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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.

AHMED ALSOUDANI (Iraqi, b. 1975) Untitled at Christie's, Dubai. It was executed in 2008. (Click on image to enlarge). CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2012 UPDATE: THIS MADE $386,500.

THE earliest example of contemporary Iraqi artist Ahmed Alsoudani including a dictator figure in his work is a feature lot at Christie’s  April sales of modern and contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish art  in Dubai on April 17 and 18.  The striking highly coloured image of a disfigured face surrounded by shattered forms was painted in 2008.  It is estimated at $300,000-500,000.  Last October in London there was a new world record for  Alsoudani when his Baghdad I sold for  $1.1 million at Christie’s.

Mahmoud Saïd (Egyptian, 1897-1964) Marsa Matrouh - Vers le bain de Cleopatre at Christie's Dubai. (Click on image to enlarge). CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2012 UPDATE: THIS MADE $602,500.

There are two key works by Mahmoud Saïd, the father of modern Egyptian art.  His view of a woman and donkeys beside the Nile with a mountain range beyond is estimated at $250,000-300,000.  Other highlights  include pieces by Ayman Baalbaki, Jewad Selim, Louay Kayyali, Mohammad Ehsai, Parviz Tanavoli and Nasrollah Afjehei and the Turkish artists Burhan Cahit Do?ançay and Azade Köker. Last week Art Dubai, the Gulf fair for contemporary art from the Middle East, North Africa and South East Asia, recorded high volumes of sales from what is still a young market. In 2012, Art Dubai welcomed 22,500 visitors, including 75 international museums groups.

UPDATE:  Christie’s April sales of Modern and Contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish Art totaled $6,402,825 / AED23,515,190 against a pre-sale high estimate of $6.1 million. The sales were 93% sold by value.

Affordability is a new buzz word at art auctions in Ireland these days.  In Dublin de Veres will hold an affordable Irish art sale with more than 300 lots at the D4 hotel in Ballsbridge on Sunday March 25 at 2 p.m.  This is de Veres first auction of 2012 and a continuation of a series of Sunday auctions.  Here is a small selection (click on image to enlarge):

Anne Primrose Jury RUA 1907-1995 BRINGING HOME THE TURF 400 - 600. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 550

Robert Ballagh b.1943 ROBERT MORRIS BOX 400 - 600. UPDATE: THIS MADE 470

Micheál deBurca RHA ANCA 1913-1985 TURNING THE HAY, ACHILL ISLAND 800 -1,200. UPDATE: THIS MADE 800

John Shinnors b.1950 TWO MAGPIES OVER CATHEDRAL SQUARE Lithograph, ed. 7/10. It is estimated at 400-600. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 450

Jack B. Yeats, Paul Henry and Louis le Brocquy all feature at the James Adam sale of important Irish art in Dublin on March 28.  A watercolor by Louis le Brocquy from his acclaimed Tinker series shown at the Arts Council of Great Britain’s “Thirty Contemporary Paintings” exhibition is estimated at 15,000-20,000. Paul Henry’s Sunset on Connemara Bog, from the collection of his friend and supporter John Louden of Belfast, is believed to have never been exhibited in public before.  The Novelist by Yeats is estimated at 100,000-150,000 and a 1909 Yeats entitled Downpatrick Head, Co. Mayo is estimated at 25,000-35,000.  The catalogue, which is on-line, lists 226 lots.  Here are a few of them (click on any image to enlarge):  UPDATE:  The Novelist sold for 95,000.

LOUIS LE BROCQUY HRHA (b.1916) Tinker Women (1946) watercolour signed and dated ‘46 (15,000-20,000). UPDATE: THS MADE 27,000.

BASIL BLACKSHAW RHA RUA (b 1932) Self Portrait (Given by the artist to gallery owner Tom Caldwell on his 80th birthday in 2001) (3,000-5,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,200.

PAUL HENRY RHA RUA (1876-1958) Sunset on a Connemara Bog (30,000-50,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 37,000

CECIL MAGUIRE RHA RUA (b.1930) Going to Church, Aran (From the estate of photographer Bill Doyle) (2,000-3,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,600.

The Dolan’s Irish art auction at Castletroy Park Hotel in Limerick on March 25 at 3 p.m. offers a wide selection of affordable art for collectors at all levels. There is work by both established and up and coming Irish artists, and a good selection by the Limerick artist Henry Morgan who deserves to be better known. The catalogue is on-line. Here is a small selection (you can click on any image to enlarge):

UPDATE: MORE than 80 per cent of the lots on offer were sold. The top lot, a landscape by Arthur Maderson, made 6,500.

HAULING UP THE CURRACH, ACHILL BY IVAN SUTTON IS ESTIMATED AT 1,200-1,600. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Burren Spring by Henry Morgan is estimated at 400-500. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 400.

Blue Bottle and Flowers by Brian Ballard RUA estimated at 1,100-1,200. UPDATE: THIS MADE 950.

Japanese Anenomes by Geraldine O'Brien estimated at 500-700. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Flotilla by Tom Greaney is estimated at 850-950. UPDATE: THIS MADE 850.

Warhol's Double Elvis. UPDATE: IT sold for $37,042,500

A Warhol portrait of Elvis Presley could make up to $50 million at Sotheby’s, New York, in May. According to the auction house Double Elvis (Ferus Type) epitomises Warhol’s obsessions with fame, stardom and the public image. The 1963 work is a seminal piece from the iconic series devoted to the singer and actor that was first seen at the Ferus gallery in Los Angeles that same year. It is estimated to fetch $30/50 million.

Like the Campbell’s Soup Can exhibition at the same gallery the previous year the Double Elvis show was built around a single unified theme. The paintings were to be displayed as a continuous surround, rather like the flickering images of an early film. The serial imagery seen in the work adds a sense of motion and gives the paintings a cinematic quality.

Coupled with his experimentation with film it marks a turning point in the artist’s career. He made the transition from a viewer of movies to a maker of them in his own right. The celebrities in Warhol’s portraits, Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis among others, were presented as glamourous and powerful icons whose image was imprinted on the public consciousness.

On the Courthouse Steps by Jack B. Yeats.

On the Courthouse Steps, a 1946 oil by Jack B. Yeats, was the top lot at Whyte’s art auction in Dublin on March 12.  It sold for 88,000 against an estimate of 90,000-120,000. The painting shows a vagrant resting on the steps of Naas courthouse in Co. Kildare, his casual appearance in marked contrast to the classical facade of the building. A strutting cockerel on the steps of the courthouse leaves the viewer free to make his own interpretation of the scene.

Lovers in a Garden by Charles Edward Perugini.

Lovers in a Garden by Charles Edward Perugini made 48,000.  It was estimated at 50,000-70,000.  Perugini married Charles Dickens’ daughter Kate in 1873.  An artist, she was muse to members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

More than 70 per cent of the lots on offer were sold.  The sale total came to 650,000.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for March 2)

A total of 13 works on paper by Sir William Orpen from the collection of Mrs. Evelyn St. George will be offered at Christie’s, South Kensington on March 22.  The works range in estimate from £1,000 to £6,000s and will be offered as part of the 20th Century British Art sale. Mrs. St. George, Orpen’s mistress and confidante, was the daughter of a wealthy New York banker. He painted her portrait in 1912.

Orpen was appointed an official war artist and many of his paintings hang in the Imperial War Museum Collection in London. Christmas Day at Howth (Lot 32), was made by Orpen either on the Christmas just before the outbreak of the war, or on the day of the famous Christmas Day Truce in 1914. He writes I’m just looking away across the sea and thinking of you all. In Happy Easter Vivien from Woppy (Lot 39) he writes to their four year old daughter wishing her a Happy Easter and draws a portrait of Vivien hatching out of an Egg. Vivien later inherited the works on paper and donated over 200 of them to the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin. The 13 works on paper to be auctioned at Christie’s are the last of Vivien’s collection of her father’s letters.  The drawing on the left depicts Orpen and Augustus John in a pub in their student days. John is depicted with his distinctive dandyish dress sense and beard with his arm around Orpen.