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Francis Bacon – Study for a Head .Courtesy, Christie’s Images Ltd., 2015.  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £10,050,500

One of only a handful of works depicting Pope Pius XII by Francis Bacon in private hands comes up at Christie’s in London on February 11.  Study for a Head is dated 1955, a time when Pius XII reigned as Supreme Pontiff. Fascinated by men of power and authority, Bacon was attracted to the combination of violence and vulnerability latent in their status. The oil on canvas is at the Post War and Contemporary Art evening sale in London on February 11.  The auction has a pre-sale estimate of £95 million for 64 lots.

This painting was exhibited at Tate London in 1962 and then remained unseen by the public until it resurfaced in retrospectives at Valencia d’Art Modern in 2003 and the Fondation Beyeler, Basel in 2004.  The other portraits by Bacon of Pius II are at Kunsthalle Mannheim,  Stedelijk Museum Voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent and at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich.

Christie’s is one of the sponsors of the exhibition Francis Bacon and the Art of the Past now on at the State Hermitage Museum in Russia. This exhibition will travel to the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich next April.

John Constable, R.A.
Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows

There was a new record for Willem van de Velde the Elder at Sotheby’s sale of Master Paintings in New York today. Dutch Harbour in a calm with Small Vessels sold for $5.4 million.

A rediscovered preparatory work for John Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows sold for $5.2 million over a top estimate of $3 million.  The work changed hands last year for £3,500 as painted by a follower of Constable.  It was subsequently re-attributed as a preparatory sketch by the artist. Experts say it is one of several preparatory works for Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows bought by the Tate Gallery last year for £23.1 million.

The opening session of Sotheby’s Old Master Week sales was 72% sold by lot. No less than 97% of works sold brought in prices at or above their estimates and 12 lots sold for more than  $1 million.  The session brought in $57 million.

February’s sales of Impressionist and Modern art at Christie’s in London feature masterpieces from the greatest artists of the late 19th and 20th century, led by Paul Cézanne’s exquisite landscape Vue sur L’Estaque et le Château d’If. It has not been seen on the market since 1936, when it was purchased by Samuel Courtauld, founder of London’s Courtauld Gallery and Institute of Art. It is estimated at £8-12 million.

Here is a video from Christie’s about the sale next week.

Here is a video from Sotheby’s about Monet’s Les Peupliers a Giverny.  Philip Hook of Sotheby’s and Ann Dumas, Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts  in London introduce the masterwork which comes up at the Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale on February 3. It is from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

It is followed by an video about sculpture in the sales that evening. Simon Stock introduces highlights which include three Auguste Rodin bronzes, three sculptures by Pablo Picasso, as well as works by Aristide Maillol, Julio González and Henry Moore.