Wednesday, November 4, 2026

Sotheby's Modern Evening Auction November 18 Part III

 Save

Masterpieces from this sale embody the spirit of artists working at the turn of the 20th century — visionaries who defied convention to forge a bold, modern language of art. Charting the historic threads and cross-continental exchanges linking Impressionism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and beyond, the Modern Evening Auction celebrates the pivotal developments that have shaped art history.

The Modern Evening Auction will feature highlights from The Armand Hammer Collection, Magnum Opus: A Private Collection of Exceptional Art and Objects Through the Ages, Picasso's Heroic Years: Masterpieces from a Prestigious Family, Shaping Modernity: Property from a Private American Collection and Expanding Horizons: The Hedreen Collection. These works and more will be viewable at Sotheby’s New York this November.

Shaping Modernity: Property from a Private American Collection charts the defining moments in the evolution of modern art. Bringing together exceptional works by the artists who transformed painting between the 19th and 20th centuries, the collection highlights a series of breakthroughs that forever altered the trajectory of art history. The collection, beginning with Impressionism, spans the key Post-Impressionist movements such as Pointillism, Fauvism and reaches forward to the post-war figuration of Francis Bacon, each work embodies a willingness to challenge convention and pursue new possibilities of artistic expression.

The earliest work in the collection L’Oncle Dominique is aptly by Cézanne, whom Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque called “the father of us all.” At the foundation of the collection is Camille Pissarro's Hameau aux environs de Pontoise which elevates the countryside to the fitting subject for progressive art. Alfred Sisley's landscape and Eugène Boudin's beach scene attend to the light and atmosphere of nature observed en plein air. Pierre-Auguste Renoir's portrait of his patron Paul Bérard brims with the luminosity of the finest Impressionist portraits. Paul Signac’s celebrated pointillist composition, Collioure. Les Balancelles (Opus 167) marks a pivotal moment in the development of modern painting with its radical exploration of color and optics. His innovative experiments with color gave rise to the riotous palettes of Henri Matisse, André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck, the defining voices of Fauvism, whose respective views of Collioure, the Thames and the open road show color liberated from description. The collection culminates with Francis Bacon's poignant Self-Portrait, a work that captures both the artist's psychological torment and the refuge that he found in painting. Through a remarkable command of color and gesture, Bacon defines a new self-portraiture, rendering himself with force and fluidity as if caught between states of reality and remembrance. Together, the collection illuminates the artistic innovations through which modern art took shape.

Beginning this November, Sotheby’s will offer some 50 works from the exceptional collection of Richard (“Dick”) and the late Elizabeth (“Betty”) Hedreen. Devoted philanthropists, active supporters of their native Seattle and Washington State, and passionate collectors for six decades, the Hedreens can rightly be considered pioneers, who were among the very first to place considerable emphasis on the visual and intellectual dialogues inherent in juxtaposing art from across the ages, assembling a collection that spans the 15th century to the present day.
Highlights to be offered at Sotheby’s include major paintings by Roy Lichtenstein and Cecily Brown, together with a moving Mater Dolorosa by Titian, a striking Northern Renaissance portrait by Georg Pencz, a Baroque masterpiece by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi, and more.

Highlights


Type: lot
Roy Lichtenstein
Reflections on "Painter and Model"
Estimate: 20,000,000–30,000,000 USD

Type: lot
Georg Pencz
Portrait of Sigismund Baldinger (1510-1558)
Estimate: 8,000,000–12,000,000
USD

Type: lot
Cecily Brown
Untitled (Shipwreck)
Estimate: 7,000,000–10,000,000
USD

Type: lot
Bartolomeo Cavarozzi
Sacrifice of Isaac

Masterworks of the Modern Evening Auction


View 1 of Lot 107: L'Ami de l'ordre
Type: lot
René Magritte
L'Ami de l'ordre
Estimate: 25,000,000 – 35,000,000 USD
View 1 of Lot 109: The Martha McKeen of Wellfleet
Type: lot
Edward Hopper
The Martha McKeen of Wellfleet
Estimate: 20,000,000 – 30,000,000 USD
View 1 of Lot 127: La Barque bleue
Type: lot
Claude Monet
La Barque bleue
Estimate: 20,000,000 – 30,000,000 USD
View 1 of Lot 123: Pichet et fruits sur une table
Type: lot
Paul Cézanne
Pichet et fruits sur une table
Estimate: 20,000,000 – 30,000,000 USD


 



Estimate: 7,000,000–10,000,000
USD

Masterworks of the Modern Evening Auction


View 1 of Lot 107: L'Ami de l'ordre
Type: lot
René Magritte
L'Ami de l'ordre
Estimate: 25,000,000 – 35,000,000 USD
View 1 of Lot 109: The Martha McKeen of Wellfleet
Type: lot
Edward Hopper
The Martha McKeen of Wellfleet
Estimate: 20,000,000 – 30,000,000 USD
View 1 of Lot 127: La Barque bleue
Type: lot
Claude Monet
La Barque bleue
Estimate: 20,000,000 – 30,000,000 USD
View 1 of Lot 123: Pichet et fruits sur une table
Type: lot
Paul Cézanne
Pichet et fruits sur une table
Estimate: 20,000,000 – 30,000,000 USD

*Sotheby's -- Vision: The Extraordinary Collection of Theodore and Ruth Baum November 16

 


United by a singular vision, collectors and philanthropists Theodore and Ruth Baum’s passion for life, art, design and philanthropy led them on a deeply personal, decades-long pursuit to cultivate an extraordinary collection – one that was not only among the most distinguished private collections encapsulating the developments of 20th-century art history, but reflective of the forward-thinking vision, refined elegance and intellectual rigor that defined them as partners in life and collecting.

Theodore and Ruth Baum's Palm Beach residence. Art © Estate of Joan Mitchell. Art © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Art © Carl Andre / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Art © Antony Gormley 2026. All rights reserved. Art © 2026 Michelangelo Pistoletto. Photograph by Diana Todorova

As storytellers in every sense, the Baums were guided by their insatiable curiosity as they built a collection that transcended movements, generations and geographies. Throughout the course of two decades, they traveled around the world in pursuit of great works by the visionaries of American abstraction, the innovators of Pop, Minimalism and Conceptualism, and the radical experimenters of post-war Italian art, assembling a constellation of artists engaged in dialogue with one another, each work challenging and illuminating its counterpart.

View Highlights from the Collection

“Ted and Ruth were among the most committed collectors of their generation. I was immediately struck by their inquisitiveness and the deep level of their research. No doubt they came to European abstraction via the touch points of post-war American abstraction. They instinctively understood that artists like Lucio Fontana and Yves Klein were vital to the history of 20th-century abstraction and could sit perfectly well situated in their beautiful interiors alongside Rothko, de Kooning, Mitchell and others. Every work to enter their collection had to pass their extremely high bar of research and curation. Relationships mattered to them, and they cultivated them assiduously. It shows in the deep level of quality that’s a hallmark in this collection.”
Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s Chairman, Europe

The collection is highlighted by a radiant red-and-orange 1967 painting by Mark Rothko, their first acquisition of contemporary art 43 years ago and the catalyst of their collecting journey; alongside an expansive canvas by Joan Mitchell, also held in the Baum’s collection for four decades and making its auction debut this November; an early text painting by Ed Ruscha; post-war European masterworks by Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana; and more.



Vision: The Extraordinary Collection of Theodore and Ruth Baum

By Sotheby's | Oct 8, 2026
A landmark collection of postwar and contemporary art, estimated to exceed $100 million, featuring works by Rothko, Mitchell, Ruscha, Burri, Warhol, Fontana and more, many appearing at auction for the first time in decades.

United by a singular vision, collectors and philanthropists Theodore and Ruth Baum’s passion for life, art, design and philanthropy led them on a deeply personal, decades-long pursuit to cultivate an extraordinary collection – one that was not only among the most distinguished private collections encapsulating the developments of 20th-century art history, but reflective of the forward-thinking vision, refined elegance and intellectual rigor that defined them as partners in life and collecting.


Theodore and Ruth Baum's Palm Beach residence. Art © Estate of Joan Mitchell. Art © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Art © Carl Andre / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Art © Antony Gormley 2026. All rights reserved. Art © 2026 Michelangelo Pistoletto. Photograph by Diana Todorova

As storytellers in every sense, the Baums were guided by their insatiable curiosity as they built a collection that transcended movements, generations and geographies. Throughout the course of two decades, they traveled around the world in pursuit of great works by the visionaries of American abstraction, the innovators of Pop, Minimalism and Conceptualism, and the radical experimenters of post-war Italian art, assembling a constellation of artists engaged in dialogue with one another, each work challenging and illuminating its counterpart.

Highlights from the Collection



Type: lot
Mark Rothko
Untitled, 1967

Type: lot
Joan Mitchell
Green Book of Barbara Guest, 1960

Type: lot
Ed Ruscha
Dimple, 1964


Type: lot
Andy Warhol
The Scream (After Edvard Munch), 1984

Type: lot
Alberto Burri
GA1, 1954

Type: lot
Lucio Fontana
Concetto Spaziale, Attese, 1960

Type: lot
Andy Warhol
The