Manet’s ‘Self-Portrait with a Palette’ to be sold at Sotheby’s

Edouard Manet, Self-Portrait with a Palette, est: £20-30 million

Manet’s ‘Self-Portrait with a Palette’ to be sold at Sotheby’s On June 22, 2010, in its evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Artin London, Sotheby’s will offer a masterpiece by the father and a key figure of Impressionism,Edouard Manet: Self-Portrait with a Palette, estimated at £20–30 million]]>

May 10th 2010, source: Sotheby’s
Charles Moffett, Sotheby’s Executive Vice President and co-curator of the 1983 landmark Manet exhibition at theGrand Palais in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, describes the paintingas “not only the greatest Manet portrait in private hands, but also one of the very greatest self-portraitsin the entire canon of art history”. Painted circa 1878, at a point when Manet was enjoyingunprecedented critical acclaim, this extraordinary work brings together all the qualities – subtlereference to the Old Masters combined with an audacious, “modern” handling of paint andimmediacy – that mark him out as one of the greatest, and most influential, painters not only ofhis day but of all time.

Melanie Clore, Co-Chairman, Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department worldwide,said: “At a time when there is such enormous demand for museum quality paintings by the Impressionistmasters, it is exciting to be able to bring this extremely rare painting to auction. The importance of thismasterpiece is confirmed by its illustrious roster of previous owners, who include Auguste Pellerin, JacobGoldschmidt and John Loeb.”

Important works by Manet seldom appear on the market, and self-portraits are even rarer. Self- Portrait with a Palette (Portrait de Manet par lui-même, en buste (Manet à la palette) is in fact one of just two self-portraits by the artist, and the only one in private hands, the other being in the Bridgestone Museum of Art, Tokyo.