This unfinished portrait of Fraulein Lieser by Gustav Klimt comes up at im Kinsky in Vienna on April 24 with an estimate of up to €50 million. It was begun by Klimt in 1917, a year before his death. Lost for over 100 years it is believed to depict one of the daughters of either Adolf or Justus Lieser, who were brothers from a wealthy family of Jewish industrialists. The fate of the painting after 1925 is not known and the identity of the Austrian sellers has not been revealed. It is being sold on their behalf and on behalf of the successors of the Lieser family according to the Washington Principles – an international agreement to return Nazi looted art to the descendants of the people they were taken from. UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR 30 MILLION EURO, THE LOW END OF THE ESTIMATE, WITH ONLY ONE COMMISSIONED BIDDER IN CONTENTION.
Lady with a Fan – the last portrait Austrian artist Gustav Klimt painted
There was a new auction record for a painting sold in Europe at Sotheby’s in London tonight when Klimt’s last portrait – Lady with a Fan – soared past its estimate of £65 million to sell for £85.3 million. After a four way bidding war it went to a collector in Hong Kong. This is the second highest price for a portrait ever at auction.
The painting, described as “a masterpiece by an artist at the height of his powers”, has strong Asian influences and is part of the Japonisme trend, which refers to the influence of Japanese art and design among Western European artists.
It also features several Chinese motifs including the phoenix, a symbol of immortality and rebirth, and lotus blossoms that signify love.
Helena Newman, the chair of Sotheby’s Europe and worldwide head of impressionist and modern art, said: “Dame mit Fächer is the last portrait Gustav Klimt created before his untimely death, when still in his artistic prime and producing some of his most accomplished and experimental works.
“Many of those works, certainly the portraits for which he is best known, were commissions. This, though, is something completely different – a technical tour de force, full of boundary-pushing experimentation, as well as a heartfelt ode to absolute beauty.”
Previous highest prices achieved in Europe were:
£65m / $104.3m – Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man (Sotheby’s London, February 2010) – record for any work of art sold at auction in Europe £40.9m / $80.4m – Claude Monet, Le basin aux nymphéas – (Christie’s London, June 2008) – record for any painting sold at auction in Europe £59.4m / $79.8m – René Magritte, L’empire des lumières (Sotheby’s London, March 2022) £49.5m / $76.7m – Rubens, The Massacre of the Innocents (Sotheby’s London, July 2002)
(See post on antiqesandartireland.com for June 24, 2023)
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) – Bauerngarten painted in 1907
Gustav Klimt’s Bauerngarten sold for £47.9 million at Sotheby’s in London tonight. The third highest price for any work of art ever sold at auction in Europe was achieved at a sale which scored the highest total of £195 million for any auction ever staged in London. At the Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist art evening sales five lots sold for over £10 million.
The Klimt was a record for a landscape by the artist. Four bidders competed for the luminous flower garden. Bauerngarten was painted in 1907 during the golden period of Klimt’s career.
It was a highlight of the critically acclaimed ‘Painting the Modern Garden’ exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London last year and at at auction for the first time in over two decades.
Picasso’s Plante de Tomates, painted just days before the liberation of Paris in 1944, sold for £17 million. This is a record for a still life by the artist. The total achieved for eight works by Picasso over the course of the evening was £54.7 million. Two other works by Picasso exceeded £10 million – Femme nu assise (£13.6 million) and Femme assise dans un fauteuil sur fond blanc (£12 million). Modigliani’s Portrait of Baranowski made £16 million and a Tahiti painting by Gauguin sold for £8.3 million.
Helena Newman, Global Co-Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department & Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, said: “Tonight’s outstanding result is a new benchmark for London sales as much as it is a statement on the momentum of the global art market in 2017. The success of tonight’s sale lies in reading the market to know what buyers are looking for, and Sotheby’s having been entrusted by our clients with extraordinary works. This, combined with the pent up market demand for works of such extraordinary calibre, propelled global buying in our saleroom – particularly from Asia – and it was wonderful to experience on the rostrum.”
Amedeo Modigliani PORTRAIT DE BARANOWSKI sold for £16 million
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner – Vier Akte under Baumen (Four nudes under trees) sold for £5.4 million.
Paul Gauguin – Te Arii Vahine sold for £8.3 million
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) – Bauerngarten painted in 1907
Gustav Klimt’s Bauerngarten will lead Sotheby’s highest value Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale in London on March 1. One of his finest landscapes it was first exhibited at a pivotal moment for the artist in Vienna in 1908. It was acquired just two years after the Kunstschau show in Vienna by the National Gallery in Prague. Last year the painting, at auction for the first time in two decades, was a highlight at the Painting the Modern Garden exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Helena Newman, Global Co-Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department & Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, said: “Gustav Klimt is one of the most desirable artists today and his iconic masterpieces are revered and recognised the world over. The star of this season’s offering is undoubtedly Klimt’s luminous Bauerngarten, dating from the artist’s celebrated and much-loved golden period and from the same year as his famous golden Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. Innovative in its composition and jewel-like in its exquisite blaze of colours, it is one of the artist’s greatest masterpieces ever to come to auction. Most of the artist’s oil paintings of this calibre are in major museums around the world with only a handful works of this importance having appeared at auction in the last decade.”
The estimate for the work is in excess of $45 million. Klimt ranks among the few artists whose works have sold for over $100 million.
Klimt’s portrait of Gertrud Loew sold for £39.1 million.
Petite danseuse by Edgar Degas sold for a record of £15.8 million.
No less than seven works sold for more than £10 million at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern art sale in London this evening. Gustav Klimt’s portrait of Gertrud Loew made £39.1 million; Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematism, 18th construction sold for £21.4 million; Manet’s Le Bar aux Folies Bergere made £16.9 million and there was a record for a sculpture by Edgar Degas when Petite Danseuse a quatorze ans sold for £15.8 million.
The sale realized £178.6 million. This is the second highest total for any sale ever held in London. Melanie Clore, Chairman, Sotheby’s Europe & Co-Chairman Worldwide, Impressionist & Modern Art, said: “Tonight’s result is testament to the truly outstanding quality of the works on offer. To follow our highest totals for Impressionist and Modern art sales in New York, with another sensational sale in London, emphasises the strength of what is undoubtedly a truly global market. Our worldwide network of specialists are working with a broader collector base than ever before, so whether it’s New York, London, or any of our worldwide selling locations, we are seeing incredibly strong results across the board.”
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 10, June 4, June 2, May 22 and May 13, 2015)
