1895
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Art on paper Groups Tabletop Midi Bouquet Northern Europe Cézanne Gauguin Lautrec Prints by Munch
See also : Art on paper Groups Tabletop Midi Bouquet Northern Europe Cézanne Gauguin Lautrec Prints by Munch
1895 The Scream of Nature by Munch
2012 SOLD for $ 120M by Sotheby's
Edvard Munch, exalted by the meaning of life, is constantly navigating the limits of a morbid insanity. In 1889, during the Exposition Universelle in Paris, he is fascinated by the intensity of emotions expressed by Van Gogh, Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec.
In early 1892, Munch lives his own road to Damascus. He sees the sky ablaze at sunset, like an indomitable force of nature which has invaded the fjord in a terrible explosion of colors. He writes in his notebook a short poem stating that the happening had generated an intense fatigue to him.
No doubt he will be mesmerized by this vision for over a year, before daring to translate the memory of his anxiety as a painting and a pastel with a title evoking his inspiration: the Scream of Nature.
It took him another two years to exorcise his anxiety. In 1895, he made a second pastel, 79 x 59 cm, in dazzling colors. This is the only version where the artist has included the poem, hand painted into the frame. The two friends are still there in the distance, but are not any more interested in the scene, leaving the main character lonely struggling with his own dehumanization.
It was sold for $ 120M from an expectation of $ 80M by Sotheby's on May 2, 2012. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Now conscious of having created a masterpiece, he prepares on the same year the first lithography. The fourth and last painted version of Munch's Scream is much later.
The 1895 pastel is the only one of the four artworks to be still in private hands, and it had been little seen outside Norway. It is illustrated on Sotheby's page announcing the sale.
In early 1892, Munch lives his own road to Damascus. He sees the sky ablaze at sunset, like an indomitable force of nature which has invaded the fjord in a terrible explosion of colors. He writes in his notebook a short poem stating that the happening had generated an intense fatigue to him.
No doubt he will be mesmerized by this vision for over a year, before daring to translate the memory of his anxiety as a painting and a pastel with a title evoking his inspiration: the Scream of Nature.
It took him another two years to exorcise his anxiety. In 1895, he made a second pastel, 79 x 59 cm, in dazzling colors. This is the only version where the artist has included the poem, hand painted into the frame. The two friends are still there in the distance, but are not any more interested in the scene, leaving the main character lonely struggling with his own dehumanization.
It was sold for $ 120M from an expectation of $ 80M by Sotheby's on May 2, 2012. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Now conscious of having created a masterpiece, he prepares on the same year the first lithography. The fourth and last painted version of Munch's Scream is much later.
The 1895 pastel is the only one of the four artworks to be still in private hands, and it had been little seen outside Norway. It is illustrated on Sotheby's page announcing the sale.
1895 CEZANNE
1
Clairière
2022 SOLD for $ 42M by Sotheby's
From 1886, Paul Cézanne was developing in all his themes a new art mingling vision and mind. For that purpose he replaced the Impressionniste brush stroke by a construction of tiny geometric elements, preferring to perfect the confrontation of colors than to respect the perspective.
As for landscapes he tirelessly revisited the same themes : the wide open scenery of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire and the closed views of woods and glades.
This phase reached its culmination in large formats around 1895 in an unusually reductive palette of blue, green and ochre in various intensities.
Clairière, oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, flattens the perspective. De-accessioned from the Toledo Museum of Art, it was sold for $ 42M from a lower estimate of $ 30M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 16. The image is shared by Wikimedia. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
As for landscapes he tirelessly revisited the same themes : the wide open scenery of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire and the closed views of woods and glades.
This phase reached its culmination in large formats around 1895 in an unusually reductive palette of blue, green and ochre in various intensities.
Clairière, oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, flattens the perspective. De-accessioned from the Toledo Museum of Art, it was sold for $ 42M from a lower estimate of $ 30M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 16. The image is shared by Wikimedia. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
2
Fruits et Pot de Gingembre
2006 SOLD for $ 37M by Sotheby's
Cézanne's still life is a continuous quest for perfection. In the Impressionniste phase, that theme enables him to be compared with old masters like Chardin. Also the temperamental artist finds some quietness in arranging real fruit for painstakingly realizing a painting. It is not by chance that his preferred fruit in art, the apple, remains steady for a very long time before going rotten.
There is no still life by Cézanne for a few years from 1880. He restarts the theme around 1886, when he starts in Gardanne a new life that excites his creativity. This is the trompe-l'oeil phase, with a quest for the unbalance that manages to simulate a motion.
The trompe-l'oeil phase comes to an end in 1895. Afterward the still lifes become rarer for several years, mostly characterized by the addition of skulls. His creativity restarts once again at Les Lauves, when the still life participates to his obsession for the perfect color and luminosity.
Nature morte aux fruits et pot de gingembre is a masterpiece from the end of the trompe-l'oeil phase. Its terminus ante quem is its exhibition by Vollard in 1895, soon after its execution.
An interesting feature of this opus is the deep ultramarine underlining of the elements, reminding the underlining of the horizon of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. A cut melon brings an unusual and much juicy freshness in its two parts, just open on the left side plus two slices on a plate at the central point of the still life. The symphony of rare colors includes intricate gradations from yellow to red.
This oil on canvas 46 x 61 cm was sold for £ 12M by Christie's on June 28, 2000, lot 10, and for $ 37M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2006, lot 18.
There is no still life by Cézanne for a few years from 1880. He restarts the theme around 1886, when he starts in Gardanne a new life that excites his creativity. This is the trompe-l'oeil phase, with a quest for the unbalance that manages to simulate a motion.
The trompe-l'oeil phase comes to an end in 1895. Afterward the still lifes become rarer for several years, mostly characterized by the addition of skulls. His creativity restarts once again at Les Lauves, when the still life participates to his obsession for the perfect color and luminosity.
Nature morte aux fruits et pot de gingembre is a masterpiece from the end of the trompe-l'oeil phase. Its terminus ante quem is its exhibition by Vollard in 1895, soon after its execution.
An interesting feature of this opus is the deep ultramarine underlining of the elements, reminding the underlining of the horizon of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. A cut melon brings an unusual and much juicy freshness in its two parts, just open on the left side plus two slices on a plate at the central point of the still life. The symphony of rare colors includes intricate gradations from yellow to red.
This oil on canvas 46 x 61 cm was sold for £ 12M by Christie's on June 28, 2000, lot 10, and for $ 37M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2006, lot 18.
GAUGUIN
1
(1886) 1893-1895 Vase of Flowers
2018 SOLD for $ 19.4M by Christie's
A Vase of Flowers by Gauguin, dated '86, was sold by Christie's on May 2, 2006 for $ 4.5M despite a lower estimate of $ 7M. This oil on canvas 61 x 74 cm has however some interesting features for understanding Gauguin's creativity : the inverted perspective directly inspired by Cézanne's still lifes, the insertion of an image within the image without a consistency of scale, the juxtaposition of elements from several cultures.
The 2006 catalog clearly explained that this work could not have been painted before Gauguin's first departure for Tahiti, in 1891 : the bright red flowers looking like poinsettias which dominate this bouquet are Polynesian.
An inconsistency is a handicap for a work on the art market. This still life returned to the same auction room on May 8, 2018 in the dispersion of the Peggy and David Rockefeller collection. The catalog included a complex but coherent scenario. It was sold for $ 19.4M from a lower estimate of $ 5M, lot 14. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Here is a probable sequence of the transformations of this artwork :
Gauguin started this painting in 1886. He sought to exploit the best in the avant-garde pictorial techniques and wanted to imitate the Still Life with the Fruit Dish by Cézanne, which he owned. In the following year, on his return from Martinique, he added a very small figure of a West Indian woman standing on a column along the right edge of the image.
In 1893 the return from Polynesia goes very badly. Gauguin is forgotten except by a few friends, and the state of his finances is catastrophic. At one point during this tragic stay in France, which lasted until 1895, he wanted to bring together on a painting his most recent conceptions of still life. Times are hard. Rather than using a new canvas, he paints over his original work.
Gauguin was a fervent admirer of Van Gogh's sunflowers. At Arles in 1888. he had painted a portrait of Van Gogh in front of his easel, busy painting these specific flowers.
The inclusion of the poinsettias is perhaps inspired by the very bright colors of Van Gogh's sunflowers. Originally the back wall was dark : traces of blue pigment have been found under the yellow layer. Several shades of yellow had been used by Van Gogh for the background of his Arles sunflowers. The tablecloth also was too dull for his new Polynesian sensibility : he redid it in orange and pink. The incongruous Martinican figure and the obsolete date remained intact.
The 2006 catalog clearly explained that this work could not have been painted before Gauguin's first departure for Tahiti, in 1891 : the bright red flowers looking like poinsettias which dominate this bouquet are Polynesian.
An inconsistency is a handicap for a work on the art market. This still life returned to the same auction room on May 8, 2018 in the dispersion of the Peggy and David Rockefeller collection. The catalog included a complex but coherent scenario. It was sold for $ 19.4M from a lower estimate of $ 5M, lot 14. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Here is a probable sequence of the transformations of this artwork :
Gauguin started this painting in 1886. He sought to exploit the best in the avant-garde pictorial techniques and wanted to imitate the Still Life with the Fruit Dish by Cézanne, which he owned. In the following year, on his return from Martinique, he added a very small figure of a West Indian woman standing on a column along the right edge of the image.
In 1893 the return from Polynesia goes very badly. Gauguin is forgotten except by a few friends, and the state of his finances is catastrophic. At one point during this tragic stay in France, which lasted until 1895, he wanted to bring together on a painting his most recent conceptions of still life. Times are hard. Rather than using a new canvas, he paints over his original work.
Gauguin was a fervent admirer of Van Gogh's sunflowers. At Arles in 1888. he had painted a portrait of Van Gogh in front of his easel, busy painting these specific flowers.
The inclusion of the poinsettias is perhaps inspired by the very bright colors of Van Gogh's sunflowers. Originally the back wall was dark : traces of blue pigment have been found under the yellow layer. Several shades of yellow had been used by Van Gogh for the background of his Arles sunflowers. The tablecloth also was too dull for his new Polynesian sensibility : he redid it in orange and pink. The incongruous Martinican figure and the obsolete date remained intact.
2
1895 Still Life of Mangos
2015 SOLD for £ 11.6M by Sotheby's
Paul Gauguin looked in Polynesia for another civilization, close to nature, resolutely nonviolent, far from European intellectual excesses. He intended to return soon in Europe with a renewed creativity and style.
He found what he expected but his own living conditions were precarious. He pulled away from Papeete too dependent for his concern upon the French administration. In the countryside, he did not accept barter in a village community which had no monetary use. Close to misery, he could not acquire canvases and carved more than he himself had desired. This first stay had lasted two years, from 1891 to 1893.
The second stay began in 1895. He organized it better in order for it to be more sustainable and he worked more conveniently on his mystical themes animated by the figures of the Polynesians.
Gauguin admired the still life by Cézanne. He however executed very few still lifes during his first stay. A composition with fruits and chillies painted in Tahiti in 1892, 32 x 66 cm, was sold for $ 12.4M by Christie's on November 6, 2007, lot 15.
A still life of mangos, oil on canvas 30 x 47 cm, was sold by Sotheby's for £ 3.6M on 20 June 20, 2005 and for £ 11.6M on June 24, 2015, lot 11.
Undated, this painting was done during the first visit or, more likely, at the beginning of the second in 1895 or 1896. The extensive correspondence left by Gauguin leaves no doubt as to his intention: he practiced still life to keep cool between two mystic quests.
The angular composition is bold like a Cézanne, but the use of strong colors, deliberately exaggerated to reach the splendor while refusing to copy the nature, is similar as in Gauguin's landscapes. The displaying of mangos is a new challenge by the artist to the European civilization. It is not new in his art since he had already chosen this theme during his stay in Martinique in 1887.
He found what he expected but his own living conditions were precarious. He pulled away from Papeete too dependent for his concern upon the French administration. In the countryside, he did not accept barter in a village community which had no monetary use. Close to misery, he could not acquire canvases and carved more than he himself had desired. This first stay had lasted two years, from 1891 to 1893.
The second stay began in 1895. He organized it better in order for it to be more sustainable and he worked more conveniently on his mystical themes animated by the figures of the Polynesians.
Gauguin admired the still life by Cézanne. He however executed very few still lifes during his first stay. A composition with fruits and chillies painted in Tahiti in 1892, 32 x 66 cm, was sold for $ 12.4M by Christie's on November 6, 2007, lot 15.
A still life of mangos, oil on canvas 30 x 47 cm, was sold by Sotheby's for £ 3.6M on 20 June 20, 2005 and for £ 11.6M on June 24, 2015, lot 11.
Undated, this painting was done during the first visit or, more likely, at the beginning of the second in 1895 or 1896. The extensive correspondence left by Gauguin leaves no doubt as to his intention: he practiced still life to keep cool between two mystic quests.
The angular composition is bold like a Cézanne, but the use of strong colors, deliberately exaggerated to reach the splendor while refusing to copy the nature, is similar as in Gauguin's landscapes. The displaying of mangos is a new challenge by the artist to the European civilization. It is not new in his art since he had already chosen this theme during his stay in Martinique in 1887.
#AuctionUpdate: £11.6m for #Gauguin’s still-life of mangoes painted in 1890s Tahiti, bought 10 yrs ago for £3.6m pic.twitter.com/nO12gTCxCT
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) June 24, 20151895 LAUTREC
1
La Clownesse Cha-U-Kao
2015 SOLD for $ 12M by Sotheby's
Art is inviting to debasing. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is an aristocrat from one of the oldest French families. He jumps without stopping across the too conventional world of the bourgeoisie for accessing the Parisian pleasures of his time where stars and vamps are poor and ephemeral : café-concert, circus, brothel.
The Montmartre entertainers had picturesque and appealing names. La Goulue and Valentin le Désossé are the leading couple of cancan dancers at the Moulin Rouge. Other local personalities were La Clownesse Cha-U-Kao or La Môme Fromage.
Lautrec was a keen participant in this bohemian life which he featured in advertisement posters for Le Moulin Rouge, Le Mirliton or Les Ambassadeurs. He made also portraits of these nearly destitute Ladies of the Parisian underworld.
The clownesse Cha-U-Kao is one of his preferred characters. Like for the other women featured by the artist, we will not consider her as a sitter. Lautrec was a discrete witness of their life which he expressed with an incomparable spontaneity.
Cha-U-Kao is a contortionist who performs at the Moulin Rouge and the Nouveau Cirque. Like for many artists of the demimonde, we will not know her identity nor her past. She is not young and has the good taste not to exhibit herself any more in the nude. She is openly lesbian and such a female environment pleases Lautrec. In 1896, the series of prints Elles is designed by Lautrec around her intimate life.
In 1895, Toulouse-Lautrec executed several portraits of Cha-U-Kao in his signature technique of diluted oil which brings the delicacy of pastel hues. Lautrec is a follower of Degas excepted that the cabaret superseded the Opéra.
On November 4, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 12M one of these portraits à l'essence on board, 81 x 60 cm, lot 68. The entertainer is standing thoughtfully, probably concentrated before performing. She does not appreciate that the artist is watching her and she does not hide her opulent curves. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The Montmartre entertainers had picturesque and appealing names. La Goulue and Valentin le Désossé are the leading couple of cancan dancers at the Moulin Rouge. Other local personalities were La Clownesse Cha-U-Kao or La Môme Fromage.
Lautrec was a keen participant in this bohemian life which he featured in advertisement posters for Le Moulin Rouge, Le Mirliton or Les Ambassadeurs. He made also portraits of these nearly destitute Ladies of the Parisian underworld.
The clownesse Cha-U-Kao is one of his preferred characters. Like for the other women featured by the artist, we will not consider her as a sitter. Lautrec was a discrete witness of their life which he expressed with an incomparable spontaneity.
Cha-U-Kao is a contortionist who performs at the Moulin Rouge and the Nouveau Cirque. Like for many artists of the demimonde, we will not know her identity nor her past. She is not young and has the good taste not to exhibit herself any more in the nude. She is openly lesbian and such a female environment pleases Lautrec. In 1896, the series of prints Elles is designed by Lautrec around her intimate life.
In 1895, Toulouse-Lautrec executed several portraits of Cha-U-Kao in his signature technique of diluted oil which brings the delicacy of pastel hues. Lautrec is a follower of Degas excepted that the cabaret superseded the Opéra.
On November 4, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 12M one of these portraits à l'essence on board, 81 x 60 cm, lot 68. The entertainer is standing thoughtfully, probably concentrated before performing. She does not appreciate that the artist is watching her and she does not hide her opulent curves. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
2
L'Abandon
2000 SOLD for $ 9.4M by Sotheby's
An important artist optimizes the chemistry of his painting based on what he wants to show. In 1895, only 31 years old, Toulouse-Lautrec uses a peinture à l'essence, reducing the proportion of oil to provide his paintings with the pastel flavor that fits so well in his intimate paintings.
L'Abandon, also known as Les Deux Amies, is an oil on board 46 x 68 cm. It was sold for $ 9.4M by Sotheby's on May 10, 2000 and for £ 6.2M by Christie's on February 4, 2009, lot 18.
In this scene caught in a well known brothel which the artist frequented often, two girls are side by side in light shirts. One of them is lying, eyes half closed. The other is leaning on her elbow, the eyes directed toward her colleague. Complicity or homosexuality ? They are alone, no customer being awaited. Alone? No no, we may imagine that the peeping painter is here also to record the scene.
L'Abandon, also known as Les Deux Amies, is an oil on board 46 x 68 cm. It was sold for $ 9.4M by Sotheby's on May 10, 2000 and for £ 6.2M by Christie's on February 4, 2009, lot 18.
In this scene caught in a well known brothel which the artist frequented often, two girls are side by side in light shirts. One of them is lying, eyes half closed. The other is leaning on her elbow, the eyes directed toward her colleague. Complicity or homosexuality ? They are alone, no customer being awaited. Alone? No no, we may imagine that the peeping painter is here also to record the scene.
3
La Goulue en Almée
2021 SOLD for $ 1.6M by Christie's
Painted in 1895 as an oil and essence on board 69 x 48 cm, La Goulue en Almée features the locally famous entertainer as an Egyptian dancer, painted in soft colors.
She is standing with a raised head topped by an exuberant bun. The face of the 29 year old woman is aged by the artist as a complacent observer the life in debauchery and addictions which he so enjoyed. In his posters he had spectacularly made ugly in the previous year the face of the 30 year old Yvette Guilbert.
La Goulue will soon give up the cabarets for becoming a lion tamer in her stands of the popular fêtes foraines. In 1904 she and her husband survived an attack by a puma.
La Goulue en Almée was sold for $ 1.6M from a lower estimate of $ 80K by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 21C.
She is standing with a raised head topped by an exuberant bun. The face of the 29 year old woman is aged by the artist as a complacent observer the life in debauchery and addictions which he so enjoyed. In his posters he had spectacularly made ugly in the previous year the face of the 30 year old Yvette Guilbert.
La Goulue will soon give up the cabarets for becoming a lion tamer in her stands of the popular fêtes foraines. In 1904 she and her husband survived an attack by a puma.
La Goulue en Almée was sold for $ 1.6M from a lower estimate of $ 80K by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 21C.
1895 Prints by MUNCH
1
The Scream
2014 SOLD for $ 2.4M by Sotheby's
In Paris in 1891, Edvard Munch meditates on the human condition. He is deeply influenced by the art of Gauguin, where the stylization of drawing and the simplification of colors provide an unprecedented strength to the message. In November 1892 he exhibits his paintings in Berlin. The scandal is immediate and the operation is stopped after one week.
This incident stimulates the creativity of Munch who understands to what extent his art is new and different. In 1894 still in Berlin, he is tempted by the edition of his works. A highly significant among these first trials takes up the theme of the two lonely characters, prepared with the dry point. He will try all the techniques and all the possibilities for coloring either by inks or by added watercolor.
The Scream is edited in 1895 as a lithograph on wove paper with a printed inscription in German : Ich fühlte des grosse Geschrei durch die Natur (I felt the great scream throughout nature).
A copy printed in black and uncolored, signed by the artist but undated, was sold for $ 2.4M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2014, lot 53. Its sharp and thick line is beautiful. This picture is scarce because its production time was very short : the printer had cleared the stone for reuse without asking the authorization of the artist.
In 1895 Munch had been very prolific including among others the original lithographs of The Scream, Madonna and Vampyr. Norwegians doe not follow. Happy that The Scream was published by La Revue Blanche, Munch comes to try his luck in Paris where he arrives in February 1896.
This incident stimulates the creativity of Munch who understands to what extent his art is new and different. In 1894 still in Berlin, he is tempted by the edition of his works. A highly significant among these first trials takes up the theme of the two lonely characters, prepared with the dry point. He will try all the techniques and all the possibilities for coloring either by inks or by added watercolor.
The Scream is edited in 1895 as a lithograph on wove paper with a printed inscription in German : Ich fühlte des grosse Geschrei durch die Natur (I felt the great scream throughout nature).
A copy printed in black and uncolored, signed by the artist but undated, was sold for $ 2.4M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2014, lot 53. Its sharp and thick line is beautiful. This picture is scarce because its production time was very short : the printer had cleared the stone for reuse without asking the authorization of the artist.
In 1895 Munch had been very prolific including among others the original lithographs of The Scream, Madonna and Vampyr. Norwegians doe not follow. Happy that The Scream was published by La Revue Blanche, Munch comes to try his luck in Paris where he arrives in February 1896.
2
Madonna
2010 SOLD for £ 1.25M by Bonhams
The two masterpieces in the imaging of Edvard Munch, The Scream and Madonna, were conceived in the same year, 1893. Anxiety and fertility express the great question of life and it is tempting to view them as a pair.
Madonna is a pretty woman whose model Dagny Juel was admired by the artist. She is nude and standing, displayed down to the hips. The head is tilted back and the closed eyes are waiting for pleasure. The red lips express pain according to the explanation provided by the artist and bring this ambiguous idol close to the Vampyr, another of the favorite themes of Munch at the same time. The sinister background marks the uncertainty of the future.
Munch designed for his first Madonna the red blood frame on which sperms are slipping and which is broken at the bottom left to display the fetus, a symbol of death since it is lethal outside a woman's body. This unique frame was not kept.
The painting is preceding the lithograph in black and white, which is the subject of various color trials by the artist for choosing the best balance for his future color lithographs.
The mysteries of life, death, fertilization, and of the succession of generations have nurtured Munch's entire career and maintained his anguish. His Madonna, whose seven states have been published between 1895 and 1902, is one of the masterpieces in the history of printing.
The first state, in 1895, reveals the meaning of the work. The woman is inserted into a frieze of spermatozoids that is broken to make way for the fetal skeleton, the most notable symbol of the complexity of being as it shows death at the point where life was expected.
The original edition of the Madonna lithograph was printed in 1895 in an image size 61 x 46 cm. The prints hand colored by the artist are probably all different. They make up for what could have been one of the most important paintings in art history but has never existed : no painting of Madonna did include the fetus.
A signed hand colored print, 60 x 44 cm for the image, 70 x 52 cm for the sheet, was sold for £ 1.25M from a lower estimate of £ 500 K by Bonhams on July 13, 2010, lot 48. Another one in more tragic colors was sold for $ 730K by Sotheby's on November 23, 2015, lot 96.
An intermediate undated lithographic three-color version including an olive green was sold for $ 2M by Sotheby's on October 22, 2020, lot 35.
Madonna is a pretty woman whose model Dagny Juel was admired by the artist. She is nude and standing, displayed down to the hips. The head is tilted back and the closed eyes are waiting for pleasure. The red lips express pain according to the explanation provided by the artist and bring this ambiguous idol close to the Vampyr, another of the favorite themes of Munch at the same time. The sinister background marks the uncertainty of the future.
Munch designed for his first Madonna the red blood frame on which sperms are slipping and which is broken at the bottom left to display the fetus, a symbol of death since it is lethal outside a woman's body. This unique frame was not kept.
The painting is preceding the lithograph in black and white, which is the subject of various color trials by the artist for choosing the best balance for his future color lithographs.
The mysteries of life, death, fertilization, and of the succession of generations have nurtured Munch's entire career and maintained his anguish. His Madonna, whose seven states have been published between 1895 and 1902, is one of the masterpieces in the history of printing.
The first state, in 1895, reveals the meaning of the work. The woman is inserted into a frieze of spermatozoids that is broken to make way for the fetal skeleton, the most notable symbol of the complexity of being as it shows death at the point where life was expected.
The original edition of the Madonna lithograph was printed in 1895 in an image size 61 x 46 cm. The prints hand colored by the artist are probably all different. They make up for what could have been one of the most important paintings in art history but has never existed : no painting of Madonna did include the fetus.
A signed hand colored print, 60 x 44 cm for the image, 70 x 52 cm for the sheet, was sold for £ 1.25M from a lower estimate of £ 500 K by Bonhams on July 13, 2010, lot 48. Another one in more tragic colors was sold for $ 730K by Sotheby's on November 23, 2015, lot 96.
An intermediate undated lithographic three-color version including an olive green was sold for $ 2M by Sotheby's on October 22, 2020, lot 35.
