Claude Monet – Le bassin aux nympheas
Claude Monet – Les Sapins, Varengeville
Paul Signac – Collioure. Les Balancelles, 1887
CHRISTIE’S TO OFFER AN OUTSTANDING SELECTION OF IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN ART IN LONDON IN JUNE
24 June 2008 at 7pm, Christie’s, 8 King Street, London
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Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale will take place on 24 June 2008 at 7pm and will offer an outstanding selection of paintings and sculptures, led by Claude Monet’s Le bassin aux nymphéas, the most significant work from the artist’s water-lily series to be offered at auction in Europe (estimate: £18 million to £24 million). The sale will be on public view from 20 to 24 June at Christie’s King Street salerooms, and is expected to realise in excess of £90 million.
Olivier Camu, Director and Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie’s London: “This auction will present one of the finest selections of Impressionist and Modern paintings ever seen on the European art market, led by the greatest of Claude Monet’s water-lily pictures to be offered at auction in Europe and an extremely rare and beautiful early pastel by Edgar Degas, formerly in the Havemeyer Collection. We are honoured to have been entrusted with Property from the Estate of J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller and works from the Sainsbury Collection and the Hoh Collection. The auction follows on from the success of our evening sale in New York in May which realised $277.3 million, and established world record auction prices for many leading artists of the category including Claude Monet, Alberto Giacometti, Auguste Rodin and Joan Miró. In recent years, the European art market has welcomed significant numbers of new international collectors at every level, and we are excited to be presenting an auction of such outstanding quality in London in June.”
Seventeen Works from the Collection of J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller
Their collection, assembled some forty years ago, is led by Claude Monet’s Le bassin aux nymphéas, the most significant work from the artist’s water-lily series to be offered at auction in Europe. An expansive and important painting, one of an extremely rare series of four large-scale pictures signed and dated by the artist in 1919, the work is expected to realise £18 million to £24 million. Unlike most of the later works which remained unfinished in the studio at the artist’s death, these four paintings were released by the artist during his lifetime. One of the series is in the Collection
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, another was divided and the third is in a private collection, having been sold at Christie’s New York in November 1992
Eight Works from the Collection of the late Simon Sainsbury
One of Britain’s most generous philanthropists and discerning collectors, Simon Sainsbury assembled throughout his lifetime one of the finest private British collections of the 20th century which will be offered at a landmark single-owner auction at Christie’s on Wednesday
18 June 2008. A selection of 8 works from the collection of Simon Sainsbury will be offered at the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on 24 June, including Collioure. Les Balancelles, 1887, an early Pointillist picture by Paul Signac (1836- 1935) which dates from the height of the artist’s interaction with his friend and fellow artist, Georges Seurat (1859-1891) and whose importance is reflected in the extensive range of publications that discussed it soon after it was widely exhibited in 1888 (estimate: £1,800,000- £2,500,000).
Fifteen Works from a Distinguished European Collection
A selection of 15 works from a Distinguished European collection assembled nearly half a century ago is led by Les Sapins, Varengeville, a luminous coastal landscape by Claude Monet (1840-1926) which was painted in the Summer of 1882, when the artist was staying at Pourville on the Norman coast in France (estimate: £1,500,000 – £2,000,000).Further highlights include Le village des pêcheurs à L’Estaque by Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), an early landscape painting by the artist circa 1870 (estimate: £1,200,000-£1,800,000), and Au bal masqué de l’Elysée Montmartre by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), an atmospheric study in oil on board that is expected to realise £1,200,000-£1,800,000.
The Hoh Collection
The auction will offer 7 works from the impressive collection of 20th century avant-garde works assembled by Alfred and Elisabeth Hoh, which toured various German institutions between 1998 and 2000 as the ‘Languages of Art’ exhibition. Leading the selection is Les Fleurs, circa 1912 (estimate: £3,500,000-£4,500,000), a rare and powerful work by Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962) whose Picking Apples sold at Christie’s London in June 2007 for £4.9 million, establishing a record price for any work of art by a female artist sold at auction. Further highlights include The Rhythm (Adam and Eve), 1910, by Vladimir Baranoff-Rossiné (estimate: £1,400,000- £1,800,000) and Der Garten, 1906, by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976) (estimate: £900,000-£1,200,000).
Elsewhere in the auction, a leading highlight is Danseuses à la barre by Edgar Degas (1834-1917), an extremely rare early masterpiece in pastel which is expected to realise £4,000,000- £6,000,000. The auction will also present a masterpiece portrait by Alberto Giacometti (1906-1966) painted in 1958. The Portrait of Yanaihara is a depiction of Isaku Yanaihara, a Professor in Philosophy from Japan who first translated Albert Camus’ L’étranger into Japanese, and who travelled to France in 1954 in order to meet and converse with the major exponents of French Existentialism.
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