Lot 23, "Violon et guitare," by Juan Gris, oil on canvas, 39 1/2 by 25  3/4 inches, 1913

By Carter B. Horsley

Christie's leads off its Fall 2010 auction season with an evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art with 85 lots highlighted by a wonderful works by Juan Gris and Vincent Van Gogh, good paintings by Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger, and very good sculptures by Henri Matisse and Alberto Giacometti.

"Violon et guitare," Lot 23, is a 1913 oil on canvas by Juan Gris (1887-1927)that measures 39 1/2 by 25 3/4 inches.  It has been widely exhibited and published and was once in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph F. Colin of New York.

The catalogue provides the following commentary:

"When Juan Gris returned to Paris in early November 1913 from his three-month sojourn in Cèret, he had good reason to be pleased with the pictures he had painted there.  He completed thirteen canvases in a consistently focused and formally cohesive series of still-lifes, figures and landscapes, paintings which constituted the most assured, fully fledged and distinctively personal work he had done to date....Indeed, among these pictures are several that would eventuallyh be counted among the very best he ever painted, indisputable masterworks that demonstrate an astonishing and dazzling synthesis of diea, color and form.  Violon et guitare was Grisi own favorite among these Cèret paintings.....This painting has since come to be widely regarded as a peak in his magnificent oeuvre, and one of the milestones of cubism and early modernism."

The lot has an estimate of $18 million to $25 million.  It sold for $28,642,500 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article.  It was a world's auction record for a Gris painting.  It is one of four consecutive lots in the auction that come from "distinguished private collection" and are labeled "Four Modern Masterpieces."  In her November 4, 2010 article in The New York Times, Carol Vogel wrote that the Gris and three other works in the auction that the catalogue said were "modern masterpieces" were consigned by Henry Kravis and his wife, Marie-Josée, president of the Museum of Modern Art, "other collectors and art dealers familiar with the Kravises' art were able to identify them as the sellers."

The second "masterpiece" is Lot 24 is a strong abstraction by Paul Klee (1879-1940) entitled "Pfanze und Fenster Stilleben."  An oil on canvas, it measures 18 3/4 by 23 inches and was painted in 1927.  It has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $4,000,000.  It has been widely exhibited and published.  It sold for $5,010,500.

Lot 25, "L'Air," by Joan Miró, oil on canvas, 21 3/8 by 18 1/8 inches, 1938

The third "masterpiece is Lot 25, "L'Air," by Joan Miró (1893-1983).  An oil on canvas, it measures 21 3/8 by 18 1/8 inches and was painted in 1938.  It has an estimate of $12,000,000 to $18,000,000.  It sold for $10,330,500. The catalogue notes that "In his works of the late 1930s, Miró employed the ingenious iconogaphy of organic and figural signs, which he had begun to developing in his early surrealist work, to address the dire political events of the day - violence in the streets, the horror of internecine bloodletting, the spreading web ot totalitarian subjugation and oppression, and the personal tribulations that each and every Spaniard, whichever side they took, was forced to endure. The struggles that Miró depicted in his paintings often took the appearance of a helter-skelter psycho-sexual narrative, drawn from a mythic dimension sunk deep within the human subconscious."

Lot 26, "Tete d'homme," by Pablo Picasso, pastel on paper, 27 1/8 by 21 1/8 inches, 1921

The fourth "masterpiece" is Lot 26, "Tete d'homme," by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), a pastel on paper that was executed in 1921 and measures 27 1/8 by 21 1/8 inches.  It has an estimate of $5,000,000 to $7,000,000.  It sold for $6,130,500.

The catalogue notes that while in Fontainebleau, Picasso in 1921 painted a series of massive, neoclassical female figures and a dozen pastels of heads and busts: "Given the powdery texture and subtle tints of this delicate medium, these images are softer, more refined and sensual in their aspect, and it is perahps not since Picasso's Blue and Rose periods that Picasso drew the human visage with such exquisite sensitivity and charm, even while rendering these images on fairly large sheets of paper, with the heads appearing substantially larger than life-size."

It said that this work "has the distinction of being the only male subject among these hauntingly introspective figures," adding that it "marks Picasso's ongoing quest to define his own position among ancient and modern masters, as welll as his broader meditation on enduring cultural values in the period following the First World War."

The auction's total was $231.4 million as 67 of the 84 offered lots sold.  The pre-sale estimate was $199 million to $287 million.

Lot 56, "Maternité," by Pablo Picaso, oil on canvas, 22 by 18 1/2 inches, 1921

Another Picasso from the same year is Lot 56, "Maternité," an oil on canvas that measures 22 by 18 1/2 inches.  It has an estimate of $7,000,000 to $10,000,000.  The catalogue notes that  Picasso painted half a dozen pictures of Olga, his wife, and their new-born son in the summer of 1921 and that John Richardson has called them "some of Picasso's most Apollonian images."

Lot 55, "Nus sur la plage," by Pablo Picasso, pastel on paper, 19 by 25 1/2 inches, 1920

Lot 55 is a good pastel on paper by Picasso entitled "Nus sur la page."  It measures 19 by 25 1/2 inches, was painted in 1920, and is similar in composition to a work at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.  It has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $4,000,000.  

Lot 47, "Le Peintre et son modéle," by Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas, 38 by 51 inches, 1964

Lot 47, "Le Peintre et son modéle," is a plesasant, large, late work by Picasso whose spartan treatment recalls ancient Greek vases.  It measures 38 by 51 inches and was executed in 1964.  It has an estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000.  It sold for $2,882,500.

Lot 19, "Nature Morte. Corbeille de fruits et bouteille," by Pablo Picasso, oil over black conté crayon on canvas, 18 1/4 by 21 3/4 inches, 1937

Lot 19 is a very charming and lyrical still life by Picasso that measures 18 1/4 by 21 3/4 inches.  An oil over black conté crayon on canvas, it was executed in 1937.  It has a modest estimate of $1,800,000 to $2,500,000.  It sold for $4,226,500.  The catalogue entry notes that "the decanter, like the pitcher in earlier works, is emblematic of a standing man, the artist himself; the long neck suggests his virility."  "The curvy basket of fruit is a reminder of the voluptuous Marie-Thérèse, sweet natured and compliant, as if decked out in one of the pretty hats Picasso liked to portray her in.  In its tenderly erotic overtones, expressed in the most humble, mundane objects, this still-life is metaphorically a snapshot protrait of the artist and his young mistress, one that Picasso would preserve as a reminder of happy times."

Lot 44, "Balustre et crâne," (recto); Nature More au compotier (verso)," by Georges Braque, oil on canvas, 17 3/4 by 21 5/8 inches, 1938

Lot 44, "Balustre et crâne," is a wonderful and very colorful still life with a skull by Georges Braque on one side and a very good but sombre still life on the reverse. The 17 3/4-by-21 5/8-inch oil on canvas, shown above, was executed in 1938. It sold at Christie's in New York November 6, 2002 for $449,500 when it had an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000.  At this auction, it has a very modest estimate of $700,000 to $1,000,000. It sold for $1,986,500.

Lot 48, "Statuette de platre: Torse de femme, vue de face," by Vincent Van Gogh, oil on canvas, 28 1/4 by 21 1/4 inches, 1887

Lot 428 is a very fine, lovely and refreshing oil on canvas of a paster statuette of a woman's torso by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890.  Executed in 1887, it measures 28 1/4 by 21 1/4 inches.  It has been widely exhibited and published and has a modest estimate of $3,500,000 to $5,500,000.  It sold for $3,666,500.

The painting was offered as Lot 8 in the Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Sotheby's November 5, 2008 with an estimate of $7,000,000 to $10,000 and it was then passed at $5,300,000.

Lot 15, "Une Liseuse de Romans," by Vincent Van Gogh, oil on canvas, 28 3/4 by 36 1/4 inches, November 1888

Another oil on canvas by Van Gogh is Lot 15, "Liseuse de Romans."  It measures 28 3/4 by 36 1/4 inches and was painted in November, 1888.  It has a modest estimate of $3,000,000 to $4,000,000.  It sold for $3,106,500.  It was once in the collection of John Hay Whitney of New York.  It has been widely exhibited and published.  Van Gogh disagreed with Paul Gauguin's emphasis on painting from "abstraction" and from "memory," but this painting was done from "memory."  "The formal aspects of the present painting," the catalogue noted, "also point to Gauguin's influence.  The flat planes of color, framed in heavy black outlines, recall the style of cloisonnisme established by Gauguin, Bernard, and Louis Anquetin at Pont-Aven earlier in the year.  Particularly noteworthy  is Bernard's Les Bretonnes dans la prarie from August 1888...which anticipates both the emphatic contours and the distinctive palette...of Van Gogh's Liseuse.  Bernard gave this canvas to Gauguin, who brought it with him to Arles; Van Gogh found the painting so original that he made a watercolor copy."

Lot 77, "Irrilichter (Will-o'-the-Wisp)," by Gustav Klimt, oil on board laid down on canvas, 20 1/2 by 23 1/2 inches, 1903

One of the highlights of the auction is Lot 77, "Irrilicther (Will-o'-the-Wisp)," by Gustav Klimt 1862-1918), an oil on board laid down on cavas that measures 20 1/2 by 23 1/2 inches.  The work was painted in 1903 and has a modest estimate of $2,800,000 to $3,500,000.

The catalogue provides the following commentary:

"One of a group of striking and revolutionary symbolist paintings from Klimt's celebrated 'gold and silver' period, Irrilichter (Will-o'-the-Wisp) is a rare and important work by 1903 that  remained hidden for most of the twentieth century.  The painting emerged from a private collection in 1978, having been previously known only thgough a prhotograph showing it at the Secession exhibition of the same year...where it had hung alongside Klimt's other major works from the period...These magnificent paintings, among which Irrilichter was installed, are among the most important of Klimt's oeuvre, and were tragically destroyed in 1945.  For decades, it was thought that Irrilichter had suffered the same fate.  The subject matter of the present painting links it  to Kilimt's famous friezes for the faculty hall of the new University of Vienna dedicated to the subjects of Philosophy, Medicine, Jurisprudence and Technology.  Klimt caused a public scandal by using nude women as a pictorial means of conveying the abstract concepts he had been asked to portray.....The notion of seductive and mischievous spirits leading one astray through a magical sparkling light that appears at twilight was...one that lent itself easily to the mystic symbolism of his art and his love of siren-like women materealizing out of the ether."

Lot 65, "Nu de dos, 4 etat (Back IV)," by Henri Matisse, numbered 00/10, bronze, 74 1/4 inches high conceived circa 1930 and cast in 1978

Lot 65 is a bronze sculpture by Henri Matisse (1869-1954) that was conceived circa 1930 and cast in 1978.  Entitled "Nu de dos, 4 etat (Back IV)," it is 74 1/4 inches high and is numbered 00/10.  It has an estimate of $25,000,000 to $35,000,000.  It sold for $48,802,500 to Larry Gagosian.  Another cast was illustrated as No. 28 in the 2009 book by P. Segalot and F. Giraud, "The Impossible Collection: The 100 Most Coveted Artworks in the Modern Era."

The catalogue notes that his belongs to a series of four similar bronze sculptures that represent "Matisse's most monumental and ambitious sculptural undertakig and the longest-lived  single project of his career."  "This imposing set of relief, executed at widely spaced intervals between 1908 and 1931, has been lauded as 'one of the artist's most distinctive achievements.'....The present work is one of twelve bronze casts of this culminating relief, and oe of only two exaples that currently remain in private hands."

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has a complete set of the reliefs.

Lot 64, "Femme de Venise V," by Alberto Giacometti, bronze, 43 1/2 inches high, conceived in 1956 and cast in 1958

Lot 64 is a 43 1/2-inch-high bronze statue entitled "Femme de Venise V" by Alberto Giacomettio (1901-1966) that was conceived in 1956 and cast in 1958  It has an estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000. It sold for $10,274,500.  It is being sold to benefit the Mount Sinai Medical Center.  This was one of a series of nine statues of women that Giacometti made for the Venice Biennale in 1965.  Six of the statues were shown at the biennale and four at a simultaneous and large exhibition of his work at the Kunsthall Bern.

Lot 51, "Buste d'homme," by Alberto Giacometti, plaster, 14 1/2 inches high, 1956

Lot 51 is a plaster sculpture of a man by Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) that is 14 1/2 inches high and was made in 1956  It has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000.  It sold for $3,890,500.

The catalogue notes that this work once belonged to Franz Meyer (1919-2007) who was director of the Kunsthalle Bern from 1955 to 1961 and was married to Ida Chagall, the daughter of the artist.  Mr. Meyer in 1963 published a monograph on Chagall.  In 1956, he had organized a large exhibition of Giacometti's work at the Kunsthall at the same time that the 28th Venice Biennale soonsored a pavilion devoted to Giacometti's work.

Lot 16, "Linear Construction in Space No. 2," by Naum Gabo, perspex nylon monofilament on transparent perspex base, 16 inches high, conceived in 1950 and executed in 1951

Lot 16 is a very fine perspex nylon monofilament sculpture on a transparent perspex base by Naum Gabo (1890-1977).  It is 16 inches high and was conceived in 1950 and made the following year.  It has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It failed to sell. In 1948, Gabo exhibited with his brotherAntoine Pevsner at the Museum of Modern Art and the next year he got a commission from Nelson Rockefeller to provide designs for the two lobbies at the Esso Oil Company Building at 75 Rockefeller Plaza.  Esso, however, rejected the project and Gabo gave them to the Museum of Modern Art.  This was one of Gabo's favorite works and he produced 26 versions.  This version, the fourth, was commissoned by George Heard Hamilton who wrote the preface for Gabo's first one-man exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Galley in1953.

Lot 39, "La Tasse de thé," by Fernand Léger, oil on canvas, 25 1/4 by 19 3/4 inches, 1921

Lot 39 is an excellent oil on canvas by Fernand Léger (see The City Review article) entitled "La Tasse de thé.  It measures 25 1/4 by 19 3/4 inches and was painted in 1921.  It is from the collection of Max Palevsky.  It has an estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000.  It sold for $8,146,500.  Another very similar, but larger version of this painting was sold by Yves St. Laurent and Pierre Bergé at Christie's in Paris February 23, 2009 and both versions were, according to the catalogue, "customarily viewed as studies for Le Grand déjeuner,, which has come to be regarded as Léger's most significant painting of the 1920s."

Lot 17, "Nature Morte," by Fernand Léger, oil on canvas, 51 1/4 by 35 inches, 1927

Lot 17 is a very fine and large still life oil on canvas by Léger that was painted in 1927.  It measures 51 1/4 by 35 inches and has an estimate of $3,500,000 to $6,500,000.  It sold for $7,922,500.  It has been consigned by the family of James Johnson Sweeney (1900-1986), a former head of the department of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art and the second director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Lot 7, "La Seine a Argenteuil," by Gustave Caillebotte, oil on canvas, 23 1/2 by 29 inches, 1882

Lot 7 is a nice river scene by Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) that is entitled "La Seine a Argenteuil."  An oil on canvas, it measures 23 1/2 by 29 inches and was painted in 1882.  It has an estimate of $5,000,000 to $7,000,000.  It sold for $5,122,500.

Lot 46, "Rosa Rot," by Wassily Kandinsky, watercolor and gouache on paper laid down by the artist, 12 3/4 by 19 1/8 inches, 1927

Lot 46 is a good watercolor and gouache on paper laid down Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and entitled "Rosa Rot."  It measures 12 3/4 by 19 1/8 inches and was created in 1927.  It sold at Christie' in New York November 6, 2008 for $866,500 when it had an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,600,000.  It sold for $1,370,500.  At this auction, it has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. At one time, it belonged to Vittorio de Sica of Rome. 

Lot 68, "Mother in Purple Holding her Child," by Mary Cassatt, pastel on buff paper laid down on board, 28 1/4 by 22 1/4 inches, circa 1914

Lot 68 is a very fine pastel on buff paper laid down on board by Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) of a "Mother in Purple Holding her Child."  It measures 28 1/4 by 22 1/4 inches and was executed circa 1914.  Cassatt  left many of her finest pastels in a sketchy state, which gives them a wonderful freshness.  This one is especially vibrant. It has a modest estimate of $700,000 to $1,000,000. It sold for $602,500.

Lot 60, "Femme se coiffant," by Edgar Degas, pastel on joined paper laid down on board, 29 1/4 by 33 1/4 inches, circa 1892-5

Lot 60 is a very nice pastel on joined paper laid down on board by Edgar Degas (1834-1917) of two young women, one reading and the other brushing her haid.  It measures 29 1/4 by 33 1/4 inches and was execuited circa 1892-5.  It has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $4,000,000.  It failed to sell.

Lot 69, "Adrienne,"by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, oil on canvas, 19 by 14 1/2 inches, circa 1878

Lot  19 is a particularly lovely painting of a young girl in a gray dress and black hat by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919).  An oil on canvas, it measures 19 by 14 1/2 inches and was created circa 1878.  It has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000.  It sold for $1,986,500.

Lot 82, "Jeune femme au chapeau bleu" by Pierre Bonnard, oil on canvas, 21 1/4 by 23 1/4 inches, 1908

Lot 82, "Jeune femme au chapeau bleu," by Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) is flawed somewhat in its composition but the rich deep flue and feathers of the hat at sensational.  The oil on canvas measures 21 1/4 by 23 1/4 inches.  It was painted in 1908 and has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It failed to sell.

Lot 14, "Pécheuses de goémon," by Paul Gauguin, gouache and graphite on gray board, 10 7/8 by 12 3/4 inches, circa 1888-1890

Lot 14 is an excellent gouache and graphite on gray board by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) that is entitled "Les Pécheuses de goémon."  It measures 10 7/8 by 12 3/4 inches and was painted circa 1888-1890.  It has a modest estimate of $800,000 to $1,200,000. It sold for $842.500.  Executed circa 1889-90, the work was sold at Sotheby's May 10 2001 for $830,750 when it had an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000 and was painted as one of several works for the decoration of the dining room of Marie Henry. "With its flattened forms, compressed space and decorative treatment of the waves, the present work," the catalogue then maintained, "it is heavily indebted to the art of Japan." 

Lot 9, "Paysage, homme assis (etude pur Un Dimanche d'ete a l"ile de la Grande Jatte," by Georges Seurat, oil on panel, 6 by 9 inches, 1884-5

Lot 9 is a very good small study by Georges Seurat (1859-1891) of his masterpiece, "Un Dimanche d'ete a l'ile de La Grande Jatte."  An oil on panel that measures 6 by 9 inches, it was painted in 1884-5.  It has an estimate of $1,500,000 to $2,500,000.  It sold for $2,098,500.

 

Lot 20, "Peinture (Le Chien)," by Joan Miró, oil on canvas, 25 1/2 by 32 inches, 1927

Lot 20 is a lovely painting of a dog by Joan Miró that is an oil on canvas that measures 25 1/2 by 32 inches.  It was painted in 1927 and has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000.  It sold for $2,210,500.

The catalogue provides the following commentary:

"The 'oneric' paintings foreshadowed later developments in modern painting, and they strongly influenced the color-field painters working America during the late 1940s and 1950s, including William Baziotes, Helen Frankenthaler, Adolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still.  The minimalist aspect of these dream works remains persuasive and perennially fresh today, while the bold yet ambiguous simplicity of Miró's mysterious imagery continues to intrigue viewers, in many cases having yielded up little of their teasingly enigmatic meaning over the years."

See The City Review article on the Fall 2010 Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Sotheby's

See The City Review article on the Fall 2010 Impressionist & Modern Art day auction at Sotheby's

See The City Review article on the Fall 2010 Impressionist & Modern Art day auction at Christie's

See The City Review article on the Christie's evening sale of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Art May 8, 2000
See The City Review article on the Christie's evening sale of Twentieth Century Art May 9, 2000
See The City Review article on the Sotheby's evening auction May 10, 2000 of Impressionist & Modern Art
See The City Review article on the May 11, 2000 auction at Sotheby's of Impressionist & Modern Art, Part 2
See The City Review article on the Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art Auction, Part I, Nov. 11, 1999
See The City Review article on Part Two of the Sotheby's auction November 11, 1999 of Impressionist & Modern Art
See The City Review article on the Christie's Nov. 8, 1999 evening sale of Impressionist & Post Impressionist Art
See The City Review article on the morning auction Nov. 9, 1999 of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Art at Christie's
See The City Review article on the afternoon auction Nov. 9, 1999 of Impressionist and Twentieth Century Works on Paper at Christie's
See The City Review article on the Christie's Nov. 9, 1999 evening auction of Twentieth Century Art
See The City Review article on the Christie's Nov. 10, 1999 day auction of Twentieth Century Art
See The City Review analysis of Part 1 of the Sotheby's auction May 11, 1999 of Impressionist and Modern Art
See The City Review analysis of Part 2 of the Sotheby's May 12, 1999 auction of Impressionist and Modern Art
See The City Review article on the Christie's May 12, 1999 auction of Impressionist Art and 19th Century Art
See The City Review of the Christie's May 13, 1999 auction of 20th Century and Modern Art
Recap of the Spring 1998 Impressionist and Modern Auctions

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