Art 1910-1919
1910 Merciless Portraits by Kokoschka
2018 SOLD for $ 20.4M including premium
From the beginning of his career as a playwright and artist in 1909, Oskar Kokoschka positions himself as a nonconformist and as a troublemaker. He is 23 years old and is called the chief of the savages by the Viennese press. His influence is decisive on Egon Schiele, four years younger than him.
The modernist architect Adolf Loos is another fighter of preconceived ideas. His girlfriend is tuberculous. He placed her in Switzerland in one of the most luxurious sanatoriums, used by the European aristocracy. In January 1910 Loos makes a long stay with his girlfriend. He is accompanied by Kokoschka.
This microcosm of characters weakened by the disease and their visitors who are hardly more beautiful inspires Kokoschka who paints a series of spontaneous portraits, without preparatory drawings. The models are not clients : the young artist is uncompromising and pitiless.
Psychology dominates over the technique, and it does not matter if impastos interplay with zones of very thin layers on the canvas. The result is the angular line, giving the impression of great nervousness, which will characterize the art of Kokoschka in all his themes throughout his career. In 1937 he was classified as a degenerate artist.
On November 12 in New York, Sotheby's sells the portrait of Joseph de Montesquiou-Fezensac, oil on canvas 80 x 63 cm, lot 21estimated $ 15M. The quiet and sad aristocrat, aged 35, had come to the sanatorium for helping his wife Victoire whose portrait Kokoschka also made. The painting for sale has just been returned to the heirs of a Jewish art dealer to whom it had been confiscated in 1934.
The modernist architect Adolf Loos is another fighter of preconceived ideas. His girlfriend is tuberculous. He placed her in Switzerland in one of the most luxurious sanatoriums, used by the European aristocracy. In January 1910 Loos makes a long stay with his girlfriend. He is accompanied by Kokoschka.
This microcosm of characters weakened by the disease and their visitors who are hardly more beautiful inspires Kokoschka who paints a series of spontaneous portraits, without preparatory drawings. The models are not clients : the young artist is uncompromising and pitiless.
Psychology dominates over the technique, and it does not matter if impastos interplay with zones of very thin layers on the canvas. The result is the angular line, giving the impression of great nervousness, which will characterize the art of Kokoschka in all his themes throughout his career. In 1937 he was classified as a degenerate artist.
On November 12 in New York, Sotheby's sells the portrait of Joseph de Montesquiou-Fezensac, oil on canvas 80 x 63 cm, lot 21estimated $ 15M. The quiet and sad aristocrat, aged 35, had come to the sanatorium for helping his wife Victoire whose portrait Kokoschka also made. The painting for sale has just been returned to the heirs of a Jewish art dealer to whom it had been confiscated in 1934.
1910 Schokko by Jawlensky
2008 SOLD for £ 9.4M including premium by Sotheby's
Narrated in 2021
Fauvism, better than Impressionism, can be applied to all pictorial themes. The pioneers for the portrait are Kees van Dongen and Alexej von Jawlensky. Attentive to new theories, Jawlensky spent two summers in Murnau with Kandinsky and their respective companions, Marianne and Gabriele, in 1908 and 1909. Thick lines delimit zones of wild colors, through which expression prevails over the transcription of nature.
Jawlensky takes as a model a very young woman from a Bavarian village. The workshop is cold and she asks for a cup of hot chocolate. The artist nicknames her Schokko. He likes to dress her with extravagant hats which are pretexts for new color studies. He paints Schokko in the Red Hat in 1909.
Schokko with Wide Hat, oil on cardboard 75 x 65 cm stretched on canvas painted in 1910, has been sold twice by Sotheby's : for $ 8.3M including premium on November 5, 2003, lot 20, and for £ 9.4M including premium February 5, 2008, lot 8. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The portrait of Helene with a Green Fan, oil on panel 65 x 54 cm painted in 1912, already announces the post-Cubist stylization of the next phase. It was sold for $ 11.3M including premium by Sotheby's on May 3, 2011, lot 12. I narrated it before the sale.
The artist kept these two examples from this period of explosive creativity until his death.
Jawlensky takes as a model a very young woman from a Bavarian village. The workshop is cold and she asks for a cup of hot chocolate. The artist nicknames her Schokko. He likes to dress her with extravagant hats which are pretexts for new color studies. He paints Schokko in the Red Hat in 1909.
Schokko with Wide Hat, oil on cardboard 75 x 65 cm stretched on canvas painted in 1910, has been sold twice by Sotheby's : for $ 8.3M including premium on November 5, 2003, lot 20, and for £ 9.4M including premium February 5, 2008, lot 8. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The portrait of Helene with a Green Fan, oil on panel 65 x 54 cm painted in 1912, already announces the post-Cubist stylization of the next phase. It was sold for $ 11.3M including premium by Sotheby's on May 3, 2011, lot 12. I narrated it before the sale.
The artist kept these two examples from this period of explosive creativity until his death.
1910 VAN DONGEN'S SOUTHERN WOMEN
2010 SOLD 7.1 M£ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Van Dongen is the painter of the pleasures of life, with humor and no flattery. The marked lines and the vivid colors resemble the style of Matisse. The art market is gradually becoming aware of the originality and importance of this artist and upgrade his early works to the highest rank.
Coming from the harbour of Rotterdam, he settled in Paris in 1899 and painted scenes and portraits of cabaret. He early began to imagine the women of the South, in more and more expressive portraits. He discover them, and uncover their breast, in enticing nudes without vulgarity.
In 1910, he will see them on the spot in Spain and North Africa. The oil on canvas, 100 x 81 cm, for sale by Christie's in London on February 2, dates from this period. It shows a gypsy woman ("Gitane") of Spain in traditional dress, brown, proud ... and unfriendly. It is a beautiful portrait, estimated £ 5.5 million. It is shown in the release shared by AuctionPublicity.
POST SALE COMMENT
Van Dongen confirmed his position on the art market, according to the trend indicated at the beginning of my article. £ 7.1 million including premium for this Spanish portrait.
Van Dongen is the painter of the pleasures of life, with humor and no flattery. The marked lines and the vivid colors resemble the style of Matisse. The art market is gradually becoming aware of the originality and importance of this artist and upgrade his early works to the highest rank.
Coming from the harbour of Rotterdam, he settled in Paris in 1899 and painted scenes and portraits of cabaret. He early began to imagine the women of the South, in more and more expressive portraits. He discover them, and uncover their breast, in enticing nudes without vulgarity.
In 1910, he will see them on the spot in Spain and North Africa. The oil on canvas, 100 x 81 cm, for sale by Christie's in London on February 2, dates from this period. It shows a gypsy woman ("Gitane") of Spain in traditional dress, brown, proud ... and unfriendly. It is a beautiful portrait, estimated £ 5.5 million. It is shown in the release shared by AuctionPublicity.
POST SALE COMMENT
Van Dongen confirmed his position on the art market, according to the trend indicated at the beginning of my article. £ 7.1 million including premium for this Spanish portrait.
1911 Kandinsky between Mountain and Black Arch
2014 SOLD 5.6 M£ including premium
I was convinced of the importance of Kandinsky's painting from the Krugier collection, regarded as a significant step between figurative and abstract, with flamboyant colors. It had not been sold by Christie's on November 4, 2013. I had believed that it deserved its estimate of $ 20M.
This oil on canvas 72 x 99 cm is now estimated £ 3M, for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 23, lot 30.
Here is my discussion of last year :
In Murnau in 1909, Kandinsky seeks to achieve the ultimate limits of artistic expression. He later listens to Schönberg. Music is inherently non-figurative, and yet it evokes emotion. Shape and color can achieve a similar effect on canvas or panel. The autumn landscape (Herbstlandschaft) became a favorite theme of the artist.
On 4 February 2008, Christie's sold £ 2.9 million including premium an interesting oil on board, 33 x 42 cm, painted in 1910. Figurative like a Van Gogh, this landscape with tree also reminds that Kandinsky was close to Fauvism before Murnau.
Painted in 1911 and coming from the Krugier collection, another Herbstlandschaft is a masterpiece of the artist.
The mountain is a magnificent triangle inviting to elevation. Autumn is the pretext for a musicalist harmony involving all colors. Human influence is limited to a few houses barely outlined in the graphic style of Murnau.
Kandinsky's evolution toward abstraction appears here as both logical and inevitable. The crest is enhanced by a wide line that anticipates and even decodes in advance Picture with a Black Arch (Mit dem schwarzen Bogen), his seminal abstract painting made in the following year.
POST SALE COMMENT
This landscape is an important artwork for understanding the evolution of the art of Kandinsky. It was sold for £ 5.6 million including premium.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's in 2013 :
This oil on canvas 72 x 99 cm is now estimated £ 3M, for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 23, lot 30.
Here is my discussion of last year :
In Murnau in 1909, Kandinsky seeks to achieve the ultimate limits of artistic expression. He later listens to Schönberg. Music is inherently non-figurative, and yet it evokes emotion. Shape and color can achieve a similar effect on canvas or panel. The autumn landscape (Herbstlandschaft) became a favorite theme of the artist.
On 4 February 2008, Christie's sold £ 2.9 million including premium an interesting oil on board, 33 x 42 cm, painted in 1910. Figurative like a Van Gogh, this landscape with tree also reminds that Kandinsky was close to Fauvism before Murnau.
Painted in 1911 and coming from the Krugier collection, another Herbstlandschaft is a masterpiece of the artist.
The mountain is a magnificent triangle inviting to elevation. Autumn is the pretext for a musicalist harmony involving all colors. Human influence is limited to a few houses barely outlined in the graphic style of Murnau.
Kandinsky's evolution toward abstraction appears here as both logical and inevitable. The crest is enhanced by a wide line that anticipates and even decodes in advance Picture with a Black Arch (Mit dem schwarzen Bogen), his seminal abstract painting made in the following year.
POST SALE COMMENT
This landscape is an important artwork for understanding the evolution of the art of Kandinsky. It was sold for £ 5.6 million including premium.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's in 2013 :
1911 A Funeral Procession by Schiele
2010 SOLD 4.4 M€ including premium
Had he not died at age 28 (of Spanish flu), Schiele could have been one of the most outstanding artists of the twentieth century.
His personal story ended badly, but it also had a bad start. He was fifteen years old when his father died of syphilis. Death and sex will be the leitmotif of this gifted young man.
In Vienna, his skill was acknowledged by Klimt, and he became aware of the trends in modern art and more specifically of Munch.
He is 21 years old in 1911 when he paints this oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, entitled Prozession, for sale on November 9 by Im Kinsky in Vienna and to be considered as a masterpiece of the macabre art. A procession moves toward the observer, with no human form but three death masks and two bare feet.
With his dark thoughts, Schiele follows Ensor without the sharpness of his humor. The figures of his dense procession are psychologically isolated, same as those of Kirchner in the crowded streets of Berlin. Is it a coincidence? In the same year, 1911, the master of Expressionism discovers Berlin.
This unusual and powerful work is estimated € 3.5M.
POST SALE COMMENT
The result, € 4.4 million including premium, is excellent, especially when considering that Schiele was very young when he painted this Prozession.
His personal story ended badly, but it also had a bad start. He was fifteen years old when his father died of syphilis. Death and sex will be the leitmotif of this gifted young man.
In Vienna, his skill was acknowledged by Klimt, and he became aware of the trends in modern art and more specifically of Munch.
He is 21 years old in 1911 when he paints this oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, entitled Prozession, for sale on November 9 by Im Kinsky in Vienna and to be considered as a masterpiece of the macabre art. A procession moves toward the observer, with no human form but three death masks and two bare feet.
With his dark thoughts, Schiele follows Ensor without the sharpness of his humor. The figures of his dense procession are psychologically isolated, same as those of Kirchner in the crowded streets of Berlin. Is it a coincidence? In the same year, 1911, the master of Expressionism discovers Berlin.
This unusual and powerful work is estimated € 3.5M.
POST SALE COMMENT
The result, € 4.4 million including premium, is excellent, especially when considering that Schiele was very young when he painted this Prozession.
1911 Augusta van Dongen in Poiret Outfit
2018 SOLD for € 1.8M including premium
La Lecture is a 1911 portrait of Augusta van Dongen by her husband. It looks atypical in van Dongen's art because it had clearly been executed for private use. It had been reworked by the artist a few years later for adding some details and Augusta kept it when they divorced in 1921.
This large size oil on canvas 145 x 145 cm passed at Drouot on June 25, 2018. It had been introduced in a video shared by Drouot Presse. It is now estimated € 1.5M for sale by Sotheby's in Paris on October 18, lot 18.
Augusta is wearing an outfit by Poiret which is obviously the theme of this intimate artwork. Before the Drouot sale, I narrated as follows the relationship between Kees van Dongen and Paul Poiret.
By removing the corset in 1906, Poiret forever modifies the look of the Parisian woman. This conception is transmitted in 1908 in a pretty booklet made up of ten color engravings by Paul Iribe. Poiret is inspired by the artistic avant-gardes. He thus appears as a leader of modernism just when the Ballets Russes put in fashion a luxurious imaginary exoticism.
Compared to other paintings made by van Dongen around that date, La Lecture stands out for its themes and style. The fine line evokes the illustrations from Iribe's catalog. The atmosphere mixes Fauvism and exoticism. The striped areas are in Matisse's taste and a wall painting could have been a marine in Collioure. Orientalism is brought by the profile of the dark haired woman and by the hand of Fatima that she wears as a pendant.
The intention to please Poiret is obvious. The title of the book in the hands of Augusta is Rabelais. This reference may be an unidentified connivance with Poiret. The curled cat in the foreground makes a friendly wink.
The influence of fashion is helping to shift Van Dongen from anarchism and cabarets to the elegant society. 'Deauville' is published in 1931 with five engravings by Van Dongen and a text by Poiret.
This large size oil on canvas 145 x 145 cm passed at Drouot on June 25, 2018. It had been introduced in a video shared by Drouot Presse. It is now estimated € 1.5M for sale by Sotheby's in Paris on October 18, lot 18.
Augusta is wearing an outfit by Poiret which is obviously the theme of this intimate artwork. Before the Drouot sale, I narrated as follows the relationship between Kees van Dongen and Paul Poiret.
By removing the corset in 1906, Poiret forever modifies the look of the Parisian woman. This conception is transmitted in 1908 in a pretty booklet made up of ten color engravings by Paul Iribe. Poiret is inspired by the artistic avant-gardes. He thus appears as a leader of modernism just when the Ballets Russes put in fashion a luxurious imaginary exoticism.
Compared to other paintings made by van Dongen around that date, La Lecture stands out for its themes and style. The fine line evokes the illustrations from Iribe's catalog. The atmosphere mixes Fauvism and exoticism. The striped areas are in Matisse's taste and a wall painting could have been a marine in Collioure. Orientalism is brought by the profile of the dark haired woman and by the hand of Fatima that she wears as a pendant.
The intention to please Poiret is obvious. The title of the book in the hands of Augusta is Rabelais. This reference may be an unidentified connivance with Poiret. The curled cat in the foreground makes a friendly wink.
The influence of fashion is helping to shift Van Dongen from anarchism and cabarets to the elegant society. 'Deauville' is published in 1931 with five engravings by Van Dongen and a text by Poiret.
1911 The Giacomettis in the Garden
2011 SOLD 1.92 MCHF including premium
Giovanni Giacometti is one of the best Swiss artists of the early twentieth century. Contemporary of Hodler and Amiet, he is appreciated for the warm colors of his scenery.
His family scenes are a pretext to beautiful studies of sun light filtered through the foliage of his garden in Stampa, the village in the Grisons where he originated.
In 1908, his wife Annetta breastfeeds the baby Bruno. The other two boys are sitting quietly in the grass before her.This oil on canvas, 70 x 65 cm, was sold CHF 2.5 million including premium at Christie's in Zurich on 1 December 2008.
Three years later, Giovanni painted the same subject again in the same dimensions by restricting it to the mother and child. More moving in its simplicity, this nearly allegorical motherhood was sold for CHF 3.2 million including premium on 3 December 2007 by the same auction house.
The children grew up. In 1911, Annetta holds Bruno on her lap. The eldest daughter, Ottilia, talks with her mother.The light and shadow fall pleasantly on the faces and clothing. The two elder boys are attentive. Although less visible, one behind the mother and the other hidden by a bush, they contribute to this scene of intense and quiet family life.
This oil on canvas, 76 x 86 cm, estimated CHF 1.8 million is to sell at Christie's in Zurich on March 21.
The boys were to be famous artists: Alberto and Diego Giacometti. Bruno Giacometti will be an architect.
POST SALE COMMENT
The result, CHF 1.92 million including premium, is close to the estimate, at no surprise.
Here is the image of the painting shared by Artdaily before the sale.
His family scenes are a pretext to beautiful studies of sun light filtered through the foliage of his garden in Stampa, the village in the Grisons where he originated.
In 1908, his wife Annetta breastfeeds the baby Bruno. The other two boys are sitting quietly in the grass before her.This oil on canvas, 70 x 65 cm, was sold CHF 2.5 million including premium at Christie's in Zurich on 1 December 2008.
Three years later, Giovanni painted the same subject again in the same dimensions by restricting it to the mother and child. More moving in its simplicity, this nearly allegorical motherhood was sold for CHF 3.2 million including premium on 3 December 2007 by the same auction house.
The children grew up. In 1911, Annetta holds Bruno on her lap. The eldest daughter, Ottilia, talks with her mother.The light and shadow fall pleasantly on the faces and clothing. The two elder boys are attentive. Although less visible, one behind the mother and the other hidden by a bush, they contribute to this scene of intense and quiet family life.
This oil on canvas, 76 x 86 cm, estimated CHF 1.8 million is to sell at Christie's in Zurich on March 21.
The boys were to be famous artists: Alberto and Diego Giacometti. Bruno Giacometti will be an architect.
POST SALE COMMENT
The result, CHF 1.92 million including premium, is close to the estimate, at no surprise.
Here is the image of the painting shared by Artdaily before the sale.
1912 The Gaze of Jawlensky's Wife
2011 SOLD 11.3 M$ including premium
In 1912 in Munich, the artists of the Blaue Reiter group explore color as a means of expression. The realism of the drawing is contradicted by aggressive colors that clash together.
Alexej von Jawlensky expresses this tendency in beautiful paintings of female faces, which were to remain his most spectacular art. The head is turned toward the artist, the eyes underlined by large rings provide a very effective sense of presence.
On May 3 in New York, Sotheby's sells a portrait of the artist's wife. Her confident and intimate attitude is made strange and attractive by her yellow cheeks and neck, red nose, blue and red clothing, and the green of the fan.
This oil on board, 65 x 54 cm, is one of the masterpieces of the master, who kept it until his death. It is estimated $ 8M, lot 12. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
POST SALE COMMENT
Excellent price, $ 11.3 million including premium, confirming this beautiful portrait as one of the masterpieces of the sale.
Alexej von Jawlensky expresses this tendency in beautiful paintings of female faces, which were to remain his most spectacular art. The head is turned toward the artist, the eyes underlined by large rings provide a very effective sense of presence.
On May 3 in New York, Sotheby's sells a portrait of the artist's wife. Her confident and intimate attitude is made strange and attractive by her yellow cheeks and neck, red nose, blue and red clothing, and the green of the fan.
This oil on board, 65 x 54 cm, is one of the masterpieces of the master, who kept it until his death. It is estimated $ 8M, lot 12. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
POST SALE COMMENT
Excellent price, $ 11.3 million including premium, confirming this beautiful portrait as one of the masterpieces of the sale.
1912 Die Rache der Tänzerin by Kirchner
2021 SOLD for £ 7.1M by Christie's
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner moved to Berlin in the fall of 1911 to start a new career as the leader of Die Brücke. He was indeed horrified by the anonymity of the walkers in the streets but that does not mean that he was uncomfortable in his new life.
For a few years he had been captivated by cabarets and entertainment in Dresden. Berlin offered a night life in a much larger scale. He early took as models two statuesque cabaret dancers, the sisters Gerda and Erna Schilling.
In 1912 Erna posed for him in the nude, a theme which was another early interest for Kirchner. In 1913 she was the model for the risqué Tänzerin mit gehobenem Bein, a 66 cm high painted oakwood figure sold for $ 8M by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 2 A. She will be the lifelong partner of the artist.
On June 30, 2021, Christie's sold for £ 7.1M an oil on canvas 100 x 75 cm painted in 1912, lot 17A. The image is shared by Wikioo.
The title, Pantomime Reimann, indicates that it is part of a project for a programme for a risqué cabaret show operated by the then 22 years old Hans Reimann, for which watercolor sketches are also known. The subtitle, Die Rache des Tänzerin (the revenge of the dancer) is promising much excitement.
It stages a well dressed performer who is certainly one of the Schilling sisters. Towering like the Great Whore of the Apocalypse, she leans without compassion over a male admirer in tuxedo who is lying prone on the floor. An acrobat looks at the scene while a peeping viewer is only seen by his reflection in a mirror. The vivid colors are appealing for entering the show.
On terms of cabaret inspired art, some comparison may be made with Le Chahut painted by Seurat in 1889-1890.
For a few years he had been captivated by cabarets and entertainment in Dresden. Berlin offered a night life in a much larger scale. He early took as models two statuesque cabaret dancers, the sisters Gerda and Erna Schilling.
In 1912 Erna posed for him in the nude, a theme which was another early interest for Kirchner. In 1913 she was the model for the risqué Tänzerin mit gehobenem Bein, a 66 cm high painted oakwood figure sold for $ 8M by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 2 A. She will be the lifelong partner of the artist.
On June 30, 2021, Christie's sold for £ 7.1M an oil on canvas 100 x 75 cm painted in 1912, lot 17A. The image is shared by Wikioo.
The title, Pantomime Reimann, indicates that it is part of a project for a programme for a risqué cabaret show operated by the then 22 years old Hans Reimann, for which watercolor sketches are also known. The subtitle, Die Rache des Tänzerin (the revenge of the dancer) is promising much excitement.
It stages a well dressed performer who is certainly one of the Schilling sisters. Towering like the Great Whore of the Apocalypse, she leans without compassion over a male admirer in tuxedo who is lying prone on the floor. An acrobat looks at the scene while a peeping viewer is only seen by his reflection in a mirror. The vivid colors are appealing for entering the show.
On terms of cabaret inspired art, some comparison may be made with Le Chahut painted by Seurat in 1889-1890.
1912 Head and Egg
2015 SOLD for $ 9.1M including premium
At the same time when new trends in painting terminate the classicism, Brancusi shakes forever the sculpture. The Kiss, started in direct cut in 1907, is the counterpoint of Cubism with its two contiguous characters.
The young artist did not want to follow Rodin. His origins as a son of Carpathian peasants certainly helped him to reject the traditions of the art of Western Europe. When he carved in white marble the other seminal model of his art, the Sleeping Muse, in 1910-1911, he already sought to express a universal emotion.
The Sleeping Muse is also a vital egg. The figure is ovoid with a sweet protrusion granted to the nose and eyebrows. Finely chiseled lines synthesize the facial and hair features. The sitter is recognizable with no trend toward abstraction, but this artwork is already an interpretation of the ideal woman. The artist begins to realize some plasters and bronzes.
On May 14 in New York, Christie's sells a plaster of La Muse endormie I executed in 1912, 28 cm long, lot 11C estimated $ 8M. This example is one of the works that ensured the glory of Brancusi at the exhibition of the Armory Show in New York on the following year.
It is interesting to compare this specimen with a plaster from the same year entitled Une Muse where the head of the same model found a more traditional attitude as part of a bust. This sculpture 46 cm high was sold for $ 12.4 million including premium by Christie's on November 7, 2012.
The young artist did not want to follow Rodin. His origins as a son of Carpathian peasants certainly helped him to reject the traditions of the art of Western Europe. When he carved in white marble the other seminal model of his art, the Sleeping Muse, in 1910-1911, he already sought to express a universal emotion.
The Sleeping Muse is also a vital egg. The figure is ovoid with a sweet protrusion granted to the nose and eyebrows. Finely chiseled lines synthesize the facial and hair features. The sitter is recognizable with no trend toward abstraction, but this artwork is already an interpretation of the ideal woman. The artist begins to realize some plasters and bronzes.
On May 14 in New York, Christie's sells a plaster of La Muse endormie I executed in 1912, 28 cm long, lot 11C estimated $ 8M. This example is one of the works that ensured the glory of Brancusi at the exhibition of the Armory Show in New York on the following year.
It is interesting to compare this specimen with a plaster from the same year entitled Une Muse where the head of the same model found a more traditional attitude as part of a bust. This sculpture 46 cm high was sold for $ 12.4 million including premium by Christie's on November 7, 2012.
1912 Interior with Daylights
2018 SOLD for $ 5M including premium
From 1899 Vilhelm and Ida Hammershøi live in an ancient high-ceilinged apartment in Strandgade 30. Studies of light and even of dust bring atmosphere and presence to the views of scarcely furnished rooms where sometimes the young woman appears quietly, often from behind, never in a narrative intention.
In 1909 the couple moves to a house in Bredgade 25, in another part of Copenhagen. In this short period that ends with a new move in 1913, Hammershøi seeks to renew his original creativity but exhausts his fragile health on female nude studies.
Dated 1910, an Interior with easel preserved at the National Gallery of Denmark shows a corner of an empty room in Bredgade, illuminated through a visible glass door on the left edge. The light projected on the dull wall is blurred. In this phase the artist experiments with the inclusion within grey of bright colors that are visible only by close inspection but contribute to the overall effect in the manner of the Impressionists.
In 1912 he paints an identical view that goes much further in the experimentation of lights like some tribute to the Dutch painters of the seventeenth century whom the artist admired.
The light of the beginning or end of the day comes from the same source but is here more sunny. Through an interior door, a similar light appears like an echo in a back room. Another luminous trace is visible on the floor, coming from a window out of field on the other side. The artist thus shows in a single view both the morning and evening lightings into the room where he has installed his easel, according to the new principles of multiple angles of the Futurism.
This seemingly simple composition is in fact a mystery to which the easel, already placed in the same position in 1910, contributes greatly. It is facing the wall, so we cannot see if a work is going on. The currently absent artist could only observe the other back wall, which we imagine as empty as the rest of the room.
This oil on canvas 78 x 70 cm is estimated $ 1.5M for sale by Christie's in New York on October 31, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In 1909 the couple moves to a house in Bredgade 25, in another part of Copenhagen. In this short period that ends with a new move in 1913, Hammershøi seeks to renew his original creativity but exhausts his fragile health on female nude studies.
Dated 1910, an Interior with easel preserved at the National Gallery of Denmark shows a corner of an empty room in Bredgade, illuminated through a visible glass door on the left edge. The light projected on the dull wall is blurred. In this phase the artist experiments with the inclusion within grey of bright colors that are visible only by close inspection but contribute to the overall effect in the manner of the Impressionists.
In 1912 he paints an identical view that goes much further in the experimentation of lights like some tribute to the Dutch painters of the seventeenth century whom the artist admired.
The light of the beginning or end of the day comes from the same source but is here more sunny. Through an interior door, a similar light appears like an echo in a back room. Another luminous trace is visible on the floor, coming from a window out of field on the other side. The artist thus shows in a single view both the morning and evening lightings into the room where he has installed his easel, according to the new principles of multiple angles of the Futurism.
This seemingly simple composition is in fact a mystery to which the easel, already placed in the same position in 1910, contributes greatly. It is facing the wall, so we cannot see if a work is going on. The currently absent artist could only observe the other back wall, which we imagine as empty as the rest of the room.
This oil on canvas 78 x 70 cm is estimated $ 1.5M for sale by Christie's in New York on October 31, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
#Bestof2018 #VilhelmHammershøi’s ‘Interior with an Easel, Bredgade 25’ – “The picture’s rarity and importance, coupled with the renewed market interest in 19th-century art, piqued the interest of 10 bidders and pushed the final price to $5,037,500”https://t.co/QxOvw7Ergg pic.twitter.com/TzYGzzMs5u
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) December 28, 2018
1912 Cyclo-Cubisme
2020 SOLD for £ 3M including premium
A new trend appears in 1910 at the Salon d'Automne. Several young painters confront their visions on a style that promotes form and imagination instead of realism and color. Le Fauconnier, who knows Kandinsky, is undoubtedly the most advanced at this stage.
Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger become the theorists of the group. The new designs apply a non-rational geometry, qualified as non-Euclidean, and are experimenting with a multiple perspective.
In 1911 the participation of these artists in the Salon des Indépendants causes scandal, in particular because their style diminishes the legibility of the image. The word Cubisme results from the comment of a detractor. To better prepare for the future, Gleizes and Metzinger publish in 1912 a book titled Du Cubisme, illustrated with photos of artworks by eleven artists. Cézanne appears as the precursor and Léger as the most important artist alongside the two authors.
Seminal innovations on the visualization of time in painting are carried out in 1912. The movement is broken down by Duchamp in Le Nu descendant un escalier et by Balla in Dinamismo di Un Cane.
This rapprochement of Duchamp with the ideas of Futurism displeases the Cubists. Metzinger, who appears to be the best unifier of cubism through his relationships with Braque, Picasso and Apollinaire, tries however new experiences.
Painted in 1912 by Metzinger, Au Vélodrome, oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm, features the winner of the Paris-Roubaix cycling race in the effort of the final sprint. This sport is well suited to this new aesthetic research because the action of the man on the bike immediately evokes movement, unlike the driver in the automobile.
Au Vélodrome returns to a single perspective but loses the unicity of time. The character fleetingly masked the background without annihilating it. The image offers the two views in an effect of retinal persistence, as if the cyclist were transparent.
Le Cycliste, painted in the same year with a similar surimpression, displays another cyclist in the attitude of a victory lap. Experts believe recognizing the mustache of Octave Lapize, three times winner of Paris-Roubaix from 1909 to 1911. This oil and sand on canvas 100 x 81 cm is estimated £ 1.5M to be sold by Sotheby's in London on February 4, lot 5.
Braque and Picasso are absent from public exhibitions in application of exclusivity contracts with Kahnweiler. They will claim from 1914 to have been the creators of the Cubisme.
Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger become the theorists of the group. The new designs apply a non-rational geometry, qualified as non-Euclidean, and are experimenting with a multiple perspective.
In 1911 the participation of these artists in the Salon des Indépendants causes scandal, in particular because their style diminishes the legibility of the image. The word Cubisme results from the comment of a detractor. To better prepare for the future, Gleizes and Metzinger publish in 1912 a book titled Du Cubisme, illustrated with photos of artworks by eleven artists. Cézanne appears as the precursor and Léger as the most important artist alongside the two authors.
Seminal innovations on the visualization of time in painting are carried out in 1912. The movement is broken down by Duchamp in Le Nu descendant un escalier et by Balla in Dinamismo di Un Cane.
This rapprochement of Duchamp with the ideas of Futurism displeases the Cubists. Metzinger, who appears to be the best unifier of cubism through his relationships with Braque, Picasso and Apollinaire, tries however new experiences.
Painted in 1912 by Metzinger, Au Vélodrome, oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm, features the winner of the Paris-Roubaix cycling race in the effort of the final sprint. This sport is well suited to this new aesthetic research because the action of the man on the bike immediately evokes movement, unlike the driver in the automobile.
Au Vélodrome returns to a single perspective but loses the unicity of time. The character fleetingly masked the background without annihilating it. The image offers the two views in an effect of retinal persistence, as if the cyclist were transparent.
Le Cycliste, painted in the same year with a similar surimpression, displays another cyclist in the attitude of a victory lap. Experts believe recognizing the mustache of Octave Lapize, three times winner of Paris-Roubaix from 1909 to 1911. This oil and sand on canvas 100 x 81 cm is estimated £ 1.5M to be sold by Sotheby's in London on February 4, lot 5.
Braque and Picasso are absent from public exhibitions in application of exclusivity contracts with Kahnweiler. They will claim from 1914 to have been the creators of the Cubisme.
1912 Die Brücke in the Peat Bogs
2013 SOLD for € 2.7M including premium by Villa Grisebach
2018 UNSOLD
PRE 2018 SALE DISCUSSION
The group Die Brücke was founded in 1905 by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Fritz Bleyl and Erich Heckel. These young people want to change the life by taking inspiration from the original nature and they practice the nudism which becomes a major theme of their art.
Schmidt-Rottluff and Heckel spend their summer time in Dangast, a small spa near the North Sea. The region had preserved peat bogs that provide the young artists with the idea of what Mother Earth was in the prehistoric times of the appearance of life.
Artistic movements evolve quickly. Fauvism develops in parallel with the expressionism of Die Brücke which will gives way to the symbolic colors of the group Der Blaue Reiter with which Schmidt-Rottluff exhibits in 1912.
The oil on canvas 77 x 84 cm titled Watt bei Ebbe (peat bogs at low tide) painted by Schmidt-Rottluff in 1912 is at the confluence of these trends. The saturated colors are dominated by the red and orange of sky and water. The landscape is animated by a few sails and their reflections. The simplicity of the drawing evokes the period of Gauguin in Brittany.
This painting was sold for € 2.7M including premium by Villa Grisebach on November 28, 2013. It is estimated £ 2M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 28, lot 12.
The Die Brücke movement is already out of date. It will be dissolved in 1913. Schmidt-Rottluff's art will become rare as a result of its persecution by the Nazis.
The group Die Brücke was founded in 1905 by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Fritz Bleyl and Erich Heckel. These young people want to change the life by taking inspiration from the original nature and they practice the nudism which becomes a major theme of their art.
Schmidt-Rottluff and Heckel spend their summer time in Dangast, a small spa near the North Sea. The region had preserved peat bogs that provide the young artists with the idea of what Mother Earth was in the prehistoric times of the appearance of life.
Artistic movements evolve quickly. Fauvism develops in parallel with the expressionism of Die Brücke which will gives way to the symbolic colors of the group Der Blaue Reiter with which Schmidt-Rottluff exhibits in 1912.
The oil on canvas 77 x 84 cm titled Watt bei Ebbe (peat bogs at low tide) painted by Schmidt-Rottluff in 1912 is at the confluence of these trends. The saturated colors are dominated by the red and orange of sky and water. The landscape is animated by a few sails and their reflections. The simplicity of the drawing evokes the period of Gauguin in Brittany.
This painting was sold for € 2.7M including premium by Villa Grisebach on November 28, 2013. It is estimated £ 2M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 28, lot 12.
The Die Brücke movement is already out of date. It will be dissolved in 1913. Schmidt-Rottluff's art will become rare as a result of its persecution by the Nazis.
1912 Fauve Totem Poles by Emily Carr
2016 SOLD for $ 1.06M CAD including premium
Emily Carr was born in British Columbia. Her art unique in its kind comes from a similarly intense curiosity for the avant-gardes and for tribal ethnography.
Emily visits the coastal villages each year from 1908 to 1910 and realizes watercolors according to the good practice of the explorers. She takes her drawings with her for a training trip to France where she is in relationship for two years with the modern artists.
She is immediately interested in Fauvism, appreciated by her as an opportunity for an artist to interpret a scene in his or her own way, according to his or her own vision and temperament. She reinterprets her American watercolors into oils on canvas.
Emily's visits had included 'Yalis (in English: Alert Bay), a traditional despite recently created village. The Kwakwaka'wakw people often referred to with the less unpronounceable Kwakiutl name use some technological advances brought by white settlers while maintaining the traditional autonomy increasingly threatened by the growing progress of communications. The tallest totem pole in the world, 53 meters high, is currently in Alert Bay.
On November 23 in Toronto, Heffel sells an oil on canvas 65 x 47 cm painted by Emily Carr just before or just after her return to British Columbia in 1912, lot 261 estimated CAD $ 900K shown on the last page in the flyer announcing the sale.
The influence of Fauvism provides the additional mystical dimension desired by the artist. Compared with the watercolor that served as its model the line is simplified. The unreal colors express the sunshine flooding the street and turn into a ghost divinity the deliberately enlarged welcoming figure in the foreground.
High totem poles are frontally aligned before the facades of the white houses. The nearest pole has near its base a huge protruding head of a thunderbird with closed beak. We know through the essay by the auctioneer that a mechanism opening the beak offers an access inside the house. Only one visitor at a time could cross that ramp, for security : the Kwakiutl chiefs certainly had good reasons to be wary.
Emily visits the coastal villages each year from 1908 to 1910 and realizes watercolors according to the good practice of the explorers. She takes her drawings with her for a training trip to France where she is in relationship for two years with the modern artists.
She is immediately interested in Fauvism, appreciated by her as an opportunity for an artist to interpret a scene in his or her own way, according to his or her own vision and temperament. She reinterprets her American watercolors into oils on canvas.
Emily's visits had included 'Yalis (in English: Alert Bay), a traditional despite recently created village. The Kwakwaka'wakw people often referred to with the less unpronounceable Kwakiutl name use some technological advances brought by white settlers while maintaining the traditional autonomy increasingly threatened by the growing progress of communications. The tallest totem pole in the world, 53 meters high, is currently in Alert Bay.
On November 23 in Toronto, Heffel sells an oil on canvas 65 x 47 cm painted by Emily Carr just before or just after her return to British Columbia in 1912, lot 261 estimated CAD $ 900K shown on the last page in the flyer announcing the sale.
The influence of Fauvism provides the additional mystical dimension desired by the artist. Compared with the watercolor that served as its model the line is simplified. The unreal colors express the sunshine flooding the street and turn into a ghost divinity the deliberately enlarged welcoming figure in the foreground.
High totem poles are frontally aligned before the facades of the white houses. The nearest pole has near its base a huge protruding head of a thunderbird with closed beak. We know through the essay by the auctioneer that a mechanism opening the beak offers an access inside the house. Only one visitor at a time could cross that ramp, for security : the Kwakiutl chiefs certainly had good reasons to be wary.
Happy Halloween! If you're in Vancouver, stop by our live auction preview before trick-or-treating. We're at 2247 Granville St. from 11-6! pic.twitter.com/FWHiuGjYZd
— Heffel (@HeffelAuction) October 31, 2016
1912 Favour for Flowers
2009 SOLD 800 K$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The rose is a natural wonder and a puzzle for artists because of the complexity of its details and of its color shades.
Since the seventeenth century painters are striving to represent them in vases or thrown into a basket. Possibly accompanied by other flowers, roses were then the glory of Ambrosius Bosschaert, Abraham Mignon, Jan Davidsz de Heem, mostly in vertical compositions.
In the nineteenth century, Henri Fantin-Latour introduces more complex compositions in a horizontal viewing. On 7 November 2007, Sotheby's sold a basket of roses by this artist, 53x65 cm, $ 1.6 million including expenses. It was beautifully presented on a light background. On a dark background, a similar work, 62x74 cm, was sold 740 K € premium included on June 17 in Paris by Mathias.
In California, the specialist of painting roses was Franz Bischoff. On August 3 in Los Angeles, Bonhams and Butterfields is selling one of his compositions made in 1912, 100x125 cm. Roses are divided into two groups, in a vase and thrown from a basket. The originality of this lot is that the vase which served as a model is sold with the painting.
The expected price, $ 600 K, appears to be high for this artist.
POST SALE COMMENT
Very good result for this painting: $ 675 K without fees, $ 800 K premium included. Bischoff does not have the reputation of Fantin-Latour, but the quality of his work was acknowledged in the market.
The rose is a natural wonder and a puzzle for artists because of the complexity of its details and of its color shades.
Since the seventeenth century painters are striving to represent them in vases or thrown into a basket. Possibly accompanied by other flowers, roses were then the glory of Ambrosius Bosschaert, Abraham Mignon, Jan Davidsz de Heem, mostly in vertical compositions.
In the nineteenth century, Henri Fantin-Latour introduces more complex compositions in a horizontal viewing. On 7 November 2007, Sotheby's sold a basket of roses by this artist, 53x65 cm, $ 1.6 million including expenses. It was beautifully presented on a light background. On a dark background, a similar work, 62x74 cm, was sold 740 K € premium included on June 17 in Paris by Mathias.
In California, the specialist of painting roses was Franz Bischoff. On August 3 in Los Angeles, Bonhams and Butterfields is selling one of his compositions made in 1912, 100x125 cm. Roses are divided into two groups, in a vase and thrown from a basket. The originality of this lot is that the vase which served as a model is sold with the painting.
The expected price, $ 600 K, appears to be high for this artist.
POST SALE COMMENT
Very good result for this painting: $ 675 K without fees, $ 800 K premium included. Bischoff does not have the reputation of Fantin-Latour, but the quality of his work was acknowledged in the market.
1912 The Soul of the Totems
2019 unsold
Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Emily Carr tries to study art in San Francisco and then in London, without much success. An eccentric, she has instead the temperament of an explorer. In 1907 with one of her sisters, she reaches Alaska after an intrepid trek through the wild forest on foot, horseback and canoe.
She discovers the totem poles during this first trip. Hypersensitive, she wants to understand why and how these gigantic carved masts were created, and what they mean.
Her art will be able to disclose this threatened culture that is unique in the world. She stays several times in Alert Bay, a village that has the advantage of being close enough to Vancouver. Entirely devoted to this new vocation, she leaves for Paris in 1910 to be introduced to the latest trends in modern painting. She appreciates how the saturated colors of Fauvism can reinforce the pictorial message.
Back in Canada, she copies her watercolors of Alert Bay into oils on canvas. This cannot satisfy her from the ethnographic point of view. Alert Bay certainly has the highest totem poles, but they are recent and therefore cannot provide Emily with an empathy with the spirit of the ancestors.
She makes another expedition in 1912, visiting fifteen villages in six weeks. The abandoned site of Skedans in the Queen Charlotte Islands is responding to her quest with a great row of totem poles by the sea. Most have been hollowed to insert a coffin. They are of varied heights, and nicely carved with human effigies and animal heads.
On November 19 in New York, Sotheby's sells a close-up view of the Skedans totem line painted by Emily Carr in 1912, lot 18 estimated $ 3M. The format of this oil on canvas, 90 x 148 cm, is very large for this artist. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Emily Carr was too much ahead of her time. Discouraged by the failure of an exhibition in Vancouver in 1913, she abandoned her artistic career until 1927. The next phase revisits in a powerful style the most typical symbols of her discoveries but without the enthusiastic freshness of the first trips.
She discovers the totem poles during this first trip. Hypersensitive, she wants to understand why and how these gigantic carved masts were created, and what they mean.
Her art will be able to disclose this threatened culture that is unique in the world. She stays several times in Alert Bay, a village that has the advantage of being close enough to Vancouver. Entirely devoted to this new vocation, she leaves for Paris in 1910 to be introduced to the latest trends in modern painting. She appreciates how the saturated colors of Fauvism can reinforce the pictorial message.
Back in Canada, she copies her watercolors of Alert Bay into oils on canvas. This cannot satisfy her from the ethnographic point of view. Alert Bay certainly has the highest totem poles, but they are recent and therefore cannot provide Emily with an empathy with the spirit of the ancestors.
She makes another expedition in 1912, visiting fifteen villages in six weeks. The abandoned site of Skedans in the Queen Charlotte Islands is responding to her quest with a great row of totem poles by the sea. Most have been hollowed to insert a coffin. They are of varied heights, and nicely carved with human effigies and animal heads.
On November 19 in New York, Sotheby's sells a close-up view of the Skedans totem line painted by Emily Carr in 1912, lot 18 estimated $ 3M. The format of this oil on canvas, 90 x 148 cm, is very large for this artist. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Emily Carr was too much ahead of her time. Discouraged by the failure of an exhibition in Vancouver in 1913, she abandoned her artistic career until 1927. The next phase revisits in a powerful style the most typical symbols of her discoveries but without the enthusiastic freshness of the first trips.
1912 under the sky of el greco
2017 unsold
During his first stay in Europe, Diego Rivera had been dazzled by Cézanne's art as the opening to an unrestricted creativity. He came back in 1912 after a return trip to Mexico where the government had renewed his scholarship.
Staying in Spain, Diego observes the timeless character of El Greco's art. Hostile to Christian mysticism, he tries a modern application of the solutions found by El Greco. The great hagiographer painter of the late sixteenth century had never revealed if he had religious beliefs. This certainly suits Diego, an ardent socialist activist and the descendant of a Jewish family forcibly converted to Catholicism.
Diego painted in 1912 a view of Toledo in a direct imitation of El Greco. In the same year he found in the 23 years old Spanish binder Hermenegildo Alsina the elegant and long-limbed young man of very tall stature who could be a modern incarnation of the mystical characters by El Greco. His umbrella supersedes the holy cross.
On November 21 in New York, Sotheby's sells Retrato de un español, oil on canvas 199 x 165 cm painted by Diego Rivera in 1912, lot 7 estimated $ 3M. The man is standing in life size in front of a tormented sky in the style of El Greco and of the low horizon of an arid Spanish landscape.
After this very short period inspired by El Greco, Diego participates from the following year in the modernist Cubist researches.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Staying in Spain, Diego observes the timeless character of El Greco's art. Hostile to Christian mysticism, he tries a modern application of the solutions found by El Greco. The great hagiographer painter of the late sixteenth century had never revealed if he had religious beliefs. This certainly suits Diego, an ardent socialist activist and the descendant of a Jewish family forcibly converted to Catholicism.
Diego painted in 1912 a view of Toledo in a direct imitation of El Greco. In the same year he found in the 23 years old Spanish binder Hermenegildo Alsina the elegant and long-limbed young man of very tall stature who could be a modern incarnation of the mystical characters by El Greco. His umbrella supersedes the holy cross.
On November 21 in New York, Sotheby's sells Retrato de un español, oil on canvas 199 x 165 cm painted by Diego Rivera in 1912, lot 7 estimated $ 3M. The man is standing in life size in front of a tormented sky in the style of El Greco and of the low horizon of an arid Spanish landscape.
After this very short period inspired by El Greco, Diego participates from the following year in the modernist Cubist researches.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1912 THE SIMULTANEOUS NUDES OF MARCEL DUCHAMP
2009 UNSOLD
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
In 1912, the limelights of art were accessible to young artists. Aged 25 years only, Marcel Duchamp disrupts not only all the traditions but also the avant-gardes.
Early that year, he made his first major breakthrough, brilliantly, with the Nude Descending a Staircase. It went fully against the Cubism, that was looking for volume. For Duchamp, the fourth dimension is movement. His character is shown several times on this painting. His human body shape is imprecise, but the different positions attest to the human attitude in motion.
Nobody had such thoughts before him. This work relies on the photographic analysis of movement by Muybridge and Marey, but transparency and blur of the body comes from the X-ray pictures, known for less than twenty years.
Also Duchamp intends to scandal, or at least to do the opposite of all his contemporaries. It is encouraging him to prepare immediately his next work, The King and Queen surrounded by swift nudes.
Here, several characters are each shown only once, but they intermingle in the positions which, according to the artist, are suggesting the movement. The impact was less, but the first preparatory drawing, 32 x 40 cm, is an important indicator of awareness of the movement by graphic artists. The handwritten title of the drawing (2 naked, one strong and one swift) indicates that Duchamp had not yet chosen the title of his future artwork. It is to be sold by Christie's in London on June 23 The estimate, 800 K£, is conservative.
Shaken by Picasso, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Malevich and all those who were immediately inspired by these pioneers, the art world got in those years an irreversible trend, and an incredible surge of creativity.
In 1912, the limelights of art were accessible to young artists. Aged 25 years only, Marcel Duchamp disrupts not only all the traditions but also the avant-gardes.
Early that year, he made his first major breakthrough, brilliantly, with the Nude Descending a Staircase. It went fully against the Cubism, that was looking for volume. For Duchamp, the fourth dimension is movement. His character is shown several times on this painting. His human body shape is imprecise, but the different positions attest to the human attitude in motion.
Nobody had such thoughts before him. This work relies on the photographic analysis of movement by Muybridge and Marey, but transparency and blur of the body comes from the X-ray pictures, known for less than twenty years.
Also Duchamp intends to scandal, or at least to do the opposite of all his contemporaries. It is encouraging him to prepare immediately his next work, The King and Queen surrounded by swift nudes.
Here, several characters are each shown only once, but they intermingle in the positions which, according to the artist, are suggesting the movement. The impact was less, but the first preparatory drawing, 32 x 40 cm, is an important indicator of awareness of the movement by graphic artists. The handwritten title of the drawing (2 naked, one strong and one swift) indicates that Duchamp had not yet chosen the title of his future artwork. It is to be sold by Christie's in London on June 23 The estimate, 800 K£, is conservative.
Shaken by Picasso, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Malevich and all those who were immediately inspired by these pioneers, the art world got in those years an irreversible trend, and an incredible surge of creativity.
1913 The Truth about Ariadne
2020 SOLD for $ 16M including premium
The Greek mythology is an enigmatic poetry. The myth of Ariadne, mixing life and death, past and present, truth and dream, inspired Nietzsche. A granddaughter of Zeus, she is a mortal princess and the half-sister of the Minotaur. She dies when Theseus abandons her, but the ancient accounts are contradictory. She is the complement or the antithesis of Dionysus who may have married her. An allegory of vegetation, she will be reborn in spring.
In 1910 Giorgio de Chirico conceives that painting can display the indistinguishable and the revelation. In 1912 and 1913, he devotes eight works to Ariadne's final sleep in Naxos, when she did not yet know that Theseus had fled.
The piazza is huge and deserted. Ariadne is a recumbent in marble symbolizing loneliness, but the position of the arms evokes sleep and life. The late afternoon brings the mysterious threat of shadows. The piazza is closed by an antique brick tomb but personal symbols of the artist, the train and the boat, are still beyond.
Il Pomeriggio di Arianna, painted in 1913, is the dreamlike culmination of the series. Ariadne is almost androgynous. The brick tower, as vertiginous as a skyscraper, is flanked by a broken column of similar height. This oil on canvas 135 x 65 cm is estimated $ 10M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on October 28, lot 115.
De Chirico brought a metaphysical dimension to symbolism. His Ariadne series anticipates surrealism in substance, through recourse to the psyche, and in form, through deliberately contradictory elements. Especially in Il Pomeriggio, the inverted perspective of the stele reminds the foreshortening of the Dead Christ by Mantegna.
In 1910 Giorgio de Chirico conceives that painting can display the indistinguishable and the revelation. In 1912 and 1913, he devotes eight works to Ariadne's final sleep in Naxos, when she did not yet know that Theseus had fled.
The piazza is huge and deserted. Ariadne is a recumbent in marble symbolizing loneliness, but the position of the arms evokes sleep and life. The late afternoon brings the mysterious threat of shadows. The piazza is closed by an antique brick tomb but personal symbols of the artist, the train and the boat, are still beyond.
Il Pomeriggio di Arianna, painted in 1913, is the dreamlike culmination of the series. Ariadne is almost androgynous. The brick tower, as vertiginous as a skyscraper, is flanked by a broken column of similar height. This oil on canvas 135 x 65 cm is estimated $ 10M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on October 28, lot 115.
De Chirico brought a metaphysical dimension to symbolism. His Ariadne series anticipates surrealism in substance, through recourse to the psyche, and in form, through deliberately contradictory elements. Especially in Il Pomeriggio, the inverted perspective of the stele reminds the foreshortening of the Dead Christ by Mantegna.
1913 Balla in the Fourth Dimension
2013 SOLD 11.5 M$ including premium
The wonder of the time is the car, and the new art must express up to excess the feeling of extreme power brought by speed. Defined in 1909, the Italian Futurist movement goes to advocate violence in literature and art.
In 1912, Giacomo Balla had already transposed in painting the experiments of chronophotography, but too softly in the opinion of his futurist fellows. This is also in the same year that Duchamp painted his Nu descendant un escalier.
Automobile in corsa , oil and ink on paper 74 x 104 cm, throws him in full speed in 1913 into the new trend at such a point that he is now signing Futur Balla.
The car is essentially limited to the unlimited vortex of the successive positions of the wheels. The ghost vehicle moves in an open space whose characteristic is to have multiple vanishing points. The purpose of the composition is to show the strength of the motion in a kind of fourth dimension.
As spontaneous as a drawing, this work in black, gray and white is also a tribute to photography, which had been the first art that dared breaking the motion.
Automobile in corsa is estimated $ 12M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 6. Here is the link to the catalog.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's on Balla's Futurism.
POST SALE COMMENT
This artwork on paper is a beautiful and rare witness of the boldness of the avant-gardes at the dawn of modern art. It was sold for $ 11.5 million including premium.
In 1912, Giacomo Balla had already transposed in painting the experiments of chronophotography, but too softly in the opinion of his futurist fellows. This is also in the same year that Duchamp painted his Nu descendant un escalier.
Automobile in corsa , oil and ink on paper 74 x 104 cm, throws him in full speed in 1913 into the new trend at such a point that he is now signing Futur Balla.
The car is essentially limited to the unlimited vortex of the successive positions of the wheels. The ghost vehicle moves in an open space whose characteristic is to have multiple vanishing points. The purpose of the composition is to show the strength of the motion in a kind of fourth dimension.
As spontaneous as a drawing, this work in black, gray and white is also a tribute to photography, which had been the first art that dared breaking the motion.
Automobile in corsa is estimated $ 12M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 6. Here is the link to the catalog.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's on Balla's Futurism.
POST SALE COMMENT
This artwork on paper is a beautiful and rare witness of the boldness of the avant-gardes at the dawn of modern art. It was sold for $ 11.5 million including premium.
1913 Group of Nudes in the Woods
2017 SOLD for £ 5.5M including premium
The artistic movement Die Brücke was founded in 1905 by four German students. Life must influence art but also art has to change the way of life. Outdoor naturism is a symbol of paradise, an invitation to reject the bourgeois inhibitions and also a preparation for the torrid sexuality of the interior scenes.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is the most active of the group. Residing in Berlin since 1911 he cannot adapt to the conditions of life in the big city. With his friends and their female companions, they spend much of summer in tents or huts and practice an integral nudity in daily occupations, recreational bathing, play and art, in accordance with the Freikörperkultur theories.
On March 1 in London, Sotheby's sells Vier Akte unter Bäumen, oil on canvas 120 x 90 cm painted in 1913, lot 14 estimated £ 3.5M.
The scene stages four nudes in the woods, three of them in full frontal position not hiding the sex. The man is a self-portrait. The three women around him display a varied maturity that unquestionably evokes the Judgment of Paris. In the freedom of the life that he desires, Ernst Ludwig will invite whoever woman he prefers. The youngest is nicely approaching from behind.
This painting is executed with thick lines and a wild color of the naked skins attesting to the influence of Matisse whose artistic advances were much appreciated by these young people. The simplified style of bodies and heads also evokes the stylization of tribal art six years after the breakthrough of Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is the most active of the group. Residing in Berlin since 1911 he cannot adapt to the conditions of life in the big city. With his friends and their female companions, they spend much of summer in tents or huts and practice an integral nudity in daily occupations, recreational bathing, play and art, in accordance with the Freikörperkultur theories.
On March 1 in London, Sotheby's sells Vier Akte unter Bäumen, oil on canvas 120 x 90 cm painted in 1913, lot 14 estimated £ 3.5M.
The scene stages four nudes in the woods, three of them in full frontal position not hiding the sex. The man is a self-portrait. The three women around him display a varied maturity that unquestionably evokes the Judgment of Paris. In the freedom of the life that he desires, Ernst Ludwig will invite whoever woman he prefers. The youngest is nicely approaching from behind.
This painting is executed with thick lines and a wild color of the naked skins attesting to the influence of Matisse whose artistic advances were much appreciated by these young people. The simplified style of bodies and heads also evokes the stylization of tribal art six years after the breakthrough of Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon.
#Kirchner’s primary concern was the representation of the human form in its most primitive or uninhibited state https://t.co/KiribF0jrW pic.twitter.com/DrRF8VXcje
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) February 28, 2017
1913 Expressionism in the Streets of Berlin
2009 SOLD 5.4 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
1913. You know, it's one of my preferred periods of art history.
In Berlin, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner painted street scenes. Passers-by are there, but what are they looking for? Like Munch, but with vibrant colors, he does not show anything else than their anguish. Kirchner came from Dresden. His vision of Berlin is a terrible expression of the anonymity of people in large cities. At the next generation, Giacometti had the same kind of inspiration for his bronzes.
The best known painting by Kirchner on this topic, 120 x 91 cm, is at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Sotheby's said in its press release that another painting, 121 x 95 cm, was sold $ 38 million in 2006.
The oil on canvas that Sotheby's sells in London on February 3 is smaller, 70 x 51 cm, but it would be the last of this 1913 series still in private hands. Sotheby's already knew it: they sold it 1.9 million pounds in 1997. That was before the craze of buyers for expressionism, characterized by spectacular auction results also recorded on Jawlensky and Marc. Now this painting is estimated 5 million pounds.
POST SALE COMMENT
The major lots still get buyers. The result, £ 5.4 million including premium, confirms my observation on the growing enthusiasm for expressionism.
1913. You know, it's one of my preferred periods of art history.
In Berlin, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner painted street scenes. Passers-by are there, but what are they looking for? Like Munch, but with vibrant colors, he does not show anything else than their anguish. Kirchner came from Dresden. His vision of Berlin is a terrible expression of the anonymity of people in large cities. At the next generation, Giacometti had the same kind of inspiration for his bronzes.
The best known painting by Kirchner on this topic, 120 x 91 cm, is at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Sotheby's said in its press release that another painting, 121 x 95 cm, was sold $ 38 million in 2006.
The oil on canvas that Sotheby's sells in London on February 3 is smaller, 70 x 51 cm, but it would be the last of this 1913 series still in private hands. Sotheby's already knew it: they sold it 1.9 million pounds in 1997. That was before the craze of buyers for expressionism, characterized by spectacular auction results also recorded on Jawlensky and Marc. Now this painting is estimated 5 million pounds.
POST SALE COMMENT
The major lots still get buyers. The result, £ 5.4 million including premium, confirms my observation on the growing enthusiasm for expressionism.
1913 Swiss Lakes by Hodler
2010 SOLD 2.32 MCHF including premium
Hodler's paintings are all alike, and yet they are all different. There is a lake, sometimes with some vegetation, an imposing range of mountains on the horizon, the reflection of the mountains in the lake, maybe a few clouds.
As Lawren Harris in Canada, Ferdinand Hodler knows that nature is a perfect mathematician. His line is simple, without care for details. Indeed his subtle colors provide an undeniable feeling of presence to his works.
In Zurich, fans of Hodler's lakescapes are lucky in this June, as two oils on canvas have already gone to auction, and a third one is awaited.
Both sold paintings show Lake Geneva about 1911, with a structured composition that anticipates by four decades Diebenkorn's abstract landscapes. On June 7, Christie's has registered 2.6 MCHF including premium on its piece, 46 x 57 cm, followed on June 14 by Sotheby's with CHF 4 million including premium for a larger work, 71 x 90 cm.
On June 24, a view of Lake Thun executed circa 1913, 63 x 86 cm, is estimated at 2.6 MCHF at Koller. The mountain is stylized but expressive. The highest point in the center of the composition provides a start for symmetry perfected by its reflection in the water of the lake.
POST SALE COMMENT
The lake landscape sold by Koller was nice, but it was the most realistic and therefore the least poetic of the three. It was sold 2 million CHF excluding fees.
As Lawren Harris in Canada, Ferdinand Hodler knows that nature is a perfect mathematician. His line is simple, without care for details. Indeed his subtle colors provide an undeniable feeling of presence to his works.
In Zurich, fans of Hodler's lakescapes are lucky in this June, as two oils on canvas have already gone to auction, and a third one is awaited.
Both sold paintings show Lake Geneva about 1911, with a structured composition that anticipates by four decades Diebenkorn's abstract landscapes. On June 7, Christie's has registered 2.6 MCHF including premium on its piece, 46 x 57 cm, followed on June 14 by Sotheby's with CHF 4 million including premium for a larger work, 71 x 90 cm.
On June 24, a view of Lake Thun executed circa 1913, 63 x 86 cm, is estimated at 2.6 MCHF at Koller. The mountain is stylized but expressive. The highest point in the center of the composition provides a start for symmetry perfected by its reflection in the water of the lake.
POST SALE COMMENT
The lake landscape sold by Koller was nice, but it was the most realistic and therefore the least poetic of the three. It was sold 2 million CHF excluding fees.
1913 The new woman by Fernand Léger
2019 unsold
Cubism was born in 1911 in Puteaux around the Duchamp brothers. Modern life is intense, to the rhythm of automobiles, planes and machines. The realistic figuration is now out of date.
The avant-gardes need a prophet. They find Cézanne's statement that nature can be represented by the cylinder, the cone and the sphere. The new art will be based on a grammar of elementary forms associated with pure colors. Each artist develops a personal style.
Fernand Léger is one of these pioneers of Cubism. He appreciates that if the composition becomes pre-eminent over the theme, painting can become an absolute art, free from sentimentalism and mysticism.
Cézanne had not reached abstraction. From 1912, for liberating his art from the influence of his predecessor, Léger indifferently applies his new pictorial grammar to a range of works between figurative and abstract. The title guides the observer to look for the form.
Femme en Bleu is almost abstract. Helped by the position of the sitter in La Dame en Bleu painted by Cézanne, the observer mentally reconstructs Léger's woman around her bright blue garment. A 130 x 97 cm variant dated 1912-1913 was sold for $ 39M including premium by Sotheby's on May 7, 2008.
Léger completes his post-Cézanne exorcism by preparing a few works with an abstract title, the series of Contrastes de Formes, which are his contribution to the birth of non-figurative art. An oil on burlap 92 x 73 cm painted in 1913 was sold for $ 70M including premium by Christie's on November 13, 2017.
The rejection of the narrative does not prevent the expression of life. Femme dans un fauteuil, oil on burlap 81 x 100 cm painted in 1913, looks at first glance like a Contraste de Formes but becomes readable by a moderate effort. It will be sold by Christie's in London on June 18, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The avant-gardes need a prophet. They find Cézanne's statement that nature can be represented by the cylinder, the cone and the sphere. The new art will be based on a grammar of elementary forms associated with pure colors. Each artist develops a personal style.
Fernand Léger is one of these pioneers of Cubism. He appreciates that if the composition becomes pre-eminent over the theme, painting can become an absolute art, free from sentimentalism and mysticism.
Cézanne had not reached abstraction. From 1912, for liberating his art from the influence of his predecessor, Léger indifferently applies his new pictorial grammar to a range of works between figurative and abstract. The title guides the observer to look for the form.
Femme en Bleu is almost abstract. Helped by the position of the sitter in La Dame en Bleu painted by Cézanne, the observer mentally reconstructs Léger's woman around her bright blue garment. A 130 x 97 cm variant dated 1912-1913 was sold for $ 39M including premium by Sotheby's on May 7, 2008.
Léger completes his post-Cézanne exorcism by preparing a few works with an abstract title, the series of Contrastes de Formes, which are his contribution to the birth of non-figurative art. An oil on burlap 92 x 73 cm painted in 1913 was sold for $ 70M including premium by Christie's on November 13, 2017.
The rejection of the narrative does not prevent the expression of life. Femme dans un fauteuil, oil on burlap 81 x 100 cm painted in 1913, looks at first glance like a Contraste de Formes but becomes readable by a moderate effort. It will be sold by Christie's in London on June 18, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1913 The European Trip by Hartley of Maine
2018 unsold
Marsden Hartley is a landscape painter in his native Maine, in a simplified style that interests Stieglitz. By dedicating a solo exhibition to him at Gallery 291 in 1909, Stieglitz identifies him significantly as Mr Marsden Hartley of Maine, but he will give him all the relevant information about the European avant-gardes.
Hartley leaves for Paris in April 1912. He meets Gertrude and Leo Stein, Picasso, Delaunay, Kupka and the others. It is in Paris that he falls in love with a young Prussian officer. He is initiated by his group of German friends to the spiritual arts of Kandinsky and of the Blaue Reiter and settles durably in Berlin.
Subject to all the influences as if he were still looking at 36 years old to construct his maturity, he is dazzled by Berlin which exudes a warm atmosphere so different from his cold former American landscapes and where young soldiers symbolize a vigorous homosexuality.
In Berlin, Hartley's art becomes abstract, with geometric shapes inspired by military parades. Explosive energies interact with a dominant figure that is a triangle or a mandorla and can represent the artist himself. The other elements may also be interpreted in many ways in the manner of Kandinsky's growing hermeticism and the shocks of colors are certainly influenced by Franz Marc.
On November 12 in New York, Sotheby's sells as lot 28 a Pre-War Pageant, oil on canvas painted in 1913, 106 x 86 cm including its artist's frame. The September 14 press release announces an estimate in the region of $ 30M.
Seeking happiness and wanting to express his introspection, Hartley does not appear as pro-German but as a naive, probably amazed by the realization of his own homosexuality. He did not understand in time that the pageants were preparing the war and hurriedly left Germany at the end of 1915.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's (below).
Hartley leaves for Paris in April 1912. He meets Gertrude and Leo Stein, Picasso, Delaunay, Kupka and the others. It is in Paris that he falls in love with a young Prussian officer. He is initiated by his group of German friends to the spiritual arts of Kandinsky and of the Blaue Reiter and settles durably in Berlin.
Subject to all the influences as if he were still looking at 36 years old to construct his maturity, he is dazzled by Berlin which exudes a warm atmosphere so different from his cold former American landscapes and where young soldiers symbolize a vigorous homosexuality.
In Berlin, Hartley's art becomes abstract, with geometric shapes inspired by military parades. Explosive energies interact with a dominant figure that is a triangle or a mandorla and can represent the artist himself. The other elements may also be interpreted in many ways in the manner of Kandinsky's growing hermeticism and the shocks of colors are certainly influenced by Franz Marc.
On November 12 in New York, Sotheby's sells as lot 28 a Pre-War Pageant, oil on canvas painted in 1913, 106 x 86 cm including its artist's frame. The September 14 press release announces an estimate in the region of $ 30M.
Seeking happiness and wanting to express his introspection, Hartley does not appear as pro-German but as a naive, probably amazed by the realization of his own homosexuality. He did not understand in time that the pageants were preparing the war and hurriedly left Germany at the end of 1915.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's (below).
Sotheby’s Unveils $30m Marsden Hartley Berlin Abstract https://t.co/3poefr48dF pic.twitter.com/BKSSMBj4uT
— Art Market Monitor (@artmarket) September 14, 2018
1913-1914 The Laurentian Hills
2016 SOLD for $ 2.2M CAD including premium
An amateur artist at his beginning, Lawren Stewart Harris is a tourist enjoying the landscapes. He spends an increasing time in animating the artistic life of Toronto. He has the fertile intuition of new opportunities for Canadian art when visiting an exhibition of Scandinavian art in 1913 in Buffalo : these views of the far north could have been done in Canada.
An intense creative phase starts as a friendly competition between Harris and A.Y. Jackson. The landscape will be more expressive if the colors are vibrant and laid on the canvas in high speed.
Harris takes as a model one of his own views of the Laurentians, painted in 1908. The dry rocks dotting the surface and the dead trees at the top of the hill bring an illusion of bitterness that art can accentuate. He reinterprets it in his workshop in 1913 or 1914 with autumn colors and a bright blue sky threatened by stylized clouds in a sharp white.
This new oil on canvas 77 x 89 cm is one of the founding works of this group of friends which will take in 1920 the name of Group of Seven. It is estimated $ 1.2M CAD for sale by Heffel in Vancouver on May 25, lot 142. It is illustrated in the flyerannouncing the sale.
Becoming the painter of ice and cold, Harris will be along with Tom Thomson the first great artist of the Canadian artistic differentiation.
An intense creative phase starts as a friendly competition between Harris and A.Y. Jackson. The landscape will be more expressive if the colors are vibrant and laid on the canvas in high speed.
Harris takes as a model one of his own views of the Laurentians, painted in 1908. The dry rocks dotting the surface and the dead trees at the top of the hill bring an illusion of bitterness that art can accentuate. He reinterprets it in his workshop in 1913 or 1914 with autumn colors and a bright blue sky threatened by stylized clouds in a sharp white.
This new oil on canvas 77 x 89 cm is one of the founding works of this group of friends which will take in 1920 the name of Group of Seven. It is estimated $ 1.2M CAD for sale by Heffel in Vancouver on May 25, lot 142. It is illustrated in the flyerannouncing the sale.
Becoming the painter of ice and cold, Harris will be along with Tom Thomson the first great artist of the Canadian artistic differentiation.
1914 Gothic Cubism by Feininger
2014 SOLD for £ 4.8M including premium by Christie's
2019 WITHDRAWN
PRE 2019 SALE DISCUSSION
Born in New York to a couple of musicians, Lyonel Feininger arrives in Europe at the age of 16. Interested in the graphic arts, he is at first a cartoonist, in the taste of his time for the lengthening of the bodies and the expressionist gesticulation.
To better express his feelings, he becomes an artist from 1907, at 36 years old. He lives in Berlin but finds his inspiration in Weimar where his second wife Julia has just finished her studies. The quiet little town is their promised land, their common discovery.
Lyonel is interested in all the avant-gardes to develop his own style. He is altogether close to Die Brücke, Der Blaue Reiter and Cubism. Unlike cubists in Paris, his approach is not constructivist but emotional. The view of a church only concerns him if it can transfer his psychological stimuli.
In 1913 Lyonel instals his easel on the Gothic bridge of Ober-Weimar. With the prismatic cubism, the small bridge becomes a majestic monument that exalts a moment of happiness. The light hues contrast with the gaudy colors with which the artist is accustomed to express an excitement. The oil on canvas Brücke I is kept at the University of St. Louis.
At the beginning of winter 1914-1915 Feininger retrieves his bridge. Now he exults to feel an artistic fullness that answers his questions. Brücke II, oil on canvas 81 x 101 cm, is painted in a cubism similar to Brücke I with the same pleasant tones. The angle of view is however different : absent from Brücke I, the roadway is a path of light that leads to hope.
Brücke II was sold for £ 4.8M including premium by Christie's on February 4, 2014 over a lower estimate of £ 2M. It is estimated £ 4M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 26, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
It is relevant to compare Feininger with Kandinsky. Both are inspired by music to define an absolute art. Weimar is the Murnau of Feininger. After the war both will teach for many years at the Bauhaus.
Born in New York to a couple of musicians, Lyonel Feininger arrives in Europe at the age of 16. Interested in the graphic arts, he is at first a cartoonist, in the taste of his time for the lengthening of the bodies and the expressionist gesticulation.
To better express his feelings, he becomes an artist from 1907, at 36 years old. He lives in Berlin but finds his inspiration in Weimar where his second wife Julia has just finished her studies. The quiet little town is their promised land, their common discovery.
Lyonel is interested in all the avant-gardes to develop his own style. He is altogether close to Die Brücke, Der Blaue Reiter and Cubism. Unlike cubists in Paris, his approach is not constructivist but emotional. The view of a church only concerns him if it can transfer his psychological stimuli.
In 1913 Lyonel instals his easel on the Gothic bridge of Ober-Weimar. With the prismatic cubism, the small bridge becomes a majestic monument that exalts a moment of happiness. The light hues contrast with the gaudy colors with which the artist is accustomed to express an excitement. The oil on canvas Brücke I is kept at the University of St. Louis.
At the beginning of winter 1914-1915 Feininger retrieves his bridge. Now he exults to feel an artistic fullness that answers his questions. Brücke II, oil on canvas 81 x 101 cm, is painted in a cubism similar to Brücke I with the same pleasant tones. The angle of view is however different : absent from Brücke I, the roadway is a path of light that leads to hope.
Brücke II was sold for £ 4.8M including premium by Christie's on February 4, 2014 over a lower estimate of £ 2M. It is estimated £ 4M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 26, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
It is relevant to compare Feininger with Kandinsky. Both are inspired by music to define an absolute art. Weimar is the Murnau of Feininger. After the war both will teach for many years at the Bauhaus.
1914 Beat Up Boy Football Hero by Leyendecker
2021 SOLD for $ 4.1M by Heritage
Link to catalogue.
#HeritageLive: J.C. Leyendecker's "Beat-up Boy, Football Hero,"the cover of a 1914 Saturday Evening Post, made its auction debut today in our American Art event. A long and heated bidding war pushed the final price to $4,121,250. https://t.co/ZFjNvVj2Ia #AuctionUpdate #Art pic.twitter.com/jXSnB5ErGN
— Heritage Auctions (@HeritageAuction) May 7, 2021
1914 Dispute for Apples
2018 SOLD for $ 4M including premium
Art lovers, Leo Stein and his sister Gertrude arrive in Paris in 1903. They share their apartment where they grow their collection of modern art. In financial difficulties during his Blue Period, Picasso manages to interest these rich Americans who hold a weekly salon.
Years go by. Leo and Gertrude are jealous of each other and their sensibilities diverge. While Leo admires the naturalistic figuration of Matisse and Renoir, Gertrude supports the cubism of Picasso and Gris. Alice's permanent presence with Gertrude becomes the pretext for their final break. Leo leaves for Italy in early 1914.
The split of their very important collection was easy as their tastes had become so different. An oil on canvas 13 x 26 cm by Cézanne focuses nevertheless their antipathy. Leo takes it and Gertrude leaves an empty place on the wall of her apartment.
During that year Picasso is much involved in cubism. Nine years earlier Leo and Gertrude admired his drawing skill. He does not miss this new opportunity to show Gertrude that he is comparable to Cézanne. The painting lost by Gertrude displayed five apples. For Christmas, Picasso offers and inscribes to Gertrude and Alice an apple in the style of Cézanne.
Alice had kept Gertrude's collection of 47 artworks including 38 by Picasso and several by Gris. After her death a consortium of six private buyers created by David Rockefeller buys and shares that set. The anecdote of the creation of Pomme gives it a place of choice in the auction of the Rockefeller collection by Christie's in New York. This gouache and watercolor on paper 14 x 18 cm estimated $ 1M is the lot 1 of the first evening sale, on May 8.
Years go by. Leo and Gertrude are jealous of each other and their sensibilities diverge. While Leo admires the naturalistic figuration of Matisse and Renoir, Gertrude supports the cubism of Picasso and Gris. Alice's permanent presence with Gertrude becomes the pretext for their final break. Leo leaves for Italy in early 1914.
The split of their very important collection was easy as their tastes had become so different. An oil on canvas 13 x 26 cm by Cézanne focuses nevertheless their antipathy. Leo takes it and Gertrude leaves an empty place on the wall of her apartment.
During that year Picasso is much involved in cubism. Nine years earlier Leo and Gertrude admired his drawing skill. He does not miss this new opportunity to show Gertrude that he is comparable to Cézanne. The painting lost by Gertrude displayed five apples. For Christmas, Picasso offers and inscribes to Gertrude and Alice an apple in the style of Cézanne.
Alice had kept Gertrude's collection of 47 artworks including 38 by Picasso and several by Gris. After her death a consortium of six private buyers created by David Rockefeller buys and shares that set. The anecdote of the creation of Pomme gives it a place of choice in the auction of the Rockefeller collection by Christie's in New York. This gouache and watercolor on paper 14 x 18 cm estimated $ 1M is the lot 1 of the first evening sale, on May 8.
1914 The Ranger of Algonquin Park
2016 SOLD for $ 1.53M CAD including premium
Tom Thomson is a self taught artist who desires to engage in full time painting when attending the art circles of Toronto. He discovers the beauty of Algonquin Park in 1912. He enjoys fishing and wild living.
His life changes in 1914. His artistic patron Dr. MacCallum, a friend of Lawren Harris, offers him a place in the collective workshop and ensures the purchase of his paintings. Thomson arrives in Algonquin Park in late April for a stay of several months during which he becomes a ranger of the park.
This subtle mixing of stability and adventure immediately improves his artistic vision. His views of forest details in Algonquin Park are highly emotional, with unprecedented colors that renounce realism to better express the feeling. The hard conditions of his artistic creation require him to work on canvas of small size 22 x 27 cm which will serve as models for larger compositions executed in the Toronto studio during the next winters.
On November 23 in Toronto, Heffel sells Sleet Storm, oil on canvas mounted on board 22 x 27 cm, made in 1914, which is tentatively one of the first achievements in his phase of great creativity. Spring is about to win over winter. Melted snow is still hanging on the branches but already dispersed by the wind.
Sleet Storm is estimated CAD $ 1M, lot 212, illustrated on page 6 of the flyer announcing the sale.
The ranger of Algonquin Park was a pioneer of Canadian modern art. His new style greatly inspired his Toronto friends who will create the Group of Seven in 1919. Thomson had died by drowning in Algonquin Park in July 1917 in circumstances that were never established.
His life changes in 1914. His artistic patron Dr. MacCallum, a friend of Lawren Harris, offers him a place in the collective workshop and ensures the purchase of his paintings. Thomson arrives in Algonquin Park in late April for a stay of several months during which he becomes a ranger of the park.
This subtle mixing of stability and adventure immediately improves his artistic vision. His views of forest details in Algonquin Park are highly emotional, with unprecedented colors that renounce realism to better express the feeling. The hard conditions of his artistic creation require him to work on canvas of small size 22 x 27 cm which will serve as models for larger compositions executed in the Toronto studio during the next winters.
On November 23 in Toronto, Heffel sells Sleet Storm, oil on canvas mounted on board 22 x 27 cm, made in 1914, which is tentatively one of the first achievements in his phase of great creativity. Spring is about to win over winter. Melted snow is still hanging on the branches but already dispersed by the wind.
Sleet Storm is estimated CAD $ 1M, lot 212, illustrated on page 6 of the flyer announcing the sale.
The ranger of Algonquin Park was a pioneer of Canadian modern art. His new style greatly inspired his Toronto friends who will create the Group of Seven in 1919. Thomson had died by drowning in Algonquin Park in July 1917 in circumstances that were never established.
1914 Sleet Storm #tt1914 pic.twitter.com/7TO7S0tB1A
— Tom Thomson (@TTLastSpring) November 23, 2016
1914 A Romanov Dream
2016 SOLD for £ 410K including premium
A monumental painting on the theme of Ivan Susanin is a masterpiece of the later career of Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky. I discussed it as follows in 2014 before it passed at Sotheby's. It is now estimated £ 500K for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 7, lot 18.
Makovsky's favorite theme was Russian history and its associated epic legends. Ivan Susanin was that elderly peasant who led the Poles in the wrong direction for protecting Mikhail Romanov. Ivan's murder by the soldiers in the wild forest inspired playwrights and opera composers including Glinka in 1836.
The oil on canvas that comes for sale is monumental: 301 x 464 cm. It was executed in 1914, the year following the celebration of the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty. The animation in the snowy forest is abundant and tragic. The appearance in the top right of an apotheosis of Mikhail Romanov on the Red Square leaves no doubt about the wish of the artist to please the Tsarist power.
This work probably painted in Paris did not reach Russia, first because of the accidental death of the old artist in 1915, then of course because of the Revolution. It was exhibited for the first time in London in 1926, at a time when history painting was well out of fashion.
It appears now as a masterpiece by a contemporary to Alma-Tadema and Cormon.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's before the previous sale :
Makovsky's favorite theme was Russian history and its associated epic legends. Ivan Susanin was that elderly peasant who led the Poles in the wrong direction for protecting Mikhail Romanov. Ivan's murder by the soldiers in the wild forest inspired playwrights and opera composers including Glinka in 1836.
The oil on canvas that comes for sale is monumental: 301 x 464 cm. It was executed in 1914, the year following the celebration of the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty. The animation in the snowy forest is abundant and tragic. The appearance in the top right of an apotheosis of Mikhail Romanov on the Red Square leaves no doubt about the wish of the artist to please the Tsarist power.
This work probably painted in Paris did not reach Russia, first because of the accidental death of the old artist in 1915, then of course because of the Revolution. It was exhibited for the first time in London in 1926, at a time when history painting was well out of fashion.
It appears now as a masterpiece by a contemporary to Alma-Tadema and Cormon.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's before the previous sale :
1914 RAOUL DUFY WITH BELLE EPOQUE BATHERS
2009 UNSOLD
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The mother of the director Gérard Oury was closely linked to Raoul Dufy. It is therefore not surprising that the painter's works form the bulk of the sale of the collection of the filmmaker, on 20 and 21 April at Artcurial in Paris.
All the classic themes of Dufy are present: Deauville, horse racing, casino scenes, still lifes.
Among this set, I chose to present one of the earliest, a large gouache and charcoal, 155 x 131 cm, made circa 1914. At that time, Dufy has already enjoyed the influence of fauvists, of Cézanne, and of his own work for wallpapers that led him to a softening of the lines.
The subject is a young bather lady. by night in front of a lighted building which is probably a casino. She is dressed in strict black bathing costume, according to the fashion of her time, short-sleeved but covering down to just above the knees.
I hope that the estimate, 350 K €, will be achieved. If so, this is a nice price for a gouache.
POST SALE COMMENT
The first day of the sale was a success, with a total of € 5.5 million including expenses.
However, the gouache that I had described was the only one unsold among the 38 presented lots. I noted that the expected price was "nice" for a gouache.
The mother of the director Gérard Oury was closely linked to Raoul Dufy. It is therefore not surprising that the painter's works form the bulk of the sale of the collection of the filmmaker, on 20 and 21 April at Artcurial in Paris.
All the classic themes of Dufy are present: Deauville, horse racing, casino scenes, still lifes.
Among this set, I chose to present one of the earliest, a large gouache and charcoal, 155 x 131 cm, made circa 1914. At that time, Dufy has already enjoyed the influence of fauvists, of Cézanne, and of his own work for wallpapers that led him to a softening of the lines.
The subject is a young bather lady. by night in front of a lighted building which is probably a casino. She is dressed in strict black bathing costume, according to the fashion of her time, short-sleeved but covering down to just above the knees.
I hope that the estimate, 350 K €, will be achieved. If so, this is a nice price for a gouache.
POST SALE COMMENT
The first day of the sale was a success, with a total of € 5.5 million including expenses.
However, the gouache that I had described was the only one unsold among the 38 presented lots. I noted that the expected price was "nice" for a gouache.
1914-1915 PICASSO ATTRACTED AND REPELLED BY ABSTRACTION
2009 UNSOLD
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
In 1914-1915, they do not laugh in Picasso's home. It's War, moreover his girlfriend is critically ill. His so clear art of previous years is a memory. He produces dark paintings, where only the title remains figurative.
This is the case of these "Instruments de musique sur un guéridon" (Musical instruments on a pedestal), where even the experts from Christie's who expect € 25 million are unable to agree on the nature of the instruments and the position of the furniture.
This oil and sand on canvas, 129 x 89 cm, resembles a stack of paper sheets, some of which would be transparent. The balance of the composition is reminiscent of earlier works of Malevich.
Before I knew it, I had already given the secret of this work in this Group, in my article on the remarkable Gris painting sold $ 21 million charge included in Christie's in New York on November 6. After being inspired with collages for a short period that corresponds exactly to the date of our Picasso, both artists come forward to a style that will allow them to display a three-dimensional illusion again.
This work is the top one of the outstanding sale of this semester: the Yves Saint-Laurent collection, which will be dispersed in Paris by Christie's and Pierre Bergé from 23 to 25 February. The expected price, if obtained, will include this painting among the ten most expensive Picasso's sold at auction ... and the only of them to match this style of transition.
POST SALE COMMENT
In this highly successful historic sale, the Picasso was not sold. I indicated that I had found in the databases no work of Picasso in this style at this price.
Interviewed after the sale, Mr. Bergé is happy to keep this painting. This may explain it!
In 1914-1915, they do not laugh in Picasso's home. It's War, moreover his girlfriend is critically ill. His so clear art of previous years is a memory. He produces dark paintings, where only the title remains figurative.
This is the case of these "Instruments de musique sur un guéridon" (Musical instruments on a pedestal), where even the experts from Christie's who expect € 25 million are unable to agree on the nature of the instruments and the position of the furniture.
This oil and sand on canvas, 129 x 89 cm, resembles a stack of paper sheets, some of which would be transparent. The balance of the composition is reminiscent of earlier works of Malevich.
Before I knew it, I had already given the secret of this work in this Group, in my article on the remarkable Gris painting sold $ 21 million charge included in Christie's in New York on November 6. After being inspired with collages for a short period that corresponds exactly to the date of our Picasso, both artists come forward to a style that will allow them to display a three-dimensional illusion again.
This work is the top one of the outstanding sale of this semester: the Yves Saint-Laurent collection, which will be dispersed in Paris by Christie's and Pierre Bergé from 23 to 25 February. The expected price, if obtained, will include this painting among the ten most expensive Picasso's sold at auction ... and the only of them to match this style of transition.
POST SALE COMMENT
In this highly successful historic sale, the Picasso was not sold. I indicated that I had found in the databases no work of Picasso in this style at this price.
Interviewed after the sale, Mr. Bergé is happy to keep this painting. This may explain it!
1915 Sorolla at Bathing Hour
2009 SOLD 1.65 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Sorolla loved the beach scenes of his hometown of Valencia.
In 2003, Sotheby's sold at £ 3.7 million premium included La hora del baño, an oil on canvas 84 x 119 cm painted in 1904. The colors are bright, as always with this painter, but the topic, which includes a naiad, children, a bull, a boat, is difficult to decode.
I prefer the work more intimate, more simple, that Sotheby's presents in London on June 3.
Entitled Niña entrando en el baño, painted in 1915, it shows a young woman ready to enter the sea, dressed in a long shirt fashionable in the seaside at that time. The dynamic movement assesses that Sorolla is sensitive to the best art trends of his time.
Although its dimensions, 86 x 106 cm, are comparable to those of the painting sold in 2003, the estimated 1.7 million £ seems high.
POST SALE COMMENT
The estimate seemed high although the work is nice. Lovers of Joaquin Sorolla bought this painting at £ 1.65 million including expenses.
Sorolla loved the beach scenes of his hometown of Valencia.
In 2003, Sotheby's sold at £ 3.7 million premium included La hora del baño, an oil on canvas 84 x 119 cm painted in 1904. The colors are bright, as always with this painter, but the topic, which includes a naiad, children, a bull, a boat, is difficult to decode.
I prefer the work more intimate, more simple, that Sotheby's presents in London on June 3.
Entitled Niña entrando en el baño, painted in 1915, it shows a young woman ready to enter the sea, dressed in a long shirt fashionable in the seaside at that time. The dynamic movement assesses that Sorolla is sensitive to the best art trends of his time.
Although its dimensions, 86 x 106 cm, are comparable to those of the painting sold in 2003, the estimated 1.7 million £ seems high.
POST SALE COMMENT
The estimate seemed high although the work is nice. Lovers of Joaquin Sorolla bought this painting at £ 1.65 million including expenses.
1915 Thomson in Winter
2009 SOLD 973 KCAN$ including premium
In Canada, modern art begins with the landscape painter Tom Thomson. His skills as a colorist make his autumn scenes and his sunsets much appreciated.
Like many of his countrymen, he was sensitive to large panoramic spaces. On this point, the oil on panel for sale on November 24 in Toronto by Joyner Waddington is an exception. The trees heavily laden with snow of this "Winter Morning" do not allow to go through. Instead, the branches join to form a continuous highly decorative pattern.
The Group of Seven, which I discussed recently about Lawren Harris, acknowledged the pioneering role of Thomson, and we know that this Winter Morning painted in 1915 was particularly appreciated. As all the paintings of Thomson, it is small: 21 x 26 cm. It is estimated 800 KCan$. The image of the lot is shared by CBC News.
The mysterious death of the artist, aged 40, in 1917, is contributing to his legend. The condition of the corpse, found eight days after he disappeared when canoeing in Algonquin Park, has lead to consider a suicide or more likely a murder.
POST SALE COMMENT
Very good price within the range of estimates: sold 973 KCan$ including premium.
Like many of his countrymen, he was sensitive to large panoramic spaces. On this point, the oil on panel for sale on November 24 in Toronto by Joyner Waddington is an exception. The trees heavily laden with snow of this "Winter Morning" do not allow to go through. Instead, the branches join to form a continuous highly decorative pattern.
The Group of Seven, which I discussed recently about Lawren Harris, acknowledged the pioneering role of Thomson, and we know that this Winter Morning painted in 1915 was particularly appreciated. As all the paintings of Thomson, it is small: 21 x 26 cm. It is estimated 800 KCan$. The image of the lot is shared by CBC News.
The mysterious death of the artist, aged 40, in 1917, is contributing to his legend. The condition of the corpse, found eight days after he disappeared when canoeing in Algonquin Park, has lead to consider a suicide or more likely a murder.
POST SALE COMMENT
Very good price within the range of estimates: sold 973 KCan$ including premium.
1915 a torrid californian summer
2015 sold for $ 305k including premium
In 1906, a golden age for clubs with cultural purposes, a group of painters met in South Pasadena around Franz Bischoff andWilliam Wendt. They desire to develop an impressionist style appropriate to the beauty of the coastal landscapes of Southern California.
These young artists meet regularly with a forester from Laguna Beach who provides them with the wood of their frames and with construction materials. Wendt loves the wildness of the small coves. Located near Santa Ana, Laguna Beach will become a popular summer resort for Hollywood producers and actors.
Wendt explores his new paradise whose warm colors seduce him. An undated oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm shows a panorama at sunset. In front of the sea along Old Coast Road, the cottage is very close to the place where he will install his own home and studio in 1918. This painting was sold for $ 1,56M including premium by Bonhams in Los Angeles on 28 April 2015.
On August 4, the same auction room sells an oil on canvas 103 x 128 cm dated 1915, lot 28 estimated $ 300K.
The title, the Silent summer sea, reflects the artist's ambition to express the torrid beauty of the Californian coast with methods inspired by Impressionism. The contrast between the deep blue of the sea and the clear blue of the sky reminds Monet's experiments in Antibes. The landscape is not located but the dry bare rock enables to suggest that Laguna Beach is not far away.
These young artists meet regularly with a forester from Laguna Beach who provides them with the wood of their frames and with construction materials. Wendt loves the wildness of the small coves. Located near Santa Ana, Laguna Beach will become a popular summer resort for Hollywood producers and actors.
Wendt explores his new paradise whose warm colors seduce him. An undated oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm shows a panorama at sunset. In front of the sea along Old Coast Road, the cottage is very close to the place where he will install his own home and studio in 1918. This painting was sold for $ 1,56M including premium by Bonhams in Los Angeles on 28 April 2015.
On August 4, the same auction room sells an oil on canvas 103 x 128 cm dated 1915, lot 28 estimated $ 300K.
The title, the Silent summer sea, reflects the artist's ambition to express the torrid beauty of the Californian coast with methods inspired by Impressionism. The contrast between the deep blue of the sea and the clear blue of the sky reminds Monet's experiments in Antibes. The landscape is not located but the dry bare rock enables to suggest that Laguna Beach is not far away.
1915 ELDERLY MAORI BY CF GOLDIE
2010 SOLD 195 KNZ$ BEFORE FEES
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Like E.S. Curtis at the other end of the world, Charles F. Goldie wanted to be a witness to a vanishing civilization. He is the author of portraits of Maori elders at a time when only the old chiefs and their families still displayed traditional tattoos on their faces.
Goldie was not understood by his contemporaries: the meticulous realism of his paintings and their small size evoked photography, then considered as a minor art. Opinions vary: he is now greeted as the most important New Zealand artist of his time. However, he remains virtually unknown outside Oceania.
On July 28 in Auckland, International Art Centre sells the portrait of Kapi Kapi, an oil on canvas dated 1915, size 25 x 20 cm, estimated NZ $ 160 K. The alleged centenarian Arawa woman had been one of the artist's favorite sitters.
In March 2008, the same auction house had sold 454 K NZ $ including premium a particularly expressive male portrait.
POST SALE COMMENT
The price obtained, 195 K NZ $, is in the range of estimates. The auction house uses to publish its results before fees.
Like E.S. Curtis at the other end of the world, Charles F. Goldie wanted to be a witness to a vanishing civilization. He is the author of portraits of Maori elders at a time when only the old chiefs and their families still displayed traditional tattoos on their faces.
Goldie was not understood by his contemporaries: the meticulous realism of his paintings and their small size evoked photography, then considered as a minor art. Opinions vary: he is now greeted as the most important New Zealand artist of his time. However, he remains virtually unknown outside Oceania.
On July 28 in Auckland, International Art Centre sells the portrait of Kapi Kapi, an oil on canvas dated 1915, size 25 x 20 cm, estimated NZ $ 160 K. The alleged centenarian Arawa woman had been one of the artist's favorite sitters.
In March 2008, the same auction house had sold 454 K NZ $ including premium a particularly expressive male portrait.
POST SALE COMMENT
The price obtained, 195 K NZ $, is in the range of estimates. The auction house uses to publish its results before fees.
SWISS MOUNTAINS BY HODLER
2008 SOLD 1 MCHF BEFORE FEES
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The recent auction results of landscape paintings by Ferdinand Hodler are a surprising mix of successes and failures, and I wanted to look at this phenomenon more closely.
This Swiss painter began to reach the peaks, it's relevant to say it so!, on November 29, 2005 with an almost abstract 69 x 93 cm painting, representing three prestigious peaks above a sea of clouds, sold 4.8 MCHF at Sotheby's in Zurich.
This trend is confirmed at the same venue on May 31, 2006 with a lake of Geneva that nearly reached 5 MCHF, and on December 5, 2006 with mountains reflected in the lake of Thun, painting sold 5.7 MCHF.
On June 5, 2007, still at the same place and at the same auction house there was the consecration, with a lake of Geneva viewed from Saint-Prex, a little larger (72 x 102 cm), which nearly reached 11 MCHF.
Prices quoted above include the premium.
Are the Hodler prices installed in a sustainable manner to these altitudes? No, not really. Let us continue to observe what is happening at Sotheby's in Zurich.
On November 27, 2007, a dynamic view of the Dents du Midi remains unsold at 5 MCHF.
On May 27, 2008, a Jura view from Lake of Geneva, almost abstract, but a little small (45 x 65 cm) suffered the same fate at 4 MCHF.
Such a phenomenon can happen when an important buyer arrives on the market and then withdraws. I do not know if this is the case here. It will be interesting to see what will happen for two landscapes to be presented by Galerie Kornfeld in Bern on June 6: A beautiful view of the Salève but which is, in 1887, a work of artist's youth (30 x 40 cm, lot 57) and a view of the valley of Saane (Lot 58, 62 x 47 cm). Both are estimated 1.25 MCHF.
POST SALE COMMENT
The results obtained by Galerie Kornfeld confirm that Hodler's paintings have become difficult to sell.
Lot 58, sold 1 MCHF before fees, is thus far from having reached its low estimate.
Lot 57 has not been sold. I am always a little bit surprised that buyers are not really interested in artworks from artists youth. The formation of their style seems equally important as their maturity, which is sometimes repetitive and commercial. This is a personal opinion.
These poor results are recorded in an auction sale which was wisely organized at the same time as Basel fair, and has otherwise obtained excellent results.
The recent auction results of landscape paintings by Ferdinand Hodler are a surprising mix of successes and failures, and I wanted to look at this phenomenon more closely.
This Swiss painter began to reach the peaks, it's relevant to say it so!, on November 29, 2005 with an almost abstract 69 x 93 cm painting, representing three prestigious peaks above a sea of clouds, sold 4.8 MCHF at Sotheby's in Zurich.
This trend is confirmed at the same venue on May 31, 2006 with a lake of Geneva that nearly reached 5 MCHF, and on December 5, 2006 with mountains reflected in the lake of Thun, painting sold 5.7 MCHF.
On June 5, 2007, still at the same place and at the same auction house there was the consecration, with a lake of Geneva viewed from Saint-Prex, a little larger (72 x 102 cm), which nearly reached 11 MCHF.
Prices quoted above include the premium.
Are the Hodler prices installed in a sustainable manner to these altitudes? No, not really. Let us continue to observe what is happening at Sotheby's in Zurich.
On November 27, 2007, a dynamic view of the Dents du Midi remains unsold at 5 MCHF.
On May 27, 2008, a Jura view from Lake of Geneva, almost abstract, but a little small (45 x 65 cm) suffered the same fate at 4 MCHF.
Such a phenomenon can happen when an important buyer arrives on the market and then withdraws. I do not know if this is the case here. It will be interesting to see what will happen for two landscapes to be presented by Galerie Kornfeld in Bern on June 6: A beautiful view of the Salève but which is, in 1887, a work of artist's youth (30 x 40 cm, lot 57) and a view of the valley of Saane (Lot 58, 62 x 47 cm). Both are estimated 1.25 MCHF.
POST SALE COMMENT
The results obtained by Galerie Kornfeld confirm that Hodler's paintings have become difficult to sell.
Lot 58, sold 1 MCHF before fees, is thus far from having reached its low estimate.
Lot 57 has not been sold. I am always a little bit surprised that buyers are not really interested in artworks from artists youth. The formation of their style seems equally important as their maturity, which is sometimes repetitive and commercial. This is a personal opinion.
These poor results are recorded in an auction sale which was wisely organized at the same time as Basel fair, and has otherwise obtained excellent results.
1916 Dock Builders by Bellows
2011 SOLD for $ 3.9M by Sotheby's
A pupil of Robert Henri, George Bellows had a deep social sensitivity. The grandson of a whaling captain, he was attracted by the ports and by the living conditions of the working class. Also a specialist in graphic art related to sports, he captured both the decisive moment of a boxing match and the colorful crowd of spectators of polo or tennis.
Painted in 1912, the 114 x 161 cm oil on canvas titled Men of the Docks shows daily laborers hiring on Brooklyn Harbor with a huge boat in the background. This masterpiece of American socialist art was bought in a private sale in 2014 for $ 25.5M by the National Gallery of London.
In the summer, the artist enjoyed a relaxing atmosphere in Maine. The war is restarting the shipyards at Camden. Bellows is amazed by the construction of a four-mast cargo ship employing about a hundred workers. He paints a series of scenes on this theme, sometimes including the composite crowds who go about their daily lives. These brightly colored paintings appear resolutely optimistic, like an indirect contribution of Bellows to war patriotism.
Looking out to the sea, Dock builders, oil on canvas 77 x 97 cm painted in 1916, was sold for $ 3.9M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2011.
Looking beyond the crowd to the colossal ship being built in its dry dock, Shipyard Society, oil on panel of the same size also painted in 1916, passed at Christie's on May 22, 2019.
Painted in 1912, the 114 x 161 cm oil on canvas titled Men of the Docks shows daily laborers hiring on Brooklyn Harbor with a huge boat in the background. This masterpiece of American socialist art was bought in a private sale in 2014 for $ 25.5M by the National Gallery of London.
In the summer, the artist enjoyed a relaxing atmosphere in Maine. The war is restarting the shipyards at Camden. Bellows is amazed by the construction of a four-mast cargo ship employing about a hundred workers. He paints a series of scenes on this theme, sometimes including the composite crowds who go about their daily lives. These brightly colored paintings appear resolutely optimistic, like an indirect contribution of Bellows to war patriotism.
Looking out to the sea, Dock builders, oil on canvas 77 x 97 cm painted in 1916, was sold for $ 3.9M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2011.
Looking beyond the crowd to the colossal ship being built in its dry dock, Shipyard Society, oil on panel of the same size also painted in 1916, passed at Christie's on May 22, 2019.
1916 The Ninos of Valencia
2013 SOLD 2.77 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida is the painter of Valencia. He loves the beach and the characters engaged in innocent or insignificant pleasures. He is also one of very few artists of his time to show children without sentimentality.
In 1916, at the height of his career, he does not try to interpret it, he observes, simply. No adult intervenes in the beach games of these small children. Idle, the boys leave the Mediterranean sea and the warm sun bathe their naked bodies.
Sorolla's colors are as warm as the atmosphere of this beautiful summer. On the beach of El Cabañal a small child with blond hair, maybe a girl, passes the artist without seeing him. The scene is spontaneous, with no identified preliminary sketch or photograph, but the composition is as bold as a Degas.
This oil on canvas, 100 x 70 cm, titled Niños en la playa is estimated £ 1.8 million, for sale by Sotheby's in London on May 23.
This painting is regarded for a long time as a masterpiece of Sorolla. The artist's family bought it back in the late 1950s. In 1963, for the centenary of the artist, this fresh and dynamic image has been issued as a Spanish stamp.
POST SALE COMMENT
This lovely painting was sold £ 2.77 million including premium, in the region of its higher estimate.
The picture is shared by Sotheby's on Wikimedia:
Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida is the painter of Valencia. He loves the beach and the characters engaged in innocent or insignificant pleasures. He is also one of very few artists of his time to show children without sentimentality.
In 1916, at the height of his career, he does not try to interpret it, he observes, simply. No adult intervenes in the beach games of these small children. Idle, the boys leave the Mediterranean sea and the warm sun bathe their naked bodies.
Sorolla's colors are as warm as the atmosphere of this beautiful summer. On the beach of El Cabañal a small child with blond hair, maybe a girl, passes the artist without seeing him. The scene is spontaneous, with no identified preliminary sketch or photograph, but the composition is as bold as a Degas.
This oil on canvas, 100 x 70 cm, titled Niños en la playa is estimated £ 1.8 million, for sale by Sotheby's in London on May 23.
This painting is regarded for a long time as a masterpiece of Sorolla. The artist's family bought it back in the late 1950s. In 1963, for the centenary of the artist, this fresh and dynamic image has been issued as a Spanish stamp.
POST SALE COMMENT
This lovely painting was sold £ 2.77 million including premium, in the region of its higher estimate.
The picture is shared by Sotheby's on Wikimedia:
1916 The Abstract Sincerity of Georgia O'Keeffe
2007 SOLD for $ 3M including premium by Christie's
2016 SOLD for $ 2.4M including premium
In 1908, Georgia O'Keeffe abandoned the idea of becoming an artist. She was 21 years old. Four years later, she understands the reason for her doubts : her highly personal creativity does not meet any academism.
She nevertheless finds a teacher to guide her talent. AW Dow is not a great artist but he is promoting line, mass and color. He is a figurative painter but his student takes his ideas to express her feelings through abstraction. Unrelated with the European artistic movements, with no further inspiration than her aesthetic sensibility, Georgia is one of the first US artists to explore the modern art.
She did not return immediately to color. Her charcoal drawings are animated by large spirals. At the end of 1915, aware of her profound originality that will continue to mark her career for seven decades, Georgia sends some examples of her art by post to a friend named Anita Pollitzer.
Anita knows Stieglitz. When Georgia visits the Gallery 291 a few months later, she sees her works on display. Stieglitz had not dared to ask for her permission. He tells Georgia that her drawings are the purest, finest and sincerest things that he exhibited in his gallery.
It is easy to understand to what extent the independent minded Georgia is encouraged by such a statement. Decidedly ahead of her time, she now tries a monochrome use of color. Her choice goes to the Prussian blue.
Blue I, watercolor 79 x 57 cm made in 1916, is included in the first solo exhibition of works by Georgia organized by Stieglitz at the 291 in April and May 1917. This seminal work was sold for $ 3M including premium by Christie's in New York on May 24, 2007. It comes back to the same auction room on May 19, lot 7 estimated $ 2.5M.
She nevertheless finds a teacher to guide her talent. AW Dow is not a great artist but he is promoting line, mass and color. He is a figurative painter but his student takes his ideas to express her feelings through abstraction. Unrelated with the European artistic movements, with no further inspiration than her aesthetic sensibility, Georgia is one of the first US artists to explore the modern art.
She did not return immediately to color. Her charcoal drawings are animated by large spirals. At the end of 1915, aware of her profound originality that will continue to mark her career for seven decades, Georgia sends some examples of her art by post to a friend named Anita Pollitzer.
Anita knows Stieglitz. When Georgia visits the Gallery 291 a few months later, she sees her works on display. Stieglitz had not dared to ask for her permission. He tells Georgia that her drawings are the purest, finest and sincerest things that he exhibited in his gallery.
It is easy to understand to what extent the independent minded Georgia is encouraged by such a statement. Decidedly ahead of her time, she now tries a monochrome use of color. Her choice goes to the Prussian blue.
Blue I, watercolor 79 x 57 cm made in 1916, is included in the first solo exhibition of works by Georgia organized by Stieglitz at the 291 in April and May 1917. This seminal work was sold for $ 3M including premium by Christie's in New York on May 24, 2007. It comes back to the same auction room on May 19, lot 7 estimated $ 2.5M.
1916 The Dawn of the Conscripts
2017 SOLD for £ 1.87M including premium
The dawn of the twentieth century was marked by a hope for modernism and nothing seemed able to stop the creativity of the artistic avant-gardes. The First World War was a human and cultural disaster, mass killing young men and traumatizing the survivors forever.
C.R.W. 'Richard' Nevinson was a young English artist close to the Futurist movement. He enlisted as an ambulance driver and participated in November 1914 in the Battle of Ypres.
His health was deteriorating rapidly. During his convalescence he painted the war in its everyday life, an ordeal without liberty and without honors. In France conscription was obligatory : the soldiers had not chosen the heroism. Nevinson alternatively uses several modernist techniques but his images tell the same anonymous story as the photos brought home by the poilus.
On November 21 in London, Sotheby's sells A Dawn (1914), oil on canvas 57 x 48 cm painted in 1916, lot 5 estimated £ 700K. This painting appeared at the Leicester Gallery in the fall of 1916 in a solo exhibition applauded by Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw.
The French troops in march occupy the whole width of the street. No spectator cheers them and there is no flag in the windows. The scene is punctuated by the positions of the bayonets. The faces of the first ranks are differentiated. From the fifth rank this crowd forms the cubist mosaic of the multitude of the unknown soldiers.
C.R.W. 'Richard' Nevinson was a young English artist close to the Futurist movement. He enlisted as an ambulance driver and participated in November 1914 in the Battle of Ypres.
His health was deteriorating rapidly. During his convalescence he painted the war in its everyday life, an ordeal without liberty and without honors. In France conscription was obligatory : the soldiers had not chosen the heroism. Nevinson alternatively uses several modernist techniques but his images tell the same anonymous story as the photos brought home by the poilus.
On November 21 in London, Sotheby's sells A Dawn (1914), oil on canvas 57 x 48 cm painted in 1916, lot 5 estimated £ 700K. This painting appeared at the Leicester Gallery in the fall of 1916 in a solo exhibition applauded by Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw.
The French troops in march occupy the whole width of the street. No spectator cheers them and there is no flag in the windows. The scene is punctuated by the positions of the bayonets. The faces of the first ranks are differentiated. From the fifth rank this crowd forms the cubist mosaic of the multitude of the unknown soldiers.
'No man saw pageantry in the trenches': #Vorticist masterpiece by #Nevinson ranks among most powerful images of #WWI https://t.co/hIBbaf06Ba pic.twitter.com/tGAAXcMIxT
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) October 30, 2017
1916 The Kindness of Helene Schjerfbeck
2015 SOLD for £ 870K including premium
Born in Helsinki, Helene Schjerfbeck was precociously skilled for graphic arts and entered in relation with the modern painters in Paris and Brittany. She is only 20 years old in 1882 when she paints the charming portrait of a little girl lacing her dancing shoes. This oil on canvas 65 x 55 cm was sold for £ 3.05M including premium by Sotheby's on May 30, 2008.
The health of the artist was poor. She could not marry, gave up teaching and had an uneventful life in Finland with her mother. She remains attentive to modern art and favors after Cézanne the expressive colors instead of the line. After Lautrec, she likes to paint her canvas in pastel-like hues.
On December 16 in London, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas 57 x 45 cm painted in 1916, lot 10 estimated £ 500K.
The sitter is a young neighbor of the artist in Hyvinkää, a quiet town famous for its sanatorium near Helsinki. She is reading with some attention. The diaphanous colors perfectly express the long blonde hair and the whiteness of the face of this young Scandinavian beauty.
This painting is a good example of the originality of the art of Schjerfbeck, halfway between empathy towards children and peaceful internalisation.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The health of the artist was poor. She could not marry, gave up teaching and had an uneventful life in Finland with her mother. She remains attentive to modern art and favors after Cézanne the expressive colors instead of the line. After Lautrec, she likes to paint her canvas in pastel-like hues.
On December 16 in London, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas 57 x 45 cm painted in 1916, lot 10 estimated £ 500K.
The sitter is a young neighbor of the artist in Hyvinkää, a quiet town famous for its sanatorium near Helsinki. She is reading with some attention. The diaphanous colors perfectly express the long blonde hair and the whiteness of the face of this young Scandinavian beauty.
This painting is a good example of the originality of the art of Schjerfbeck, halfway between empathy towards children and peaceful internalisation.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1916 Market in Portugal by Sonia Delaunay
2011 SOLD 496 K€ including premium
2014 UNSOLD
PRE 2014 SALE DISCUSSION
The theme of the Minho markets had inspired Sonia Delaunay. A painting from that series was sold for € 496K including premium by Tajan on October 22, 2011. It is now listed by Sotheby's.
Here is my previous discussion modified to include the date, estimate and link of the next sale :
The work of Robert and Sonia Delaunay was a real experimental workshop of modern art. Their collaboration was so close that it is unreasonable to consider them separately, although I have not seen an artwork signed by the two artists together.
Before World War I, they use the circle and color to express the pictorial language of life in an abstract vision.
Cubism led them to come back to figurative themes and to the simultaneous expression of form and movement, again through the circle.
A wax painting of 1915 by Sonia on the theme of the Minho market, 91 x 125 cm, was sold for € 4.1 million before fees on June 14, 2002 in Paris by Calmels Cohen over an estimate of € 400K. Brightly colored characters are moving withina vaguely architectured background. This composition rather difficult to decipher, just like the Cubist works of Picasso and Braque at the same time, is in full opposition to any photographic realism.
Another variation on the same subject painted in wax by Sonia in 1916, 93 x 128 cm, is for sale on November 5 by Sotheby's in New York. Its colors are less vivid but more subtle, and the country women at their market are more visible. It is estimated $ 600K, lot 194.
Confirming the relevance of simultaneous analysis of the work of both artists, I note a Portuguese with pumpkin painted in 1916 by Robert, 130 x 97 cm, sold for $ 657K including premium by Sotheby's on May 8, 2008.
The theme of the Minho markets had inspired Sonia Delaunay. A painting from that series was sold for € 496K including premium by Tajan on October 22, 2011. It is now listed by Sotheby's.
Here is my previous discussion modified to include the date, estimate and link of the next sale :
The work of Robert and Sonia Delaunay was a real experimental workshop of modern art. Their collaboration was so close that it is unreasonable to consider them separately, although I have not seen an artwork signed by the two artists together.
Before World War I, they use the circle and color to express the pictorial language of life in an abstract vision.
Cubism led them to come back to figurative themes and to the simultaneous expression of form and movement, again through the circle.
A wax painting of 1915 by Sonia on the theme of the Minho market, 91 x 125 cm, was sold for € 4.1 million before fees on June 14, 2002 in Paris by Calmels Cohen over an estimate of € 400K. Brightly colored characters are moving withina vaguely architectured background. This composition rather difficult to decipher, just like the Cubist works of Picasso and Braque at the same time, is in full opposition to any photographic realism.
Another variation on the same subject painted in wax by Sonia in 1916, 93 x 128 cm, is for sale on November 5 by Sotheby's in New York. Its colors are less vivid but more subtle, and the country women at their market are more visible. It is estimated $ 600K, lot 194.
Confirming the relevance of simultaneous analysis of the work of both artists, I note a Portuguese with pumpkin painted in 1916 by Robert, 130 x 97 cm, sold for $ 657K including premium by Sotheby's on May 8, 2008.
1916 People of the Docks
2019 Withdrawn
A pupil of Robert Henri, George Bellows had a deep social sensitivity. The grandson of a whaling captain, he was attracted by the ports and by the living conditions of the working class. Also a specialist in graphic art related to sports, he captured both the decisive moment of a boxing match and the colorful crowd of spectators of polo or tennis.
Painted in 1912, the 114 x 161 cm oil on canvas titled Men of the Docks shows daily laborers hiring on Brooklyn Harbor with a huge boat in the background. This masterpiece of American socialist art was bought in a private sale in 2014 for $ 25.5M by the National Gallery of London.
In the summer, the artist enjoyed a relaxing atmosphere in Maine. The war is restarting the shipyards at Camden. Bellows is amazed by the construction of a four-mast cargo ship employing about a hundred workers. He paints a series of scenes on this theme, sometimes including the composite crowds who go about their daily lives. These brightly colored paintings appear resolutely optimistic, like an indirect contribution of Bellows to war patriotism.
Looking out to the sea, Dock builders, oil on canvas 77 x 97 cm painted in 1916, was sold for $ 3.9M including premium by Sotheby's on May 19, 2011.
Looking beyond the crowd to the colossal ship being built in its dry dock, Shipyard Society, oil on panel of the same size also painted in 1916, is estimated $ 4M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 22, lot 34.
Painted in 1912, the 114 x 161 cm oil on canvas titled Men of the Docks shows daily laborers hiring on Brooklyn Harbor with a huge boat in the background. This masterpiece of American socialist art was bought in a private sale in 2014 for $ 25.5M by the National Gallery of London.
In the summer, the artist enjoyed a relaxing atmosphere in Maine. The war is restarting the shipyards at Camden. Bellows is amazed by the construction of a four-mast cargo ship employing about a hundred workers. He paints a series of scenes on this theme, sometimes including the composite crowds who go about their daily lives. These brightly colored paintings appear resolutely optimistic, like an indirect contribution of Bellows to war patriotism.
Looking out to the sea, Dock builders, oil on canvas 77 x 97 cm painted in 1916, was sold for $ 3.9M including premium by Sotheby's on May 19, 2011.
Looking beyond the crowd to the colossal ship being built in its dry dock, Shipyard Society, oil on panel of the same size also painted in 1916, is estimated $ 4M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 22, lot 34.
1916 The Universal Garden of Claude Monet
2019 unsold
The small water garden of Claude Monet offers a gate to all the forces of nature. The Grandes Décorations project, which makes him busy from 1914 to 1926, is neither a technical feat nor a strange topography : it is a symbiosis between the artist and the universe.
Monet executed many preparatory paintings for the Grandes Décorations to see in first-hand the visual effects of his innovations. Even when the brush stroke is complex, these images have the spontaneity of a drawing.
On February 27 in London, Christie's sells as lot 11 Saule pleureur et bassin aux nymphéas (weeping willow and water lily garden), an oil on canvas 180 cm wide in the standard height of the Grandes Decorations, 2 m high. The composition is similar to the left part of the triptych Le Matin aux Saules, dated 1920-1926 but whose gestation in the workshop had already begun in 1916.
This study is an encounter between the elements of nature and the principles of geometry, with the rising vertical of the solid trunk, the descending vertical of the leaves hanging in the air, the horizontal plane of the water lilies on the water, the intangible mirror of the reflections.
The horizon is not visible but the dominant is an intense blue provided in reflection by a pure summer sky, in opposition with the pastel shades of dawn which will be applied to the corresponding picture of the Grandes Décorations. In this experimental work that provides inputs into the artistic process of Monet, each motif is painted with a different stroke, up to including tiny surfaces of bare canvas in some interfaces.
Please watch the short video shared by Christie's.
This painting is certainly anterior to the series of ten opuses on weeping willows executed in 1918-1919 in which the main theme, increasingly close to abstraction, is the light sifted by the foliage.
Monet executed many preparatory paintings for the Grandes Décorations to see in first-hand the visual effects of his innovations. Even when the brush stroke is complex, these images have the spontaneity of a drawing.
On February 27 in London, Christie's sells as lot 11 Saule pleureur et bassin aux nymphéas (weeping willow and water lily garden), an oil on canvas 180 cm wide in the standard height of the Grandes Decorations, 2 m high. The composition is similar to the left part of the triptych Le Matin aux Saules, dated 1920-1926 but whose gestation in the workshop had already begun in 1916.
This study is an encounter between the elements of nature and the principles of geometry, with the rising vertical of the solid trunk, the descending vertical of the leaves hanging in the air, the horizontal plane of the water lilies on the water, the intangible mirror of the reflections.
The horizon is not visible but the dominant is an intense blue provided in reflection by a pure summer sky, in opposition with the pastel shades of dawn which will be applied to the corresponding picture of the Grandes Décorations. In this experimental work that provides inputs into the artistic process of Monet, each motif is painted with a different stroke, up to including tiny surfaces of bare canvas in some interfaces.
Please watch the short video shared by Christie's.
This painting is certainly anterior to the series of ten opuses on weeping willows executed in 1918-1919 in which the main theme, increasingly close to abstraction, is the light sifted by the foliage.
A collection of 25 exceptional Impressionist and Modern masterpieces – many unseen for over 30 years – will be offered for auction in London in February 2019. Here’s a sneak peek: https://t.co/CIvi8M1wE0 pic.twitter.com/HYg8ZbLQAv
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 23, 2018
1916-1917 The Striking Colors of Bitter Cold
2015 SOLD for $ 3.66M CAD including premium
Born in Ontario to a family of wealthy industrialists, Lawren Stewart Harris did not need his art for earning his life.
This amateur who took care of organizing the Toronto arts community painted at first some sceneries of streets and of logging. His art that might appear to be basically Canadian was however triggered by his discovery of Scandinavian art and especially of paintings by Gustaf Fjaestad at an exhibition in Buffalo in 1913.
Harris worked in his studio at that time. He imagines the pure colors of snowy landscapes in cold weather. On November 26 in Toronto, Heffel sells a Winter landscape, lot 120 estimated CAD 1.2 million. Here is the link to the auction house's website.
This oil on canvas of large size for this artist, 121 x 127 cm, was painted in 1916 or 1917 at a time when Tom Thomson was interested in similar themes. The picture is divided into well-structured sections of homogeneous texture that contrast sharply with each other from the heavy white snow of ground and of fir branches up to the bright blue of the sea (or lake) through the tissues of forests and cliffs.
This creative period gives Harris the urge to explore by himself the far north in winter. From 1918 he organizes auto trips of his group. The light on Lake Superior is even more blinding than it was in his imagination. His increasingly purified style becomes the most dramatic expression of the chilling landscapes of Canada.
This amateur who took care of organizing the Toronto arts community painted at first some sceneries of streets and of logging. His art that might appear to be basically Canadian was however triggered by his discovery of Scandinavian art and especially of paintings by Gustaf Fjaestad at an exhibition in Buffalo in 1913.
Harris worked in his studio at that time. He imagines the pure colors of snowy landscapes in cold weather. On November 26 in Toronto, Heffel sells a Winter landscape, lot 120 estimated CAD 1.2 million. Here is the link to the auction house's website.
This oil on canvas of large size for this artist, 121 x 127 cm, was painted in 1916 or 1917 at a time when Tom Thomson was interested in similar themes. The picture is divided into well-structured sections of homogeneous texture that contrast sharply with each other from the heavy white snow of ground and of fir branches up to the bright blue of the sea (or lake) through the tissues of forests and cliffs.
This creative period gives Harris the urge to explore by himself the far north in winter. From 1918 he organizes auto trips of his group. The light on Lake Superior is even more blinding than it was in his imagination. His increasingly purified style becomes the most dramatic expression of the chilling landscapes of Canada.
1916-1919 THE NYMPHEAS OF THE BEYELER COLLECTION
2011 UNSOLD
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The Nymphéas by Claude Monet are not similar. They differ from each other by the presence or absence of thehorizon or of the edge of the pool, by the more or less realistic or more or less quiet line.
The artist did not date, but the evolution of his art allows a fairly accurate assessment. The oil on canvas, 150 x 200cm, for sale on June 21 by Christie's in London, was painted between 1916 and 1919.
Here the theme is minimized to better exalt the colors. The surrounding only exists through the reflections of thetrees. The work is rather large so that the viewer can immerse in its atmosphere, just like later masters like Rothko orRichter will wish it.
Its pedigree is impeccable. Coming directly from the Beyeler estate, this lot is estimated £ 17M.
It is quite different from the 1919 canvas sold £ 41M including premium at Christie's on June 24, 2008, where thesurface of the water is so admirably rendered by the position of the flowers. Less realistic, less "botanical", the choice of Beyeler fits perfectly in this transition toward abstraction that characterizes the art of the 1910s.
The Nymphéas by Claude Monet are not similar. They differ from each other by the presence or absence of thehorizon or of the edge of the pool, by the more or less realistic or more or less quiet line.
The artist did not date, but the evolution of his art allows a fairly accurate assessment. The oil on canvas, 150 x 200cm, for sale on June 21 by Christie's in London, was painted between 1916 and 1919.
Here the theme is minimized to better exalt the colors. The surrounding only exists through the reflections of thetrees. The work is rather large so that the viewer can immerse in its atmosphere, just like later masters like Rothko orRichter will wish it.
Its pedigree is impeccable. Coming directly from the Beyeler estate, this lot is estimated £ 17M.
It is quite different from the 1919 canvas sold £ 41M including premium at Christie's on June 24, 2008, where thesurface of the water is so admirably rendered by the position of the flowers. Less realistic, less "botanical", the choice of Beyeler fits perfectly in this transition toward abstraction that characterizes the art of the 1910s.
1917 Pierrot by Picasso
2021 SOLD for $ 4.4M by Sotheby's
Picasso was a skilled draughtsman, able to display an intense empathy in his portraits.
The life of circus performers and their backstage was a continuous subject for him. During the période bleue, they are miserable despite their entertaining job. In the next phases they remain a support for questioning the meaning of life.
The performer of the pantomime could be Harlequin or Pierrot, both characters from the Commedia dell'Arte. Apparently that does not matter for Pablo in quest of the human being behind the mask or the make up. His clown is a mixing of both for an allegory of the human condition.
The line is much detailed and ready for print as when he prepared the terrible Repas Frugal in 1904. A similar drawing style is used in sketches that prepare for paintings.
Pierrot is a larger than life bust portrait in brush and ink on paper laid down on board 62 x 49 cm executed in Montrouge in 1917 after a travel to Naples with Diaghilev, Massine, Stravinsky and Cocteau. It was sold for $ 4.4M from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M by Sotheby's on October 23, 2021, lot 10.
The highly realistic head is straight, below the conical clown's hat. Gaze and mouth display a poignant no-nonsense attitude in a wait. The white ruff is another attribute of his job. The hollows and bumps in the face are beautifully rendered by the pattern of ink strokes.
This drawing was possibly made in the preparation of an oil on canvas such as a 1918 seated Pierrot 93 x 72 cm now in the permanent collection of the MoMA.
The life of circus performers and their backstage was a continuous subject for him. During the période bleue, they are miserable despite their entertaining job. In the next phases they remain a support for questioning the meaning of life.
The performer of the pantomime could be Harlequin or Pierrot, both characters from the Commedia dell'Arte. Apparently that does not matter for Pablo in quest of the human being behind the mask or the make up. His clown is a mixing of both for an allegory of the human condition.
The line is much detailed and ready for print as when he prepared the terrible Repas Frugal in 1904. A similar drawing style is used in sketches that prepare for paintings.
Pierrot is a larger than life bust portrait in brush and ink on paper laid down on board 62 x 49 cm executed in Montrouge in 1917 after a travel to Naples with Diaghilev, Massine, Stravinsky and Cocteau. It was sold for $ 4.4M from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M by Sotheby's on October 23, 2021, lot 10.
The highly realistic head is straight, below the conical clown's hat. Gaze and mouth display a poignant no-nonsense attitude in a wait. The white ruff is another attribute of his job. The hollows and bumps in the face are beautifully rendered by the pattern of ink strokes.
This drawing was possibly made in the preparation of an oil on canvas such as a 1918 seated Pierrot 93 x 72 cm now in the permanent collection of the MoMA.
1917 Louise by Modigliani
2001 SOLD for $ 4.1M by Phillips, de Pury and Luxembourg
Portrait de Louise, oil on canvas 55 x 44 cm painted by Modigliani in 1917 for Zborowski, was sold for $ 4.1M by Phillips, de Pury and Luxembourg on May 7, 2001 and passed at Sotheby's on November 4, 2008.
It is an early example of the mannerist style of his female portraits , painted in the year when he met Jeanne : stylized facial features, gentle curve of the bust, elongated neck and face with vacant almond-shaped eyes providing an enigmatic mood.
Such a portrait inspired by Botticelli displays a psychological interest of the artist for his sitter Louise who is not otherwise identified.
It is an early example of the mannerist style of his female portraits , painted in the year when he met Jeanne : stylized facial features, gentle curve of the bust, elongated neck and face with vacant almond-shaped eyes providing an enigmatic mood.
Such a portrait inspired by Botticelli displays a psychological interest of the artist for his sitter Louise who is not otherwise identified.
1917 The Erotic Drawings of Egon Schiele
2008 SOLD 2.2 M£ including premium
For fifteen years, the erotic works of Egon Schiele sell very well.
On February 4, in London, Christie's sold an important group of eight watercolors on paper, from the estate of a former associate of Ronald Lauder. For me, this sale was a test. I wrote in my blog:
"One may wonder why Lauder did not buy in private sale. If the sale is not a success, the price of the Viennese school will collapse."
In the catalogue, the top lot of the group was a dramatic naked woman from back, estimated £ 2 million, which was sold £ 2.5 million charge included. Five other works exceeded 500 K £. Buyers preferred at £ 2.9 million including fees a more original drawing, showing from back a nude mother with child behind her, which had been estimated £ 1.5 million. If I was right considering the sale as a test, we can fortunately conclude that the test was very successful!
Important Schiele drawings continued then to come on the market. By limiting it to Christie's, we note in the sale of May 6 in New York a simple pencil drawing depicting a nude contortionist female, pushed to $ 1.8 million including fees, on a low estimate of 600 K $.
In this trend, success is therefore assured for the four watercolors that Christie's sell in London on June 24.
The most erotic, a typical woman in shirt lying on her back with open legs, 30x46 cm, lot 61, is estimated £ 2 million.
A woman sitting with arms folded in a position expressing anguish, 56x37 cm, lot 60, expects £ 1.7 million.
The other two are less important, perhaps because less finished: Lot 62 is estimated 600 K£ and Lot 59: 400 K£.
POST SALE COMMENT
The most successful drawings of Schiele are now unsurprisingly valued around £ 2 million.
More exactly, Lot 60 was sold at £ 2.2 million and lot 61 at £ 1.9 million, including fees.
The signature is not enough, fortunately, to push up prices. The lot 59 was sold 480 K £ including fees, and lot 62 was not sold
On February 4, in London, Christie's sold an important group of eight watercolors on paper, from the estate of a former associate of Ronald Lauder. For me, this sale was a test. I wrote in my blog:
"One may wonder why Lauder did not buy in private sale. If the sale is not a success, the price of the Viennese school will collapse."
In the catalogue, the top lot of the group was a dramatic naked woman from back, estimated £ 2 million, which was sold £ 2.5 million charge included. Five other works exceeded 500 K £. Buyers preferred at £ 2.9 million including fees a more original drawing, showing from back a nude mother with child behind her, which had been estimated £ 1.5 million. If I was right considering the sale as a test, we can fortunately conclude that the test was very successful!
Important Schiele drawings continued then to come on the market. By limiting it to Christie's, we note in the sale of May 6 in New York a simple pencil drawing depicting a nude contortionist female, pushed to $ 1.8 million including fees, on a low estimate of 600 K $.
In this trend, success is therefore assured for the four watercolors that Christie's sell in London on June 24.
The most erotic, a typical woman in shirt lying on her back with open legs, 30x46 cm, lot 61, is estimated £ 2 million.
A woman sitting with arms folded in a position expressing anguish, 56x37 cm, lot 60, expects £ 1.7 million.
The other two are less important, perhaps because less finished: Lot 62 is estimated 600 K£ and Lot 59: 400 K£.
POST SALE COMMENT
The most successful drawings of Schiele are now unsurprisingly valued around £ 2 million.
More exactly, Lot 60 was sold at £ 2.2 million and lot 61 at £ 1.9 million, including fees.
The signature is not enough, fortunately, to push up prices. The lot 59 was sold 480 K £ including fees, and lot 62 was not sold
1917 Early Spring at Canoe Lake by Tom Thomson
2009 SOLD for $ 2.75M CAD by Heffel
Tom Thomson is a self taught artist who desires to engage in full time painting when attending the art circles of Toronto. He discovers the beauty of Algonquin Park in 1912. He enjoys fishing and wild living.
His life changes in 1914. His artistic patron Dr. MacCallum, a friend of Lawren Harris, offers him a place in the collective workshop and ensures the purchase of his paintings. Thomson arrives in Algonquin Park in late April for a stay of several months during which he becomes a ranger of the park.
This subtle mixing of stability and adventure immediately improves his artistic vision. His views of forest details in Algonquin Park are highly emotional, with unprecedented colors that renounce realism to better express the feeling. The hard conditions of his artistic creation require him to work on canvas of small size 22 x 27 cm which will serve as models for larger compositions executed in the Toronto studio during the next winters.
On November 23, 2016, Heffel sold Sleet Storm for $ 1.53M CAD from a lower estimate of $ 1M CAD. Painted in 1914, this oil on canvas mounted on board 22 x 27 cm is arguably one of the first achievements in his phase of top creativity. Spring is about to win over winter. Melted snow is still hanging on the branches but already dispersed by the wind.
Painted on panel in 1917 in the same size and also featuring the snow in its melting phase, Early spring - Canoe Lake was sold for CAD $ 2.75M on November 26, 2009 by Heffel from a lower estimate of CAD $ 600K.
The ranger of Algonquin Park was a pioneer of Canadian modern art. His new style greatly inspired his Toronto friends who will create the Group of Seven in 1919. Thomson had died by drowning in Algonquin Park in July 1917 in circumstances that were never established.
His life changes in 1914. His artistic patron Dr. MacCallum, a friend of Lawren Harris, offers him a place in the collective workshop and ensures the purchase of his paintings. Thomson arrives in Algonquin Park in late April for a stay of several months during which he becomes a ranger of the park.
This subtle mixing of stability and adventure immediately improves his artistic vision. His views of forest details in Algonquin Park are highly emotional, with unprecedented colors that renounce realism to better express the feeling. The hard conditions of his artistic creation require him to work on canvas of small size 22 x 27 cm which will serve as models for larger compositions executed in the Toronto studio during the next winters.
On November 23, 2016, Heffel sold Sleet Storm for $ 1.53M CAD from a lower estimate of $ 1M CAD. Painted in 1914, this oil on canvas mounted on board 22 x 27 cm is arguably one of the first achievements in his phase of top creativity. Spring is about to win over winter. Melted snow is still hanging on the branches but already dispersed by the wind.
Painted on panel in 1917 in the same size and also featuring the snow in its melting phase, Early spring - Canoe Lake was sold for CAD $ 2.75M on November 26, 2009 by Heffel from a lower estimate of CAD $ 600K.
The ranger of Algonquin Park was a pioneer of Canadian modern art. His new style greatly inspired his Toronto friends who will create the Group of Seven in 1919. Thomson had died by drowning in Algonquin Park in July 1917 in circumstances that were never established.
1917 Meeting Point for Artists in Taos
2010 SOLD 735 K$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The small town of Taos in northern New Mexico is a blessed place of artists who are fascinated by its luminous landscapes and by the beauty of the Indian village. From the early twentieth century, visitors from around the world visited and resided here, forming and renewing some particularly active communities of artists.
On July 24 in Reno, Coeur d'Alene Art Auction sells a painting made in 1917 by the first President of the Taos Society of Artists, Eanger Irving Couse.
E.I. Couse always shows close ups of Native Americans, peacefully busy at their everyday occupationals. A little bit too clean, his compositions have an inside home mood that does not meet the cultural strength of the Curtis photographs but is intimate and sweet.
The artist from Michigan met here an Indian artist drawing a kachina. This oil on canvas, 90 x 115 cm, is estimated $ 800K. It is illustrated in the catalog shared by iCollector.
Twice in recent months, I discussed works made at Taos by residents who went from far away. Fechin came from Tatarstan and Agnes Martin from Saskatchewan.
The small town of Taos in northern New Mexico is a blessed place of artists who are fascinated by its luminous landscapes and by the beauty of the Indian village. From the early twentieth century, visitors from around the world visited and resided here, forming and renewing some particularly active communities of artists.
On July 24 in Reno, Coeur d'Alene Art Auction sells a painting made in 1917 by the first President of the Taos Society of Artists, Eanger Irving Couse.
E.I. Couse always shows close ups of Native Americans, peacefully busy at their everyday occupationals. A little bit too clean, his compositions have an inside home mood that does not meet the cultural strength of the Curtis photographs but is intimate and sweet.
The artist from Michigan met here an Indian artist drawing a kachina. This oil on canvas, 90 x 115 cm, is estimated $ 800K. It is illustrated in the catalog shared by iCollector.
Twice in recent months, I discussed works made at Taos by residents who went from far away. Fechin came from Tatarstan and Agnes Martin from Saskatchewan.
1917-1933 Alexandre Iacovleff, the Last Wandering Artist
2014 SOLD for £ 300K including premium
Alexandre Iacovleff (Alexander Yakovlev) starts his great travels in 1917. The 30 year old Russian begins by the Far East. Influenced by Diaghilev and Benois, he is passionate about the diversity of cultures.
At that time when photography has trivialized the images of distant countries, Iacovleff is still a draughtsman and a painter. He produces a prodigious quantity of drawings.
He looks at everything. In the theatre, he is not only interested in the show but also in the attitude of the spectators in the boxes behind their cups and teapots. An oil on canvas 90 x 134 cm was sold for £ 1M including premium by Sotheby's on 28 November 2006. In a bold diagonal, a scene located in Pékin (Beijing), tempera on canvas 108 x 118 cm painted in 1918, is for sale byBonhams in London on November 26, lot 41 estimated £ 500K.
In France, the ethnographic content of his work is recognized. He participates as an artist in two expeditions organized by Citroën to demonstrate the robustness of their vehicles, la Croisière Noire through Africa in 1924-1925. la Croisière Jaune visiting Asia in 1931-1932.
On November 24 in London, Sotheby's sells 97 sketchbooks and journals 18 x 10 cm by Iacovleff covering all his travels from 1917 to 1932 in one lot estimated £ 250K, lot 15.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's (below).
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Sotheby's sold for £ 300K the lot of sketchbooks and journals.
Bonhams sold for £ 300K the Beijing painting.
At that time when photography has trivialized the images of distant countries, Iacovleff is still a draughtsman and a painter. He produces a prodigious quantity of drawings.
He looks at everything. In the theatre, he is not only interested in the show but also in the attitude of the spectators in the boxes behind their cups and teapots. An oil on canvas 90 x 134 cm was sold for £ 1M including premium by Sotheby's on 28 November 2006. In a bold diagonal, a scene located in Pékin (Beijing), tempera on canvas 108 x 118 cm painted in 1918, is for sale byBonhams in London on November 26, lot 41 estimated £ 500K.
In France, the ethnographic content of his work is recognized. He participates as an artist in two expeditions organized by Citroën to demonstrate the robustness of their vehicles, la Croisière Noire through Africa in 1924-1925. la Croisière Jaune visiting Asia in 1931-1932.
On November 24 in London, Sotheby's sells 97 sketchbooks and journals 18 x 10 cm by Iacovleff covering all his travels from 1917 to 1932 in one lot estimated £ 250K, lot 15.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's (below).
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Sotheby's sold for £ 300K the lot of sketchbooks and journals.
Bonhams sold for £ 300K the Beijing painting.
1918 Les Deux Acrobates by Léger
2022 SOLD for $ 14M by Christie's
Painted in 1918, Les Deux Acrobates marks Léger's desire to remain at the border between abstraction and Cubist fragmentation.
A mid length performer from Cirque Médrano in Montmartre is holding a fellow reverted acrobat in an airy vertical composition. The face to face heads are figured in a cartoonish style while hats and arms form a loose construction of curved volumes.
This oil on canvas 90 x 58 cm was sold by Christie's for $ 5.5M on November 6, 2002, lot 41 and for $ 14M on May 12, 2022, lot 36C.
A mid length performer from Cirque Médrano in Montmartre is holding a fellow reverted acrobat in an airy vertical composition. The face to face heads are figured in a cartoonish style while hats and arms form a loose construction of curved volumes.
This oil on canvas 90 x 58 cm was sold by Christie's for $ 5.5M on November 6, 2002, lot 41 and for $ 14M on May 12, 2022, lot 36C.
1918 Totentanz in Berlin
2020 SOLD for £ 9.7M including premium
Born in Berlin, George Grosz is 21 years old in 1914. Disgusted by the atrocities of war, he is twice discharged from the German army. He escapes in 1917 a scheduled execution because he is considered as insane.
The civil society disgusts him just as much. While the corpses are rotting on the barbed wire, the survivors indulge in all the sins in Friedrichstrasse. Prostitutes reign over this increasingly miserable decadence. The war will be lost but nobody pays attention to it.
Grosz protests in a proletarian caricature, violently anti-militarist and anti-bourgeois. He will try unsuccessfully to approach revolutionary and Dadaist movements and his art will be censored by all regimes. For the Nazis, he will be the worst cultural Bolshevik. Many of his works have been destroyed.
On February 5 in London, Christie's sells Gefährliche Strasse (the dangerous street), oil on canvas 47 x 65 cm painted in July 1918, lot 6 estimated £ 4.5M.
The image juxtaposes two nightmarish scenes, symbolizing sex and death. A hilarious prostitute, naked under her transparent clothes, excites a lecherous crowd. In the foreground, an austere soldier with emaciated cheeks resolutely turns his back on the rest of the action. Grosz's screams are worthy of Goya's disasters.
The scene is staged by night in dark colors, with a Futurist fragmentation in the style of Boccioni. In the bottom right, the silhouette of a head expressing repulsion or anger is considered to be a self-portrait of the artist.
The civil society disgusts him just as much. While the corpses are rotting on the barbed wire, the survivors indulge in all the sins in Friedrichstrasse. Prostitutes reign over this increasingly miserable decadence. The war will be lost but nobody pays attention to it.
Grosz protests in a proletarian caricature, violently anti-militarist and anti-bourgeois. He will try unsuccessfully to approach revolutionary and Dadaist movements and his art will be censored by all regimes. For the Nazis, he will be the worst cultural Bolshevik. Many of his works have been destroyed.
On February 5 in London, Christie's sells Gefährliche Strasse (the dangerous street), oil on canvas 47 x 65 cm painted in July 1918, lot 6 estimated £ 4.5M.
The image juxtaposes two nightmarish scenes, symbolizing sex and death. A hilarious prostitute, naked under her transparent clothes, excites a lecherous crowd. In the foreground, an austere soldier with emaciated cheeks resolutely turns his back on the rest of the action. Grosz's screams are worthy of Goya's disasters.
The scene is staged by night in dark colors, with a Futurist fragmentation in the style of Boccioni. In the bottom right, the silhouette of a head expressing repulsion or anger is considered to be a self-portrait of the artist.
1918 Flags by Childe Hassam
2021 SOLD for $ 12.3M by Sotheby's
In 1916 President Wilson is still expecting to maintain the USA out of the First World War, but he nevertheless consolidates the US Army.
The Preparedness movement, supported by former President Roosevelt, manages a campaign for entering the Americans in the war beside the Allies against the Germans. Specific Preparedness days are organized to gather crowds of many thousands around the waving US flags.
Childe Hassam is recognized as the leader of the small group of US Impressionist painters. His style was influenced by the French Impressionnisme. His preferred theme was the everyday life of the crowd in the avenues, in a variety of bright colors. He was a keen Francophile and became early committed to the Preparedness and then to the US Army in war from the formal involvement in April 1917.
From 1916 to 1919, Hassam executed a patriotic set of about thirty views of New York City entitled Flags, displaying crowds and flags in various angles of view, moments and climatic conditions.
The most famous opus from Hassam's Flags is subtitled The Avenue in the Rain. Painted in 1917 in a style close to the French Impressionnisme, it belongs to the White House and was displayed by President Obama on the wall of the Oval Office.
On May 12, 2021, Sotheby's sold for $ 12.3M Flags on 57th Street, Winter 1918, oil on canvas 72 x 61 cm, lot 1026 estimated $ 12M, previously owned by the New York Historical Society. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The scene is a rare top to down view without horizon from the window of Hassam's studio. It is the only snowy scenery in the series, with a nice foreground effect of flags stiffened by frost.
The Preparedness movement, supported by former President Roosevelt, manages a campaign for entering the Americans in the war beside the Allies against the Germans. Specific Preparedness days are organized to gather crowds of many thousands around the waving US flags.
Childe Hassam is recognized as the leader of the small group of US Impressionist painters. His style was influenced by the French Impressionnisme. His preferred theme was the everyday life of the crowd in the avenues, in a variety of bright colors. He was a keen Francophile and became early committed to the Preparedness and then to the US Army in war from the formal involvement in April 1917.
From 1916 to 1919, Hassam executed a patriotic set of about thirty views of New York City entitled Flags, displaying crowds and flags in various angles of view, moments and climatic conditions.
The most famous opus from Hassam's Flags is subtitled The Avenue in the Rain. Painted in 1917 in a style close to the French Impressionnisme, it belongs to the White House and was displayed by President Obama on the wall of the Oval Office.
On May 12, 2021, Sotheby's sold for $ 12.3M Flags on 57th Street, Winter 1918, oil on canvas 72 x 61 cm, lot 1026 estimated $ 12M, previously owned by the New York Historical Society. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The scene is a rare top to down view without horizon from the window of Hassam's studio. It is the only snowy scenery in the series, with a nice foreground effect of flags stiffened by frost.
#AuctionUpdate: On offer from the New-York Historical Society and sold to benefit museum collections, Childe Hassam’s 'Flags on 57th Street, Winter 1918' achieves $12.3 million - a new auction record for the American artist. pic.twitter.com/32tlAQvDep
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) May 13, 2021
1918 Under the Weeping Willow
2017 SOLD for £ 8.9M including premium
The war was a period of great concern for Claude Monet, a patriot and friend of Clemenceau. Too old for active engagement he takes refuge with some feeling of shame within his artistic occupation. With his series of paintings of water lilies that will become Les Grandes Décorations he wants to express that the beauty of nature is immutable unlike the events created by men.
Each water lily painting is a technical feat in increasingly panoramic formats. Monet also observes the shores of his pond in search of vertical themes that will bring an impression of vitality and power. The 200 x 100 cm picture of a group of mauve irises in close-up was sold for £ 10.8M including premium by Christie's on June 23, 2015.
In March 1918 the German counter-offensive threatens Amiens. After some hesitation Monet decides to remain at all costs in Giverny. He immediately begins his paintings on the theme of the weeping willows of his garden. This series will include ten artworks made in 1918 and 1919.
The weeping willow is an ornamental tree with dense and enveloping foliage. Under his tree Monet observes the subtlety of colors. The trunk and a small corner of the ground at the edge of the pond are sufficient to identify the theme. The low angle follows the trunk in bottom-up in its whole height. The leaves provide a mingling of colors treated in a heavy impasto by gestural brush strikes that deliberately ignore the perspective.
The weeping willows of Monet renew the modern art. He is aware and proud of that and wishes to present one of these paintings to France at the time of the armistice. This series opens the path to the experiments close to abstraction of his latest years.
On June 27 in London, Christie's sells a Saule pleureur by Monet, oil on canvas 130 x 110 cm, lot 14 estimated £ 15M.
Each water lily painting is a technical feat in increasingly panoramic formats. Monet also observes the shores of his pond in search of vertical themes that will bring an impression of vitality and power. The 200 x 100 cm picture of a group of mauve irises in close-up was sold for £ 10.8M including premium by Christie's on June 23, 2015.
In March 1918 the German counter-offensive threatens Amiens. After some hesitation Monet decides to remain at all costs in Giverny. He immediately begins his paintings on the theme of the weeping willows of his garden. This series will include ten artworks made in 1918 and 1919.
The weeping willow is an ornamental tree with dense and enveloping foliage. Under his tree Monet observes the subtlety of colors. The trunk and a small corner of the ground at the edge of the pond are sufficient to identify the theme. The low angle follows the trunk in bottom-up in its whole height. The leaves provide a mingling of colors treated in a heavy impasto by gestural brush strikes that deliberately ignore the perspective.
The weeping willows of Monet renew the modern art. He is aware and proud of that and wishes to present one of these paintings to France at the time of the armistice. This series opens the path to the experiments close to abstraction of his latest years.
On June 27 in London, Christie's sells a Saule pleureur by Monet, oil on canvas 130 x 110 cm, lot 14 estimated £ 15M.
Saule pleureur de #Monet : une peinture chargée d’histoire exécutée à l’aube de la fin de la 1ère GM https://t.co/v9exCXAJkq pic.twitter.com/yG83YVjden
— Christie's Paris (@christiesparis) June 14, 2017
1918 Vallotton in the Naked Sun
2010 SOLD 2.4 MCHF including premium
The Côte de Grâce is overlooking the Seine estuary. Beyond to the west, there is nothing else than the sea. This promontory attracts the lovers of sunsets.
An oil painting by Félix Vallotton, 54 x 73 cm, dated 1918, shows that landscape. The Sun is seen from the front, round, orange, violent. The artist had attended the Nabis group, and painted his best landscapes to the extreme limits of the possibilities of color. In this example, the sky, orange and violet, is magnificent.
Vallotton's landscapes are sometimes impersonal. This one is uninhabited, indeed dehumanized. In the darkness, a discreet barrier is the only witness from the civilization. The atmosphere is definitely romantic.
The lot is estimated CHF 1.8 million, for sale by Sotheby's in Zurich on December 6. It is shown in the press release shared by Artdaily.
POST SALE COMMENT
This beautiful sunset is a masterpiece of the artist. It was sold CHF 2.4 million including premium.
An oil painting by Félix Vallotton, 54 x 73 cm, dated 1918, shows that landscape. The Sun is seen from the front, round, orange, violent. The artist had attended the Nabis group, and painted his best landscapes to the extreme limits of the possibilities of color. In this example, the sky, orange and violet, is magnificent.
Vallotton's landscapes are sometimes impersonal. This one is uninhabited, indeed dehumanized. In the darkness, a discreet barrier is the only witness from the civilization. The atmosphere is definitely romantic.
The lot is estimated CHF 1.8 million, for sale by Sotheby's in Zurich on December 6. It is shown in the press release shared by Artdaily.
POST SALE COMMENT
This beautiful sunset is a masterpiece of the artist. It was sold CHF 2.4 million including premium.
1918 the petrified hermit of karelia
2014 unsold
Nikolai Roerich participated actively in the Russian art movements until the Revolution. Pacifist and passionate about the mysticism throughout the religions, he refused the Bolshevism and went into exile.
He found in Karelia an appropriate place to face the raw forces of nature and develop a new artistic style. Man is very small, drowned into a grandiose setting, yet he dominates the scene by the strength of his mind.
Roerich finds an inspiration in the legend of St Simeon Stylites, the ascetic who prayed for almost forty years without leaving his pillar. On November 26 in London, Bonhams sells The Praying Stylite, tempera and oil on canvas 154 x 129 cm painted in 1918, lot 30, a masterpiece of the Karelian period of the artist.
The holy man almost disappears within expressive mountains with highly saturated colors. He is alone. He prays by standing for so long that his feet are petrified. His silhouette is withered and his beard reaches the knees.
Roerich is a painter of mysticism, not only of Christian mysticism. After Karelia, he traveled extensively, particularly in Asia. His Lao Tze and his Confucius painted in tempera on canvas around 1924 have a similar theme as the Karelian stylite but with lighter colors. These paintings were sold for $ 2.2M and $ 1.25M including premium by Sotheby's on April 26, 2006.
He found in Karelia an appropriate place to face the raw forces of nature and develop a new artistic style. Man is very small, drowned into a grandiose setting, yet he dominates the scene by the strength of his mind.
Roerich finds an inspiration in the legend of St Simeon Stylites, the ascetic who prayed for almost forty years without leaving his pillar. On November 26 in London, Bonhams sells The Praying Stylite, tempera and oil on canvas 154 x 129 cm painted in 1918, lot 30, a masterpiece of the Karelian period of the artist.
The holy man almost disappears within expressive mountains with highly saturated colors. He is alone. He prays by standing for so long that his feet are petrified. His silhouette is withered and his beard reaches the knees.
Roerich is a painter of mysticism, not only of Christian mysticism. After Karelia, he traveled extensively, particularly in Asia. His Lao Tze and his Confucius painted in tempera on canvas around 1924 have a similar theme as the Karelian stylite but with lighter colors. These paintings were sold for $ 2.2M and $ 1.25M including premium by Sotheby's on April 26, 2006.
1919 Construction in Red by Rodchenko
2016 SOLD for £ 3.65M including premium
There are some tight similarities between the art of Malevich and the art of Rodchenko. Both are based on geometric elements and eliminate all narrative and emotional effects. Their intentions, however, were different.
The black square on white was created by Malevich in 1915, two years before the revolution. This seminal piece of the suprematism provides a self-consistent existence to the painted surface devoid of any other meaning.
The October Revolution brings a short lived impression of freedom to the artistic avant-garde. In 1918 Malevich goes further in his process with his white square on white.
Meanwhile Rodchenko endeavors to define a socialist art that must result in practical achievements. His constructivism, based on the predominance of the line, offers the geometric structures on which architectures, furnishings or lamps can be built.
Rodchenko supports his theories with oils on canvas, meticulously realized with the ruler and compass to avoid any trembling of the hand. The principal figures are divergent bundles of lines which are superimposed over grids without however their position responding to any logic of a space arrangement.
On November 29 in London, Sotheby's sells Construction No. 95, 65 x 40 cm, painted in 1919, lot 10 estimated £ 2.5M. The work was titled 'on scarlet' by the artist by reference to its reddish-orange background. This color is not the bright red of the Revolution. It is the symbol of a call to activity according to the theories of the colors by Kandinsky, of whom Rodchenko is very close at that time.
In 1921 the ultimate culmination of the constructivist approach was a series of monochrome paintings in pure colors by Rodchenko. Abstract art began to be considered as a bourgeois threat. The artist then abandoned painting and developed a new career as a socialist decorator, illustrator and photographer.
The black square on white was created by Malevich in 1915, two years before the revolution. This seminal piece of the suprematism provides a self-consistent existence to the painted surface devoid of any other meaning.
The October Revolution brings a short lived impression of freedom to the artistic avant-garde. In 1918 Malevich goes further in his process with his white square on white.
Meanwhile Rodchenko endeavors to define a socialist art that must result in practical achievements. His constructivism, based on the predominance of the line, offers the geometric structures on which architectures, furnishings or lamps can be built.
Rodchenko supports his theories with oils on canvas, meticulously realized with the ruler and compass to avoid any trembling of the hand. The principal figures are divergent bundles of lines which are superimposed over grids without however their position responding to any logic of a space arrangement.
On November 29 in London, Sotheby's sells Construction No. 95, 65 x 40 cm, painted in 1919, lot 10 estimated £ 2.5M. The work was titled 'on scarlet' by the artist by reference to its reddish-orange background. This color is not the bright red of the Revolution. It is the symbol of a call to activity according to the theories of the colors by Kandinsky, of whom Rodchenko is very close at that time.
In 1921 the ultimate culmination of the constructivist approach was a series of monochrome paintings in pure colors by Rodchenko. Abstract art began to be considered as a bourgeois threat. The artist then abandoned painting and developed a new career as a socialist decorator, illustrator and photographer.
1919 The Cubist Intelligentsia
2010 SOLD 1.77 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The First World War and its Russian corollary the October Revolution come at a time when modern art invents new languages. Yuri Annenkov managed the feat of showing the Russian personalities of his time with a clever synthesis of realism and cubism.
His sitters are the politicians of the Revolution, and his circle of friends in the arts and letters.
In 1919, the editor Zinovii Grzhebin is one of the protectors of Annenkov. He seeks a middle way between the traditional society and the hope just born from the Revolution. He will not find it. His portrait by Annenkov, an oil on canvas 67 x 54 cm, shows him as an attentive reader with a serious face furrowed by the cubist expressionism of the artist.
This painting is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity. It is estimated £ 800 K, for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 7.
In 1922, Annenkov painted the portrait of another friend, the writer Aleksandr Tikhonov. The style and format are similar. Again, the psychological strength is achieved at the expense of a premature aging of the face. This work has been sold £ 2.2 million including premium at Christie's on November 28, 2007.
POST SALE COMMENT
It seemed logical that the portrait of Grzhebin approaches the price of the Tikhonov, which was less interesting to my taste. It has not quite reached it: 1.77 million pounds including premium. It is a good result.
The First World War and its Russian corollary the October Revolution come at a time when modern art invents new languages. Yuri Annenkov managed the feat of showing the Russian personalities of his time with a clever synthesis of realism and cubism.
His sitters are the politicians of the Revolution, and his circle of friends in the arts and letters.
In 1919, the editor Zinovii Grzhebin is one of the protectors of Annenkov. He seeks a middle way between the traditional society and the hope just born from the Revolution. He will not find it. His portrait by Annenkov, an oil on canvas 67 x 54 cm, shows him as an attentive reader with a serious face furrowed by the cubist expressionism of the artist.
This painting is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity. It is estimated £ 800 K, for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 7.
In 1922, Annenkov painted the portrait of another friend, the writer Aleksandr Tikhonov. The style and format are similar. Again, the psychological strength is achieved at the expense of a premature aging of the face. This work has been sold £ 2.2 million including premium at Christie's on November 28, 2007.
POST SALE COMMENT
It seemed logical that the portrait of Grzhebin approaches the price of the Tikhonov, which was less interesting to my taste. It has not quite reached it: 1.77 million pounds including premium. It is a good result.
1919 THE THREE TIMES OF THE GRANDE ARABESQUE
2008 SOLD 450 K€ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
For Degas, observing the ballerinas is a passion. He seeks to express a synthesis of beauty and motion. The representation in statuettes of the three times of the Arabesque is a remarkable achievement.
He prepared the wax models, 40 to 50 cm high according to the position, around 1890-1895. In 1919, so two years after the death of the artist, Hébrard manufactured the original bronze issue in 22 copies of each of the three statuettes.
It would be fun to combine the three into a single lot at auction, but I have not found any case. We are going to look separately and successively to the three positions of the dance.
At first, she is upright, and she is greeting, with the left foot slightly lifted. This position with no balance effect is the least sought of the three and a price between 200 and 250 K$ is common.
At the second time, the body is bent over the tense right leg. the right arm and left leg are in an extension of the body, and the nice position of the left arm enables the balance. A copy presented by Christie's on November 6 was sold 540 K$ including fees.
In the third time, the right leg has not changed, but the body is now clearly bent down, still with the right arm and left leg in extension. A copy of this imbalanced position will be sold in Paris, Hôtel Drouot, by PIASA on December 12, Lot 3. It is estimated 350 K €.
And now, let's finish with a surprise, found in Artvalue: in November 2000, Christie's sold a fourth time, for 600 K $. The body and right arm are now up. But this is no longer a Grande Arabesque, because it is only 30 cm high. This figure has also been issued in 22 copies by Hébrard.
POST SALE COMMENT
I did not expect such a high result, so it is a pleasant surprise: 450 K € fees included.
For Degas, observing the ballerinas is a passion. He seeks to express a synthesis of beauty and motion. The representation in statuettes of the three times of the Arabesque is a remarkable achievement.
He prepared the wax models, 40 to 50 cm high according to the position, around 1890-1895. In 1919, so two years after the death of the artist, Hébrard manufactured the original bronze issue in 22 copies of each of the three statuettes.
It would be fun to combine the three into a single lot at auction, but I have not found any case. We are going to look separately and successively to the three positions of the dance.
At first, she is upright, and she is greeting, with the left foot slightly lifted. This position with no balance effect is the least sought of the three and a price between 200 and 250 K$ is common.
At the second time, the body is bent over the tense right leg. the right arm and left leg are in an extension of the body, and the nice position of the left arm enables the balance. A copy presented by Christie's on November 6 was sold 540 K$ including fees.
In the third time, the right leg has not changed, but the body is now clearly bent down, still with the right arm and left leg in extension. A copy of this imbalanced position will be sold in Paris, Hôtel Drouot, by PIASA on December 12, Lot 3. It is estimated 350 K €.
And now, let's finish with a surprise, found in Artvalue: in November 2000, Christie's sold a fourth time, for 600 K $. The body and right arm are now up. But this is no longer a Grande Arabesque, because it is only 30 cm high. This figure has also been issued in 22 copies by Hébrard.
POST SALE COMMENT
I did not expect such a high result, so it is a pleasant surprise: 450 K € fees included.
1919 A Canna at Lake George
2019 unsold
Alfred Stieglitz was passionate about the art of Georgia O'Keeffeeven before meeting the artist. She is a pioneer of abstract art, which she seeks to reconcile with the most intimate forms of nature. They live together from 1918 and will get married in 1924. Since his childhood, Alfred spent summers in Lake George. Georgia discovers this beautiful site of the Adirondack Mountains in upper New York state.
Georgia's approach to the details of nature is methodical and global. She prepares in parallel several supports, paper or canvas, on which she begins a realistic representation of her subject, in watercolor or oil, from the most varied angles. Seeking the purity of forms, she reworks them up to a level of abstraction that suits her.
In 1919 at Lake George, Georgia takes as a model a canna with a bright red flower and a purple leaf and executes six watercolors and eight oils on this theme. A very geometric composition with the triangular flower surmounted by the diagonal leaf, oil on canvas 42 x 26 cm, was sold for $ 960K including premium by Christie's on December 4, 2003.
On May 22 in New York, Christie's sells Inside Red Canna, an oil on canvas 56 x 43 cm estimated $ 4M, lot 12.
Georgia went at the closest of her flower up to satisfying one of her deepest artistic obsessions : achieving a perfect symmetry. The bright red petals protecting the brown and pink intimate center of this plant bring a cozy, almost carnal, impression.
This work is one of those that fed from 1923 the debates on an assimilation of the flower to the artist's sexual anatomy. This interpretation is not credible because the other opus of this series do not have such a characteristic. This fable was probably invented by Stieglitz to draw attention to his wife who was also the model of his photographs, mostly in the nude. Georgia denied, while painting other flowers that illustrated this fantasy of her husband.
Georgia's approach to the details of nature is methodical and global. She prepares in parallel several supports, paper or canvas, on which she begins a realistic representation of her subject, in watercolor or oil, from the most varied angles. Seeking the purity of forms, she reworks them up to a level of abstraction that suits her.
In 1919 at Lake George, Georgia takes as a model a canna with a bright red flower and a purple leaf and executes six watercolors and eight oils on this theme. A very geometric composition with the triangular flower surmounted by the diagonal leaf, oil on canvas 42 x 26 cm, was sold for $ 960K including premium by Christie's on December 4, 2003.
On May 22 in New York, Christie's sells Inside Red Canna, an oil on canvas 56 x 43 cm estimated $ 4M, lot 12.
Georgia went at the closest of her flower up to satisfying one of her deepest artistic obsessions : achieving a perfect symmetry. The bright red petals protecting the brown and pink intimate center of this plant bring a cozy, almost carnal, impression.
This work is one of those that fed from 1923 the debates on an assimilation of the flower to the artist's sexual anatomy. This interpretation is not credible because the other opus of this series do not have such a characteristic. This fable was probably invented by Stieglitz to draw attention to his wife who was also the model of his photographs, mostly in the nude. Georgia denied, while painting other flowers that illustrated this fantasy of her husband.
THE FRIEND OF WILD BEASTS
2010 SOLD 2.1 M$ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Rembrandt Bugatti has created a unique bestiary. His sculptures have been cast in bronze by one of the best specialists, A. A. Hébrard, and are now much appreciated by collectors.
His passion for his subject led him to the largest zoo in Europe, in Antwerp. He worked by direct observation of animals, encouraged by the zoo director who entrusted him with a workshop. His subjects are active and expressive, the proportions are perfect. The stroke of the chisel of the young master is energetic, without excessive flexibility.
Sotheby's sells on 5 and 6 May in New York eleven sculptures from a collection. The four lots in the evening of May 5 were conceived at Antwerp in 1909 or 1910. The dates of the Hébrard cast are not identified.
The image of the mighty lion illustrates the press release shared by AuctionPublicity. 67 cm long, it is estimated $ 1.5 million. His female, 65 cm, is also there, estimated $ 1.2 million. Sculpted in every sense of the term, the walking baboon, 44 cm, expects $ 2 million. The giraffe with head down, 65 cm high, is announced in the catalog at 900 K $.
Bugatti was perhaps unconsciously one of the founders of modern sculpture. He committed suicide without having achieved fame, like van Gogh. The art market is always welcoming the collections: the sale will certainly push his value.
POST SALE COMMENT
The results are good, with no excess. The baboon received the best price: $ 2.1 million. The lioness and the giraffe were at par with each other: $ 1.4 million each. The lion has not been sold.
These prices include fees.
Rembrandt Bugatti has created a unique bestiary. His sculptures have been cast in bronze by one of the best specialists, A. A. Hébrard, and are now much appreciated by collectors.
His passion for his subject led him to the largest zoo in Europe, in Antwerp. He worked by direct observation of animals, encouraged by the zoo director who entrusted him with a workshop. His subjects are active and expressive, the proportions are perfect. The stroke of the chisel of the young master is energetic, without excessive flexibility.
Sotheby's sells on 5 and 6 May in New York eleven sculptures from a collection. The four lots in the evening of May 5 were conceived at Antwerp in 1909 or 1910. The dates of the Hébrard cast are not identified.
The image of the mighty lion illustrates the press release shared by AuctionPublicity. 67 cm long, it is estimated $ 1.5 million. His female, 65 cm, is also there, estimated $ 1.2 million. Sculpted in every sense of the term, the walking baboon, 44 cm, expects $ 2 million. The giraffe with head down, 65 cm high, is announced in the catalog at 900 K $.
Bugatti was perhaps unconsciously one of the founders of modern sculpture. He committed suicide without having achieved fame, like van Gogh. The art market is always welcoming the collections: the sale will certainly push his value.
POST SALE COMMENT
The results are good, with no excess. The baboon received the best price: $ 2.1 million. The lioness and the giraffe were at par with each other: $ 1.4 million each. The lion has not been sold.
These prices include fees.
ETIENNE DINET IN SOUTH ALGERIA
2008 SOLD 1.4 M€ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Life in Algeria so excited Dinet that he was permanently established in Bou Saada, and went to take a Muslim name. For this French painter, life in the oasis is a permanent source of inspiration. The vegetation is tropical, clothes are colourful. Boys play, compete, fight; girls go about their work and bathe in the river, which is of course a good excuse to being naked.
For now twenty years Gros et Delettrez manage twice a year an Orientalist sale at Drouot, which loyal fans of this painter never miss.
The catalogue of the sale of 23 June is now online, and it is Dinet, as usual, which is its highlight.
The important works are a large painting (139x119 cm) showing a mother defending her daughters (Lot 29, estimated 800 K€), two wise girls at bath in the oued, (81x65 cm, lot 28, 500 K€), two girls drying their cloth (81x65 cm, lot 31, 450 K€), and the close-up portrait of an older bather (71x59 cm, lot 30, 600 K€).
There are good results in the archives of the auction house.
In December 2007, three very animated scenes made the best prices, at 1.08 M€, 1 M€ and 900 K€.
In June 2007, a panorama of the palm of Bou Saada with a child far away observing the landscape unexpectedly climbed to 1.55 M€ from an estimate of 450 K€. This work seems atypical in the production of Dinet, who is more accustomed to close-ups. A scene showing two girls jumping with rope was auctioned 850 K€.
POST SALE COMMENT
It is the passion of buyers and not the knowledge of experts who makes the prices of Dinet paintings. This trend in recent years has been remarkably confirmed this time again.
Our young bathers of lot 28, one of which is nude, stopped at 1.4 million €. The mother defending her daughters, one of which also is nude, was sold slightly above the expected price, at 850 K €. This tragic subject has attracted the attention of buyers.
The girl playing with her brother, which illustrated the news article in La Gazette de l'Hotel Drouot, was sold 400 K € on an estimate of 300 K €, and a portrait of an Arab man rose to 220 K € on an estimate of 30 K €.
All these results are given before fees.
The old woman and the scene of laundry remained unsold. I regret a little that the latter, which was nice, has been estimated too high: it would have been interesting to know its exact position in the results of the artist. The girls (nude, of course) were too far to claim the requested sum.
Life in Algeria so excited Dinet that he was permanently established in Bou Saada, and went to take a Muslim name. For this French painter, life in the oasis is a permanent source of inspiration. The vegetation is tropical, clothes are colourful. Boys play, compete, fight; girls go about their work and bathe in the river, which is of course a good excuse to being naked.
For now twenty years Gros et Delettrez manage twice a year an Orientalist sale at Drouot, which loyal fans of this painter never miss.
The catalogue of the sale of 23 June is now online, and it is Dinet, as usual, which is its highlight.
The important works are a large painting (139x119 cm) showing a mother defending her daughters (Lot 29, estimated 800 K€), two wise girls at bath in the oued, (81x65 cm, lot 28, 500 K€), two girls drying their cloth (81x65 cm, lot 31, 450 K€), and the close-up portrait of an older bather (71x59 cm, lot 30, 600 K€).
There are good results in the archives of the auction house.
In December 2007, three very animated scenes made the best prices, at 1.08 M€, 1 M€ and 900 K€.
In June 2007, a panorama of the palm of Bou Saada with a child far away observing the landscape unexpectedly climbed to 1.55 M€ from an estimate of 450 K€. This work seems atypical in the production of Dinet, who is more accustomed to close-ups. A scene showing two girls jumping with rope was auctioned 850 K€.
POST SALE COMMENT
It is the passion of buyers and not the knowledge of experts who makes the prices of Dinet paintings. This trend in recent years has been remarkably confirmed this time again.
Our young bathers of lot 28, one of which is nude, stopped at 1.4 million €. The mother defending her daughters, one of which also is nude, was sold slightly above the expected price, at 850 K €. This tragic subject has attracted the attention of buyers.
The girl playing with her brother, which illustrated the news article in La Gazette de l'Hotel Drouot, was sold 400 K € on an estimate of 300 K €, and a portrait of an Arab man rose to 220 K € on an estimate of 30 K €.
All these results are given before fees.
The old woman and the scene of laundry remained unsold. I regret a little that the latter, which was nice, has been estimated too high: it would have been interesting to know its exact position in the results of the artist. The girls (nude, of course) were too far to claim the requested sum.
