For the first time in France, the Musée Cantini presents, from May 18th to September 23rd , the exhibition "Courbet, Degas, Cézanne ... Realistic and impressionist masterpieces from the Burell collection" .
The works are from the Burrell Collection, an eclectic collection of art acquired over many years by Sir William Burrell (1861-1958). Sir William Burrell was an exceptional collector of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with a collection of about 8,000 pieces from all eras and from all continents. In 1944, he offered his entire collection to the city of Glasgow. While some works have sometimes been lent, none have left the UK. The exhibition gathers some sixty works from the second half of the 19th century , compared to the works of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Marseille . The greatest masters of French painting are present: Courbet , Corot , Daumier , Millet , Fantin-Latour , Daubigny , Pissaro , Boudin , Monticelli , Sisley , Degas , Manet , Cezanne ... This exceptional selection illustrates the evolution of French painting from realism to impressionism . Visitors will be able to admire the masterpieces that Sir William Burrell purchased from the Scottish art dealer, Alexandre Reid , a major figure in the dissemination of Barbizon School painting and Impressionist painting. In the late 1890s, he sold Burrell his first Degas,
The Girl Looking Through Field Glasses, and then between 1915 and 1926, most of the paintings and drawings of
the nineteenth century masters that are found in his collection.
In 1926, Sir William Burrell purchased Daumier'sLe meunier, his son anddonkey,
and Au café de Manet that the public will discover at the Cantini museum. In general, Burrell's taste went towards realism
in nineteenth-century French painting as evidenced by a beautiful
ensemble of Daumier or
A Millet's Shepherdess, artists among the most
famous of the realist school with Courbet. His collection also contains treasures from the Barbizon School.
Landscapes of Corot, Daubigny and the marines of Boudin transport us to
the heart of an era while announcing the impressionist school with
Manet, Degas and Sisley.
All these paintings bear witness to the questions of representation in the second half of the nineteenth century.
As such, the works presented by Manet, Degas and Cézanne are
masterpieces in direct connection with the twentieth century's
modernity.
Edgar Degas (1834-1917) Aux Tuileries la femme a l ombrelle Huile sur Toile 27x20 cm Glasgow The Burrell Collection
Paul Cézanne: Zola’s House at Médan, oil on canvas, 590×725 mm, c. 1880 (Glasgow, Burrell Collection); photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
Pablo Picasso,Femme dans un fauteuil, 1942, Estimate on Request
Pablo Picasso’s Femme dans un
fauteuil of 1942, will be a leading highlight of Christie’s Impressionist
and Modern Art Evening Saleon 20 June 2018. One of a major series of full-scale
portraits, painted during the war, Femme dans un fauteuil depicts Picasso’s
great muse of the period Dora Maar, the surrealist photographer and painter.
Dora brought great colour, beauty and vivacity into Picasso’s life during the difficultperiods
of the Spanish Civil War and the German occupation of Paris. Dora Maar’s presence
in Picasso’s life,from the moment they met in 1935 until the time their
relationship ended around 1945, inspired some of the greatest portraits of the
artist’s prolific career. Femme dans un fauteuil remained in the artist’s
collection until his death when it passed toJacqueline Picasso and was
eventually sold through the agency of Picasso’s dealer, Galerie Louise Leiris
in Paris.It is a painting that has been rarely exhibited having remained in the
artist’s family for many years. It was first shown in an exhibition of Jacqueline
Picasso’s collection in 1986 and has largely disappeared from public view since
that time.
The painting will be exhibited inHong Kong from 25to 28May and in London
from 15to 20June 2018 before its sale on 20 June at Christie’s King Street.
Among
the most highly worked portraits of Dora that Picasso painted during the Second
World War, Femme dans un fauteuil features the iconic distortions which
dominated his visions of his raven-haired muse and is notable for its
strikingly beautiful colours and the dynamic way in which Picasso has described the
sitter’s body. Many of the greatest depictions of Dora of the 1940s share the
vibrant colours and dynamism of the present painting and it is perhaps for this
reason that it was kept in the Picasso family for so many years.What is most
unusual about the work is that it has been so rarely exhibited.
Created in April
1942, Femme dans un fauteuil was executed whilst Picasso wasliving in occupied
Paris. Although he had received offers of sanctuary from friends in the United
States and Mexico at the outbreak of the conflict, Picasso chose to remain in
France, living a quiet life in his studio at 7 rues des Grands-Augustins.
Labelled
a ‘degenerate’ artist during the Nazi campaign against modern art, the artist’s
presence in the city did not go unnoticed by the German forces. While he was
allowed to continue to work, Picasso was forbidden from exhibiting any of his
art publicly. He remained under close and constant observation by the Gestapo, and
his studio was visited on a number of occasions, during which he was questioned
as to the whereabouts of friends and former colleagues now in hiding.
Jussi
Pylkkänen, Global President, Christie’s:
“Dora Maar is without question
Picasso’s most recognisable muse who inspired him throughout the war years in
Europe. She remained a beacon of hope, beauty and compassion during this
difficult period. We are honoured to have the opportunity tosell such a major
work by Picasso, the Mozart of the 20thCentury,
which has rarely been seen in public since its acquisition from the family many
years after the artist’s death. It is a complex and striking portrait of Dora
at her beautiful and noble best.”
Claude Monet (1840-1926), La Gare Saint-Lazare, Vue
extérieure, 1877. Oil on canvas. Estimate on request. Offered in the
Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on 20 June at Christie’s in
London
‘This superb painting describes Monet at his Impressionist best,
capturing in quick, bold brushstrokes the energy of metropolitan Paris
as described by the sound and fury of the steam trains as they left the
Gare Saint-Lazare,’ says Christie’s Global President Jussi Pylkkänen.
In the Gare Saint-Lazare series Monet depicted the station
from a variety of different positions, at different times of day and in
different atmospheric conditions — marking the first occasion on which
the artist committed himself to the pursuit of a single subject through a
sequence of variations. This would come to be one of the defining
aspects of Monet’s practice for the rest of his career. In April 1877,
Monet included several of the Gare Saint-Lazare canvases in the Third Impressionist Exhibition.
Before he executed La Gare Saint-Lazare, Vue extérieure, Monet
had been living and working in Argenteuil, just outside Paris. Based in
rural Montgeron in the summer of 1876, he returned to the capital in the
new year eager to capture the bustling urban landscape. Monet’s friend,
the artist Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), rented him a small ground-floor apartment near the station; just three months later, the series was complete.
Of the 12 Gare Saint-Lazare paintings, today only three remain in private hands. The remaining nine are in public institutions, including the Fogg Museum, Massachussetts; the Art Institute of Chicago; the National Gallery, London; the Musée Marmottan, Paris; and the Musée d’Orsay. Three of these museum works are currently included in Monet & Architecture,
a pioneering show at London’s National Gallery which examines the
central role architecture played in many of the artist’s compositions.
Kazimir Malevich’s Landscape (1911, estimate: £7,000,000-10,000,000) will be a major highlight of Christie’s
Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on 20 June 2018, part of
‘20th Century at Christie’s’, a series of auctions taking place from 15
to 21 June 2018. The monumental, square-format landscape is from ‘The
Red Series’, a group of works characterised by gestural brush strokes
and an expressive use of colour, referencing both Fauvism and Cubism,
and anticipating Malevich’s move towards Suprematism.
Landscape was first exhibited in the ‘Moscow Salon’ in February /
March 1911. It was subsequently shown the following year in St.
Petersburg as part of ‘The Union of Youth’, where Malevich represented a
radical collective known as ‘Donkey’s Tail’. In 1927, he was invited
to Germany to show his work for the first time outside Russia and
brought with him the best works of his career to date. Landscape was one
such work and remained in Berlin after Malevich returned to Russia. Due
to the rise of totalitarianism in Germany and in his home country, the
artist lost control of his works abroad before he died in 1935. Landscape resurfaced after the war and was acquired by the Kunstmuseum
Basel, where it hung for over 50 years, before being restituted to the
heirs of the artist. It is now being offered from a private collection
and represents the first time that work has come to auction in two
generations. Landscape will be exhibited in London from 15 to 20 June
2018. Landscape
is a ‘pure’ landscape painting whose motif of peasant dwellings
surrounded by stylized treetops is borrowed from Russian primitive art.
The use of colour to sculpt the forms represented recalls the techniques
employed by Cézanne, while the block-like depiction of the buildings
nods towards the Cubist compositions of Braque and Picasso. By
distilling these diverse visual references, Malevich has created a
powerful and profoundly unique work of art. He himself stated that ‘one
was obliged to move both along the line of primitive treatment of
phenomena, and along the line of Cézanne to cubism.’ The red-hot gleam
on the horizon is a direct depiction of the sun, one of the unique
features of the painting that foretells the primacy of colour that would
define Suprematism. In the early 1930s, Malevich returned to creating
‘pure’ landscapes, producing Landscape with five houses, Landscape with a
white house, and Red House, all of which are in the collection of the
State Russian Museum.
The exhibition presents a spectacular selection of eighteenth-century
Venetian art, with Canaletto's greatest works shown alongside paintings
and works on paper by Sebastiano and Marco Ricci, Francesco Zuccarelli,
Rosalba Carriera, Pietro Longhi and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. The
exhibition explores the many delights of eighteenth-century Venice, from
the splendours of the Grand Canal and St Mark's Square to its
festivals, theatre and masked carnival, bringing the irresistible allure
of the most beautiful city in the world to The Queen's Gallery.
The Royal Collection contains the world's finest group of paintings,
drawings and prints by Venice's most famous view-painter, Canaletto
(1697-1768). These works were bought by the young George III in 1762
from Canaletto's agent and dealer Joseph Smith, British Consul in
Venice, along with the rest of Smith's huge collection.
Smith first met Canaletto in the early 1720s, and quickly spotted his
potential. Their relationship developed into an unofficial partnership
of mutual benefit, and a friendship that was to last for over 40 years.
Canaletto’s paintings of Venetian views found a lucrative market
among the British Grand Tourists in Venice who wanted paintings of the
city to take back to Britain as souvenirs. Smith acted as Canaletto’s
agent, liaising between artist and patron, handling payments and
shipping works to Britain. At the same time Smith commissioned many
paintings from Canaletto for his own collection, such as the series of
12 paintings of the Grand Canal that promoted his work to the many
visitors Smith received in his palazzo.
Smith also supported Canaletto in more difficult times: in the 1740s
the War of the Austrian Succession disrupted the steady stream of
visitors to Venice, and as the artist’s workload declined, Smith
commissioned a series of monumental views of Rome and a set of overdoor
paintings. In 1746 Smith arranged for Canaletto to travel to Britain,
where he stayed for almost ten years.
By 1762, when his collection was sold to George III, Joseph Smith had
amassed the greatest collection in existence of paintings and drawings
by Canaletto.
In 1762 the young monarch George III purchased virtually the entire
collection of Joseph Smith, the greatest patron of art in Venice at the
time. Thanks to this single acquisition, the Royal Collection contains
one of the finest groups of 18th-century Venetian art in the world,
including the largest collection of works by Giovanni Antonio Canal,
better known as Canaletto.
Through over 200 paintings, drawings and prints from the Royal Collection's exceptional holdings, Canaletto & the Art of Venice presents
the work of Venice's most famous view-painter alongside that of his
contemporaries, including Sebastiano and Marco Ricci, Rosalba Carriera,
Francesco Zuccarelli, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta and Pietro Longhi, and
explores how they captured the essence and allure of Venice for their
18th-century audience, as they still do today.
Joseph Smith (c.1674−1770) was an English merchant and later
British Consul in Venice, a post dealing with Britain’s maritime,
commercial and trading interests. He had moved to Italy in around 1700
and over several decades built up an outstanding art collection, acting
as both patron and dealer to many contemporary Venetian artists. Smith
was Canaletto's principal agent, selling his paintings to the wealthy
Grand Tourists who were drawn to Venice's cultural attractions. His
palazzo on the Grand Canal became a meeting place for collectors,
patrons, scholars and tourists, where visitors could admire his vast
collection and commission their own versions of Canaletto's views to
take home.
Canaletto The Mouth of the Grand Canal looking West towards the Carità, c.1729
Canaletto - The Royal Collection RCIN 400523. Title: The Grand Canal looking east
One of the most important of Smith's commissions from Canaletto was
the series of 12 paintings of the Grand Canal, which together create a
near complete journey down the waterway. Canaletto's sharp-eyed
precision makes these views seem powerfully real, yet he rearranged and
altered elements of each composition to create ideal impressions of the
city. Two larger paintings are of festivals, including the 'Sposalizio
del Mar', or 'Wedding of the Sea', which took place on Ascension Day and
attracted crowds of British visitors. The Grand Canal was a subject
frequently captured by Canaletto, including in a series of six drawings,
among them Venice: The central stretch of the Grand Canal, c.1734.
Intended as works of art in their own right, rather than as
preparatory studies for paintings, the drawings are carefully
constructed and rich in tone and detail.
Alongside the grand public entertainments, Venice boasted a thriving
opera and theatre scene, especially during carnival season. The need to
create stage sets within a very short period of time provided plentiful
employment for Venetian artists. Both Marco Ricci and Canaletto worked
for the theatre, where they learned how to manipulate perspective to
heighten drama.
The exhibition includes several of Ricci's designs for
the Venetian stage, such as A room with a balcony supported by Atlantes, c.1726.
Marco Ricci also produced caricatures of opera singers, such as the
drawing of the internationally famed castrato Farinelli, which were
circulated among Joseph Smith and his fellow Venetian collectors and
opera aficionados.
On display together for the first time are personifications of the
Four Seasons by Rosalba Carriera, whose pastels were highly prized by
European collectors. They were intended to be hung in private domestic
spaces, such as dressing rooms, bedrooms or small antechambers.
Carriera was one of the first artists to develop a commercial
relationship with Joseph Smith, and her sensual pastel of 'Winter', c.1726, an allegorical female figure wrapped in furs, was one of the most admired works in Smith's collection.
Canaletto, Marco Ricci and Francesco Zuccarelli all contributed to
the development of the genre known as the capriccio – scenes combining
real and imaginary architecture, often set in an invented landscape, to
create poetically evocative works. The ruins of ancient Rome in both
Ricci's Caprice View with Roman Ruins, c.1729, and Zuccarelli's pastoral scene Landscape with Classical Ruins, Cattle and Figures, c.1741–2, convey a sense of the irrevocable loss of a great age.
There was a major revival in printmaking in Venice in the 18th
century, with many publishers recruiting established artists, such as
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta and Antonio Visentini, to provide designs
for their publications.
Joseph Smith was an enthusiastic print
collector and one of the major supporters of contemporary printmaking in
Venice. Smith financed and directed the Pasquali press, which
contributed to the circulation of Enlightenment ideas, such as those of
Isaac Newton, and imported banned foreign texts into Venice, including
the work of Voltaire.
Visentini was the chief draughtsman for the
press, providing many hundreds of pen and ink drawings of initials and
tailpieces, several of which will be on display in the exhibition.
Sir
Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of a bearded Venetian nobleman, bust length, Oil on
oak panel, 60 by 48 .6 cm. Estimated in the region of £3 million
Unseen on the market for 60 years, this remarkable
depiction of a Venetian Nobleman was almost certainly cherished by
the artist who kept it until his death in 1640. A cquired by the great Dutch co
llector Hans Wetzlar in the early 1950s , it has remained in the possession of his
descendants ever since . One of only a few portraits by the artist to come on
the market in recent years , it is estimated in the region of £3 million. George
Gordon, Worldwide Co - Chairman of Sotheby’s Old Master Paintings Department , said:
“ Rubens is known as the “Prince of the painters” and his legacy is far reaching.
His timeless modernity and immediacy is evident in this painting which encapsulates
several strands of his creative, emotional and intellectual life. With its
bravura brushwork which shows no hint of hesitancy, this is a portrait of a man
as real to us as he was in the artist’s mind. Almost 400 years after being
created , this is a painting that gives the viewer immense pleasure, and one
in which we can feel Rubens’ own joy in creating it. ”
The Master behind the Subject Painted
in the 1620s, at the height of Rubens’ career, the work depicts
an imposing and evidently po werful man in the prime of life fixing the
viewer
in his penetrating gaze. Although Rubens almost certainly based this
study on a
Venetian prototype, quite probably by Tintoretto, his subject is largely
the
product of his own immensely creative imagination . Far away from
Tintoretto’s
portrayals of men who almost seem to be wilfully obscure, the work is
testament
to Rubens’ idea of a forceful Italian nobleman, a Renaissance man who is
accustomed to power and leadership. As in his best pictures , the
Flemish Master has imbued this portrait with much of his own
personality. While not a self
- portrait, it is a study of a man in whom Rubens recognises himself –
another successful
man of his own times, and perhaps too, like Rubens, something of a
polymath. Rubens’ Fascination for Italy Painter,
designer , print - maker, sculptor,
architect , diplomat, peace - treaty broker, at the helm of the largest
studio
of his time, Rubens was the first great artist - collector in Northern
Europe
and the fact that he almost certainly owned the present portrait until
his death is testament to its importance. This work also reflects
Rubens’ love of
Italy, which once discovered, remained an essential part of his artistic
and
cultural influence. During his eight years in Italy, be tween 1600 and
1608,
the artist, then in his twenties, worked for important patrons,
including the Duke
of Mantua. In Venice he found inspiration in the work of his
predecessors Titian,
Veronese and Tintoretto. In Rome, the art of classical Antiquity made a
great impression
on him. He studied it avid ly, creating a number of drawings, which he
would
regularly go back to later in his career. In Rome, he also experienced
the direct
influence of his contemporary, Caravaggio. However closely he is
identified
with Flemish art, Rubens never ceased to be in part an Italian artist,
as this
exceptional portrait shows us. Works from the collection
of Baron Willem van Dedem
This
summer, Sotheby’s will offer for sale a selection of works from the collection
of esteemed connoisseur and benefactor, the late Baron Willem van Dedem
(1929–2015), as part of its flagship Old Master sales (4–5 July). A testament
to Baron van Dedem’s exceptional taste and eye for quality, the group of works
to be offered features outstanding examples by leading Dutch and Flemish
masters, including Balthasar van der Ast, Jacobus Vrel, Peter Paul Rubens and
the brothers Jan Brueghel the Elder and Pieter Brueghel the Younger.
A successful businessman and a philanthropist,
Baron van Dedem was a passionate collector and connoisseur of Dutch and Flemish
Old Master painting. Visiting the Delft art fair for the first time in 1957, he
made his first artistic purchase six years later, eventually assembling what would
become one of the finest private collections of Dutch and Flemish 17th Century
paintings in Europe of his time. Refined and improved over many years, the
collection encompassed all the specialisms of Dutch and Flemish art, including
history and genre painting, portraiture, still life, landscape and seascapes,
offering a comprehensive overview of paintings from the Golden Age.
Baron Frits
van Dedem, the son of Willem van Dedem said,
“ Since none of the family-members
have the same intense passion and knowledge of collecting Old Masters, we trust
the sale of these works will provide a chance for other discerning collectors
to acquire beautiful works of art they will love and enjoy as much as our
father did. At the same time we look forward to a vigorously competitive
auction such as the ones in which he participated with great success and
excitement! ”
George Gordon, Sotheby’s Co-Chairman of Old Master Paintings
Worldwide , said
“ This exceptional selection of works stands as a fitting
testament to Willem van Dedem’s discernment as a collector. Though he was
constantly surrounded by people from whom he could easily have relied on for
advice, he was a man who determinedly followed his own path, always trusting his
own eye and instincts when it came to making purchases — his choices based on a
deep understanding of how artists in the Dutch and Flemish 17th Century thought
and saw. ”
As President of the Board of The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) at
Maastricht from 1997 until his death in 2015, Baron van Dedem played an active
role in the art world and was well known as a generous benefactor. Committed to
strengthening the holdings of Dutch public collections, he donated and
bequeathed numerous masterpieces to major national institutions, namely the
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and The National Gallery in London, in order to share
his passion for 16th and 17th century painting as widely as possible.
Works by
David Teniers the Younger, Jan van Kessel the Elder and Adriaen Coorte gifted
by the Baron to The National Gallery in London were recently put on public
display. The Mauritshuis in The Hague earlier received a significant gift of
paintings from Baron van Dedem, including still lifes by Pieter Claesz and
Willem Kalf, landscapes by Frans Post and Salomon van Ruysdael, and a scene of dancing
peasants by Roelant Savery.
Emilie Gordenker, Director of The Mauritshuis ,
commented on his generous gift, “ This donation is one of the most significant
ever made to the Mauritshuis. Every one of the five paintings is a masterpiece
and an excellent addition to the museum’s collection. ” Johnny Van Haeften, Art
Dealer , said
“ Working with Willem van Dedem was always a pleasure and a joy.
His infectious enthusiasm and curiosity about his paintings, those that he
wished to acquire, and those that were already in other private or public
collections was a real outpouring of genuine passion. He could not get enough
of Dutch and Flemish paintings, whether they be on display elsewhere, or
generously sharing his collection with groups of collectors or museum curators
from around the world. It gave him enormous pleasure to discuss Dutch and
Flemish art in general and he was a collector of the old school: faultlessly
charming, courteous and diligent, he was a connoisseur collector of the highest
calibre.”
Emanuel de Witte Interior of a gothic protestant church
oil on oak panel, uncradled
£60,000-80,000
Gerard Terborch Portrait of a man
oil on oak panel
£80,000-120,000
Jan van de Velde III Still life with oysters and smoking supplies
oil on oak panel
£30,000-40,000
Lucas van Valckenborch An expansive landscape with a river valley and a rushing mountain stream
oil on beech panel
£200,000-300,000
Jan van Kessel II Flowers in a basket on a partly draped table
oil on oak panel, single plank, uncradled
£120,000-180,000
Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrick van Balen Diana and her nymphs after the hunt oil on oak panel
£600,000-800,000
Balthasar van der Ast Flower still life in a glass beaker on a stone ledge oil on copper
£600,000-800,000
Jacobus Vrel A cobbled street in a town with people conversing oil on oak panel
£300,000-400,000
Pieter Brueghel the Younger Christ with the Woman Taken in Adultery oil on oak panel
£300,000-400,000
Jan van Kessel and Gonzales Coques Still life with flowers and Portrait of a man oil on copper
£70,000-100,000
H. Van Steenwijk the Younger A palatial interior with a couple
oil on copper
£15,000-20,000
Andries van Eertvelt A four-masted ship flying the flag of Zeeland, another vessel beyond oil on oak panel
£60,000-80,000
Jan de Beijer Amsterdam, the Nieuwe Kerk and the back of the Town Hall seen from the
Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal oil on panel
£10,000-15,000
Pieter Coecke van Aelst the Elder A triptych: the Adoration of the Magi oil on oak panel
£200,000-300,000
Gerrit Berckheyde The Hague: view of the plaats and the buitenhof oil on canvas
£300,000-400,000
Rembrandt The Goldweighers Field etching and drypoint
£30,000-50,000
Peter Paul Rubens Christ on the Cross oil sketch on oak panel
£600,000-800,000
Clara Peeters Still life with flowers in a glass vase
oil on copper
£250,000-350,000
Jacob Adriaensz. Backer A kneeling woman
black and white chalk, grey wash, on grey-blue paper
£12,000-18,000
Hans Bol Summer and winter (pair)
a pair, both gouache heightened with gold, on vellum laid on panel
£50,000-70,000
18th Century follower of Jan van der Heyden A Cappriccio view of the Oude Delft and the Gemeenlandshuis oil on oak panel
£10,000-15,000
A
selection of highlights from the sale will travel the world ahead of the sale
in London on 4–5 July. Amsterdam: 2 – 3 May 2018 New York: 19 – 21 May 2018 Hong
Kong: 25 – 28 May 2018 London: 30 June – 4 July 2018
Sotheby’s
spring auction of American Art will be held in New York on 23 May 2018. Led by 13worksby
Norman Rockwell from all periods of the artist’s decades-long career, the sale
features 120+ lots that are together estimated at more than $40million. The
auction also includes exceptional example by Frederic Edwin Church, N.C. Wyeth,
Milton Avery, Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran– many of which are from distinguished
private collections and are coming to auction for the very first time.
NORMAN
ROCKWELL: AMERICA’S FAVORITE STORYTELLER
Leading
the selection of works by Norman Rockwell is Blacksmith’s Boy –Heel and Toe (Shaftsbury
Blacksmith Shop), sold to benefit the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts
(below, estimate $7/10 million). Commissioned for a 1940 The Saturday Evening
Post story by Edward W. O’Brien, this monumental painting– measuring nearly six
feet across –illustrates a horseshoe-forging contest, which O’Brien captured from
the point of view of the local blacksmith’s son: “I’ll never forget that last
hour. And never, I imagine, will any of those who watched. Both men were lost
to everything now but the swing from the forge to the anvil, the heels to be
turned and the toes to be welded.”
The drama of the competition is palpable as
the two men captivate the growing crowd with their strength and skill. Working
from photography and his own imagination, Rockwell exactingly depicts 23
figures in this impressive composition, including a self-portrait and two
different representations of one of his favorite models, Harvey McKee –the undersheriff
of the town of Arlington, Vermont.
Another exceptional example by Norman
Rockwell is The Little Model from 1919(estimate $1/1.5 million). A
gift from the artist to his aunt that has remained in the family collection for
nearly a century, the work was completed for the 29 March 1919 cover of Collier’s,
making it one of Rockwell’s earliest images executed on commission for a
prominent American publication. Rendered in the artist’s early style and
technique, The Little Model brilliantly captures a young girl’s wistfulness and
longing to transform into a beautiful adult, a detail highlighted when it
appeared on Antiques Road Show in 2011.
Rockwell’s Boy Playing Flute Surrounded by
Animals (Springtime) is another major highlight of the auction, carrying an
estimate of $1.5/2.5 million. Appearing on the 16 April 1927 cover
of The Saturday Evening Post, the painting captures the artist’s pivotal
transition from his early aesthetic to his most iconic style; the white
background evokes his earlier vignette-style format while the near-photographic
likeness of the animated animals dancing around the young boy’s feet foreshadows
his mature works. Spirited and cheerful, the painting comes to auction for the
first time from the collection of Jack and Bonita Granville Wrather – he the
producer of television series such as The Lone Ranger and Lassie, she the Hollywood
actress who brought Nancy Drew to life.
Nearly forty years after the completion
of Springtime comes Little Girl Looking Downstairs at Christmas Party, one of
Rockwell’s most recognizable images. Painted for the cover of
the December 1964 issue of McCall’s, the work depicts a forlorn young girl
looking from the top of the stairs at the merry cocktail party taking place downstairs
that she cannot join. A gift from the artist and being offered for the first
time, this beloved image will be presented with a pre-sale estimate of $1/1.5
million.
AN EXQUISITE PORTRAIT BY N.C. WYETH
Also appearing at auction for the
very first time is N.C. Wyeth’s Portrait of a Farmer (Pennsylvania Farmer) from
1943, which was formerly in the collection of the artist’s wife. Wyeth created
this striking portrait by synthesizing his memories and experiences of his
Pennsylvania home: the architectural elements are common to the Chadds Ford area,while
the subject is based upon a local farmer whom Wyeth encountered carrying a pig
under his arm.The artist discussed Portrait of a Farmer in a 21 January 1943
letter to his daughter Henriette, writing: “In spite of all, my present large
panel of the squealing pig is vastly superior to anything to date.” In keeping
with the true quality of this work, the painting will be offered this May with
an estimate of $2.5/3.5 million.
LUMINOUS LANDSCAPES FROM LEADERS OF THE HUDSON
VALLEY SCHOOL: FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH, ALBERT BIERSTADT & THOMAS MORAN
Also sold
to benefit the Berkshire Museum is Frederic Edwin Church’s Valley of Santa Isabel,
New Granada (estimate $5/7 million). One of the finest panoramic landscapes of
his oeuvre, this rare and extraordinary painting showcases Church’s incredible
attention to naturalistic detail, romantic sentiment and unmatched ability to capture
light. Completed in 1875 after he achieved broad critical and popular success
with works such as
Heart of the Andes
and The Icebergs,
held by the Metropolitan
Museum of Art and the Dallas Museum of Art respectively, the work is one of
Church’s final paintings.
Albert Bierstadt, another master of the Hudson Valley
School, is represented this season with a
View of Nassau, The Bahamas (estimate $700/1,000,000). One of a small series of works inspired by his
visits to this tropical paradise– a location also frequented by American artists including
Louis Comfort Tiffany and Winslow Homer– in the mid-1870s and through the early
1890s, the work is distinguished by its impressive scale, vivid hues, saturated
sunlight and attention to architectural detail.
A Showery Day, Grand Canyon by Thomas
Moran is another significant landscape by a major 19thcentury artist presented
in the May sale. The painting depicts the terracotta peaks of the canyon
shrouded in silvery clouds, capturing the majesty of one of the Unites States’
greatest natural treasures. Offered by a private American collection with a pre-sale
estimate of $800/1.2 million, the work last appeared at auction nearly twenty
years ago at Sotheby’s New York.
MILTON AVERY’S MODERN MASTERPIECE
American modernism
is highlighted by
Milton Avery’s spectacular The Seamstress (estimate $2/3
million). The vibrant work from 1944 captures the artist’s embrace of color as
his primary expression of emotion. Last offered at auction in 1998, the
painting belongs to a group of 17 works from The Collection of Patrick &
Carlyn Duffy– Patrick Duffy who unforgettably portrayed Bobby Ewingon the hit
show Dallas 40 years ago. Lovingly curated by the couple over 45 years, the
works from their collection will be offered at Sotheby’s over three auctions this
May and October, the last of which will be led by
Andrew Wyeth’s1964 watercolor The
Bachelor.
REALIST RENDERINGS BY EDWARD HOPPER FROM THE COLLECTION OF STEVE
MARTIN
American realism is represented by two Edward Hopper drawings from the
collection of Steve Martin.
Study for ‘A Woman in the Sun’, a charcoal drawing
executed in 1961, was the foundation for
the painting of the same name in the
collection of The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Estimated at $150/250,000,
the work was purchased in 2005 along with
Study for Summer Evening’, another
preparatory study for
a major oil painting of the same title, which carries an
estimate of $200/300,000.
POSTCARDS
FROM THE WEST: WESTERN WORKS BY CHARLES MARION RUSSELL & FREDERIC REMINGTON
The
Western Art offerings this season are highlighted by works by Charles Marion
Russell, Frederic Remington and Olaf Carl Seltzer from the Jack and Bonita Granville
Wrather Collection.
Russell’s
When Guns were the Locks of the Treasure Box is a spectacular watercolor,
gouache and pencil on paper that conveys the sense of excitement and adventure
that the American West inspired (estimate $150/250,000).
Frederic
Remington’s Western Stage Managers is also a noteworthy addition from the
Wrather Collection. A striking scene with a pre-sale estimate of $60/80,000,
this work has been exhibited extensively across the Midwest, including the
Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
![Image result for [[["xjs.sav.en_US.-bLukczzFgg.O",5]],[["id","type","created_timestamp","last_modified_timestamp","signed_redirect_url","dominant_color_rgb","tag_info","url","title","comment","snippet","image","thumbnail","num_ratings","avg_rating","page","job"]],[["dt_fav_images"]],10000]](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/54/cd/55/54cd55e338bb436549f03f7335c04940.jpg)
![Image result for [[["xjs.sav.en_US.-bLukczzFgg.O",5]],[["id","type","created_timestamp","last_modified_timestamp","signed_redirect_url","dominant_color_rgb","tag_info","url","title","comment","snippet","image","thumbnail","num_ratings","avg_rating","page","job"]],[["dt_fav_images"]],10000]](http://www.artnet.com/WebServices/images/ll00054lldn4tEFgVeECfDrCWvaHBOccAUVERScc/pablo-picasso-femme-dans-un-fauteuil.jpg)
.jpg)
