antiquesandartireland.com

Bacon's portrait of Henrietta Moraes sold for £21,321,250..

Boat, Connemara by Lucian Freud sold for £657,250.

FRANCIS BACON’S Portrait of Henrietta Moraes made £21,321,250 at Christie’s Post War and Contemporary Sale in London on February 14.  Regarded as Bacon’s most seductive female portrait it had been estimated at about £18 million. The sitter was a close friend of the artist and the work was painted towards the end of 1963.

An orange abstract painting by Mark Rothko, estimated at up to £12 million, was withdrawn before the auction.  Lucian Freud’s Boat Connemara sold for £657,250 and Sean Scully’s Wall of Light Stone made £657,250.

The evening auction of Post-War & Contemporary Art totaled £80,576,100, selling 95% by value and 89% by lot. This is the second highest total for the category at Christie’s London. When combined with Post-War & Contemporary art sale from a private European collection on February 9 and 10 sales in the category this month have realised £96.6 million.

Christie’s February auctions of Post War and Contemporary art realised  £109,514,400.   This was the highest total for a series of such sales in London.

See antiquesandartireland.com posts for January 20, 2012, January 30, 2012 and video post for February 9, 2012.

Yeats, Henry and O’Malley all feature at Morgan O’Driscoll’s  Irish art sale at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Little Island, Cork on February 20.  The 289 lots on offer feature a broad cross section of Irish art and artists. The catalogue is on-line.  Here is a small selection.  The Yeats and Paul Henry works are featured on an post published on antiquesandartireland.com on January 12, 2012.

Tony O'Malley HRHA (1913-2003) 'Garden Impression, Paradise Island, Bahamas' (40,000 - 50,000). (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: WITHDRAWN AT 34,000.

Sean Scully (b.1945) 'Barcelona Diptych' limited edition print 7/24 (3,000 - 4,000) UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 2,600

Letitia Marion Hamilton RHA (1875-1964) 'In Summer' (3,000 -5,000). (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS FAILED TO SELL

John Noel Smith (b.1952) 'Red/Black Lacerations' (4,000 - 6,000) (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 3,800

CHRISTIE’S has released videos about specific artworks in the Contemporary art sales in London on February 14.  Here are videos on Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois and Mark Rothko, and also featuring works by Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Yves Klein, Jeff Wall, Lucian Freud, Gerhard Richter and Nicolas de Staël:

UPDATE:  The Bacon sold for £21.3 million and was the top lot, the piece by Louise Bourgeois did not sell and the Rothko was withdrawn. Gerhard Richter”s Abstraktes Bild made £9,897,250 and Agrigente by Nicolas de Staël made £5.3 million. A Piero Manzoni sold for £2.7 million and Lucio Fontana made two million.  Freud’s Boat Connemara made £657,250. A work by Yves Klein sold for £1.7 million.  The work by Jeff Wall sold for £301,250 on February 15. (See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for January 20 and January 30, 2012.)

Claude Monet's L’Entreé de Giverny en Hiver made a record for a snowscape by the artist.

Klimt's Lakeshore with Birches failed to get a bid and sold privately immediately after the auction for £5.6million.

There was an auction record for a Monet snowscape at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale in London on February 8. But over ambitious estimates were blamed for the failure of a Klimt and a Dali to sell.

Instead the top lot at a sale which brought in £78.8 million was for an 1885 snow scene at Giverny by Claude Monet.  “L’Entree de Giverny en hiver” sold for £7.3 million over an estimate of £4.5-5.5 million.

There was disappointment that Gustav Klimt’s recently rediscovered 1901 “Lakeshore with Birches” failed to attract a single bid.  It was estimated at £6-8 million.  The work was quickly sold afterwards for £5.6 million. Dali’s 1946 “Oasis” had a top estimate of £6 million and failed to sell.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Das Boskett, Albertplatz in Dresden made £7,321,250:  George Braque’s L’Oliveraie made £5,081,250 and Fernand Leger’s La Jeune Fille a l’echelle made £3,961,250.  Works by Edouard Vuillard, Henry Moore and Alexej von Jawlensky made £3,401,250, £3,289,250 and £3,065,250 respectively.  Die Elektrische by Otto Dix made £2,953,250, almost three times its estimate.

A group of 14 Surrealist works achieved a combined total of £16,083,000.  Giorgio de Chirico’s Ettore e Andromaca made £2,841,250 and Yves Tanguy’s Deux fois du noir made £2, 505,250.  The auction was was 76.9% sold by lot and 76% sold by value (41 of 53 lots were sold).  (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for January 10, 2012.)

When Sotheby’s day sale concluded on February 9 with sales of £17.1 million it brought the cumulative total for Sotheby’s February sales of Impressionist & Modern Art to £96,087,750.

Henry Moore (1898-1986) Reclining Figure: Festival made a world record price of £19,081,250 at Christie's. Image courtesty Christie's Images Ltd., 2012.

There was a world record price for the English sculpture and artist Henry Moore at Christie’s in London on February 7.  His Reclining Figure, Festival – bronze with dark brown patina – sold for £19,081,250.  Conceived in 1951 and cast in an edition of five plus one artist’s proof it measures 96¼ inches in length. From a private New York collection it had been estimated at £3.5-5.5 million.  It was bought in the room by Cologne  dealer Alex Lachmann.

Another world record price was established for the Spanish artist Joan Miro when his painting poem was knocked down for £16,841,250.

A van Gogh previously owned by Elizabeth Taylor – Vue de l’Asile et de la Chapelle de Saint-Remy” –  made £10.1 million over an estimate of £5-7 million. When the late actresses art was sold in London this week it brought the final tally for her complete collection including jewellery and couture to £117.2 million. (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for January 17, 2012.)

The Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale and the auction of Art of the Surreal at Christie’s and realised £134,999,400, selling 86% by lot and 93% by value. The pre-sale estimate was £86.2-127.1 million. Buyer’s were from 21 countries in four continents. Three lots sold for over £10 million and 28 lots made over £1 million.

Giovanna Bertazzoni, International Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie’s said: “These strong results illustrate that the art market continues to attract significant levels of spending, particularly for the rarest and most exceptional works of art. It is an extremely intelligent market where pricing is key – and where collectors react with the greatest determination to the rarest works of art, and particularly to those which are fresh to the market. We are particularly pleased to have established record prices for two great artists of the 20th century: Henry Moore and Joan Miró. In both cases, we offered works of art that were among the greatest produced by the artists, and their quality drew the most determined of bidding”.

Picasso, Notre Dame de Paris. (Click on image to enlarge).

Modigliani, Jeune fille aux cheveux noirs. (Click on image to enlarge).

Paintings by Picasso, Modigliani, Renoir and Chagall were among the top lots at Bonhams on February 7. A 1954 landscape ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ by Picasso made £864,450.  It shows the influence of earlier experiments with Cubism.  When it was completed the artist was falling in love with a woman who would later become his wife – Jacqueline Roque. His happiness is evident.

Modigliani’s `Jeune fille aux cheveux noirs’ made £825,250. Renoir’s Femme en rouge lisant, painted in 1895 made £97,250 and La musique au village by Marc Chagall (1887-1995) made £73,250. Bonhams Impressionist & Modern Art auction brought in £2,657,700, drew interest from around the world and was 81 per cent sold by value.