Christie’s is proud to present Francis Bacon’s Portrait of Man with Glasses III (1963; estimate: £6,000,000-9,000,000) as a major highlight of its 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale on 5 March 2025. Coming from an important private British collection, the painting is a masterpiece from a defining time in the artist’s career and is offered at auction for the very first time.
Portrait of Man with Glasses III has been extensively exhibited worldwide, featuring in 17 major international retrospectives and serving as the cover image for the catalogue of the Francis Bacon/Henry Moore: Flesh and Bone exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford in 2013. Most recently, it was displayed at London’s National Portrait Gallery as part of Francis Bacon: Human Presence, reaffirming its status as a cornerstone of Bacon’s oeuvre.
Exemplifying the formal freedom and intensity that characterised Bacon’s works of the early 1960s, the painting’s bold brushstrokes, flashes of raw canvas, and dark, enigmatic spectacles create a dynamic and deeply expressive image, reflecting the evolution of Bacon’s artistic practice. The painting’s distorted yet captivating features reflect Bacon’s deep exploration of emotion, form, and the human condition: the bared teeth, rendered with thick impasto and delicate colour, embody his ambition to “paint the mouth like Monet painted a sunset”, as quoted in D. Sylvester’s Interviews with Francis Bacon.
The mouth is the centrepiece of so many of Bacon’s masterpieces from the toothy jaws of Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944, Tate, London), to his crucial first ‘Heads’ and screaming ‘Popes’, to his howling animals and even the portraits of his closest friends: Henrietta Moraes, Lucian Freud and George Dyer. The mouth, for Bacon, was a site of sensuality, laughter and conversation. In Portrait of Man with Glasses III, the mouth becomes a thing of mobile, shimmering splendour.
1963 was a pivotal year for Francis Bacon bookended by two milestone moments in his career. In 1962 he was awarded his first museum retrospective at Tate, London and at the end of 1963 he opened his first major US exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, cementing his status as one of the most significant artists of his time. It also marked a moment of transformation for the artist who was still meditating upon the loss of his great love, Peter Lacy but was shortly to encounter his greatest muse, George Dyer. Bacon appears energised, filled with the inspiration that was to create some of the greatest masterpieces of the 20th century.
In 1963, his technique also evolved to include texture and colour in a radical way. In Portrait of Man with Glasses III we see the artist celebrate the natural qualities of the raw canvas, celebrating both negative and positive space. He drags dry paint into powerful strokes, using textured fabrics like the cuff of his corduroy jacket to stipple the surface. The black void sparkles with silver; an enigmatic backdrop to his anonymous protagonist. The face twists like a chrysalis, capturing a moment of metamorphosis that reflects the profound influence of Picasso, whose radical reimagining of the human head - its features distorted, rearranged, and seen from multiple angles at once - was foundational to Bacon’s artistic evolution.
Katharine Arnold, Vice Chairman 20th/21st Century Art and Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Europe, Christie’s London: “Portrait of Man with Glasses III, 1963 is a masterpiece by Francis Bacon. Recently included in the magnificent portrait exhibition Francis Bacon: Human Presence at the National Portrait Gallery it holds an extraordinary gravitational pull. The painting embodies all of the complex brilliance of the artist who once declared his passion for the mouth and his desire to paint it as Monet had mastered the sunset. From his screaming Popes and howling animals to the enigmatic grins of his cast of friends, the mouth was not only the source of the existential scream but the site of sensuality, laughter and conversation. Portrait of Man with Glasses III features a mouthful of delicate teeth, while his glasses slide in the flurry of movement conjured by the artist’s brushstrokes. The sister painting to this wonderful portrait sits in the Seattle Museum of Art. It is a privilege to be offering this iconic picture that holds such an important place in the artist's oeuvre at auction for the first time at Christie’s”.
Christie’s is honoured to present Tamara de Lempicka’s Portrait du Docteur Boucard (1928; estimate: £5,000,000-8,000,000) as a major highlight of its 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale on 5 March 2025. Coming from an important private collection, the painting was commissioned from Lempicka by the sitter himself, Doctor Boucard – a prominent art collector and key patron of the artist - and has not been seen on the market in the past forty years.
A striking celebration of scientific achievement and artistic mastery, Tamara de Lempicka’s Portrait du Docteur Boucard captures the pioneering medical scientist Pierre Boucard in a moment of dynamic brilliance. An esteemed bacteriologist, Boucard revolutionised pharmaceutical science with the 1907 invention of Lactéol, a probiotic that laid the foundation for modern gut health research which is still in use today.
Lempicka’s talent for blending personal identity with broader social and historical themes established her as one of the foremost portraitists of the 20th century. Bathed in a dramatic beam of light, Boucard turns toward the glow, one hand resting on his microscope, the other gripping a glass test tube. The stark Cubist backdrop and striking chiaroscuro create a dynamic tension, capturing both the precision of scientific inquiry and the refinement of modern portraiture. With her signature smooth, polished finish and sculptural precision, Lempicka portrays Boucard as both an esteemed scientist and a man of distinction. His white trench coat, reminiscent of a laboratory coat, suggests a cinematic transformation. His upturned collar, pearl-accented tie, and sharply defined features convey both intellectual authority and cosmopolitan charm. Looking away with quiet confidence, Boucard, like many of Lempicka’s subjects, exudes the sophistication and ambition of the haute société to which he belonged.
Lempicka’s rise in the art world was meteoric. Having fled Russia during the revolution, she settled in Paris in 1918 and trained under the influential Maurice Denis and André Lhote, whose Cubist style left a lasting imprint on her work. By the mid-1920s, she had become the most sought-after portraitist among Europe’s elite, attracting commissions from Milan’s high society following her successful 1925 solo exhibition at Bottega di Poesia. The late 1920s marked a golden era for the artist, cementing her reputation as the foremost female artist of les années folles, the glamorous, high-energy years between the World Wars. With Boucard’s generous financial support, she established a state-of-the-art studio on Rue Méchain in Paris, designed by modernist architect Robert Mallet-Stevens. This space became both a creative sanctuary and a glamorous social hub, where Lempicka hosted fashionable gatherings that further solidified her image as an artist at the forefront of modernity.
Giovanna Bertazzoni, Chairman, Christie’s Europe: “Lempicka’s Portrait du Docteur Boucard is a striking blend of modernity and individuality, demonstrating her ability to weave personal identity with the scientific and cultural ambitions of her time. The painting radiates vitality, offering a remarkably subtle yet profound psychological study of modern man. The appearance of Portrait du Docteur Boucard at auction is made all the more timely and significant by the fact it coincides with the closing of the first major U.S. retrospective of her work, at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. This sensational exhibition – co-curated by Furio Rinaldi and Gioia Mori - will soon travel to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, opening on 9 March. It was celebrated by the global press, and attended by record crowds – a seal of the ‘Lempicka-mania’ that has seized connoisseurs and amateurs in the most recent years. We are delighted to present this exceptional work in our 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale on 5 March.”
Find out more about Tamara de Lempicka and Portrait du Docteur Boucard in the dedicated editorial on Christies.com.
London – Christie’s is honoured to present Egon Schiele’s Knabe in Matrosenanzug (Boy in a Sailor Suit) (estimate: £1,000,000 – 1,500,000), as a highlight of the 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale on 5 March 2025. Part of the collection of Fritz Grünbaum, this work is being offered following a restitution agreement. In Vienna in the early decades of the last century, Fritz Grünbaum assembled an art collection that included hundreds of works. The collection was lost when the Nazis annexed Austria in the late 1930s, and Mr. Grünbaum and his wife were sent to concentration camps where they perished.
Co-Head of the 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale, Michelle McMullan, said: “This is a seminal and iconic work by Schiele that shows him at the very height of his powers. In this piece we see Schiele’s acute observational skills and ability to fuse precise draftsmanship with bold, expressionist colour, while intentionally leaving elements unfinished, such as the boy’s left hand, to evoke movement and spontaneity.”
One of the Grünbaum heirs, Timothy Reif, said: “We are grateful that Fritz Grünbaum’s ownership of this superb work of art has been restored to history and that proceeds from this auction will help the Grünbaum Fischer Foundation support underrepresented performing artists. This is another moment to celebrate the memory of our family member who was a brave artist, art collector, and opponent of Fascism.”
The Chairman of Christie’s Americas, Marc Porter, said: “It’s been a privilege for Christie’s Restitution team to help tell the powerful story of Fritz Grünbaum and his collection, and bring another magnificent Schiele work on paper to the market. It is especially gratifying that this sale will raise funds for the Grünbaum Fischer Foundation’s efforts to uplift performing artists, and that the German consignor will also donate proceeds to a charity project for children called „Kinderoase.”
THE LEGACY OF FRITZ GRÜNBAUM
Born Franz Friedrich Grünbaum in April 1880, Fritz Grünbaum was a celebrated cabaret performer, writer, actor and outspoken opponent of Nazism, active in Vienna during the early twentieth century. He studied law before turning to performance and cabaret, and enjoyed a highly successful and varied theatrical career, which included performances at the famous Viennese theatre Simpl, as well as roles in several early films. Alongside his work as a performer, Grünbaum held a life-long passion for art, shaped by his father Wilhelm’s activities as a dealer in the city of Brno (Brünn), and he built up a diverse personal collection which ranged from Russian icons and etchings by Old Masters such as Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt, to Post-Impressionist and Modern drawings and watercolours by August Rodin, Camille Pissarro, Paul Signac, Max Liebermann, Käthe Kollwitz, and others.
However, it was compositions by the Viennese avant-garde of the early twentieth century and, in particular, the works of Egon Schiele that captured Grünbaum’s imagination. Over the course of his life, he purchased over 80 works by the artist, spanning the full range of Schiele’s creative output, from delicate pencil portraits and nude studies executed in gouache or watercolour, to striking, melancholic landscapes and mysterious allegorical subjects in oil.
Shortly after the German annexation of Austria in 1938, Grünbaum was arrested by the Gestapo and subsequently interned at Dachau concentration camp in June 1938, where he perished in January of 1941, after having also spent some time incarcerated in Buchenwald. His art collection, which numbered over 400 works at the time of his arrest, was lost following his wife Lilly’s deportation to the Maly Trostenets concentration camp near Minsk in October 1942, where she was murdered soon after her arrival.
RESTITUTION AT CHRISTIE'S For more than a quarter of a century, Christie’s has engaged with the legacy of Nazi-era and World War II art theft and dispossession. Losses during 1933–1945 to Europe’s collections, in particular those of Jewish collectors, through persecution, confiscation, and forced sales continue to resonate strongly in today’s art world. Christie’s has the largest and most experienced Restitution team of any international auction house, underscoring our responsibility to this field. Located in New York, London, Berlin, Brussels, and Vienna, our researchers have over 100 combined years of experience. We have made Nazi-era provenance research a hallmark of our expertise and inextricably a part of the art historical framework.
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