PIET MONDRIAN (1872-1944) study for Broadway Boogie Woogie, charcoal and stump on paper, 23.2 x 23.2 cm, 1942.Estimate: 3 000 000-5 000 000 € © Christie's images limited 2026
Christie's presents Radical Genius, Works on Paper from a Distinguished Private Collection.
The sale of this tightly curated selection of landmark works spanning the history of drawing will take place in Paris on April 15 at 4:00 p.m., just days after the close of the Salon du dessin and the art fair Drawing Now - events that firmly establish Paris as the epicenter of the global market for works on paper. This exceptional sale also follows in the long and rich tradition of drawing auctions held by Christie's in Paris since 2000, which have regularly achieved record prices, most recently for works on paper by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Francesco Primaticcio in Spring 2025.
Featuring major works by Paul Cézanne (€3.5–5.5M), Piet Mondrian (€3–5M), Pablo Picasso (€1.2–1.8M), Alfred Kubin, Paul Klee, William Turner and Alberto Giacometti, as well as John Singer Sargent, Rembrandt and Lorenzo Lippi, the collection highlights central role of drawing for key artists throughout the history of art. The exceptional quality of the works alone justifies Christie's international preview tour. Following its presentation in New York in February, they will be exhibited in London and Paris during the Spring Marquee Week 20/21. This auction is unquestionably one of the major highlights of the Christie's Paris 2026 sale week, following the London Marquee Week.
Antoine Lebouteiller, International Specialist Impressionist & Modern Art Christie's, says : “Works on paper offer an unmatched intimacy with the artistic process. As spaces of freedom and spontaneity, sketches and drawings reveal an artist's most private self. By preserving their gestures as direct traces of their thought and deeper intention, they stand as irreplaceable witnesses to the mysterious moments in which an artwork takes shape. Thus, paper can be seen as one of the privileged sites of artistic invention, the place where ideas first emerge and where the most innovative artists lay the foundations of radically new visual languages. This is precisely the spirit of the collection to be offered at auction on April 15.”
Giovanna Bertazzoni, Chairman Europe Christie's, says :” Christie's has always taken pride in its focussed commitment to Works on Paper. From the golden age of the Chatsworth auctions in the 1980s, to the sensational result of the Michelangelo study for the Libyan Sybil two weeks ago, we have proven our faithful dedication to the study, research and promotion of masterpieces on paper and exceptional collections built around paper as a medium. Radical Genius is one of those ensembles. These are works whose remarkable quality has earned them the admiration of both scholars and the most discerning collectors, lending a unity of vision that is at once striking and intimate. All the artists represented in the group have made it their mission to challenge conventions and bring forth new forms of artistic expression.”
The sale features Paul Cézanne's Femme assise (€3,500,000–5,500,000), a major watercolor and pencil on paper from 1902, acquired in 1951 by Paul Rosenberg, the art dealer who championed the artist in New York after publishing the catalogue raisonné of his work in Paris in 1936. Femme nue debout aux mains croisées by Pablo Picasso (€1,200,000–1,800,000) was created during the artist's stay in Gòsol, a transformative moment in 1906 that marked a radical shift in his oeuvre. Exceptional in every respect, this sheet, recalling Deux Femmes de Gòsol in the collection of the Met in New York, was acquired directly from the artist by another legendary figure of modern literature and art, Gertrude Stein.
Highly charged psychologically, Alfred Kubin's drawings reveal a humanity in which the monstrous and the whimsical coexist in a poetic universe, as exemplified in Figur im Wind, 1902, a silhouette rendered in brush and pen (€450,000–650,000). A few years later, in August 1914, Georges Grosz's Pandémonium captures in just a few strokes all the chaos of a world that had just plunged into the First World War (€200,000–300,000). Alexander Rodchenko's dystopian collage Maquette for War of the Future (€400,000–600,000) reflects the apocalyptic mindset of the 1930s. This work, testimony in itself to the artist's immense influence on all graphic arts throughout the twentieth century, has been widely exhibited around the world, from MoMA to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Equally radical in its time, Piet Mondrian's abstract dynamism is dazzling in his 1942 charcoal and stump study for his final, and perhaps most recognizable, masterpiece Broadway Boogie Woogie (€3,000,000–5,000,000), The sheet was notably shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Art Gallery of Toronto, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, and of course at MoMA, where Broadway Boogie Woogie is now housed.
Among the watercolors offered in the sale is Paul Klee's Nördlich-Winterlich (1923) (€400,000–600,000), from the collection of the artist's wife Lilly, who, upon the Klee's death, established the honorary commission responsible for managing his artistic estate.
John Singer Sargent's Jerusalem (€100,000–150,000) showcases the artist's extraordinary draughtsmanship and mastery of light and shadow. Jerusalem was painted circa 1905 and, upon Sargent's death, passed to his sister Violet.
Similarly, J. M. W. Turner's View of Jerusalem (€250,000–350,000), shows the artist's deft command of the watercolor medium, pulling the viewer into a sense of the sublime. For Turner, paper was never merely a preparatory support but an essential space where perception and imagination could unfold freely.
Works by Eugène Delacroix and Alberto Giacometti complete this remarkable ensemble.
Two drawings by William Blake will be sold at the Old Masters Part I sale in London next July (£500,000-800,000 and £500,000-700,000).
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SALE
