Hudson’s Bay Portrait Sells for Over $217K
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A historic portrait of Prince Rupert, the first governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, has sold for C$217,250 at auction in Toronto, after moving from a little-known corporate collection piece to a rare artwork of major historical and market interest.
The portrait dates to around 1665 and had been held in the Hudson’s Bay Company collection for generations. Heffel Fine Art Auction House was hired to sell about 4,400 artworks and artifacts from the company’s collection following Hudson’s Bay’s collapse and store closures.
For years, the painting was attributed to the studio of Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck. But as Heffel prepared the work for sale, specialists took a closer look and reattributed it to Sir Peter Lely, court painter to King Charles II and one of the leading portraitists of the English Baroque.
That reattribution changed the painting’s value dramatically. Its estimate rose to between C$100,000 and C$150,000 before it ultimately sold for C$217,250, including a hammer price of C$180,000 plus the buyer’s premium.
The portrait carries importance beyond the art market. Prince Rupert was not only a European aristocratic figure, but also the first governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and his name became tied to Rupert’s Land, a vast territory central to Canada’s geographic and political history.
Heffel does not usually identify buyers, but the sale has renewed attention on the fate of Hudson’s Bay’s historic holdings and on how a corporate archive can still reveal cultural and artistic discoveries centuries later.
