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Claude Monet – L’Embarcadere 1871. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £10,229,000

A Dutch landscape by Claude Monet comes up at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale in London on February 3. L’Embarcadere is appearing on the market for the first time in a quarter of a century, and it is estimated at £7.5-10 million. It was painted in Zaandam, Holland, where the artist lived with his family for four months over the summer of 1871. His use of colour and the areas of  lively brushwork represent his gradual development of ideas and attempts to evoke the atmosphere of a scene.

On June 2 he wrote to his friend Camille Pisarro saying:  “Zaandam is particularly remarkable and there is enough to paint there for a lifetime”. Monet produced 25 pictures that explored several areas surrounding Zaandam, focussing his attention on the  architectural motifs of the Dutch landscape, canals, mills and boats.

Francis Bacon, Two Studies for Self-Portrait, 1977, oil on canvas  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £14.7 MILLION.

A rare Francis Bacon double self-portrait comes up at Sotheby’s  auction of Contemporary Art in London on February 10. Two Studies for Self-Portrait, 1977  is estimated at £13-18 million. Bacon painted only three self-portraits in this format.

In the years that followed the tragic suicide of his lover George Dyer in 1971, Bacon’s work became increasingly concerned with the dark psychological depths of his own psyche.  Painted in 1977 this is a profoundly intimate portrait, starkly evoking the artist’s inner turmoil at a moment when he was at the height of critical acclaim during his lifetime.

Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s Deputy Chairman, Europe, said: “Of all the subjects he depicted, it is the self-portraits – painted with an almost obsessive intensity – that bring us closest to the artist. It’s this extraordinary intimacy and power, together with their rarity, that make Bacon’s self-portraits so irresistible to collectors.”

UPDATE:  Two Studies for a self–portrait by Francis Bacon made £14.7 million.  The last time it was at auction was in London in 1993 when it sold for £353,500.

Gino Severini (1883-1966)  – La Modiste 1915 (400,000-600,000). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2014  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 421,500

A selection of rare works on paper from the Triton Collection Foundation, spanning over three centuries of art history, will be offered at Christie’s in Paris and London in 2015 and early 2016.  The sales will begin with a single owner evening sale of 49 works in Paris on March 25 during the Salon du Dessin.   The collection includes works by Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, Fernand Léger, Francis Picabia, Gino Severini, Odilon Redon, André Derain and Salvador Dalí. Many will be offered at auction for the first time.

The privately owned Triton Collection Foundation holds one of the most important collections of the 19th and 20th Century avant-garde art in private hands worldwide. The Triton Collection was built over twenty years by Rotterdam oil and shipping magnate Willem Cordia and his wife Marijke van der Laan.  The Foundation was formed in 2011 after his death. It comprises a few hundred works from three centuries of global art from Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Vincent Van Gogh to Yves Klein, Gerhard Richter, Ellsworth Kelly, Marina Abramovich, and Ai Weiwei. The collection is accessible to the public through a continuing programme of loans to over seventy museums worldwide as diverse as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, the Seoul Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

“The Cordia family has generously shared its collection with others for many years. They are famed for the care they take to only invest in the very finest examples of an artist’s work. The selection of works on paper which form the Paris single owner sale represents one of the most outstanding groups of drawings from the European avant-garde art to come to market for very many years. To emphasise this once in a lifetime opportunity for international collectors and the unique provenance, buyers will be able to have works marked with a stamp, registered with the Lugt Foundation that certifies The Triton Collection Foundation’s previous ownership” said Tudor Davies, Head of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie’s Paris.

“Although the core of the Triton Collection Foundation’s collection will remain intact, we don’t part easily from these carefully selected works. However, no living art collection is ever static, moreover it needs to be able to adapt to on-going artistic development and innovation. Triton intends to use its new acquisitions to remain at the forefront of European collections and a home for the avant-garde, which we shall continue to share with the public in its widest form” explained the Cordia Family, the founders of the Triton Collection Foundation.

UPDATE: The sale brought in 9.8 million euro and was 100% sold by lot.

Fernand Leger – Danseuse au tambourin 1954 (250,000-350,000). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2014  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 673,500

Pablo Picasso – La boija 1900 (300,000-500,000). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2014  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 361,500

The most significant collection of French 17th and 18th century paintings at auction for the past 20 years comes up in Paris on March 26.  Sotheby’s, in association with Artcurial and the Cabinet Eric Turquin will offer the  Louis Grandchamp des Raux Collection.

Built up over more than 25 years, this magnificent group of 50 paintings provides an overview of 17^th and 18^thcentury French painting with works from the greatest masters of the period, such as François Boucher, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, François Desportes and one of the very few acclaimed female painters of the time, Anne Vallayer-Coster. The auction is expected to fetch over €5 million.

Anne Vallayer-Coster
Portrait of a sitting woman with a violin
Signed and dated Melle Vallayer / 1773 (300,000-400,000).

Louise Moillon
Still life with peaches in a pewter charger, on a shaving wood box
Signed and dated on the box Louyse Moillon 1634 (400,000-600,000).

Pierre-Antoine Lemoine
Still life with dish of peaches, grapes and chinese potiche on a stone ledge (150,000-200,000).