Christie's has announced Roy Lichtenstein's Anxious Girl as a major highlight of the 20th Century Evening Sale on May 18 during New York's Spring Marquee Week of Sales. Formerly in the collection of art world legends Horace and Holly Solomon, the painting has been held in the same esteemed private collection for more than thirty years and has never before been seen in public. Anxious Girl sits among a rarefied group of paintings that constitute the most prized works in existence by the iconic American artist and stands as an unequivocal masterpiece of the Pop era. It is estimated to realize $40 – 60 million.
Sara Friedlander, Chairman of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie's, remarks: “Anxious Girl is a best-in-class example of Roy Lichtenstein, from 1964, the pinnacle of his career. Compositionally, the painting showcases the artist's singular ability to distill complex visual cues into three core elements—line, color, and form—and formally employ them into conveying deep human emotion through timeless love stories and comic book-inspired imagery. Anxious Girl is the quintessential Pop portrait, a veritable icon of twentieth century art and we are delighted to bring it to market this spring at Christie's New York.”
Anxious Girl is among a highly prized group of Lichtenstein's most celebrated works from the 1960s: paintings featuring lovelorn young women inspired by mass-produced comics. The earliest of this group is considered to be The Engagement Ring from 1961—however, the most sophisticated and desirable were made during 1963-1965. Anxious Girl is one of only ten paintings from this short time period that feature an individual woman as the sole subject in a tightly cropped frame, investigating both the psychology and beauty of the female form. The last time a masterpiece painting of the exceptionally rare Girl series came to auction was more than a decade ago; Lichtenstein's Nurse sold at Christie's New York in November 2015 for $95 million and established the current record price for the artist.
Anxious Girl features a young woman with blonde curls, piercing blue eyes, and skin pigmented via a field of Ben-Day dots, a method invented in the late 19th century and made famous by Lichtenstein. In visual style, the dots mimic the mechanical process originally developed to give tonal variation to early newspapers, yet in this work there is no printing or screening involved—each is meticulously applied by the artist's hand. A furrowed brow on her forehead conveys a sense of unease, of questioning. The source material behind the painting is a 1963 comic entitled Too Much to Ask! from DC comic series Girls' Romances, in which the heroine is torn between two male suitors—yet in the original image, she is pictured in between the pair of men, and her forehead interestingly bears no crease.
Cover of Girls' Romances #97, DC Comics, December 1963 (source material for the present work).
© DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.
Anxious Girl was first acquired by Horace and Holly Solomon, important collectors and early champions of Pop Art. Active figures in New York's art scene in the 1960s, the couple's apartment came to be filled with canonical works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, and Claus Oldenburg. In 1966, Holly Solomon commissioned Andy Warhol to produce his now famous 9-paneled portrait of her and in doing so immortalized her reputation as the 'Princess of Pop.' This persona was further developed with more portraits of her by leading artists of the era, including Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Artschwager, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein—among them, Lichtenstein's masterpiece I...I'm Sorry, featuring a distressed young woman in tears, painted just one year after Anxious Girl. Formerly owned by Ms. Solomon, the 1965 painting now resides in the collection of The Broad in Los Angeles.
Christie's has announced Lasting Impression: The Collection of Marilyn Arison, a richly textured selection of rare and important works by Edouard Manet, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard and others from the collection of Mrs. Marilyn Arison, generous philanthropist and tireless champion of the arts. The collection will be featured during New York Spring Marquee Week with works in the 20th Century Evening Sale and the Day Sales, and subsequent auctions taking place throughout the year.
Manet's Pivoines dans une bouteille from 1864 leads the group. Painted the year following Manet's masterpieces Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (1862-1863) and Olympia (1863) in the Musee d'Orsay collection, the work depicts the artist's favorite flower, the peony, with outstandingly modern technique. The painting belongs to a series of six known canvases from the 1860s featuring the flower, and this work is the only example remaining in private hands, with all others held between the Musée d'Orsay and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Additional featured highlights come from early and mid-twentieth century masters Picasso,
Matisse
The collection is led by Quatre danseuses, an exquisite pastel by Degas which will be featured in the 20th Century Evening Sale (estimate: $5 – 7 million). An exceptional, large-scale example of the artist's iconic dancers posed in the wings of the Paris Opéra, the composition employs radiant color and innovative pastel application.
Vanessa Fusco, Head of Impressionist & Modern Art, Christie's, remarks, “It is a privilege for Christie's to play a role in stewarding the art collection of an exceptional family who were and still are tireless champions of the Boston community. Through their support of universities, hospitals, museums, art organizations and a wide range of community programs, the Rabb Goldbergs have enriched public life. The richly worked and vividly colored pastel by Degas from the collection demonstrates the artist's mastery of his favored medium, the layered surfaces dense in texture and radiant with color. This sensational work, acquired almost sixty years ago, has been generously lent to exhibitions over decades at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where the Rabb Gallery of European Impressionism further testifies to the family's commitment to public service.”
Christie's is also offering the masterpiece La femme aux lilas (Portrait de Nini Lopez) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from the esteemed collection of Lorinda Payson de Roulet as a highlight of its 20th Century Evening Sale on May 18. The defining Impressionist work of the season and among the most important paintings by Renoir ever at auction, this seminal portrait is estimated to achieve $25 – 35 million. Mrs. de Roulet comes from a legacy of exceptional art collectors and storied New Yorkers: she is a member of the Whitney family, including, via marriage, the inimitable Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Her mother Joan Whitney Payson—following the example of Mrs. de Roulet's grandparents Helen Hay Whitney and William Payne Whitney—was a formidable and discerning collector who obtained the Renoir in 1929 at the outset of her collecting journey. The painting boasts unmatched provenance, held in the same prestigious collection for 97 years.
The collection also features works by exemplary artists including Marc Chagall, Edgar Degas, Winslow Homer, Alfred Sisley and Andrew Wyeth, all to be offered during Spring Marquee Week Sales. A selection of jewelry belonging to Lorinda Payson de Roulet will be offered during Luxury Week in June. The estate is represented by Art Market Advisors.
Max Carter, Christie's Global Chairman of 20th and 21st Century Art, remarks: “Renoir's gift to art history was the Impressionist portrait, and La femme aux lilas is among its incontestable masterpieces. Acquired by Joan Whitney Payson and Charles Payson at the beginning of their legendary collecting journey in December 1929, it has remained in the family ever since. Its peers are Renoir's greatest figure paintings of the 1870s, the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist icons from the Whitney Payson collection, and the finest Renoirs ever sold.”
Among the most recognized and celebrated icons of art history are Renoir's portraits created in the mid-1870s during the time of the first Impressionist exhibitions. La femme aux lilas is a singular example within this highly desirable body of work, featuring the artist's favorite muse and model, Nini Lopez, seen in Renoir's most famous works including La Loge (1874, The Courtald). Painted in 1876-1877, La femme aux lilas is the pinnacle of the canvases featuring this subject and the largest single portrait of Nini remaining in private hands.
La femme aux lilas was acquired by Mrs. de Roulet's parents Joan Whitney Payson and Charles Payson in 1929 for the remarkable price at the time of $100,000, the same year her uncle John Hay Whitney acquired another Renoir masterwork, Au Moulin de la Galette of 1876, for $165,000. When Au Moulin de la Galette came to auction in 1990, it sold for an unprecedented sum of $78.1 million (nearly $195 million in USD today), establishing a record price for the Impressionist master which, 36 years later, still remains unbroken. La femme aux lilas is the greatest Renoir to come to market in the decades since.
Lot 17 APortrait de Jacqueline
EstimateUSD 1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Lot 18 AL'Atelier
EstimateUSD 3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Lot 19 AUntitled (Medici Princess)
EstimateUSD 3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Lot 20 APommiers, Vétheuil
EstimateUSD 6,000,000 - 8,000,000- Lot 23 A
Lot 25 AFrom the Old Garden No. I
EstimateUSD 7,000,000 - 10,000,000
Lot 26 APivoines dans une bouteille
EstimateUSD 7,000,000 - 10,000,000
Lot 27 ANu couché II
EstimateUSD 1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Lot 28 AQuatre danseuses
EstimateUSD 5,000,000 - 7,000,000
Lot 29 AUntitled I
EstimateUSD 9,000,000 - 12,000,000
Lot 30 ARegister
EstimateUSD 9,000,000 - 12,000,000
Lot 31 ADouble Elvis [Ferus Type]
EstimateUSD 25,000,000 - 35,000,000
Lot 32 AThe Desert
EstimateUSD 6,500,000 - 8,500,000
Lot 33 ACherchez l’aiguille
EstimateUSD 10,000,000 - 15,000,000
Lot 34 APortrait de Ramon Sunyer (L'Orfèvre)
EstimateUSD 8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Lot 35 ANature morte, fougères et grenades
EstimateUSD 1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Lot 36 AMorgenstunde
EstimateUSD 6,000,000 - 8,000,000- Lot 37 A
Almaïsa
EstimateUSD 30,000,000 - 40,000,000- Lot 38 A
Baigneuse au pouf rouge
EstimateUSD 1,200,000 - 1,800,000- Lot 39 A
Deux femmes
EstimateUSD 1,000,000 - 1,500,000- Lot 40 A
Lotus
EstimateUSD 1,800,000 - 2,500,000- Lot 41 A
Untitled XVI
EstimateUSD 6,000,000 - 8,000,000- Lot 42 A
L'Embellie
EstimateUSD 6,000,000 - 9,000,000- Lot 43 A
Details of Renaissance Paintings (Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1482)
EstimateUSD 5,000,000 - 7,000,000- Lot 44 A
Chair de poule rhinocérontique
EstimateUSD 5,000,000 - 8,000,000- Lot 45 A
Energía cósmica (Inspiración)
EstimateUSD 1,200,000 - 1,800,000- Lot 46 A
Untitled (Medici series, Pinturicchio Boy)
EstimateUSD 3,000,000 - 5,000,000- Lot 48 A
Three Polygons, Eight Red
EstimateUSD 3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Lot 49 AUntitled
EstimateUSD 2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Lot 50 AMother and Child (Nancy and Olivia)
EstimateUSD 1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Lot 51 AMeule et vaches dans le pré à Eragny, soleil couchant
EstimateUSD 1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Lot 52 AAcross the Avenue in Sunlight, June 1918
EstimateUSD 6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Lot 53 AEnfants et poneys dans un parc
EstimateUSD 1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Lot 54 ALe Déjeuner
EstimateUSD 5,500,000 - 7,500,000
Lot 55 ALe viaduc d'Auteuil
EstimateUSD 1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Lot 56 ANu aux babouches rouges
EstimateUSD 800,000 - 1,200,000- Lot 57 A
Jeune fille assise tenant une rose
EstimateUSD 1,000,000 - 1,500,000- Lot 58 A
La princesse rouge au cirque
EstimateUSD 2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Lot 59 AHiraqla III
EstimateUSD 1,000,000 - 1,500,000- Lot 60 A
Mirror #5 (24")
EstimateUSD 1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Lot 61 ADouble Glass
EstimateUSD 800,000 - 1,200,000
Lot 62 AIn Advance of the Broken Arm
EstimateUSD 2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Lot 63 AMonte Carlo Bond (No. 30)
EstimateUSD 1,000,000 - 2,000,000
Lot 64 ACrâne, lampe, poireaux, vase
EstimateUSD 3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Lot 65 ADouble Standing Figure
EstimateUSD 2,000,000 - 4,000,000
