1887
1885-1887 The Tilted Plate
2019 SOLD for £ 21M including premium
Paul Cézanne returns in 1878 to settle in Aix-en-Provence. He is alone to face the torment of his creativity and no longer exhibits in public. He seeks a universal art, abolishing the differences between the most disparate themes : portraits, landscapes, still lifes. Each work is reworked relentlessly up to the multi-sensory perfection desired by the artist.
Painting is the only possible medium for his interpretation of life, because it allows color harmonies. The laws of the perspective itself are not untouchable. Impressionism does not go far enough.
Emile Zola has certainly appreciated the depth of Cézanne's theories and his difficulties in sharing them. In his novel L'Oeuvre published in 1886, he stages a misunderstood painter whose idealistic passion leads to failure. A later letter from Cézanne to Zola, recently found, contradicts the legend of their breakup. Cézanne was obviously too soaked in his research to be indignant at the concern of his college friend.
On February 27 in London, Christie's sells as lot 6 a still life of fruit, oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm painted in the mid 1880s. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The theme is modest and the composition is minimalist. On a rustic table without any ornament in a slightly plunging perspective, a plate contains five peaches and a pear. Another pear is placed to the right of the plate. The subtle variety of fruit color is not however the main subject of this experiment.
If the plate is placed flat on the table, its perfect circle is impossible. It is therefore inclined, at the limit of the imbalance of the fruit pyramid. Cézanne knew that realism does not exist in painting : nature is too complex to be imitated and the surface of the canvas does not allow an illusion of real space.
A probably later work gives the key to the enigma : now viewed in profile, the plate is actually tilted. This 28 x 40 cm oil on canvas was sold for $ 8.1M including premium by Sotheby's on November 14, 2017.
Many years later, Matisse tries an axiom according to which Cézanne was too perfectionist to make a mistake. He thus discovers the de-construction of perspective in the most seemingly simplistic still lifes by Cézanne, an artist too far ahead of his own time.
Painting is the only possible medium for his interpretation of life, because it allows color harmonies. The laws of the perspective itself are not untouchable. Impressionism does not go far enough.
Emile Zola has certainly appreciated the depth of Cézanne's theories and his difficulties in sharing them. In his novel L'Oeuvre published in 1886, he stages a misunderstood painter whose idealistic passion leads to failure. A later letter from Cézanne to Zola, recently found, contradicts the legend of their breakup. Cézanne was obviously too soaked in his research to be indignant at the concern of his college friend.
On February 27 in London, Christie's sells as lot 6 a still life of fruit, oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm painted in the mid 1880s. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The theme is modest and the composition is minimalist. On a rustic table without any ornament in a slightly plunging perspective, a plate contains five peaches and a pear. Another pear is placed to the right of the plate. The subtle variety of fruit color is not however the main subject of this experiment.
If the plate is placed flat on the table, its perfect circle is impossible. It is therefore inclined, at the limit of the imbalance of the fruit pyramid. Cézanne knew that realism does not exist in painting : nature is too complex to be imitated and the surface of the canvas does not allow an illusion of real space.
A probably later work gives the key to the enigma : now viewed in profile, the plate is actually tilted. This 28 x 40 cm oil on canvas was sold for $ 8.1M including premium by Sotheby's on November 14, 2017.
Many years later, Matisse tries an axiom according to which Cézanne was too perfectionist to make a mistake. He thus discovers the de-construction of perspective in the most seemingly simplistic still lifes by Cézanne, an artist too far ahead of his own time.
Highlights from the most important single owner collection of Impressionist and Modern art offered for sale in London for a decade, featuring works by #Monet, #Renoir, #Cézanne, #VanGogh, #Bonnard, #Matisse and more... https://t.co/PZ3OpFMU7M pic.twitter.com/dhAJXW9NF5
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 27, 2018
1887 The Expression of the French Countryside
2014 SOLD for $ 20.3M including premium
Monet traveled extensively all along the 1880s in search of the most spectacular scenery of the French countryside. Better than anyone, he observed the light. At the end of this creative phase, he enters into communion with the agrarian landscape, beginning to escape the need to locate the view.
On November 4 in New York, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm painted in 1887 entitled Sous les peupliers (under the poplars), lot 28 estimated $ 12M.
The control of his art is total. His impressionist manner is reinforced by a thick paint and the colors, as always, are beautiful and expressive. A similar view is held at the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart. They are identified as the rural landscape in Limetz, not so far from Giverny.
This is in some way the culmination of the landscape art in France. Monet believes that his maturity is total. In the next year, he will be disappointed when the light and the wind of the Mediterranea will be too violent for his technique of outdoor painting. A new phase begins for him with more systematic studies of tiny variations of light in structured series: Haystacks in 1890 soon followed by the Poplars and by the Rouen Cathedrals.
On November 4 in New York, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm painted in 1887 entitled Sous les peupliers (under the poplars), lot 28 estimated $ 12M.
The control of his art is total. His impressionist manner is reinforced by a thick paint and the colors, as always, are beautiful and expressive. A similar view is held at the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart. They are identified as the rural landscape in Limetz, not so far from Giverny.
This is in some way the culmination of the landscape art in France. Monet believes that his maturity is total. In the next year, he will be disappointed when the light and the wind of the Mediterranea will be too violent for his technique of outdoor painting. A new phase begins for him with more systematic studies of tiny variations of light in structured series: Haystacks in 1890 soon followed by the Poplars and by the Rouen Cathedrals.
1887 Sunset through the Poplar Trees
2015 SOLD for £ 10.8M including premium
In the 1880s, Claude Monet is the landscape painter of France. Like Cézanne and Sisley, he however specializes in views close to his residence. His distant excursions that become rarer stimulate him to better observe his new paradise, the countryside around Giverny.
1887 marks the culmination of this slow evolution, including improvements in the texture of his paint. An oil on canvas entitled Sous les peupliers was sold for $ 20.3M including premium by Sotheby's on November 4, 2014.
On February 3 in London, Sotheby's sells Peupliers à Giverny, lot 21 estimated £ 9M. This oil on canvas 74 x 93 cm belonged since 1951 to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The composition of this picture is powerful. Its theme is the sunset of the early autumn in high treetops where the light turns into fire whirls. Through the trees, the clear sky and the fields offer sumptuous colors. The horizon was not useful for this exceptional landscape : it is hidden by the leaves.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's :
1887 marks the culmination of this slow evolution, including improvements in the texture of his paint. An oil on canvas entitled Sous les peupliers was sold for $ 20.3M including premium by Sotheby's on November 4, 2014.
On February 3 in London, Sotheby's sells Peupliers à Giverny, lot 21 estimated £ 9M. This oil on canvas 74 x 93 cm belonged since 1951 to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The composition of this picture is powerful. Its theme is the sunset of the early autumn in high treetops where the light turns into fire whirls. Through the trees, the clear sky and the fields offer sumptuous colors. The horizon was not useful for this exceptional landscape : it is hidden by the leaves.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's :
1887 Renoir back to Classics
2014 SOLD 11.4 M$ including premium
After 1883, Renoir is looking for a new path. Impressionism is no longer suitable to him. The scenes of modern life that had made him so successful are no more decorative enough for his taste. Wanting a more sustainable art, he loses the references of clothing by undressing the young women and seeks to emulate Ingres.
Renoir exhibits his new style in 1887 with Les Grandes Baigneuses, oil on canvas 115 x 170 cm. The composition is neat, with a good balance between these happy women. The contours of their nude forms are a rejection of Impressionism by one of its main initiators. Failure is scathing.
On May 6 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas of the same period, and especially illustrating the same desire of the artist to radically change his style. His work is done at that time in the studio, even for outdoor scenes.
In a meadow, five young women are playing rackets. They are dressed, but their attentive communication is similar to the Grandes Baigneuses. The figures are defined in sharp lines, leaving a reminder of impressionism only in the atmosphere of the surroundings.
This oil on canvas 55 x 65 cm is estimated $ 10M, lot 10 in the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
This interesting painting from a transition period of the artist was sold for $ 11.4 million including premium.
Renoir exhibits his new style in 1887 with Les Grandes Baigneuses, oil on canvas 115 x 170 cm. The composition is neat, with a good balance between these happy women. The contours of their nude forms are a rejection of Impressionism by one of its main initiators. Failure is scathing.
On May 6 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas of the same period, and especially illustrating the same desire of the artist to radically change his style. His work is done at that time in the studio, even for outdoor scenes.
In a meadow, five young women are playing rackets. They are dressed, but their attentive communication is similar to the Grandes Baigneuses. The figures are defined in sharp lines, leaving a reminder of impressionism only in the atmosphere of the surroundings.
This oil on canvas 55 x 65 cm is estimated $ 10M, lot 10 in the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
This interesting painting from a transition period of the artist was sold for $ 11.4 million including premium.
1887 Gauguin in Martinique
2019 SOLD for $ 8.2M including premium
Paul Gauguin participates in May 1886 in the 8th and last exhibition of the Impressionnistes but this style does not suit him anymore. Seeking his cultural roots, he makes his first stay in Brittany, which was still rather backward at that time and where life is cheap.
Gauguin has given up his job as a stockbroker since 1884, but art does not compensate. His financial and family difficulties become critical. He believes finding an Eldorado through the campaign of exalting and deceptive advertisements for the construction of the Panama Canal by the French. With Charles Laval, a young artist whom he had met at Pont-Aven, he leaves in April 1887 for Panama.
Panama does not offer wealth to its workers but rather malaria and yellow fever. The two adventurers are repatriated in June 1887 by a French boat which they leave in Martinique.
In the tropics, Gauguin finds the atmosphere of primordial society that he did not feel enough in Brittany. Due to racial differences, he is no longer handicapped by his brawling and quarreling temperament. He paints the bright colors of the landscape and the rural life.
On May 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells Chemin sous les palmiers, oil on canvas 89 x 60 cm, lot 18 estimated $ 6M. The tweet below is the detail of the top of the image.
After living for five months in a hut in Martinique, Gauguin brings back in France his finally retrieved enthusiasm, along with dysentery and marsh fever. He had developed in the Antilles a theory of painting from imagination that he will try in vain to inculcate to van Gogh.
Gauguin has given up his job as a stockbroker since 1884, but art does not compensate. His financial and family difficulties become critical. He believes finding an Eldorado through the campaign of exalting and deceptive advertisements for the construction of the Panama Canal by the French. With Charles Laval, a young artist whom he had met at Pont-Aven, he leaves in April 1887 for Panama.
Panama does not offer wealth to its workers but rather malaria and yellow fever. The two adventurers are repatriated in June 1887 by a French boat which they leave in Martinique.
In the tropics, Gauguin finds the atmosphere of primordial society that he did not feel enough in Brittany. Due to racial differences, he is no longer handicapped by his brawling and quarreling temperament. He paints the bright colors of the landscape and the rural life.
On May 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells Chemin sous les palmiers, oil on canvas 89 x 60 cm, lot 18 estimated $ 6M. The tweet below is the detail of the top of the image.
After living for five months in a hut in Martinique, Gauguin brings back in France his finally retrieved enthusiasm, along with dysentery and marsh fever. He had developed in the Antilles a theory of painting from imagination that he will try in vain to inculcate to van Gogh.
Painted in 1887, 'Chemin sous les palmiers' encapsulates Paul Gauguin's life-long interest in depicting the unfamiliar. Discover this highlight from #SothebysImpMod Evening Sale on 14 May in #NYC, on offer from The Levy Family Collection: https://t.co/O6aU6VFdGC pic.twitter.com/iZw703xITN
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) April 26, 2019
1887 Vincent looking at the Seine River
2013 SOLD 6.7 MCHF including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The accession of Van Gogh to the artistic maturity begins with his assimilation of modern art. Paris is a great location for this project. He spent two years in that city, from February 1886.
He meets the Impressionists and appreciates the importance of color. He meets the pointillists and includes the possibility of new artistic languages. He has not forgotten the Japanese prints and their expressive treatment oflandscape.
Vincent used the flowers to vary and brighten the colors and then tried his hand to the landscape. On June 21 in Zurich, Koller sells an oil on canvas 55 x 46 cm executed outdoor in 1887. This view of the pont de Clichy (Clichy bridge) is estimated CHF 5M.
The banality of this peaceful subject is superseded by the sweet harmony of colors inspired by summer light : lemon yellow, azure blue and emerald green. The perspective is minimal but the shades of the reflections in the Seine are subtle. It seems that Vincent saw this painting as one of the most successful of his Parisian landscapes.
POST SALE COMMENT
This interesting but unusual painting was certainly not easy to sell. The result, CHF 5.7 million before fees, is very good.
The accession of Van Gogh to the artistic maturity begins with his assimilation of modern art. Paris is a great location for this project. He spent two years in that city, from February 1886.
He meets the Impressionists and appreciates the importance of color. He meets the pointillists and includes the possibility of new artistic languages. He has not forgotten the Japanese prints and their expressive treatment oflandscape.
Vincent used the flowers to vary and brighten the colors and then tried his hand to the landscape. On June 21 in Zurich, Koller sells an oil on canvas 55 x 46 cm executed outdoor in 1887. This view of the pont de Clichy (Clichy bridge) is estimated CHF 5M.
The banality of this peaceful subject is superseded by the sweet harmony of colors inspired by summer light : lemon yellow, azure blue and emerald green. The perspective is minimal but the shades of the reflections in the Seine are subtle. It seems that Vincent saw this painting as one of the most successful of his Parisian landscapes.
POST SALE COMMENT
This interesting but unusual painting was certainly not easy to sell. The result, CHF 5.7 million before fees, is very good.
1887 A Slender Body ready for Ballet
2013 SOLD 4.5 M£ including premium
Degas assiduously frequents the Opéra de Paris inaugurated in 1875, and also the dance schools that educate and select adolescent girls. He is an artist. His interest is not in the theater but for the interpretation of the closed world of the teenagers in their dressing room and backstage.
The girls came for working. Before going on stage, they are waiting by lacing their shoes with manic gestures. When the show is over, they seek the suitable pose for relieving their physical exhaustion. In both cases, their slender and flexible bodies take a lanky attitude inconceivable for an older woman.
On 3 November 2008, Sotheby's sold $ 37M including premium a pastel, 59 x 64 cm, made circa 1879. The exhausted girl has not yet recovered the strength to change her dress. The pastel enables a color harmony of the flesh, of the tutu and of the huge bow tied behind her belt in the stereotypical dancing fashion of that time.
The girl who comes in 1887 in another pastel, 50 x 62 cm, is certainly the same person although the face is not visible. Seated, she is is leaning for catching her foot.
Degas was a great innovator in terms of the angles of his images. Here, he looks at the girl from above, in a surreal position that the artist could not hold in reality and demonstrates the high role of imagination in his art. The crushing anamorphic plans transform the young ballerina into a butterfly with symmetrical wings in the colors of shimmering silk.
This pastel on paper is estimated £ 3M, for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 5. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
The eccentric compositions of Degas pastels are extraordinary for their time.
The ballerina discussed above was sold for £ 4.5 million including premium.
In the same sale, a woman after bath painted a few years earlier was sold for £ 7.8 million including premium.
The girls came for working. Before going on stage, they are waiting by lacing their shoes with manic gestures. When the show is over, they seek the suitable pose for relieving their physical exhaustion. In both cases, their slender and flexible bodies take a lanky attitude inconceivable for an older woman.
On 3 November 2008, Sotheby's sold $ 37M including premium a pastel, 59 x 64 cm, made circa 1879. The exhausted girl has not yet recovered the strength to change her dress. The pastel enables a color harmony of the flesh, of the tutu and of the huge bow tied behind her belt in the stereotypical dancing fashion of that time.
The girl who comes in 1887 in another pastel, 50 x 62 cm, is certainly the same person although the face is not visible. Seated, she is is leaning for catching her foot.
Degas was a great innovator in terms of the angles of his images. Here, he looks at the girl from above, in a surreal position that the artist could not hold in reality and demonstrates the high role of imagination in his art. The crushing anamorphic plans transform the young ballerina into a butterfly with symmetrical wings in the colors of shimmering silk.
This pastel on paper is estimated £ 3M, for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 5. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
The eccentric compositions of Degas pastels are extraordinary for their time.
The ballerina discussed above was sold for £ 4.5 million including premium.
In the same sale, a woman after bath painted a few years earlier was sold for £ 7.8 million including premium.
1887 The Conquistador of Tourism
2015 SOLD for $ 5.8M including premium
Henry Flagler was a co-founder of the Standard Oil and an industrialist of the railway. This investor used his vast wealth to equip Florida for resort tourism, without fearing the cost overruns. He developed Miami and the largest hotel of his chain, the Royal Ponciana Hotel in Palm Beach opened in 1894, had 1,700 employees and 1,100 rooms for a capacity of 2,000 guests.
The masterpiece of the Flagler empire is undoubtedly the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, built in 1887 in an extravagant neo-Spanish style. The two towers were not used only for prestige but were the tanks that supplied the 540 rooms in running water. The handling of the wonderful electricity was entrusted to the hotel employees to avoid scaring the guests.
Art was not forgotten and the lavish murals of the rotunda contributed to the reputation of the Ponce de Leon. Workshops were accommodated in the property for the artists.
Martin Johnson Heade had always considered himself as an itinerant painter. Married at 64 in 1883, he sought an anchor in Florida. He was a specialist in flower painting often associated with birds, and of tropical scenery. He was also a landscapist in the American romantic tradition. He preferred marshes to mountains and his idealized views cannot be located.
Heade realized for Flagler two of the murals of the Ponce de Leon. One of them titled The Great Florida Sunset is huge, 138 x 244 cm. The glowing sky of twilight terminates the day above a scenery typical of the marshes and palm groves of Florida.
A. Alfred Taubman wisely bought this oil painting to decorate his own mansion in Palm Beach. It is estimated $ 7M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 18, lot 11.
The masterpiece of the Flagler empire is undoubtedly the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, built in 1887 in an extravagant neo-Spanish style. The two towers were not used only for prestige but were the tanks that supplied the 540 rooms in running water. The handling of the wonderful electricity was entrusted to the hotel employees to avoid scaring the guests.
Art was not forgotten and the lavish murals of the rotunda contributed to the reputation of the Ponce de Leon. Workshops were accommodated in the property for the artists.
Martin Johnson Heade had always considered himself as an itinerant painter. Married at 64 in 1883, he sought an anchor in Florida. He was a specialist in flower painting often associated with birds, and of tropical scenery. He was also a landscapist in the American romantic tradition. He preferred marshes to mountains and his idealized views cannot be located.
Heade realized for Flagler two of the murals of the Ponce de Leon. One of them titled The Great Florida Sunset is huge, 138 x 244 cm. The glowing sky of twilight terminates the day above a scenery typical of the marshes and palm groves of Florida.
A. Alfred Taubman wisely bought this oil painting to decorate his own mansion in Palm Beach. It is estimated $ 7M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 18, lot 11.
Preview American Art from the #TaubmanatSothebys collection - now on view in #NY https://t.co/4bmTWnSrFW pic.twitter.com/8wW0gonkcE
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) November 16, 2015
1887 Everyday Life in Jaffa
2019 SOLD for £ 3.7M including premium
After admiring the monuments of Italy, the German architect Gustav Bauernfeind decides to become a painter and sets up his workshop in Munich in 1876. In 1880 he embarks on his first tour to the Middle East. He observes with passion how everyday life in traditional attire fits harmoniously with monuments and streets from ancient times.
Bauernfeind then alternates long stays in the Levant with periods in Munich during which he paints Orientalist scenes for his clients and participates in exhibitions. He works from photographs with an abundance of detail that makes his work an irreplaceable testimony of social life. He settles permanently in Palestine in 1896.
Neglected at that time by tourists, Jaffa pleases Bauernfeind to such a point that he shares the hard life of the inhabitants bothered by heat and by some insecurity and threatened by diseases. This home port also allows him to make frequent visits to Jerusalem.
On October 22 in London, Sotheby's sells a market scene in Jaffa, oil on canvas 82 x 109 cm painted in 1887 after three years in Palestine. The market is a fine excuse to bring together artisans of all specialties, rug weavers, potters, gunsmiths, beside merchants of oranges and melons. Women take water at the well or prepare bread. The dogs sniff baskets or take a nap in the sun, and the kids are nice.
This painting is estimated £ 2.5M, lot 9. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Bauernfeind then alternates long stays in the Levant with periods in Munich during which he paints Orientalist scenes for his clients and participates in exhibitions. He works from photographs with an abundance of detail that makes his work an irreplaceable testimony of social life. He settles permanently in Palestine in 1896.
Neglected at that time by tourists, Jaffa pleases Bauernfeind to such a point that he shares the hard life of the inhabitants bothered by heat and by some insecurity and threatened by diseases. This home port also allows him to make frequent visits to Jerusalem.
On October 22 in London, Sotheby's sells a market scene in Jaffa, oil on canvas 82 x 109 cm painted in 1887 after three years in Palestine. The market is a fine excuse to bring together artisans of all specialties, rug weavers, potters, gunsmiths, beside merchants of oranges and melons. Women take water at the well or prepare bread. The dogs sniff baskets or take a nap in the sun, and the kids are nice.
This painting is estimated £ 2.5M, lot 9. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1887 The Beauty of Andromeda
2017 SOLD for € 3.7M including premium
Rodin observed in his studio the bodies of his models in the full nude. When an attitude interested him, he realized a plaster and only afterward defined a title or a place in the project of La Porte. Conceived around 1885 the nude at the rock is undoubtedly the image of a young woman seeking some rest after a tiring pose. Her legs and arms are bent, exacerbating for the artist the perfection of the lines of her spine and back.
In two very similar variants Rodin expresses both the smooth body of the woman and her rough surrounding. The marble will be the perfect material to reveal the sensuality of that woman who is born from the ground.
The largest of these variants, 70 cm long, is La Source, a very popular theme in the 19th century where an abundant hair descends like a waterfall. It will become La Danaïde. The other version, 30 cm long, which does not have this capillary excess is slumped over a spectacular rock. It will be Andromeda, the young mythological heroine tortured because of her supreme beauty.
On May 30 in Paris, Artcurial sells a marble dated 1887 of the smaller version. In the following year, Rodin had presented it to a Chilean diplomat in re-exchange for the bust of his wife, so charming that the French government had wanted to own it. This Andromède has been hoarded up to now in the family of the diplomat proud of the friendship with the great artist. It is estimated € 800K, lot 6.
Four other Andromède marbles are known. One of them executed circa 1895 was sold for $ 3,04M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006 over a lower estimate of $ 500K. A Danaïde bronze made in the same period was sold for $ 1.7M including premium by Christie's on November 5, 2014.
Please watch the video shared by Artcurial :
In two very similar variants Rodin expresses both the smooth body of the woman and her rough surrounding. The marble will be the perfect material to reveal the sensuality of that woman who is born from the ground.
The largest of these variants, 70 cm long, is La Source, a very popular theme in the 19th century where an abundant hair descends like a waterfall. It will become La Danaïde. The other version, 30 cm long, which does not have this capillary excess is slumped over a spectacular rock. It will be Andromeda, the young mythological heroine tortured because of her supreme beauty.
On May 30 in Paris, Artcurial sells a marble dated 1887 of the smaller version. In the following year, Rodin had presented it to a Chilean diplomat in re-exchange for the bust of his wife, so charming that the French government had wanted to own it. This Andromède has been hoarded up to now in the family of the diplomat proud of the friendship with the great artist. It is estimated € 800K, lot 6.
Four other Andromède marbles are known. One of them executed circa 1895 was sold for $ 3,04M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006 over a lower estimate of $ 500K. A Danaïde bronze made in the same period was sold for $ 1.7M including premium by Christie's on November 5, 2014.
Please watch the video shared by Artcurial :
