Vibrant paintings by Signac, Derain and Vlaminck will lead Sotheby’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern art in New York on May 9. Paul Signac’s Maisons du port, Saint-Tropez ($8-12 million) is a pointillist painting from 1882. Inscribed Op.237 it has remained in the family collection of Ambassador John Langeloth Loeb, Jr. since his parents acquired it in 1958. It is at auction for the first time.
Andreì Derain’s Les Voiles rouges ($15-20 million) and Maurice de Vlaminck’s Sous-bois ($12-18 million) were acquired in 1954 by art patron and philanthropist Sarah Campbell Blaffer of Houston, Texas. She was the daughter of William Thomas Campbell, the founder of the Texas Company, later known as Texaco. They have remained in her family’s collection since. Only four major Fauve paintings have sold at auction since 2010. These are considered the finest works to have come to auction since Derain’s Arbres a Collioure sold for £16.3 million in June 2010.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for April 28, 2010)