André Derain, Arbres à Collioure, 1905, est: £9-14m/€10-15m
Long-lost trove of paintings of Ambroise Vollard for sale at Sotheby’s One of André Derain’s greatest Fauve achievements: ‘Arbres à Collioure’ of 1905 (Estimate £9-14m/€10-15m) will be sold at Sotheby’s London on 22 June]]>
May 20 2010, source: Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s today announces the sale of a group of works whosestory must surely rank among the most compelling in art market history. The works, a long-losttreasure trove of paintings, prints, books and drawings by key avant-garde artists of the late 19thand early 20th Centuries, belonged to Ambroise Vollard, the legendary Parisian art dealer whoplayed a pivotal role in the development of the Impressionist and Modern Art market: theartists he represented ranged from Renoir to Van Gogh and from Cézanne to Picasso and theFauves. In promoting them, he created the collecting field of Impressionist & Modern art as weknow it today. His contribution to the development of Modern art in particular is perhapsunparalleled.
The extraordinary trove of treasures was discovered in 1979 in a bank vault at the SociétéGénérale in Paris. The works had been deposited there during 1939, soon after Vollard’s death,by Erich Slomovic, a young Yugoslav who knew Vollard. Soon after depositing the works,Slomovic fled to Yugoslavia where he died at the hands of the Nazis at the end of 1942. As aresult, the contents of the vault remained untouched for 40 years. On 21st March 1979, the bankwas permitted under French law to open the vault and to sell any contents of value in order torecoup some 40 years of unpaid storage fees. As a result, the collection was consigned for a saleto be held at Hotel Drouot in Paris in March 1981. The announcement of the sale, however, wasswiftly followed by legal challenges as a result of which the sale was cancelled. Those challengesnow finally resolved, the works will now be sold by agreement among the legal beneficiaries ofthe Vollard Estate and will finally make their long-anticipated appearance on the market atSotheby’s sales in London and in Paris in June.
Helena Newman, Vice Chairman, Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art DepartmentWorldwide, said: “This extraordinary find takes us straight back into the world of Ambroise Vollard:the legendary dealer who was at the heart of the exciting developments in the Paris art-world in the early20th century. We are very excited to be offering the wonderful landscape by Derain in London in June. Itsstrong, fauve colours and powerful composition, combined with its extraordinary provenance, will beextremely appealing to today’s international buyers.”
Derain’s Arbres à Collioure to be Sold at Sotheby’s London on 22 June
«Le Fauvisme a été pour nous l’épreuve du feu. Les couleurs devenaient des cartouches de dynamite, ellesdevaient décharger de la lumière». André Derain.
At the core of the collection is Arbres à Collioure, one of the finest and most striking works byAndré Derain ever to come to auction (est: £9–14 million/ €10-15 million / €14-21 million).Executed in 1905 in the coastal town of Collioure in the South of France where Derain andMatisse spent the summer working together, this painting marks the pinnacle of Derain’s Fauvestyle. The canvases they produced during this period are noted for the extremely vibrantpalette which had been inspired by the bright Mediterranean environment. When their workwas exhibited, together with that of Vlaminck and others, at the famous Salon d’Automne in Parisin September 1905 (the present canvas may have been among those on view), the boldcolouration prompted the art critic Louis Vauxcelles to call the painters ‘Les Fauves’ (The WildBeasts), heralding a new style of painting: Fauvism.
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