A collection of five bronzes by Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957), one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century, will be offered from a private collection in a dedicated single-owner sale, Brancusi: The Legacy, on November 18 at Bonhams U.S. flagship galleries at 111 West 57th Street, a museum-quality setting ideally suited to showcasing major works of modern and contemporary art. The sale will precede the auction house's 20th and 21st Century Art Evening Sale later that day.
Acquired directly from the artist's estate in the 1980s and 1990s, the five works have remained in the same private collection ever since and are now offered at auction for the first time. Spanning works Brancusi first conceived between 1917 and 1937, the collection brings together several of the artist's defining motifs, including the sleeping or disembodied head, the abstracted portrait, the fragmented torso and the animal form.
The bronzes were cast posthumously by the Susse Foundry between 1973 and 1991, from duplicates of Brancusi's original plasters, in numbered editions authorised by Alexandre Istrati (1915–1991) and Natalia Dumitresco (1915–1997). Appointed as Brancusi's sole universal legatees, the Romanian-born couple held the reproduction rights to his work, ensuring a clear and continuous line of authorization for these casts. They worked from a studio adjacent to Brancusi's own in Paris and remained his close companions in his final years.
Overall, the collection is expected to fetch $25 million.
"This collection offers an exceptionally eloquent survey of Brancusi's relentless pursuit of formal distillation," commented Ralph Taylor, Global Head of 20th and 21st Century Art at Bonhams. "Spanning two decades of his career, the group reveals a chronological breadth matched by its conceptual coherence. To present five works of this calibre together, offered at auction for the first time, is a rare opportunity for collectors, and a remarkable addition to what is already shaping up to be an exceptional season for Bonhams in New York."
Andrew Huber, U.S. Head of 20th and 21st Century Art, Bonhams added: "With MoMA's major Brancusi exhibition on view, there could not be a more fitting moment to bring this collection to market. Our flagship galleries offer an ideal setting for sculpture, allowing visitors to experience Brancusi's work just as the artist intended. Fittingly, our Post-War & Contemporary Art sale will also include paintings by Natalia Dumitresco and Alexandre Istrati, the artist's legatees, bringing their story full circle."
Leading the collection is Torse de jeune homme, conceived in plaster in 1922 and in bronze in 1924, offered with an estimate on request. One of Brancusi's few treatments of the male figure, the work reduces a youthful torso and legs to a set of simple, geometric volumes. The composition derives from Brancusi's earlier carving in the fork of a maple tree, its form translated into polished bronze.
Further works from the collection include:
• La jeune fille sophistiquée (Portrait de Nancy Cunard), conceived in plaster in 1928 and in bronze in 1932, estimated at $3,500,000 – 5,500,000. The work is a portrait of the British poet and publisher Nancy Cunard (1896–1965), whom Brancusi met in Paris in 1923.
• La Muse endormie II, conceived in alabaster in 1917 and in bronze in 1922, estimated at $3,000,000 – 5,000,000. The work is a later iteration of one of Brancusi's best-known subjects, the sleeping head, which he first developed from his 1908 portrait of Baroness Renée Frachon.
• Tête abstraite (Tête de femme), conceived in plaster in 1922, estimated at $3,000,000 – 5,000,000. The work is among the rarer subjects in the artist's oeuvre, with only one marble and one plaster version created during his lifetime.
• Tortue, conceived in wood in 1937 and in plaster circa 1943, estimated at $2,000,000 – 4,000,000. Depicting an abstracted turtle, the present work is considered among the last original designs of Brancusi's career.
