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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.

Gerhard Richter (B. 1932)
Vierwaldstätter See (In the region of £10 million). Courtesy, Christie’s Images Ltd., 2015.  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £15,762,500

The February London art sale season is fast approaching and it is looking good.  At Christie’s the pre-sale low estimate for a sale of 64 lots at the Post War and Contemporary Art evening sale on February 11 is £95 million. This is the second highest total for any such sale ever in  Europe.  Gerhard Richter’s photo-painting Vierwaldstätter See (Lake Lucerne), 1969, will lead the sale.  It has been in the same private collection since 1973.

Following the world record price of $69.6 million achieved for Cy Twombly’s Untitled in November, the sale includes Untitled (New York City), 1970, a  large-scale work from the same series of ‘blackboard’ paintings. The record Post War and Contemporary Art Evening auction in Europe was held by Christie’s in June 2012, and realised £132 million against a low pre-sale estimate of £102 million. Last year’s equivalent February season at Christies broke the record for any Post War and Contemporary Art week in Europe when it realised £176 million, including the benchmark sale of Arte Povera and Post-War Italian art, Eyes Wide Open: an Italian Vision, which brought in £38 million.