Edouard Manet – Le Printemps UPDATE: IT MADE $65 MILLION.
THE acclaimed Le Printemps by Edouard Manet will be a highlight of the Fall auction season at Christie’s, New York. Estimated at $25-35 million, it will be included in the evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art November 5. This masterwork comes fresh to the market. On loan to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. for the last two decades it has been in the same collection for over a century. The proceeds from the sale of Le Printemps will benefit a private American foundation supporting environmental, public health and other charitable causes.
Le Printemps was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1882 alongside Un Bar aux Folies-Bergere – the supremene masterpiece of Manet’s oeuvre. The works were enthusiastically received and widely reproduced. Christie’s international director Adrien Meyer said: “In this breathtaking painting Manet depicts a coquettish but self assured Jeanne Demarsy as Spring. His distinguished use of black anchors the painting and emphasises Jeanne’s fragility. Manet projects in this masterpiece an idea of the modern woman, feminine and free, attracting yet deflecting the gaze of the viewer. Le Printemps is one of the last museum quality works by Manet to come to auction. When again will the market offer a painting that truly made Impressionist history”.