SOPHIE TAEUBER-ARP (1889-1943) – Relief rond en quatre hauteurs (Round relief in four heights) © Christie’s Images Limited 2025
This painting by Sophie Taeuber-Arp – one of the major figures of modernity – is a highlight at Christie’s stand alone auction in Paris on April 8 of the collection Funck-Brentano. In 2021 and 2022, Living Abstraction – a retrospective organised jointly by the Kunstmuseum Basel, Tate London and MoMA in New York – and the Elles font l’abstraction exhibition at the Centre Pompidou confirmed her key role in the history of art. The power and significance of multidisciplinary work by Taeuber-Arp have had a lasting and profound influence on contemporary artists and designers. The art market has shown a keen interest and the work is rare at auction.
Completed in 1937, Relief rond en quatre hauteurs was acquired directly from the artist’s studio by Michel Seuphor, who donated it to the Funck-Brentanos in 1987, as a gesture of gratitude. It is estimated at €1.9 – €2.5 million. Ten wooden reliefs by Sophie Taeuber-Arp are known and only three are still in private hands. The record for a work by Sophie Taeuber-Arp, set in 2003 in Paris, is €1.2 million.
Born in Germany Liselotte Kahn (1929-2020) was initially stateless when she arrived in France in 1936, and found refuge in Switzerland. A childhood spent in exile led to deep-seated European convictions, which she shared throughout her life with Roland Funck-Brentano (1929-2013), whom she met whilst studying law at university in Paris. In 1954 they founded what was to become one of the leading corporate law firms in Paris, deeply involved in the internationalisation of law and specialised in the development of European Community legislation.
