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Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Mousquetaire et nu assis
© Christie’s Images Limited 2018

There was a combined total of £149,592,750 at the Impressionist and Modern Art and Art of the Surreal sales at Christie’s in London last night.  This is the second highest result for Christie’s February season in these categories.

The sales were led by Picasso whose Mousquetaire et nu assis realised £13,733,750 and Figure realised £8,333,750.  No less than five of the top ten results were works by Picasso.

Dans les coulisses by Edgar Degas realised £8,993,750, Prairie à Giverny by Claude Monet realised £7,546,250, Le groupe silencieux by Rene Magritte realised £7,208,750 and Studie für Landscaft (Dünaberg) by Wassily Kandinsky realised £6,758,750.

Andre Derain’s view of London from Westminster Bridge failed to sell in an auction that was 78% sold by lot and 91% sold by value.

(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for February 26, February 5 and February 1, 2018)

Pablo Picasso – Mousquetaire et nu assis (1967)  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £13,733,750

Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece Mousquetaire et nu assis (1967) will be a highlight of Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Art evening sale in London on February 27.  Estimate:d at £12-18 million it will be part of ‘20^th Century at Christie’s’, series of sales from February 20 to March 67.  2018.  This is among the first of the triumphant musketeers that appeared in Pablo Picasso’s art in 1967. The iconic figure is accompanied by a sensuous, seated nude.

She is Jacqueline, the artist’s final, great love, muse and wife, whose presence permeated every female figure in this final chapter of Picasso’s life. With one eye towards the Old Masters and another towards contemporary art Picasso shows himself still challenging the history of art, carrying out iconoclastic attacks, plundering the past and doing so in a strikingly fresh, gestural way.

Keith Gill, head of sale, said: “Picasso’s late career was defined by sensuous paintings in which he cast himself as the virile artist alongside his voluptuous lover. The allegorical figures were used by Picasso not only to reference fictitious characters but were a means by which he could situate himself firmly within the art historical canon alongside the likes of Rembrandt, El Greco, Velázquez and Goya. He seemed to have a sense of urgency to his work in this period, as if trying to beat the passage of time, a feeling that is evidenced by the dense brushwork and bold gestures of ‘Mousquetaire et nu assis’. It is a privilege to present the painting as a leading highlight in the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale.”

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Femme accroupie (Jacqueline) © 2017 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pablo Picasso’s Femme accroupie (Jacqueline), painted on October 8, 1954  will come to auction for the first time at Christie’s evening sale  of Impressionist and Modern Art on November 13 in New York. From a private collection, it is estimated to sell for $20-30 million.

The brilliant primary colors in Femme accroupie (Jacqueline) illustrate a sunny day in the South of France during early autumn, 1954. Picasso and Jacqueline Roque, his ultimate paramour and eventual second wife, had begun living together in the Midi and would soon return to Paris to reside in the artist’s studio.

Jessica Fertig, head of the evening sale, said: “Picasso embarked on his late, great period, which his biographer John Richardson succinctly defined and characterized as “l’époque Jacqueline“—It is Jacqueline’s image that dominates Picasso’s work from 1954 until his death, longer than any of the women who preceded her.

Christie’s Global President, Jussi Pylkkanen, remarked: “Jacqueline was a beautiful woman and one of Picasso’s most elegant muses. This painting of Jacqueline hung in Picasso’s private collection for many years and has rarely been seen in public since 1954. It is a museum quality painting on the grand scale which will capture the imagination of the global art market when it is offered at Christie’s New York this November.”