Christie’s New York 20th Century Evening Sale - May: Van Gogh. O’Keeffe

Champs près des Alpilles

oil on canvas

17.3/4 x 21.5/8 in. (45 x 55 cm.)

Painted in November 1889

Estimate on request

 Christie’s has announced Vincent van Gogh’s Champs près des Alpilles, 1889 (estimate on request; region of $45,000,000) as a leading highlight of the 20th Century Art Evening Sale taking place this May at Rockefeller Center in New York City. This rare work was one of two canvases sent from the artist while living in an asylum in Saint-Rémy to his close friend Joseph Roulin in Marseille at the beginning of 1890. A closely related view, painted from the same field, is now held in the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo.

Vanessa Fusco, Co-Head of Christie’s New York 20th Century Evening Sale, remarked: “With its gestural, expressive handling and bold, vibrant color, Champs près des Alpilles exemplifies the key characteristics of Van Gogh’s trademark style – a style which is beloved and admired all over the world. Painted during the artist’s storied sojourn in an asylum in Saint-Rémy, and subsequently belonging to his friend Joseph Roulin, whose own image captured by Vincent now hang in museums across the world, Champs près des Alpilles is inextricably linked to Vincent’s own tragic biography. It is a delight to bring this masterpiece by the artist to auction for the first time.”

Van Gogh and Roulin initially developed a friendship in Arles. Today, Roulin is known to be one of the most important models of the artist’s career. Over the course of a few months in 1888, Van Gogh painted some of his best known portraits of the postman and his family. Not solely a model, Roulin was also a close friend and key support to Van Gogh during the time he spent in the hospital in Arles following his first major breakdown. Roulin continued to ardently support the artist from afar when Van Gogh was living in Saint-Rémy through regular correspondence. The letters between Roulin and Van Gogh reveal a strong bond between the two men; Roulin understood the master deeply as both as a person and as an artist. Champs près des Alpillesstands as a true testament to the friendship between them, embodying the importance of Roulin to Van Gogh’s artistic practice, as well as his life.

Depicting an expansive vista spanning a vivid green wheatfield with a majestic tree framed by the monumental peaks of the Alpilles in the background, all pictured beneath a citron-color sky, this landscape comprises the signature subjects Van Gogh is known for during this all important year. It was during his stay in Saint-Rémy that Van Gogh’s mature style truly emerged. He transformed the world around him into dazzling visions of often heightened color conveyed with evermore animated brushstrokes, both of which serve to imbue these canvases with a powerful—and highly influential—expressive charge. At this time, painting and nature itself took on a central importance to the artist.

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PROPERTY FROM THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

GEORGIA O’KEEFFE (1887-1986)

A Sunflower from Maggie

oil on canvas

16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm.)

Painted in 1937.

$6,000,000-8,000,000

Christie's has announced Georgia O’Keeffe’s A Sunflower from Maggie (1937), will be a featured highlight in the 20th Century Art Evening Sale taking place this May in New York. The painting was deaccessioned from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA); it will be sold to benefit acquisitions for the Museum (estimate: $6 million - $8 million).

Emily Kaplan, Christie’s Specialist and Co-Head of 20th Century Evening Sale, remarks, “It is an honor to partner with the MFA on the sale of Georgia O’Keeffe’s A Sunflower from Maggie to benefit acquisitions for the Museum. A truly iconic image from one of the finest 20th century American modernists, this work is a leading example of American painting of the pre-war era. While flowers are a classic signature of the artist’s oeuvre, sunflower canvases by O’Keeffe are in fact quite rare; this stands as one of just six sunflower paintings she made in her lifetime. We are proud to offer it at Christie’s this Spring to support the Museum’s ongoing initiative to diversify and expand the development of its collection.”

Tylee Abbott, Christie’s Specialist and Head of Department, American Art, remarks, “Beyond the steeped history of this compelling subject, and its rarity within O’Keeffe’s oeuvre, A Sunflower from Maggie represents everything that one looks for in a masterwork by the artist—representational at first glance, yet incredibly nuanced and complex in her distinctive manner.  Directed by the petals, the mesmerizing central oculus of the sunflower invites the viewer deep into the painting, allowing one to completely lose themselves in the work.  It is precisely this type of experience and its universal appeal that has launched O’Keeffe on to the international stage and established her in the annals of art history.”

Samantha Koslow, Christie’s Director, Museums, Institutions and Corporate Collections, remarks, “It is an honor to partner with the Museum of Fine Arts Boston to help support the funding future acquisitions. Museums are our most important cultural partners and we are grateful for the opportunity to help support the Museum's goals."

Georgia O’Keeffe has become a pervasive figure in the history of American art. With a career spanning well over half a century, she is known for her large-scale abstract modernist paintings as well as her trademark floral iconography and desert motifs. A Sunflower from Maggie displays all of the characteristics of her most coveted artworks. The Maggie referenced in the title refers to Margaret Johnson, friend and neighbor to O’Keeffe in New Mexico, and wife to the President of Johnson & Johnson. A Sunflower from Maggie has been exhibited widely in renowned institutions most recently including the North Carolina Museum of Art (2012).

In addition to A Sunflower from Maggie, Christie’s will offer O’Keeffe’s southwestern landscape Abiquiu Trees VII on behalf of the MFA in the 18 May 2022 American Art sale (estimate: $700,000-1,000,000). This painting will also be sold to benefit acquisitions for the Museum.

Christie's 21st Century Evening Sale this May: Jean-Michel Basquiat

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Here is the King: Basquiat Masterworks from 1982

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960-1988)

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict

signed, titled and dated ‘JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT 1982 “PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG DERELICT” (on the reverse of the left panel)

triptych—acrylic, oil, oilstick and hardware on hinged wood construction

overall: 81 ⅝ x 82 ⅜ x 3 ⅝ in. (207.3 x 209.2 x 9.2 cm.)

Executed in 1982.

Christie’s will present Jean-Michel Basquiat’sPortrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict, 1982 (estimate on request) as a leading highlight in the 21st Century Evening Sale this May in New York City at Rockefeller Center. This rare work is executed across three large conjoined panels, the construction of which was executed by the artist. Standing as both self-portrait and altarpiece, it represents a highpoint in the artist’s brief but explosive career.

Created in the artist’s Crosby Street studio, this masterwork reflects the raw energy and excitement of Basquiat’s practice in 1982. Executed at the highpoint of his career, it was included in the artist’s seminal show at Fun Gallery (November - December 1982), widely considered the best exhibition of his lifetime.  One of the most remarkable works that Basquiat ever produced, this monumental painting synthesizes the artist’s masterful painterly abilities with his early experience of life on the streets. It contains all of the artist’s celebrated motifs: his signature three-pointed crown, his anatomical studies, his evocative words, and his vast array of expressive painterly gestures, standing as an encyclopedic manifestation of the artist’s career. As such, it has been included in many seminal Basquiat retrospectives globally including the Brooklyn Museum (2005-2006), Fondation Beyeler and Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2010-2011), and Fondation Louis Vuitton (2018-2019). Having been in the same collection for over two decades, this May will be the first time it has appeared at auction.

Ana Maria Celis, Head of Christie’s New York 21st Century Evening Sale, remarks: “We are truly thrilled to offer Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict by Basquiat as a leading highlight of our 21stCentury Evening Sale during this Spring’s Marquee Week. This is a rare work of self-portraiture, containing a rich multitude of references that touch upon all aspects of Basquiat’s life—ranging from his childhood to his meteoric rise to fame to ruminations of his own mortality. Its magnificent structure evokes the grandeur of altarpieces of the Northern Renaissance, with a highly unique picture support that classifies it among the most special within the artist’s oeuvre.”

During a time period when graffiti artists were largely criminalized, this work can be seen as Basquiat’s altar to graffiti art and artists. Its creation predates and somewhat foretells the story of Michael Stewart, a young Black graffiti artist and close friend of Basquiat, who was arrested and subsequently died of injuries sustained while in police custody in 1983. As Keith Haring said: “[Basquiat] was completely freaked out. It was like it could have been him.” Painted one year earlier, this work has been said to foreshadow this event— as well as the fate of the artist himself.

In the work, Basquiat portrays one of his iconic ‘heads’ on the side panel amongst a cacophony of words, signs, and symbols that serve as cultural markers for moments of the past, present, and future. The title also serves as a reference to James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, demonstrating Basquiat’s preoccupation with literature and poetry. The spontaneous and frenetic combination of linguistic, figurative, symbolic and abstract elements come together in this masterwork in a fantastic linguistic conflation of sense and nonsense.

The sale will also be highlighted by another work by Basquiat, 

See Plate 3, 1982 (estimate: $4,000,000-6,000,000). This work, one of the rare sculptures by Basquiat, was held in the collection of Keith Haring until his death in 1990.The object debuted along with Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict at Fun Gallery in 1982. It has also been widely exhibited in major international Basquiat exhibitions and retrospectives, including Whitney Museum of American Art (1992-1993), Brooklyn Museum (2005-2006), traveling exhibition organized by Fondation Beyeler (2010) and Fondation Louis Vuitton (2018-2019).

Christie’s Old Masters Evening Sale, London 7 July: Lucas Cranach the Elder and Jan Jansz. den Uyl

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553)
The Nymph of the Spring
Painted in circa 1540
Estimate: £6,000,000-8,000,000

London – Lucas Cranach the Elder’s (1472-1553) The Nymph of the Spring (estimate: £6,000,000-8,000,000) and Jan Jansz. den Uyl’s (1595-1639) Pewter jug and silver tazza on a table (estimate: £2,500,000-3,500,000) from The Collection of Cecil & Hilda Lewis, will be leading highlights in the Old Masters Evening Sale on 7 July, during Classic Week London. Revered within collecting circles, Cecil and Hilda Lewis were true connoisseurs and generous philanthropists, who supported wide-ranging charitable and cultural endeavours, from the V&A and National Gallery to the Weizman Institute of Science. The Cranach will be on public view at Christie’s London headquarters from 24 February to 1 March, ahead of both paintings touring to New York and Hong Kong, prior to being in the pre-sale London exhibition from 1 to 7 July.

Jan Jansz. den Uyl (1595-1639) 
Pewter jug and silver tazza on a table
Painted in 1633
Estimate: £2,500,000-3,500,000

The undisputed masterpiece of Jan den Uyl – one of the most talented and highly original still-life painters of the Dutch Golden Age – Pewter jug and silver tazza on a table has always been lauded for its compositional daring and dazzling technical virtuosity.  Beautifully signed with the artist’s device of an owl (uyl being the Dutch word for owl), on the table cloth (illustrated right), the picture is coming to the market for the first time in over 30 years, having been acquired by Cecil and Hilda Lewis in 1988. Three years earlier the picture was described as the ‘most beautifully perfect Dutch monochrome still-life in existence’ in Art+Auction (D. Gimelson, September 1985). This work has not been seen in public since 1999, when it was exhibited at The Rijksmuseum in Still-Life Paintings from the Netherlands 1550-1720.

Henry Pettifer, Head of the Old Masters Department, Christie’s London, commented: “These two superlative pictures are fitting testaments to the exceptional quality of the collection formed by Cecil and Hilda Lewis. Cranach’s Nymph of the Spring is a tour-de-force, firmly aligned  in the great tradition of the female nude in art, from Giorgione and Durer to Titian, Goya, Manet and Modigliani. The Jan den Uyl  is one of the very finest monochrome still-lifes from the Dutch Golden Age. In an age when real masterpieces in the Old Master category are in short supply on the market, we are delighted to give collectors the opportunity to acquire these two extraordinary paintings.’’

As They Saw It: Artists Witnessing War,

 Clark Art Institute

March 5–May 30

Paul Delaroche (French, 1797–1856), Napoleon Crossing the Alps: The Guide, c. 1848. Black chalk with white heightenings on paper, sheet: 16 7/8 x 22 13/16 in. sheet1: 24 7/8 in. Clark Art Institute, 1990.10

The Clark Art Institute’s latest exhibition presents four centuries of war imagery from Europe and the United States in As They Saw It: Artists Witnessing War, on view March 5–May 30, 2022. Spanning European and American art from 1520–1920, the exhibition of prints, drawings, and photographs shows how artists have portrayed periods of military conflict, bringing war off the battlefield and into the homes and lives of those who were often at a far remove from the scene. The exhibition is on view in the Eugene V. Thaw Gallery of the Clark’s Manton Research Center in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Auguste Raffet (French, 1804–1860), Prussian Infantry, 1852?. Pencil, black chalk, watercolor and gouache on paper, Overall: 16 1/2 x 10 1/4 in. Clark Art Institute, 1955.834

Visual media have long played a key role in documenting war. Especially for those far from the front, eyewitness imagery is crucial to understanding what may be happening on the battlefield. Yet artists’ depictions of the wrenching conditions and consequences of warfare may even transcend their historical origins to become lasting monuments to suffering and sacrifice. This exhibition brings together a diverse selection from the Clark’s holdings: both pro- and anti-Napoleonic imagery (including Francisco de Goya’s Disasters of War); Civil War photographs and wood engravings; and multiple perspectives on World War I. The exhibition features a special selection of recently acquired photographs of Black Americans in military service, documenting the contributions of people who have long been underrepresented in the historical record.

“This exhibition gives us the rare opportunity to look at four hundred years of imagery that often shaped public awareness and sentiment related to conflicts that changed the course of history,” said Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark. “From documenting battle scenes to capturing the depth of grief and suffering that accompanies war, these deeply moving images put a human face on the sometimes abstract idea of conflict and remind us of the toll of war.”

Meslay noted that “to honor all those who have served their nation, we are welcoming all veterans, active-duty military members, and their families with free admission to the Clark from March 5 through May 30 in hopes that they will visit us to see this exhibition.”

The exhibition presents more than forty-five images by artists including Mathew Brady, Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet, Albrecht Dürer, Roger Fenton, Francisco de Goya, Winslow Homer, Georges Jeanniot, Édouard Manet, and James Tissot. These artists were not simply bystanders. Many of them served as soldiers or had been expressly commissioned as war artists. To a great extent, artists’ nationalities and backgrounds influenced the version of events they chose, or felt compelled, to present. Even those who worked far from the front lines were engaged in one side or the other of a battle of images—with representations of war playing a substantial role in how the parties to a conflict were perceived and how their actions were interpreted, both in the moment and long afterward.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746–1828), Que valor! (What Courage!) from The Disasters of War, 1810-1820; printed after 1863. Etchings and aquatints on paper, bound, 10 1/16 × 13 3/4 × 1 7/8 in. Clark Art Institute, 2015.4.1-80

“This exhibition accounts for both military and civilian experiences of war and presents a great diversity of perspectives, including some which have been historically underacknowledged,” said exhibition curator Anne Leonard, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. “As They Saw It emphasizes the subjectivity of all war reporting and reminds us that photography, so often considered the gold standard for eyewitness documentation, was only one means of expression chosen by artists addressing the raw facts and messy consequences of war.”

Unknown, Portrait of a Civil War Veteran Wearing a Grand Army of the Republic Medal, c. 1866-1870. Tintype, 3 1/2 × 2 7/16 in. Clark Art Institute, Gift of Frank and Katherine Martucci, 2021, 2021.4.2

The exhibition is organized chronologically and includes the following sections:

Early Modern Battles and Military Strategy 
Much war imagery from 1500–1800 lacks an eyewitness dimension. Renaissance artists were often attracted to staged, reconfigured, or imagined battle subjects for the compositional challenge of arranging large groups of figures and rendering the human body in strenuous action. Major artists were also involved in designs for military fortifications and defense, on commission from their princely leaders. The difference is palpable, for example, between Albrecht Dürer’s diagrammatic Siege of a Fortress prints (1527), made as a theoretical demonstration of the efficacy of a fortification design, and two battle drawings (1793-94) made by Nicolas Antoine Taunay based on his observation of contemporary events.

The Age of Napoleon
The relentlessly ambitious French general Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) parlayed his legendary reputation as a military strategist into a ruthless quest for imperial domination within and beyond Europe. The suffering and destruction wrought by Napoleon’s military campaigns loom large in Francisco de Goya’s print series The Disasters of War. Subtitled “Fatal Consequences,” the album of eighty prints chronicles the horrors of the Peninsular War between Spain and France from 1808 to 1814, including atrocities committed against civilians and a terrible famine in Madrid. The very rare bound album of Goya’s print series is included in the exhibition, showing one page of the portfolio, while a full presentation of all eighty works is featured on-screen in the gallery and on the exhibition microsite at clarkart.edu/astheysawit.

The Crimean War
The Crimean War, which claimed an estimated 650,000 lives between 1853 and 1856, was the first major conflict in which photography played a significant documentary role. Named after the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea, the war was fought by an alliance between Britain, France, Turkey, and Sardinia against Russia. Religious tensions between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox believers had spurred Russia’s Czar Nicholas I to take advantage of a weakened Ottoman Empire and try to expand his influence into the eastern Mediterranean region.

Pierre-Georges Jeanniot (French, 1848–1934), The Survivors of a Massacre Used as Gravediggers, 1915. Lithograph on wove paper, image: 8 9/16 x 11 7/16 in. sheet: 13 1/4 x 19 1/8 in. Clark Art Institute, Gift of James Bergquist, 1988, 1988.251

Photography in the field posed many risks and challenges that required ingenuity and quick thinking. Other technological “firsts” from the Crimean War included explosive naval shells, railways, and telegraphs. These innovations revolutionized not just how war was waged but also how it was reported. With communication accelerated by mechanical means, the potential grew for people distant from the front lines to experience a more immediate sense of conflicts far away.

The American Civil War
Alongside wood-engraved illustrations, photography emerged as an essential reporting tool during the American Civil War. Mathew Brady was an early figure in what came to be known as photojournalism. His studio dispatched many field photographers, equipped with portable darkrooms, to capture the immediacy and atrocity of battle. Yet the history of documenting the Civil War cannot be summed up easily, given the anonymity of many photographers and the many pictured soldiers whose names are likewise unknown. Although insufficiently recognized in the historical record, more than 200,000 Black Americans served in the Civil War in the United States. The United States Colored Troops—army regiments comprising African Americans and members of other minority groups—were supplemented by thousands more who served in the Navy and segregated state regiments. The Clark’s works-on-paper collection has recently been enhanced by several new acquisitions that document Black soldiers’ essential contributions to the Union victory; these recent additions are featured in the exhibition.

After Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910), The Surgeon at Work at the Rear during an Engagement, 12 July 1862. Wood engraving on newsprint, image: 9 3/16 x 13 3/4 in. sheet: 11 7/16 x 16 1/2 in. Clark Art Institute, 1955.4436

The Siege of Paris, 1871
France’s war with Prussia (Germany) in 1870 was expected to score a quick victory for Emperor Napoleon III, but instead it led to the disastrous Siege of Paris and great suffering among the civilian population. During the siege, hunger and disease ran rampant, while routine shelling tore apart the fabric of the city. The emperor’s abdication in 1871 ushered in a tumultuous period of civil unrest and street violence known as the Paris Commune, in which an estimated 30,000 people died. Although some artists fled Paris during the strife, others, including Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas, remained. Manet’s lithograph of The Barricade (1871) records the shooting of socialist Communards by French army troops, in an echo of the firing squad in his earlier composition The Execution of Maximilian (1867).

World War I
World War I was one of the deadliest conflicts in human history, with an estimated total of 40 million casualties. A series of lithographs by Georges Jeanniot (c. 1915–1916) present a searing representation of individual confrontations, both on and off the battlefield. World War I has a disproportionate representation in the Clark’s collection, perhaps stemming from museum founder Sterling Clark’s own experiences in the war. Having served a prior tour in Asia as an army volunteer just out of college (1899–1905), Clark was living in Paris with his wife, Francine, when the United States entered World War I in 1917. He rejoined the military at the rank of major in the Inspector-General Corps, serving as a liaison officer between the American and French forces until 1919.

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen (French, born Switzerland, 1859–1923), East Wind, 1916. Lithograph on paper, sheet: 19 5/16 x 24 7/8 in. Clark Art Institute, 1990.30

The exhibition is organized by the Clark Art Institute and curated by Anne Leonard, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs.

Nuestra Casa: Rediscovering the Treasures of The Hispanic Society Museum & Library

The Hispanic Society Museum & Library (HSM&L) is pleased to present Nuestra Casa: Rediscovering the Treasures of The Hispanic Society Museum & Library, revealing hidden gems from the expansive, permanent collection of the museum that includes more than 750,000 objects. Curated by Dr. Madeleine Haddon, the exhibition will open to the public on February 17, 2022, and run through April 17, 2022.

The objects featured in Nuestra Casa are a part of the HSM&L’s permanent collection and help to illuminate the wide array of arts, literature and history of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America from antiquity to modern day. During the museum’s recent renovation, a selection of these works toured the world, from the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid and the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City to the Albuquerque Museum, the Cincinnati Art Museum and most recently the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Now, with the opening of the HSM&L’s newly renovated exhibition space in the East Building Gallery, these objects will come home for the first time in five years before many of them continue on to the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Academy of Art in London.

The return of these objects to the HSM&L has prompted a re-examination of the works within the collection that have been historically defined as its masterpieces. The exhibition comes during a moment in which it is necessary for our traditional art historical and aesthetic hierarchies to be reassessed in order to make way for a new art history that fully incorporates the diverse populations to whom our public institutions belong. Nuestra Casa: Rediscovering the Treasures of The Hispanic Society Museum & Library shows that the HSML’s collection extends much beyond the artwork of El Greco, Goya and Sorolla, for which it has historically been known, to masterpieces within a range of mediums by relatively unknown Latin American artists, at times still unidentified, who have previously received little recognition.

To evaluate and present these works through a new lens, the HSM&L brought on a guest curator for this exhibition, Dr. Madeleine Haddon has also written essays for the forthcoming exhibition catalogues Murillo: From Heaven to Earth (2022) at the Kimbell Art Museum and Travel, Respond, Assemble: Isabella Stewart Gardner (2023) at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Prior to MoMA, she was a Teaching Fellow at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland. Dr. Haddon completed her PhD at Princeton University where her dissertation, “Local Color: Race, Gender, and Spanishness in European Painting, 1855-1927,” focused on the preoccupation with the intersection between race and color in 19th- and early 20th-century Spanish, and French painting. Dr. Haddon received a Fulbright Award in support of her dissertation research in Madrid at the Museo del Prado and Museo Reina Sofia.

“Nuestra Casa only scratches the surface in terms the breadth of treasures that visitors will be able to come to the HSM&L to see once the museum fully reopens it doors, says Dr. Madeleine Haddon, Curator of Nuestra Casa. “Visitors will leave with an understanding of the HSM&L as the most significant collection in the United States in which to encounter and learn about the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world.”

 

The Castas: Mestizo and Indian Produce Coyote

ca. 1715

Oil on canvas, 103.8 × 146.4 cm

Inscribed, upper right: “de mestizO y de india / prOduce cOyOte”

New York, The Hispanic Society of America, LA2122

The works featured in Nuestra Casa – many of which have previously not been featured regularly at the Museum – range in origin from Spain and Mexico to Puerto Rico, Peru and beyond, all in chronology from the 10th to 20th centuries. These works include the 19th-century watercolors of Pancho Fierro and

 Miguel Viladrich Vilá’s The Man from Montevideo (1923-5), which represent people of color and the racial diversity of colonial Latin America. Additionally, the exhibition will showcase works that have always been considered among HSM&L’s masterpieces, such as 

Diego Velázquez, Portrait of a Little Girl. Oil on canvas.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, The Duchess of Alba. Oil on canvas.

Francisco de Goya’s Duchess of Alba (1797) and Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of a Little Girl (c. 1638-42).

Nuestra Casa shows that the HSM&L is itself as a treasure to be discovered within New York City’s vibrant Washington Heights neighborhood. The exhibition will leave visitors with a better understanding of the museum and its unparalleled collection that addresses nearly every aspect of cultures in Spain, Portugal and Latin American and the Philippines, while also providing a rare opportunity to encounter and learn about the rich, diverse cultural heritage of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking world through art and object.

Christie’s 1 March: Kees van Dongen, Marc Chagall

Following the announcement of two masterpieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Pablo Picasso that will lead the upcoming Shanghai to London sale series on 1 March, Christie’s presents a broad selection of exciting works in the Shanghai auction leg, featuring sensational paintings by celebrated Western Modern Art figures including Kees van Dongen, Marc Chagall, and many more, to meet the soaring demand of Mainland Chinese collectors. A group of works by international fast-rising artists will also debut in the sale.  The Evening Sale will coincide with a series of events from 26 February to 1 March, including art forums, specialist walkthroughs, live-streamed activities, and more.  SENSATIONAL CANVASES BY KEES VAN DONGEN AND MARC CHAGALL  Included in the 20th/21st Century Art: Shanghai Evening Sale, a masterpiece by iconic Western Modern artist Kees van Dongen will make its grand appearance at auction in China. Van Dongen’s masterful artistry can be seen in his painting La femme au collier, created in 1908. A modern incarnation of the flâneur, Van Dongen combined his keen observational skills with a cutting-edge, painterly aesthetic, using an expressive approach to colour that aligned his painting with the revolutionary circle of artists known as Les Fauves (The “Wild Beasts”).  KEES VAN DONGEN (1877-1968) La Femme Au Collier Oil on canvas 100.3 x 81 cm. Painted in 1908 Estimate: RMB 19,500,000 – 32,000,000 USD 2,925,000 – 4,800,000 Powerfully imbued with the artist’s trademark red hue, La femme au collier encapsulates the artist’s new direction through expressive colours, visceral brushwork, and a thoroughly modern approach to his subject. Known foremost for his portraits, van Dongen revels in depicting beautiful women, often adorned in contemporary fashion. The elegant visage of the artist’s muse in La femme au collier creates a mysterious, romantic vision of Parisian chic. Drawn to her poise, grace, and the magnetism of her gaze, the pioneering cosmetics entrepreneur and avid patron of the arts, Helena Rubinstein, purchased the painting and cherished its inclusion in her collection until it was sold as part of her estate in the late 1960s.    Marc Chagall (1887-1985), Le Bouquet De Lilas. Oil on canvas, 81.0 x 100.3 cm. Painted in 1968. Estimate: RMB 13,000,000 – 20,000,000 / USD 1,950,000 – 3,000,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2022. Another leading highlight is the exuberant and brilliantly coloured Le bouquet de lilas by Marc Chagall, whose creations have been widely recognized and favoured by distinguished art collectors in Mainland China. Presenting a triumphal expression of beauty and joy, Le bouquet de lilas is an extraordinary masterwork painted at a critical point of the artist’s career in the 1960s.The fragrance of lilac flowers is overflowing, the flute player in the centre of the picture offers a resounding melody, and the muse on the left side of the picture smiles with her gaze fixed towards the painter — a vision of beauty and abundance. The docile farm animals depicted within the painting evoke a sense of harmony with nature. A crescent moon hangs against Chagall’s iconic azure blue background, bathing the whole picture in a soft and brisk light, evoking his fond memories of his hometown of Vitebsk, and also vitality in the prosperous south of France where Chagall then lived; the two places seeming to merge into one in the artist’s dreamlike twilight. Chagall’s famously rich use of colour is vividly presented in this painting. The thick impasto of the painterly surface enhances the work’s gorgeous coloration and gives a sense that the imagery projects forward, the iconic symbols combining in a condensed representation of Chagall’s lifelong experience of artistic creation.

Murillo: Picturing the Prodigal Son

Meadows Museum 

February 20 through June 12, 2022

Installation view, "Murillo: Picturing the Prodigal Son" at Meadows Museum.

Photo: Guy Rogers III

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617–1682), The Prodigal Son Receiving His Portion, 1660s. Oil on canvas, 411/8 x 53 in. (104.5 x 134.5 cm). National Gallery of Ireland. Presented,Sir Alfred and Lady Beit, 1987 (Beit Collection); NGI.4540.Photo © National Gallery of Ireland.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617–1682), The Departure of the Prodigal Son, 1660s. Oil on canvas, 411/8 x 53 in. (104.5 x134.5 cm). National Gallery of Ireland. Presented, Sir Alfred and Lady Beit, 1987 (Beit Collection); NGI.4541.Photo © National Gallery of Ireland.

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528), The Prodigal Son, c. 1496. Engraving, 9 11/16 x 7 7/16 in. (24.61 x 18.89 cm). National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 1943.3.3459.

The Meadows Museum, SMU now presents a major exhibition focusing on Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s series of six paintings illustrating the biblical parable of the prodigal son. On loan from the National Gallery of Ireland, the canvases travel to the United States for the first time for Murillo: Picturing the Prodigal Son at the Meadows Museum in Dallas, which is the only US venue and follows the series’ installation at Madrid’s Prado Museum. 

Murillo’s Prodigal Son series is the only cycle by the artist that remains intact today; it is joined at the Meadows by the two other finished paintings the artist dedicated to the subject. These include major loans from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, and the Hispanic Society of America, New York. Additional works on paper from both of these institutions and from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, showcase other ways the prodigal son parable was visualized by Baroque artists in Europe, who likely influenced Murillo.

Works from the Meadows’ own collection and the Kimbell Art Museum’s Four Figures on a Step round out the installation, which, in its first-ever exhibition at the Meadows, elucidates key themes in the artist’s oeuvre. Murillo: Picturing the Prodigal Son is curated by Amanda W. Dotseth and will be on view at the Meadows Museum from February 20 through June 12, 2022.

Murillo: Picturing the Prodigal Son is the first collaboration between the Meadows Museum and the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) and was inspired by the NGI’s recent restoration of Murillo’s series, which included cleaning and extensive technical analysis.

Conservation revealed new information about the artist’s technique, which is explored in the exhibition catalogue. Other key works in the exhibition will be on public view for the first time following significant conservation. The Return of the Prodigal Son extensive treatment in their lab with the support of the Meadows Museum. And one of the Meadows’s own works by Murillo, Jacob Laying the Peeled Rods before the Flocks of Laban (c. 1665) has also been cleaned by the conservation department of the Kimbell Art Museum. The removal of aged, yellowed varnish from of all of these paintings has made it possible to better appreciate the freshness and color of Murillo’s brushwork.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617–1682), The Prodigal Son Feasting, 1660s. Oil on canvas, 411/8 x 53 in. (104.5 x 134.5 cm). National Gallery of Ireland. Presented, Sir Alfred and Lady Beit, 1987 (Beit Collection); NGI.4542.Photo © National Gallery of Ireland.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617–1682),The Prodigal Son Feeding Swine, 1660s. Oil on canvas, 411/8 x 53 in. (104.5 x 134.5 cm). National Gallery of Ireland. Presented, Sir Alfred and Lady Beit, 1987 (Beit Collection); NGI.4544.Photo © National Gallery of Ireland.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682) is among the most celebrated painters of Baroque Spain and his works are enduringly popular among international collections. Although Murillo frequently painted religious subjects for his patrons in Seville, the prodigal son parable was somewhat unusual for the time. This exhibition therefore brings together a select group of 16th- and 17th-century images that take different approaches to the visualization of the same story. While the episode near the end of the parable—the son’s return home to his forgiving father—is most widely recognized as the pivotal moment of the story, Murillo expands the narrative into six parts focused on the son’s actions and their consequences before concluding with his return home. The series demonstrates Murillo’s skill at staging and visualizing narrative; each painting’s composition is independently representative but also cues sequential reading and the collective experience of the series as a whole.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617–1682), The Prodigal Son Driven Out, 1660s. Oil on canvas, 411/8 x 53 in. (104.5 x 134.5 cm). National Gallery of Ireland. Presented, Sir Alfred and Lady Beit, 1987 (Beit Collection); NGI.4543.Photo © National Gallery of Ireland.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617–1682). The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1667/1670. Oil on canvas, 93 1/16 x 102 ¾ in. (236.3 x 261 cm). National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Gift of the Avalon Foundation, 1948.12.1. Courtesy of National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Murillo: Picturing the Prodigal Son includes a number of etchings that are thought to be source material for Murillo. As the parable was not popular in Spain, Murillo likely turned to foreign prints which would have been easily accessible to him in cosmopolitan, 17th-century Seville. Etchings by Albrecht Dürer, Jacques Callot, and Pietro Testa included in the exhibition show not only what may have influenced Murillo, but also demonstrate the diversity of artistic treatments of the same subject matter.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617–1682), The Return of the Prodigal Son,1660s. Oil on canvas, 411/8 x 53 in. (104.5 x 134.5 cm). National Gallery of Ireland. Presented,Sir Alfred and Lady Beit, 1987 (Beit Collection); NGI.4545.Photo © National Gallery of Ireland.

Said Meadows Museum Director ad interim and Curator Amanda W. Dotseth, “The Meadows Museum is home to the largest number of paintings by Murillo in the United States and is the ideal venue to introduce this series to American audiences. We are very grateful to the National Gallery of Ireland and to the other lenders who made this extraordinary presentation possible.”