Cézanne's card players watercolour. UPDATE: IT MADE $19,122,500.
A Cézanne card players watercolour last seen in public in 1953 will highlight Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on May 1 in New York. It has re-emerged from a private collection in Texas after nearly 60 years. The full sized work on paper is a preparatory study for Joueurs des cartes (Card Players), the seminal five-painting series that Cézanne completed between 1890 and 1896. Previously known only from a black and white photograph it was rediscovered in the collection of the late Dr. Heinz F. Eichenwald, a collector and medical expert who spent his career in Dallas after emigrating to the US in the mid-1930s. Meticulously preserved it is estimated to achieve US$15–20 million.
“The Card Player series is justifiably regarded as one of the most important of the modern era, influencing so many of the painters who sought to follow in Cézanne’s footsteps. This remarkable study offers us a rare glimpse into this modern master’s artistic process, showing us how he worked through the pose and positioning of the characters that would come to populate his greatest masterpieces,” said Sharon Kim, International Director of Impressionist and Modern Art. “For a full-size study from this series to come to light now, when it was feared to have been lost to history by scholars and collectors alike, marks a pivotal moment in the art market and promises to inspire great interest from clients around the globe this spring.”
UPDATE: THIS WAS BOUGHT FOR OVER $19,122,500 MILLION BY AN ANONYMOUS PURCHASER.
See post on antiquesandartireland.com for February 4, 2012.