Claude Monet: “Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil”
Photo courtesy of Christie’s
Claude Monet’s “Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil”, a masterwork of the early Impressionism, comes to the Art market
The canvas, painted in 1873, is one of the most important Monets to come to auction in the last decades
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A masterwork of the Impressionism comes to the Art market. Claude Monet’s “Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil”, one of the greatest Impressionist pictures left in private hands, will be auctioned by Christie’s next May 6th 2008 in New York. This “luminous masterpiece”, as Christie’s has described it, has an estimate on request, and is expected to break the current auction record for a Monet work.
Guy Bennett, Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie’s Americas, says: “This is the truly exceptional Impressionist picture the market has been waiting for. Appearing at auction for the first time in a generation, and with a highly compelling subject matter, this masterpiece by Monet will provide a cornerstone of our May Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art. Comprising all the elements of a great Impressionist work, the picture will attract both private and institutional collectors. Its sale will be a great moment for the market and will provide a sturdy barometer for works that truly are the best of the best.”
True. Along with the “Poplars au bord de l’Epte” and a handful of paintings from the Rouen Cathedral, the Haystacks and the Nympheas series, this painting certainly ranks among the top ten most important paintings by Monet still in private hands, and can be the centerpiece of any important private collection.
Christie’s, of course, is delighted with the work: “the painting is full of the novelty and drama of Monet’s fascination with modernity and art. The scene is dominated by the railroad bridge, spanning the image from left to right and stretching the already elongated horizontal canvas. Although monumental and industrial, the bridge is not an unwanted, obtrusive element in the composition, but is seemingly admired by the bystanders on the left bank”
The painting will be exhibited at Christie’s Rockefeller Galleries in New York prior to its sale
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