Wednesday

Christie's To Sell Top Art

ArtDaily.org reports that on November 6, Christie's New York Fall Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale will follow the November 5 art sale of The Modern Age, enticing the international collecting community with exceptional pictures and sculptures from seminal masters. Primarily from a number of private collections and many never seen before at market, the sale of 85 lots is expected to realize in excess of $250 million, with leading artists including Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, Juan Gris and Gustav Caillebotte. The sale will be led by Pablo Picasso’s outstanding Deux personnages (Marie-Thérèse et sa soeur lisant), 1934, (estimate: $18-25 million). Making its first appearance at auction, this important painting is Picasso’s culminating work in a series of six paintings portraying Picasso’s mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, and her sister together reading a book in front of an open window. Deux personages shows Picasso in a surrealist idiom informed by the sinuous lines, biomorphic elements and springtime colors associated with Marie-Thérèse. She helped inspire and rejuvenate Picasso and brought a youthful and passionate quality to the portrait. The sale’s cover lot, also never seen at auction, is an extremely rare and gloriously strident Expressionist masterpiece by Wassily Kandinsky, Studie zu Improvisation 3, 1909 (estimate: $15-20 million). Infused with mysticism, it offers Kandinsky’s distinct version of painterly modernism. Kandinsky’s inspiration for the Improvisation series stemmed from the discovery of the idyllic village of Murnau, a town south of Munich. Following the spectacular prices achieved for Alberto Giacometti over recent seasons including the world auction record set in May for Grande femme debout II realizing $27,481,000 at Christie's New York, another fine example from the master’s prime Post-War period, Trois Hommes qui marchent I, will be offered (estimate: $14-18 million). Conceived in 1948 and cast in 1950, the three male figures express one of the central themes of the artist’s work during this period: the memories of marching soldiers or harried refugees he saw in wartime newsreels. Another early leading art work is Juan Gris’s symphonic Livre, pipe et verre, 1915 (estimate: $12.5-18.5 million), steeped in Picasso’s influence but also representative of the younger artist’s distinctive voice. The painting showcases Gris’s exploration of contrasting objects by highlighting them in white against a dark tonality resembling a photographic negative. Furthermore, he experimented with the layering of planes and started working with rich and varied colors, giving up on the limited tonalities of his earlier collages. Livre, verre et pipe is a prime example, showing why Gris is often referred to as Cubism’s most exquisite colorist. The art auction also features Nu au feuillage vert, fond noir, 1936, painted by Henri Matisse (estimate: $12-18 million). “I do Odalisques in order to do nudes,” Matisse declared in 1929. The painting portrays a nude Lydia Delectorskaya, his young Russian-born assistant and muse. Throughout the week, Matisse dictated to Lydia some notes, which she carefully recorded and photographed the painting once each day. These invaluable photographs document the crucial moments when Matisse was taking decisive steps that would bring the picture to its conclusion. It is a rare event to have the opportunity to witness the conception and progression of this important modern painting. Gustave Caillebotte’s Le pont d’Argenteuil, et la Seine, 1883, (estimate: $8-12 million) is anything but traditional. Rather than depicting the entire structure from a distance, Caillebotte drew in close to the Argenteuil road bridge, concentrating on a single span, which slices across the canvas at a slight angle. Le pont d’Argenteuil, et la Seine reflects the artist’s interest in the landscapes and views of Argenteuil and Caillebotte’s characteric use of intense range of blues. The sale will also feature a strong group of eight sculptures by Henry Moore. Other highlights of the Evening Sale are Paul Cézanne’s Le pont et le barrage à Pontoise (estimate: $7-10 million), a beautiful landscape that hallmarks Cézanne’s mature work; Claude Monet’s Vétheuil au soleil (estimate: $5.5-7 million), a sun-filled painting that embraces nature; and Henri Matisse’s Deux masques (La tomate) (estimate: $5-7 million), a collage on paper making its first appearance at art auction. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art