist Sebastiano del Piombo, now belonging to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, was included in the exhibition ‘Michelangelo and Sebastiano’ at the National Gallery, London, earlier this year. It was in the Michelangelo drawings exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, November 2017-February 2018. Noël took his first auction in 1967, and over the years achieved record prices for Titian, Canaletto, Michelangelo and Raphael. He organised and conducted the celebrated sales of Old Master Drawings from Chatsworth in 1984 and 1987, and Old Master Prints in 1986. In 2007 he sold Turner’s famous watercolour ‘The Blue Rigi’ for £5.8 million. It is now in the Tate Gallery. He served as Deputy Chairman of Christie’s International plc from 1992-2000, and was a long serving Trustee of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, and a Governor of the Yehudi Menuhin School.
Rosie Jarvie (neé Stynes) joined Christie's in 1997. She has worked on numerous successful sales, including the £5.8 million sale of J.M.W. Turner's The Blue Rigi, which set the then world auction record for a British work on paper and coordinated the Important British Art sales, including the sale of Property from the London residence of the late Sir Paul Getty KCB. She has also worked on a number of high profile single-owner collections, including more recently Christopher Wood: A Very Victorian Eye; The collection of Girogio Marsan and Umberta Nasi; The Collection of Nicolette Wernick and Andrew Wyld: Connoisseur Dealer. Rosie has a particular interest in Edward Lear and the watercolours of Archibald Thorburn. She holds a degree in Classics from Oriel College, Oxford.
