1915
breakthrough
1915 exhibition of Suprematist works by Malevich
Petrograd
In 1915 the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich shakes forever the theories of art. To be pure, art should excite feelings without referring to a message. It is neither figurative nor religious nor political.
Malevich developed a new grammar reduced to three basic filled shapes, simple enough to escape a semiotic interpretation : rectangle, oval and cross. The perfect rectangle and oval are the square and the circle.
The black square on white is the seminal flagship and the masterpiece of Suprematism. Centered on a canvas where it fills most of the available surface, the square becomes a flying artefact independently from its supporting fabric and generates a mesmerizing feeling. Faced with such a spatial illusion, we are tempted to reduce the famous white square on white from 1918 down to no more than an additional experiment.
The image of the 1915 exhibition is shared by Wikimedia.
Malevich developed a new grammar reduced to three basic filled shapes, simple enough to escape a semiotic interpretation : rectangle, oval and cross. The perfect rectangle and oval are the square and the circle.
The black square on white is the seminal flagship and the masterpiece of Suprematism. Centered on a canvas where it fills most of the available surface, the square becomes a flying artefact independently from its supporting fabric and generates a mesmerizing feeling. Faced with such a spatial illusion, we are tempted to reduce the famous white square on white from 1918 down to no more than an additional experiment.
The image of the 1915 exhibition is shared by Wikimedia.
GRIS
1
March 1915 Nature Morte à la Nappe à Carreaux
2014 SOLD for £ 35M by Christie's
The Cubism of Juan Gris experienced a rapid and powerful development. At first, the analysis of forms is deconstructing the figurative subject. The loss of the third dimension leads to collages.
In 1915, the art of Gris suddenly separates from Picasso and Braque. Gris gathers the objects of his everyday life. Arranged on the table, they make up his universe. Outside, in Paris, it is war. His objects are playing to constitute a new theater, like Cézanne's apples or Arcimboldo's vegetables.
In this sense, Gris is a precursor of surrealism. Painted in March 1915, Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux is a complex and colored composition, where the arrangement in a triangle forms a mask over the comforting support of the tabletop.
Times are hard for Juan Gris in the wartime Paris of 1915. His German dealer Kahnweiler had to flee to Bern and cannot support him directly. Being in civilian attire while the young men are serving on the front, he is booed by the Parisians when walking by the streets. His output is prolific, for earning his life.
The Galerie L'Effort Moderne of Léonce Rosenberg took over Kahnweiler for Gris in early 1915. Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux was acquired by Rosenberg.
This oil on canvas 116 x 90 cm, was sold for £ 35M from a lower estimate of £ 12M by Christie's on February 4, 2014, lot 9. Please watch the video shared by Christie's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
In 1915, the art of Gris suddenly separates from Picasso and Braque. Gris gathers the objects of his everyday life. Arranged on the table, they make up his universe. Outside, in Paris, it is war. His objects are playing to constitute a new theater, like Cézanne's apples or Arcimboldo's vegetables.
In this sense, Gris is a precursor of surrealism. Painted in March 1915, Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux is a complex and colored composition, where the arrangement in a triangle forms a mask over the comforting support of the tabletop.
Times are hard for Juan Gris in the wartime Paris of 1915. His German dealer Kahnweiler had to flee to Bern and cannot support him directly. Being in civilian attire while the young men are serving on the front, he is booed by the Parisians when walking by the streets. His output is prolific, for earning his life.
The Galerie L'Effort Moderne of Léonce Rosenberg took over Kahnweiler for Gris in early 1915. Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux was acquired by Rosenberg.
This oil on canvas 116 x 90 cm, was sold for £ 35M from a lower estimate of £ 12M by Christie's on February 4, 2014, lot 9. Please watch the video shared by Christie's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
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2
March 1915 Livre, Pipe et Verres
2008 SOLD for $ 21M by Christie's
An oil on canvas 73 x 95 cm painted by Juan Gris in March 1915 is titled in French "Livre, pipe et verres" (book, pipe and glasses).
In a Cubism inspired from Picasso and Braque, it is figurative. On an entablature where plans are entangled by the subtlety of color, an open book in the foreground contrasts by its sharpness and clarity. Seen from far away, it seems to be possible to read it, but when we come nearer we see that all lines of the book are scratched.
The artist seeks to represent a spatial effect that collages did not enable him to obtain. His perspective is made of tilted and angled semi-transparent planes, stacked one atop another in trompe l'oeil. The raised cover of the open book provides an additional graphic strength.
It was sold for $ 21M from a lower estimate of $ 12.5M Christie's on November 6, 2008, lot 7.
In a Cubism inspired from Picasso and Braque, it is figurative. On an entablature where plans are entangled by the subtlety of color, an open book in the foreground contrasts by its sharpness and clarity. Seen from far away, it seems to be possible to read it, but when we come nearer we see that all lines of the book are scratched.
The artist seeks to represent a spatial effect that collages did not enable him to obtain. His perspective is made of tilted and angled semi-transparent planes, stacked one atop another in trompe l'oeil. The raised cover of the open book provides an additional graphic strength.
It was sold for $ 21M from a lower estimate of $ 12.5M Christie's on November 6, 2008, lot 7.
3
July 1915 Le Pot de Géranium
2007 SOLD for $ 18.5M by Christie's
Le Pot de Géranium, oil on canvas 81 x 60 cm was painted in July 1915 by Juan Gris in the same style and complex perspective as the Livre, pipe et verres executed three months earlier.
A folded edition of Le Figaro is in the foreground. This newspaper symbolizes the art of collage that Picasso and Gris practiced in the previous year.
Le Pot de Géranium was sold for $ 18.5M from a lower estimate of $ 14M by Christie's on May 9, 2007, lot 59.
A folded edition of Le Figaro is in the foreground. This newspaper symbolizes the art of collage that Picasso and Gris practiced in the previous year.
Le Pot de Géranium was sold for $ 18.5M from a lower estimate of $ 14M by Christie's on May 9, 2007, lot 59.
1915 The Role of the Tree in Klimt's Landscapes
2011 SOLD 40.4 M$ including premium
Whether viewed from near or far, alone or in a forest, the tree offers to the artists the texture of its foliage.
It was a powerful source of inspiration for Klimt, who expressed it as a continuation of colored spots. This effect, precursor of abstraction, is of the same kind as the sumptuous backgrounds of his portraits of women. At the same time, another poet of color, Monet, studies the water lilies.
Yet Klimt does not push it up to abstraction. The view of the Attersee, 110 x 110 cm, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 2, is a real landscape, but the boldness of the composition makes it a masterpiece of the master.
In a narrow stripe at the bottom, the village by the lake and its reflection in the water are schematic and almost naive, like the details of the Krumau views of his former student Schiele at the same time. At the top, a small piece of the sky stresses the grandiose scale of the landscape. And the rest of the image only shows the side of the mountain covered by the forest.
This painting was made in the workshop in 1915, in Vienna. It is leaving the museum of Salzburg following a property dispute related to a Nazi plunder. The price announced by the auction house, in excess of $ 25M, is considered low by some observers of the art market.
POST SALE COMMENT :
Announced several months ago, this landscape by Klimt is a masterpiece. Its price, $ 40.4 million including premium, is consistent with market expectations. I noted in the discussion above that $ 25M would not be sufficient.
In 2011, the top level art market requires masterpieces, and becomes more and more discerning. Thus, in the same sale, an Argenteuil bridge by Caillebotte reached $ 18M including premium, only three years after being sold for $ 8.5 million including premium by Christie's.
Here is the video shared by Sotheby's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
It was a powerful source of inspiration for Klimt, who expressed it as a continuation of colored spots. This effect, precursor of abstraction, is of the same kind as the sumptuous backgrounds of his portraits of women. At the same time, another poet of color, Monet, studies the water lilies.
Yet Klimt does not push it up to abstraction. The view of the Attersee, 110 x 110 cm, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 2, is a real landscape, but the boldness of the composition makes it a masterpiece of the master.
In a narrow stripe at the bottom, the village by the lake and its reflection in the water are schematic and almost naive, like the details of the Krumau views of his former student Schiele at the same time. At the top, a small piece of the sky stresses the grandiose scale of the landscape. And the rest of the image only shows the side of the mountain covered by the forest.
This painting was made in the workshop in 1915, in Vienna. It is leaving the museum of Salzburg following a property dispute related to a Nazi plunder. The price announced by the auction house, in excess of $ 25M, is considered low by some observers of the art market.
POST SALE COMMENT :
Announced several months ago, this landscape by Klimt is a masterpiece. Its price, $ 40.4 million including premium, is consistent with market expectations. I noted in the discussion above that $ 25M would not be sufficient.
In 2011, the top level art market requires masterpieces, and becomes more and more discerning. Thus, in the same sale, an Argenteuil bridge by Caillebotte reached $ 18M including premium, only three years after being sold for $ 8.5 million including premium by Christie's.
Here is the video shared by Sotheby's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1915 Victory over Nature
2015 SOLD for £ 21.5M including premium
Suprematism comes in the wake of Futurism, with the same target of glorifying the work of man. The Futurists express speed, linked to the improvement of techniques. Malevich's work on non-figuration is not inspired by the emotional and semiotic abstraction by Kandinsky.
The seminal work of non-figuration is the stage set made in 1913 by Malevich in St. Petersburg for the Russian Futurist opera Victory over the Sun. He soon emerges as the leader of this new art whose emblem is in 1915 his black square on white background, towering, dense, symmetrical and balanced.
The new language is a construction of colored quadrangles on a white background which expresses purity and infinity and anticipates Mondrian. They overlap or coincide without a perspective effect and without transparency, often in a globally rising or falling movement that offers the confidence into the progress.
Some of these constructions retain titles such as Automobile and Lady or Aircraft in flight that do not score an incentive to a figurative reading but rather a recognition by the artist of his Futurist inspiration. Three years later, the boldness of the White square on white background opens the way to modern abstract art calling for the variations in texture instead of form or color.
On June 24 in London, Sotheby's sells Suprematism - 18th Construction, oil on canvas 53 x 53 cm painted in 1915, lot 18estimated £ 20M.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The seminal work of non-figuration is the stage set made in 1913 by Malevich in St. Petersburg for the Russian Futurist opera Victory over the Sun. He soon emerges as the leader of this new art whose emblem is in 1915 his black square on white background, towering, dense, symmetrical and balanced.
The new language is a construction of colored quadrangles on a white background which expresses purity and infinity and anticipates Mondrian. They overlap or coincide without a perspective effect and without transparency, often in a globally rising or falling movement that offers the confidence into the progress.
Some of these constructions retain titles such as Automobile and Lady or Aircraft in flight that do not score an incentive to a figurative reading but rather a recognition by the artist of his Futurist inspiration. Three years later, the boldness of the White square on white background opens the way to modern abstract art calling for the variations in texture instead of form or color.
On June 24 in London, Sotheby's sells Suprematism - 18th Construction, oil on canvas 53 x 53 cm painted in 1915, lot 18estimated £ 20M.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1915 Jesuiten by Feininger
2007 SOLD for $ 23.3M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
The three Jesuiten by Lyonel Feininger form an interesting demonstration of the evolution of his style. His great artistic freedom based on his intuition is nourished by close contact with the European avant-gardes.
Feininger began his career as an illustrator in 1894. His line is simple and his colors are violent. The characters have small heads on very elongated bodies. In 1908 Jesuiten I remains a caricature, on the theme of the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie.
The central figure is a prostitute with a triumphant attitude. Two clergymen look at her before deciding how they will intervene. A third Jesuit is completely disinterested in this action. This oil on canvas 60 x 55 cm was sold for £ 720K including premium by Christie's on October 17, 2000, lot 5.
Feininger reworked the same scene in 1913, to experiment with new trends. Jesuiten II, oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm, dissolves the forms in a futuristic style close to Boccioni. The round of the Jesuits around the woman brings a musicality. Throughout his life Feininger, son of a violinist and a singer, wanted to give a musical dimension to his graphic art.
Jesuiten III is an oil on canvas 75 x 60 cm painted in 1915 in a style mixing expressionism and cubism. The clergymen constitute a tight group around the prostitute which echoes the Strassenszenen by Kirchner to Berlin. The folds of the clothes form musical waves. Jesuiten III was sold for $ 23.3M including premium by Sotheby's on May 8, 2007 over a lower estimate of $ 7M, lot 22.
Feininger began his career as an illustrator in 1894. His line is simple and his colors are violent. The characters have small heads on very elongated bodies. In 1908 Jesuiten I remains a caricature, on the theme of the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie.
The central figure is a prostitute with a triumphant attitude. Two clergymen look at her before deciding how they will intervene. A third Jesuit is completely disinterested in this action. This oil on canvas 60 x 55 cm was sold for £ 720K including premium by Christie's on October 17, 2000, lot 5.
Feininger reworked the same scene in 1913, to experiment with new trends. Jesuiten II, oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm, dissolves the forms in a futuristic style close to Boccioni. The round of the Jesuits around the woman brings a musicality. Throughout his life Feininger, son of a violinist and a singer, wanted to give a musical dimension to his graphic art.
Jesuiten III is an oil on canvas 75 x 60 cm painted in 1915 in a style mixing expressionism and cubism. The clergymen constitute a tight group around the prostitute which echoes the Strassenszenen by Kirchner to Berlin. The folds of the clothes form musical waves. Jesuiten III was sold for $ 23.3M including premium by Sotheby's on May 8, 2007 over a lower estimate of $ 7M, lot 22.
1915 The House of Fall
2006 SOLD for $ 22.5M including premium by Christie's
2017 UNSOLD
PRE 2017 SALE DISCUSSION
Egon Schiele wants to be the pioneer of a new art expressing the deepest of human nature that he observes without complacency up to pornography and self-derision. He is persecuted by the bourgeois for his supposed habits and for the very real public display of sexually explicit artworks.
The nervous lines in the bodies of his young mistresses announce their future decadence but they remain alive. This anguished artist must find a means for expressing the mortality. From 1912 he uses as another theme the small town of Krumau where his mother was born. Krumau is a medieval town incompatible with the modernist and socially advanced trends of the artist. It is his Tote Stadt, even more morbid in his memories and imagination. Autumn adds its decrepitude.
Nothing happens as this idealist would have liked. The outbreak of war is perceived as a break with the past without an opening to the future. He goes to marry Edith but Wally violently refuses the household of three on which he was daydreaming. He is frustrated in his erotic desires and in the recognition of his self-proclaimed genius.
Egon is not apt for an active military service but is mobilized in an office position in June 1915 three days after marrying Edith. On June 27 in London, Christie's sells Einzelne Häuser, lot 16 estimated £ 20M. This oil on canvas 110 x 140 cm painted in the darkest moments of this summer 1915 had been sold for $ 22.5M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006, lot 60.
In front of an insignificant landscape structured in horizontal lines, the big house is the main character. Its gloomy texture announces an upcoming decay. It rises like a towering and outdated inquisitor in the middle of the scenery. It has already lost any trace of life.
Another masterpiece painted in the previous year on the same theme, Häuser mit bunter Wäsche, was not so completely pessimistic with its drying laundry and a few lit windows. This oil on canvas 100 x 120 cm was sold for £ 24,7M including premium by Sotheby's on June 22, 2011.
Egon Schiele wants to be the pioneer of a new art expressing the deepest of human nature that he observes without complacency up to pornography and self-derision. He is persecuted by the bourgeois for his supposed habits and for the very real public display of sexually explicit artworks.
The nervous lines in the bodies of his young mistresses announce their future decadence but they remain alive. This anguished artist must find a means for expressing the mortality. From 1912 he uses as another theme the small town of Krumau where his mother was born. Krumau is a medieval town incompatible with the modernist and socially advanced trends of the artist. It is his Tote Stadt, even more morbid in his memories and imagination. Autumn adds its decrepitude.
Nothing happens as this idealist would have liked. The outbreak of war is perceived as a break with the past without an opening to the future. He goes to marry Edith but Wally violently refuses the household of three on which he was daydreaming. He is frustrated in his erotic desires and in the recognition of his self-proclaimed genius.
Egon is not apt for an active military service but is mobilized in an office position in June 1915 three days after marrying Edith. On June 27 in London, Christie's sells Einzelne Häuser, lot 16 estimated £ 20M. This oil on canvas 110 x 140 cm painted in the darkest moments of this summer 1915 had been sold for $ 22.5M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006, lot 60.
In front of an insignificant landscape structured in horizontal lines, the big house is the main character. Its gloomy texture announces an upcoming decay. It rises like a towering and outdated inquisitor in the middle of the scenery. It has already lost any trace of life.
Another masterpiece painted in the previous year on the same theme, Häuser mit bunter Wäsche, was not so completely pessimistic with its drying laundry and a few lit windows. This oil on canvas 100 x 120 cm was sold for £ 24,7M including premium by Sotheby's on June 22, 2011.
Des œuvres majeures de #Beckmann, #Picasso, #Schiele et #VanGogh sont à retrouver à Londres lors de la semaine 20TH CENTURY du 26 au 28 juin pic.twitter.com/j2n8u9IWQq
— Christie's Paris (@christiesparis) June 13, 2017
1915 The First Degree of the Reconstruction
2017 SOLD for $ 21M including premium
An exhibition of avant-garde Russian paintings is held in Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) in March 1915 at the initiative of the very young Ivan Puni. Its aim is to promote a synthesis between cubism and futurism. The title Tramway V is an allusion to the progress of mechanical locomotion that symbolizes the new century for the Futurists.
Malevich participates in Tramway V but is already somehow a rebel. He introduces his own works with a comment which is indeed a profession of faith for an abstract art : "the author ignores the contents of these paintings".
The scandal of Tramway V meets the expectations of its organizers and another exhibition will be managed before the end of the year. Malevich understands that his time has come : he will be the apostle of the subject-less art.
He begins by isolating the basic figures, invariably on a white background, and reaches in May the ultimate expression of this new artistic grammar, the black square. Aware of the promising importance of this invention, he returns to build complex compositions expressing the forces of the universe by the opposition of colors circumscribed in strictly geometrical forms. To avoid any figurative interpretation he goes so far as to banish the horizontal line which evokes the horizon.
In the December exhibition hermetically titled Zero-Ten, Malevich enters 39 paintings offering various degrees of reconstruction but physically dominated in their hanging by the Black Square. The loss of meaning allows the artist to change the position of the paintings. He is a precursor of the modern installation.
On May 16 in New York, Sotheby's sells a Composition of three forms, lot 32 estimated $ 12M. This oil on canvas 53 x 53 cm is a convincing demonstration of the first level of the suprematist reconstruction at such a point that it was undoubtedly made for the preparation of Zero-Ten.
It is dominated by a very saturated dark yellow truncated triangle which is the projection of a sloping rectangle onto the surface of the canvas. A group of two small rectangles partially masking the yellow form can be viewed in space as co-planar with its upper edge.
A few years later, Rodchenko's constructivism was a follow-up to Malevich's suprematism, adding a desire to create useful structures for architecture and furnishings. Malevich did not need to follow Rodchenko : independently from Mondrian he had been one of the very first artists to offer a vision of the universe free from any thematic reference.
Malevich participates in Tramway V but is already somehow a rebel. He introduces his own works with a comment which is indeed a profession of faith for an abstract art : "the author ignores the contents of these paintings".
The scandal of Tramway V meets the expectations of its organizers and another exhibition will be managed before the end of the year. Malevich understands that his time has come : he will be the apostle of the subject-less art.
He begins by isolating the basic figures, invariably on a white background, and reaches in May the ultimate expression of this new artistic grammar, the black square. Aware of the promising importance of this invention, he returns to build complex compositions expressing the forces of the universe by the opposition of colors circumscribed in strictly geometrical forms. To avoid any figurative interpretation he goes so far as to banish the horizontal line which evokes the horizon.
In the December exhibition hermetically titled Zero-Ten, Malevich enters 39 paintings offering various degrees of reconstruction but physically dominated in their hanging by the Black Square. The loss of meaning allows the artist to change the position of the paintings. He is a precursor of the modern installation.
On May 16 in New York, Sotheby's sells a Composition of three forms, lot 32 estimated $ 12M. This oil on canvas 53 x 53 cm is a convincing demonstration of the first level of the suprematist reconstruction at such a point that it was undoubtedly made for the preparation of Zero-Ten.
It is dominated by a very saturated dark yellow truncated triangle which is the projection of a sloping rectangle onto the surface of the canvas. A group of two small rectangles partially masking the yellow form can be viewed in space as co-planar with its upper edge.
A few years later, Rodchenko's constructivism was a follow-up to Malevich's suprematism, adding a desire to create useful structures for architecture and furnishings. Malevich did not need to follow Rodchenko : independently from Mondrian he had been one of the very first artists to offer a vision of the universe free from any thematic reference.
Explore Abstraction through highlights from our May #SothebysImpMod, #SothebysContemporary & #SothebysLatin sales https://t.co/mEoS365628 pic.twitter.com/ZFEY5NGB4n
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) May 12, 2017
1915 Danseuse by Gino Severini
2008 SOLD 15 M£ including premium
Everything is quiet, nothing moves, no press release does disrupt the tranquillity. Yet, on June 25 in London, Sotheby's has a painting of Gino Severini estimated between 7 and 10 million pounds (Lot 21).
The Danseuse (the title is in French with reference to Parisian life) is a brilliant and colorful oil on canvas of 100 x 81 cm.
Its date is excellent: 1915. There are already two works of that date in my columns in the French section of this group: the lighthouse of Marsden Hartley sold $ 6.3 million at Christie's on May 21, and the boat of Goncharova sold 1.5 M £ on June 9 by Bonhams.
This is the date when different very important pictorial trends converge, and we see in our Danseuse a synthesis of Cubism and Futurism. A very successful representation of the movement, and flat colors here embellished by some degraded, let us recall the favourable comments that I made concerning Goncharova's painting.
A character is more attractive than just a boat. It seems logical to await a higher price on that Severini compared with Goncharova's.
Without being able to claim to be one of the most famous artists, Severini is best listed than Hartley. He can thus claim more.
We observe here a similar auction process: one of the two auction houses that overtake the international market highlights with good arguments an exceptional achievement of an artist, at a key date of his contribution to art history. By consulting the databases, I found no comparable Severini painting in past auctions.
The few examples I've seen this year in both auction houses (Hicks, Schjerfbeck, Kuindzhi, Vibert, Remington, Hamdi Bey, Franz Marc, Fontana) and those of previous years that I had the opportunity to comment a posteriori (Hodler, Lowry) make me consider that Sotheby's and Christie's control exactly that type of offer, and that Sotheby's will be able to sell this painting.
POST SALE COMMENT
This masterpiece is now recognized as such, with a superb result at £ 15 million fees included.
It therefore made better than that other masterpiece sold by the same house at the same location on February 5: the exceptional Weidende Pferde III painted by Franz Marc in 1910. This painting had obtained the excellent price of £ 12.3 M fees included.
The Danseuse (the title is in French with reference to Parisian life) is a brilliant and colorful oil on canvas of 100 x 81 cm.
Its date is excellent: 1915. There are already two works of that date in my columns in the French section of this group: the lighthouse of Marsden Hartley sold $ 6.3 million at Christie's on May 21, and the boat of Goncharova sold 1.5 M £ on June 9 by Bonhams.
This is the date when different very important pictorial trends converge, and we see in our Danseuse a synthesis of Cubism and Futurism. A very successful representation of the movement, and flat colors here embellished by some degraded, let us recall the favourable comments that I made concerning Goncharova's painting.
A character is more attractive than just a boat. It seems logical to await a higher price on that Severini compared with Goncharova's.
Without being able to claim to be one of the most famous artists, Severini is best listed than Hartley. He can thus claim more.
We observe here a similar auction process: one of the two auction houses that overtake the international market highlights with good arguments an exceptional achievement of an artist, at a key date of his contribution to art history. By consulting the databases, I found no comparable Severini painting in past auctions.
The few examples I've seen this year in both auction houses (Hicks, Schjerfbeck, Kuindzhi, Vibert, Remington, Hamdi Bey, Franz Marc, Fontana) and those of previous years that I had the opportunity to comment a posteriori (Hodler, Lowry) make me consider that Sotheby's and Christie's control exactly that type of offer, and that Sotheby's will be able to sell this painting.
POST SALE COMMENT
This masterpiece is now recognized as such, with a superb result at £ 15 million fees included.
It therefore made better than that other masterpiece sold by the same house at the same location on February 5: the exceptional Weidende Pferde III painted by Franz Marc in 1910. This painting had obtained the excellent price of £ 12.3 M fees included.
1915 Beatrice Hastings by Modigliani
2022 SOLD for $ 17.6M by Christie's
From 1909 to 1913 Amedeo Modigliani had worked almost exclusively in sculpture. His poor health made him returning to oil painting, especially the sensitive portraits of his friends.
Beatrice Hastings, the highly unconventional "poétesse anglaise", arrives in Montparnasse in 1914, appealed by the bohemian life, and begins an affair with Modigliani. They part from one another in 1916 after two years of debauchery and quarrels.
This short period built the image of a villain Modigliani as a temperamental artist, an Italian womanizer, a heavy drunker, defined by Beatrice as altogether a swine and a pearl. A few years later his fair behavior with Jeanne Hébuterne will not be sufficient to rehabilitate him.
Amedeo painted 14 portraits of Beatrice in all the features of her excessive temper, from charming or vulnerable to arrogant or witty. She wore in a ball a trompe l'oeil dress painted by him on her naked body.
Beatrice Hastings devant une porte is a half length portrait painted in 1915 in the stylized pose of his former sculpted ideal women and caryatids. A gentle and elegant Beatrice has an elongated neck and wears a stylish plumed hat.
This oil on canvas 81 x 46 cm was sold for $ 17.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 9. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Beatrice Hastings, the highly unconventional "poétesse anglaise", arrives in Montparnasse in 1914, appealed by the bohemian life, and begins an affair with Modigliani. They part from one another in 1916 after two years of debauchery and quarrels.
This short period built the image of a villain Modigliani as a temperamental artist, an Italian womanizer, a heavy drunker, defined by Beatrice as altogether a swine and a pearl. A few years later his fair behavior with Jeanne Hébuterne will not be sufficient to rehabilitate him.
Amedeo painted 14 portraits of Beatrice in all the features of her excessive temper, from charming or vulnerable to arrogant or witty. She wore in a ball a trompe l'oeil dress painted by him on her naked body.
Beatrice Hastings devant une porte is a half length portrait painted in 1915 in the stylized pose of his former sculpted ideal women and caryatids. A gentle and elegant Beatrice has an elongated neck and wears a stylish plumed hat.
This oil on canvas 81 x 46 cm was sold for $ 17.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 9. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
