Christie's New York
7 P.M., May 1, 2012
Sale 2554
Brooke Lampley, the head of the Impressionist & Modern Art Department at Christie's, in front of Lot 5, "Joueur de cartes," by Paul Cézanne, watercolor on laid paper, 18 1/4 by 12 inches, 1892-6
By Carter B. Horsley
Lot 16, "L'arete rouge transperce les plumes bleues de l'oiseau au pale bec," by Joan Miró, oil on canvas, 18 by 14 3/4 inches, 1951
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The May 1, 2012 Impressionist
and Modern Art evening auction at Christie's New York has 32
lots, the smallest number in recent years but one that was
welcomed by
many observers exhausted by recent lengthy auctions.
If the auction is "tight," it is also filled with many very fine works including Lot 5, "Joueur de cartes," by Paul Cézanne (1839-1906). It is one of seven watercolor studies for the artist's very famous series known as "The Card Players." There are five versions of the oil painting and the auction's catalogue remarks that the series has "long been recognized as being among the most important and very finest works he ever created," adding that "they have furthermore been counted among the greatest art works in the Western canon."
Nancy Ireson and Barnaby Wright, the curators of the Cézanne's Card Players exhibition organized by The Courtauld Gallery, London, in 2010, speak securely for the modern consensus when they state:
"The group has a distintcive place within Cézanne's oeuvre. The Card Player paintings are his only significant engagement with what would conventionally be called a genre subject His considerable involvement in this theme, combined with the fact that two of the canvases are among the largest he ever painted, suggest that he considered the project to be a major artistic statement. In this regard, the Card Players are compared to his Bathers series from the same decade....This series has often been celebrated as being at the pinnacle of his achievements....Just as importantly, the paintings have long played a role in shaping Cezanne's posthumous reputation....Less than two decades after the painter's death, the works had become iconic."
Of the five oil paintings, only one remains in private hands, the catalogue noted, adding that "Seven drawings and watercolors are known to exist - three of them are in private ollections. Among these works on paper is thepresent Jouer de cartes, whose offering in this sale catalogue is the next noteworthy chapter in what has became a remarkable and propitious sequence of Cézanne Card Players events that have taken place since the opening of the Courtauld Gallery exhibition in Octoer 2010. This impressive watercolor, a key work among the studies, has been in the collection of the same family for seventy years, and has not been seen in a public exhibition since 1953."
At the auction's press preview, Brooke Lampley, the head of the Impressionist & Modern Art Department at Christie's siad that the watercolor is "truly outstanding" with its vivid colors and amazing condition." It measures 18 1/4 by 12 inches and was executed between 1892 and1896. It has an estimate of $15,000,000 to $20,000,000. It sold for $19,122,500 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article.
It is property of the Dr. Heinz F. Eichenwald Collection that got it by descent from Mr. and Mrs. Ernst Eichenwald of Berlin and New York.
The sale was successful with 28 of the 31 offered lots selling for $117,086,00. The pre-sale high estimate was about $135 million. One lot was withdrawn, 22, a large bronze head of Diego, the brother of the sculptor Alberto Giacometti. It had an estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000. At the news conference after the auction, Ms. Lampley said that Christie's was "thrilled with the results."
Lot 6 is another Cézanne from the same collection. It is entitled "L'amour en Platre" and is an oil on canvas that measures 22 1/2 by 9 3/4 inches and was painted in 1894-5. It has a modest estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $1,538,500. It is a study for a painting in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and is featured in no fewer than five oils, five watercolors and eleven drawings by Cézanne. The plump statuette is still preserved in his last studio in Les Lauves.
If the auction is "tight," it is also filled with many very fine works including Lot 5, "Joueur de cartes," by Paul Cézanne (1839-1906). It is one of seven watercolor studies for the artist's very famous series known as "The Card Players." There are five versions of the oil painting and the auction's catalogue remarks that the series has "long been recognized as being among the most important and very finest works he ever created," adding that "they have furthermore been counted among the greatest art works in the Western canon."
Nancy Ireson and Barnaby Wright, the curators of the Cézanne's Card Players exhibition organized by The Courtauld Gallery, London, in 2010, speak securely for the modern consensus when they state:
"The group has a distintcive place within Cézanne's oeuvre. The Card Player paintings are his only significant engagement with what would conventionally be called a genre subject His considerable involvement in this theme, combined with the fact that two of the canvases are among the largest he ever painted, suggest that he considered the project to be a major artistic statement. In this regard, the Card Players are compared to his Bathers series from the same decade....This series has often been celebrated as being at the pinnacle of his achievements....Just as importantly, the paintings have long played a role in shaping Cezanne's posthumous reputation....Less than two decades after the painter's death, the works had become iconic."
Of the five oil paintings, only one remains in private hands, the catalogue noted, adding that "Seven drawings and watercolors are known to exist - three of them are in private ollections. Among these works on paper is thepresent Jouer de cartes, whose offering in this sale catalogue is the next noteworthy chapter in what has became a remarkable and propitious sequence of Cézanne Card Players events that have taken place since the opening of the Courtauld Gallery exhibition in Octoer 2010. This impressive watercolor, a key work among the studies, has been in the collection of the same family for seventy years, and has not been seen in a public exhibition since 1953."
At the auction's press preview, Brooke Lampley, the head of the Impressionist & Modern Art Department at Christie's siad that the watercolor is "truly outstanding" with its vivid colors and amazing condition." It measures 18 1/4 by 12 inches and was executed between 1892 and1896. It has an estimate of $15,000,000 to $20,000,000. It sold for $19,122,500 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article.
It is property of the Dr. Heinz F. Eichenwald Collection that got it by descent from Mr. and Mrs. Ernst Eichenwald of Berlin and New York.
The sale was successful with 28 of the 31 offered lots selling for $117,086,00. The pre-sale high estimate was about $135 million. One lot was withdrawn, 22, a large bronze head of Diego, the brother of the sculptor Alberto Giacometti. It had an estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000. At the news conference after the auction, Ms. Lampley said that Christie's was "thrilled with the results."
Lot 6 is another Cézanne from the same collection. It is entitled "L'amour en Platre" and is an oil on canvas that measures 22 1/2 by 9 3/4 inches and was painted in 1894-5. It has a modest estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $1,538,500. It is a study for a painting in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and is featured in no fewer than five oils, five watercolors and eleven drawings by Cézanne. The plump statuette is still preserved in his last studio in Les Lauves.
Lot 16, "L'arete rouge transperce les plumes bleues de l'oiseau au pale bec," by Joan Miró, oil on canvas, 18 by 14 3/4 inches, 1951
One
of the auction's finest works is Lot 16, "L'arete rouge transperce les
plumes bleues de l'oiseau au pale bec (The red fishbone pierces the
blue feathers of the bird with a pale beak)," by Joan Miró (1893-1983).
An oil on canvas, it measures 18 by 14 3/4 inches and was
painted in 1951. It once belonged to Mark Goodson.
The catalogue notes that Miró
was quite taken with titles and provides the following quotation by the
artist:
"When I give it a title, it becomes even more alive I find my titles in the process of working, as one thing leads to another on my canvas When I have found the title, I live in its atmosphere. The title then becomes completely real for me, in the same way that a model, a reclining woman, for example can become real for another painter. For me, the title is a very precise reality."
The catalogue entry notes that for Miró the title was a musical poem: "the artist's language recalls the synaesthetic. scented Symbolist verse of Verlaine, Laforgue, Mallarme and Rimbaud, tinged moreover with a suggestion of violence...that one may associate with the convulsive imagery of surrealist poetry."
"Miró has suffused this otherworldly environment with an exquisite rosy pink aura, againsgt which he flashes of primary and binery color - yellow, red and green - radiate with heightened intensity," the entry continued.
It has an estimate of $4,500,000 to $6,500,000. It sold for $4,338,500. The very thin pink outline around the central black subject is especially effective and Conor Jordan, deputy chairman of Christie's Department of Impressionist and Modern Art, said in an interview that it was painted first and the black was pushed to the edges.
The cover illustration of the auction's catalogue is Lot 13, "Les Pivoines," by Henri Matisse (1869-1954), an ravishing oil on canvas that measures 25 1/2 by 21 1/4 inches and was painted in 1907.
It has a modest estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000. It sold for $19,122,500 to a European private collector.
Lot 3, "Le Repos (Marie-Thérèse Walter)," by Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas, 10 1/4 by 18 1/4 inches, 1932
"When I give it a title, it becomes even more alive I find my titles in the process of working, as one thing leads to another on my canvas When I have found the title, I live in its atmosphere. The title then becomes completely real for me, in the same way that a model, a reclining woman, for example can become real for another painter. For me, the title is a very precise reality."
The catalogue entry notes that for Miró the title was a musical poem: "the artist's language recalls the synaesthetic. scented Symbolist verse of Verlaine, Laforgue, Mallarme and Rimbaud, tinged moreover with a suggestion of violence...that one may associate with the convulsive imagery of surrealist poetry."
"Miró has suffused this otherworldly environment with an exquisite rosy pink aura, againsgt which he flashes of primary and binery color - yellow, red and green - radiate with heightened intensity," the entry continued.
It has an estimate of $4,500,000 to $6,500,000. It sold for $4,338,500. The very thin pink outline around the central black subject is especially effective and Conor Jordan, deputy chairman of Christie's Department of Impressionist and Modern Art, said in an interview that it was painted first and the black was pushed to the edges.
Lot
13, "Les Pivoines," by Henri Matisse, oil on canvas, 25 1/2 by 21 1/4
inches, 1907
The cover illustration of the auction's catalogue is Lot 13, "Les Pivoines," by Henri Matisse (1869-1954), an ravishing oil on canvas that measures 25 1/2 by 21 1/4 inches and was painted in 1907.
It has a modest estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000. It sold for $19,122,500 to a European private collector.
Lot 3, "Le Repos (Marie-Thérèse Walter)," by Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas, 10 1/4 by 18 1/4 inches, 1932
The most
beautiful painting in the auction is Lot 3, "Le Repos (Marie-Thérèse
Walter)," by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), an oil on canvas from 1932 that
measures 10 1/4 by 18 1/4 inches. It was sold at Christie's
November 6, 2002 for $3,089,500 when it had an estimate of $2,500,000
to $3,500,000. This time it has an estimate of $5,000,000 to
$7,000,000 and is the backcover illustration of the catalogue.
It sold for
$9,882,500 to an American private collector.
The catalogue notes that "Of all of these outstanding portraits, Le Repos, with its innovative landscape composition is among the most intimate. A fluid and deeply personal work, the simple lines and fields of color translate the great tranquility of her sleep. Marie-Thérèse was not merely a model but a true inspiration and the portraits Picasso painted of her during the spring of 1932 are visual declarations of his love The splendor of these paintings was most recently heralded again in the acclaimed Gagosian Gallery exhibition Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L'Amour Fou, which focused on the relationship between the two lovers and the incredible string of works elicited by their raptuours affair....It is exclusively a lover's view, seen with a lover's proximity. The face fills the composition, creating an intense impression of the intimacy between artist and sitter: it reads as a pillow-side view of Marie-Thérèse with her features so near and all context absent other than a portion of the surface where her head rests."
Lot 20, "Femme dans l'atelier," by Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas, 28 1/4 by 36 1/4 inches, 1956
Lot 32, "Two Piece Sculpture," by Henry Moore, polished bronze, 37 inches long, 1966, numbered 3/9
Detail of Lot
29 showing two words separated by a line in center of pastelThe catalogue notes that "Of all of these outstanding portraits, Le Repos, with its innovative landscape composition is among the most intimate. A fluid and deeply personal work, the simple lines and fields of color translate the great tranquility of her sleep. Marie-Thérèse was not merely a model but a true inspiration and the portraits Picasso painted of her during the spring of 1932 are visual declarations of his love The splendor of these paintings was most recently heralded again in the acclaimed Gagosian Gallery exhibition Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L'Amour Fou, which focused on the relationship between the two lovers and the incredible string of works elicited by their raptuours affair....It is exclusively a lover's view, seen with a lover's proximity. The face fills the composition, creating an intense impression of the intimacy between artist and sitter: it reads as a pillow-side view of Marie-Thérèse with her features so near and all context absent other than a portion of the surface where her head rests."
Lot 20, "Femme dans l'atelier," by Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas, 28 1/4 by 36 1/4 inches, 1956
Another simple
and lyrical Picasso is Lot 20, "Femme dans l'atelier," an oil on canvas
that measures 28 1/4 by 36 1/4 inches. It was
painted in 1956. It has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $5,000,000.
It sold for $4,114,500 to an
American dealer. The woman depicted is the
artist's lover,
Jacqueline Roque, looking a painting of La Californie, a villa they
shared overlooking Cannes and the Mediterranean.
Lot 23, "Mousequetaire et nu assis," by Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas, 39 1/4 by 31 3/4 inches, 1967
Lot 23, "Mousequetaire et nu assis," by Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas, 39 1/4 by 31 3/4 inches, 1967
Lot 23 is a
lively "Mousequetaire et nu assis" by Picasso. A 1967 oil on
canvas, it measures 39 1/4 by 31 3/4 inches. It has an
estimate of $5,000,000 to $8,000,000. It sold for $4,226,500 to an
American dealer. The catalogue entry
includes a quotation from D. Hart's 2000 exhibition catalogue of
"Picasso Mousequeteros: the Late Works, 1962-1972" at the Gagosian
Gallery in New York: "Behind the screen of droping swords, avidly
smoked pipes, tipily riased glasses, fondled nudes, and other
sublimations of impotency - drinking, smoking, making music, and
canoodling - they represent a fictional universe Picasso developed to
exppore his credo: Life not Death, Peace not War.'"
Lot 17, "Deux nus couché," by Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas, 76 3/4 by 51 1/4 inches, 1968
Lot 17, "Deux nus couché," by Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas, 76 3/4 by 51 1/4 inches, 1968
Lot 17 is a very large oil on
canvas of two nudes by Pablo Picasso. Painted in 1968, it
measures 76 3/4 by 51 1/4 inches. It has an estimate of
$8,000,000 to $12,000,000. It
sold for $8,818,500 to a foreign dealer.
Lot 29, "Portrait du peintre Rouveyre," by Amedeo Modigliani, oil on canvas 25 1/4 by 16 1/4 inches, 1915
Lot 11, "Les Demoiselles de Giverny," by Claude Monet, oil on canvas, 25 1/2 by 39 1/4 inches, 1894
Brooke
Lampley of Christie's disussing "Buste de Diego" by Alberto Giacometti
at press previewLot 29, "Portrait du peintre Rouveyre," by Amedeo Modigliani, oil on canvas 25 1/4 by 16 1/4 inches, 1915
Lot 29 is a very
strong and fine portrait of André Rouveyre, a painter, by Amedeo
Modigliani (1884-1920). An oil on canvas, it measures 25 1/4
by 16 1/4 inches and was painted in 1915. The sitter was
"well-known in Modigliani's circle as a fierce parodist of upper crust
social manners, in both satirical writings and witty
caricatures," according to the catalogue, and he was also painted by
Matisse.with whom he exhanged some twelve hundred letters.
The catalogue notes that the first owner of the painter was
Paul Guillaume, a tireless promoter of African and Oceanic art in
Paris, as well as one of the most prominent dealers in modern
art duing the first World War. The painting has a
very modest estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000, reflecting the fact
that the market prefers his portraits of women. according to Mr. Jordan. It sold for $2,770,500.
Lot 11, "Les Demoiselles de Giverny," by Claude Monet, oil on canvas, 25 1/2 by 39 1/4 inches, 1894
In 1894, Claude
Monet (1840-1926) decided to return to painting the haystacks near his
property in Giverny, France. A series of such paintings he
did in 1890 had met with great success and in 1894 he did three more.
This large oil, which measures 25 1/2 by 39 1/4 inches, was
titled "Les Demoiselles de Giverny," and Mr. Jordan remarked that the
artist felt the haystacks were "dancing." The lot has an
estimate of $9,000,000 to $12,000,000. It sold for $9.602,500
to an American collector.
Lot 22, "Buste
de Diego," by Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) is an impressive, 24-inch
high bronze portrait of the artist's brother, Diego. It was
conceived in 1957 and cast the next year and is number 6/6.
It has an estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000. The lot was withdrawn at the
consignor's request.
Lot 32, "Two Piece Sculpture," by Henry Moore, polished bronze, 37 inches long, 1966, numbered 3/9
Lot 32 is a
superb polished bronze sculpture in two parts by Henry Moore
(1898-1986). It is 37 inches long and was created in 1966.
It has a modest estimate of $700,000 to $900,000.
It sold for
$772,500.
This work is number 3 of an edition of 9 and one
of the other
casts is in the Tate Gallery in London.
Lot 29, "Petites Bretonnes devant la mer (II)," by Paul Gauguin, pastel on board, 29 1/8 by 20 inches, 1889
Lot 29, "Petites Bretonnes devant la mer (II)," by Paul Gauguin, pastel on board, 29 1/8 by 20 inches, 1889
Lot 29 is a very
nice pastel of two small Breton girls by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903).
It measures 29 1/8 by 20 inches and was executed in 1889.
It has a conservative estimate of $1,500,000 to $2,500,000. It sold for $2,770,500.
A more vibrant
and larger oil painting depicting the same girls in similar poses is in
the collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Matsukata
Collection, in Tokyo.
Jussi Pylkkanen
Jussi Pylkkanen
The
auction was conducted by Jussi Pylkkanen, the president of Christie's
in Europe, who elicited bids with patience and grace. On
several
lots in the middle of the auction, Mr. Pylkkanen refused to take bid
increments of just $100,000 when the bids were already in the seven
figures, although toward the very end he relented and permitted a
couple of such minor increments on lesser lots. His firmness
in
refusing the "half bids" was praiseworthy as they unnecessarily prolong
the bidding process and everyone in the auction room knows the bidding
increment formulas.
Ms. Lampley said that Christopher Burge, the honorary chairman, Americas, of Christie's and its long-time, famous auctioneer will be back in the rostrum next week at the Contemporary Art evening auction.