CHRISTIE'S NOVEMBER 3 2010
RARE GROUP OF SEURAT STUDIES AND DRAWINGS FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION TO HIGHLIGHT EVENING SALE IN NEW YORK
As a highlight of its Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale
on November 3, 2010 Christie's offered a superb group of early
works by Georges Seurat (1859-1891), including a study in oil for his
most famous painting, Un dimanche d’été à l'Île de la Grande Jatte,
now in the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago. The study,
along with four rare early drawings that demonstrate Seurat's
considerable skill as a draughtsman, is from a
distinguished French collection. Acquired over the course of a dozen
years between 1988 and 2001, the group is expected to achieve a combined
total in excess of $4 million.
“The appearance of such a sizable group of Seurat works on the market is a rare event,” said Conor Jordan, Head of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie's New York.
“Seurat
died tragically young at just 31 years old, leaving us with only a
small output of works that have become highly sought-after by collectors
and institutions worldwide. This group of drawings and studies offers
an exciting glimpse into Seurat's considerable genius, showing us how he
explored composition, light and shadow, and the optical qualities of
pure color.”
The highlight of the group was
Paysage, homme assis (estimate:
$1,500,000-2,500,000), an oil on panel executed around 1884 as a
preparatory study for Seurat’s greatest masterpiece, the monumental
Un dimanche d’été à l'Île de la Grande Jatte. This
small study belongs to a crucial group of oil sketches Seurat created
on the site of La Grande Jatte in 1884 to help him work through the
challenges of his final composition. With nearly all the figures save
for the seated man at the left of the study removed from the scene,
Seurat employed his trademark Divisionist technique to frame his view of
the park on the banks of the Seine, juxtaposing touches of pure color
directly onto the surface of the panel. The result is an exceptional
jewel-like landscape that stands on it own merits, while at the same
offering a tantalizing glimpse into the development of Seurat’s greatest
masterpiece.
Drawings often serve as the best insight into any given artist’s
working methods, and the group of four early drawings included in this
private collection beautifully illustrates Seurat’s increasingly refined
approach to pictorial composition. For three years while Seurat was
enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the young artist
concentrated on creating vigorous life-sketches of people he saw in the
street.
Among the earliest examples of these figure drawings is
Le Peintre à la palette from
circa
1881 (pictured above; estimate: $80,000-120,000). Believed to be
either a self-portrait or a study of his fellow artist Charles Angrand,
the drawing reveals Seurat’s early system of using parallel strokes to
model shapes and cross-hatching lines to render light and contrast.
Later the same year, Seurat completed the little Conté crayon drawing
Femme s’éloignant
(pictured above, middle left; estimate: $100,000-150,000), which marks
the artist’s first foray into what would become a larger series of
drawings depicting enigmatic female figures. Both works were first
owned by Seurat’s contemporary and colleague Paul Signac before passing
into private hands. The upcoming sale marks the first time that either
work has appeared at auction.
Seurat’s mature drawing technique is evident in two exceptional works
created with only a black Conté crayon on Michallet, Seurat’s favorite
brand of drawing paper. A luminous depiction of an elegantly dressed
Parisienne,
La Promenade from
circa 1882 (pictured
previous page, middle right; estimate: $1,500,000-2,500,000) is a marvel
of chiaroscuro technique that demonstrates Seurat’s absolute
understanding of the subtleties of light and shade. For
La Promenade and the later work
Faneur (Casseur de pierres) from
circa
1883 (pictured previous page, right; estimate: $800,000-1,200,000),
Seurat took advantage of the natural grain of the paper and the varied
intensity of his marks to create the full range of tones from velvety
black to purest white, making it appear as though light is emanating
from the paper itself. Widely recognized as one of the artist’s finest
drawings,
La Promenade was unveiled to the public for the first
time at Seurat’s important monographic exhibition at Galerie
Bernheim-Jeune in Paris in 1920, and was more recently featured in the
2007/2008 exhibition “Georges Seurat: The Drawings” at New York’s MoMA.
In recent seasons, top prices have been achieved for Seurat works at auction; in February of this year,
Garçonnet assis (Maurice Appert), a crayon and gouache drawing from circa 1884 achieved $3.1 million at auction,
and in May 2009,
Femme avec deux fillettes, a Conté crayon drawing dated between 1882 and 1884 achieved $2.1 million.
The upcoming
Evening Sale will also feature a sixth Seurat work,
Le Chemin creux (estimate:
$1.8-2.5 million), an important early landscape from the collection of
the prominent San Francisco collectors Walter and Phyllis Shorenstein.
Sotheby's 2015
LOT SOLD.
7,765,000 GBP
Sotheby's 2014
LOT SOLD.
5,317,000 USD
Pr.£5,081,250($7,306,838)
