Monet at Auction II

 Also see Monet at Auction

Claude Monet’s Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume will be a highlight of Christie’s 20/21 London to Paris sale series, offered in the 20th / 21st Century: London Evening Sale on 28 June. Depicting the Thames under an effervescent sunlit haze, 

Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume (1904, estimate: in the region of £24 million) comes from Monet’s monumental, landmark series entitled Vues du Londres (Views of London), which celebrates London’s unique character, architecture and ever-changing atmosphere. The artist focused on the play of light across the Thames through three principal subjects – Charing Cross Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, and Waterloo Bridge. In contrast to the bustling modernity of the Charing Cross paintings and the solemn grandeur of the Houses of Parliament compositions, Monet’s views of Waterloo Bridge stand as pure meditations on colour, light, and atmosphere, evocatively capturing the shifting character of the famous bridge under varying weather conditions at different times of the day.

The sale of Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume follows the exceptional price achieved for 

Le Parlement, soleil couchant, from The Collection of Anne H. Bass, which sold for $75.9 million on 12 May 2022, setting a record for a painting from Monet’s Vues du Londres. Of the 41 paintings of Waterloo Bridge which Monet painted, 26 are in public institutions, including The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; Bührle Foundation, Zürich; Art Institute of Chicago; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and Kunstmuseum Bern. Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume comes to auction following a long-term loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel.

In Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume, Monet records an early morning view, choosing the moments in which the bright light of the rising sun breaks through the layers of haze and mist, sending rippling golden rays of sunshine into the sky, and across the surface of the water. The painting stands as a testament to Britain's significant impact on international artists, highlighting the cultural dialogue between London and Paris in the art historical canon. Depicting the bridge head-on, its rhythmic arches spanning the entire width of the canvas, Monet allows the structure to become the primary focus of the composition, giving it a solid sense of monumentality amidst the otherwise intangible elements of the scene.

The Waterloo Bridge views
Monet captured his views of Waterloo Bridge in a remarkably varied number of ways*, exploring the scene through a subtly shifting range of colours, from luminous blues to delicately-hued violets and soft greens, tracing the effects of the notoriously capricious weather conditions. For an artist whose life had been spent in the pursuit of capturing the transitory effects of weather on the landscape in painterly form, these unpredictable, often fast-moving meteorological effects by turn beguiled, thrilled, infuriated and disheartened him. Rendered in an array of deftly applied strokes and flecks of pigment, in Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume, Monet eloquently conjures the effect of the constantly changing atmosphere on the scene, heightening the feeling of the softly enveloping haze of the title through an intricate play of opacity and translucency.

An illustrious and impeccable provenance
Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume was purchased in 1905 by Paul Durand-Ruel, who had staged the highly successful inaugural exhibition of the series at his gallery in May 1904, and sold almost immediately to Mrs. A. Stern, with whom it remained until 1919. The painting subsequently passed through several important collections, including those of Adolph Lewisohn and the D.P. Allen Memorial Art Museum, at Oberlin College in Ohio, before being acquired by Arde Bulova, Chairman of the renowned Bulova Watch Company in 1951.

Originally founded by Joseph Bulova in New York in 1875, the Bulova Watch Company rapidly expanded during the early 20th century, quickly becoming America’s largest watch company.  This growth was fuelled by innovative designs and creative marketing that included America’s very first radio and TV commercials as well as collaborations with celebrated aviator Charles Lindbergh and NASA. In addition to being a successful entrepreneur, Arde Bulova was a dedicated philanthropist who was at the forefront of championing equal access for people with disabilities.  He founded The Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking that provided tuition-free education to disabled WWII veterans as a means of rehabilitation, combined with master watchmaking skills and dedicated job placement.

Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume was passed down through the Bulova family to Arde’s nephew Paul Bulova Guilden, a New York entrepreneur, philanthropist, and dedicated supporter of the arts throughout his life, who held the role of Chairman at the legendary John B. Stetson Company for three decades.

Taking place on 28 June 2022, three auctions focus on the influential artistic synergies that exist between London and Paris. 20/21 London to Paris is comprised of the 20th / 21st Century: Marc Chagall, Colour of Life, 20th / 21st Century: London Evening Sale, and the 20th / 21st Century: Paris Evening Sale. 

Katharine Arnold, Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Europe and Keith Gill, Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, London: “Monet’s representation of London’s Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume and his painting Nymphéas, temps gris – a work that arguably anticipated abstraction. Jeff Koons’ iconic Balloon Monkey sculpture will form a significant charitable donation and highlights the urgent need to support those affected by the ongoing war against Ukraine. These works are the backdrop against which contemporary painters and sculptors, ranging from Rachel Jones to Simone Leigh, are presented. We look forward to celebrating London and Paris with our collectors, both in person in our salerooms and via livestream globally."

CLAUDE MONET’S NYMPHÉAS, TEMPS GRIS AND WATERLOO BRIDGE, EFFET DE BRUME

Following the outstanding prices achieved by Christie’s in New York in May for two works from Monet’s highly influential Vues de Londres and Nymphéas series from the Collection of Anne H. Bass, two further works from these iconic series will now be offered in 20/21 London to Paris. Claude Monet’s depictions of the horticultural paradise that he designed and cultivated in Giverny stand among the greatest works of his career. Nymphéas, temps gris (estimate: £20,000,000-30,000,000, illustrated page one, lower left) is one of a rare series of Nymphéas that Monet painted in 1907 in a vertical format to capture the spectacular effects of late afternoon light upon his water lily pond. Others from the series grace museum collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Artizon Museum, Tokyo.

In Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume (1904, estimate: £22,000,000-32,000,000, illustrated page one, lower right), Monet records an early morning view of the London landmark, choosing the moments in which the bright light of the rising sun breaks through the layers of haze and mist, sending rippling golden rays of sunshine into the sky, and across the surface of the water. Monet painted 40 views of Waterloo Bridge at different times of the day and with different atmospheric effects. Their importance has led to 26 of these views residing in museum collections including The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; Bührle Foundation, Zürich; Art Institute of Chicago; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and Kunstmuseum Bern. The painting was acquired in 1951 by the entrepreneur and philanthropist Arde Bulova and has remained in his family ever since. This London view by the leading Impressionist artist stands as a testament to Britain’s significant impact on international artists, highlighting the cultural dialogue between London and Paris in the art historical canon. 

Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Saule pleureur
oil on canvas
51 3/8 x 43 3/8 in. (130.5 x 110.2 cm.)
Painted in 1918 – 1919
Estimate: HK$95,000,000 – 135,000,000/ US$12,200,000 – 18,000,000

Hong Kong – Christie’s is delighted to announce the Asian auction debut of Saule pleureur, a masterpiece by Claude Monet, at Christie’s 20th and 21st Century Art Evening Sale, to be held on 26 May at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Monet reacted to the onset of unrest in Europe in 1914 with an outpouring of creativity, culminating in a period now known as the great final flowering of his career. During this period, the artist embarked on a series of ten paintings depicting a majestic weeping willow lining the artist’s famous lily pond in Giverny, which itself was the subject of the famed and monumental Grandes décorations, later donated to the nation of France to celebrate victory in the First World War. The Weeping Willow series has been described as some of Monet’s most direct and poignant works of the time, and it had been Monet’s intention that one from this great series would too join the gift to the nation. Saule pleureur remains arguably one of the best works in the series, and is one of only five from the series in private ownership.

Exceptional for its all-consuming emotive intensity, the painting is executed with forceful brushstrokes in pulsating hues. Its hero is the giant willow tree, soaring upwards to the entire height of the enormous canvas, its tumbling foliage falling like a shimmering cascade of water from above. The regal strength and quiet dignity of the tree trunk is balanced in contrast with the tranquility and ethereality of the lily pond in the lower right corner, infused with the suppressed but pulsating energy in the air and glimmering light through the falling leaves from the great boughs of the tree. In sum, Saule pleureur is a dramatically beautiful work of genius, as well as a record of an important chapter in history. Even more poignantly, this is Monet’s manifestation of his faith in the redeeming power of resilience, hope, and optimism.

The Collection of Salvador and Christina Lang Assaël
CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926)
Soleil couchant, temps brumeux, Pourville
oil on canvas
24¼ x 29¼ in. (61.5 x 74.3 cm.)
Painted in 1882

$2,500,000-3,500,000

The Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper and Day Sale will be led by a notable work by Claude Monet, Soleil couchant, temps brumeux, Pourville ($2,500,000-3,500,000). With an impressive provenance and exhibition history, this work was painted in 1882, the same year as the seventh Impressionist exhibition in Paris. It demonstrates the increasingly bold and provocative style at a critical phase of Monet’s career. 

Claude Monet, (1840-1926), Champ d'avoine et de coquelicots, signed and dated 'Claude Monet 90' (lower right), oil on canvas, 25.5/8 x 36.1/4 in. (65 x 92.1 cm.) Painted in Giverny in 1890. © Christie's Images Ltd 2022.

Claude Monet’s Champ d’avoine et de coquelicots, (estimate: $12 million – 18 million) will highlight the 20th Century Evening Sale during the Spring Marquee Week of sales. The 1890 masterwork comes to Christie’s from an Important Private French Collection along with two wonderful examples from the late 19th century offered in the Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale: Alfred Sisley’s Femme et enfant sur le chemin des près, Sèvres (estimate: $400,000 – 600,000) and Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot’s Le gros arbre (environs de Gournay) (estimate: $200,000 – 300,000). The group of three paintings is incredibly fresh to market, having been held in the same private family collection for decades, and in the case of the Monet, for over a century.

 Like his Impressionist friends, Monet had long been dedicated to the portrayal of the passing effects of light and atmosphere on the landscape. At the beginning of the 1890s he took this interest a step further when he began to work predominantly in series, painting the same scene multiple times, each canvas rendered with varying palettes depending on the time of day and weather effects. Champ d’avoine et de coquelicots is a brilliant example of this practice, demonstrating how Monet transformed the beautiful countryside of his beloved Giverny into symphonic harmonies of color and light. Capturing the abundantly flowering poppy field, this is one of a series of five works, each of which depict this dazzling rural spectacle.

Antoine Lebouteiller, Head of Impressionist and Modern Art Department, Paris remarks, “We are so pleased to offer Champ d’avoine et de coquelicots in our 20th Century Evening sale this Spring. This painting is a true masterpiece that brings to life the critical development of Monet’s seminal serial method during this all-important period in his practice. Painted near the artist’s Giverny home, the canvas features a lush field of impastoed color in jewel-like tones of red, orange, and emerald green juxtaposed with soft lilac hues in the distance, beautifully capturing the ephemeral effects of light and atmospheric conditions. It is an honor to steward this painting alongside two works from the same collection by 19th century masters, Sisley and Corot. These three works, which have been hidden away in a private collection for over half a century, together showcase the artistic tenets that lay at the heart of Impressionism.”

Monet settled in Giverny in 1883. Over the following years, he came to know the landscape intimately in a way that made possible the extended serial treatment that underscores his later artistic production. After a number of painting campaigns around France and further afield in the late 1880s, in the summer of 1890, Monet became entirely engrossed by Giverny. He pictured surroundings in their most abundant, elemental form, emphasizing the agrarian nature of the land. In this way, he reacquainted himself with the pastoral beauty of Giverny while further establishing his legacy as the key artist of rural France. The approach that Monet employed in Champ d’avoine et de coquelicots and the accompanying works created throughout autumn of 1890 would mark the start of a decade that is defined by the artist’s highly celebrated series, including the Meules and Peupliers.

Monet’s Champ d’avoine et de coquelicots was originally acquired by the legendary art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel directly from Monet in May of 1891, one year after its creation. In 1914, it was acquired by a private collector; the painting has remained in the family’s collection until present day.

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE FRENCH COLLECTION
CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926)
La Mare, effet de neige
signed and dated ‘Claude Monet 75’ (lower left)
Painted in Argenteuil in 1874-1875
Estimate: $18 million – 25 million  

Christie’s has announced Claude Monet’s masterwork La Mare, effet de neige (estimate: $18 million – 25 million) will be a highlight of the 20th Century Evening Sale taking place live on 12 May 2022 at Rockefeller Center. A historic masterpiece, the exemplary painting was among the selection of Monet canvasses represented at The Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in 1879. The work is incredibly fresh to market, having been held in a single private collection for over 70 years. Christie’s Restitution Department was privileged to provide research that helped facilitate a settlement agreement between the current owners and the heirs of Richard Semmel, the persecuted collector, who owned the painting during the Nazi era. The painting will be on exhibition at Christie’s Hong Kong 20-21 April.

Anika Guntrum, International Director, 20th & 21st Century Art, remarks: Claude Monet’s La Mare, effet de neige is undeniably one of the masterpieces of the Impressionist movement. The spontaneity and the freedom of execution seen in the rendering of light and atmosphere is a veritable tour de force.  The blanket of white snow, melting along the edge of the pond is a genius pretext for the artist to reveal, by touches of silvery blue and rose tones, a hint of springtime to come.”

MONET’S LA MARE, EFFET DE NEIGE

Claude Monet painted La Mare, effet de neige in Argenteuil winter of 1874-1875. The aethereal landscape employs tonal blue and white hues to create a frosted snowscape, bordered by homes with snow-dusted roofs. A trio of silhouetted figures, dwarfed by trees, traverse the scene. The work is brilliant, charming and subtle, standing as a superb example of Monet’s experimentation with the Impressionist style in the mid-1870s. During this crucial period of his practice, his increasingly loose brushwork and thick application of paint began to formally convey the more ephemeral and atmospheric effects of the natural world.

La Mare, effet de neige was sold a few months after its execution, at an auction at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris. Monet organized this sale with his fellow Impressionist painters, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley, after the poor critical reception of The First Impressionist Exhibition in 1874. At this sale, Paul Durand-Ruel, art dealer and champion of the Impressionists, purchased 18 of the 73 works offered, including Monet’s La Mare, effet de neige.

La Mare, effet de neige was exhibited publicly for the first time four years after it was complete at The Fourth Impressionist Exhibition or “4e exposition faite par un Groupe d’artistes Indépendants.” Monet had  initially been reluctant to participate in the exhibition, however, Gustave Caillebotte eventually convinced him to join. Twenty-nine works by the artist were included in the show, three of them Argenteuil winter landscapes—including La Mare, effet de neige. This group of 29 represented the full range of Monet’s mature oeuvre. They were all hung in the fifth and final room of the exhibition space, declaring their importance. As put by a 1879 article in Le Siècle, “the last room belongs to the high priests of Impressionism.” Despite his work being the crown jewel, Monet never visited the exhibition during its month-long run. Regardless, the show was a rousing success, with overwhelmingly positive reviews in the press.

Durand-Ruel held the painting until at least 1879. By 1893, the work had entered the collection of Henri Vever, one of the most important jewelry designers in fin-de-siècle France, and a major collector of Japanese prints and Impressionist pictures. In 1898, the painting was in the Holthusen collection, in Hamburg, Germany.

The Modern Evening Auction is highlighted by one of Claude Monet’s greatest masterpieces—the visionary depiction of Venice from 1908, Le Grand Canal et Santa Maria della Salute. Painted during the artist’s only trip to La Serenissima, this work captures the majesty of a city Monet once called “too beautiful to paint.” The finest example in the limited series painted from the steps of the Palazzo Barbaro, Le Grand Canal et Santa Maria della Salute radiates with an ethereal luminescence and sublime coloration. Monet’s unparalleled ability to capture shifting light and the palpable atmosphere of the city set this work apart, presenting one of the artist’s greatest Venice pictures ever to come to market.

Claude Monet

Le Grand Canal et Santa Maria della Salute 

Works by two of the most internationally acclaimed artists were unveiled at Sotheby’s Hong Kong this past week, ahead of Sotheby’s Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction in London on 2 March.  A stunning example of Claude Monet’s Nymphéas series, this depiction of the waterlilies at Giverny was painted between 1914 and 1917. The culmination of the artist’ progression towards true abstraction, this ground-breaking series is widely considered his greatest achievement, and this expressive, later work perfectly encapsulates the artist’s vision on a grand scale. Having last been at auction in 1978, the work has not been exhibited since 1995, when it went on view across three museums in Japan. It is now coming to auction from a distinguished Japanese private collection.  Claude Monet's Coin du bassin aux nymphéas. Courtesy Sotheby's. In the wake of the exceptional $70.4m result achieved at Sotheby’s last May for Monet’s Le Bassin aux nymphéas (1917-19), Sotheby’s will now bring to auction another late masterpiece by the artist, Coin du bassin aux nymphéas from 1918, which comes to the market later this month for the first time in nearly 25 years. The painting will be another star highlight of Sotheby’s newly-conceived Modern Evening Auction, alongside Frida Kahlo’s Diego y yo (Diego and I). Monet’s large, color-drenched canvas characteristically paves the way towards 20th-century abstraction, providing a critical bridge between the various components of the sale, which ranges from Alfred Sisley to Alexander Calder to Lee Krasner.  “Monet’s late works have long been acknowledged as critical to the evolution of Modern art, and their appreciation by the market has never been stronger – their large scale, sumptuous colors, and intimations of abstraction are all of irresistible appeal. With its illustrious exhibition history and great provenance, we expect this late work – a tour de force of color and ambition – to excite demand from around the globe”. --Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Chairman, Europe, and Worldwide Head of Impressionist & Modern Art  “Claude Monet remains one of the undeniable icons in the history of art, whose work is beloved around the world for its beauty and perspective-shifting experimentation, and Coin du bassin aux nymphéas represents a quintessential example from his celebrated and famed Water Lilies series. Following our sale earlier this year of the large-scale Le Bassin aux nymphéas for $70.4 million, and the record-breaking auction of Meules in 2019 for $110 million, the market for Monet continues to achieve new heights and milestones, with the Water Lilies series among the artist’s most prized works. A remarkable example of Monet’s late period, Coin du bassin aux nymphéas is a work of impressive scale and presence which transports the viewer to the other worldly magic of Monet’s garden.” --Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s Head of Modern Art, Americas  Coin du bassin aux nymphéas will be on public view at Sotheby’s New York beginning 5 November, alongside the full complement of works from the Modern Evening Auction, as well as The Macklowe Collection, the Contemporary Evening Auction, the Now Evening Auction, and a rare printing of the Constitution.  The famed lily pond at Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny provided the subject matter for the artist’s most celebrated canvases in his late career, including the magnificent Coin du bassin aux nymphéas from 1918. The theme of waterlilies—which became not only Monet’s most celebrated series of paintings, but one of the most iconic images of the Impressionist movement—dominated the artist’s work over several decades, recording the changes in his style and his constant pictorial innovations. Coin du bassin aux nymphéas is a powerful testament to Monet’s enduring vision and creativity in his mature years, and this work, along with the related canvases in the series, led to the celebrated Grandes Décorations now in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris.  In Coin du bassin aux nymphéas, Monet juxtaposes the waterlilies floating on the lilypond’s surface with the reflections of the trees above. Together with the long fronds of the water grasses, the tendrils of weeping willow and boughs of rambling roses lend a truly dynamic sense of motion to the composition. This sense of motion, which Monet developed over many decades, aided in his work having an increasingly abstract treatment of space and a greater focus on the effect of light and shadow, which uses the surface of the water to reflect the wealth of color around it and blurring the boundary between the real and the refracted. By obscuring the horizon line, Monet virtually eliminates traditional perspective and instead builds an abbreviated sense of depth through the contrasting patterns and gestural brushwork in the foliage. The richly worked surface becomes a kaleidoscopic tapestry of color and light built upon the contrasts of the sinewy leaves and rounded blossoms.  In 1914, Monet began to conceive of his Grandes Décorations, a sequence of monumental paintings of the gardens that would take his depictions of the waterlily pond in dramatic new directions. The artist envisaged an environment in which the viewer would be surrounded by the paintings, which had been a dream of the artist’s dating back to the 1890s, when his increasing focus on series pictures–such as his Haystacks, Rouen Cathedrals, Japanese Bridges and Mornings on the Seine–saw his creative process and approach to discrete works of art undergo a marked shift.  Monet’s carefully designed garden at Giverny presented the perfect opportunity for the artist to refine his series paintings, as it provided a micro-cosmos in which he could observe and paint the changes in weather, season and time of day, as well as the ever-changing colors and patterns. Monet thus paid exacting attention to the details of the garden, including maintaining the pond and plants in a perfect state for painting. More broadly, the role of gardens in Impressionist art was the subject of a major exhibition at the Royal Academy in London and the Cleveland Museum of Art, in which this painting featured prominently.  The Grandes Décorations, along with much of Monet’s late production, would influence artists throughout the following generations. The lasting legacy of Monet’s late work is most clearly seen in the art of the Abstract Expressionists, such as Joan Mitchell, Clyfford Still, Jackson Pollock, Sam Francis, and later artists such as Gerhard Richter, whose bold color palette and rejection of figuration is foreshadowed by Monet’s Nymphéas, with Coin du bassin aux nymphéas an influential and emblematic example that remains a hallmark of 20th century art.  xx Claude Monet’s Au jardin, la famille de l’artiste, 1875 (estimate: $12 Million - $18 Million) will be a leading highlight of Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale this November in New York. Publicly exhibited only a handful of times since its creation, the painting was last seen at auction in 1984 and has remained in the same collection ever since.  Keith Gill, Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie’s London: “Created just a year after the first Impressionist Exhibition introduced the public to the artist’s revolutionary plein-air aesthetic and modern subject matter, Au jardin, la famille de l’artiste dates from a key moment in Monet’s career. Offering an intimate glimpse into the quiet routines of his family life, the work is filled with vibrant colour and golden sunlight, and contains all the hallmarks of the artist’s classic Impressionist style. It is an honor to present Au jardin, la famille de l’artiste this November in our 20th Century Evening Sale in New York.” Filled with the warm glow of summer sunshine and the vibrant hues of flowers in full bloom, Au Jardin, la famille de l’artiste is a romantic portrait of the artist’s family, glimpsed in a private moment as they enjoy the calm, tranquil atmosphere of their garden. At the time the work was created, Monet was living in Argenteuil, a lively suburb of Paris, located on the right bank of the Seine just eleven kilometres west of the capital. As with many of the artist’s paintings from 1875, Au Jardin, la famille de l’artisteeschews any details that suggest the rapidly changing character of the town at this time. Instead, the composition restricts its view, focusing on the lush abundance of the intimate space of Monet’s garden, allowing the artist to portray Argenteuil purely as a place of comfort, leisure and peace. The idyllic scene in Au Jardin, la famille de l’artiste captures a sense of the peaceful rhythms that marked Monet’s days during this period. The artist’s wife, Camille, and eldest son Jean, are depicted along with another female figure as they enjoy a leisurely afternoon in the resplendent, well-manicured gardens of their second home in the town. The figures almost disappear amidst the foliage surrounding them, from the tall, towering screen of trees that mark the edge of the garden, to the luscious blooms of the roses, geraniums, and gladioli that fill the carefully cultivated flower beds. Through the briefest of brushstrokes, Monet captures the essential characteristics of each of the different species of flowers that populate the garden, revealing his own keen interest in horticulture and gardening, which would reach its apogee in his famed gardens at Giverny. Au Jardin, la famille de l’artiste has been a highlight of a number of prestigious Impressionist collections since the year it was painted. The painting was purchased directly from the artist shortly after it was completed in 1875 by the renowned French baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure, who was an avid early collector of Monet’s work, acquiring over fifty compositions from the artist during the 1870s. Au Jardin, la famille de l’artiste remained in Faure’s collection for over three decades, before selling to Durand-Ruel in 1907, who lent the painting to a number of important early exhibitions of Impressionist art in Germany during the first decade of the 20th Century. The painting was then purchased from Durand-Ruel by the wealthy banker and industrialist, Baron Mór Lipót Herzog in 1911. Herzog was a voracious collector, with interests spanning all eras of art history; his huge collection included Gothic objets d’art, paintings from the Early Renaissance and the Dutch Golden Age, as well as a rich grouping of works by Monet, Renoir, Manet, Cézanne and Gauguin, which hung in the family palace in Budapest. Au jardin, la famille de l’artiste was subsequently acquired by the pre-eminent German collectors Kurt and Harriet Hirschland in 1928, and was among the artworks brought by the family to New York when they were forced to flee Europe in the late-1930s. The painting remained in the Hirschland collection until the mid-1960s, when it passed into the possession of Mr & Mrs David Bakalar of Boston, with whom it remained for a further two decades before being auctioned in their single owner collection sale in 1984, where it was acquired by the present owners.   One of Claude Monet’s finest large-scale Water Lilies paintings ever to appear at auction will star in Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 12 May in New York. Estimated in the region of $40 million, Le Bassin aux Nymphéas stands among the most iconic and celebrated Impressionist images.  Measuring nearly 40 by 79 inches, this enrapturing canvas from 1917-19 was conceived as part of the artist’s legendary series of monumental paintings depicting his water lily pond at Giverny, the Grandes Décorations, which he began in 1914 and examples of which can be found today in the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. The series took Monet’s paintings of the tranquil lily pond in a radical new direction and were twice the size of his earlier Water Lilies.  Ground-breaking in their nearly abstract treatment of the pond water’s surface and its reflections, these late works are recognized as an important bridge between Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism, as practised by Abstract Expressionist artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, several generations later.  Claude Monet, Le Bassin aux Nymphéas. Sotheby's Gallery Image. Courtesy Sotheby's. LE BASSIN AUX NYMPHÉAS  The water lily pond was the defining motif of the last two-and-a-half decades of Monet’s life and stands among the most iconic and celebrated of all Impressionist paintings. The profound impact the series has made on the evolution of Modern Art renders them Monet’s greatest achievement. The famous lily pond in his garden at Giverny provided the subject matter for most of the artist’s major late works, recording the changes in his style and constant pictorial innovations.  How this beautiful and visually dynamic subject came to be the focus of Monet's artistic output can be traced back to 1883, when the artist moved to Giverny where he rented a house with a large garden. Thanks to his ever-increasing financial success, Monet was able to buy the property in the early 1890s and eventually purchased a large adjacent plot of land. It was here in 1893 that, with enormous vigour and determination, Monet swiftly set about transforming the gardens and creating a large pond. There were initially a number of complaints about his plans to divert the river Epte through his garden in order to feed his new pond, which he had to address in his application to the Préfet of the Eure department.  After the turn of the century, the gardens around Monet's Giverny home became the central theme of his work. During 1901-02, Monet enlarged the pond, replanted the edges with bamboo, rhododendron, Japanese apple and cherry trees. Once discovered, the subject of water lilies offered a wealth of inspiration that the artist continued to explore for several decades. The carefully designed garden presented the artist with a microcosmos in which he could observe and paint the changes in weather, season and time of day, as well as the ever-changing colors and patterns. Monet produced series of paintings on the themes of the Japanese footbridge and the water lilies, paying exacting attention to the details of the garden, including maintaining the pond and plants in a perfect state for painting. Towards the end of his life, Monet told a visitor to his studio: "It took me some time to understand my water lilies. I planted them purely for pleasure; I grew them with no thought of painting them. A landscape takes more than a day to get under your skin. And then, all at once, I had the revelation - how wonderful my pond was - and reached for my palette. I've hardly had any other subject since that moment."  In 1914, Monet began work on his Grandes Décorations, a sequence of monumental paintings of the gardens that would take his depictions of the water lily pond in a radical new direction. That same year, after constructing an enormous garden that could surround him while he worked, Monet conceived of a group of paintings that would similarly envelop the viewer in a peaceful environment. At this scale, Monet surrounded the viewer with multiple depictions of the lily pond, allowing the shifting colors of the water’s reflections during the course of the day to create a nearly abstract environment of aqueous sensations.  Le Bassin aux Nymphéas was painted as Monet worked on the Grandes Décorations, examples of which can be found in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. In this monumental scale, Monet moved further away from a realistic depiction of the lily pond as the viewer is brought closer to the surface of the pond, seemingly hovering above the shifting colors of the pond's reflections. Monet's palette is more vibrant than in his earlier Water Lillies series, and the handling is decidedly more fluid, with flowers indicated by bold strokes of paint. This heightened sense of the pond's surface also emphasizes the surface of the painting as Monet's dazzling strokes of paint move back and forth, like the reflections of the lily pond, between the ripples in the water. The large scale of the present work suggests that although it may have been conceived outside, it was almost certainly painted in the large studio that Monet had built expressly for the purpose of accommodating the Grandes Décorations. Monet's conception at this point was not to depict the actual pond, but to surround the viewer with the "water surface with no horizon and no shore," an effect the present work achieves with its striking scale and presence.  This extraordinary painting is a powerful testament to Monet’s enduring vision and creativity in his mature years. The lasting legacy of his late work is most clearly seen in the art of the Abstract Expressionists, such as Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Jackson Pollock and Sam Francis, whose bold color planes and rejection of figuration is foreshadowed by the Nymphéas. A Modern Masterpiece  This May, Christie’s will present Claude Monet’s Waterloo Bridge, effet de brouillard, 1899-1903, Estimate on Request (in the region of $35 million) as a highlight of Christie’s newly introduced 20th Century Evening Sale. This rare and important painting is a fine example of Monet’s celebrated Waterloo Bridge series, an exquisite example of his capacity to capture the ephemeral, intangible effects of light on the River Thames. With these pivotal works, Monet effectively paved the way for the trajectory of 20thCentury Art as we now know it. “I adore London, it is a mass, an ensemble, and it is so simple. What I like most of all in London is the fog... I so love London!” – Claude Monet in conversation with René Gimpel the celebrated London dealer. Monet’s impassioned declaration is masterfully conveyed in Waterloo Bridge, effet de brouillard, one of the artist’s monumental, landmark series of London views, the Vues du Londres. Begun in London in 1899, this series remains one of the artist’s greatest achievements, as he transformed the city and its famed fog-filled skies into ethereal, timeless visions of the modern city. Of the three key subjects of this ambitious campaign, the Waterloo Bridge series is the largest, and is renowned for being the most radical and varied and also the most poetic and avant-garde.   Waterloo Bridge, effet de brouillard is the finest example from this iconic series to be offered at auction for over a decade. The finest works from this series are now housed in the great museums of the world, including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Art Institute of Chicago, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The present painting compares very favourably with each of these and like them was chosen by Monet to feature as one of eighteen Waterloo Bridges included in his ground-breaking 1904 exhibition, Claude Monet: Vues de la Tamise à Londres at the Galerie Durand-Ruel.  Reacting to this show Georges Lecomte wrote that Monet had never “attained such a vaporous subtlety, such power of abstraction and synthesis”. In Waterloo Bridge, effet de brouillard, Monet has pictured the panoramic eastward vista from the balcony of his hotel room at the fashionable Savoy Hotel. The expansive, waters of the Thames are traversed by the stone bridge that recedes toward the factory-lined south bank beyond. The entire scene is cloaked in an ephemeral, evanescent mist that is illuminated by the invisible sun beyond, its veiled presence casting the city into an extraordinary iridescent blue and pink light. Here, Monet performed alchemy with brush and pigment, deploying the most nuanced flickers and strokes of color to create a composition that has captured the vaporous quality of the atmosphere, and the magical power of light. In his quest to depict his impression of the scene that lay before him, Monet has transformed a fleeting vista of industrial London into a mysterious and deeply contemplative evocation that transcends the bounds of time and place. “It’s a miracle,” wrote Octave Mirbeau. “It’s almost a paradox that one can, with impasto on canvas, create impalpable matter, imprison the sun…to make shoot forth from this Empyrean atmosphere, such splendid fairylands of light. And yet, it’s not a miracle, it’s not a paradox: it’s the logical outcome of the art of M. Claude Monet.” (Claude Monet, Vues de la Tamise a Londres, exh. cat., Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1904, p. 8). Waterloo Bridge, effet de brouillard was one of the earliest London paintings to enter an American collection when it was acquired in early 1905 by the pioneering Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Amy Lowell. Waterloo Bridge, effet de brouillard remained in the Lowell family by descent until 1978, and was included in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts retrospective of masterpieces by Claude Monet held in America the year after the artist’s death in 1927.

Painted in 1883, Étretat, coucher de soleil exemplifies Claude Monet’s vivid depictions of the Normandy coast, energetically applied in swift, flickering brushstrokes (estimate $1.2/1.8 million). During the 1880s, Monet's main pictorial emphasis grew to encompass more natural themes than the social ones that concerned his earlier works. Previously, Monet’s depictions of the Normandy coastline were populated by leisurely bourgeois scenes or bucolically presented peasants. In the present work, Monet removes these humdrum elements, preferring to paint uninhabited views of the magnificent coastline.

 

Three outstanding paintings from an important private collection including one of Claude Monet 's iconic Nymphéas series will lead the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale in London on 19 June. 

 

"As far as method of colouring is concerned, [the Impressionists] have made a real discovery, whose origin cannot be found elsewhere - neither with the Dutch, nor in the pale tones of fresco painting, nor in the light tonalities of the eighteenth century. […] Their discovery actually consists in having recognised that full light de-colours tones, that the sun reflected by objects tends (because of its brightness) to bring them back to that luminous unity which melts its seven prismatic rays into a single colourless radiance: light."

This is how the French writer and art critic Edmond Duranty articulated the approach of a new group of painters in his essay titled La Nouvelle Peinture, written at the time of the Second Impressionist exhibition in 1876. This group of avant-garde artists, now known as the Impressionists, held the first of their eight group exhibitions in 1874, in opposition to the official, government-sponsored Salon.

Claude Monet, Nymphéas, 1908. Estimate £25,000,000–35,000,000. 

 

 

Claude Monet, Nymphéas , 1908, oil on canvas (est. £25,000 ,000 - 35,000,000 / $31,880,000 - 44,630,000) 

 

Thomas Boyd - Bowman, Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sales in London, said: “This beautifully lyrical and softly ephemeral Nymphéas painted in 1908 is a timeless reflection of Monet’s vision and innovation. Acquired in 1932, it has remained a hidden treasure in the same family collection for decades and will now make its very first appearance at auction.” 

 

Monet’s iconic series paintings – long considered the apogee of Impressionism – have in the past year reached new heights in the market. Most recently, at Sotheby’s in New York, his glowing haystacks from 1890 became the first work of impressionist art to exceed $100 million at auction, mere months after a record for a Venetian view wa s set at Sotheby’s in London. The most famous images of all remain those of Monet’s beloved waterlilies, which have left an indelible mark on the history of art and become entrenched in the public consciousness. 

 

The artist’s first steps towards true abstr action, this ground - breaking series is widely considered his greatest achievement. Monet’s meticulously designed water garden in Giverny verged on an all - consuming obsession, as the artist diverted the course of the river near his home and waded out into t he waters daily to preserve the pristine beauty of the waterlilies. The result was a kaleidoscope of colour on his doorstep, forever changing with an unending variety of tones and forms. Amongst Monet’s most desirable waterlilies are those from the period between 1904 – 1909 , when Monet stripped away the banks of the pond, eliminated the horizon line and transformed the water into a mirror for the sky. With its decidedly free brushwork, this painting represents the most sophisticated qualities of his earlier, precise explorations whilst anticipating the innovations that were to follow in the Grande s Décorations housed in the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris . 

 

This stunning example of the Nymphéas series comes to auction along with two other works from the same collection – one an earlier work by Monet , depicting the astonishingly rich fields around Giverny in the spring of 1885; the other a dazzling pointillist depiction of the landscape s urrounding Pissarro's home in a bucolic neighbouring village of Eragny, which he had purchased with financial aid from Monet.

 

 The most famous images of all remain those of Monet’s beloved waterlilies, which have left an indelible mark on the history of art and become entrenched in the public consciousness. The artist’s first steps towards true abstr action, this ground - breaking series is widely considered his greatest achievement. Monet’s meticulously designed water garden in Giverny verged on an all - consuming obsession, as the artist diverted the course of the river near his home and waded out into t he waters daily to preserve the pristine beauty of the waterlilies. The result was a kaleidoscope of colour on his doorstep, forever changing with an unending variety of tones and forms. Amongst Monet’s most desirable waterlilies are those from the period between 1904 – 1909 , when Monet stripped away the banks of the pond, eliminated the horizon line and transformed the water into a mirror for the sky. With its decidedly free brushwork, this painting represents the most sophisticated qualities of his earlier, precise explorations whilst anticipating the innovations that were to follow in the Grandes Décorations housed in the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris . 

Sotheby’s will offer an outstanding group of six paintings by Claude Monet, spanning the 1870s through the 1910s and including many of his most celebrated subjects: water lilies, Venice, a snowscape, the Seine and the Normandy coast. The works are emerging after significant time spent in their respective private collections, including a prime example of the artist’s iconic Nymphéas (‘Water Lilies’) series that was acquired by its present owner in 1955 (estimate $30–45 million*), and a Venice scene restituted to the son of legendary collector Jakob Goldschmidt in 1960 that is on offer from the collection of his grandson, the late Anthony Goldschmidt (estimate $15–20 million). In total, the six Monet paintings are estimated to achieve in excess of $78 million. Each of the works will be on view in London from 10–14 April, before returning to New York for exhibition on 1 May. 

Simon Shaw, Co-Head of Sotheby’s Worldwide Impressionist & Modern Art Department, commented: “The six works by Monet that we are privileged to present this May represent exactly what buyers are seeking at this moment: several of his most famous scenes, emerging from prestigious private collections and completely fresh to the market. We’re undeniably witnessing an exceptional moment for great works by Monet at Sotheby’s. As new generations and new markets rediscover the master, the supply of strong examples remaining in private hands is shrinking fast. The result is fierce competition that leads to the results we have witnessed recently at Sotheby’s.” 

Sotheby’s sold 18 works by Monet in 2014, with buyers from the US, UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia demonstrating the global appeal of his enduring genius in today’s market. The works together achieved a remarkable $190.5 million, led by another example of the Nymphéas paintings (dated to 1906) that sold for $54.1 million – the second-highest price for any work by the artist at auction. Sotheby’s sold five works by Monet in its February 2015 Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in London, which together totaled $83.8 million. That group was led by Le Grand Canal, another Venice picture that fetched $35.8 million – the current auction record for a Venice scene by the artist. 

Nymphéas 1905 Estimate $30–45 million 

Monet’s Nymphéas paintings stand as the most celebrated series in Impressionist art. The famous lily pond in the artist’s gardenat Giverny provided the subject matter for most of his major late works, recording the evolution of his style and his constant pictorial innovations. The present example dates from 1905, and has remained in the same distinguished private collection since 1955. 

Until Sotheby’s worldwide exhibitions this spring, the painting has not been viewed in public since 1945. 

This work was included in the seminal exhibition held at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in 1909, which Monet titled Les nymphéas, series de paysages d'eau par Claude Monet. The artist insisted on payment for almost all the works to be included in the show, resulting in legendary dealer Durand-Ruel – who did not have the funds to bankroll the whole exhibition – having to acquire the pictures jointly with the Bernheim-Jeune brothers. Monet and the dealers chose 48 canvases, all of the same subject, which were shown in three rooms and drew the attention and admiration of countless collectors. 

The first owners of the present Nymphéas were Émil and Alma Staub-Terlinden of Männedorf. Together they amassed one of the finest private collections of Impressionist art in Switzerland, with much of it being purchased over a short period of time around the end of the 1910s. The painting remained in the Staub-Terlinden’s possession for many years, before being acquired by the present owner. 

Le Palais Ducal 1908 Estimate $15–20 million 

Monet’s spectacular view of the Palazzo Ducale on the Grand Canal belongs to the extraordinary series he completed in the fall of 1908 in Venice. Painted from the south-east vantage of a floating pontoon, the scene depicts the Palace, with its Byzantine fenestrations adorning the façade, alongside the Ponte della Paglia and the prison building on the right. Le Palais Ducal was confiscated from noted collector Jakob Goldschmidt by the National Socialist Government in February 1941. The painting was included in a forced auction of the Goldschmidt collection in September of that year, where it was bought as a present for the Nazi industrialist Dr. Albert Vögler – a former client of Jakob, who owed much of his success to Jakob’s financial genius. In 1960, the picture was reclaimed from Vögler’s heirs by Jakob’s son Erwin Goldschmidt, following 10 years of litigation in Hamburg. It subsequently descended to Erwin’s son Anthony Goldschmidt, who died in 2014. Sotheby’s held the first evening sale in its history in1958, with an auction dedicated to a selection of works that Jakob Goldschmidt had been able to get out of Germany – both through friends, and hidden in the trunk of his car. This landmark sale broke numerous records and ushered in a new era for the Impressionist & Modern art market. As it was restituted in 1960, the present work was not offered as part of this famed sale – as a result, it has never been exhibited publicly until Sotheby’s exhibitions this spring. 

Bassin aux nymphéas, les rosiers 1913 Estimate $18–25 million 

A vibrant example from 1913, Bassin aux nymphéas, les rosiers represents Monet at the height of his mature style. Here he depicts an arceaux de roses overlooking the tranquil surface of a pond with scattered clusters of water lilies. Monet painted three oils from this precise vantage point, one of which is now housed at the Phoenix Art Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, and the current version is the largest from this series. The work was acquired by its present owner in 1991. 

Le Chemin d'Epinay, effet de neige 1875 Estimate $6–8 million 

Resplendent with the glimmer and frosty sheen of snow and ice, Le Chemin d'Epinay, effet de neige depicts the trodden road leading into the town of Épinay-sur-Seine on the outskirts of Paris. This picture dates from the height of Monet's involvement with the Impressionists in Paris, when the artist was considered the premier landscape painter of the group – among whom snow scenes (effet de neige) were an important tradition. The present work may have been included in the historic second group showing of the Impressionists in 1876, as both it and a picture currently in the collection of the Albright-Knox Gallery match the description of one listed in the 1876 catalogue. It was acquired by its present owner at a Sotheby’s New York auction in 1984. 

La Seine à Vétheuil 1901 Estimate $6–8 million 

The small village of Vétheuil is situated along the Seine between the city of Mantes and the town of Vernon, and was home to Monet and his family between 1878 and 1880. This picturesque location was the site of some of Monet’s most successful Impressionist landscapes during this period, and continued to fascinate him well into his later career. Of the 15 paintings from the Vétheuil series, a number are now in the collections of major international museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, The Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and The Pushkin Museum in Moscow. The work has remained in the same private collection since 1955, and has never before appeared at auction. 

Claude Monet, Paysage de matin (Giverny), oil on canvas, 1888. US$6-8million

• Paysage de matin (Giverny) is a consummate example of the luminescent landscapes completed by Monet during his distinguished middle career.
• Monet executed these works by situating himself in the midst of the French countryside with the hopes of encapsulating the light and conditions of a summer day within his canvases. Paysage de matin is an exceptional illustration of Monet’s ability to capture the light effects of his beloved Giverny.
• The present work is representative of Monet’s most sought after qualities, contributing to its broad global appeal. 
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