1917
See also : Top 10 Painting Prints Italy Modigliani Eastern Europe Northern Europe Munch Canada The Woman Nude 20th century furniture Medal and decoration
1917 A Portrait for Fifteen Francs
2018 SOLD for $ 157M including premium
Amedeo Modigliani stopped practicing sculpture around 1914. He paints portraits of Montparnasse artists with their heads deformed by cubism. In 1916 Zborowski takes Amedeo's career in his hands, adding his many friends to the list of models.
Modigliani was a prolific draftsman. He had learned during his artistic training to draw quickly. Close to the conceptions of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière where he will soon meet Jeanne, he knows how to carry out speedy studies of female nudes in poses where the natural prevails over the conventional.
Zbo organizes paintings of nudes by Modi. He chooses pretty women whom he leads into an apartment-workshop where he has installed Modigliani. The artist is paid 15 francs a day and the model 5 francs for the session.
The rest is easy to imagine. The woman has won her 5 francs and is in a hurry to leave. The artist has little time. His painting is based on a drawing that brings to his best images a great spontaneity. The bare skin partitioned by the lines is painted in a warm color. The woman is lying or sitting on the bed, very simply, without decoration and without narrative effect.
A Nu couché sur le côté, oil on canvas 90 x 147 cm painted in 1917, was sold for $ 27M including premium by Christie's on November 4, 2003. It will be sold by Sotheby's in New York on May 14, lot 18. The press release announces an estimate in excess of $ 150M. It is the largest painting in this series and the only reclining nude by Modigliani to be displayed in all the extent of her arms and legs.
The attitude is not very erotic. The woman is seen from behind. The head turned for looking at the artist and the firmly sealed mouth reveal some impatience.
On November 9, 2015, Christie's sold a 60 x 92 cm Nudo Rosso for $ 170M including premium. This nude reclining on her back dated 1917-1918 seems indeed later by its softer line, an even warmer color and also a friendly attitude of this model who exhibits all her charms in full front.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Modigliani was a prolific draftsman. He had learned during his artistic training to draw quickly. Close to the conceptions of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière where he will soon meet Jeanne, he knows how to carry out speedy studies of female nudes in poses where the natural prevails over the conventional.
Zbo organizes paintings of nudes by Modi. He chooses pretty women whom he leads into an apartment-workshop where he has installed Modigliani. The artist is paid 15 francs a day and the model 5 francs for the session.
The rest is easy to imagine. The woman has won her 5 francs and is in a hurry to leave. The artist has little time. His painting is based on a drawing that brings to his best images a great spontaneity. The bare skin partitioned by the lines is painted in a warm color. The woman is lying or sitting on the bed, very simply, without decoration and without narrative effect.
A Nu couché sur le côté, oil on canvas 90 x 147 cm painted in 1917, was sold for $ 27M including premium by Christie's on November 4, 2003. It will be sold by Sotheby's in New York on May 14, lot 18. The press release announces an estimate in excess of $ 150M. It is the largest painting in this series and the only reclining nude by Modigliani to be displayed in all the extent of her arms and legs.
The attitude is not very erotic. The woman is seen from behind. The head turned for looking at the artist and the firmly sealed mouth reveal some impatience.
On November 9, 2015, Christie's sold a 60 x 92 cm Nudo Rosso for $ 170M including premium. This nude reclining on her back dated 1917-1918 seems indeed later by its softer line, an even warmer color and also a friendly attitude of this model who exhibits all her charms in full front.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1917 A Nude Woman sitting for Modigliani
2010 SOLD 69 M$ including premium
For the third time, a masterpiece by Modigliani creates the event at auction.
In 1917, having abandoned the sculpture, Modigliani focuses on the painting of the nude to express his vision of the ideal woman. Sometimes the model is standing or lying, but the woman sitting naked on a couch, known as La Belle Romaine, is undoubtedly one of the best.
This oil on canvas, 100 x 65 cm, shows a woman happy to be watched, confident, intimate. The painter is quite successful, with a purity of line and a warm tone of flesh which is the top of his art. It is illustrated on the press release shared by Artdaily.
Paris was quite prudish at that time, having probably already forgotten the friend women of Toulouse-Lautrec, and the exhibition of Modigliani's nudes at the Galerie Berthe Weill was forbidden for indecency at its opening. Our painting was perhaps one of them. Modigliani, a true great artist, had not deigned considering the academic decorum.
On 20 November 1987, the Parisian art market suddenly started to rise with the fabulous Georges Renand collection. La Belle Romaine, sold 41 MF, tripled the French auction record and leaved for Asia. At the same sale the other Modigliani owned by Renand, a Woman with Black Tie, was sold 34 million francs.
On November 11, 1999, la Belle Romaine is sold for $ 16.8 million including premium by Sotheby's in New York, world record at the time for a Modigliani.
It comes back on November 2 at Sotheby's in New York. The estimate is not published in the catalog but the press release told that it can fetch $ 40M.
POST SALE COMMENT
La Belle Romaine is a masterpiece that transcends all variations of the market. Whenever it appears on the market, its exceptional quality is confirmed. Its latest feat is at $ 69M including premium.
The file below is shared by Wikimedia :
In 1917, having abandoned the sculpture, Modigliani focuses on the painting of the nude to express his vision of the ideal woman. Sometimes the model is standing or lying, but the woman sitting naked on a couch, known as La Belle Romaine, is undoubtedly one of the best.
This oil on canvas, 100 x 65 cm, shows a woman happy to be watched, confident, intimate. The painter is quite successful, with a purity of line and a warm tone of flesh which is the top of his art. It is illustrated on the press release shared by Artdaily.
Paris was quite prudish at that time, having probably already forgotten the friend women of Toulouse-Lautrec, and the exhibition of Modigliani's nudes at the Galerie Berthe Weill was forbidden for indecency at its opening. Our painting was perhaps one of them. Modigliani, a true great artist, had not deigned considering the academic decorum.
On 20 November 1987, the Parisian art market suddenly started to rise with the fabulous Georges Renand collection. La Belle Romaine, sold 41 MF, tripled the French auction record and leaved for Asia. At the same sale the other Modigliani owned by Renand, a Woman with Black Tie, was sold 34 million francs.
On November 11, 1999, la Belle Romaine is sold for $ 16.8 million including premium by Sotheby's in New York, world record at the time for a Modigliani.
It comes back on November 2 at Sotheby's in New York. The estimate is not published in the catalog but the press release told that it can fetch $ 40M.
POST SALE COMMENT
La Belle Romaine is a masterpiece that transcends all variations of the market. Whenever it appears on the market, its exceptional quality is confirmed. Its latest feat is at $ 69M including premium.
The file below is shared by Wikimedia :
1917 Brancusi at the Genesis of Art
2011 SOLD 14.9 M$ including premium
Brancusi, like many others, seeks the meaning and origin of world and life. In 1913, inspired by African art, he makes a wooden sculpture titled "le premier pas" (the first step). A baby makes his debut in the active life by trying to walk.
It is amusing to note that the great creative act of the metaphysical work of Brancusi is destructive. He breaks his wooden statue, keeping only the head. This new piece is ovoid, which is the perfect shape to symbolize the creation. Neither hair nor ears, nor neck.
With just the outline of an eye, of the nose and of the mouth, the egg becomes the head of a wailing baby, slightly larger than life, 26 cm long. It is entitled "le premier cri" and edited in 1917.
The copy for sale at Christie's in New York on November 1 is a polished bronze, with a high reflective effect. For such an outstanding work, the estimate, $ 8M, is conservative.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This bronze of a seminal sculpture by Brancusi was of course more outstanding than its estimate. It was sold $ 14.9 million including premium.
It is amusing to note that the great creative act of the metaphysical work of Brancusi is destructive. He breaks his wooden statue, keeping only the head. This new piece is ovoid, which is the perfect shape to symbolize the creation. Neither hair nor ears, nor neck.
With just the outline of an eye, of the nose and of the mouth, the egg becomes the head of a wailing baby, slightly larger than life, 26 cm long. It is entitled "le premier cri" and edited in 1917.
The copy for sale at Christie's in New York on November 1 is a polished bronze, with a high reflective effect. For such an outstanding work, the estimate, $ 8M, is conservative.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This bronze of a seminal sculpture by Brancusi was of course more outstanding than its estimate. It was sold $ 14.9 million including premium.
1917 The Marvelous Gates of Rodin
2010 SOLD 11.8 M$ including premium
Auguste Rodin is 40 years old in 1880. His genius is already recognized, since it is a French public institution which orders the production of a masterpiece: la Porte de l'Enfer (The Gates of Hell).
The artist imagines a monumental bronze door 6 feet tall, with several registers as the famous doors of the Baptistery of Florence. This project was the thread throughout his work, and his most oustanding sculptures have been conceived according to their position in this group.
The desire for a collector to have a bronze cast in Rodin's lifetime and in the size of the original clay model is easy to understand: it is a bit like having a real part of the prestigious door.
Two of the best known figures have gone up for auction in 2009.
On 3 November, Christie's sold $ 6.3 million including premium an early cast of le Baiser (the Kiss), 87 cm high, made between 1887 and 1901.
On 17 June in Paris (Hôtel Drouot), Mathias sold € 3.1 million including premium le Penseur (the Thinker), 71 cm high, cast by Rudier in 1917 a few months before the death of Rodin. This copy is characterized by a beautiful brown-green patina. After the sale, it crossed the Atlantic: it is estimated $ 4 million in the sale of Sotheby's in New York on May 5.
I found through Google search a photo of this copy shared by Bowdoin after the sale at Drouot.
COMMENT BY A MEMBER, AND REPLY
The context of The Thinker is this gate, Dante's Inferno, and Virgil I think.
Really, Dante pulled so much in his comedy and the undertones of going through hell to get to heaven. It seems he tried to incorporate everything he could think of... a real contemplation and statement. Where he put pergatory in the scope of his muse, and paradise beyond description, the descent to hell was apparently by far the easiest to convey and perhaps closest artistic representation of reality. "facilis descensus Averni" "Easy is the descent to Hell" (Aen.6.126) so ascribed to the poetry of the Roman Virgil- who guides Dante into Hell. It is this first part of the comedy that Rodin chooses at his discretion to perform the charter for the French museum of art. I think The Thinker, or The Poet, is a summation of Virgil, Dante, and Rodin...and those maybe the trinity at the top. Some might suggest Virgil as the preeminant father of modern poetry, Dante of the Italian lingua, and Rodin of the art? How frustrating, and too tall an order. The gate was apparently unfinished, and the museum never established. I think maybe a tribute to the genuine romantic undertaking.
I add the link to The Gates of Hell article on Wikipedia. This artwork had been in a continuous improvement during the 37 last years of Rodin's life. The last version is the plaster of 1917, of which 3 bronze copies were cast. The Kiss had been removed from the Gates before this last version. No kiss in Hell !!! The Thinker is at the place originally intended for a figure of Dante which was never made.
The Musée Rodin is one of the most active Parisian museums with a great Rodin collection and many temporary exhibitions related or not with Rodin.
POST SALE COMMENT
Now it looks obvious. The Thinker (le Penseur) had not reached its true price in Paris last year. The fact of crossing the Atlantic led it to $ 11.8 million including premium.
The artist imagines a monumental bronze door 6 feet tall, with several registers as the famous doors of the Baptistery of Florence. This project was the thread throughout his work, and his most oustanding sculptures have been conceived according to their position in this group.
The desire for a collector to have a bronze cast in Rodin's lifetime and in the size of the original clay model is easy to understand: it is a bit like having a real part of the prestigious door.
Two of the best known figures have gone up for auction in 2009.
On 3 November, Christie's sold $ 6.3 million including premium an early cast of le Baiser (the Kiss), 87 cm high, made between 1887 and 1901.
On 17 June in Paris (Hôtel Drouot), Mathias sold € 3.1 million including premium le Penseur (the Thinker), 71 cm high, cast by Rudier in 1917 a few months before the death of Rodin. This copy is characterized by a beautiful brown-green patina. After the sale, it crossed the Atlantic: it is estimated $ 4 million in the sale of Sotheby's in New York on May 5.
I found through Google search a photo of this copy shared by Bowdoin after the sale at Drouot.
COMMENT BY A MEMBER, AND REPLY
The context of The Thinker is this gate, Dante's Inferno, and Virgil I think.
Really, Dante pulled so much in his comedy and the undertones of going through hell to get to heaven. It seems he tried to incorporate everything he could think of... a real contemplation and statement. Where he put pergatory in the scope of his muse, and paradise beyond description, the descent to hell was apparently by far the easiest to convey and perhaps closest artistic representation of reality. "facilis descensus Averni" "Easy is the descent to Hell" (Aen.6.126) so ascribed to the poetry of the Roman Virgil- who guides Dante into Hell. It is this first part of the comedy that Rodin chooses at his discretion to perform the charter for the French museum of art. I think The Thinker, or The Poet, is a summation of Virgil, Dante, and Rodin...and those maybe the trinity at the top. Some might suggest Virgil as the preeminant father of modern poetry, Dante of the Italian lingua, and Rodin of the art? How frustrating, and too tall an order. The gate was apparently unfinished, and the museum never established. I think maybe a tribute to the genuine romantic undertaking.
I add the link to The Gates of Hell article on Wikipedia. This artwork had been in a continuous improvement during the 37 last years of Rodin's life. The last version is the plaster of 1917, of which 3 bronze copies were cast. The Kiss had been removed from the Gates before this last version. No kiss in Hell !!! The Thinker is at the place originally intended for a figure of Dante which was never made.
The Musée Rodin is one of the most active Parisian museums with a great Rodin collection and many temporary exhibitions related or not with Rodin.
POST SALE COMMENT
Now it looks obvious. The Thinker (le Penseur) had not reached its true price in Paris last year. The fact of crossing the Atlantic led it to $ 11.8 million including premium.
1915-1917 Lacquered Enfilade made by Eileen Gray in London
2009 SOLD for € 4M including premium by Christie's
Link to catalogue.
1917 The Erotic Drawings of Egon Schiele
2008 SOLD 2.2 M£ including premium
For fifteen years, the erotic works of Egon Schiele sell very well.
On February 4, in London, Christie's sold an important group of eight watercolors on paper, from the estate of a former associate of Ronald Lauder. For me, this sale was a test. I wrote in my blog:
"One may wonder why Lauder did not buy in private sale. If the sale is not a success, the price of the Viennese school will collapse."
In the catalogue, the top lot of the group was a dramatic naked woman from back, estimated £ 2 million, which was sold £ 2.5 million charge included. Five other works exceeded 500 K £. Buyers preferred at £ 2.9 million including fees a more original drawing, showing from back a nude mother with child behind her, which had been estimated £ 1.5 million. If I was right considering the sale as a test, we can fortunately conclude that the test was very successful!
Important Schiele drawings continued then to come on the market. By limiting it to Christie's, we note in the sale of May 6 in New York a simple pencil drawing depicting a nude contortionist female, pushed to $ 1.8 million including fees, on a low estimate of 600 K $.
In this trend, success is therefore assured for the four watercolors that Christie's sell in London on June 24.
The most erotic, a typical woman in shirt lying on her back with open legs, 30x46 cm, lot 61, is estimated £ 2 million.
A woman sitting with arms folded in a position expressing anguish, 56x37 cm, lot 60, expects £ 1.7 million.
The other two are less important, perhaps because less finished: Lot 62 is estimated 600 K£ and Lot 59: 400 K£.
POST SALE COMMENT
The most successful drawings of Schiele are now unsurprisingly valued around £ 2 million.
More exactly, Lot 60 was sold at £ 2.2 million and lot 61 at £ 1.9 million, including fees.
The signature is not enough, happily, to push up prices. The lot 59 was sold 480 K £ including fees, and lot 62 was not sold
On February 4, in London, Christie's sold an important group of eight watercolors on paper, from the estate of a former associate of Ronald Lauder. For me, this sale was a test. I wrote in my blog:
"One may wonder why Lauder did not buy in private sale. If the sale is not a success, the price of the Viennese school will collapse."
In the catalogue, the top lot of the group was a dramatic naked woman from back, estimated £ 2 million, which was sold £ 2.5 million charge included. Five other works exceeded 500 K £. Buyers preferred at £ 2.9 million including fees a more original drawing, showing from back a nude mother with child behind her, which had been estimated £ 1.5 million. If I was right considering the sale as a test, we can fortunately conclude that the test was very successful!
Important Schiele drawings continued then to come on the market. By limiting it to Christie's, we note in the sale of May 6 in New York a simple pencil drawing depicting a nude contortionist female, pushed to $ 1.8 million including fees, on a low estimate of 600 K $.
In this trend, success is therefore assured for the four watercolors that Christie's sell in London on June 24.
The most erotic, a typical woman in shirt lying on her back with open legs, 30x46 cm, lot 61, is estimated £ 2 million.
A woman sitting with arms folded in a position expressing anguish, 56x37 cm, lot 60, expects £ 1.7 million.
The other two are less important, perhaps because less finished: Lot 62 is estimated 600 K£ and Lot 59: 400 K£.
POST SALE COMMENT
The most successful drawings of Schiele are now unsurprisingly valued around £ 2 million.
More exactly, Lot 60 was sold at £ 2.2 million and lot 61 at £ 1.9 million, including fees.
The signature is not enough, happily, to push up prices. The lot 59 was sold 480 K £ including fees, and lot 62 was not sold
1916-1917 The Striking Colors of Bitter Cold
2015 SOLD for $ 3.66M CAD including premium
Born in Ontario to a family of wealthy industrialists, Lawren Stewart Harris did not need his art for earning his life.
This amateur who took care of organizing the Toronto arts community painted at first some sceneries of streets and of logging. His art that might appear to be basically Canadian was however triggered by his discovery of Scandinavian art and especially of paintings by Gustaf Fjaestad at an exhibition in Buffalo in 1913.
Harris worked in his studio at that time. He imagines the pure colors of snowy landscapes in cold weather. On November 26 in Toronto, Heffel sells a Winter landscape, lot 120 estimated CAD 1.2 million. Here is the link to the auction house's website.
This oil on canvas of large size for this artist, 121 x 127 cm, was painted in 1916 or 1917 at a time when Tom Thomson was interested in similar themes. The picture is divided into well-structured sections of homogeneous texture that contrast sharply with each other from the heavy white snow of ground and of fir branches up to the bright blue of the sea (or lake) through the tissues of forests and cliffs.
This creative period gives Harris the urge to explore by himself the far north in winter. From 1918 he organizes auto trips of his group. The light on Lake Superior is even more blinding than it was in his imagination. His increasingly purified style becomes the most dramatic expression of the chilling landscapes of Canada.
This amateur who took care of organizing the Toronto arts community painted at first some sceneries of streets and of logging. His art that might appear to be basically Canadian was however triggered by his discovery of Scandinavian art and especially of paintings by Gustaf Fjaestad at an exhibition in Buffalo in 1913.
Harris worked in his studio at that time. He imagines the pure colors of snowy landscapes in cold weather. On November 26 in Toronto, Heffel sells a Winter landscape, lot 120 estimated CAD 1.2 million. Here is the link to the auction house's website.
This oil on canvas of large size for this artist, 121 x 127 cm, was painted in 1916 or 1917 at a time when Tom Thomson was interested in similar themes. The picture is divided into well-structured sections of homogeneous texture that contrast sharply with each other from the heavy white snow of ground and of fir branches up to the bright blue of the sea (or lake) through the tissues of forests and cliffs.
This creative period gives Harris the urge to explore by himself the far north in winter. From 1918 he organizes auto trips of his group. The light on Lake Superior is even more blinding than it was in his imagination. His increasingly purified style becomes the most dramatic expression of the chilling landscapes of Canada.
1917 Seated Female Nudes by Munch
2009 SOLD for $ 2.77M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to Artvalue.
1917 Indifference
2016 SOLD for £ 1.56M including premium
Edvard Munch expresses in his art his own mystical and psychological or even psychiatric torments. In Paris and Berlin he painted the difficulty of communication. The Scream is his strongest message because the call does not reach any listener despite the small group away.
Melancholy and silence are among his favorite themes. The Young Woman on the Beach and Two Human Beings (the Lonely Ones) must be considered together and were probably designed simultaneously by the artist. The tall blonde woman in white dress is the same in both scenes. Watching the ocean, she turns her back to the artist, to the viewer and to life.
In the second version a man has come from behind, dressed in dark. He bends his head without looking at the woman. These two people are in a close vicinity one another and psychologically indifferent.
From 1894 Munch uses the prints to disclose his distress. Coloring techniques are varied. He tries all of them with a great technical skill. A very rare aquatint and drypoint 29 x 22 cm of the Young woman on the beach, finished in 1896, was sold for £ 2.13M including premium by Christie's on March 20, 2013.
In 1899 and 1917, the artist uses the woodcut to republish the Two Human beings. Different states allow a more or less figurative vision of the beach, the ocean and the horizon. Hues become softer, expressing both the absence of conflict and the impossibility of communication in that peaceful scene.
On September 27 in London, Sotheby's sells a print 39 x 55 cm of the Two Human beings, probably completed around 1917, lot 141 estimated £ 400K. The artist or his printer used two techniques : the monotype applied through a stencil is linking the ground between the two characters, highlighting that their separate lives occur in the same place at the same time. The rest of the image is printed by three wooden blocks. The surroundings have become abstract.
Melancholy and silence are among his favorite themes. The Young Woman on the Beach and Two Human Beings (the Lonely Ones) must be considered together and were probably designed simultaneously by the artist. The tall blonde woman in white dress is the same in both scenes. Watching the ocean, she turns her back to the artist, to the viewer and to life.
In the second version a man has come from behind, dressed in dark. He bends his head without looking at the woman. These two people are in a close vicinity one another and psychologically indifferent.
From 1894 Munch uses the prints to disclose his distress. Coloring techniques are varied. He tries all of them with a great technical skill. A very rare aquatint and drypoint 29 x 22 cm of the Young woman on the beach, finished in 1896, was sold for £ 2.13M including premium by Christie's on March 20, 2013.
In 1899 and 1917, the artist uses the woodcut to republish the Two Human beings. Different states allow a more or less figurative vision of the beach, the ocean and the horizon. Hues become softer, expressing both the absence of conflict and the impossibility of communication in that peaceful scene.
On September 27 in London, Sotheby's sells a print 39 x 55 cm of the Two Human beings, probably completed around 1917, lot 141 estimated £ 400K. The artist or his printer used two techniques : the monotype applied through a stencil is linking the ground between the two characters, highlighting that their separate lives occur in the same place at the same time. The rest of the image is printed by three wooden blocks. The surroundings have become abstract.
Our 27 Sept Prints & Multiples sale in #London includes two moving and momentous Munch works https://t.co/PXt2mVLASC pic.twitter.com/VvDVFJ1bTy
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) September 19, 2016
1917 Victoria Cross of Vice-Admiral Gordon Campbell
2017 SOLD for £ 840K including premium by Morton and Eden
Morton and Eden are delighted to announce the sale of the Victoria Cross & DSO** Group of 11 to Vice-Admiral Gordon Campbell, sold today for £840,000 (with premium), a new world record for a Victoria Cross at auction. pic.twitter.com/WBWvxE8rbu
— Morton & Eden Ltd (@MortonandEden) November 23, 2017
1917 Meeting Point for Artists in Taos
2010 SOLD 735 K$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The small town of Taos in northern New Mexico is a blessed place of artists who are fascinated by its luminous landscapes and by the beauty of the Indian village. From the early twentieth century, visitors from around the world visited and resided here, forming and renewing some particularly active communities of artists.
On July 24 in Reno, Coeur d'Alene Art Auction sells a painting made in 1917 by the first President of the Taos Society of Artists, Eanger Irving Couse.
E.I. Couse always shows close ups of Native Americans, peacefully busy at their everyday occupationals. A little bit too clean, his compositions have an inside home mood that does not meet the cultural strength of the Curtis photographs but is intimate and sweet.
The artist from Michigan met here an Indian artist drawing a kachina. This oil on canvas, 90 x 115 cm, is estimated $ 800K. It is illustrated in the catalog shared by iCollector.
Twice in recent months, I discussed works made at Taos by residents who went from far away. Fechin came from Tatarstan and Agnes Martin from Saskatchewan.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sold without passion, below the starting bid. Result: $ 650 K before fees, 735 K $ including premium.
The small town of Taos in northern New Mexico is a blessed place of artists who are fascinated by its luminous landscapes and by the beauty of the Indian village. From the early twentieth century, visitors from around the world visited and resided here, forming and renewing some particularly active communities of artists.
On July 24 in Reno, Coeur d'Alene Art Auction sells a painting made in 1917 by the first President of the Taos Society of Artists, Eanger Irving Couse.
E.I. Couse always shows close ups of Native Americans, peacefully busy at their everyday occupationals. A little bit too clean, his compositions have an inside home mood that does not meet the cultural strength of the Curtis photographs but is intimate and sweet.
The artist from Michigan met here an Indian artist drawing a kachina. This oil on canvas, 90 x 115 cm, is estimated $ 800K. It is illustrated in the catalog shared by iCollector.
Twice in recent months, I discussed works made at Taos by residents who went from far away. Fechin came from Tatarstan and Agnes Martin from Saskatchewan.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sold without passion, below the starting bid. Result: $ 650 K before fees, 735 K $ including premium.
1917 Birth of the Naval Aviation
2010 SOLD 506 K$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The history of aviation is dealing with bizarre machines. However, some of them have experienced in their time an undeniable success, which makes them to be appreciated as important links in the evolution of technology.
Manufacturer of engines for vehicles, Glenn Curtiss was one of the most important pioneers of heavier than air.Encouraged by Alexander Graham Bell, he was the first aviator to make a public flight, in 1908, shortly after the heroic trials of the Wright brothers.
Curtiss devoted much of his skill as an inventor to develop a flying boat for the U.S. Navy, with the aim of crossing the Atlantic. The Curtiss NC-4 managed this feat for the first time in 1919.
A Curtiss MF Seagull flying boat made in 1917 or 1918 is for sale by Bonhams in New York on April 13. It is easy to describe, as illustrated on the second picture of the interesting article shared by Cleveland.com: it is a biplane with propeller and aileron mounted on a boat for two pilots side by side.
This copy demilitarized after the war was carefully kept by an historical society of Cleveland, which has no money to maintain it anymore. Its wings covered with white fabric are particularly fragile. The estimate seems reasonable, at $ 300K, but the lucky buyer will have to anticipate a significant budget to maintain it in good condition.
POST SALE COMMENT
This rare aircraft was sold 430 K $ hammer price, 506 K $ including premium, well above the low estimate.
The history of aviation is dealing with bizarre machines. However, some of them have experienced in their time an undeniable success, which makes them to be appreciated as important links in the evolution of technology.
Manufacturer of engines for vehicles, Glenn Curtiss was one of the most important pioneers of heavier than air.Encouraged by Alexander Graham Bell, he was the first aviator to make a public flight, in 1908, shortly after the heroic trials of the Wright brothers.
Curtiss devoted much of his skill as an inventor to develop a flying boat for the U.S. Navy, with the aim of crossing the Atlantic. The Curtiss NC-4 managed this feat for the first time in 1919.
A Curtiss MF Seagull flying boat made in 1917 or 1918 is for sale by Bonhams in New York on April 13. It is easy to describe, as illustrated on the second picture of the interesting article shared by Cleveland.com: it is a biplane with propeller and aileron mounted on a boat for two pilots side by side.
This copy demilitarized after the war was carefully kept by an historical society of Cleveland, which has no money to maintain it anymore. Its wings covered with white fabric are particularly fragile. The estimate seems reasonable, at $ 300K, but the lucky buyer will have to anticipate a significant budget to maintain it in good condition.
POST SALE COMMENT
This rare aircraft was sold 430 K $ hammer price, 506 K $ including premium, well above the low estimate.
1917-1933 Alexandre Iacovleff, the Last Wandering Artist
2014 SOLD for £ 300K including premium
Alexandre Iacovleff (Alexander Yakovlev) starts his great travels in 1917. The 30 year old Russian begins by the Far East. Influenced by Diaghilev and Benois, he is passionate about the diversity of cultures.
At that time when photography has trivialized the images of distant countries, Iacovleff is still a draughtsman and a painter. He produces a prodigious quantity of drawings.
He looks at everything. In the theatre, he is not only interested in the show but also in the attitude of the spectators in the boxes behind their cups and teapots. An oil on canvas 90 x 134 cm was sold for £ 1M including premium by Sotheby's on 28 November 2006. In a bold diagonal, a scene located in Pékin (Beijing), tempera on canvas 108 x 118 cm painted in 1918, is for sale byBonhams in London on November 26, lot 41 estimated £ 500K.
In France, the ethnographic content of his work is recognized. He participates as an artist in two expeditions organized by Citroën to demonstrate the robustness of their vehicles, la Croisière Noire through Africa in 1924-1925. la Croisière Jaune visiting Asia in 1931-1932.
On November 24 in London, Sotheby's sells 97 sketchbooks and journals 18 x 10 cm by Iacovleff covering all his travels from 1917 to 1932 in one lot estimated £ 250K, lot 15.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's (below).
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Sotheby's sold for £ 300K the lot of sketchbooks and journals.
Bonhams sold for £ 300K the Beijing painting.
At that time when photography has trivialized the images of distant countries, Iacovleff is still a draughtsman and a painter. He produces a prodigious quantity of drawings.
He looks at everything. In the theatre, he is not only interested in the show but also in the attitude of the spectators in the boxes behind their cups and teapots. An oil on canvas 90 x 134 cm was sold for £ 1M including premium by Sotheby's on 28 November 2006. In a bold diagonal, a scene located in Pékin (Beijing), tempera on canvas 108 x 118 cm painted in 1918, is for sale byBonhams in London on November 26, lot 41 estimated £ 500K.
In France, the ethnographic content of his work is recognized. He participates as an artist in two expeditions organized by Citroën to demonstrate the robustness of their vehicles, la Croisière Noire through Africa in 1924-1925. la Croisière Jaune visiting Asia in 1931-1932.
On November 24 in London, Sotheby's sells 97 sketchbooks and journals 18 x 10 cm by Iacovleff covering all his travels from 1917 to 1932 in one lot estimated £ 250K, lot 15.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's (below).
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Sotheby's sold for £ 300K the lot of sketchbooks and journals.
Bonhams sold for £ 300K the Beijing painting.
