1909
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Picasso 1907-1931 Kandinsky Kirchner Alps
See also : Picasso 1907-1931 Kandinsky Kirchner Alps
PICASSO
1
Spring 1909 Buste de Femme
2023 SOLD for $ 13.6M by Sotheby's
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.
The gouache enhances the contrasts of soft colors. A portrait of Fernande titled Buste de Femme is an example of the Cézannian fragmentation by Picasso in the early days of Cubisme.
Nevertheless the gray, ochre and green areas are not flat but made of patterns of streaks. Influenced by African masks, the facial lines are simplified without being distorted. The garment is in a similar style of blurred colors. The sitter is identified with her broad shoulders and topknot coiffure. Her frontal figure got rid of a perspective effect.
This gouache on paper 64 x 49 cm executed in the Spring of 1909 was sold for $ 13.6M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2023, lot 28.
The gouache enhances the contrasts of soft colors. A portrait of Fernande titled Buste de Femme is an example of the Cézannian fragmentation by Picasso in the early days of Cubisme.
Nevertheless the gray, ochre and green areas are not flat but made of patterns of streaks. Influenced by African masks, the facial lines are simplified without being distorted. The garment is in a similar style of blurred colors. The sitter is identified with her broad shoulders and topknot coiffure. Her frontal figure got rid of a perspective effect.
This gouache on paper 64 x 49 cm executed in the Spring of 1909 was sold for $ 13.6M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2023, lot 28.
2
Summer 1909 Femme Assise
2016 SOLD for £ 43M by Sotheby's
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. Cubism is not a style nor a school but a pioneering research, with its trials and errors.
In 1909 Pablo spends the summer with Fernande in a Catalan village named Horta, only accessible by mule track. During the same summer, Kandinsky gets himself isolated in Murnau with Gabriele. Independently of each other, these two artists become the theorists who are inventing the art of the twentieth century.
On June 21, 2016, Sotheby's sold for £ 43M a portrait of Fernande by Pablo, oil on canvas 81 x 65 cm conceived and painted in Horta, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The fragmentation in blocks that gave its name to Cubism offers a similar processing for the three themes tested by Pablo in Horta: portrait, landscape and still life. The outlines of the subject are visible with a little effort leading to recognize the broad face of Fernande. The colors are subject to a similar mix : we are not in front of a portrait but of an image suggesting the features of a seated woman in the warm Catalan summer.
For several of its characteristics, Cubism is a dead end. In the following years, the trend to a dull monochrome increases the difficulty of interpreting the image without offering the puzzling breakthrough of abstraction. The loss of the three-dimensional effect generates the trials of collages which will not save the Cubism.
It does not matter, because every artist can now engage his own style in an original expressive quest. From Picasso, the modern art has become multifaceted.
The achievement of the Demoiselles encouraged Picasso to explore new styles of painting. After Cézanne, he desires to promote expression and structure. Cubism is not a style nor a school but a pioneering research, with its trials and errors.
In 1909 Pablo spends the summer with Fernande in a Catalan village named Horta, only accessible by mule track. During the same summer, Kandinsky gets himself isolated in Murnau with Gabriele. Independently of each other, these two artists become the theorists who are inventing the art of the twentieth century.
On June 21, 2016, Sotheby's sold for £ 43M a portrait of Fernande by Pablo, oil on canvas 81 x 65 cm conceived and painted in Horta, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The fragmentation in blocks that gave its name to Cubism offers a similar processing for the three themes tested by Pablo in Horta: portrait, landscape and still life. The outlines of the subject are visible with a little effort leading to recognize the broad face of Fernande. The colors are subject to a similar mix : we are not in front of a portrait but of an image suggesting the features of a seated woman in the warm Catalan summer.
For several of its characteristics, Cubism is a dead end. In the following years, the trend to a dull monochrome increases the difficulty of interpreting the image without offering the puzzling breakthrough of abstraction. The loss of the three-dimensional effect generates the trials of collages which will not save the Cubism.
It does not matter, because every artist can now engage his own style in an original expressive quest. From Picasso, the modern art has become multifaceted.
KANDINSKY
1
masterpiece
winter 1908-1909 Der blaue Berg by Kandinsky
Guggenheim
From his childhood Kandinsky was fascinated by colors. He settled in Munich in 1896 to integrate himself within the artistic avant-gardes that he will manage to regroup around him. From this first phase he is remarkably open to all the movements that escape classicism. The main themes of his personal art are the Bavarian landscapes and the rural legends of Russia.
After Cézanne and van Gogh he learns to shake the realism of the lines. After Gauguin, Matisse, the Fauvists and the post-Impressionists, he likes to exaggerate the colors and ceases to weaken them under a varnish. He follows his friend Jawlensky who was one of the first to systematically abandon the realism of colors. Attracted by mysticism, Kandinsky studies Goethe's theories on the psychological significance of colors.
Two summer stays at Murnau with Jawlensky and their companions Gabriele and Marianne are decisive for Kandinsky's career and for his role as a pioneer of modern art. In 1908 he experiments with new forms and new colors. In 1909 he revisits with blazing colors in thick layers his compositions of the previous year and prepares the theories of his new art.
Der blaue Berg is narrative. A group of riders travels in front of a mountain reduced to a triangular surface in an intense blue.
After Cézanne and van Gogh he learns to shake the realism of the lines. After Gauguin, Matisse, the Fauvists and the post-Impressionists, he likes to exaggerate the colors and ceases to weaken them under a varnish. He follows his friend Jawlensky who was one of the first to systematically abandon the realism of colors. Attracted by mysticism, Kandinsky studies Goethe's theories on the psychological significance of colors.
Two summer stays at Murnau with Jawlensky and their companions Gabriele and Marianne are decisive for Kandinsky's career and for his role as a pioneer of modern art. In 1908 he experiments with new forms and new colors. In 1909 he revisits with blazing colors in thick layers his compositions of the previous year and prepares the theories of his new art.
Der blaue Berg is narrative. A group of riders travels in front of a mountain reduced to a triangular surface in an intense blue.
2
Murnau - Landschaft mit grünem Haus
2017 SOLD for £ 21M by Sotheby's
Murnau - Studie zur Landschaft mit grünem Haus is an oil on board 33 x 45 cm painted in 1908.
Satisfied with the audacity of his study with the green house Kandinsky reuses the same composition in 1909 in a larger size with more saturated pure colors. Murnau - Landschaft mit grünem Haus, oil on board 70 x 96 cm, was sold for £ 21M from a lower estimate of £ 15M by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017, lot 47.
Satisfied with the audacity of his study with the green house Kandinsky reuses the same composition in 1909 in a larger size with more saturated pure colors. Murnau - Landschaft mit grünem Haus, oil on board 70 x 96 cm, was sold for £ 21M from a lower estimate of £ 15M by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017, lot 47.
3
1909 Studie für Improvisation 8
2012 SOLD for $ 23M by Christie's
In 1909, Wassily Kandinsky spent several months in Murnau, Bavaria, together with Gabriele Münter. He worked intensively on the redefinition of art, preparing his theoretical book Uber das Geistige in der Kunst (On the Spiritual in Art).
Far from imagining that he will define the abstract art a few months later, he identifies three themes for his personal art: impressions, improvisations, compositions. He starts immediately by "improvisations", which fascinated him.
In the eight improvisations realized in Murnau in 1909, color dominates the whole work. Some riders and heroes are clearly visible, but the narration is minimized so that the colors get the top role to guide interpretation and emotion.
The notion of improvisation usually involves spontaneity. For this theorist of great complexity, this is no longer true: the pseudo-improvisations are preceded by studies in oil, as if to demonstrate that this art is the culmination of an inner process.
At this stage, by leaving much place for an interpretation by the observer, Kandinsky is a powerful predecessor of Miro. Later, at the time of abstraction, his art becomes too semantic, with a reading difficulty that can repel the public.
Studie für Improvisation 8, 98 x 70 cm, was sold for $ 23M by Christie's on November 7, 2012.
Far from imagining that he will define the abstract art a few months later, he identifies three themes for his personal art: impressions, improvisations, compositions. He starts immediately by "improvisations", which fascinated him.
In the eight improvisations realized in Murnau in 1909, color dominates the whole work. Some riders and heroes are clearly visible, but the narration is minimized so that the colors get the top role to guide interpretation and emotion.
The notion of improvisation usually involves spontaneity. For this theorist of great complexity, this is no longer true: the pseudo-improvisations are preceded by studies in oil, as if to demonstrate that this art is the culmination of an inner process.
At this stage, by leaving much place for an interpretation by the observer, Kandinsky is a powerful predecessor of Miro. Later, at the time of abstraction, his art becomes too semantic, with a reading difficulty that can repel the public.
Studie für Improvisation 8, 98 x 70 cm, was sold for $ 23M by Christie's on November 7, 2012.
4
1909 Studie zu Improvisation 3
2013 SOLD for £ 13.5M by Christie's
In 1909 Studie zu Improvisation 3 was painted in strident colors. Kandinsky was a master of fauvist expressionism. His research on forms and colors were already more important to him than the theme.
A mystical rider rushes to the fortress for conquering like a Don Quixote to conquer the mystical dimension of art. The fortress does not exist in Murnau, it is already a product of the imagination of Kandinsky in his greatest year of creativity.
The rider is a crusader in a urban context too stylized to be recognizable. The strength of his huge sword and the violent colors express the glory of the artist to lead the way to a new conception of art. The landscape does not matter any more to the artist.
Studie zu Improvisation 3, oil and gouache on cardboard 45 x 65 cm, was sold by Christie's for $ 17M on November 6, 2008 and for £ 13.5M on June 18, 2013.
A mystical rider rushes to the fortress for conquering like a Don Quixote to conquer the mystical dimension of art. The fortress does not exist in Murnau, it is already a product of the imagination of Kandinsky in his greatest year of creativity.
The rider is a crusader in a urban context too stylized to be recognizable. The strength of his huge sword and the violent colors express the glory of the artist to lead the way to a new conception of art. The landscape does not matter any more to the artist.
Studie zu Improvisation 3, oil and gouache on cardboard 45 x 65 cm, was sold by Christie's for $ 17M on November 6, 2008 and for £ 13.5M on June 18, 2013.
5
end 1909 Strandszene
2014 SOLD for $ 17.2M by Christie's
In Murnau in 1909, Wassily Kandinsky develops his theories on artistic creation and illustrates them in a completely new pictorial language.
The theme of 'Improvisations' is well recorded. Some images show a seer of modern art in the assault on the fortress of classicism, although Kandinsky did not himself propose such a definition. His 'Impressions' are more difficult to categorize because the artist has not assigned this title to actual artworks.
However Strandszene (beach scene), oil on board 53 x 67 cm, retroactively appears as one of the best demonstrators of the artistic revolution brought by Kandinsky's Impressions.
This painting was executed at the end of 1909, not before a preparatory drawing dated August 3 in his sketchbook. As in Improvisations, vertical references disappear and colors are violent and even threatening. Some characters are shown but the narrative aspect is absent or impossible to decode.
The non located beach is of course not Murnau which is a village in the Bavarian mountains. The long white robe of a character classifies it as an Orientalist painting. Tunisia was a favorite theme of Kandinsky when he was still a Fauvist landscape artist.
The great novelty of this composition is that it relies exclusively on a memory of impressions of the artist, without recourse of any previous work or to a photograph, thus excluding almost totally the reality of shapes.
Kandinsky probably painted it for display in a the house newly purchased in Murnau by his companion Gabriele Münter. He then kept it for nearly thirty years. Yet it is one of the earliest precursors of the release of the forms from any figurative or narrative intention that will lead to the concept of abstract art.
Strandszene was sold for $ 17.2M by Christie's on May 6, 2014. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The theme of 'Improvisations' is well recorded. Some images show a seer of modern art in the assault on the fortress of classicism, although Kandinsky did not himself propose such a definition. His 'Impressions' are more difficult to categorize because the artist has not assigned this title to actual artworks.
However Strandszene (beach scene), oil on board 53 x 67 cm, retroactively appears as one of the best demonstrators of the artistic revolution brought by Kandinsky's Impressions.
This painting was executed at the end of 1909, not before a preparatory drawing dated August 3 in his sketchbook. As in Improvisations, vertical references disappear and colors are violent and even threatening. Some characters are shown but the narrative aspect is absent or impossible to decode.
The non located beach is of course not Murnau which is a village in the Bavarian mountains. The long white robe of a character classifies it as an Orientalist painting. Tunisia was a favorite theme of Kandinsky when he was still a Fauvist landscape artist.
The great novelty of this composition is that it relies exclusively on a memory of impressions of the artist, without recourse of any previous work or to a photograph, thus excluding almost totally the reality of shapes.
Kandinsky probably painted it for display in a the house newly purchased in Murnau by his companion Gabriele Münter. He then kept it for nearly thirty years. Yet it is one of the earliest precursors of the release of the forms from any figurative or narrative intention that will lead to the concept of abstract art.
Strandszene was sold for $ 17.2M by Christie's on May 6, 2014. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1909 L'Amazone by Modigliani
2013 SOLD for $ 26M by Sotheby's
Modigliani, installed at the Bateau Lavoir since 1906, is a sculptor, at once close to the avant-garde style of Brancusi. A prolific drawing artist, he produced many studies and sketches.
He also knows to be a painter, with a severe and uncompromising style inspired by Picasso in the following of the portrait of Gertrude Stein. His patron Paul Alexandre invited him in 1909 to paint the portrait of the young baronne de Hasse de Villers.
It is a real challenge for the young artist. Perfectionist, he is constantly reworking the line and the colors. Alcohol does not help his decisions. The Baroness is haughty and hurried, and no longer accepts the long sittings required by the young Italian immigrant.
The miracle of this painting is that it was completed. It seems that the Baroness did not recognize herself in this woman with dominant gaze and bony face in angles as sharp as a sculpture. Her horsewoman dressing and the hand firmly held on the hip are still strengthening the authoritarian attitude.
Paul Alexandre understood the power and modernism emanating from this strong image and kept this painting entitled L'Amazone in his collection for several years. This oil on canvas, 92 x 66 cm, was sold for $ 26M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2013, lot 12. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This is a very rare example of the beginning of the period when Modigliani considered to practice painting and sculpture altogether. Later obliged to choose for reason of poor health, he was to become the most gifted painter of his time.
He also knows to be a painter, with a severe and uncompromising style inspired by Picasso in the following of the portrait of Gertrude Stein. His patron Paul Alexandre invited him in 1909 to paint the portrait of the young baronne de Hasse de Villers.
It is a real challenge for the young artist. Perfectionist, he is constantly reworking the line and the colors. Alcohol does not help his decisions. The Baroness is haughty and hurried, and no longer accepts the long sittings required by the young Italian immigrant.
The miracle of this painting is that it was completed. It seems that the Baroness did not recognize herself in this woman with dominant gaze and bony face in angles as sharp as a sculpture. Her horsewoman dressing and the hand firmly held on the hip are still strengthening the authoritarian attitude.
Paul Alexandre understood the power and modernism emanating from this strong image and kept this painting entitled L'Amazone in his collection for several years. This oil on canvas, 92 x 66 cm, was sold for $ 26M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2013, lot 12. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This is a very rare example of the beginning of the period when Modigliani considered to practice painting and sculpture altogether. Later obliged to choose for reason of poor health, he was to become the most gifted painter of his time.
1909 Schloss Kammer am Attersee II by Klimt
1997 SOLD for £ 14.5M by Christie's
Schloss Kammer is a 17th century mansion on a peninsula in the Attersee.
Gustav Klimt spent his summer holidays in the vicinity. From 1908 to 1912 he executed five paintings in oil on canvas 110 x 110 cm of that estate, after looking through a rectangular hole in a tablet for selecting the view. Three views are taken from the lake and one features the path in the park.
Opus II, painted in 1909, is a view of buildings from the park. Mingling sunlight and night sky, it anticipates by several decades Magritte's surrealist theme of night and day. It was sold for £ 14.5M by Christie's on October 9, 1997, lot 198.
Gustav Klimt spent his summer holidays in the vicinity. From 1908 to 1912 he executed five paintings in oil on canvas 110 x 110 cm of that estate, after looking through a rectangular hole in a tablet for selecting the view. Three views are taken from the lake and one features the path in the park.
Opus II, painted in 1909, is a view of buildings from the park. Mingling sunlight and night sky, it anticipates by several decades Magritte's surrealist theme of night and day. It was sold for £ 14.5M by Christie's on October 9, 1997, lot 198.
1909 Im See badende Mädchen by Kirchner
2015 SOLD for $ 13.6M by Christie's
In the summer of 1909 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and his Die Brücke fellow Erich Heckel managed for the first time to live their ideal Arcadian life of full nudity in nature, followed by their girlfriends and by models. That blissful experience was made at Moritzburg, a rural town with unfrequented lakes in the vicinity of Dresden.
Im See badende Mädchen features three young women in the nude. The pretty female standing in the forefront displays her tanned back and buttocks while her turned head reveals a proudly appealing gaze. The two other, one seated and one bathing, do not care with the artist friend out of field. Their green bodies are highlighted with flaming strokes of orange, yellow and red.
This oil in canvas 91 x 120 cm was misdated 1907 by the artist, desiring to deny a possible influence from the colors of the French Fauvistes exhibited at the beginning of 1909 by Cassirer in Berlin.
It was sold for $ 13.6M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 3A. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Kirchner and his group had a similar summer time with no cloth at Moritzburg in the next two years.
Im See badende Mädchen features three young women in the nude. The pretty female standing in the forefront displays her tanned back and buttocks while her turned head reveals a proudly appealing gaze. The two other, one seated and one bathing, do not care with the artist friend out of field. Their green bodies are highlighted with flaming strokes of orange, yellow and red.
This oil in canvas 91 x 120 cm was misdated 1907 by the artist, desiring to deny a possible influence from the colors of the French Fauvistes exhibited at the beginning of 1909 by Cassirer in Berlin.
It was sold for $ 13.6M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 3A. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Kirchner and his group had a similar summer time with no cloth at Moritzburg in the next two years.
1909 Portrait des Malers Anton Peschka by Schiele
2001 SOLD for £ 7.7M by Sotheby's
Anton Peschka and his younger fellow Egon Schiele were students at the Akademie des Bildenden Künste Wien. Nevertheless Schiele is a rebel. Leaving that ultra-conservative Academy at 19 year old in 1909, he endeavors to promote a new art by founding a Neukunstgruppe under the benevolent influence of Klimt.
Portrait des Malers Anton Peschka was executed by Schiele in that key year in oil and metal paint on a nearly square canvas 110 x 100 cm.
The style is decidedly expressionist. In a bold composition, the sitter is represented in profile in a large armchair. Neutral tones in gray and brown surround the sharpness of the head. The texture of the chair is made of small colored blocks, possibly in imitation of Klimt.
This very early artwork by Schiele was sold for £ 7.7M by Sotheby's on February 5, 2001, lot 19. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
In 1914 Peschka marries Schiele's beloved sister Gerti.
Portrait des Malers Anton Peschka was executed by Schiele in that key year in oil and metal paint on a nearly square canvas 110 x 100 cm.
The style is decidedly expressionist. In a bold composition, the sitter is represented in profile in a large armchair. Neutral tones in gray and brown surround the sharpness of the head. The texture of the chair is made of small colored blocks, possibly in imitation of Klimt.
This very early artwork by Schiele was sold for £ 7.7M by Sotheby's on February 5, 2001, lot 19. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
In 1914 Peschka marries Schiele's beloved sister Gerti.
