Art 1920-1929
1920 Three Paintings by Grigoriev escape from Museum
2008 SOLD 3.7 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
At a time when the prices of Russian paintings are dramatically increasing, it seemed appropriate to a museum in Massachusetts to get rid of three of them to refocus collections to works closer to its usual specialties. The museum had these works for 60 years following a gift from the founder's relatives.
The sale will take place at Sotheby's in New York on November 4. These three paintings by Boris Grigoriev are estimated $ 4 million, $ 2.5 million and $ 600 K.
The most important of the three represent two pipe players (musicians), the traits marked in the so recognizable style that Grigoriev gives to faces. This very lively painting is undoubtedly an important work of the artist. It is part of the cycle Faces of the world (1920-1931), and a very large painting, 221x151 cm, an unusual format for this artist.
The second, "shepherd of the hills", dated 1920, is a close portrait of poet Nikolai Klyuev, followed by two surprising and insistent sheep. It is a beautiful expressive work.
The third is the portrait of an old pipe smoker (not a musician !!!).
We are in the case, which we have already described on several examples this year, when Sotheby's, sure to hold major works of an artist, pushes them at prices higher than those previously registered with a probability of success that is near certainty.
Attention, the press release is dated June 20. Experience shows that sales announced too early may have a change of date.
In the pantheon of Russian artists at auction, Grigoriev shall then join his almost exact contemporary Alexander Yakovlev, whose portrait of a sitting man was sold £ 2.8 million including costs by Christie's in London on June 13, 2007.
POST SALE COMMENT
The success was present, as it was predicted when the press release was submitted.
The portrait of the shepherd was not considered as the most expensive, but it has the best price: $ 3.7 million including expenses. I had described it as "beautiful expressive work." The market confirms my view that it was the most important of the three, from an artistic point of view. I had not its size when I made the article: 97 x 84 cm.
The large painting with musicians was sold $ 3.2 million including expenses, and the old smoker, 65 x 54 cm, $ 1.1 million including expenses.
At a time when the prices of Russian paintings are dramatically increasing, it seemed appropriate to a museum in Massachusetts to get rid of three of them to refocus collections to works closer to its usual specialties. The museum had these works for 60 years following a gift from the founder's relatives.
The sale will take place at Sotheby's in New York on November 4. These three paintings by Boris Grigoriev are estimated $ 4 million, $ 2.5 million and $ 600 K.
The most important of the three represent two pipe players (musicians), the traits marked in the so recognizable style that Grigoriev gives to faces. This very lively painting is undoubtedly an important work of the artist. It is part of the cycle Faces of the world (1920-1931), and a very large painting, 221x151 cm, an unusual format for this artist.
The second, "shepherd of the hills", dated 1920, is a close portrait of poet Nikolai Klyuev, followed by two surprising and insistent sheep. It is a beautiful expressive work.
The third is the portrait of an old pipe smoker (not a musician !!!).
We are in the case, which we have already described on several examples this year, when Sotheby's, sure to hold major works of an artist, pushes them at prices higher than those previously registered with a probability of success that is near certainty.
Attention, the press release is dated June 20. Experience shows that sales announced too early may have a change of date.
In the pantheon of Russian artists at auction, Grigoriev shall then join his almost exact contemporary Alexander Yakovlev, whose portrait of a sitting man was sold £ 2.8 million including costs by Christie's in London on June 13, 2007.
POST SALE COMMENT
The success was present, as it was predicted when the press release was submitted.
The portrait of the shepherd was not considered as the most expensive, but it has the best price: $ 3.7 million including expenses. I had described it as "beautiful expressive work." The market confirms my view that it was the most important of the three, from an artistic point of view. I had not its size when I made the article: 97 x 84 cm.
The large painting with musicians was sold $ 3.2 million including expenses, and the old smoker, 65 x 54 cm, $ 1.1 million including expenses.
1920 BY E. CHARLTON FORTUNE
2009 UNSOLD
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
John Moran Auctioneers is holding a sale of Californian and American Art in Pasadena on February 17. The auction is also seconded by LiveAuctioneers.
The highlighted lot is an oil on canvas 96x114 cm signed E. Charlton Fortune. This painting entitled Town Gossip was made in 1920 and then mounted on panel at the request of the artist. We see some people gathered to chat in the middle of the road of a seaside village.
This lot is estimated 600 K $. The works of Euphemia (Effie) Charlton Fortune are rare at auction. Artvalue gives only 14 results, all registered in California. A painting showing the sea with the colors of late afternoon had reached $ 1.6 million on 10 December 2007 at Bonhams in San Francisco.
Effie's work reminds me of one of her contemporaries: Tom Thomson from Canada, who died in 1917 at age 40. The color and texture are dominant, the realistic design fully respects the perspective.
John Moran Auctioneers is holding a sale of Californian and American Art in Pasadena on February 17. The auction is also seconded by LiveAuctioneers.
The highlighted lot is an oil on canvas 96x114 cm signed E. Charlton Fortune. This painting entitled Town Gossip was made in 1920 and then mounted on panel at the request of the artist. We see some people gathered to chat in the middle of the road of a seaside village.
This lot is estimated 600 K $. The works of Euphemia (Effie) Charlton Fortune are rare at auction. Artvalue gives only 14 results, all registered in California. A painting showing the sea with the colors of late afternoon had reached $ 1.6 million on 10 December 2007 at Bonhams in San Francisco.
Effie's work reminds me of one of her contemporaries: Tom Thomson from Canada, who died in 1917 at age 40. The color and texture are dominant, the realistic design fully respects the perspective.
1921 olga and the antique
2015 unsold
Unlike painting, drawing does not change so much throughout the history of art and Picasso certainly considered this technique when he stated that art has no past and no future. In 1921, Pablo is visiting Naples and Pompei in search of the roots of art and of classicism.
A drawing 64 x 49 cm in red and black chalks is estimated $ 6M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 4, lot 7T.
Picasso was a great draughtsman. He uses the best traditional effects of the sanguine to provide texture and depth to this nice woman's head. The result reminds the ancient marbles.
Yet the figure of his wife Olga merges here with the antique models. We recognize her straight nose and her oval face. Pablo managed the feat to make a drawing altogether timeless and intimate.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
A drawing 64 x 49 cm in red and black chalks is estimated $ 6M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 4, lot 7T.
Picasso was a great draughtsman. He uses the best traditional effects of the sanguine to provide texture and depth to this nice woman's head. The result reminds the ancient marbles.
Yet the figure of his wife Olga merges here with the antique models. We recognize her straight nose and her oval face. Pablo managed the feat to make a drawing altogether timeless and intimate.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1922 Promise for an Odalisque
2017 SOLD for £ 4.4M including premium
Henri Matisse is throughout his career a lover of color. When he settled in Nice after the First World War, his themes changed. He began to consider Orientalist scenes as a pretext for the most colorful arrangements.
The figuration of his models also changes. However he remains much demanding with these young women who have to undergo very long poses. Perhaps the artist understood their disappointment when they viewed their pretty faces in Fauvist colors.
Henri sees his future odalisque in 1920. Henriette is 19 years old. Her forms are sculptural : she is tall, and harmoniously muscled by the practice of dance. She is proud of her body and enjoys to dress up. The artist has no sexual desire for his models and Henriette is warmly greeted by his family. Until 1927 she was Henri's favorite model.
On June 27 in London, Christie's sells Nu sur fond rouge, oil on canvas 56 x 34 cm painted in 1922, lot 18 estimated £ 4M. This lot had been sold for $ 4.5M including premium by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007.
The young woman is standing in the nude in full length. The hands resting on the back of the head provide her a fresh and innocent attitude despite the shameless full front nudity. The slightly shiny color of her skin is realistic. The colorful carpets and draperies confirm the artist's quest for orientalism.
The figuration of his models also changes. However he remains much demanding with these young women who have to undergo very long poses. Perhaps the artist understood their disappointment when they viewed their pretty faces in Fauvist colors.
Henri sees his future odalisque in 1920. Henriette is 19 years old. Her forms are sculptural : she is tall, and harmoniously muscled by the practice of dance. She is proud of her body and enjoys to dress up. The artist has no sexual desire for his models and Henriette is warmly greeted by his family. Until 1927 she was Henri's favorite model.
On June 27 in London, Christie's sells Nu sur fond rouge, oil on canvas 56 x 34 cm painted in 1922, lot 18 estimated £ 4M. This lot had been sold for $ 4.5M including premium by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007.
The young woman is standing in the nude in full length. The hands resting on the back of the head provide her a fresh and innocent attitude despite the shameless full front nudity. The slightly shiny color of her skin is realistic. The colorful carpets and draperies confirm the artist's quest for orientalism.
1922-1923 Jaillissement by Kupka
2021 SOLD for £ 7.6M by Sotheby's
Frantisek Kupka is a colorist, like Kandinsky or Mondrian. Living in Paris since 1896, he is passionate about the relationships between colors in post-impressionist painting. He will seek to express momentum, rotation, vibration. The bright blue, which always seeks to dominate, will have to be circumscribed.
For Kupka, synthetic cubism is not a lasting solution because it remains focused on the object. In 1910-1911, his masterpiece, showing his wife's head buried amidst vertical structures, redefined the relationship between the figurative and its environment, as Klimt was doing in Vienna.
The figurative aspects then disappear from his work, but he still likes to draw inspiration from Gothic cathedrals to express the strength of verticals.
Le Jaillissement is a suite of three opuses painted in 1922-1923. The artist gives the preeminence to the verticals rather than to the confrontations between verticals and horizontals.
Jaillissement I is a tight network of stacked shapes. The similarity to a skyscraper seen from below is however obvious. In the second opus, the artist reinforces this illusion by adding a horizon line and removing the colored spots in the foreground. Jaillissement II, oil on canvas 126 x 86 cm, was sold by Sotheby's on March 25, 2021 for £ 7.6M including premium from a lower estimate of £ 1.5M, lot 146.
For Kupka, synthetic cubism is not a lasting solution because it remains focused on the object. In 1910-1911, his masterpiece, showing his wife's head buried amidst vertical structures, redefined the relationship between the figurative and its environment, as Klimt was doing in Vienna.
The figurative aspects then disappear from his work, but he still likes to draw inspiration from Gothic cathedrals to express the strength of verticals.
Le Jaillissement is a suite of three opuses painted in 1922-1923. The artist gives the preeminence to the verticals rather than to the confrontations between verticals and horizontals.
Jaillissement I is a tight network of stacked shapes. The similarity to a skyscraper seen from below is however obvious. In the second opus, the artist reinforces this illusion by adding a horizon line and removing the colored spots in the foreground. Jaillissement II, oil on canvas 126 x 86 cm, was sold by Sotheby's on March 25, 2021 for £ 7.6M including premium from a lower estimate of £ 1.5M, lot 146.
1922-1923 Le Pâtissier de Cagnes by Soutine
2005 SOLD for £ 5M by Christie's
1923 Expressionism in a Still Life by Picasso
2013 SOLD 9.2 M$ including premium
The early 1920s are not the easiest period in the interpretation of Picasso's art. He realizes in parallel many portraits, hardly deformed by the Cubist experience, and still life which is the preferred theme of his formal research.
Picasso refuses to be realistic or abstract. He maintains a carnal dimension in the play of artifacts that come to overlap and to share their shadows: guitar, bowl, paper. He is a distant successor to Cézanne.
The use of deep and almost neutral colors, the sandy texture of the canvas invite to emotions in such a way that the object itself becomes secondary. Picasso is a distant predecessor of Rothko.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells a painting made in 1923, 97 x 130 cm, showing a mandolin, a book of music and their shadows on a barely discernable table. The broken ropes of the instrument and the music page have a common grammar of parallel lines.
This oil on canvas is estimated $ 8M. I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This Picasso was interesting without being exciting. Sold $ 9.2 million including premium, it logically remained in the region of its lower estimate.
Picasso refuses to be realistic or abstract. He maintains a carnal dimension in the play of artifacts that come to overlap and to share their shadows: guitar, bowl, paper. He is a distant successor to Cézanne.
The use of deep and almost neutral colors, the sandy texture of the canvas invite to emotions in such a way that the object itself becomes secondary. Picasso is a distant predecessor of Rothko.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells a painting made in 1923, 97 x 130 cm, showing a mandolin, a book of music and their shadows on a barely discernable table. The broken ropes of the instrument and the music page have a common grammar of parallel lines.
This oil on canvas is estimated $ 8M. I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This Picasso was interesting without being exciting. Sold $ 9.2 million including premium, it logically remained in the region of its lower estimate.
1923 Korovin attracted by the Lights of the City
2009 SOLD 1.18 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Konstantin Korovin was known in Russia for his paintings of various subjects with strong brush strokes and bright colors. His Russian works display a peaceful happiness influenced by the impressionists, and are searched.
In 1923, he left his country that had become Soviet. He stops first in Berlin, where he stayed shortly before fixing his residence in Paris. He will specialize in original night scenes showing the streets illuminated by urban and car lights. I do not know if this was a very good idea for him to come to Paris. The end of his life was difficult and he was acknowledged posthumously.
Made during his visit to Berlin, an oil on canvas, 110 x 76 cm, is an astonishing work of transition between the two periods of the artist. Before the open window, two midinettes (working girls) simper towards the observer. They are dressed (if not got up) in the so typical fashion of those years, with very long skirts and milliner hats with round cap and wide brim.
And behind the window, prescient of the evolution of the artist, the city is shining in the night.
This curious work is estimated 600 K$ by Sotheby's. It is for sale on November 2 in New York.
POST SALE COMMENT
This original painting was important for understanding the work of Korovin. It had also the sweet scent of the Roaring Twenties (les "Années folles ...").
The market has confirmed its importance: $ 1.18 million fees included.
The image of this painting is shared post sale by Art Market Monitor (third from top).
Konstantin Korovin was known in Russia for his paintings of various subjects with strong brush strokes and bright colors. His Russian works display a peaceful happiness influenced by the impressionists, and are searched.
In 1923, he left his country that had become Soviet. He stops first in Berlin, where he stayed shortly before fixing his residence in Paris. He will specialize in original night scenes showing the streets illuminated by urban and car lights. I do not know if this was a very good idea for him to come to Paris. The end of his life was difficult and he was acknowledged posthumously.
Made during his visit to Berlin, an oil on canvas, 110 x 76 cm, is an astonishing work of transition between the two periods of the artist. Before the open window, two midinettes (working girls) simper towards the observer. They are dressed (if not got up) in the so typical fashion of those years, with very long skirts and milliner hats with round cap and wide brim.
And behind the window, prescient of the evolution of the artist, the city is shining in the night.
This curious work is estimated 600 K$ by Sotheby's. It is for sale on November 2 in New York.
POST SALE COMMENT
This original painting was important for understanding the work of Korovin. It had also the sweet scent of the Roaring Twenties (les "Années folles ...").
The market has confirmed its importance: $ 1.18 million fees included.
The image of this painting is shared post sale by Art Market Monitor (third from top).
1923 THE FINAL YEARS OF LOVIS CORINTH
2008 SOLD 620 K€ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
2008 was the hundred-fiftieth year of the birth of the Berlinese painter Lovis Corinth. Several exhibitions have been devoted to him. The auction house Villa Grisebach ends this series of celebrations by a sale in Berlin on November 28. A separate catalog is devoted to twelve paintings and watercolors by the artist.
The late works are well represented, starting with a view of Walchensee, oil on board 59 x 72 cm, lot 26. A few spots of color are sufficient to provide a presence at this beautiful lake in the mist. An estimated 400 K €.
The same place in 1924 has inspired a moonlight, oil on panel 66 x 53 cm, a composition which is also expected at 400 K €, lot 29. These dramatic themes are the most wanted, like a morning fog painted in the same year, 70 x 90 cm, sold 810 K £ including fees by Sotheby's in 2004 (seen on Artvalue).
At Lot 24, a self portrait shows the gloomy artist at the same lake. This is an oil on panel of 1922, 42 x 57 cm, also at 400 K €.
We conclude this visit with flowers, 1923, a watercolor and gouache 47 x 61 cm well colored, estimated at 180 K €, lot 21.
In the last years of his life, the style of Corinth, formerly rather realistic, became an interesting mix of impressionism and expressionism, very personal.
POST SALE COMMENT
A sale where the results are high, in a sequence that does not follow the estimates, is the best proof that the customers were passionate.
Two flowers were particularly honored. The watercolor Lot 21, very aesthetic, was sold 620 K €, and obtains the highest price for this set. Another bouquet that I had not mentioned because it is older (1915) has reached 480 K € on an estimate of 250 K €. This is an oil on canvas, 50 x 42 cm.
The moonlight, Lot 29, I thought it would sell well, actually obtained 540 K €.
Lot 26, which I liked on the web, rightly reminds us that the actual artwork must be analyzed and not its image. It has not been sold.
The self portrait at Lot 24 is announced on the site with a provisional price, which means that it is under negotiation.
Above results include fees.
2008 was the hundred-fiftieth year of the birth of the Berlinese painter Lovis Corinth. Several exhibitions have been devoted to him. The auction house Villa Grisebach ends this series of celebrations by a sale in Berlin on November 28. A separate catalog is devoted to twelve paintings and watercolors by the artist.
The late works are well represented, starting with a view of Walchensee, oil on board 59 x 72 cm, lot 26. A few spots of color are sufficient to provide a presence at this beautiful lake in the mist. An estimated 400 K €.
The same place in 1924 has inspired a moonlight, oil on panel 66 x 53 cm, a composition which is also expected at 400 K €, lot 29. These dramatic themes are the most wanted, like a morning fog painted in the same year, 70 x 90 cm, sold 810 K £ including fees by Sotheby's in 2004 (seen on Artvalue).
At Lot 24, a self portrait shows the gloomy artist at the same lake. This is an oil on panel of 1922, 42 x 57 cm, also at 400 K €.
We conclude this visit with flowers, 1923, a watercolor and gouache 47 x 61 cm well colored, estimated at 180 K €, lot 21.
In the last years of his life, the style of Corinth, formerly rather realistic, became an interesting mix of impressionism and expressionism, very personal.
POST SALE COMMENT
A sale where the results are high, in a sequence that does not follow the estimates, is the best proof that the customers were passionate.
Two flowers were particularly honored. The watercolor Lot 21, very aesthetic, was sold 620 K €, and obtains the highest price for this set. Another bouquet that I had not mentioned because it is older (1915) has reached 480 K € on an estimate of 250 K €. This is an oil on canvas, 50 x 42 cm.
The moonlight, Lot 29, I thought it would sell well, actually obtained 540 K €.
Lot 26, which I liked on the web, rightly reminds us that the actual artwork must be analyzed and not its image. It has not been sold.
The self portrait at Lot 24 is announced on the site with a provisional price, which means that it is under negotiation.
Above results include fees.
1924 Les Inondations, Paris by Signac
2022 SOLD for $ 2.3M by Sotheby's
Water with boats, which may be a seaside, a harbor or a river, is a major theme for Paul Signac. In Paris he is specially inspired by the Pont des Arts, that cast iron walkway for pedestrians that links the Institut de France and the Louvre over the Seine river. That narrow bridge was flooded up to just below the arches during the Grande Inondation of 1910.
Les Inondations, Paris subtitled la Seine et le Pont des Arts, oil on canvas 50 x 65 cm, was painted in 1924. Looking as ever for a luminous effect, the opus features the pointillist style by rare atmospheric hues such as viridian, lavender and indigo.
It was sold for $ 2.3M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 7.
Les Inondations, Paris subtitled la Seine et le Pont des Arts, oil on canvas 50 x 65 cm, was painted in 1924. Looking as ever for a luminous effect, the opus features the pointillist style by rare atmospheric hues such as viridian, lavender and indigo.
It was sold for $ 2.3M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 7.
1924 The Mystery of the Iron Horse
2014 SOLD 1.93 M$ including premium
After a boyhood in Missouri, Charles M. Russell was definitely attracted by Rocky Mountains and pioneer life. He made his first visit to Montana in 1880 at sixteen years old. He returned two years later to spend there the rest of his life.
Charley was a cowboy before being an artist. Unlike Remington, he was not working as an illustrator and did not want to compromise with eastern American lifestyle. His wife Nancy seconded him to disclose his art.
The cowboy gradually understood the way of thinking of the Natives. He was resolutely hostile to the automobile considered as a danger to their fragile civilizations. His attitude concerning the railway is similar though less virulent.
On July 26 in Reno, The Coeur d'Alene Art Auction sells a watercolor 45 x 70 cm made in 1924 that perfectly illustrates the ambiguity of progress. Titled Trail of the Iron Horse, it is estimated $ 1.5 M. Here is the link to the website of the auction house.
A group of Indians is stopped by the rails crossing the prairie. The frightened horses do not dare jumping this barrier and we understand that their riders have similar doubts.
The artist shows the scene at sunrise or sunset. Painter and watercolorist, Charley was careful to use a wide range of beautiful colors despite the difficulties of supply in the remote areas where he had chosen to live.
Charley was a cowboy before being an artist. Unlike Remington, he was not working as an illustrator and did not want to compromise with eastern American lifestyle. His wife Nancy seconded him to disclose his art.
The cowboy gradually understood the way of thinking of the Natives. He was resolutely hostile to the automobile considered as a danger to their fragile civilizations. His attitude concerning the railway is similar though less virulent.
On July 26 in Reno, The Coeur d'Alene Art Auction sells a watercolor 45 x 70 cm made in 1924 that perfectly illustrates the ambiguity of progress. Titled Trail of the Iron Horse, it is estimated $ 1.5 M. Here is the link to the website of the auction house.
A group of Indians is stopped by the rails crossing the prairie. The frightened horses do not dare jumping this barrier and we understand that their riders have similar doubts.
The artist shows the scene at sunrise or sunset. Painter and watercolorist, Charley was careful to use a wide range of beautiful colors despite the difficulties of supply in the remote areas where he had chosen to live.
1924 Dream on a Tub
2019 withdrawn
Pierre Bonnard is a dreamer. Very little interested in social activities, he exhibits in his art the little moments of his intimate life. He observes his surrounding with sketches or photographs before making his paintings in the loneliness of his studio. He then confronts his imagination with the real subject.
His art is not influenced by trends. He is not impressionistic in his technique and his world is neither realistic nor surrealistic. The theme is dominated by an illusion translated by unexpected shapes and a very wide palette of colors in pastel hues.
Marthe is his main model since 1893. She builds her own universe beside the painter without revealing her real name and age. They do not need social conventions. In 1925 Pierre rightly fears that she becomes jealous and sick. To stabilize their relationship, he marries her.
Around 1910 Pierre photographies Marthe crouching naked on the tub, a sponge in her hand. The leaning head is in the shadow. Washing herself is a good excuse for a painting of the female nude. He begins around 1916 his series of nudes in a tub.
On February 27 in London, Christie's sells a Femme au tub, oil on canvas 130 x 81 cm painted in 1924, lot 17 estimated £ 4M.
Considered as his ultimate achievement in this theme, this painting shows a woman from dreams, standing full front in the basin. By her very long legs, she is Marthe. By her young and sculptural body, she is not Marthe.
She is shown in a fugitive and intimate gesture, like a snapshot created by the artist's imagination. The two blurry hands are lifted as if she were mimicking the use of the sponge. Intimate without being erotic, she is a vision of beauty. The head remained in the shadow.
His art is not influenced by trends. He is not impressionistic in his technique and his world is neither realistic nor surrealistic. The theme is dominated by an illusion translated by unexpected shapes and a very wide palette of colors in pastel hues.
Marthe is his main model since 1893. She builds her own universe beside the painter without revealing her real name and age. They do not need social conventions. In 1925 Pierre rightly fears that she becomes jealous and sick. To stabilize their relationship, he marries her.
Around 1910 Pierre photographies Marthe crouching naked on the tub, a sponge in her hand. The leaning head is in the shadow. Washing herself is a good excuse for a painting of the female nude. He begins around 1916 his series of nudes in a tub.
On February 27 in London, Christie's sells a Femme au tub, oil on canvas 130 x 81 cm painted in 1924, lot 17 estimated £ 4M.
Considered as his ultimate achievement in this theme, this painting shows a woman from dreams, standing full front in the basin. By her very long legs, she is Marthe. By her young and sculptural body, she is not Marthe.
She is shown in a fugitive and intimate gesture, like a snapshot created by the artist's imagination. The two blurry hands are lifted as if she were mimicking the use of the sponge. Intimate without being erotic, she is a vision of beauty. The head remained in the shadow.
1925 First Trip to the Rocky Mountains
2017 SOLD for $ 3M CAD including premium
The painters of the Group of Seven like to find abstraction in landscapes. The first visit of Lawren Harris to the Rocky Mountains in August and September 1924 with A.Y. Jackson is decisive for his art.
The method for recording the view is classic : Harris makes sketches in pencil during his trips. Back in his studio he observes the geometric principles in his own panoramas and highlights them in bright colors.
On November 22 in Toronto, Heffel sells a view of partially snow-capped mountains over Maligne Lake in the province of Alberta. The immaculate snow draws the eye towards the upper part and reveals the tectonic folds difficult to observe in the dark of the rest of the image.
Dated 1925 this oil on canvas 103 x 133 cm was exhibited in 1926 in a Toronto gallery. Disparagers question whether the artist wants to display a dehumanized landscape or an umbrella.
Encouraged by these protests, Harris goes even further. He paints in the same year his masterpiece simply titled Mountain Form. The size 152 x 178 cm is even larger and the geometric beauty of the mountain is enhanced by the removal of secondary reliefs. This oil on canvas was sold for $ 11.2M CAD including premium by Heffel on November 23, 2016.
Let us go back to the Maligne Lake Mountains for the next sale. The oil on canvas is estimated $ 2.5M CAD, lot 118. It is illustrated in the press release announcing the sale. The next lot in that sale, 119, is its 11.4 x 19.7 cm graphite sketch estimated $ 8K CAD.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM :
Painting SOLD for $ 3M CAD
Sketch SOLD for $ 7.5K CAD
The method for recording the view is classic : Harris makes sketches in pencil during his trips. Back in his studio he observes the geometric principles in his own panoramas and highlights them in bright colors.
On November 22 in Toronto, Heffel sells a view of partially snow-capped mountains over Maligne Lake in the province of Alberta. The immaculate snow draws the eye towards the upper part and reveals the tectonic folds difficult to observe in the dark of the rest of the image.
Dated 1925 this oil on canvas 103 x 133 cm was exhibited in 1926 in a Toronto gallery. Disparagers question whether the artist wants to display a dehumanized landscape or an umbrella.
Encouraged by these protests, Harris goes even further. He paints in the same year his masterpiece simply titled Mountain Form. The size 152 x 178 cm is even larger and the geometric beauty of the mountain is enhanced by the removal of secondary reliefs. This oil on canvas was sold for $ 11.2M CAD including premium by Heffel on November 23, 2016.
Let us go back to the Maligne Lake Mountains for the next sale. The oil on canvas is estimated $ 2.5M CAD, lot 118. It is illustrated in the press release announcing the sale. The next lot in that sale, 119, is its 11.4 x 19.7 cm graphite sketch estimated $ 8K CAD.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM :
Painting SOLD for $ 3M CAD
Sketch SOLD for $ 7.5K CAD
1925 The Irish Market
2011 SOLD 1 M€ (before fees ?)
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Just after independence, the Yeats brothers greatly honored the Irish Free State on the international scene. In 1923,William was the first Irishman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1924, his younger brother Jack is the first Irishman to win an Olympic medal, a silver medal in the painting competition.
A market scene in the county of Mayo, at the extreme northwest of the island, was painted by Jack B. Yeats in 1925.
The nervous line of Yeats makes his art close to the expressionists, especially Kokoschka. However the intense and active life of this painting rather appeals a post-Cubist influence.
The urban setting is barely sketched, but we are actually in the middle of one of these huge fair spaces of Ireland. The colorful characters are Irish peasants, certainly.
This success in recreating a local atmosphere inspired De Valera, who got the painting in loan. With such a recommendation of the most famous of the Irish statesmen, this oil on canvas, 61 x 91 cm, can climb to the rank of a masterpiece of modern Irish art. It is illustrated in the article shared by The Irish Times.
It is estimated € 500K, to be sold by Adam's in Dublin on September 28.
POST SALE COMMENT
The auction house has just announced on Twitter that the painting was sold € 1M to a private Irish collector.
I guess that it is the hammer price.
Just after independence, the Yeats brothers greatly honored the Irish Free State on the international scene. In 1923,William was the first Irishman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1924, his younger brother Jack is the first Irishman to win an Olympic medal, a silver medal in the painting competition.
A market scene in the county of Mayo, at the extreme northwest of the island, was painted by Jack B. Yeats in 1925.
The nervous line of Yeats makes his art close to the expressionists, especially Kokoschka. However the intense and active life of this painting rather appeals a post-Cubist influence.
The urban setting is barely sketched, but we are actually in the middle of one of these huge fair spaces of Ireland. The colorful characters are Irish peasants, certainly.
This success in recreating a local atmosphere inspired De Valera, who got the painting in loan. With such a recommendation of the most famous of the Irish statesmen, this oil on canvas, 61 x 91 cm, can climb to the rank of a masterpiece of modern Irish art. It is illustrated in the article shared by The Irish Times.
It is estimated € 500K, to be sold by Adam's in Dublin on September 28.
POST SALE COMMENT
The auction house has just announced on Twitter that the painting was sold € 1M to a private Irish collector.
I guess that it is the hammer price.
1925 The Strident Countryside of Emil Nolde
2010 SOLD 1.04 M€ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
In contact with German art movements, often regarded himself as an expressionist, Emil Nolde managed to maintain his independence. His vision as a colorist made him one of the most original figurative artists of his time.
His colors are realistic, but their brilliance is pushed to the extreme. The yellows are really shrill. When he shows wildflowers in close-ups or a country landscape, he is literally attacking the scenery with a fierce light which is made dramatic by heavy cloud formations.
These topics could be romantic, but Nolde goes further. The contrast of colors and the use of a thick material take preeminence over form, making this artist a real precursor of the abstract colorists.
On November 26 in Berlin, Grisebach sells a landscape view by Nolde, estimated € 1M. On this oil on canvas, 73 x 88 cm, dated 1925, the sun rays pierce at random, dramatically illuminating the edge of a storm cloud and the narrow front side of the river that runs through the country.
POST SALE COMMENT
Good price, € 1.04 million including premium, for this expressive landscape which does not, however, reach the lower estimate.
In contact with German art movements, often regarded himself as an expressionist, Emil Nolde managed to maintain his independence. His vision as a colorist made him one of the most original figurative artists of his time.
His colors are realistic, but their brilliance is pushed to the extreme. The yellows are really shrill. When he shows wildflowers in close-ups or a country landscape, he is literally attacking the scenery with a fierce light which is made dramatic by heavy cloud formations.
These topics could be romantic, but Nolde goes further. The contrast of colors and the use of a thick material take preeminence over form, making this artist a real precursor of the abstract colorists.
On November 26 in Berlin, Grisebach sells a landscape view by Nolde, estimated € 1M. On this oil on canvas, 73 x 88 cm, dated 1925, the sun rays pierce at random, dramatically illuminating the edge of a storm cloud and the narrow front side of the river that runs through the country.
POST SALE COMMENT
Good price, € 1.04 million including premium, for this expressive landscape which does not, however, reach the lower estimate.
1925 How Miro loved his Brunette
2013 unsold
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Miro is one of the early adopters of surrealism, defined by Breton in 1924. His art becomes totally dreamlike and even hallucinatory. His creative process does not need the help of a group. In fact he progresses alone, altogether captivated and anxious by the new avenues that he will open.
Surrealism however offered him a close contact with the poets, especially with the young Queneau. The titles, sometimes quite long, of the new paintings by Miro are alternately an exciting help to the interpretation of the image or a disturbing text that reminds that nothing is simple.
On February 7, 2012, Christie's sold for £ 17M including premium a hermetic picture painted in 1925, 130 x 96 cm, fully crossed by its extraordinary title-poem : "le corps de ma brune puisque je l'aime comme ma chatte habillée en vert salade comme de la grêle c'est pareil".
At the other end of the style of the artist in the same year, Christie's sold for $ 13.7 million including premium on November 7, 2012 Peinture (femme, journal, chien), 92 x 73 cm, a stylized but still figurative image that had belonged to Queneau.
And now, halfway between these two trends, Miro's brunette comes again, also from 1925. On November 6 in New York, Sotheby's sells Bonheur d'aimer ma brune, oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm, which was also acquired by Queneau.
The ghost woman would have please Blake. She lets herself be kissed by a man with wire-like legs. A streaky spot on the left of the couple is the mandolin of this serenade. The title is gently confined to a corner of the image. This fine example of a surrealist interpretation of the usual theme of love is romantic despite its simplicity.
Bonheur d'aimer ma brune is estimated $ 9M. Here is the link to the catalog.
Miro is one of the early adopters of surrealism, defined by Breton in 1924. His art becomes totally dreamlike and even hallucinatory. His creative process does not need the help of a group. In fact he progresses alone, altogether captivated and anxious by the new avenues that he will open.
Surrealism however offered him a close contact with the poets, especially with the young Queneau. The titles, sometimes quite long, of the new paintings by Miro are alternately an exciting help to the interpretation of the image or a disturbing text that reminds that nothing is simple.
On February 7, 2012, Christie's sold for £ 17M including premium a hermetic picture painted in 1925, 130 x 96 cm, fully crossed by its extraordinary title-poem : "le corps de ma brune puisque je l'aime comme ma chatte habillée en vert salade comme de la grêle c'est pareil".
At the other end of the style of the artist in the same year, Christie's sold for $ 13.7 million including premium on November 7, 2012 Peinture (femme, journal, chien), 92 x 73 cm, a stylized but still figurative image that had belonged to Queneau.
And now, halfway between these two trends, Miro's brunette comes again, also from 1925. On November 6 in New York, Sotheby's sells Bonheur d'aimer ma brune, oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm, which was also acquired by Queneau.
The ghost woman would have please Blake. She lets herself be kissed by a man with wire-like legs. A streaky spot on the left of the couple is the mandolin of this serenade. The title is gently confined to a corner of the image. This fine example of a surrealist interpretation of the usual theme of love is romantic despite its simplicity.
Bonheur d'aimer ma brune is estimated $ 9M. Here is the link to the catalog.
1925 A TATAR IN THE FAR WEST
2010 UNSOLD
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Emigrated to the United States after the October Revolution, Nicolai Fechin settled in the wilds of the West whose ambiance reminded him his native Tatarstan.
This artist is valued as a landscape painter of the generation which had succeeded to the Itinerants. On February 16 in Pasadena, John Moran Auctioneers is selling an oil on canvas signed in 1925, 75 x 65 cm, probably made in Taos, New Mexico, which became the residence of the artist. The subject is a sycamore with its twisted trunk, well emphasized by a thick texture in a beautiful contrast of shadow and light. This lot is estimated $ 250K.
Fechin was especially famous as a portraitist. On February 19, 2008, the same auction house had recorded one of the highest prices for this artist, $ 1.09 million including premium for the portrait of a wood engraver, 127 x 101 cm, made in 1924.
Here is the image of this painting shared by News Antique.
Emigrated to the United States after the October Revolution, Nicolai Fechin settled in the wilds of the West whose ambiance reminded him his native Tatarstan.
This artist is valued as a landscape painter of the generation which had succeeded to the Itinerants. On February 16 in Pasadena, John Moran Auctioneers is selling an oil on canvas signed in 1925, 75 x 65 cm, probably made in Taos, New Mexico, which became the residence of the artist. The subject is a sycamore with its twisted trunk, well emphasized by a thick texture in a beautiful contrast of shadow and light. This lot is estimated $ 250K.
Fechin was especially famous as a portraitist. On February 19, 2008, the same auction house had recorded one of the highest prices for this artist, $ 1.09 million including premium for the portrait of a wood engraver, 127 x 101 cm, made in 1924.
Here is the image of this painting shared by News Antique.
1925-1926 Simple Betrayal
2019 SOLD for € 850K including premium
In 1921 the young René Magritte is hired as a draftsman in a wallpaper factory in Brussels. He frequents Surrealist and Dadaist literary circles and would like to become independent as an advertising illustrator.
Attentive to avant-garde art, Magritte is subjugated in 1923 by an image of the Canto d'amore, a surrealist work painted in 1914 by De Chirico. Ordinary objects constitute a poetic universe if their positioning is absurd.
On March 29 in Paris, Sotheby's sells La salle d'armes, oil and industrial painting on jute canvas 78 x 63 cm painted by Magritte in 1925 or 1926, lot 411 estimated € 700K.
The room proper is the interior of an elongated cube, totally symmetrical with perfect perspective lines. The only decoration is the large target in four concentric rings on the back wall. The only furniture is a coffee table. The X-ray inspection reveals that La salle d'armes had overpainted a geometric abstraction, a style that no longer suits Magritte's fancy.
No gun or arrow is visible but a heap of figs lies on the table. The absurd dimension is very simply ensured by the bust of a woman that hangs upside down from the ceiling and whose base overflows the upper stripe of the false frame. In the surrealist world of De Chirico, the marble bust was symbolizing the actuality of antiquity.
From 1926 Magritte observes that an image of an object remains an image and is not the object. He begins to confront the drawing of his pipe with the word 'pipe' or with an abstraction. In 1929 La trahison des images is an artistic manifesto of a sublime simplicity, in just six words: "Ceci n'est pas une pipe."
In the same period Miro also was appreciating that the new poetic dimension of modern art was a personal work that could not be attached to a movement and even less to a political affiliation.
Attentive to avant-garde art, Magritte is subjugated in 1923 by an image of the Canto d'amore, a surrealist work painted in 1914 by De Chirico. Ordinary objects constitute a poetic universe if their positioning is absurd.
On March 29 in Paris, Sotheby's sells La salle d'armes, oil and industrial painting on jute canvas 78 x 63 cm painted by Magritte in 1925 or 1926, lot 411 estimated € 700K.
The room proper is the interior of an elongated cube, totally symmetrical with perfect perspective lines. The only decoration is the large target in four concentric rings on the back wall. The only furniture is a coffee table. The X-ray inspection reveals that La salle d'armes had overpainted a geometric abstraction, a style that no longer suits Magritte's fancy.
No gun or arrow is visible but a heap of figs lies on the table. The absurd dimension is very simply ensured by the bust of a woman that hangs upside down from the ceiling and whose base overflows the upper stripe of the false frame. In the surrealist world of De Chirico, the marble bust was symbolizing the actuality of antiquity.
From 1926 Magritte observes that an image of an object remains an image and is not the object. He begins to confront the drawing of his pipe with the word 'pipe' or with an abstraction. In 1929 La trahison des images is an artistic manifesto of a sublime simplicity, in just six words: "Ceci n'est pas une pipe."
In the same period Miro also was appreciating that the new poetic dimension of modern art was a personal work that could not be attached to a movement and even less to a political affiliation.
1926 Le Monde Poétique by Magritte
2022 SOLD for $ 4.2M by Sotheby's
1926 is the breakthrough year for René Magritte, a young Belgian Surrealist artist living in Brussels, supported by the local Galerie Le Centaure.
Le Monde poétique is a significant title for one of these Magritte's other worlds. It features an ocular globe on a tabletop. The eye is still attached to its ocular nerve whose end goes to fall behind the table like an unlimited umbilical cord.
The composition is completed by a misaligned standing pair of white curtains, a group of strictly pyramidal figures and some undefined biomorphic patterns flowing in front of the blue sky.
The important feature is the eye, altogether a raw human organ and the indispensable organ to appreciate a graphic art. Painted in the same year, Le Groupe Silencieux displays as a secondary figure a cube with three human eyes folded on its edges. They are a trial for expressing an artificial, or "poétique", meaning of art that anticipates by two years the magistral La Trahison des Images ("Ceci n'est pas une pipe").
Le Monde Poétique, oil on canvas 98 x 74 cm, was sold for $ 4.2M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 51.
Le Monde poétique is a significant title for one of these Magritte's other worlds. It features an ocular globe on a tabletop. The eye is still attached to its ocular nerve whose end goes to fall behind the table like an unlimited umbilical cord.
The composition is completed by a misaligned standing pair of white curtains, a group of strictly pyramidal figures and some undefined biomorphic patterns flowing in front of the blue sky.
The important feature is the eye, altogether a raw human organ and the indispensable organ to appreciate a graphic art. Painted in the same year, Le Groupe Silencieux displays as a secondary figure a cube with three human eyes folded on its edges. They are a trial for expressing an artificial, or "poétique", meaning of art that anticipates by two years the magistral La Trahison des Images ("Ceci n'est pas une pipe").
Le Monde Poétique, oil on canvas 98 x 74 cm, was sold for $ 4.2M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 51.
1926 Lawren Harris in the Freezing Light
2009 SOLD for $ 3.5M CAD including premium
Born into a wealthy family, Lawren Harris did not need working. He devoted himself to painting and to the Canadian artistic life. In 1919, two years after the untimely death of Tom Thomson, he was a founding member and probably even the instigator of the Group of Seven, created to promote Canadian landscape artists.
Familiar with the country of extreme freezing, including the North Shore of Lake Superior and Baffin Bay, Harris provides a stylized vision. The composition highlights a detail in a landscape, usually frozen. The composition is reminiscent of the countless photographs of winter in Niagara, but in addition he draws the light.
Art is to Harris a medium to a metaphysical research. Dating from 1926, a painting of Lake Superior is perhaps the most complete and most reproduced of his works . A trunk stands alone in the middle of the image. It stops like a burned tree or a broken column, and is fully within the ice. The sunlight from the left is revealing an extraordinary purity of the air.
This image has been chosen to illustrate the Wikipedia article devoted to Harris. The work, 102 x 128 cm, is preserved at the National Gallery of Canada.
On November 26 in Toronto, Heffel auctions the last preparatory sketch for this painting. It is an oil on board, 30 x 38 cm, whose image is identical to the final masterpiece. It is estimated 2 MCan$.
POST SALE COMMENT
Heffel auction house had understood that they had in hand a masterpiece of Harris. Sold 3.5 MCan$ including premium, this work obtains the second highest price of all time for Canadian Art, according to the press release issued after the sale.
Other outstanding results were recorded in this sale, including another painting of Harris at 2.8 MCan$ including premium, and a painting by Thomson at 2.75 MCan$ including premium.
Familiar with the country of extreme freezing, including the North Shore of Lake Superior and Baffin Bay, Harris provides a stylized vision. The composition highlights a detail in a landscape, usually frozen. The composition is reminiscent of the countless photographs of winter in Niagara, but in addition he draws the light.
Art is to Harris a medium to a metaphysical research. Dating from 1926, a painting of Lake Superior is perhaps the most complete and most reproduced of his works . A trunk stands alone in the middle of the image. It stops like a burned tree or a broken column, and is fully within the ice. The sunlight from the left is revealing an extraordinary purity of the air.
This image has been chosen to illustrate the Wikipedia article devoted to Harris. The work, 102 x 128 cm, is preserved at the National Gallery of Canada.
On November 26 in Toronto, Heffel auctions the last preparatory sketch for this painting. It is an oil on board, 30 x 38 cm, whose image is identical to the final masterpiece. It is estimated 2 MCan$.
POST SALE COMMENT
Heffel auction house had understood that they had in hand a masterpiece of Harris. Sold 3.5 MCan$ including premium, this work obtains the second highest price of all time for Canadian Art, according to the press release issued after the sale.
Other outstanding results were recorded in this sale, including another painting of Harris at 2.8 MCan$ including premium, and a painting by Thomson at 2.75 MCan$ including premium.
1926 The Freezing Truth of Lake Superior
2014 SOLD for $ 2.5M CAD including premium
Painter, tourer and theosophist, Lawren Harris seeks the transcendental truth. His first visit in the fall of 1921 to the frozen northern shores of Lake Superior opens to him a mystical path to the North. Until 1928, he visited the region each year.
His early landscape paintings of Lake Superior are classic but already show the uselessness of men whose characters and artifacts disappear from his field of vision. From 1924, conscious of approaching a timeless truth, he often misses to date his paintings.
His masterpieces were made around 1926. The end of man is followed by the death of the tree, in the resplendent glory of sun, air and light whose rays and halos reach a mystical purity.
Harris had not finished his progress towards the truth of the North. When mountains and icebergs from the polar regions supersede the lake, the stumps also vanish.
The sketch in oil on board 30 x 38 cm sold for CAD 3.5 million including premium by Heffel on November 26, 2009 is a transition between both styles, lake and polar. The trunk without branches is entirely wrapped in ice.
Two other views of Lake Superior painted in the same period and probably showing the same location are announced.
On May 26 in Toronto, Waddingtons sells an outstanding oil on canvas 102 x 127 cm estimated CAD 2.5M.
On May 28 in Vancouver, Heffel sells a preparatory work in oil on panel 31 x 38 cm estimated CAD 500K.
I invite you to play the video shared on YouTube by Waddingtons.
POST SALE COMMENTS
1
The large size painting was sold for CAD 2.5M including premium by Waddingtons, close to the estimate.
2
Very good price by Heffel for the smaller painting : CAD 970K including premium.
His early landscape paintings of Lake Superior are classic but already show the uselessness of men whose characters and artifacts disappear from his field of vision. From 1924, conscious of approaching a timeless truth, he often misses to date his paintings.
His masterpieces were made around 1926. The end of man is followed by the death of the tree, in the resplendent glory of sun, air and light whose rays and halos reach a mystical purity.
Harris had not finished his progress towards the truth of the North. When mountains and icebergs from the polar regions supersede the lake, the stumps also vanish.
The sketch in oil on board 30 x 38 cm sold for CAD 3.5 million including premium by Heffel on November 26, 2009 is a transition between both styles, lake and polar. The trunk without branches is entirely wrapped in ice.
Two other views of Lake Superior painted in the same period and probably showing the same location are announced.
On May 26 in Toronto, Waddingtons sells an outstanding oil on canvas 102 x 127 cm estimated CAD 2.5M.
On May 28 in Vancouver, Heffel sells a preparatory work in oil on panel 31 x 38 cm estimated CAD 500K.
I invite you to play the video shared on YouTube by Waddingtons.
POST SALE COMMENTS
1
The large size painting was sold for CAD 2.5M including premium by Waddingtons, close to the estimate.
2
Very good price by Heffel for the smaller painting : CAD 970K including premium.
1926 The Brussels Mountain Range
2019 unsold
From 1924 René Magritte wants to become an artist. He meets the literary avant-gardes of Brussels with whom he will soon create a surrealist group. In 1925 he designed stage sets, which are decisive for his artistic inspiration. The perspective is not useful : the effect of depth can be limited to the stage and the curtain. Fantasy, including scale reversals between objects, becomes unlimited.
In 1926 the young artist is prolific : he builds his new universe. His image is deliberately simple, to avoid any ambiguity of interpretation of the elements. The world is not populated by human beings but by bowling pins. Accessories are tables, boxes, clouds.
The mountain range is used several times as a backdrop. The dreamlike dimension is sometimes brought by a single element. The results below include the premium.
For example in Les Signes du soir, oil on canvas 75 x 65 cm, the large frame is a trompe-l'oeil, leaving to the viewer to choose whether the tree is in the painting or elsewhere. This artwork was sold for £ 1.8M by Christie's on February 27, 2018.
In Le Toit du Monde, 65 x 75 cm, a violin stick is raised in the middle of the table. The stage is curled to imitate the folds of the mountain and its surface is holed like a cheese of Gruyere. It was sold for € 2.7M by Sotheby's on October 19, 2017.
In L'Esprit du voyageur, of same size, a tall bowling pin positioned inside a group of three porticoes admires the immensity of nature. The foreground of the mountain appears in space like a flat cardboard. It was sold for £ 460K by Christie's on February 9, 2011.
On June 18 in London, Christie's sells Le Parc du vautour, lot 19 estimated £ 2.5M. In a double width format 65 x 150 cm unusual for this series, everything is made for the comfort of a possible vulture : it can land on a portico or a pole, or take shelter in a wooden box that contains a large tree.
In 1926 the young artist is prolific : he builds his new universe. His image is deliberately simple, to avoid any ambiguity of interpretation of the elements. The world is not populated by human beings but by bowling pins. Accessories are tables, boxes, clouds.
The mountain range is used several times as a backdrop. The dreamlike dimension is sometimes brought by a single element. The results below include the premium.
For example in Les Signes du soir, oil on canvas 75 x 65 cm, the large frame is a trompe-l'oeil, leaving to the viewer to choose whether the tree is in the painting or elsewhere. This artwork was sold for £ 1.8M by Christie's on February 27, 2018.
In Le Toit du Monde, 65 x 75 cm, a violin stick is raised in the middle of the table. The stage is curled to imitate the folds of the mountain and its surface is holed like a cheese of Gruyere. It was sold for € 2.7M by Sotheby's on October 19, 2017.
In L'Esprit du voyageur, of same size, a tall bowling pin positioned inside a group of three porticoes admires the immensity of nature. The foreground of the mountain appears in space like a flat cardboard. It was sold for £ 460K by Christie's on February 9, 2011.
On June 18 in London, Christie's sells Le Parc du vautour, lot 19 estimated £ 2.5M. In a double width format 65 x 150 cm unusual for this series, everything is made for the comfort of a possible vulture : it can land on a portico or a pole, or take shelter in a wooden box that contains a large tree.
1926-1927 L'Age d'Airain by Rodin (posthumous)
2022 unsold
Auguste Rodin, then residing in Brussels, makes in 1876 his Grand Tour of Italy where he admired Donatello and Michelangelo. Back in his workshop, he restarts his on-going masterpiece of a muscular life size man standing in full nudity.
The preparation of the plaster spans 18 months, during which the theme drifts from the narrative of a defeated soldier holding a spear to an allegory of the prehistory of mankind without additional attribute.
The final title will be L'Age d'airain, taking as a reference the third period of the civilization, airain being at that time a synonym for a bronze alloy. It will indeed be in 1877 beside the plaster the first bronze ever exhibited by Rodin.
In his quest to offer a maximum emotion, the artist targets a full naturalistic reality. The man in action is standing in contrapposto, but his proportions must remain perfect. Rodin finds the model for that challenging issue in Michelangelo's Dying Slave. An elbow is bent to the head while the other hand is raised in an attitude of awakening after a nightmare.
The realism is so successful that Rodin is suspected by the art critics to have had his plaster moulded on a living body. In 1878 his larger than life Saint Jean-Baptiste refutes this charge.
This unprecedented style brings him in 1880 the commission by the Beaux-Arts for La Porte de l'Enfer.
The life size cast, 1.80 m high, is referred as Grand Modèle. Amidst the bronzes cast by Alexis Rudier, a lifetime example made in 1914 was sold for € 4.7M by Christie's on December 1, 2011, lot 21, and a posthumous example made in 1926 or 1927 is estimated € 5.5M for sale by Sotheby's on October 25, 2022, lot 10.
The first edition of the Moyen Modèle, 104 cm high, was begun in 1903. An example from 1904 was sold for € 3.6M by Christie's on November 27, 2019, lot 223.
The preparation of the plaster spans 18 months, during which the theme drifts from the narrative of a defeated soldier holding a spear to an allegory of the prehistory of mankind without additional attribute.
The final title will be L'Age d'airain, taking as a reference the third period of the civilization, airain being at that time a synonym for a bronze alloy. It will indeed be in 1877 beside the plaster the first bronze ever exhibited by Rodin.
In his quest to offer a maximum emotion, the artist targets a full naturalistic reality. The man in action is standing in contrapposto, but his proportions must remain perfect. Rodin finds the model for that challenging issue in Michelangelo's Dying Slave. An elbow is bent to the head while the other hand is raised in an attitude of awakening after a nightmare.
The realism is so successful that Rodin is suspected by the art critics to have had his plaster moulded on a living body. In 1878 his larger than life Saint Jean-Baptiste refutes this charge.
This unprecedented style brings him in 1880 the commission by the Beaux-Arts for La Porte de l'Enfer.
The life size cast, 1.80 m high, is referred as Grand Modèle. Amidst the bronzes cast by Alexis Rudier, a lifetime example made in 1914 was sold for € 4.7M by Christie's on December 1, 2011, lot 21, and a posthumous example made in 1926 or 1927 is estimated € 5.5M for sale by Sotheby's on October 25, 2022, lot 10.
The first edition of the Moyen Modèle, 104 cm high, was begun in 1903. An example from 1904 was sold for € 3.6M by Christie's on November 27, 2019, lot 223.
French artist @QueensChristine have been blending their distinctive practice to global acclaim for just over a decade. In an exciting collaboration with Sotheby's, they present a unique dance response to Rodin's 'L'Age d'Airain': https://t.co/4l1YCOnrsJ
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) October 19, 2022
1927 Gentle Indians of NC Wyeth
2020 SOLD for $ 3.5M including premium
N.C. Wyeth is an illustrator of popular books and magazines. He works primarily but not exclusively for Scribner's. He interprets for the readers the rural life, the adventures of pirates, the Wild West. His images are enthusiastic.
He traveled the West in 1904 and 1906. For Wyeth, Indians are calm and sympathetic. They live with ingenuity in these immaculate conditions of which Frederic Remington had just seen the inexorable disappearance.
In 1908 Wyeth declared that painting and illustration are two different arts that cannot be mixed. He was probably concerned that his growing reputation as an illustrator would hurt his clients' demands for larger format paintings.
Indian Love Call, oil on canvas 117 x 176 cm in arched format painted in 1927, is typical of Wyeth's romanticism. The young Indian in his birch wood canoe plays the flute to attract a young woman who listens in the distance, in front of her tipi.
This work had been privately commissioned by an employee of a publishing house. Kept in the family, it surfaced unrecorded 80 years later. It was sold for $ 1.83M including premium by Sotheby's on November 28, 2007, lot 39, and is estimated $ 2M for sale by Christie's in New York on October 28, lot 15.
He traveled the West in 1904 and 1906. For Wyeth, Indians are calm and sympathetic. They live with ingenuity in these immaculate conditions of which Frederic Remington had just seen the inexorable disappearance.
In 1908 Wyeth declared that painting and illustration are two different arts that cannot be mixed. He was probably concerned that his growing reputation as an illustrator would hurt his clients' demands for larger format paintings.
Indian Love Call, oil on canvas 117 x 176 cm in arched format painted in 1927, is typical of Wyeth's romanticism. The young Indian in his birch wood canoe plays the flute to attract a young woman who listens in the distance, in front of her tipi.
This work had been privately commissioned by an employee of a publishing house. Kept in the family, it surfaced unrecorded 80 years later. It was sold for $ 1.83M including premium by Sotheby's on November 28, 2007, lot 39, and is estimated $ 2M for sale by Christie's in New York on October 28, lot 15.
#AuctionUpdate Newell Convers Wyeth, 'Indian Love Call' achieved $3,510,000. One of Wyeth's favorite motifs in his Native American paintings was the solitary Indian in a reflective mood, as shown in this mural alongside the tranquility of the landscape. https://t.co/FlaKVSgIBM pic.twitter.com/ezUhP0xRMM
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) October 28, 2020
1927 Max Ernst and the Disasters of War
2011 SOLD 2.5 M€ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Max Ernst was disgusted by the First World War. In 1927, his hybrid forms, neither men, nor trees, nor rocks, are nightmares reminiscent of the still fresh horrors. The technique of frottage (rubbing pencil) generates a blur exalting interpretation.
Like Goya, he had a biting irony. Like Goya, his art was militant.
Entitled La Carmagnole, an oil on canvas 73 x 93 cm is an infernal dance. The title is remarkably chosen by reference to the revolutionary dance that symbolizes so well the illusory hopes and the brutality of the men of 1789.
This painting is for sale on December 8 by Sotheby's in Paris. The estimate, € 1.5 million, may seem too low. Here is the link to the catalog.
In the same style, on the same year, Ernst also painted the Horde, considered as one of his masterpieces. This altogether bestial scene displays standing brutes along with victims on the ground with wide holes in the head, like a terrible link between Goya and Guernica.
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding and disturbing painting was worth better than its estimate. It was sold € 2.5 million including premium.
Max Ernst was disgusted by the First World War. In 1927, his hybrid forms, neither men, nor trees, nor rocks, are nightmares reminiscent of the still fresh horrors. The technique of frottage (rubbing pencil) generates a blur exalting interpretation.
Like Goya, he had a biting irony. Like Goya, his art was militant.
Entitled La Carmagnole, an oil on canvas 73 x 93 cm is an infernal dance. The title is remarkably chosen by reference to the revolutionary dance that symbolizes so well the illusory hopes and the brutality of the men of 1789.
This painting is for sale on December 8 by Sotheby's in Paris. The estimate, € 1.5 million, may seem too low. Here is the link to the catalog.
In the same style, on the same year, Ernst also painted the Horde, considered as one of his masterpieces. This altogether bestial scene displays standing brutes along with victims on the ground with wide holes in the head, like a terrible link between Goya and Guernica.
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding and disturbing painting was worth better than its estimate. It was sold € 2.5 million including premium.
1927 American Horse Riding
2017 SOLD for $ 1.7M including premium
Passionate about horses, Alfred Munnings is a classical painter resolutely opposed to modern art. He is the best artist of his time in observing the elegance of horses, riders and dogs.
In 1924 he made a dream trip of six months in the United States during which he visited the hunt and polo clubs of New England and Long Island. The similarities of the American and English gentry immediately put him at ease.
On May 24 in New York, Sotheby's sells three oils on canvas memorizing this itinerary. Note that the women ride on sidesaddle.
Lot 72, 78 x 85 cm, estimated $ 300K, is the portrait of the wife of one of his New England hosts riding Desert Queen. The mare is standing, gently raising a foreleg. The woman had probably posed in the studio.
The husband was so pleased with the above portrait that he commissioned the artist to display him on his gray horse Powder Puff accompanied by his pack. Forming a pendant with the previous lot, it is offered with the same estimate as lot 73.
Unlike the two previous lots, lot 74 was painted around 1927, long after the come back of the artist to England, when the illustrated Long Island riding champion girl prepares to marry an English aristocrat. Miss Ruth Brady is riding the energetic Bugle Call and is accompanied by a beautiful dog. This oil on canvas 85 x 101 cm is estimated $ 1,4M and the subject of the tweet below.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Lot 74 : $ 1.7M
Lots 72 and 73 : $ 370K each
In 1924 he made a dream trip of six months in the United States during which he visited the hunt and polo clubs of New England and Long Island. The similarities of the American and English gentry immediately put him at ease.
On May 24 in New York, Sotheby's sells three oils on canvas memorizing this itinerary. Note that the women ride on sidesaddle.
Lot 72, 78 x 85 cm, estimated $ 300K, is the portrait of the wife of one of his New England hosts riding Desert Queen. The mare is standing, gently raising a foreleg. The woman had probably posed in the studio.
The husband was so pleased with the above portrait that he commissioned the artist to display him on his gray horse Powder Puff accompanied by his pack. Forming a pendant with the previous lot, it is offered with the same estimate as lot 73.
Unlike the two previous lots, lot 74 was painted around 1927, long after the come back of the artist to England, when the illustrated Long Island riding champion girl prepares to marry an English aristocrat. Miss Ruth Brady is riding the energetic Bugle Call and is accompanied by a beautiful dog. This oil on canvas 85 x 101 cm is estimated $ 1,4M and the subject of the tweet below.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Lot 74 : $ 1.7M
Lots 72 and 73 : $ 370K each
1928 Teaching the Circle
2019 SOLD for £ 6.1M including premium
Wassily Kandinsky resides as a Meister at the Bauhaus from 1922 to 1933. He teaches both the basics of design for beginners and the advanced theories. Created in 1919 by Gropius, the Bauhaus first focused on a synthesis between art and crafts for an application to architecture. In keeping with the progress of that time, the technique is gradually taking the place of the craftsmanship.
Kandinsky is throughout his career a theorist in search of the absolute art. At the time of the Blaue Reiter, the predominance of the colors and of the lines of force led him to abstraction. In the Bauhaus he consolidates his theories by a detailed analysis of the elementary forms : plane, straight line, angle, circle, semicircle.
The circle is the projection of the sphere on the plane. Its many mystical interpretations obviously fits the esoteric sensitivity of the artist. It is also the basic element of any astronomical figuration. It is empty or filled with any color, and can overlap other circles to simulate for example the chaos of the creation of the world.
With the revealing title Vertiefte Regung meaning thorough impulse, an oil on canvas 100 x 76 cm painted in 1928 demonstrates the dynamic effect of the circles. In various diameters, they juxtapose and collide over a black surface with totally irregular edges underlined by a blue halo.
This artwork was used as a wall ornament of the Meister living room used by Kandinsky and Klee in the new buildings of the Bauhaus after its transfer to Dessau.
Vertiefte Regung was sold for $ 6.4M including premium by Sotheby's on November 5, 2015. It is estimated £ 5.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 26, lot 13.
Kandinsky is throughout his career a theorist in search of the absolute art. At the time of the Blaue Reiter, the predominance of the colors and of the lines of force led him to abstraction. In the Bauhaus he consolidates his theories by a detailed analysis of the elementary forms : plane, straight line, angle, circle, semicircle.
The circle is the projection of the sphere on the plane. Its many mystical interpretations obviously fits the esoteric sensitivity of the artist. It is also the basic element of any astronomical figuration. It is empty or filled with any color, and can overlap other circles to simulate for example the chaos of the creation of the world.
With the revealing title Vertiefte Regung meaning thorough impulse, an oil on canvas 100 x 76 cm painted in 1928 demonstrates the dynamic effect of the circles. In various diameters, they juxtapose and collide over a black surface with totally irregular edges underlined by a blue halo.
This artwork was used as a wall ornament of the Meister living room used by Kandinsky and Klee in the new buildings of the Bauhaus after its transfer to Dessau.
Vertiefte Regung was sold for $ 6.4M including premium by Sotheby's on November 5, 2015. It is estimated £ 5.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 26, lot 13.
1928 Le Garçon d'Etage by Soutine
2016 SOLD for $ 6.5M by Christie's
Chaim Soutine put all his energy into his art. He had known Modigliani, La Ruche and misery. Zborowski appreciated his expressive pictures and succeeded in convincing Barnes in 1923. From then Soutine had no trouble for selling his paintings but this transformation of his life barely changed his themes and style, leaving untouched his rage of creation.
Unlike Modigliani, Soutine varied his themes. The landscape did not really appeal him. The rotten meats brought to the artist some sensorial communion with his environment by their unbearable odor. For the human dimension, Soutine chose to highlight the humblest employees of hotels and restaurants.
These men have their own petty and miserable life beyond the disguise of their job. They are ugly and unintelligent in their sometimes ridiculous and always ill-fitting uniforms. It is the portrait of a pastry cook that drew at first the enthusiasm of Barnes onto the art of Soutine.
Soutine was hypersensitive. He did not plan to withstand the emotional stress of a sitting session with one of his few friends and could not become a worldly artist. Pastry cooks, hotel boys and valets interested him because he had no sympathy for them. Their defects are both picturesque and monstrous.
On November 16 in New York, Christie's sells Le Garçon d'étage (the floor groom), oil on canvas 78 x 67 cm painted circa 1928, lot 21 B estimated $ 6M. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The character is decidedly unfriendly with too little eyes under thick eyebrows, prominent ears and the flattened nose of a boxer or brawler. He is no longer an apprentice but his age is indefinable. He is uncomfortable in his coat and his collar is crumpled.
Soutine never commented his art. I cannot imagine that he spent time in front of such guys. He was possibly working from memory.
Unlike Modigliani, Soutine varied his themes. The landscape did not really appeal him. The rotten meats brought to the artist some sensorial communion with his environment by their unbearable odor. For the human dimension, Soutine chose to highlight the humblest employees of hotels and restaurants.
These men have their own petty and miserable life beyond the disguise of their job. They are ugly and unintelligent in their sometimes ridiculous and always ill-fitting uniforms. It is the portrait of a pastry cook that drew at first the enthusiasm of Barnes onto the art of Soutine.
Soutine was hypersensitive. He did not plan to withstand the emotional stress of a sitting session with one of his few friends and could not become a worldly artist. Pastry cooks, hotel boys and valets interested him because he had no sympathy for them. Their defects are both picturesque and monstrous.
On November 16 in New York, Christie's sells Le Garçon d'étage (the floor groom), oil on canvas 78 x 67 cm painted circa 1928, lot 21 B estimated $ 6M. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The character is decidedly unfriendly with too little eyes under thick eyebrows, prominent ears and the flattened nose of a boxer or brawler. He is no longer an apprentice but his age is indefinable. He is uncomfortable in his coat and his collar is crumpled.
Soutine never commented his art. I cannot imagine that he spent time in front of such guys. He was possibly working from memory.
1928 AFRICAN EXPRESSIONISM OF IRMA STERN
2011 UNSOLD
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Irma Stern was born in Transvaal but went to Germany with her parents after the Boer War, and her training was influenced by artists from the group Die Brücke.
Back in South Africa in 1920, she began to observe the women of her country.
In 1928, Stern is 34 years old. An oil on canvas, 100 x 95 cm, shows a typical African theme: lemon picking by a teamof Swazi women. This dense and rhythmic composition, dominated by a woman in the foreground, is decidedlyexpressionist while also close to the stylized Art Déco designs of that time.
This painting is estimated ZAR 10M, for sale by Strauss in Cape Town on March 7.
This rural scene is an early work, anticipating both the artist's passion for travel and her skill as a colorist. It containsthe seeds of the great variety of her original and sensitive art.
Irma Stern was born in Transvaal but went to Germany with her parents after the Boer War, and her training was influenced by artists from the group Die Brücke.
Back in South Africa in 1920, she began to observe the women of her country.
In 1928, Stern is 34 years old. An oil on canvas, 100 x 95 cm, shows a typical African theme: lemon picking by a teamof Swazi women. This dense and rhythmic composition, dominated by a woman in the foreground, is decidedlyexpressionist while also close to the stylized Art Déco designs of that time.
This painting is estimated ZAR 10M, for sale by Strauss in Cape Town on March 7.
This rural scene is an early work, anticipating both the artist's passion for travel and her skill as a colorist. It containsthe seeds of the great variety of her original and sensitive art.
1929 Renaissance after Dada
2019 SOLD for £ 3.7M including premium
In 1924 Dada gives way to surrealism. The most iconoclastic artists continue to explore new paths. With his series entitled Peintures, Miro introduces line drawings in 1927 in his paintings. In the following year he changes his style and pastiches with great freedom the old Dutch interiors. In 1930 he expresses the evolution of his art by stating that he wants to murder painting.
Francis Picabia broke with Dada in 1921 and with Breton in 1924. Gertrude Stein will however identify him as the archetype of the surrealist artist. He begins in 1928 his series of Transparences.
Choosing in his art books the images of antique statues and of Renaissance paintings, he copies them in intermingled line drawings. This approach pleases Duchamp who sees in it a non-stereoscopic creation of the third dimension. The title sometimes reveals the origin of the main model, for example Hera, or Adam and Eve.
On February 26 in London, Sotheby's sells Atrata, oil and pencil on panel 150 x 95 cm painted circa 1929, lot 38 estimated £ 1.5M. The composition is centered on the portrait of a man by Botticelli. The view is very blurred by the subsidiary images, except the almost horizontal alignment of four eyes that certainly delighted Duchamp. It is decoded in the video shared by the auction house.
Mélibée, oil on canvas 195 x 130 cm painted circa 1931, is an exception in this series by the unambiguous belonging of the transparent elements to a unique theme, consistent moreover with the personal difficulties of Picabia rejected successively by his wife and his mistress.
In La Celestina, Mélibée is the lover pushed to suicide by the death of her lover fallen from the ladder while passing the high wall of the garden after their sexual activity. Published in 1499 in Burgos as a dialogue, this work had many assets to please the surrealists : it is neither a novel, nor a poem, nor a play, the story is torrid, and the name of the alleged author is only revealed by the suite of initial letters in the stanzas of the prologue.
In Picabia's painting, the face copying a Madonna by Piero della Francesca remains very fair and the superposition of branches, leaves and pine needles is a reference to the garden of love. Her lover is curled up in full nudity in a corner.
Announced by gallery owners Marianne and Pierre Nahon as the preferred artwork in their collection, Mélibée is estimated € 2,5M for sale by Sotheby's in Paris on March 19, lot 10.
Transparences cannot be used to illustrate a book and the source of inspiration is too difficult to convey to the public. Mélibée appears like an ultimate achievement of this short lived style terminated by Picabia in 1933.
RESULTS including premium :
Atrata : SOLD for £ 3.7M
Mélibée : SOLD for € 3.9M
Francis Picabia broke with Dada in 1921 and with Breton in 1924. Gertrude Stein will however identify him as the archetype of the surrealist artist. He begins in 1928 his series of Transparences.
Choosing in his art books the images of antique statues and of Renaissance paintings, he copies them in intermingled line drawings. This approach pleases Duchamp who sees in it a non-stereoscopic creation of the third dimension. The title sometimes reveals the origin of the main model, for example Hera, or Adam and Eve.
On February 26 in London, Sotheby's sells Atrata, oil and pencil on panel 150 x 95 cm painted circa 1929, lot 38 estimated £ 1.5M. The composition is centered on the portrait of a man by Botticelli. The view is very blurred by the subsidiary images, except the almost horizontal alignment of four eyes that certainly delighted Duchamp. It is decoded in the video shared by the auction house.
Mélibée, oil on canvas 195 x 130 cm painted circa 1931, is an exception in this series by the unambiguous belonging of the transparent elements to a unique theme, consistent moreover with the personal difficulties of Picabia rejected successively by his wife and his mistress.
In La Celestina, Mélibée is the lover pushed to suicide by the death of her lover fallen from the ladder while passing the high wall of the garden after their sexual activity. Published in 1499 in Burgos as a dialogue, this work had many assets to please the surrealists : it is neither a novel, nor a poem, nor a play, the story is torrid, and the name of the alleged author is only revealed by the suite of initial letters in the stanzas of the prologue.
In Picabia's painting, the face copying a Madonna by Piero della Francesca remains very fair and the superposition of branches, leaves and pine needles is a reference to the garden of love. Her lover is curled up in full nudity in a corner.
Announced by gallery owners Marianne and Pierre Nahon as the preferred artwork in their collection, Mélibée is estimated € 2,5M for sale by Sotheby's in Paris on March 19, lot 10.
Transparences cannot be used to illustrate a book and the source of inspiration is too difficult to convey to the public. Mélibée appears like an ultimate achievement of this short lived style terminated by Picabia in 1933.
RESULTS including premium :
Atrata : SOLD for £ 3.7M
Mélibée : SOLD for € 3.9M
1929 Mythologies by Picabia
2020 SOLD for € 3.96M including premium
With his Transparences, Francis Picabia attempts a new style of surrealist painting composed of tangled line drawings without perspective. The spectator will seek to perceive the figures individually and to find a link between them by relying on the title. The artist transcends time by simultaneously referring to several periods of ancient art.
The first exhibition took place in Paris in 1928. Léonce Rosenberg, owner of L'Effort Moderne gallery, is convinced and buys for his personal use several paintings which would decorate his apartment alongside works by Léger and De Chirico.
Minos, oil, watercolor and pencil on panel 151 x 97 cm, is painted in 1929 on a specific order from Rosenberg. Minos is that king of Crete who locked up in the Labyrinth the Minotaur, one of the inspiring flagships of surrealism. The statue of Augustus as Jupiter Capitolinus is mingled with elements from the Virgin and Child with Five Angels by Botticelli. By the difference in scale, Jupiter appears like a doll whose feet are held by two Christian hands.
Minos is estimated € 2.8M for sale by Sotheby's in Paris on October 21, lot 10. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Atrata, a panel of similar dimensions, overlays the Atlas Farnese in a portrait of a man by Botticelli. The entomological meaning of the title Atrata responds to another passion of Picabia, impossible to decode for most of his visitors. Purchased during the same period by Rosenberg, Atrata may have inspired his order for the Minos, a less hermetic reference. Atrata was sold for £ 3.7M including premium by Sotheby's on February 26, 2019 from a lower estimate of £ 1.5M.
Picabia went too far into iconoclasm, even from a surrealist viewpoint. He terminated this series of Transparences in 1933.
The first exhibition took place in Paris in 1928. Léonce Rosenberg, owner of L'Effort Moderne gallery, is convinced and buys for his personal use several paintings which would decorate his apartment alongside works by Léger and De Chirico.
Minos, oil, watercolor and pencil on panel 151 x 97 cm, is painted in 1929 on a specific order from Rosenberg. Minos is that king of Crete who locked up in the Labyrinth the Minotaur, one of the inspiring flagships of surrealism. The statue of Augustus as Jupiter Capitolinus is mingled with elements from the Virgin and Child with Five Angels by Botticelli. By the difference in scale, Jupiter appears like a doll whose feet are held by two Christian hands.
Minos is estimated € 2.8M for sale by Sotheby's in Paris on October 21, lot 10. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Atrata, a panel of similar dimensions, overlays the Atlas Farnese in a portrait of a man by Botticelli. The entomological meaning of the title Atrata responds to another passion of Picabia, impossible to decode for most of his visitors. Purchased during the same period by Rosenberg, Atrata may have inspired his order for the Minos, a less hermetic reference. Atrata was sold for £ 3.7M including premium by Sotheby's on February 26, 2019 from a lower estimate of £ 1.5M.
Picabia went too far into iconoclasm, even from a surrealist viewpoint. He terminated this series of Transparences in 1933.
1929 When the Dervishes Whirled
2010 SOLD 2.55 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The Egyptian painter Mahmoud Said illustrated the traditional life of his country, but relied upon the trends of modern European art.
The honor of having led the artist to the auction heights is held by Christie's. A 1934 oil on panel, 89 x 117 cm, was sold U.S. $ 2.4 million including premium in Dubai on April 27, 2010. The information released to the press before the sale was so convincing that I almost discussed this work in this column, despite a trivial estimate of $ 150K.
This naive painting entitled Les Chadoufs (shadoofs) showed people busy to take water in these wells so typical of the Nile Valley. Since this auction feat, other works have shown the versatility of this outstanding artist.
Also in Dubai, on October 26, Christie's sells another oil on panel, 98 x 70 cm, painted in 1929. In a space of ritual dance, six dervishes are whirling. The date of the artwork, the movement of their robes and headdresses, assess that Said had assimilated the Cubism of Severini, Goncharova or Delaunay.
Yet he signed here a work whose subject is deeply anchored in Egyptian traditions, and we can assume that the reasonable estimate, U.S. $ 300K, will be exceeded.
POST SALE COMMENT
The Dervishes had seemed to me to have the same quality as the Shadoofs. This lot obtained an excellent result: U.S. $ 2.55 million including premium, thus proving the interest and variety of the work of Said. The market has found this year in Said a very important Egyptian artist.
The Egyptian painter Mahmoud Said illustrated the traditional life of his country, but relied upon the trends of modern European art.
The honor of having led the artist to the auction heights is held by Christie's. A 1934 oil on panel, 89 x 117 cm, was sold U.S. $ 2.4 million including premium in Dubai on April 27, 2010. The information released to the press before the sale was so convincing that I almost discussed this work in this column, despite a trivial estimate of $ 150K.
This naive painting entitled Les Chadoufs (shadoofs) showed people busy to take water in these wells so typical of the Nile Valley. Since this auction feat, other works have shown the versatility of this outstanding artist.
Also in Dubai, on October 26, Christie's sells another oil on panel, 98 x 70 cm, painted in 1929. In a space of ritual dance, six dervishes are whirling. The date of the artwork, the movement of their robes and headdresses, assess that Said had assimilated the Cubism of Severini, Goncharova or Delaunay.
Yet he signed here a work whose subject is deeply anchored in Egyptian traditions, and we can assume that the reasonable estimate, U.S. $ 300K, will be exceeded.
POST SALE COMMENT
The Dervishes had seemed to me to have the same quality as the Shadoofs. This lot obtained an excellent result: U.S. $ 2.55 million including premium, thus proving the interest and variety of the work of Said. The market has found this year in Said a very important Egyptian artist.
1929 FESTIVAL FOR IRMA STERN IN LONDON
2008 SOLD 260 K£ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The press release for the sale of Bonhams in London on September 10 announced 38 oils on canvas of Irma Stern. It is therefore worth the effort to go and see some details.
Over its sales of South African art, Bonhams is proving to be the best specialist of Irma Stern, and is assisted for some lots in the catalogue by the Irma Stern Museum.
Let us go back to the context of the earlier sale. On November 25, I wrote in my blog:
"On January 30, Bonhams London organize a South African art sale dominated by two paintings of Irma Stern estimated 300 and 250 K £. The first, a tribal portrait, should be the highest price for the artist, over a less typed portrait."
As always, I announced the result of the sale:
"SOLD: paintings by Irma Stern: three ethnic portraits were sold £ 280, 240 and 230 K, a still life £ 320 K and a scene of grape pickers £ 180 K. These prices are before fees."
Between these two releases, the portrait of a Congolese woman, 60 x 50 cm, psychologically very hard as it is often the case with Stern, reached 570 K£ costs included, at Christie's on December 12.
Let us return to our September sales. The two groups most sought of the work of the artist compete once again for stardom.
As for still lifes, a composition with dahlias and gladioli, 85x85 cm, lot 365, is estimated £ 200 K. The subject is very colourful and occupies the whole surface of the canvas.
For what I called above tribal portraits, the choice is very wide. I recall that the top results in January did not follow the hierarchy of the estimates of the catalog, demonstrating the passion of buyers for this artist whose ten highest results date of less than one year.
The work that seems more interesting, lot 313 at £ 250 K, is the portrait of a Swazi girl in traditional clothes, 93 x 70 cm. Her anxious attitude leads to a strong presence. This work, undated, is close to another of 1929, catalogue says. Indeed, other portraits made from 1929 to 1933 found in the databases have the same nervous style.
POST SALE COMMENT
Irma Stern met all expectations made on her. Her works performed remarkably grouped in both categories of subjects. Such result confirms a firm, solid and sustainable rating for this artist.
Four portraits were distributed, excluding costs, between 240 and 330 K £. The number 313, which was my preferred, remained at 260 K £.
Five still lifes were divided, excluding costs, between 240 and 300 K £, including lot 365 at 280 K £.
We cannot leave this sale without reporting the sensational result of the other lot that I mentioned in my preview of July 27. This painting by Jacob Hendrik Pierneef, 112x142 cm, showing a baobab tree was sold 720 K £ excluding fees.
The press release for the sale of Bonhams in London on September 10 announced 38 oils on canvas of Irma Stern. It is therefore worth the effort to go and see some details.
Over its sales of South African art, Bonhams is proving to be the best specialist of Irma Stern, and is assisted for some lots in the catalogue by the Irma Stern Museum.
Let us go back to the context of the earlier sale. On November 25, I wrote in my blog:
"On January 30, Bonhams London organize a South African art sale dominated by two paintings of Irma Stern estimated 300 and 250 K £. The first, a tribal portrait, should be the highest price for the artist, over a less typed portrait."
As always, I announced the result of the sale:
"SOLD: paintings by Irma Stern: three ethnic portraits were sold £ 280, 240 and 230 K, a still life £ 320 K and a scene of grape pickers £ 180 K. These prices are before fees."
Between these two releases, the portrait of a Congolese woman, 60 x 50 cm, psychologically very hard as it is often the case with Stern, reached 570 K£ costs included, at Christie's on December 12.
Let us return to our September sales. The two groups most sought of the work of the artist compete once again for stardom.
As for still lifes, a composition with dahlias and gladioli, 85x85 cm, lot 365, is estimated £ 200 K. The subject is very colourful and occupies the whole surface of the canvas.
For what I called above tribal portraits, the choice is very wide. I recall that the top results in January did not follow the hierarchy of the estimates of the catalog, demonstrating the passion of buyers for this artist whose ten highest results date of less than one year.
The work that seems more interesting, lot 313 at £ 250 K, is the portrait of a Swazi girl in traditional clothes, 93 x 70 cm. Her anxious attitude leads to a strong presence. This work, undated, is close to another of 1929, catalogue says. Indeed, other portraits made from 1929 to 1933 found in the databases have the same nervous style.
POST SALE COMMENT
Irma Stern met all expectations made on her. Her works performed remarkably grouped in both categories of subjects. Such result confirms a firm, solid and sustainable rating for this artist.
Four portraits were distributed, excluding costs, between 240 and 330 K £. The number 313, which was my preferred, remained at 260 K £.
Five still lifes were divided, excluding costs, between 240 and 300 K £, including lot 365 at 280 K £.
We cannot leave this sale without reporting the sensational result of the other lot that I mentioned in my preview of July 27. This painting by Jacob Hendrik Pierneef, 112x142 cm, showing a baobab tree was sold 720 K £ excluding fees.
