1885
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Cézanne Degas Caillebotte Signac
See also : Cézanne Degas Caillebotte Signac
CEZANNE
1
1883-1885 L'Estaque aux Toits Rouges
2021 SOLD for $ 55M by Christie's
The impressionist solutions are no longer suitable to Paul Cézanne. He comes back to Provence with the aim of expressing the quintessence and the warmth of the most beautiful Mediterranean landscapes.
L'Estaque is one of his first choices, prompted by memories from his youth when his mother had rented a cottage for summer holidays. From the top of the hill and beyond the houses, the bay and the islands of Marseille offer a vast and sumptuous panorama.
In the early 1880s Cézanne rents a small house in L'Estaque, away from his family left to live in Aix. He works outdoor like the Impressionnistes, but his synthetic and cloisonné analysis of shapes and colors is paving the way for the 20th century art. He is already meticulously in quest of the perfection of colors in their whole range. He manages to provide to the viewer a sensation instead of a mere copy of the landscape.
Painted in that early phase between 1883 and 1885, L'Estaque aux toits rouges is a significant demonstrator of these fertile experiments. In this panoramic view from the top of the hill, the contrast is striking between the geometric pattern of sun bathed houses with no shadow and the blue hues of sky and sea.
This oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm was sold for $ 55M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 10C. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
A view boldly enclosing the same panorama in a vertical format, oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm painted in 1885, was sold for £ 13.5M by Christie's on February 4, 2015, lot 8.
These pictures had a direct influence on the development of the Cubisme by Braque.
L'Estaque is one of his first choices, prompted by memories from his youth when his mother had rented a cottage for summer holidays. From the top of the hill and beyond the houses, the bay and the islands of Marseille offer a vast and sumptuous panorama.
In the early 1880s Cézanne rents a small house in L'Estaque, away from his family left to live in Aix. He works outdoor like the Impressionnistes, but his synthetic and cloisonné analysis of shapes and colors is paving the way for the 20th century art. He is already meticulously in quest of the perfection of colors in their whole range. He manages to provide to the viewer a sensation instead of a mere copy of the landscape.
Painted in that early phase between 1883 and 1885, L'Estaque aux toits rouges is a significant demonstrator of these fertile experiments. In this panoramic view from the top of the hill, the contrast is striking between the geometric pattern of sun bathed houses with no shadow and the blue hues of sky and sea.
This oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm was sold for $ 55M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 10C. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
A view boldly enclosing the same panorama in a vertical format, oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm painted in 1885, was sold for £ 13.5M by Christie's on February 4, 2015, lot 8.
These pictures had a direct influence on the development of the Cubisme by Braque.
2
1885 L'Estaque
2015 SOLD for £ 13.5M by Christie's
On February 4, 2015, Christie's sold for £ 13.5M from a lower estimate of £ 8M an oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm, lot 8. This view of L'Estaque was probably made in the spring or early summer of 1885. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
For such a panoramic theme, Cézanne has the audacity to try a vertical format. The trees that frame the view while masking the lateral coasts provide the same invitation to the infinite as the future colored rectangles by Mondrian.
For such a panoramic theme, Cézanne has the audacity to try a vertical format. The trees that frame the view while masking the lateral coasts provide the same invitation to the infinite as the future colored rectangles by Mondrian.
3
1885 Quatre Pommes et un Couteau
2023 SOLD for $ 10.4M by Christie's
In the early days of the Impressionnisme, Paul Cézanne already looks for other unprecedented styles. The still life of apples thus becomes his laboratory for offering ever changing confrontations of forms and colors while ever reusing similar fruit and tableware.
Titled Pommes et Gâteaux, an oil on canvas 46 x 55 cm painted ca 1877 displays an arrangement on the top of a rustic chest. The pieces of furniture and dishes were probably images of real artefacts owned by the artist in his apartment at Montparnasse.
The stem bowl on the left side carries a total of six apples at two levels. The upper fruit is posed on the circle of the five others. Two of these apples are hidden behind the other fruits, providing a sense of mysterious balance of the pile. The artist will often reuse this effect.
The rest of the image is divided between a plate of cakes and a group of apples directly placed on the top of the chest.
Pommes et Gâteaux was probably one of the three still lifes from sixteen paintings entered by Cézanne at the Third Impressionist Exhibition in 1877. It was sold for $ 10.3M by Christie's on November 1, 2005, lot 4.
The above example was a complex composition but without trick. Painted ca 1885, Quatre Pommes et un Couteau goes further in the experimentation. It is made of a condensed close up of four apples on a tabletop, three of them filling a soup bowl and the other one outside the bowl. The blade of the knife is hidden under a fruit, but the compared position of the handle and its shadow provides an illusion of depth and confirms the height of the bowl.
Quatre Pommes et un Couteau, oil on canvas 22 x 26 cm, was sold for $ 10.4M from a lower estimate of $ 7M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 42 B.
Titled Pommes et Gâteaux, an oil on canvas 46 x 55 cm painted ca 1877 displays an arrangement on the top of a rustic chest. The pieces of furniture and dishes were probably images of real artefacts owned by the artist in his apartment at Montparnasse.
The stem bowl on the left side carries a total of six apples at two levels. The upper fruit is posed on the circle of the five others. Two of these apples are hidden behind the other fruits, providing a sense of mysterious balance of the pile. The artist will often reuse this effect.
The rest of the image is divided between a plate of cakes and a group of apples directly placed on the top of the chest.
Pommes et Gâteaux was probably one of the three still lifes from sixteen paintings entered by Cézanne at the Third Impressionist Exhibition in 1877. It was sold for $ 10.3M by Christie's on November 1, 2005, lot 4.
The above example was a complex composition but without trick. Painted ca 1885, Quatre Pommes et un Couteau goes further in the experimentation. It is made of a condensed close up of four apples on a tabletop, three of them filling a soup bowl and the other one outside the bowl. The blade of the knife is hidden under a fruit, but the compared position of the handle and its shadow provides an illusion of depth and confirms the height of the bowl.
Quatre Pommes et un Couteau, oil on canvas 22 x 26 cm, was sold for $ 10.4M from a lower estimate of $ 7M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 42 B.
1885 La Rade de Grandcamp by Seurat
2018 SOLD for $ 34M by Christie's
Georges Seurat wants his art to be for social criticism. He blames the Impressionist techniques for being emotional and not strict enough. He begins in 1884 a demonstration painting in very large size 208 x 308 cm : Un dimanche après-midi à l'Ile de la Grande Jatte.
Everything is important but everything is mingled. An image with rising lines and warm colors will look optimistic. The Grande Jatte will have to be chilling, with an invading shadow in the foreground and stiff figures symbolizing the aberrations of the bourgeoisie.
The young artist is receptive to ideas about the balance of colors. Chevreul's psychophysiological observations that the vision of a pure color is accompanied by the perception of a halo of its complementary color convince him that the composition of the colors of a painting must not slavishly follow the nature.
Seurat spends the summer 1885 at the seaside, in Grandcamp, on the advice of Signac who also invites him to take an interest in intense lights. Seurat then tests with marine views his interpretation of Chevreul's theories, developing his new technique of dividing colors by horizontal brush strokes that will soon become dots. He names that practice the chromo-luminarisme.
On May 8, 2018, Christie's sold as lot 18 for $ 34M La Rade de Grandcamp, oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm on the rather happy theme of a regatta of horizontally aligned white sails.
The achievement of the Grandcamp series pleases him. Back in his studio, he retouches the Grande Jatte by reducing chromatic variations and by introducing the pointillism. When this work is completed in 1886, it triggers the inevitable break with the Impressionnistes. Only Fénéon is convinced. In 1887 Fénéon coins the neo-Impressionist wording to try showing that Seurat's art is not an opposition to Impressionism but another step on the path to a new art.
Passionate about his theories, Seurat retouched his artworks. Rade de Grandcamp is perhaps the only example left in its original state from his very first experiences in complementary color techniques.
Everything is important but everything is mingled. An image with rising lines and warm colors will look optimistic. The Grande Jatte will have to be chilling, with an invading shadow in the foreground and stiff figures symbolizing the aberrations of the bourgeoisie.
The young artist is receptive to ideas about the balance of colors. Chevreul's psychophysiological observations that the vision of a pure color is accompanied by the perception of a halo of its complementary color convince him that the composition of the colors of a painting must not slavishly follow the nature.
Seurat spends the summer 1885 at the seaside, in Grandcamp, on the advice of Signac who also invites him to take an interest in intense lights. Seurat then tests with marine views his interpretation of Chevreul's theories, developing his new technique of dividing colors by horizontal brush strokes that will soon become dots. He names that practice the chromo-luminarisme.
On May 8, 2018, Christie's sold as lot 18 for $ 34M La Rade de Grandcamp, oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm on the rather happy theme of a regatta of horizontally aligned white sails.
The achievement of the Grandcamp series pleases him. Back in his studio, he retouches the Grande Jatte by reducing chromatic variations and by introducing the pointillism. When this work is completed in 1886, it triggers the inevitable break with the Impressionnistes. Only Fénéon is convinced. In 1887 Fénéon coins the neo-Impressionist wording to try showing that Seurat's art is not an opposition to Impressionism but another step on the path to a new art.
Passionate about his theories, Seurat retouched his artworks. Rade de Grandcamp is perhaps the only example left in its original state from his very first experiences in complementary color techniques.
#AuctionUpdate Georges Seurat’s ‘La rade de Grandcamp (Le port de Grandcamp)’ auctions for $34,062,500. https://t.co/Dvt3rbsVQ1 pic.twitter.com/2OZswikdNo
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 9, 2018
1885 Le Pont d'Argenteuil et la Seine by Caillebotte
2011 SOLD for $ 18M by Sotheby's
Gustave Caillebotte is a wealthy Parisian bourgeois. After the death of his mother, he gives up the family home at Yerres and buys an estate in Petit-Gennevilliers to build his house and his studio. Close to Argenteuil, he thus settles in 1881 in a place beloved by his impressionist friends Manet, Monet, Sisley and Renoir, where he could devote himself to his passion for sailing.
Caillebotte does not need money. His works are most often in relation with his private life, in Paris, Gennevilliers or Trouville. In the early 1880s he desires to be the representative of the earliest Impressionist style and manages to move away from the group, having therefore more time for hobbies and painting.
Le Pont d'Argenteuil et la Seine, painted in 1885, is a view under a single wood arch of the highway bridge at mid day with the Seine river below in shadow and beyond. The close view of the architecture is reminding the Pont de l'Europe in Paris painted by him in 1876. The end of the modern railway bridge of Monet's fame is visible on the shore.
This oil on canvas 66 x 82 cm was sold for $ 8.5M by Christie's on November 6, 2008, lot 36, and for $ 18M by Sotheby's on November 2, 2011, lot 17. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Caillebotte does not need money. His works are most often in relation with his private life, in Paris, Gennevilliers or Trouville. In the early 1880s he desires to be the representative of the earliest Impressionist style and manages to move away from the group, having therefore more time for hobbies and painting.
Le Pont d'Argenteuil et la Seine, painted in 1885, is a view under a single wood arch of the highway bridge at mid day with the Seine river below in shadow and beyond. The close view of the architecture is reminding the Pont de l'Europe in Paris painted by him in 1876. The end of the modern railway bridge of Monet's fame is visible on the shore.
This oil on canvas 66 x 82 cm was sold for $ 8.5M by Christie's on November 6, 2008, lot 36, and for $ 18M by Sotheby's on November 2, 2011, lot 17. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1885 Giverny by MONET
Intro
Impressionism considered by Monet is not only a new technique suitable for painting landscapes. It is also a life style far from social conventions and preferring the pleasures of the countryside to the noise of the city.
An outdoor painter, Monet endeavored to express the deep essence of countryside. Like Sisley in Moret, he is not concerned with tourism. He settles in 1883 with Alice and the eight children of this recomposed family in Giverny, a pretty village where he can observe throughout the seasons the subtle variety of atmospheres and colors. The difficult period that followed the death of Camille is finally over.
Village life is a delight for Monet. He is dazzled by the countryside all around his new home. Route près de Giverny is a view of a country road in a sunny morning with extended shadows. This oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm painted in 1885 was sold for $ 9M by Christie's on November 19, 2024, lot 33A.
An outdoor painter, Monet endeavored to express the deep essence of countryside. Like Sisley in Moret, he is not concerned with tourism. He settles in 1883 with Alice and the eight children of this recomposed family in Giverny, a pretty village where he can observe throughout the seasons the subtle variety of atmospheres and colors. The difficult period that followed the death of Camille is finally over.
Village life is a delight for Monet. He is dazzled by the countryside all around his new home. Route près de Giverny is a view of a country road in a sunny morning with extended shadows. This oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm painted in 1885 was sold for $ 9M by Christie's on November 19, 2024, lot 33A.
1
January Frost
2013 SOLD for £ 8.8M by Sotheby's
In January 1885 Monet is at home. One of his favorite themes is made available to him in all its splendor : the light of winter on a snowy landscape. Van Gogh will also dazzle at his arrival in Arles in a wonderful post-snow day of February 1888. The average temperature fell down to minus 6 °C, and heavy snow blankets the village in new shades of white, silver, and blue.
Undeterred by the harsh conditions, the artist rushes outdoors to paint, producing a few views on canvas before snow and ice melt. Already the Impressionism of Monet highlights texture instead of forms. A scene of frost in the gently filtered light of winter, oil on canvas 54 x 71 cm, was sold for £ 8.8M from a lower estimate of £ 4M by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013, lot 16. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Giverny is welcoming, even in these extreme weather conditions. In the distance, two small figures contrast with the white world. Positioned near the edge of the painting, they do not disturb the magic serenity of the frozen nature.
Undeterred by the harsh conditions, the artist rushes outdoors to paint, producing a few views on canvas before snow and ice melt. Already the Impressionism of Monet highlights texture instead of forms. A scene of frost in the gently filtered light of winter, oil on canvas 54 x 71 cm, was sold for £ 8.8M from a lower estimate of £ 4M by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013, lot 16. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Giverny is welcoming, even in these extreme weather conditions. In the distance, two small figures contrast with the white world. Positioned near the edge of the painting, they do not disturb the magic serenity of the frozen nature.
2
L'Entrée de Giverny en Hiver
2012 SOLD for £ 8.2M by Sotheby's
A series of our paintings by Monet feature the snow-covered road entering the village of Giverny from the east.
The first one, 65 x 81 cm, taken while the snow was still falling in storm, was sold for $ 1.4M by Christie's on December 1, 2006, lot 324.
As welcoming as an image of Christmas, an oil on canvas 65 x 85 cm was sold for £ 8.2M from a lower estimate of £ 4.5M by Sotheby's on February 8, 2012, lot 5. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Among the leafless trees that twist in the cold, the road is white. Specifically it gives the "impression" of being white, without being immaculated. This beautiful atmosphere effect is achieved by a meticulous tangle of colors, indeed like a school case demonstrating the technique of the most subtle of the impressionist painters.
A sunset version of the same scenery, 65 x 81 cm, was sold for $ 5.2M by Christie's on November 5, 2013, lot 37. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The final painting in the sequence depicts the site in bright sunshine under a blue sky.
The first one, 65 x 81 cm, taken while the snow was still falling in storm, was sold for $ 1.4M by Christie's on December 1, 2006, lot 324.
As welcoming as an image of Christmas, an oil on canvas 65 x 85 cm was sold for £ 8.2M from a lower estimate of £ 4.5M by Sotheby's on February 8, 2012, lot 5. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Among the leafless trees that twist in the cold, the road is white. Specifically it gives the "impression" of being white, without being immaculated. This beautiful atmosphere effect is achieved by a meticulous tangle of colors, indeed like a school case demonstrating the technique of the most subtle of the impressionist painters.
A sunset version of the same scenery, 65 x 81 cm, was sold for $ 5.2M by Christie's on November 5, 2013, lot 37. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The final painting in the sequence depicts the site in bright sunshine under a blue sky.
3
summer Les Meules
2015 SOLD for $ 16.4M by Christie's
Then comes the summer. Claude and Alice love to finish the day in the meadow separated from their garden by a brook lined with poplars. The harvest is performed and the haystacks are awaiting to enter into the barn.
On May 14, 2015, Christie's sold for $ 16.4M an oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm dated 1885, lot 15C.
The composition is balanced, as always. A shadow is approaching the foot of the sun drenched stacks. In this soft shadow, halfway between the position of the artist and the poplars, the woman and three young children transform this peaceful landscape into a scene of intimate happiness.
On May 14, 2015, Christie's sold for $ 16.4M an oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm dated 1885, lot 15C.
The composition is balanced, as always. A shadow is approaching the foot of the sun drenched stacks. In this soft shadow, halfway between the position of the artist and the poplars, the woman and three young children transform this peaceful landscape into a scene of intimate happiness.
Why #Monet's studies of Giverny are profound reflections of changing times http://t.co/4ndYY4IS40 pic.twitter.com/NOMQjetkNX
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) April 15, 2015
1885 Danseuse by Degas
2021 SOLD for $ 11.8M by Sotheby's
A pastel on paper 73 x 60 cm painted by Degas in his signature theme of the "petits rats" of the Opéra de Paris was sold by Sotheby's for $ 10.6M on May 6, 2003, lot 11, and for $ 11.8M on May 12, 2021, lot 1005. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The dance was Degas's preferred theme for expressing textures and movement. This picture has been designed as an enchantment both by the attitude of the young ballerina and by the harmony and variety of light colors. She is viewed in full length in close-up, alone on stage, beginning her dance, the torso slightly leaning forward, with a highly elegant position of fingers and legs.
They could be portraits of Marie, whom Degas met for the first time in 1879 when she was still a teenager in an unfinished growth. During the 1880s Degas was keen to follow her transformation and her progress. The pretty and delicate young woman, 20 years old in 1885, used to serve as a model for the artists.
Danseuse jaune, a pastel of the same girl in exactly the same attitude and angle of view as the example above but with another background, dated ca 1885, was sold by Sotheby's for $ 8.7M on November 12, 1996. A significant difference is the ecstatic smile. These views display an empathy that departs from the images of young bodies tired by the performance.
The dance was Degas's preferred theme for expressing textures and movement. This picture has been designed as an enchantment both by the attitude of the young ballerina and by the harmony and variety of light colors. She is viewed in full length in close-up, alone on stage, beginning her dance, the torso slightly leaning forward, with a highly elegant position of fingers and legs.
They could be portraits of Marie, whom Degas met for the first time in 1879 when she was still a teenager in an unfinished growth. During the 1880s Degas was keen to follow her transformation and her progress. The pretty and delicate young woman, 20 years old in 1885, used to serve as a model for the artists.
Danseuse jaune, a pastel of the same girl in exactly the same attitude and angle of view as the example above but with another background, dated ca 1885, was sold by Sotheby's for $ 8.7M on November 12, 1996. A significant difference is the ecstatic smile. These views display an empathy that departs from the images of young bodies tired by the performance.
#AuctionUpdate: Once in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for nearly 70 years, Edgar Degas’s Danseuse brings $11.8 million. This dazzling work on paper is a fully worked & richly pigmented composition of Degas’s most iconic motif: the Parisian ballet. pic.twitter.com/a9D9acVVHa
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) May 13, 2021
1885 Nature Morte by Gauguin
2023 SOLD for $ 10.4M by Sotheby's
Paul Gauguin is a stockbroker at the Bourse de Paris. He collects Impressionist art and begins to paint. He is welcomed from 1879 in Pissarro's home where his extended stays captivate him much more than his job. He exhibits his artworks from the same year with the Impressionist group.
After the 1882 financial crash that deeply affected the art market, he plans to become a full time artist. Looking for a cheaper life, he moves to Rouen. His next move is to Copenhagen with his Danish born wife Mette and their five children.
Wanting to part away from the the impressionniste touch and to develop a personal style, Gauguin looked at the bold colors in Cézanne's still lifes, of which he owned a Compotier, verre et pommes.
In 1885 soon after arriving in Copenhagen, Gauguin painted a still life with some private objects, in the style of Cézanne. This includes on the dressed table an opulent bouquet of peonies in a vase on a placemat, a ceramic plate and his beloved mandolin. A painting by Guillaumin is hanging on the wall. The off center composition may evoke Degas.
This oil on canvas 62 x 51 cm was fraudulently acquired in 1940 from the estate of Vollard. After decades of exhibition successively at the Louvre, Jeu de Paume and Musée d'Orsay, it was restituted to Vollard's heirs in February 2023.
It was sold for $ 10.4M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2023, lot 110. The image is shared by Wikimedia. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Gauguin's life in Copenhagen was a failure. In the same year Mette required him to leave and he returned to Paris. The nature morte aux pivoines de chine et mandoline predates by one year his keen involvement in ceramics with Chaplet.
After the 1882 financial crash that deeply affected the art market, he plans to become a full time artist. Looking for a cheaper life, he moves to Rouen. His next move is to Copenhagen with his Danish born wife Mette and their five children.
Wanting to part away from the the impressionniste touch and to develop a personal style, Gauguin looked at the bold colors in Cézanne's still lifes, of which he owned a Compotier, verre et pommes.
In 1885 soon after arriving in Copenhagen, Gauguin painted a still life with some private objects, in the style of Cézanne. This includes on the dressed table an opulent bouquet of peonies in a vase on a placemat, a ceramic plate and his beloved mandolin. A painting by Guillaumin is hanging on the wall. The off center composition may evoke Degas.
This oil on canvas 62 x 51 cm was fraudulently acquired in 1940 from the estate of Vollard. After decades of exhibition successively at the Louvre, Jeu de Paume and Musée d'Orsay, it was restituted to Vollard's heirs in February 2023.
It was sold for $ 10.4M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2023, lot 110. The image is shared by Wikimedia. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Gauguin's life in Copenhagen was a failure. In the same year Mette required him to leave and he returned to Paris. The nature morte aux pivoines de chine et mandoline predates by one year his keen involvement in ceramics with Chaplet.
