Art 1880-1889
1880 A FOLLOWER OF Gérôme IS VISITING CAIRO
2009 SOLD 866 K$ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
According to Sotheby's, Leopold Carl Müller was the founder of the Orientalist school in Austria, and had a studio in Vienna and another in Cairo. His scenes of everyday life, colorful, lively, are inspired from similar subjects by Jean-Léon Gérôme.
On October 22 in New York, Sotheby's sells a street scene. Made in 1880, this painting was immediately purchased by Vanderbilt. It was an honor for this exotic painting to be hanging in the salon of the railway mogul. It is remaining in its original frame, as Vanderbilt saw it.
The art of this painter rarely reaches high prices at auction. The sale by Sotheby's of a scene showing a classic Egyptian dancer admired and encouraged by a crowd is an exception. Estimated $ 800 K, this oil on canvas of 1882, 77 x 126 cm, was sold 1.65 million premium included on 23 October 2008.
For valueing Orientalist paintings, the subject is sometimes more important than the signature. The estimate of $ 600 K seems ambitious.
POST SALE COMMENT
Good result, 866 K$ including premium.
According to Sotheby's, Leopold Carl Müller was the founder of the Orientalist school in Austria, and had a studio in Vienna and another in Cairo. His scenes of everyday life, colorful, lively, are inspired from similar subjects by Jean-Léon Gérôme.
On October 22 in New York, Sotheby's sells a street scene. Made in 1880, this painting was immediately purchased by Vanderbilt. It was an honor for this exotic painting to be hanging in the salon of the railway mogul. It is remaining in its original frame, as Vanderbilt saw it.
The art of this painter rarely reaches high prices at auction. The sale by Sotheby's of a scene showing a classic Egyptian dancer admired and encouraged by a crowd is an exception. Estimated $ 800 K, this oil on canvas of 1882, 77 x 126 cm, was sold 1.65 million premium included on 23 October 2008.
For valueing Orientalist paintings, the subject is sometimes more important than the signature. The estimate of $ 600 K seems ambitious.
POST SALE COMMENT
Good result, 866 K$ including premium.
1881 Après le Déjeuner by Berthe Morisot
2013 SOLD for £ 7M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
Berthe Morisot very early frequented the circle of artists in rebellion against the academic art who would become the Impressionnistes and was the sister-in-law of Edouard Manet. Her enthusiastic and dynamic style is both original and intimate. She favors family scenes, with a happy sensitivity.
From 1880 Berthe and her husband Eugène Manet rent a house with a garden in Bougival to spend the summers there. At that time she was with Mary Cassatt the symbol of the renewal of impressionism by women. She juxtaposes a sharp line close to Edouard Manet with spots of vibrant colors in the style of Renoir and the light tones of Corot.
Après le déjeuner features a young woman named Marie in the sun porch of Bougival. The portrait of this friend of the family is clear and delicate, contrasting with the free mingling of flowers in the garden. The title and the colors evoke a beautiful summer afternoon.
This oil on canvas 81 x 100 cm painted in 1881 was sold for £ 7M including premium by Christie's on February 6, 2013 over a lower estimate of £ 1.5M, lot 11. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Dans la Véranda, oil on canvas of the same size, was painted in 1884 in the same place, with the same accessories and the same surrounding : the table, the carafe, the lush flowers of the garden beyond the windows. Here the character is the child Julie Manet, the daughter of Berthe and Eugène, born in 1878, who is the favorite model of her mother's late career. This painting was sold for $ 2.5M including premium by Christie's on May 14, 2015, lot 36C.
From 1880 Berthe and her husband Eugène Manet rent a house with a garden in Bougival to spend the summers there. At that time she was with Mary Cassatt the symbol of the renewal of impressionism by women. She juxtaposes a sharp line close to Edouard Manet with spots of vibrant colors in the style of Renoir and the light tones of Corot.
Après le déjeuner features a young woman named Marie in the sun porch of Bougival. The portrait of this friend of the family is clear and delicate, contrasting with the free mingling of flowers in the garden. The title and the colors evoke a beautiful summer afternoon.
This oil on canvas 81 x 100 cm painted in 1881 was sold for £ 7M including premium by Christie's on February 6, 2013 over a lower estimate of £ 1.5M, lot 11. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Dans la Véranda, oil on canvas of the same size, was painted in 1884 in the same place, with the same accessories and the same surrounding : the table, the carafe, the lush flowers of the garden beyond the windows. Here the character is the child Julie Manet, the daughter of Berthe and Eugène, born in 1878, who is the favorite model of her mother's late career. This painting was sold for $ 2.5M including premium by Christie's on May 14, 2015, lot 36C.
#BertheMorisot's Après le déjeuner is a historic painting, considered by many of her contemporaries to be 'l'impressioniste par excellence'. Her works from this period combine a rich variation of brushstrokes with a sophisticated mastery of colour #IWD2020 https://t.co/uLq1EwZsvz pic.twitter.com/qLTANrgq5S
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) March 4, 2020
1881 The Diaphanous Veil
2019 sold for € 1.77m including premium
Osman Hamdy Bey is in Paris from 1860 to 1869. His father wanted him to study law. He prefers to immerse himself in the Orientalist painting by Gérôme and Boulanger and in the new clothing styles of the Second Empire.
Returning to Constantinople, he is interested in traditional costumes for which he considers a possible compatibility with the modern world. On the occasion of the World's Fair in Vienna in 1873, he prepares the texts for an important edition of photographs of popular Turkish costumes.
Hamdy Bey manages in parallel the activities of an orientalist painter in the European style and of a cultural administrator for the Ottoman Empire. His career will be extremely brilliant. He will be an indefatigable promoter and educator of both archeology and modern art.
On May 30, 2008, Sotheby's sold for £ 3.4M including premium the life-size portrait of a young lady from Constantinople, oil on canvas 185 x 109 cm painted in 1881. Identical in almost every detail, a smaller version 120 x 60 cm dated of the same year has just surfaced. It is estimated € 1.5M for sale by Dorotheum in Vienna on October 23, lot 526. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The scene is staged in an interior of rich oriental fabrics and rugs. The standing woman is pretty and elegant with a beautiful outdoor coat. Although she seems to belong to the upper classes, she is not identified.
There is only one significant difference between the two paintings. She wears an oriental veil also known as yasmak of such transparency that it hides nothing of the face, contrary to the traditions. The veil goes up to the eyebrows in the life-size version but remains under the eyes in the other painting. These are fashion pictures. The woman is a supermodel of modernity in Constantinople at the time of the last Sultans.
Returning to Constantinople, he is interested in traditional costumes for which he considers a possible compatibility with the modern world. On the occasion of the World's Fair in Vienna in 1873, he prepares the texts for an important edition of photographs of popular Turkish costumes.
Hamdy Bey manages in parallel the activities of an orientalist painter in the European style and of a cultural administrator for the Ottoman Empire. His career will be extremely brilliant. He will be an indefatigable promoter and educator of both archeology and modern art.
On May 30, 2008, Sotheby's sold for £ 3.4M including premium the life-size portrait of a young lady from Constantinople, oil on canvas 185 x 109 cm painted in 1881. Identical in almost every detail, a smaller version 120 x 60 cm dated of the same year has just surfaced. It is estimated € 1.5M for sale by Dorotheum in Vienna on October 23, lot 526. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The scene is staged in an interior of rich oriental fabrics and rugs. The standing woman is pretty and elegant with a beautiful outdoor coat. Although she seems to belong to the upper classes, she is not identified.
There is only one significant difference between the two paintings. She wears an oriental veil also known as yasmak of such transparency that it hides nothing of the face, contrary to the traditions. The veil goes up to the eyebrows in the life-size version but remains under the eyes in the other painting. These are fashion pictures. The woman is a supermodel of modernity in Constantinople at the time of the last Sultans.
1881 The Toiling Girls of the Sea
2020 unsold
Winslow Homer begins his career as an illustrator for magazines during the US Civil War. He is more interested in the daily life of soldiers than in military events. He is in Paris during the Universal Exhibition of 1867 and is most certainly influenced by the social realism of Courbet.
Homer crosses the Atlantic again in 1881. Far from the noise of the cities, he settles in a fishing village near the Tyne estuary, in the north-east of England, where he stays for two years. He is seduced by the preservation of a humble ancestral lifestyle and more particularly by the work of the girls.
The fishermen's daughters are active throughout the day and their role is vital for the village. They prepare the boat, sew up the nets, collect crabs, mussels and worms on the beach, unload the boat, carry the fish to the market while the fishermen are resting. They are young, strong, healthy and tanned.
Homer's work in Tynemouth is in some way an ethnological report, objective and without sentimentality or narration. He adopted the practice of English travelers of making sketches outdoors before painting the final work in the studio and abandoned oil painting for watercolors.
On December 11 in New York, Sotheby's sells a watercolor on paper 36 x 51 cm painted in 1881, lot 16 estimated $ 2.5M. On the beach, two barefoot girls look into the distance to watch for the return of fishing. Their big baskets are still empty.
On November 28, 2007, Sotheby's sold for $ 4.5M including premium a watercolor of the same size painted in the same year. In a yard, three girls repair baskets and nets and clean boots. A rooster and a hen are pecking. On May 9, 2018, Christie's sold for $ 4.6M including premium a watercolor of the same size painted in 1883. Three girls climbed the cliff to better watch the return of the boats.
Homer crosses the Atlantic again in 1881. Far from the noise of the cities, he settles in a fishing village near the Tyne estuary, in the north-east of England, where he stays for two years. He is seduced by the preservation of a humble ancestral lifestyle and more particularly by the work of the girls.
The fishermen's daughters are active throughout the day and their role is vital for the village. They prepare the boat, sew up the nets, collect crabs, mussels and worms on the beach, unload the boat, carry the fish to the market while the fishermen are resting. They are young, strong, healthy and tanned.
Homer's work in Tynemouth is in some way an ethnological report, objective and without sentimentality or narration. He adopted the practice of English travelers of making sketches outdoors before painting the final work in the studio and abandoned oil painting for watercolors.
On December 11 in New York, Sotheby's sells a watercolor on paper 36 x 51 cm painted in 1881, lot 16 estimated $ 2.5M. On the beach, two barefoot girls look into the distance to watch for the return of fishing. Their big baskets are still empty.
On November 28, 2007, Sotheby's sold for $ 4.5M including premium a watercolor of the same size painted in the same year. In a yard, three girls repair baskets and nets and clean boots. A rooster and a hen are pecking. On May 9, 2018, Christie's sold for $ 4.6M including premium a watercolor of the same size painted in 1883. Three girls climbed the cliff to better watch the return of the boats.
1881 La Seine à Lavacourt, Débâcle by Monet
2021 UNSOLD
The winter of 1879-1880 was exceptionally cold. In December the waters of the Seine river are entirely frozen. The time for a new experience comes on January 4. Early in the morning, Monet listens to the sound of the breaking ice. Defying the very cold temperature, he hurries on the site with his canvases.
Monet made a series of about twenty paintings on that theme, under the title La Débâcle, meaning the demise of the ice blocks, varying the angles of view and of course the effects of the sun light on the river.
This series anticipates much of his later work. A comparison is obvious between the floating ice blocks and much later the dispersion of the nymphéas in the pond. He takes with this series the use of beginning a lot of paintings in parallel, to rework them in his studio until his contentment and to date each piece by the year of its readiness for sale. Another early series in this unprecedented process is Les Peupliers at Giverny in 1891.
Monet is too ahead of his time and this practice does not help him to recover his finances. He had neglected the official Salon since 1870. He submits two paintings in 1880. A classical Lavacourt plein air scenery is accepted but the large size Débâcle, maybe the 100 x 150 cm Effet d'hiver at sunset owned by the Petit Palais, is rejected.
On May 12, 2021 in New York, Sotheby's sells another opus from La Débâcle, lot 1008 estimated $ 6M. This oil on canvas 60 x 100 cm is dated 1881. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Under a clouded winter sky, the thaw in its early phase hollows the ice, revealing the blue water through a geometrical pattern before the break and drift of the blocks.
Monet made a series of about twenty paintings on that theme, under the title La Débâcle, meaning the demise of the ice blocks, varying the angles of view and of course the effects of the sun light on the river.
This series anticipates much of his later work. A comparison is obvious between the floating ice blocks and much later the dispersion of the nymphéas in the pond. He takes with this series the use of beginning a lot of paintings in parallel, to rework them in his studio until his contentment and to date each piece by the year of its readiness for sale. Another early series in this unprecedented process is Les Peupliers at Giverny in 1891.
Monet is too ahead of his time and this practice does not help him to recover his finances. He had neglected the official Salon since 1870. He submits two paintings in 1880. A classical Lavacourt plein air scenery is accepted but the large size Débâcle, maybe the 100 x 150 cm Effet d'hiver at sunset owned by the Petit Palais, is rejected.
On May 12, 2021 in New York, Sotheby's sells another opus from La Débâcle, lot 1008 estimated $ 6M. This oil on canvas 60 x 100 cm is dated 1881. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Under a clouded winter sky, the thaw in its early phase hollows the ice, revealing the blue water through a geometrical pattern before the break and drift of the blocks.
1881 Bonjour Monsieur Pissarro
2019 withdrawn
Located in the valley of the Oise river, Camille Pissarro is a leader of the Impressionist movement, keen to identify and develop new talents. He likes to paint side by side with his friends, which should be a good practice to strengthen relations but will lead to the disaster between Van Gogh and Gauguin. It is Pissarro who teaches Cézanne the outdoor painting.
Paul Gauguin is a stockbroker. He collects Impressionist art and begins to paint. He is welcomed from 1879 in Pissarro's home where his extended stays captivate him much more than his job. He exhibits his artworks from the same year with the Impressionist group.
On March 29 in Paris, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas 66 x 54 cm painted by Gauguin in 1881 in the Impressionist manner, lot 404 estimated € 600K. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The theme of this work is the little house where Pissarro had just moved in Pontoise, viewed from the garden. In the foreground a large parasol reminds how Pissarro liked to settle for outdoor painting.
The back of the canvas is painted with two self-portraits in different attitudes, in the style of uncompromising resemblance previously practiced by Pissarro, Cézanne and Guillaumin. They are the earliest known self-portraits by Paul Gauguin, certainly executed at the same time as the front side.
This conjunction offered by Gauguin of the symbolic parasol with his own faces is a testimony of his friendship at that time for his master.
Paul Gauguin is a stockbroker. He collects Impressionist art and begins to paint. He is welcomed from 1879 in Pissarro's home where his extended stays captivate him much more than his job. He exhibits his artworks from the same year with the Impressionist group.
On March 29 in Paris, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas 66 x 54 cm painted by Gauguin in 1881 in the Impressionist manner, lot 404 estimated € 600K. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The theme of this work is the little house where Pissarro had just moved in Pontoise, viewed from the garden. In the foreground a large parasol reminds how Pissarro liked to settle for outdoor painting.
The back of the canvas is painted with two self-portraits in different attitudes, in the style of uncompromising resemblance previously practiced by Pissarro, Cézanne and Guillaumin. They are the earliest known self-portraits by Paul Gauguin, certainly executed at the same time as the front side.
This conjunction offered by Gauguin of the symbolic parasol with his own faces is a testimony of his friendship at that time for his master.
1882 The Peasant Women of the Sea
2018 SOLD for € 7.1M including premium
In January 1882 Vincent van Gogh left the family home to settle in The Hague. Once again he had quarreled with his parents. He is rejected by women excepted by prostitutes. He would have liked to be a missionary serving the rural working class but he was too undisciplined. He possibly already had a dementia attack.
At almost 29 it is high time for Vincent to find a job. He imagines that by becoming an artist he may realize his dream of social helping. Fortunately his younger brother Theo supports him. Theo who is an art dealer as an employee of Goupil will provide Vincent with the hardware he needs for his new vocation. Vincent begins to inform Theo of his progress in a detailed and heart felt correspondence.
Vincent admires the painters of rural scenes. He works a bit with his distant cousin Anton Mauve but gets angry very early with him. In The Hague and at the seaside in Scheveningen, Vincent has no other influences than nature and his craze for Millet.
Vincent will however become a great artist because he is very sensitive to colors. In Scheveningen he gets into the habit of painting outdoor before, during and after the squalls. The attitudes of women who mend the fishing nets resemble Millet's peasants in the fields, and these widely extended nets create a multi-hued ground. The tumultuous sky anticipates the masterpieces of the end of his life.
On June 4 in Paris, Artcurial sells Raccommodeuses de filets dans les dunes, oil on paper 42 x 63 cm painted in August 1882 and laid down on panel, lot 14 estimated beyond € 3M. Here is the link to the press release. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
At almost 29 it is high time for Vincent to find a job. He imagines that by becoming an artist he may realize his dream of social helping. Fortunately his younger brother Theo supports him. Theo who is an art dealer as an employee of Goupil will provide Vincent with the hardware he needs for his new vocation. Vincent begins to inform Theo of his progress in a detailed and heart felt correspondence.
Vincent admires the painters of rural scenes. He works a bit with his distant cousin Anton Mauve but gets angry very early with him. In The Hague and at the seaside in Scheveningen, Vincent has no other influences than nature and his craze for Millet.
Vincent will however become a great artist because he is very sensitive to colors. In Scheveningen he gets into the habit of painting outdoor before, during and after the squalls. The attitudes of women who mend the fishing nets resemble Millet's peasants in the fields, and these widely extended nets create a multi-hued ground. The tumultuous sky anticipates the masterpieces of the end of his life.
On June 4 in Paris, Artcurial sells Raccommodeuses de filets dans les dunes, oil on paper 42 x 63 cm painted in August 1882 and laid down on panel, lot 14 estimated beyond € 3M. Here is the link to the press release. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1882 The Light of Normandy
2014 SOLD 5.7 M£ including premium
Claude Monet has always been inspired by the landscapes of Normandy. His private life became complicated after the death of his young wife Camille in 1879. In 1882, he left for a lonesome promenade to discover the most beautiful sites on the coast.
This expedition is a restart for Monet's art. He empties his images of any character to better focus on light and color. In his views of Varengeville-sur-Mer, civilization is reduced to the building and steeple of the chuch in the distance on the horizon.
Much more intensely than in his previous period, Monet permeates into the differences of atmospheres by the hours of the day. He painted four times Varengeville in a coherent series that anticipates by ten years the cathedrals of Rouen.
On February 4 in London, Christie's sells the painting of Varengeville at sunset in warm colors to which the mist brings a great subtlety. This oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm is estimated £ 4M.
Normandy excited and even revived the artistic creativity of Claude Monet, the greatest innovator of modern painting. As early as in the following year, he settled in Giverny.
POST SALE COMMENT
The very beautiful landscape by Monet was sold for £ 5.7 million including premium.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's :
This expedition is a restart for Monet's art. He empties his images of any character to better focus on light and color. In his views of Varengeville-sur-Mer, civilization is reduced to the building and steeple of the chuch in the distance on the horizon.
Much more intensely than in his previous period, Monet permeates into the differences of atmospheres by the hours of the day. He painted four times Varengeville in a coherent series that anticipates by ten years the cathedrals of Rouen.
On February 4 in London, Christie's sells the painting of Varengeville at sunset in warm colors to which the mist brings a great subtlety. This oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm is estimated £ 4M.
Normandy excited and even revived the artistic creativity of Claude Monet, the greatest innovator of modern painting. As early as in the following year, he settled in Giverny.
POST SALE COMMENT
The very beautiful landscape by Monet was sold for £ 5.7 million including premium.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's :
1882 GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE, PAINTER AND YACHTMAN
2010 SOLD 5.1 M$ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Gustave Caillebotte was a man of many passions. Born into a wealthy family, he did not need to work for his living and was able to accompany and support the Impressionists.
Monet was in Argenteuil since 1871. In 1881, he convinced Caillebotte to settle in this small town on the Seine where he could spend his time in the double pleasure of painting and of competitive sailing.
In Argenteuil Monet had experienced with the outdoor painting, with his touch so original, his bold composition, his studies of colors and reflections. The young Caillebotte was gifted, too. His view under the bridge of Argenteuil, 66 x 82 cm, circa 1883, is worthy of Monet. It was sold for $ 8.5 million including premium at Christie's on November 6, 2008.
His views of the Seine are common, with the blue river, the reflections, the small boats, almost always in medium format. One of them, 60 x 73 cm, 1883, was sold £ 3.3 million including premium at Christie's on June 23, 2010.
An oil on canvas painted in 1882, identical in format and very similar in composition, is estimated $ 5M, for sale byChristie's in New York on November 3. It shows two small boats at rest, awaiting their sails. The press release indicates that the boats have been identified as belonging to the artist.
POST SALE COMMENT
The painting is beautiful, and very demonstrative of the best impressionist style of Caillebotte, but the subject is common for this artist. The price, $ 5.1 million including premium, is a good compromise.
Gustave Caillebotte was a man of many passions. Born into a wealthy family, he did not need to work for his living and was able to accompany and support the Impressionists.
Monet was in Argenteuil since 1871. In 1881, he convinced Caillebotte to settle in this small town on the Seine where he could spend his time in the double pleasure of painting and of competitive sailing.
In Argenteuil Monet had experienced with the outdoor painting, with his touch so original, his bold composition, his studies of colors and reflections. The young Caillebotte was gifted, too. His view under the bridge of Argenteuil, 66 x 82 cm, circa 1883, is worthy of Monet. It was sold for $ 8.5 million including premium at Christie's on November 6, 2008.
His views of the Seine are common, with the blue river, the reflections, the small boats, almost always in medium format. One of them, 60 x 73 cm, 1883, was sold £ 3.3 million including premium at Christie's on June 23, 2010.
An oil on canvas painted in 1882, identical in format and very similar in composition, is estimated $ 5M, for sale byChristie's in New York on November 3. It shows two small boats at rest, awaiting their sails. The press release indicates that the boats have been identified as belonging to the artist.
POST SALE COMMENT
The painting is beautiful, and very demonstrative of the best impressionist style of Caillebotte, but the subject is common for this artist. The price, $ 5.1 million including premium, is a good compromise.
1882-1884 IN THE PRIVACY OF GEORGES SEURAT
2009 SOLD 1.5 M€ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Seurat's place in the history of art is enormous. Who knows where we would have done if he were not dead, probably of diphtheria, in his 32 nd year?
Seurat was one of the most prolific researchers and experimenters of modern art. The graphic arts had been shaken by the new vision of the world brought by photography, transforming forever the realism. By positive reaction, before Seurat, the Impressionists promoted the color in place of the line.
Fascinated by the color theories, Seurat invented the pointillism. His work in oil is scarce but remarkably varied.
His Conté pencil drawings are experiments of contrasts obtained by skilled gray scales. As in his paintings, the observer must take away from the sheet for assessing the details of the work. The composition, often in close-up, is bold.
Thus, a café-concert scene at the Divan Japonais was one of the most beautiful and unexpected auction results of 2008. We see from behind, in close-up, a blurred bassist looking at a dancer who lifts up the leg. The lights of the stage complete and balance the composition. Estimated 750 K €, this drawing enhanced with gouache reached € 5 million including costs at Sotheby's in Paris on December 3.
In the same auction room, Sotheby's is selling on May 28 a drawing showing a woman and two girls, size 31 x 22 cm, probably executed between 1882 and 1884. They are seen from behind. Is it sure? All details are dimmed. Only the position of the arms of the woman, and the logic of the whole, support this assertion.
It is an intimate scene, which until 1989 belonged to the family of the model, who was the sister-in-law of the brother-in-law of the artist. This drawing was then sold by Ader Picard Tajan in Paris for 5.5 million French francs. This bid, considerable for a drawing, was one of the most remarkable results of the speculative period. In 2009, it is estimated 1 million €. This seems reasonable, as the work is not gouached and does not have the dynamics of the Divan Japonais.
POST SALE COMMENT
The arguments on this estimate were known, thanks to the two results that I mentioned above. There is no surprise, and we are pleased that the price is clearly higher than the low estimate: this drawing was sold € 1.5 million including expenses.
Seurat's place in the history of art is enormous. Who knows where we would have done if he were not dead, probably of diphtheria, in his 32 nd year?
Seurat was one of the most prolific researchers and experimenters of modern art. The graphic arts had been shaken by the new vision of the world brought by photography, transforming forever the realism. By positive reaction, before Seurat, the Impressionists promoted the color in place of the line.
Fascinated by the color theories, Seurat invented the pointillism. His work in oil is scarce but remarkably varied.
His Conté pencil drawings are experiments of contrasts obtained by skilled gray scales. As in his paintings, the observer must take away from the sheet for assessing the details of the work. The composition, often in close-up, is bold.
Thus, a café-concert scene at the Divan Japonais was one of the most beautiful and unexpected auction results of 2008. We see from behind, in close-up, a blurred bassist looking at a dancer who lifts up the leg. The lights of the stage complete and balance the composition. Estimated 750 K €, this drawing enhanced with gouache reached € 5 million including costs at Sotheby's in Paris on December 3.
In the same auction room, Sotheby's is selling on May 28 a drawing showing a woman and two girls, size 31 x 22 cm, probably executed between 1882 and 1884. They are seen from behind. Is it sure? All details are dimmed. Only the position of the arms of the woman, and the logic of the whole, support this assertion.
It is an intimate scene, which until 1989 belonged to the family of the model, who was the sister-in-law of the brother-in-law of the artist. This drawing was then sold by Ader Picard Tajan in Paris for 5.5 million French francs. This bid, considerable for a drawing, was one of the most remarkable results of the speculative period. In 2009, it is estimated 1 million €. This seems reasonable, as the work is not gouached and does not have the dynamics of the Divan Japonais.
POST SALE COMMENT
The arguments on this estimate were known, thanks to the two results that I mentioned above. There is no surprise, and we are pleased that the price is clearly higher than the low estimate: this drawing was sold € 1.5 million including expenses.
1884 Sisley in Moret
2012 sold 1.5 M€ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
In 1863, four apprentices are fleeing an academic workshop. They share a basic idea. The oil painting should be doneoutdoors, with the easel facing the scenery, directly, without preliminary sketching. The goal is to create an intensesynergy between the atmosphere of the place and the sensitivity of the artist.
I do not know who was the leader. Their personal styles will diverge, but no doubt today that their initiative has revolutionized the European art: Renoir, Monet, Bazille and Sisley.
Alfred Sisley remains for his entire career a landscape painter. From 1880, his main theme is the river that flows through the pretty village of Moret-sur-Loing. He will forever keep the purity of the first vision of the Impressionists,with proportionally perfect elements whose line fades behind the vibration of color.
Like Monet in Argenteuil before him, he varies the views to the infinite. Like Monet in Normandy after him, he capturesthe changing light of the hours of the day. But the work of Sisley is too localized, and his glory will be posthumous.
On December 19 in Paris, Beaussant-Lefèvre sells an oil on canvas painted in 1884, 50 x 65 cm, showing the colors of the evening on the river and its banks. The estimate, € 600K, seems too conservative.
POST SALE COMMENT
It seemed certain that the estimate was too low. This painting was sold € 1.21 million before fees.
In 1863, four apprentices are fleeing an academic workshop. They share a basic idea. The oil painting should be doneoutdoors, with the easel facing the scenery, directly, without preliminary sketching. The goal is to create an intensesynergy between the atmosphere of the place and the sensitivity of the artist.
I do not know who was the leader. Their personal styles will diverge, but no doubt today that their initiative has revolutionized the European art: Renoir, Monet, Bazille and Sisley.
Alfred Sisley remains for his entire career a landscape painter. From 1880, his main theme is the river that flows through the pretty village of Moret-sur-Loing. He will forever keep the purity of the first vision of the Impressionists,with proportionally perfect elements whose line fades behind the vibration of color.
Like Monet in Argenteuil before him, he varies the views to the infinite. Like Monet in Normandy after him, he capturesthe changing light of the hours of the day. But the work of Sisley is too localized, and his glory will be posthumous.
On December 19 in Paris, Beaussant-Lefèvre sells an oil on canvas painted in 1884, 50 x 65 cm, showing the colors of the evening on the river and its banks. The estimate, € 600K, seems too conservative.
POST SALE COMMENT
It seemed certain that the estimate was too low. This painting was sold € 1.21 million before fees.
1884 The Anars !
2011 SOLD 420 K€ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
In Paris at the dawn of the twentieth century, they liked to display an elegant and carefree life style. Jean Béraud, contemporary of Boldini, is known as one of the painters of the Belle Epoque. Elegant characters are strolling with complacency on the boulevards.
Béraud also enjoys social themes and genre scenes: cafés, game rooms. It is unclear whether his painting dated 1884 showing an anarchist meeting is for political sympathy or just an artist's theme.
In the salle Graffard in front of an excited crowd, five activists occupy a large platform draped in bright red. Arm raised, one of them delivers a violent harangue.
They are the successors of the revolutionary losers of the Commune de Paris of 1871, chasing the same social utopias and accepting violence. Ten years later, a wave of bloody attacks was to discredit them forever. In the twentieth century, they will be called the Anars. They maintained some sympathy with their political naivety but their radicalism continued to frighten.
Estimated € 350K, this painting is included in the sale of the Fabius collection in Paris on October 26 and 27 by Sotheby's in association with PIASA. Subject to confirmation with the publication of the catalog, it is (probably) the oil on canvas 80 x 120 cm sold by Beaussant Lefèvre in Paris on December 10, 2003 for € 440K excluding fees, 507K including premium.
POST SALE COMMENT
This painting is a surprising dipping into the mood of the politically turbulent late nineteenth century. It was sold € 420K including premium.
The image is shared on the web by Wikimedia Commons by courtesy of Sotheby's :
In Paris at the dawn of the twentieth century, they liked to display an elegant and carefree life style. Jean Béraud, contemporary of Boldini, is known as one of the painters of the Belle Epoque. Elegant characters are strolling with complacency on the boulevards.
Béraud also enjoys social themes and genre scenes: cafés, game rooms. It is unclear whether his painting dated 1884 showing an anarchist meeting is for political sympathy or just an artist's theme.
In the salle Graffard in front of an excited crowd, five activists occupy a large platform draped in bright red. Arm raised, one of them delivers a violent harangue.
They are the successors of the revolutionary losers of the Commune de Paris of 1871, chasing the same social utopias and accepting violence. Ten years later, a wave of bloody attacks was to discredit them forever. In the twentieth century, they will be called the Anars. They maintained some sympathy with their political naivety but their radicalism continued to frighten.
Estimated € 350K, this painting is included in the sale of the Fabius collection in Paris on October 26 and 27 by Sotheby's in association with PIASA. Subject to confirmation with the publication of the catalog, it is (probably) the oil on canvas 80 x 120 cm sold by Beaussant Lefèvre in Paris on December 10, 2003 for € 440K excluding fees, 507K including premium.
POST SALE COMMENT
This painting is a surprising dipping into the mood of the politically turbulent late nineteenth century. It was sold € 420K including premium.
The image is shared on the web by Wikimedia Commons by courtesy of Sotheby's :
1884 The President of the Salons
2019 unsold
Academic painting was the undisputed king of the Salons where avant-gardes were excluded and vilified. All painters need public exhibitions to make themselves known and sell their art. They create parallel events : the Salon des Impressionnistes in 1874, the Salon des Indépendants in 1884. The official Salon is also undergoing a transformation. In 1881 Jules Ferry, minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, privatizes its organization.
William Bouguereau symbolizes the French academicism. His drawing and colors are impeccable. The themes are secondary, simple pretexts to show the beauty of young adults naked or almost naked. He becomes in 1876 member of the Académie des Beaux Arts, in 1881 president of the Section Peinture of the new Salon and in 1883 president of the Société des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Architectes et Graveurs.
Monsieur le Président must lead by example to promote his artistic conception. For his personal contributions to the Salon, he now paints his characters in life-size on 3 meter high canvases.
The culmination of this trend is La Jeunesse de Bacchus, oil on canvas 330 x 610 cm completed in December 1883, dated 1884 and exhibited at the Salon of 1884. This frieze features three groups dancing in the sunlight while Silene on one side and two centaurs playing the flute on the other side remain in the shade of the wood. Bacchus is a four-year-old with curly hair like the grandson of the artist. Perched on the shoulders of a man, he dominates the joyful bacchanal while brandishing a cymbal.
After the Exposition Universelle of 1889, Bouguereau refused to sell this artwork. It was waiting in his Parisian studio for another opportunity to support its increasingly outdated style. It is estimated $ 25M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 14, lot 38.
Please watch the two videos shared by Sotheby's. One of them shows the difficulty of moving this monumental canvas from the artist's studio with its frame estimated at about 600 Kg. The image was found on Wikimedia.
William Bouguereau symbolizes the French academicism. His drawing and colors are impeccable. The themes are secondary, simple pretexts to show the beauty of young adults naked or almost naked. He becomes in 1876 member of the Académie des Beaux Arts, in 1881 president of the Section Peinture of the new Salon and in 1883 president of the Société des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Architectes et Graveurs.
Monsieur le Président must lead by example to promote his artistic conception. For his personal contributions to the Salon, he now paints his characters in life-size on 3 meter high canvases.
The culmination of this trend is La Jeunesse de Bacchus, oil on canvas 330 x 610 cm completed in December 1883, dated 1884 and exhibited at the Salon of 1884. This frieze features three groups dancing in the sunlight while Silene on one side and two centaurs playing the flute on the other side remain in the shade of the wood. Bacchus is a four-year-old with curly hair like the grandson of the artist. Perched on the shoulders of a man, he dominates the joyful bacchanal while brandishing a cymbal.
After the Exposition Universelle of 1889, Bouguereau refused to sell this artwork. It was waiting in his Parisian studio for another opportunity to support its increasingly outdated style. It is estimated $ 25M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 14, lot 38.
Please watch the two videos shared by Sotheby's. One of them shows the difficulty of moving this monumental canvas from the artist's studio with its frame estimated at about 600 Kg. The image was found on Wikimedia.
1885 The Tired Dancer
2019 unsold
From 1883 to 1885 Vincent van Gogh has his studio in the family home in Nuenen. His portraits and scenes of Brabant peasants are of interest to nobody. His relations are deleterious. He suddenly understands that his self-proclaimed genius needs to model on the great masters. He discovers at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam the use of color by Rembrandt and the art of portraiture by Hals.
Once is not customary : Vincent makes a good decision. At the end of November 1885 he comes to live in Antwerp. He frenziedly visits wharves, cafes, and the museums where he discovers the skills of Rubens.
As always girls are reluctant to pose for him. With a little money sent by Theo, he manages to pay for a sitting session a dancer of one of the main cafés-concerts of Antwerp.
The expressive face of the girl pleases the artist. She speaks a little : her job as a dancer and escort is tiring and champagne makes her sad. Vincent now has all the elements to bring psychological depth into a portrait. With this highly appreciated theme, his career may start.
Painted in December 1885 in Antwerp, Portrait of a woman with a red ribbon, left profile, oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm, is estimated £ 8M for sale by Christie's in London on February 27, lot 15. The slightly open mouth reveals the sensuality of a melancholy song. The session was brief and the technique is fast and spontaneous. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Many works painted by Vincent in Antwerp and attested in his letters to Theo disappeared, probably early scrapped. Vincent is rightly satisfied with his portrait of a cabaret girl that he will offer two years later to the very young Emile Bernard, probably in an exchange against brothel scenes.
The boss of the dancer did not like her escapade and she will not see the artist again. Vincent did not identify her name in his letters to Theo : like the peasants of Nuenen, she was for him a pictorial type, not a person. Appreciating that he has just entered modern art, Vincent arrives in Paris at the end of February 1886 with the desire to discover the Impressionist painting.
Once is not customary : Vincent makes a good decision. At the end of November 1885 he comes to live in Antwerp. He frenziedly visits wharves, cafes, and the museums where he discovers the skills of Rubens.
As always girls are reluctant to pose for him. With a little money sent by Theo, he manages to pay for a sitting session a dancer of one of the main cafés-concerts of Antwerp.
The expressive face of the girl pleases the artist. She speaks a little : her job as a dancer and escort is tiring and champagne makes her sad. Vincent now has all the elements to bring psychological depth into a portrait. With this highly appreciated theme, his career may start.
Painted in December 1885 in Antwerp, Portrait of a woman with a red ribbon, left profile, oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm, is estimated £ 8M for sale by Christie's in London on February 27, lot 15. The slightly open mouth reveals the sensuality of a melancholy song. The session was brief and the technique is fast and spontaneous. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Many works painted by Vincent in Antwerp and attested in his letters to Theo disappeared, probably early scrapped. Vincent is rightly satisfied with his portrait of a cabaret girl that he will offer two years later to the very young Emile Bernard, probably in an exchange against brothel scenes.
The boss of the dancer did not like her escapade and she will not see the artist again. Vincent did not identify her name in his letters to Theo : like the peasants of Nuenen, she was for him a pictorial type, not a person. Appreciating that he has just entered modern art, Vincent arrives in Paris at the end of February 1886 with the desire to discover the Impressionist painting.
1885 At the Fair in Ukraine
2012 unsold
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The Peredvizhniki or Itinerants painted the deep roots of the provinces of the Russian Empire. Their realistic landscapes are still famous, but some of these artists, including the Makovsky brothers, preferred human themes withan almost ethnographic sympathy for popular activities.
Fairs, where customers and beggars flock amidst the goods displayed on the ground, are the ideal excuse to show thecrowds. A rag market in Moscow, 161 x 261 cm, painted by Vladimir Makovsky in 1880, was sold £ 1.33 millionincluding premium by Sotheby's on November 24, 2008.
Vladimir loved Ukraine, where he made numerous sketches on the spot. He spent too little time to turn them intoambitious compositions, and his oil paintings from that period are rare.
The view of a fair in Little Russia, 113 x 180 cm, executed in 1885, is estimated £ 1.5 million, for sale on November28 in London by Bonhams. The artist gave a specific dynamic input to this lively scene through an asymmetrical composition. Here is the link to the catalog.
The Peredvizhniki or Itinerants painted the deep roots of the provinces of the Russian Empire. Their realistic landscapes are still famous, but some of these artists, including the Makovsky brothers, preferred human themes withan almost ethnographic sympathy for popular activities.
Fairs, where customers and beggars flock amidst the goods displayed on the ground, are the ideal excuse to show thecrowds. A rag market in Moscow, 161 x 261 cm, painted by Vladimir Makovsky in 1880, was sold £ 1.33 millionincluding premium by Sotheby's on November 24, 2008.
Vladimir loved Ukraine, where he made numerous sketches on the spot. He spent too little time to turn them intoambitious compositions, and his oil paintings from that period are rare.
The view of a fair in Little Russia, 113 x 180 cm, executed in 1885, is estimated £ 1.5 million, for sale on November28 in London by Bonhams. The artist gave a specific dynamic input to this lively scene through an asymmetrical composition. Here is the link to the catalog.
1885 Walter Osborne in the Farmyard
2012 unsold
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Walter Osborne was one of the best Irish artists of the late nineteenth century. In his youth he took as a favorite theme the rural life which he observed at home and during trips in Brittany and England.
On July 11 in London, Bonhams sells an oil on canvas, 91 x 71 cm, showing a girl throwing seeds to the chickens in a farmyard.
Estimated £ 500K, this artwork is dated 1885. Then 26 years old, Osborne was influenced by realistic outdoor rural artists and especially by the French Jules Bastien-Lepage. His farm girl is looking like Bouguereau's child peasants. Here is the link to the catalog.
Osborne had many qualities to become an outstanding artist. His style became increasingly impressionistic. It is considered that his untimely death in 1903 came at the time of his greater artistic maturity.
The sale of this lot is a nice opportunity to rediscover Walter Osborne. Bonhams just illustrated his page in Wikipedia with this painting.
Walter Osborne was one of the best Irish artists of the late nineteenth century. In his youth he took as a favorite theme the rural life which he observed at home and during trips in Brittany and England.
On July 11 in London, Bonhams sells an oil on canvas, 91 x 71 cm, showing a girl throwing seeds to the chickens in a farmyard.
Estimated £ 500K, this artwork is dated 1885. Then 26 years old, Osborne was influenced by realistic outdoor rural artists and especially by the French Jules Bastien-Lepage. His farm girl is looking like Bouguereau's child peasants. Here is the link to the catalog.
Osborne had many qualities to become an outstanding artist. His style became increasingly impressionistic. It is considered that his untimely death in 1903 came at the time of his greater artistic maturity.
The sale of this lot is a nice opportunity to rediscover Walter Osborne. Bonhams just illustrated his page in Wikipedia with this painting.
1886 Vase aux Glaïeuls by van Gogh
2021 SOLD for HK$ 71M by Sotheby's
Vincent van Gogh moves in 1886 to Paris where his brother Theo can introduce him to many other artists. He admits that until then he had no knowledge of current art. He had admired Millet, Daubigny and Mesdag.
He integrates his discovery of the Impressionnistes with happiness but he shall not imitate them. He finds a solution in his quest for an original style by being inspired by the Japanese woodblock prints.
The bouquet is a very suitable theme for this mingling of West and East. The poverty stricken artist cannot pay a live model. The flowers are colored beauties in which the Japanese enjoy a quiet symbol of the transience of life.
Vase aux glaïeuls, oil on canvas 51 x 39 cm painted in the summer of 1886, displays a bouquet of gladioli in a burst of intense red, orange and yellow which reveals his new exuberance. It is signed Vincent, possibly before presenting it to a friend. Its first known owner was the art critic Théodore Duret.
This painting was sold by Sotheby's for $ 5.9M on November 14, 2016, lot 8 and for HK $ 71M on October 9, 2021, lot 1020. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
He integrates his discovery of the Impressionnistes with happiness but he shall not imitate them. He finds a solution in his quest for an original style by being inspired by the Japanese woodblock prints.
The bouquet is a very suitable theme for this mingling of West and East. The poverty stricken artist cannot pay a live model. The flowers are colored beauties in which the Japanese enjoy a quiet symbol of the transience of life.
Vase aux glaïeuls, oil on canvas 51 x 39 cm painted in the summer of 1886, displays a bouquet of gladioli in a burst of intense red, orange and yellow which reveals his new exuberance. It is signed Vincent, possibly before presenting it to a friend. Its first known owner was the art critic Théodore Duret.
This painting was sold by Sotheby's for $ 5.9M on November 14, 2016, lot 8 and for HK $ 71M on October 9, 2021, lot 1020. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1886 INDOOR NUDES BY EDGAR DEGAS
2017 SOLD FOR £ 5.5M INCLUDING PREMIUM
A beautiful pastel of a female nude by Edgar Degas went unsold at Sotheby's on November 4, 2015 although it was at that time a highlight from the A. Alfred Taubman collection. It is now offered by Sotheby's in London on March 1, lot 24 estimated £ 6M.
I discussed it as follows in 2015 :
Despite their opposition to the bourgeois taste for classical art, the Impressionist painters had indeed to seek resources for living. The solution is found by a dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, who organizes their first New York exhibition in the very year of the eighth and final exhibition of the Parisian group in 1886.
The Impressionists had cultivated their new methods of painting but they were not theorists. Their time as a group had gone. Manet was dead. Monet had fled the city. Newcomers relied upon the consequences of their innovations to go further in expression and color : Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Seurat.
Keen on the idea of free art, Degas accompanied from end to end the Impressionist movement which he once wanted to name Les Intransigeants (hardliners). His own technique is however different. He is the master of pastel in bright colors that do not cancel the drawing.
In that crisis of the end of Impressionism, Renoir and Degas go back to the influence from Ingres. Their humble women are busy in quiet occupations where full nudity does not shock : bathing, washing herself, combing her hair. In the hues of realistic colors, outdoor nudes by Renoir are ideal characters while indoor nudes by Degas are detailed in an excess that will be criticized as misogyny.
Around 1886 pastels by Degas display a high sensitivity in the colors of the nude dominated by flesh and by red hair. The blurred background helps to reach a sweet harmony. Later his colors will become bolder and less appealing.
The artwork for sale stages a woman seen from the back, combing her mane-like hair. This pastel on paper laid down on board 71 x 59 cm is not dated but displays the style and features of that period.
I discussed it as follows in 2015 :
Despite their opposition to the bourgeois taste for classical art, the Impressionist painters had indeed to seek resources for living. The solution is found by a dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, who organizes their first New York exhibition in the very year of the eighth and final exhibition of the Parisian group in 1886.
The Impressionists had cultivated their new methods of painting but they were not theorists. Their time as a group had gone. Manet was dead. Monet had fled the city. Newcomers relied upon the consequences of their innovations to go further in expression and color : Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Seurat.
Keen on the idea of free art, Degas accompanied from end to end the Impressionist movement which he once wanted to name Les Intransigeants (hardliners). His own technique is however different. He is the master of pastel in bright colors that do not cancel the drawing.
In that crisis of the end of Impressionism, Renoir and Degas go back to the influence from Ingres. Their humble women are busy in quiet occupations where full nudity does not shock : bathing, washing herself, combing her hair. In the hues of realistic colors, outdoor nudes by Renoir are ideal characters while indoor nudes by Degas are detailed in an excess that will be criticized as misogyny.
Around 1886 pastels by Degas display a high sensitivity in the colors of the nude dominated by flesh and by red hair. The blurred background helps to reach a sweet harmony. Later his colors will become bolder and less appealing.
The artwork for sale stages a woman seen from the back, combing her mane-like hair. This pastel on paper laid down on board 71 x 59 cm is not dated but displays the style and features of that period.
Discover the trove of masterpieces from the collection of A. Alfred Taubman http://t.co/FkcbZ64lil #TaubmanatSothebys pic.twitter.com/TQWM3D618b
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) September 30, 20151886 Red Poppies in the Twilight
2016 SOLD for $ 6.9M including premium
John Singer Sargent is the most European of US artists. His mother suffered a breakdown after the death of an infant daughter and his father abandoned for this reason his job as a surgeon in Philadelphia. The couple spent their time traveling throughout Europe and John was born by chance in Florence, the capital of the arts.
John was a child prodigy. The Impressionists did not however welcome him into their ranks because he was a pupil of Carolus-Duran who taught an academic classicism in Paris. John specialized in the society portrait. In 1884 he painstakingly painted the Portrait de Madame X which made a scandal by its plunging neckline. The artist was too far ahead of the couture fashion of the following century.
Disgusted by the failure of this artwork which he considered as his best painting he traveled to England in August 1885. Shortly after his arrival, he was injured in the head while swimming in the Thames, sufficiently seriously for a friend to require him to have some convalescence in the English countryside. The accident triggered a reorientation of his art.
John had visited Giverny just before and he was encouraged by Monet to paint outdoors. He conceived an ambitious composition showing two small girls in a garden in a contrasting light of late afternoon. This painting will be completed in the following year and titled Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by reference to a nursery rhyme. It is a masterpiece of the artist and a turning point in his career.
On May 18 in New York, Sotheby's sells Poppies, oil on canvas 62 x 91 cm painted in 1886 in England during the preparation of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. It is estimated $ 4M, lot 8.
The colors are vibrant but the modernism lies in the theme and composition of this humble piece of grass slope, anticipating by four years the interest of Van Gogh in Auvers for wild flowers. Red poppies and other flowers are the only subject of this magnificent painting without further forefront and whose background is completely darkened in the excuse of the nightfall.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's (below).
John was a child prodigy. The Impressionists did not however welcome him into their ranks because he was a pupil of Carolus-Duran who taught an academic classicism in Paris. John specialized in the society portrait. In 1884 he painstakingly painted the Portrait de Madame X which made a scandal by its plunging neckline. The artist was too far ahead of the couture fashion of the following century.
Disgusted by the failure of this artwork which he considered as his best painting he traveled to England in August 1885. Shortly after his arrival, he was injured in the head while swimming in the Thames, sufficiently seriously for a friend to require him to have some convalescence in the English countryside. The accident triggered a reorientation of his art.
John had visited Giverny just before and he was encouraged by Monet to paint outdoors. He conceived an ambitious composition showing two small girls in a garden in a contrasting light of late afternoon. This painting will be completed in the following year and titled Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by reference to a nursery rhyme. It is a masterpiece of the artist and a turning point in his career.
On May 18 in New York, Sotheby's sells Poppies, oil on canvas 62 x 91 cm painted in 1886 in England during the preparation of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. It is estimated $ 4M, lot 8.
The colors are vibrant but the modernism lies in the theme and composition of this humble piece of grass slope, anticipating by four years the interest of Van Gogh in Auvers for wild flowers. Red poppies and other flowers are the only subject of this magnificent painting without further forefront and whose background is completely darkened in the excuse of the nightfall.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's (below).
#AuctionUpdate John Singer Sargent's gorgeous 'Poppies' from 1886 sells above estimate for $6.9m pic.twitter.com/MQJjeDBKCJ
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) May 18, 2016
1887 Pont de Clichy
2013 SOLD for CHF 6.7M by Koller
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The accession of Van Gogh to the artistic maturity begins with his assimilation of modern art. Paris is a great location for this project. He spent two years in that city, from February 1886.
He meets the Impressionists and appreciates the importance of color. He meets the pointillists and includes the possibility of new artistic languages. He has not forgotten the Japanese prints and their expressive treatment oflandscape.
Vincent used the flowers to vary and brighten the colors and then tried his hand to the landscape. On June 21 in Zurich, Koller sells an oil on canvas 55 x 46 cm executed outdoor in 1887. This view of the pont de Clichy (Clichy bridge) is estimated CHF 5M.
The banality of this peaceful subject is superseded by the sweet harmony of colors inspired by summer light : lemon yellow, azure blue and emerald green. The perspective is minimal but the shades of the reflections in the Seine are subtle. It seems that Vincent saw this painting as one of the most successful of his Parisian landscapes.
The accession of Van Gogh to the artistic maturity begins with his assimilation of modern art. Paris is a great location for this project. He spent two years in that city, from February 1886.
He meets the Impressionists and appreciates the importance of color. He meets the pointillists and includes the possibility of new artistic languages. He has not forgotten the Japanese prints and their expressive treatment oflandscape.
Vincent used the flowers to vary and brighten the colors and then tried his hand to the landscape. On June 21 in Zurich, Koller sells an oil on canvas 55 x 46 cm executed outdoor in 1887. This view of the pont de Clichy (Clichy bridge) is estimated CHF 5M.
The banality of this peaceful subject is superseded by the sweet harmony of colors inspired by summer light : lemon yellow, azure blue and emerald green. The perspective is minimal but the shades of the reflections in the Seine are subtle. It seems that Vincent saw this painting as one of the most successful of his Parisian landscapes.
1887 The Conquistador of Tourism
2015 SOLD for $ 5.8M including premium
Henry Flagler was a co-founder of the Standard Oil and an industrialist of the railway. This investor used his vast wealth to equip Florida for resort tourism, without fearing the cost overruns. He developed Miami and the largest hotel of his chain, the Royal Ponciana Hotel in Palm Beach opened in 1894, had 1,700 employees and 1,100 rooms for a capacity of 2,000 guests.
The masterpiece of the Flagler empire is undoubtedly the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, built in 1887 in an extravagant neo-Spanish style. The two towers were not used only for prestige but were the tanks that supplied the 540 rooms in running water. The handling of the wonderful electricity was entrusted to the hotel employees to avoid scaring the guests.
Art was not forgotten and the lavish murals of the rotunda contributed to the reputation of the Ponce de Leon. Workshops were accommodated in the property for the artists.
Martin Johnson Heade had always considered himself as an itinerant painter. Married at 64 in 1883, he sought an anchor in Florida. He was a specialist in flower painting often associated with birds, and of tropical scenery. He was also a landscapist in the American romantic tradition. He preferred marshes to mountains and his idealized views cannot be located.
Heade realized for Flagler two of the murals of the Ponce de Leon. One of them titled The Great Florida Sunset is huge, 138 x 244 cm. The glowing sky of twilight terminates the day above a scenery typical of the marshes and palm groves of Florida.
A. Alfred Taubman wisely bought this oil painting to decorate his own mansion in Palm Beach. It is estimated $ 7M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 18, lot 11.
The masterpiece of the Flagler empire is undoubtedly the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, built in 1887 in an extravagant neo-Spanish style. The two towers were not used only for prestige but were the tanks that supplied the 540 rooms in running water. The handling of the wonderful electricity was entrusted to the hotel employees to avoid scaring the guests.
Art was not forgotten and the lavish murals of the rotunda contributed to the reputation of the Ponce de Leon. Workshops were accommodated in the property for the artists.
Martin Johnson Heade had always considered himself as an itinerant painter. Married at 64 in 1883, he sought an anchor in Florida. He was a specialist in flower painting often associated with birds, and of tropical scenery. He was also a landscapist in the American romantic tradition. He preferred marshes to mountains and his idealized views cannot be located.
Heade realized for Flagler two of the murals of the Ponce de Leon. One of them titled The Great Florida Sunset is huge, 138 x 244 cm. The glowing sky of twilight terminates the day above a scenery typical of the marshes and palm groves of Florida.
A. Alfred Taubman wisely bought this oil painting to decorate his own mansion in Palm Beach. It is estimated $ 7M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 18, lot 11.
Preview American Art from the #TaubmanatSothebys collection - now on view in #NY https://t.co/4bmTWnSrFW pic.twitter.com/8wW0gonkcE
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) November 16, 2015
1887 The Beauty of Andromeda
2017 SOLD for € 3.7M including premium
Rodin observed in his studio the bodies of his models in the full nude. When an attitude interested him, he realized a plaster and only afterward defined a title or a place in the project of La Porte. Conceived around 1885 the nude at the rock is undoubtedly the image of a young woman seeking some rest after a tiring pose. Her legs and arms are bent, exacerbating for the artist the perfection of the lines of her spine and back.
In two very similar variants Rodin expresses both the smooth body of the woman and her rough surrounding. The marble will be the perfect material to reveal the sensuality of that woman who is born from the ground.
The largest of these variants, 70 cm long, is La Source, a very popular theme in the 19th century where an abundant hair descends like a waterfall. It will become La Danaïde. The other version, 30 cm long, which does not have this capillary excess is slumped over a spectacular rock. It will be Andromeda, the young mythological heroine tortured because of her supreme beauty.
On May 30 in Paris, Artcurial sells a marble dated 1887 of the smaller version. In the following year, Rodin had presented it to a Chilean diplomat in re-exchange for the bust of his wife, so charming that the French government had wanted to own it. This Andromède has been hoarded up to now in the family of the diplomat proud of the friendship with the great artist. It is estimated € 800K, lot 6.
Four other Andromède marbles are known. One of them executed circa 1895 was sold for $ 3,04M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006 over a lower estimate of $ 500K. A Danaïde bronze made in the same period was sold for $ 1.7M including premium by Christie's on November 5, 2014.
Please watch the video shared by Artcurial :
In two very similar variants Rodin expresses both the smooth body of the woman and her rough surrounding. The marble will be the perfect material to reveal the sensuality of that woman who is born from the ground.
The largest of these variants, 70 cm long, is La Source, a very popular theme in the 19th century where an abundant hair descends like a waterfall. It will become La Danaïde. The other version, 30 cm long, which does not have this capillary excess is slumped over a spectacular rock. It will be Andromeda, the young mythological heroine tortured because of her supreme beauty.
On May 30 in Paris, Artcurial sells a marble dated 1887 of the smaller version. In the following year, Rodin had presented it to a Chilean diplomat in re-exchange for the bust of his wife, so charming that the French government had wanted to own it. This Andromède has been hoarded up to now in the family of the diplomat proud of the friendship with the great artist. It is estimated € 800K, lot 6.
Four other Andromède marbles are known. One of them executed circa 1895 was sold for $ 3,04M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006 over a lower estimate of $ 500K. A Danaïde bronze made in the same period was sold for $ 1.7M including premium by Christie's on November 5, 2014.
Please watch the video shared by Artcurial :
1887 Tutus and Dance Shoes
2021 SOLD for € 2.7M including premium
The dance is made to enchant. At the Opéra Garnier, Edgar Degas observes the occupational life in the backstage. This theme responds to his need to explore new artistic paths, through the liveliness of colors, the originality of the framing and the spontaneity of the movement. He chooses the technique of pastel on paper to better highlight the colors.
The dance uniform is the tutu, composed of a corselet and a puffed skirt mounted on several superimposed petticoats and embellished with a large bow in the shape of a butterfly. The colors are clear in harmony with the skin. This recent fashion was inaugurated by Marie Taglioni in 1832, two years before the artist's birth.
Opéra girls are capable of all contortions, without effort. The foot is an object of constant attention. Degas watches the dancer lacing up her pink shoe before entering the stage or massaging her foot after the performance.
A 50 x 62 cm pastel painted in 1887 was sold for £ 4.5M including premium by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013. The girl sits in an acrobatic position, with her head below knee level. She is seen from the front in a framing of high originality, and the raising tutu makes her a huge butterfly.
On March 25 in Paris, Sotheby's sells a 47 x 33 cm pastel painted in the same period, lot 3 estimated € 2M. The predominantly green tutu is actually made of a subtle mix of colors that have remained in very good condition. The sitting position is eccentric and of great spontaneity, with the long hair falling in front of the face in this forward movement to catch the foot. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The dance uniform is the tutu, composed of a corselet and a puffed skirt mounted on several superimposed petticoats and embellished with a large bow in the shape of a butterfly. The colors are clear in harmony with the skin. This recent fashion was inaugurated by Marie Taglioni in 1832, two years before the artist's birth.
Opéra girls are capable of all contortions, without effort. The foot is an object of constant attention. Degas watches the dancer lacing up her pink shoe before entering the stage or massaging her foot after the performance.
A 50 x 62 cm pastel painted in 1887 was sold for £ 4.5M including premium by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013. The girl sits in an acrobatic position, with her head below knee level. She is seen from the front in a framing of high originality, and the raising tutu makes her a huge butterfly.
On March 25 in Paris, Sotheby's sells a 47 x 33 cm pastel painted in the same period, lot 3 estimated € 2M. The predominantly green tutu is actually made of a subtle mix of colors that have remained in very good condition. The sitting position is eccentric and of great spontaneity, with the long hair falling in front of the face in this forward movement to catch the foot. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1887-1889 flowers in the garden
2018 unsold
As an artistic movement, the Impressionnisme is in decline in 1886. Monet and some early adopters refuse to participate in their eighth exhibition, which will be the last one, because Pissarro supports Seurat and Signac.
Monet remains a reference. Young artists express the beauty of a little detail of nature, simply. Moving away from the traditional landscape and still life, they open the path to abstract expressionism. Returning to England after a visit to Giverny, Sargent painted in 1886 a humble embankment of poppies with brilliant colors.
Vincent van Gogh is in Paris in 1886. He admits that until then he had no knowledge of current art. He had admired Millet, Daubigny and Mesdag. He integrates his discovery of Impressionnisme with dazzling energy but, always in quest for a personal and perfect art, he does not imitate them.
In 1886 Vincent painted many views of Paris. In the following year he worked beside Signac on views of the Parc Voyer d'Argenson overlooking the Seine at Asnières.
In his 1889 and 1890 pictures in Provence and Auvers, the influence of Signac on Vincent remains important : the overall effect of a painting is brought by tiny elements of bright colors. For the detail of this texture, Vincent will rather retain the long brush strokes intertwined in the white snows of Monet.
On November 11 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 40 A Coin de jardin avec papillons, oil on canvas 50 x 61 cm painted by Vincent. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Its painstaking realization suggested that it was painted in Arles in the spring of 1889. New analyzes lead experts from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam to propose an execution in the spring of 1887. If so, Vincent had experienced in the Asnières garden a style that he will use more regularly two years later. In his bulimic zeal to master the art of painting in its entirety, this hypothesis is also plausible.
Monet remains a reference. Young artists express the beauty of a little detail of nature, simply. Moving away from the traditional landscape and still life, they open the path to abstract expressionism. Returning to England after a visit to Giverny, Sargent painted in 1886 a humble embankment of poppies with brilliant colors.
Vincent van Gogh is in Paris in 1886. He admits that until then he had no knowledge of current art. He had admired Millet, Daubigny and Mesdag. He integrates his discovery of Impressionnisme with dazzling energy but, always in quest for a personal and perfect art, he does not imitate them.
In 1886 Vincent painted many views of Paris. In the following year he worked beside Signac on views of the Parc Voyer d'Argenson overlooking the Seine at Asnières.
In his 1889 and 1890 pictures in Provence and Auvers, the influence of Signac on Vincent remains important : the overall effect of a painting is brought by tiny elements of bright colors. For the detail of this texture, Vincent will rather retain the long brush strokes intertwined in the white snows of Monet.
On November 11 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 40 A Coin de jardin avec papillons, oil on canvas 50 x 61 cm painted by Vincent. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Its painstaking realization suggested that it was painted in Arles in the spring of 1889. New analyzes lead experts from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam to propose an execution in the spring of 1887. If so, Vincent had experienced in the Asnières garden a style that he will use more regularly two years later. In his bulimic zeal to master the art of painting in its entirety, this hypothesis is also plausible.
1888 The Neighbors to the Maison Jaune
2015 SOLD for $ 7.6M including premium
Vincent is happy when he arrives in Arles. On 1 May 1888, he rents some rooms in the Maison Jaune in order to install his studio. The themes are not lacking for this artist who aspires to become the best painter of all time.
He becomes friend with the facteur (postman) Roulin and makes portraits of all the members of the family. Vincent is happy to meet this group which he describes as very French, but not without a second thought.
He knows that he will soon need to sell paintings and the Roulin portraits can be used as demonstrators of his expertise. He can not envisage the future without the cooperation of Theo whom he floods of detailed letters in which he expresses his creative process.
On July 31, 1888, Madame Roulin gives birth to a daughter named Marcelle. Vincent welcomes this new model. On November 5 in New York, Sotheby's sells a portrait of the baby Roulin, oil on canvas 36 x 25 cm painted in December 1888, lot 17 estimated $ 3.5M.
Marcelle is healthy and not concerned by the artist, and her picture is a very interesting snapshot (probably from a preliminary drawing which is not documented). The infant is seated, dressed in white with a nice cap. The eyes are wide open but it is by touching that she begins to explore the world, playing with her fingers.
He becomes friend with the facteur (postman) Roulin and makes portraits of all the members of the family. Vincent is happy to meet this group which he describes as very French, but not without a second thought.
He knows that he will soon need to sell paintings and the Roulin portraits can be used as demonstrators of his expertise. He can not envisage the future without the cooperation of Theo whom he floods of detailed letters in which he expresses his creative process.
On July 31, 1888, Madame Roulin gives birth to a daughter named Marcelle. Vincent welcomes this new model. On November 5 in New York, Sotheby's sells a portrait of the baby Roulin, oil on canvas 36 x 25 cm painted in December 1888, lot 17 estimated $ 3.5M.
Marcelle is healthy and not concerned by the artist, and her picture is a very interesting snapshot (probably from a preliminary drawing which is not documented). The infant is seated, dressed in white with a nice cap. The eyes are wide open but it is by touching that she begins to explore the world, playing with her fingers.
#AuctionUpdate: Bidders drive the price for Van Gogh's 'Bebe Marcelle Roulin' to $7.6m #SothebysImpMod pic.twitter.com/oup23apKKP
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) November 6, 2015
1888 The Atmosphere of a Paris Quai
1998 SOLD 3 M$ including premium by Christie's
2011 SOLD 2.1 M$ including premium
PRE 2011 SALE DISCUSSION
The art of Childe Hassam was deeply influenced by his three year stay in Paris from 1886 to 1888. Coming from Boston, the young American rejected the Academic schools to concentrate in the ambience of the city.
In Paris at that time, the glory of an artist came through acceptance of his works in the official Salons. Hassam sees the art of Monet and Pissarro and develops a kind genre based on attitudes and colors of everyday life.
Painted in 1888, the oil on canvas 55 x 71 cm titled Quai St Michel, captures the mood of a cloudy day on the banks of the Seine, with its stalls of booksellers, its elegant women and the walkers. It precedes by two decades the street scenes of Paris by Pierre Bonnard.
Back in the U.S., Hassam will be the painter of park and garden scenes and is now considered as the most important American Impressionist.
Quai St Michel was sold for $ 3M including premium at Christie's on May 21, 1998. It is estimated $ 2.5 million at Sotheby's in New York on May 19.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sold $ 2.1 million including premium, this painting from the training period of the artist did not reach its lower estimate, far away from its 1998 price.
This painting is illustrated on the post sale release shared by Artdaily.
The art of Childe Hassam was deeply influenced by his three year stay in Paris from 1886 to 1888. Coming from Boston, the young American rejected the Academic schools to concentrate in the ambience of the city.
In Paris at that time, the glory of an artist came through acceptance of his works in the official Salons. Hassam sees the art of Monet and Pissarro and develops a kind genre based on attitudes and colors of everyday life.
Painted in 1888, the oil on canvas 55 x 71 cm titled Quai St Michel, captures the mood of a cloudy day on the banks of the Seine, with its stalls of booksellers, its elegant women and the walkers. It precedes by two decades the street scenes of Paris by Pierre Bonnard.
Back in the U.S., Hassam will be the painter of park and garden scenes and is now considered as the most important American Impressionist.
Quai St Michel was sold for $ 3M including premium at Christie's on May 21, 1998. It is estimated $ 2.5 million at Sotheby's in New York on May 19.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sold $ 2.1 million including premium, this painting from the training period of the artist did not reach its lower estimate, far away from its 1998 price.
This painting is illustrated on the post sale release shared by Artdaily.
1888 Spring from Montmajour
2013 SOLD 400 K€ including premium
2014 UNSOLD
PRE 2014 SALE DISCUSSION
On November 29, 2013, Auctionata sold for € 400K including premium a drawing made by van Gogh when he impregnated himself with the harmony of Provence countryside, so opening one of the most prolific adventures in modern art. Auctionata had made a pre sale video including a demonstrative sequence at the very place where Vincent was.
This artwork is now estimated £ 400K for sale by Christie's in London on June 24, lot 19. Here is how I had announced it last year :
Van Gogh moves to Arles in February 1888. He knows what he wants : the perfect harmony of a landscape that will allow him to enter into communion with the land. He immediately starts working. On that year, the sunlight on the snow is wonderful.
In spring, nature awakens and Vincent easily finds the perfect view to the countryside. He will do very frequent walks to Montmajour abbey. Same as an ancient traveler would have done, he draws a sketch on the spot by pencil on paper and afterward enhances the image in his studio.
The drawing for sale, 29 x 47 cm, was signed by Vincent in May 1888. It is showing the plain of La Crau towards the Alpilles. This work is part of the first series of drawings made by Vincent from Montmajour. He early sent them to Theo to share with him the scenery of his new paradise.
The underneath graphite sketch is the basis for the ink drawing that is not trying to be too close to the original line.Vincent has used black and purple inks, but unfortunately purple has now turned into sepia.
The black drawing is very beautiful and it is an important document to appreciate the come back of Vincent to the land, much more subtle than a simple ambition to match the Japanese landscape art. The fading of the purple probably explains why the estimate established by Auctionata is low : € 360K.
Here is the video shared by Auctionata :
On November 29, 2013, Auctionata sold for € 400K including premium a drawing made by van Gogh when he impregnated himself with the harmony of Provence countryside, so opening one of the most prolific adventures in modern art. Auctionata had made a pre sale video including a demonstrative sequence at the very place where Vincent was.
This artwork is now estimated £ 400K for sale by Christie's in London on June 24, lot 19. Here is how I had announced it last year :
Van Gogh moves to Arles in February 1888. He knows what he wants : the perfect harmony of a landscape that will allow him to enter into communion with the land. He immediately starts working. On that year, the sunlight on the snow is wonderful.
In spring, nature awakens and Vincent easily finds the perfect view to the countryside. He will do very frequent walks to Montmajour abbey. Same as an ancient traveler would have done, he draws a sketch on the spot by pencil on paper and afterward enhances the image in his studio.
The drawing for sale, 29 x 47 cm, was signed by Vincent in May 1888. It is showing the plain of La Crau towards the Alpilles. This work is part of the first series of drawings made by Vincent from Montmajour. He early sent them to Theo to share with him the scenery of his new paradise.
The underneath graphite sketch is the basis for the ink drawing that is not trying to be too close to the original line.Vincent has used black and purple inks, but unfortunately purple has now turned into sepia.
The black drawing is very beautiful and it is an important document to appreciate the come back of Vincent to the land, much more subtle than a simple ambition to match the Japanese landscape art. The fading of the purple probably explains why the estimate established by Auctionata is low : € 360K.
Here is the video shared by Auctionata :
1888 DEGAS BEHIND THE STAGE
2011 WITHDRAWN
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Edgar Degas was one of the greatest innovators of modern art. He used original or unusual techniques such as pasteland monotype. Also a photographer, he composed his graphic works with angles and compositions altogether boldand balanced.
In selecting the ballerinas as the favorite theme of his pastels, he was aware of taking a completely different directionfrom that of his Impressionist friends who advocated the outdoor work.
His models are kind girls, sometimes very young, who are concentrated in preparing their performance. Their infiniteflexibility is a theme in itself, especially in the extreme variety of the position of the legs.
They have charmed the collectors of art. On November 3, 2008, Sotheby's recorded $ 37M including premium for a ballerina at rest of 1879 in pastel and gouache, 59 x 64 cm.
Two older ballerinas prepare for going on stage at Christie's in London on June 21. The bodice, the tutu, the fan create a pleasant atmosphere of soft and bright colors. Made circa 1888, this pastel, 60 x 34 cm, is estimated £ 4M.
Edgar Degas was one of the greatest innovators of modern art. He used original or unusual techniques such as pasteland monotype. Also a photographer, he composed his graphic works with angles and compositions altogether boldand balanced.
In selecting the ballerinas as the favorite theme of his pastels, he was aware of taking a completely different directionfrom that of his Impressionist friends who advocated the outdoor work.
His models are kind girls, sometimes very young, who are concentrated in preparing their performance. Their infiniteflexibility is a theme in itself, especially in the extreme variety of the position of the legs.
They have charmed the collectors of art. On November 3, 2008, Sotheby's recorded $ 37M including premium for a ballerina at rest of 1879 in pastel and gouache, 59 x 64 cm.
Two older ballerinas prepare for going on stage at Christie's in London on June 21. The bodice, the tutu, the fan create a pleasant atmosphere of soft and bright colors. Made circa 1888, this pastel, 60 x 34 cm, is estimated £ 4M.
