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Claude Monet
Nymphéas, oil on canvas, 1907 ($25.35 million). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2014  IT SOLD FOR $27,045,000

Pablo Picasso
Portrait de Femme (Dora Maar) ($25-35 million) Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2014  IT SOLD FOR $22,565,000

Claude Monet’s Waterlilies was the top lot at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening auction in New York on May 6.  It made $27,045,000 in an auction of 53 lots which brought in $285,879,000 including buyer’s premium.  This was the highest total in this category at Christie’s in New York since May 2010. A total of nine works sold for over $10 million.

Picasso’s Portrait de Femme (Dora Maar) sold for $22,565,000.  Modigliani’s Jeune Homme Roux Assis made $17,637,000, Kandinsky’s Standszene made $17,189,000, Picasso’s Deux Femmes et Enfant made $13,045,000, Giacometti’s Femme de Venise sold for $12,709,000, Miro’s Le Serpent made $12,485,000, Renoir’s Jeune Filles Jouant au Volant made $11,365,000, Picasso’s Femme Nu couche au collier made $11,141,000.  A total of 18 works sold for over $5 million.

Brooke Lampley, Head of Department, Impressionist & Modern Art, Christie’s New York, commented, “Our strong performance tonight, the highest since May of 2010, is a testament to the continued strength of the global market for Impressionist and Modern works of art. Bidders from 36 countries competed in our sale tonight for a wide variety of works, from Monet’s classic Nymphéas and Modigliani’s engaging portrait of a red-haired man, to bold, modern works by Picasso and Kandinsky. Our global team has worked tirelessly to source the best works available this season, many of which had never been offered at auction, including star lots from the leading collections of the season: the Clark Family Treasures, the Estate of Edgar M. Bronfman and the Viktor and Marianne Langen Collection.”

PROPERTY OF THE MARQUESS OF SLIGO FROM WESTPORT HOUSE, IRELAND
AIMÉ-JULES DALOU
FRENCH
1838 – 1902
BOULONNAISE ALLAITANT SON ENFANT (A YOUNG MOTHER FROM BOULOGNE FEEDING HER CHILD)
signed and dated: DALOU 1876
terracotta, on the original wooden revolving base (£300,000-500,000).

A detail of the work.

The sale of a rare French 19th century masterpiece at Sotheby’s in London on May 21 will hopefully secure the future of Westport House in Co. Mayo.  The supremely rare life-size masterpiece in terracotta by Aimé-Jules Dalou  will feature in a London sale of 19th and 20th century sculpture on May 21.  Boulonnaise allaitant son enfant (A Young Mother from Boulogne feeding her Child) was acquired directly from the artist in 1876 by George John Browne, 3^rd Marquess of Sligo.  Exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1877 it was subsequently installed at Westport House, Co. Mayo.  It remained on view there until last year. Estimated at £300,000-500,000 the terracotta is one of the last museum-quality life-size works by Dalou in private hands.

The work is being sold by Jeremy Browne, the 11^th Marquess of Sligo, who said: “Dalou’s masterpiece has been enjoyed by generations of visitors to Westport House. We hope that the proceeds raised through its sale will secure the future of one of Ireland’s best-loved attractions for generations to come.”

Alexander Kader, Head of Sotheby’s European Sculpture & Works of Art Department, commented that the sale will provide collectors and institutions with a matchless opportunity to acquire one of Dalou’s seminal works.

UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR £362,500

William Orpen’s Portrait of Mrs Oscar Lewisohn, formerly Miss Edna May, a compelling study of personality, temperament, demeanour and style, painted in 1915.

THOUGH she played in The Belle of New York with only limited success in 1897 Edna May became an overnight sensation in London with the role the following year.  Known for her beauty the Syracuse, New York born actress who became a star of the Edwardian stage subsequently played in London and New York.  Feted by many male admirers she married the New York banker Oscar Lewisohn in 1907 and retired from the stage.

This 1915 portrait of Mrs. Oscar Lewisohn by the Irish artist William Orpen is a highlight at Sotheby’s sale of British and Irish art in London on May 22.  Orpen’s sitter is strikingly posed on a dramatic chequerboard floor  against a black background.   The artist reserved such occasions for some of his most distinguished portraits.   It is estimated at £120,000-180,00.  The work will be among 33 Irish lots from the sale on view in Dublin next week.

UPDATE: THE WORK WAS UNSOLD

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for April 23, 2014.)

William Turner of Oxford – A Cornfield at Sunrise – watercolour (£3,000-5,000). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £6,000

The pastoral qualities of the English landscape will be highlighted at Sotheby’s in London on May 22 when Christopher Cone’s collection of paintings come under the hammer. There are 63 works from  John Constable in the early 19^th century to Richard Eurich in the mid-20^thcentury. The vision of England conjured by these artists is meticulous in detail, delicate in colouring, and romantically lyrical. Collectively, this wealth of little masterpieces of landscape painting speaks to the viewer of a piece of land that is ‘forever England’.

For 32 years, Christopher Cone was the partner of the late Stanley J. Seeger, one of the greatest collectors of our time, and together they amassed a succession of exceptional treasures. Christopher went his own direction too, with his eye honed by several memorable years working as a Victorian paintings specialist at Sotheby’s Belgravia in the 1970s, during which time he calculates he catalogued more than 10,000 pictures.

Nicolas de Staël
Composition, 1950 (2.5-3.5 million). Copyright : Sotheby’s/ArtDigital Studio  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 4,241,500

A monumental work by Nicolas de Staël (1914-55) will be a highlight at Sotheby’s contemporary art evening sale in Paris on June 3. Painted in 1950 Composition measures 200 x 400 cm and is estimated at 2.5-3.5 million euro. It was last shown in public at the Pompidou Centre’s De Staël retrospective in 2003. It was the largest canvas De Staël had ever painted when it was bought by Denys Sutton (1917-91) in 1950. It has remained in Sutton’s family ever since. The British art critic edited Apollo magazine for over 25 years and curated numerous landmark exhibitions devoted to Constable, Picasso, Matisse among others in the 1960’s and ’70’s. Sutton met De Staël in Paris at the end of the 1940’s and convinced him to show his works in England. De Staël duly went to London in the summer of 1950, and wrote about being electrified by the city’s light and space.

The work’s appearance on the market coincides with the centenary of De Staël’s birth. From June to November, two exhibitions – at the Musée Malraux in Le Havre and Musée Picasso in Antibes – will pay tribute to an artist who continues to enjoy great popularity in the United States and throughout Europe, as well as in his adopted France.