Joaquín Sorolla – ‘Barcas en la Playa’
Sorolla’s ‘Barcas en la Playa’ sells for £1,665,250 at Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s sale of 19th-Century European Paintings in London today realised £7,168,400 / €7,937,589 – surpassing the pre-sale high estimate of £6,748,600/ €7,472,744, and obtaining sell through rates of 70.2% by lot and 88.4% by value. Public institutions pitted themselves against private collectors and trade, driving prices over estimate in many instances. Overall, 41.6% of the works sold today achieved prices in excess of high estimate. The top lot of the day was Joaquin Sorolla’s Barcas en la Playa, which sold for £1,665,250 / €1,848,763 – doubling the low estimate of £800,000 / €880,000
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November 25th 2009. Source: Sotheby’s
Spanish works offered today realised a combined total of £2,739,625 / €3,033,594 – exceeding the high estimate forthe group of £2,510,700 / €2,780,105, garnering a sell through rate of 70.8% by lot, and 93% by value. Over 47% of theworks sold achieved prices above high estimate. The Spanish section also supplied the star lot of the sale, Joaquin Sorolla’s Boats on Shore from the Club Español inBuenos Aires sold for £1,665,250 (well above the high estimate of £1.2 million) to a private collector. Other notableworks in the Spanish section were the atmospheric representation of Parisian night life at the turn of the century Logeat the Concert Hall by Hermenegildo Anglada-Camarasa, which sold for £313,250, soaring above the high estimate of£180,000, and Julio Romero de Torres’s alluring rendition of one of his favourite models Elena Pardo, The Torero Girlbought by an anonymous bidder for £301,250 in line with the pre-sale estimate of £250,000- 350,000.
Works by German artists fared extremely well. Among them, a superb example of the work of symbolist painterAnselm Feuerbach attracted interest from institutions and private collectors alike. Recently restituted to the heirs ofWilhelm Freund, Feuerbach’s Medea an der Urne (lot 39) found itself at the centre of a protracted bidding battle,finally selling to an anonymous bidder for £457,250 (€507,640) – leaving the pre-sale estimate £15,000-25,000 farbehind and establishing a new auction record for the artist
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