1907
See also : Flowers Bouquet Bird Klimt Monet Pond by Monet Picasso 1907-1931 Northern Europe Seurat and Signac
masterpiece
1907 Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Picasso
MoMA
The painting of the Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907 masterfully demonstrates that anything is possible from the standpoint of the form. Through this single work, Picasso got rid the art of painting from realism, narrative, perspective and depth. The simplified drawing inspired by tribal art is unprecedented in European art.
The achievement of the Demoiselles encouraged Picasso to explore new styles of painting. After Cézanne, he desires to promote expression and structure. Cubisme is not a style nor a school but a pioneering research, with its trials and errors.
Inspired by the African tribal art, Picasso later said : Painting is not an aesthetic operation ; it is a form of magic designed as a mediator between this strange, hostile world and us.
The achievement of the Demoiselles encouraged Picasso to explore new styles of painting. After Cézanne, he desires to promote expression and structure. Cubisme is not a style nor a school but a pioneering research, with its trials and errors.
Inspired by the African tribal art, Picasso later said : Painting is not an aesthetic operation ; it is a form of magic designed as a mediator between this strange, hostile world and us.
1907 Nu Jaune by Picasso (Study for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon)
2005 SOLD for $ 13.7M by Sotheby's
Pablo Picasso used drawings throughout his career for experimenting artistic effects of line and volume, of gesture and movement.
Nu jaune, watercolor, gouache, and India ink on paper 60 x 40 cm, is a preparation drawing for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, his breakthrough painting executed in 1907.
Arguably the first drawing made for that project, it depicts in broad lines the nude woman who will stand at the right edge of the final composition. The cross hatched angular face inspired from African masks is a cornerstone of the new analytic Cubism.
Nu jaune was sold for $ 13.7M from a lower estimate of $ 3M by Sotheby's on November 2, 2005, lot 4.
Nu jaune, watercolor, gouache, and India ink on paper 60 x 40 cm, is a preparation drawing for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, his breakthrough painting executed in 1907.
Arguably the first drawing made for that project, it depicts in broad lines the nude woman who will stand at the right edge of the final composition. The cross hatched angular face inspired from African masks is a cornerstone of the new analytic Cubism.
Nu jaune was sold for $ 13.7M from a lower estimate of $ 3M by Sotheby's on November 2, 2005, lot 4.
masterpiece
1907 Adele Bloch-Bauer by Klimt
Neue Galerie, New York
In 1899 Adele Bauer, 18, marries Ferdinand Bloch, 35. Ferdinand is a wealthy sugar industrialist. Well introduced in the Viennese society, Adele likes to bring together writers, politicians and intellectuals in her salon.
At this time Gustav Klimt is introducing an unprecedented luxury into modern painting. Inspired by the mosaic of Empress Theodora in the Basilica of Ravenna, he offers a new vision of the ideal woman, sumptuously dressed in a patchwork of gold, silver and sometimes platinum leaves.
Adele serves as a model in 1901 for Judith, which is a pinnacle of eroticism in Klimt's art. The husband is not jealous. In 1903 he begins to buy paintings from Klimt and commissions a portrait of his wife.
Klimt works for four years on this picture decorated with gold and silver. In his sublime style, the figuration does not reveal any nudity and the Bloch-Bauers can hang this painting 138 x 138 cm in their living room. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The Bloch-Bauer collection, also including three landscapes by Klimt, was plundered by the Nazis after the Anschluss. It was returned after a long trial in 2004 to the legitimate heiress, who dispersed it with the help of Christie's.
The Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I was sold in private sale to Ronald Lauder in June 2006 for $ 135M, the highest price known for a painting at that time. The other four works were sold separately at auction by Christie's on November 8, 2006. The Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II was sold for $ 88M. The three landscapes were sold respectively for $ 40M, $ 33M and $ 31.4M.
At this time Gustav Klimt is introducing an unprecedented luxury into modern painting. Inspired by the mosaic of Empress Theodora in the Basilica of Ravenna, he offers a new vision of the ideal woman, sumptuously dressed in a patchwork of gold, silver and sometimes platinum leaves.
Adele serves as a model in 1901 for Judith, which is a pinnacle of eroticism in Klimt's art. The husband is not jealous. In 1903 he begins to buy paintings from Klimt and commissions a portrait of his wife.
Klimt works for four years on this picture decorated with gold and silver. In his sublime style, the figuration does not reveal any nudity and the Bloch-Bauers can hang this painting 138 x 138 cm in their living room. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The Bloch-Bauer collection, also including three landscapes by Klimt, was plundered by the Nazis after the Anschluss. It was returned after a long trial in 2004 to the legitimate heiress, who dispersed it with the help of Christie's.
The Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I was sold in private sale to Ronald Lauder in June 2006 for $ 135M, the highest price known for a painting at that time. The other four works were sold separately at auction by Christie's on November 8, 2006. The Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II was sold for $ 88M. The three landscapes were sold respectively for $ 40M, $ 33M and $ 31.4M.
1907 Flowers for the Woman
2017 SOLD for £ 48M including premium
The greatest artists express their vision of the world. Klimt goes further : he wants to change the life.
The Klimt and Flöge families are closely linked. Gustav Klimt becomes the brother-in-law of Helene Flöge in 1891 and her tutor in the following year. Helene and her sister Emilie open a business of couture and fashion in Vienna in 1904. Emilie was Gustav's companion from 1891 until the artist's death in 1918.
The Schwestern Flöge workshop is experimenting with new garments for the Viennese avant-garde, including loose dresses hung from the shoulders without using a corset. The very famous blouses of Gustav Klimt, which give him such a neglected attitude according to the conceptions of today's fashion, proceed from the same trend.
The shape of the garment is not enough : women also deserve a shimmering decoration. Gustav observes trees and flowers as patterns of texture. Their bright colors were created by nature. Gustav does not cancel the shapes of the flowers. If he had, he would have been the first abstract artist.
Gustav reveals the woman's head as the only realistic element in his portraits. The body is hidden by an ample garment whose limits loosely overlap the background of the image and whose details are luxurious and colorful. Adele Bloch-Bauer I, oil on canvas 138 x 138 cm painted in 1907, was sold for $ 135M on June 18, 2006 in a private sale by Christie's to Ronald Lauder.
On March 1 in London, Sotheby's sells as lot 11 Bauerngarten, oil on canvas 110 x 110 cm painted in 1907 during the holidays of Gustav at the Attersee. Poppies, daisies and zinnias spread their colors in an endless meadow with no horizon. These flowers are dominated by a triangle of roses that confirms the artist's intention for the design of a dress.
Please watch the very short video shared by Sotheby's.
The Klimt and Flöge families are closely linked. Gustav Klimt becomes the brother-in-law of Helene Flöge in 1891 and her tutor in the following year. Helene and her sister Emilie open a business of couture and fashion in Vienna in 1904. Emilie was Gustav's companion from 1891 until the artist's death in 1918.
The Schwestern Flöge workshop is experimenting with new garments for the Viennese avant-garde, including loose dresses hung from the shoulders without using a corset. The very famous blouses of Gustav Klimt, which give him such a neglected attitude according to the conceptions of today's fashion, proceed from the same trend.
The shape of the garment is not enough : women also deserve a shimmering decoration. Gustav observes trees and flowers as patterns of texture. Their bright colors were created by nature. Gustav does not cancel the shapes of the flowers. If he had, he would have been the first abstract artist.
Gustav reveals the woman's head as the only realistic element in his portraits. The body is hidden by an ample garment whose limits loosely overlap the background of the image and whose details are luxurious and colorful. Adele Bloch-Bauer I, oil on canvas 138 x 138 cm painted in 1907, was sold for $ 135M on June 18, 2006 in a private sale by Christie's to Ronald Lauder.
On March 1 in London, Sotheby's sells as lot 11 Bauerngarten, oil on canvas 110 x 110 cm painted in 1907 during the holidays of Gustav at the Attersee. Poppies, daisies and zinnias spread their colors in an endless meadow with no horizon. These flowers are dominated by a triangle of roses that confirms the artist's intention for the design of a dress.
Please watch the very short video shared by Sotheby's.
The New York Times Thinks Sotheby’s Is Getting Frisky with Its Klimt https://t.co/3mgODvO8HY pic.twitter.com/etX2peYay3
— Art Market Monitor (@artmarket) February 24, 2017
1907 Nymphéas by MONET
1
W1698
2022 SOLD for $ 56M by Christie's
In 1907 the continuation of the Nymphéas series by Monet brings a major breakthrough in modern art. The hues become lighter and ethereal. The accuracy of the brush lines is superseded by the confrontation of rare colors, paving the way to the abstract expressionism four decades later. The horticulture is now secondary to the atmosphere and light.
Monet applies in 1907 his signature practice of repeating the same views by varying time of the day, weather and season. The Wildenstein references W1695 to W1700 and W1703 to W1717 are such groups.
On May 12, 2022, Christie's sold for $ 56M from a lower estimate of $ 35M a 94 x 89 cm oil on canvas painted in 1907 in pastel like hues, lot 12C, reference Wildenstein 1698. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Between the groups of floating flowers, the mirror image of the trees and sky at the surface of the water provides another pre-abstract element. The wide open blossoms had been captured in the morning or early afternoon.
This opus was included in the seminal exhibition of 48 Nymphéas by Durand-Ruel in 1909.
Its nearly square format certainly predates the bold transition to vertical format in the same year, which would be a nonsense if the painting were a mere scenery. A vertical oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm was sold for $ 27M by Christie's on May 6, 2014.
Monet applies in 1907 his signature practice of repeating the same views by varying time of the day, weather and season. The Wildenstein references W1695 to W1700 and W1703 to W1717 are such groups.
On May 12, 2022, Christie's sold for $ 56M from a lower estimate of $ 35M a 94 x 89 cm oil on canvas painted in 1907 in pastel like hues, lot 12C, reference Wildenstein 1698. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Between the groups of floating flowers, the mirror image of the trees and sky at the surface of the water provides another pre-abstract element. The wide open blossoms had been captured in the morning or early afternoon.
This opus was included in the seminal exhibition of 48 Nymphéas by Durand-Ruel in 1909.
Its nearly square format certainly predates the bold transition to vertical format in the same year, which would be a nonsense if the painting were a mere scenery. A vertical oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm was sold for $ 27M by Christie's on May 6, 2014.
2
W1707
2014 SOLD for $ 27M by Christie's
In 1893, when Claude Monet obtains the administrative authorization to create a pond in his garden at Giverny, he already knows that it will be a laboratory for his artistic creation. He was then interested in the reflections in the water of the tall trees and of the Japanese bridge.
Monet is an amateur but careful and skilled horticulturist. Without having his original preference, the water lilies impose themselves as his most prolific theme, up to obsession. Unlike the ivy on the wall, they will not cover the entire available surface. Spreading their leaves flush with water, they materialize in perspective the real surface of the pond.
From 1904 to 1908, Monet produced his first series of Nymphéas. With more than 60 paintings which he wants all different from one another, the artist expresses the most subtle variations of color and light, changing the distance and population of the flowers, the importance of the reflections from the trees and the expressive power of color.
The horizon disappears, the details become abstract but the botanical accuracy remains. One of the first trials in this new figurative style, dated 1904, 81 x 100 cm, was sold for £ 18.5 million including premium by Sotheby's on 19 June 2007.
A beautiful fleet of well colored water lilies dated 1905, 90 x 100 cm, was sold for $ 44 million including premium at Christie's on November 7, 2012.
A particularly poetic oil version in pastel tones dated 1906, 90 x 100 cm, was sold for $ 20.9M by Christie's on May 8, 2000.
An oil on canvas 100 x 80 cm painted in 1907 comes in the following of that trend with soft shades more highlighting the reflections than the botany. It includes an innovation of Monet from that year : he realized that he was no longer a painter of landscapes and experienced the vertical format.
This painting was sold for $ 27M by Christie's on May 6, 2014, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Monet is an amateur but careful and skilled horticulturist. Without having his original preference, the water lilies impose themselves as his most prolific theme, up to obsession. Unlike the ivy on the wall, they will not cover the entire available surface. Spreading their leaves flush with water, they materialize in perspective the real surface of the pond.
From 1904 to 1908, Monet produced his first series of Nymphéas. With more than 60 paintings which he wants all different from one another, the artist expresses the most subtle variations of color and light, changing the distance and population of the flowers, the importance of the reflections from the trees and the expressive power of color.
The horizon disappears, the details become abstract but the botanical accuracy remains. One of the first trials in this new figurative style, dated 1904, 81 x 100 cm, was sold for £ 18.5 million including premium by Sotheby's on 19 June 2007.
A beautiful fleet of well colored water lilies dated 1905, 90 x 100 cm, was sold for $ 44 million including premium at Christie's on November 7, 2012.
A particularly poetic oil version in pastel tones dated 1906, 90 x 100 cm, was sold for $ 20.9M by Christie's on May 8, 2000.
An oil on canvas 100 x 80 cm painted in 1907 comes in the following of that trend with soft shades more highlighting the reflections than the botany. It includes an innovation of Monet from that year : he realized that he was no longer a painter of landscapes and experienced the vertical format.
This painting was sold for $ 27M by Christie's on May 6, 2014, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
3
W1708 Temps gris
2022 SOLD for £ 30M by Christie's
W1707, oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, was sold for $ 27M by Christie's on May 6, 2014, lot 8.
Nymphéas, temps gris, oil on canvas 100 x 73 cm painted by Monet in 1907, is the next Wildenstein opus, W1708. It features the pond, the flowers and the reflections of the foliage in poor weather, highlighting the thunderous reflection of the sky between the floating groups of water lilies. Monet will not reuse this dramatic effect in the next series of Nymphéas.
W1708 was featured in the seminal exhibition of the Nymphéas by Durand-Ruel in 1909. It was sold by Christie's for $ 11.2M on May 2, 2006, lot 11 coming at that time from the family of Aristotle Onassis, and for £ 30M on June 28, 2022, lot 38. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Nymphéas, temps gris, oil on canvas 100 x 73 cm painted by Monet in 1907, is the next Wildenstein opus, W1708. It features the pond, the flowers and the reflections of the foliage in poor weather, highlighting the thunderous reflection of the sky between the floating groups of water lilies. Monet will not reuse this dramatic effect in the next series of Nymphéas.
W1708 was featured in the seminal exhibition of the Nymphéas by Durand-Ruel in 1909. It was sold by Christie's for $ 11.2M on May 2, 2006, lot 11 coming at that time from the family of Aristotle Onassis, and for £ 30M on June 28, 2022, lot 38. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1907 ROUSSEAU
1
masterpiece
1907 La Charmeuse de Serpents
Musée d'Orsay
Henri Rousseau retired in 1893 at age 49 as a tax collector on goods entering Paris. A keen amateur artist, he exhibited since 1886 at the Salon des Indépendants. He did not travel. His sceneries were coming from his imagination, using low cost illustrations and postcards enlarged with a pantograph. He also sketched animals and plants at the Jardin des Plantes.
Through his tropical landscapes inhabited by terrible beasts, he created an unprecedented theme and style. He could not have known the bestiary of Aloys Zötl which did not surface before 1956.
The Parisian art circles were increasingly appealed with that new art, not without mocking his self trained author. He was nicknamed Le Douanier by Jarry who was the immediate precursor of surrealism in literature.
In 1908 Picasso organized in his honor a fancy banquet in his honor at the Bateau Lavoir, attended by Apollinaire and other avant-gardists. Rousseau stated to Picasso : « En somme, toi et moi on est les plus grands peintres ; moi dans le genre moderne, toi dans le genre égyptien. »
From his Jungle series, la Charmeuse de Serpents was painted in 1907. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Vollard purchased some paintings in 1909. He used the money for a new workshop. It was too late. Le Douanier Rousseau died in poverty in 1910.
Through his tropical landscapes inhabited by terrible beasts, he created an unprecedented theme and style. He could not have known the bestiary of Aloys Zötl which did not surface before 1956.
The Parisian art circles were increasingly appealed with that new art, not without mocking his self trained author. He was nicknamed Le Douanier by Jarry who was the immediate precursor of surrealism in literature.
In 1908 Picasso organized in his honor a fancy banquet in his honor at the Bateau Lavoir, attended by Apollinaire and other avant-gardists. Rousseau stated to Picasso : « En somme, toi et moi on est les plus grands peintres ; moi dans le genre moderne, toi dans le genre égyptien. »
From his Jungle series, la Charmeuse de Serpents was painted in 1907. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Vollard purchased some paintings in 1909. He used the money for a new workshop. It was too late. Le Douanier Rousseau died in poverty in 1910.
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2
Les Flamants
2023 SOLD for $ 43.5M by Christie's
Les Flamants, oil on canvas 114 x 162 cm, is a Jungle painting by Le Douanier Rousseau. It features an idyllic pond or river with a background of palm trees, in the usual naive drawing style of the artist. Four flamingos stand on the shore. Stylized oversized waterlilies on stems at various heights populate the pond while three dwarfed natives in loincloth wait for fish on a sandbank.
It was sold for $ 43.5M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 34A.
The image is shared by Wikimedia and dated 1907 by Wikipedia and Wikimedia. This work is consistently dated 1907 or ca 1907 in the Literature and Exhibition sections of Christie's catalogue. It is nevertheless dated 1910 by the auction house which does not provide a rationale for this change in the online catalogue and the feature article.
It was sold for $ 43.5M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 34A.
The image is shared by Wikimedia and dated 1907 by Wikipedia and Wikimedia. This work is consistently dated 1907 or ca 1907 in the Literature and Exhibition sections of Christie's catalogue. It is nevertheless dated 1910 by the auction house which does not provide a rationale for this change in the online catalogue and the feature article.
1907 Dance on the Beach by Munch
2023 SOLD for £ 17M by Sotheby's
Max Reinhardt, recently appointed director of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, extended it with a Kammerspiele (chamber theater) in 1905. Two plays by Ibsen were successively scheduled in that new place, starting with a replay of Ghosts, a haunting story about modern morality.
Reinhardt entrusts the decoration of the four walls of the entrance of the Kammerspiele to Edvard Munch who as a Norwegian was a compatriot of Ibsen and who worked on similar themes.
Munch executes an immersive suite of twelve friezes 90 cm high in his signature themes, made in tempera on canvas as a tribute to the Renaissance frescoes. The whole work is nearly completed in December 1907.
The largest piece is a Dance on the Beach 4 m long, which is a remake of the Dance of Life that had closed the Frieze of Life in 1900. The new composition is extended on both sides to the empty beach. Other significant opus titles are Desire and Melancholy, also staged in a summer night on the beach outside Munch's house in Aasgaardstrand.
The Reinhardt Frieze was removed from the theater in 1912. Its Dance was acquired by a patron and biographer of the artist, who lost it in an auction forced by the Nazis in 1933. Another friend of Munch managed to acquire it in 1938. After a few months of use in a liner, the painting was hidden in a barn during the Second World War.
After a settlement agreement between the descendants of the two friends of the artist, it was sold for £ 17M from a lower estimate of £ 12M for sale by Sotheby's on March 1, 2023, lot 110. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Reinhardt entrusts the decoration of the four walls of the entrance of the Kammerspiele to Edvard Munch who as a Norwegian was a compatriot of Ibsen and who worked on similar themes.
Munch executes an immersive suite of twelve friezes 90 cm high in his signature themes, made in tempera on canvas as a tribute to the Renaissance frescoes. The whole work is nearly completed in December 1907.
The largest piece is a Dance on the Beach 4 m long, which is a remake of the Dance of Life that had closed the Frieze of Life in 1900. The new composition is extended on both sides to the empty beach. Other significant opus titles are Desire and Melancholy, also staged in a summer night on the beach outside Munch's house in Aasgaardstrand.
The Reinhardt Frieze was removed from the theater in 1912. Its Dance was acquired by a patron and biographer of the artist, who lost it in an auction forced by the Nazis in 1933. Another friend of Munch managed to acquire it in 1938. After a few months of use in a liner, the painting was hidden in a barn during the Second World War.
After a settlement agreement between the descendants of the two friends of the artist, it was sold for £ 17M from a lower estimate of £ 12M for sale by Sotheby's on March 1, 2023, lot 110. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1907 Peonies in Collioure
2012 SOLD for $ 19M by Christie's
In 1905, two young painters dazzled by the light of Collioure open a new path in art. They are named Henri Matisse and André Derain. Since then, color supersedes drawing as the dominant element in the composition of a painting.
These new colorists immediately seek to vary the subjects, and flowers are suitable for their research. The vases, tablecloths and wallpapers complement unprecedented color balances.
On May 1, 2012, Christie's sold for $ 19M from a lower estimate of $ 8M an oil on canvas, 65 x 55 cm, painted by Matisse in Collioure in 1907. Please watch these peonies in the video prepared by Christie's.This work showing a vase with peonies was admired by Félix Féneon who was the effective promoter of Fauvism.
These new colorists immediately seek to vary the subjects, and flowers are suitable for their research. The vases, tablecloths and wallpapers complement unprecedented color balances.
On May 1, 2012, Christie's sold for $ 19M from a lower estimate of $ 8M an oil on canvas, 65 x 55 cm, painted by Matisse in Collioure in 1907. Please watch these peonies in the video prepared by Christie's.This work showing a vase with peonies was admired by Félix Féneon who was the effective promoter of Fauvism.
1907 The Golden Horn by Signac
2019 SOLD for $ 16.2M by Sotheby's
Around 1900, Paul Signac reuses pointillist techniques, but his style has changed, becoming more emotional. Socially engaged, he is naturally influenced by all modern trends but his art is profoundly original. Much involved in the circles of artists, he is a co-founder in 1884 of the Société des Artistes Indépendants and its president from 1909 to 1934.
His colors became warmer. The post-Impressionist dots of Signac are precursors of the flat colors of Fauvism.
Passionate about sailing, Paul Signac immerses himself in the atmosphere of the ports. In the spring of 1907, for visiting Constantinople, he made an exception to his practice by traveling by train. He probably feared for the safety of a private boat in this military port.
He spent six weeks sketching in the atmosphere of the Golden Horn at different times of the day,. with its minarets that go up to the sky. Back in France, he expresses his delight in a series of oil paintings. In the foreground, sea and boats symbolize the activity of the city.
He takes a canvas in standard '50', 89 x 116 cm, which is the largest size compatible with the painstaking of his pointillist technique. After a month of effort, surprised by the unusual difficulty of this work, he scraps a first painting and starts again from scratch.
The second version is satisfactory. Signac retrieves the joy of expressing a great sun, as in Saint-Tropez fifteen years earlier, but this time he replaces the blinding yellow by a subtle palette of pinks and purples. Even better : he renounces for this view to a strict division between the color dots, accepting a blending inspired by Turner's art.
This painting is by far the most achieved of the nine or ten oils on canvas of Constantinople painted by Signac in 1907. In 1937, two years after his death, it was bought at auction by his daughter and her husband. It was sold for £ 8.8M by Christie's on February 7, 2012 and for $ 16.2M by Sotheby's on November 12, 2019, lot 21.
On February 4, 2020, Sotheby's sold at lot 12 for £ 7.6M a view of the Golden Horn by Signac, recently returned by the French government to the heirs of a collector despoiled in 1940. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. A model example by its confrontation of the pink and purple morning mist with the bright colors of boats and lodges, this oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm had been selected by the artist in 1908 to be exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants.
From the same series, an oil on canvas 73 x 93 cm was sold for £ 6.2M by Christie's on June 20, 2012. An oil on canvas 81 x 66 cm with a different composition, centered on a tall ship, was sold for $ 4.7M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007. An oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm painted in 1909 was sold for £ 4.8M by Christie's on June 18, 2007.
His colors became warmer. The post-Impressionist dots of Signac are precursors of the flat colors of Fauvism.
Passionate about sailing, Paul Signac immerses himself in the atmosphere of the ports. In the spring of 1907, for visiting Constantinople, he made an exception to his practice by traveling by train. He probably feared for the safety of a private boat in this military port.
He spent six weeks sketching in the atmosphere of the Golden Horn at different times of the day,. with its minarets that go up to the sky. Back in France, he expresses his delight in a series of oil paintings. In the foreground, sea and boats symbolize the activity of the city.
He takes a canvas in standard '50', 89 x 116 cm, which is the largest size compatible with the painstaking of his pointillist technique. After a month of effort, surprised by the unusual difficulty of this work, he scraps a first painting and starts again from scratch.
The second version is satisfactory. Signac retrieves the joy of expressing a great sun, as in Saint-Tropez fifteen years earlier, but this time he replaces the blinding yellow by a subtle palette of pinks and purples. Even better : he renounces for this view to a strict division between the color dots, accepting a blending inspired by Turner's art.
This painting is by far the most achieved of the nine or ten oils on canvas of Constantinople painted by Signac in 1907. In 1937, two years after his death, it was bought at auction by his daughter and her husband. It was sold for £ 8.8M by Christie's on February 7, 2012 and for $ 16.2M by Sotheby's on November 12, 2019, lot 21.
On February 4, 2020, Sotheby's sold at lot 12 for £ 7.6M a view of the Golden Horn by Signac, recently returned by the French government to the heirs of a collector despoiled in 1940. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. A model example by its confrontation of the pink and purple morning mist with the bright colors of boats and lodges, this oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm had been selected by the artist in 1908 to be exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants.
From the same series, an oil on canvas 73 x 93 cm was sold for £ 6.2M by Christie's on June 20, 2012. An oil on canvas 81 x 66 cm with a different composition, centered on a tall ship, was sold for $ 4.7M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007. An oil on canvas 73 x 92 cm painted in 1909 was sold for £ 4.8M by Christie's on June 18, 2007.
1907 The Fauvist Enthusiasm of Georges Braque
2013 SOLD 16 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The Fauvist revolution of 1905 is due to the enthusiastic response of very young artists. Besides Matisse, most of them are less than thirty years old. Their invention of the primacy of color over all other elements of the painting opens up a new language.
Georges Braque was excited by the Salle des Fauves. Like many others, he sought inspiration in the shining light of the hills of Provence. More than the others, he painted his feeling in front of the landscape rather than the landscape itself.
The twisted trunks of olive trees are an excuse to get rid of verticality. An oil on canvas painted in 1907, 38 x 46 cm, perhaps inspired by the art of Van Gogh, was sold for £ 5.1 million including premium by Sotheby's on 8 February 2012.
On May 7 in New York, Sotheby's sells a view of the countryside near La Ciotat, also painted in 1907. This oil on canvas, 51 x 62 cm, is estimated $ 10M. Here is the link to the catalog.
The artwork is located, but the landscape is barely recognizable. Provence is more strongly evoked by the colors in thelight than by the mountainous horizon and the indefinable trees.
This synthesis of Cézanne's texture and Derain's light relies on well balanced shapes, close to a child's drawing. Later, cubism will reveal the appeal of geometry to Braque. He could have been one of the great inventors of modern art but his Fauvist pulse was too short. The place was still left open for the theories of Kandinsky in Murnau in 1909.
POST SALE COMMENT
The Fauvist landscapes by Braque are very rare, and the composition of this one is of high originality. It deserved $ 16 million including premium.
The Fauvist revolution of 1905 is due to the enthusiastic response of very young artists. Besides Matisse, most of them are less than thirty years old. Their invention of the primacy of color over all other elements of the painting opens up a new language.
Georges Braque was excited by the Salle des Fauves. Like many others, he sought inspiration in the shining light of the hills of Provence. More than the others, he painted his feeling in front of the landscape rather than the landscape itself.
The twisted trunks of olive trees are an excuse to get rid of verticality. An oil on canvas painted in 1907, 38 x 46 cm, perhaps inspired by the art of Van Gogh, was sold for £ 5.1 million including premium by Sotheby's on 8 February 2012.
On May 7 in New York, Sotheby's sells a view of the countryside near La Ciotat, also painted in 1907. This oil on canvas, 51 x 62 cm, is estimated $ 10M. Here is the link to the catalog.
The artwork is located, but the landscape is barely recognizable. Provence is more strongly evoked by the colors in thelight than by the mountainous horizon and the indefinable trees.
This synthesis of Cézanne's texture and Derain's light relies on well balanced shapes, close to a child's drawing. Later, cubism will reveal the appeal of geometry to Braque. He could have been one of the great inventors of modern art but his Fauvist pulse was too short. The place was still left open for the theories of Kandinsky in Murnau in 1909.
POST SALE COMMENT
The Fauvist landscapes by Braque are very rare, and the composition of this one is of high originality. It deserved $ 16 million including premium.
