1918
See also : Top 10 Painting Klimt Italy Modigliani The Woman Nude Children Far West Stamps Inverted Jenny
1917-1918 The Ideal of Intimacy
2015 SOLD for $ 170M including premium
The still young artist endeavors to show the perfect woman while going beyond his own life plagued by tuberculosis and alcohol. Around 1911, the heads carved by Modigliani transcend all artistic styles.
In 1917, he found that ideal in the nude. He has no money but that does not mind. His small workshop contains two chairs, a sofa and a bottle of cognac. He is alone with a girl paid by his dealer. Zborowski had a good perception : the girls are pretty. Around them is war. The time is not conducive to shameless exhibits. Modigliani's nudes are a scandal.
Amedeo is a nice guy. He establishes empathy with those anonymous visitors for a day. He expresses tenderness and intimacy better than any other artist. He obtained this effect by a subtle color work. Pink is not warm enough to express the skin: the artist creates rich colors tending to reddish or apricot.
On November 9 in New York, Christie's sells a Nudo Rosso, oil on canvas 60 x 92 cm painted in 1917 or 1918, lot 8A.
This reclining nude is a masterpiece of harmony, similar on that way as the Belle Romaine seated nude that was sold for $ 69M including premium by Sotheby's on November 2, 2010.
The voluptuous curves emphasizes the confidence of the model with her back slightly arched above the couch and her outstretched arms. Eyes without pupils are monochrome, enabling the viewer to better capture the quiet waiting of her gaze. The wild locks on the forehead indicate that this ideal woman is a character from real life and not a model prepared for art.
The press release of September 3 announced a hope beyond $ 100M. Let me add a comment: this superb painting is worth such an expectation.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
In 1917, he found that ideal in the nude. He has no money but that does not mind. His small workshop contains two chairs, a sofa and a bottle of cognac. He is alone with a girl paid by his dealer. Zborowski had a good perception : the girls are pretty. Around them is war. The time is not conducive to shameless exhibits. Modigliani's nudes are a scandal.
Amedeo is a nice guy. He establishes empathy with those anonymous visitors for a day. He expresses tenderness and intimacy better than any other artist. He obtained this effect by a subtle color work. Pink is not warm enough to express the skin: the artist creates rich colors tending to reddish or apricot.
On November 9 in New York, Christie's sells a Nudo Rosso, oil on canvas 60 x 92 cm painted in 1917 or 1918, lot 8A.
This reclining nude is a masterpiece of harmony, similar on that way as the Belle Romaine seated nude that was sold for $ 69M including premium by Sotheby's on November 2, 2010.
The voluptuous curves emphasizes the confidence of the model with her back slightly arched above the couch and her outstretched arms. Eyes without pupils are monochrome, enabling the viewer to better capture the quiet waiting of her gaze. The wild locks on the forehead indicate that this ideal woman is a character from real life and not a model prepared for art.
The press release of September 3 announced a hope beyond $ 100M. Let me add a comment: this superb painting is worth such an expectation.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
1918 Le Fils du Concierge by Modigliani
2006 SOLD for $ 31M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
The young foreign artists who settled in Paris had not foreseen the war. Zborowski, arrived from Poland around 1910, takes their destiny in hand. Zbo and his wife organize in April 1918 the exodus to Cagnes-sur-Mer of Modigliani with his friend Jeanne and her mother, Foujita and his wife Fernande, and Soutine.
The group works for Zbo, and everyone is experimenting with new themes or styles. Soutine transfers his imbalances to the landscape. Foujita meets the old Renoir.
Modigliani observes the working classes of the Côte d'Azur, and is particularly interested in the psychological freshness of children.
Attitudes are stereotypical. The model strikes a pose seated quietly in a chair, hands clasped, and looks straight ahead. The less shy have their heads bowed to a side and their eyes are more lively. The variety of faces demonstrates the intention of stylized realism. They have in common with the nude women of Montparnasse that they arouse a strong but temporary empathy in the artist.
Le Fils du Concierge is identified by his father's occupation. He is a young son of the keeper of the villa where Modigliani resides. This oil on canvas 92 x 60 cm painted in 1918 was sold for $ 31M including premium by Sotheby's on November 7, 2006 over a lower estimate of $ 14M, lot 38. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Two other portraits from the same year in the same format were sold by Sotheby's. One of them, showing a boy of about the same age, was sold for £ 18.4M including premium on June 19, 2019. Garçon à la veste bleue was sold for £ 6.2M including premium on June 21, 2004.
The group works for Zbo, and everyone is experimenting with new themes or styles. Soutine transfers his imbalances to the landscape. Foujita meets the old Renoir.
Modigliani observes the working classes of the Côte d'Azur, and is particularly interested in the psychological freshness of children.
Attitudes are stereotypical. The model strikes a pose seated quietly in a chair, hands clasped, and looks straight ahead. The less shy have their heads bowed to a side and their eyes are more lively. The variety of faces demonstrates the intention of stylized realism. They have in common with the nude women of Montparnasse that they arouse a strong but temporary empathy in the artist.
Le Fils du Concierge is identified by his father's occupation. He is a young son of the keeper of the villa where Modigliani resides. This oil on canvas 92 x 60 cm painted in 1918 was sold for $ 31M including premium by Sotheby's on November 7, 2006 over a lower estimate of $ 14M, lot 38. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Two other portraits from the same year in the same format were sold by Sotheby's. One of them, showing a boy of about the same age, was sold for £ 18.4M including premium on June 19, 2019. Garçon à la veste bleue was sold for £ 6.2M including premium on June 21, 2004.
1918 A Post Mortem Portrait by Klimt
2010 SOLD 18.8 M£ including premium
In the last century, the proliferation of images has fortunately removed the need of post-mortem portrait. The sudden death of a loved one made aware that his image would disappear, and the family had recourse to a painter or a photographer to preserve his look.
In 1911, the niece of a patron of Klimt makes a love suicide at the age of 24, and the painter gets the order of a portrait of the deceased. This is not an easy job, and the first two trials are rejected by the family.
At his death in 1918, Klimt left unfinished the portrait of Ria Munk III. The oil and charcoal on canvas, 181 x 90 cm, is for sale by Christie's in London on June 23. It is illustrated in the press release shared by Art Knowledge News.
By its composition, it resembles the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907). Ria is life size. The face is sharp, and the gown and the background blend into a luxurious color scheme inspired by both Orientalism and Jugendstil.
Stop here the comparison. Adele I was decorated with gold and silver. This masterpiece was sold $ 135 million in 2006 to Ronald Lauder. Ria III, which does not have this quality of materials, is estimated £ 14 million.
POST SALE COMMENT
The estimate was well targeted for this work that had the qualities of composition of the best portraits of Klimt without the sumptuous materials. It was sold £ 18.8 million including premium.
In 1911, the niece of a patron of Klimt makes a love suicide at the age of 24, and the painter gets the order of a portrait of the deceased. This is not an easy job, and the first two trials are rejected by the family.
At his death in 1918, Klimt left unfinished the portrait of Ria Munk III. The oil and charcoal on canvas, 181 x 90 cm, is for sale by Christie's in London on June 23. It is illustrated in the press release shared by Art Knowledge News.
By its composition, it resembles the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907). Ria is life size. The face is sharp, and the gown and the background blend into a luxurious color scheme inspired by both Orientalism and Jugendstil.
Stop here the comparison. Adele I was decorated with gold and silver. This masterpiece was sold $ 135 million in 2006 to Ronald Lauder. Ria III, which does not have this quality of materials, is estimated £ 14 million.
POST SALE COMMENT
The estimate was well targeted for this work that had the qualities of composition of the best portraits of Klimt without the sumptuous materials. It was sold £ 18.8 million including premium.
1918 Children in the French Riviera
2019 SOLD for £ 18.4M including premium
It is war, and life in Paris becomes difficult. Zborowski decides to look for new customers in the Côte d'Azur. From April 1918 to May 1919, Modigliani and Jeanne accompany Zbo and his wife, sharing their time between Nice and Cagnes.
Compared to Montparnasse, the circle of friends is smaller. Zbo no longer tries the experience of the nude, which had caused a scandal in December 1917 at the Berthe Weill gallery and had been a commercial failure. Amedeo begins to paint gentle portraits of children and adolescents. Zbo encourages him or at least lets him do it.
With these young people, all of them belonging to the popular classes, Amedeo seeks once again to sort some ideal mankind. As in his sculpted heads in 1911, each opus is different. The series includes several repetitive features, partially following the model of the Garçon au gilet rouge painted by Cézanne thirty years earlier.
The child is seen from the front, sitting with his hands crossed on his lap. Modigliani has not yet solved the issue of the eyes : the gaze is blank, giving an impression of quiet waiting while the painter is at work. The head is most often leaning to the side, bringing the expression of a confident intimacy. The shape of the eyebrows, ears, chin is enough to differentiate the child. The hairstyle and clothes are not standardized.
On June 19 in London, Sotheby's sells the portrait of an unidentified young boy, lot 8 estimated £ 16M. This oil on canvas 92 x 60 cm was painted in 1918. Sold by Zbo in 1927, it had never reappeared and was only illustrated by black and white photos. Its splendid range of warm colors was not known.
Le Fils du Concierge, painted in Cagnes in 1918 in the same format, was sold for $ 31M including premium by Sotheby's on November 7, 2006. Jeune homme roux assis, 100 x 65 cm, sold for $ 17.6M including premium by Christie's on May 6, 2014, was made in 1919 : the eyes filled in sky blue are a characteristic of the ultimate portraits painted by Amedeo.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Compared to Montparnasse, the circle of friends is smaller. Zbo no longer tries the experience of the nude, which had caused a scandal in December 1917 at the Berthe Weill gallery and had been a commercial failure. Amedeo begins to paint gentle portraits of children and adolescents. Zbo encourages him or at least lets him do it.
With these young people, all of them belonging to the popular classes, Amedeo seeks once again to sort some ideal mankind. As in his sculpted heads in 1911, each opus is different. The series includes several repetitive features, partially following the model of the Garçon au gilet rouge painted by Cézanne thirty years earlier.
The child is seen from the front, sitting with his hands crossed on his lap. Modigliani has not yet solved the issue of the eyes : the gaze is blank, giving an impression of quiet waiting while the painter is at work. The head is most often leaning to the side, bringing the expression of a confident intimacy. The shape of the eyebrows, ears, chin is enough to differentiate the child. The hairstyle and clothes are not standardized.
On June 19 in London, Sotheby's sells the portrait of an unidentified young boy, lot 8 estimated £ 16M. This oil on canvas 92 x 60 cm was painted in 1918. Sold by Zbo in 1927, it had never reappeared and was only illustrated by black and white photos. Its splendid range of warm colors was not known.
Le Fils du Concierge, painted in Cagnes in 1918 in the same format, was sold for $ 31M including premium by Sotheby's on November 7, 2006. Jeune homme roux assis, 100 x 65 cm, sold for $ 17.6M including premium by Christie's on May 6, 2014, was made in 1919 : the eyes filled in sky blue are a characteristic of the ultimate portraits painted by Amedeo.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
#AuctionUpdate Amedeo Modigliani’s sublime portrait of an anonymous youth from 1918 sells for £18.4 million. This exceptionally rare work had been in the same family collection since first acquired by Modigliani’s dealer in 1927 pic.twitter.com/8hVsSidCGj
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) June 19, 2019
1918 A Mannerist Fellow in Montparnasse
2017 SOLD for £ 16M including premium
The portrait by Modigliani of a young man from the circle of Zborowski went unsold at Christie's on November 5, 2013 where it had been offered with a very high estimate. It comes now for sale at Sotheby's in London on March 1, lot 10 estimated £ 10M.
I discussed it as follows in 2013 :
Leopold Zborowski was a Polish exile in Paris during the war. This very young student wanted to become an art dealer and joined the artistic community of Montparnasse.
Modigliani knows everyone and loves to paint portraits of his fellow artists. Zborowski, who himself does not yet live in ease, captures his confidence by promising to supply him with an unlimited amount of drink.
Zborowski is now controling the artistic output of the best portrait painter of their time, and he organizes his career. He pushes Amedeo to specialize in those female nudes whose exhibition made a scandal at Berthe Weill gallery in December 1917 and provided a deserved fame to the painter.
The purpose of Zborowski is commercial. He now directs Amedeo towards achieving more mundane portraits for appealing the customers. Painted in 1918, probably early in the year, the oil on canvas titled Monsieur Baranowski, 112 x 56 cm, is one from that series.
Baranowski is very young. Elegantly dressed, he wants to make a career as an artist. With his pale skin, too long hair, charming mouth and an attitude mannered to the extreme, he appears as an androgynous.
The too formal title, Monsieur Baranowski, not providing the first name nor the abbreviated 'Bara', shows that this young esthete wanted to be seriously considered, and certainly indicates that Baranowski was in the circle of Zborowski without being intimate with Amedeo. This artwork is a wonderful psychological portrait of one of those weird people who constituted the bohemian life of Montparnasse.
I discussed it as follows in 2013 :
Leopold Zborowski was a Polish exile in Paris during the war. This very young student wanted to become an art dealer and joined the artistic community of Montparnasse.
Modigliani knows everyone and loves to paint portraits of his fellow artists. Zborowski, who himself does not yet live in ease, captures his confidence by promising to supply him with an unlimited amount of drink.
Zborowski is now controling the artistic output of the best portrait painter of their time, and he organizes his career. He pushes Amedeo to specialize in those female nudes whose exhibition made a scandal at Berthe Weill gallery in December 1917 and provided a deserved fame to the painter.
The purpose of Zborowski is commercial. He now directs Amedeo towards achieving more mundane portraits for appealing the customers. Painted in 1918, probably early in the year, the oil on canvas titled Monsieur Baranowski, 112 x 56 cm, is one from that series.
Baranowski is very young. Elegantly dressed, he wants to make a career as an artist. With his pale skin, too long hair, charming mouth and an attitude mannered to the extreme, he appears as an androgynous.
The too formal title, Monsieur Baranowski, not providing the first name nor the abbreviated 'Bara', shows that this young esthete wanted to be seriously considered, and certainly indicates that Baranowski was in the circle of Zborowski without being intimate with Amedeo. This artwork is a wonderful psychological portrait of one of those weird people who constituted the bohemian life of Montparnasse.
#AuctionUpdate Modigliani’s elegant depiction of an androgynous young man with fragile good looks, Portrait de Baranowski, soars to £16.1m pic.twitter.com/ubzOb6Mhcl
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) March 1, 2017
1918 The Gears of Abstract Art
2014 SOLD 12 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Back from Front, Fernand Léger restarts his career. Avant-garde artist, he had been one of the main proponents of Cubism.
The great theme of modern civilization is mechanical. The Futurists are interested in its application to speed. Léger is inspired by the assembly and even the machining of its components: cylinders, wheels, discs, gears.
In 1917, he took the cylinders as a basis to build a Partie de cartes which is one of his many tributes to Cézanne. He uses this new grammar of the cylinder to oscillate between a reconstruction of a figurative Cubist theme and total abstraction. Unlike Malevich, Mondrian and Kandinsky but same as Miro later, Léger does not fall into an exclusive abstraction.
On February 4 in London, Christie's sells Les cylindres colorés, oil on canvas 54 x 50 cm painted in 1918, estimated £ 5M.
Viewed from afar, the work could display an engine and gears. However its elements are pointing in all directions without visible support and a closer inspection will consider this composition as completely abstract. Another novelty, shared with Mondrian, is the use of pure colors.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This highly rare and early abstract painting by Fernand Léger was sold for £ 12M including premium.
Back from Front, Fernand Léger restarts his career. Avant-garde artist, he had been one of the main proponents of Cubism.
The great theme of modern civilization is mechanical. The Futurists are interested in its application to speed. Léger is inspired by the assembly and even the machining of its components: cylinders, wheels, discs, gears.
In 1917, he took the cylinders as a basis to build a Partie de cartes which is one of his many tributes to Cézanne. He uses this new grammar of the cylinder to oscillate between a reconstruction of a figurative Cubist theme and total abstraction. Unlike Malevich, Mondrian and Kandinsky but same as Miro later, Léger does not fall into an exclusive abstraction.
On February 4 in London, Christie's sells Les cylindres colorés, oil on canvas 54 x 50 cm painted in 1918, estimated £ 5M.
Viewed from afar, the work could display an engine and gears. However its elements are pointing in all directions without visible support and a closer inspection will consider this composition as completely abstract. Another novelty, shared with Mondrian, is the use of pure colors.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This highly rare and early abstract painting by Fernand Léger was sold for £ 12M including premium.
1918 Totentanz in Berlin
2020 SOLD for £ 9.7M including premium
Born in Berlin, George Grosz is 21 years old in 1914. Disgusted by the atrocities of war, he is twice discharged from the German army. He escapes in 1917 a scheduled execution because he is considered as insane.
The civil society disgusts him just as much. While the corpses are rotting on the barbed wire, the survivors indulge in all the sins in Friedrichstrasse. Prostitutes reign over this increasingly miserable decadence. The war will be lost but nobody pays attention to it.
Grosz protests in a proletarian caricature, violently anti-militarist and anti-bourgeois. He will try unsuccessfully to approach revolutionary and Dadaist movements and his art will be censored by all regimes. For the Nazis, he will be the worst cultural Bolshevik. Many of his works have been destroyed.
On February 5 in London, Christie's sells Gefährliche Strasse (the dangerous street), oil on canvas 47 x 65 cm painted in July 1918, lot 6 estimated £ 4.5M.
The image juxtaposes two nightmarish scenes, symbolizing sex and death. A hilarious prostitute, naked under her transparent clothes, excites a lecherous crowd. In the foreground, an austere soldier with emaciated cheeks resolutely turns his back on the rest of the action. Grosz's screams are worthy of Goya's disasters.
The scene is staged by night in dark colors, with a Futurist fragmentation in the style of Boccioni. In the bottom right, the silhouette of a head expressing repulsion or anger is considered to be a self-portrait of the artist.
The civil society disgusts him just as much. While the corpses are rotting on the barbed wire, the survivors indulge in all the sins in Friedrichstrasse. Prostitutes reign over this increasingly miserable decadence. The war will be lost but nobody pays attention to it.
Grosz protests in a proletarian caricature, violently anti-militarist and anti-bourgeois. He will try unsuccessfully to approach revolutionary and Dadaist movements and his art will be censored by all regimes. For the Nazis, he will be the worst cultural Bolshevik. Many of his works have been destroyed.
On February 5 in London, Christie's sells Gefährliche Strasse (the dangerous street), oil on canvas 47 x 65 cm painted in July 1918, lot 6 estimated £ 4.5M.
The image juxtaposes two nightmarish scenes, symbolizing sex and death. A hilarious prostitute, naked under her transparent clothes, excites a lecherous crowd. In the foreground, an austere soldier with emaciated cheeks resolutely turns his back on the rest of the action. Grosz's screams are worthy of Goya's disasters.
The scene is staged by night in dark colors, with a Futurist fragmentation in the style of Boccioni. In the bottom right, the silhouette of a head expressing repulsion or anger is considered to be a self-portrait of the artist.
1918 Under the Weeping Willow
2017 SOLD for £ 8.9M including premium
The war was a period of great concern for Claude Monet, a patriot and friend of Clemenceau. Too old for active engagement he takes refuge with some feeling of shame within his artistic occupation. With his series of paintings of water lilies that will become Les Grandes Décorations he wants to express that the beauty of nature is immutable unlike the events created by men.
Each water lily painting is a technical feat in increasingly panoramic formats. Monet also observes the shores of his pond in search of vertical themes that will bring an impression of vitality and power. The 200 x 100 cm picture of a group of mauve irises in close-up was sold for £ 10.8M including premium by Christie's on June 23, 2015.
In March 1918 the German counter-offensive threatens Amiens. After some hesitation Monet decides to remain at all costs in Giverny. He immediately begins his paintings on the theme of the weeping willows of his garden. This series will include ten artworks made in 1918 and 1919.
The weeping willow is an ornamental tree with dense and enveloping foliage. Under his tree Monet observes the subtlety of colors. The trunk and a small corner of the ground at the edge of the pond are sufficient to identify the theme. The low angle follows the trunk in bottom-up in its whole height. The leaves provide a mingling of colors treated in a heavy impasto by gestural brush strikes that deliberately ignore the perspective.
The weeping willows of Monet renew the modern art. He is aware and proud of that and wishes to present one of these paintings to France at the time of the armistice. This series opens the path to the experiments close to abstraction of his latest years.
On June 27 in London, Christie's sells a Saule pleureur by Monet, oil on canvas 130 x 110 cm, lot 14 estimated £ 15M.
Each water lily painting is a technical feat in increasingly panoramic formats. Monet also observes the shores of his pond in search of vertical themes that will bring an impression of vitality and power. The 200 x 100 cm picture of a group of mauve irises in close-up was sold for £ 10.8M including premium by Christie's on June 23, 2015.
In March 1918 the German counter-offensive threatens Amiens. After some hesitation Monet decides to remain at all costs in Giverny. He immediately begins his paintings on the theme of the weeping willows of his garden. This series will include ten artworks made in 1918 and 1919.
The weeping willow is an ornamental tree with dense and enveloping foliage. Under his tree Monet observes the subtlety of colors. The trunk and a small corner of the ground at the edge of the pond are sufficient to identify the theme. The low angle follows the trunk in bottom-up in its whole height. The leaves provide a mingling of colors treated in a heavy impasto by gestural brush strikes that deliberately ignore the perspective.
The weeping willows of Monet renew the modern art. He is aware and proud of that and wishes to present one of these paintings to France at the time of the armistice. This series opens the path to the experiments close to abstraction of his latest years.
On June 27 in London, Christie's sells a Saule pleureur by Monet, oil on canvas 130 x 110 cm, lot 14 estimated £ 15M.
Saule pleureur de #Monet : une peinture chargée d’histoire exécutée à l’aube de la fin de la 1ère GM https://t.co/v9exCXAJkq pic.twitter.com/yG83YVjden
— Christie's Paris (@christiesparis) June 14, 2017
1918 Two Children with Modigliani
2015 SOLD for £ 7.6M including premium
Amedeo Modigliani, as Francis Bacon later, is an empathetic portrait artist who feels the need to understand his sitters. On February 4 in London, Christie's sells Les deux filles, a double portrait of children which is very rare and perhaps unique of that theme in the art of Amedeo.
This oil on canvas 100 x 65 cm is estimated £ 6M, lot 15. It was sold for £ 6.5 million including premium by Christie's on 4 February 2009 over a lower estimate of £ 3.5 million, at the time of the crisis of the art market.
This artwork whose first owner was Zborowski was painted in 1917 or 1918, while experts are now preferring the latter date.
The end of 1917 was rough, with the scandal of the public exhibition of the nudes at the Berthe Weill gallery. In the following year, his long stay in Nice is organized by Zborowski. Far from the war, Amedeo is hoping to recover his health but he has also lost the contact with the professional models who had provided the bulk of his art.
These two girls who remain unidentified are a study of childhood, reinforcing the idea that the painting could have been done during the pregnancy of Jeanne who gave birth to their daughter on 29 November 1918. The serious brunette in careful hair style will soon emerge from childhood. She protects the younger blonde whose slightly deformed face assesses that Amedeo was attentive to the solutions of cubism.
This oil on canvas 100 x 65 cm is estimated £ 6M, lot 15. It was sold for £ 6.5 million including premium by Christie's on 4 February 2009 over a lower estimate of £ 3.5 million, at the time of the crisis of the art market.
This artwork whose first owner was Zborowski was painted in 1917 or 1918, while experts are now preferring the latter date.
The end of 1917 was rough, with the scandal of the public exhibition of the nudes at the Berthe Weill gallery. In the following year, his long stay in Nice is organized by Zborowski. Far from the war, Amedeo is hoping to recover his health but he has also lost the contact with the professional models who had provided the bulk of his art.
These two girls who remain unidentified are a study of childhood, reinforcing the idea that the painting could have been done during the pregnancy of Jeanne who gave birth to their daughter on 29 November 1918. The serious brunette in careful hair style will soon emerge from childhood. She protects the younger blonde whose slightly deformed face assesses that Amedeo was attentive to the solutions of cubism.
1918 Garçon à la Veste Bleue by Modigliani
2004 SOLD for £ 6.2M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
1918 Piegans by CM Russell
2005 SOLD for $ 5.6M including premium by The Coeur d'Alene Art Auction
The image is shared by Wikiart :
1918 Inverted Jenny Positions 87, 88, 97, 98
2005 SOLD for $ 2.97M by Robert A. Siegel
Next sale on June 12, 2021 by Sotheby's
For being more appealing and less inviting to counterfeiting, bicolored stamps were issued in the United States. Their printing in two runs was a source of error by reversing the figures.
May 15, 1918 is a historic date for the civil aviation: the first regular airmail service is inaugurated in Washington DC by President Wilson. It connects New York to Washington and return, with a change of plane in Philadelphia.
Mail shipping was set at 24c and the two-color stamp was available since the day before. The blue center features the biplane model selected for this service, a Jenny, nickname for the Curtiss JN-4. The preparation of the stamp was made in a hurry. The die for printing the plane had been completed only six days earlier. The engraver added in the picture the serial number of the aircraft scheduled for the official inaugural flight, 38262.
After the inverted images in bicolored US stamps of 1869 and 1901, philatelists hoped that the inverted error would also affect that new bicolor issue. In the morning of that first day, May 14, the administration is informed that a full sheet with the upside-down plane has been sold to a customer in the post office of Washington DC. The discoverer, William T. Robey, had rushed at the opening of the post office while one of his friends was doing the same in Philadelphia. Warned after the transaction, the employee had not been in position to prevent it.
In the afternoon of the same day, the sale to the public is suspended for two hours in Philadelphia, New York and Washington for an inspection of the stock and the scrap of the defective sheets.
We are still in the heroic time of aviation. The President is upset : he is wasting his precious time. 38262 takes off southward instead of going toward Philadelphia. The pilot tried to land in the countryside and bogged down in a swamp this plane carrying the first mailbag of the new service. Fortunately in the opposite way on the same day the first north-south transfer is successful.
The reaction of the administration after the Inverted error discovery had been extremely rapid. For the following runs, the word TOP is added at the top edge of the sheet and is checked in a specific production control. On May 21, when the dealer Eugene Klein buys for $ 15,000 from Robey this Inverted Jenny sheet paid for $ 24 six days earlier, it already appears that the additional checks have been effective and that this example will remain unique.
A few hours later, Klein sells the complete sheet to the rich and eccentric collector Colonel Green. This sheet 8493 had been poorly cut, deleting the top and right margins as well as the perforations in their adjacent stamps. Green does not want to keep the whole. He will only accept the best positions for his collection and entrusts the sale of the rest to Klein. It is at this point that Klein numbers each stamp from 1 to 100 on the reverse of the sheet to record the original position of each stamp before dividing the sheet into singles and blocks.
The plate number is printed in blue in the sheet margin below position 97. One of the elements kept by Green is a block of eight, 85-88 and 95-98, with its sheet margins, therefore including the plate number.
The quality of the eight stamps was uneven. In 1944 a new owner removed individually the four stamps on the left, which had gum defects and thinning. This operation was judicious. The remaining block, consisting of positions 87, 88, 97, 98 plus the two sheet margins including the plate number below the 97, is perfect for the paper, colors, perforations, thickness, original gum and centering.
The unique Inverted Jenny plate block was sold for $ 1.1M by Christie's on October 12, 1989 and for $ 2.97M by Robert A. Siegel on October 19, 2005.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
May 15, 1918 is a historic date for the civil aviation: the first regular airmail service is inaugurated in Washington DC by President Wilson. It connects New York to Washington and return, with a change of plane in Philadelphia.
Mail shipping was set at 24c and the two-color stamp was available since the day before. The blue center features the biplane model selected for this service, a Jenny, nickname for the Curtiss JN-4. The preparation of the stamp was made in a hurry. The die for printing the plane had been completed only six days earlier. The engraver added in the picture the serial number of the aircraft scheduled for the official inaugural flight, 38262.
After the inverted images in bicolored US stamps of 1869 and 1901, philatelists hoped that the inverted error would also affect that new bicolor issue. In the morning of that first day, May 14, the administration is informed that a full sheet with the upside-down plane has been sold to a customer in the post office of Washington DC. The discoverer, William T. Robey, had rushed at the opening of the post office while one of his friends was doing the same in Philadelphia. Warned after the transaction, the employee had not been in position to prevent it.
In the afternoon of the same day, the sale to the public is suspended for two hours in Philadelphia, New York and Washington for an inspection of the stock and the scrap of the defective sheets.
We are still in the heroic time of aviation. The President is upset : he is wasting his precious time. 38262 takes off southward instead of going toward Philadelphia. The pilot tried to land in the countryside and bogged down in a swamp this plane carrying the first mailbag of the new service. Fortunately in the opposite way on the same day the first north-south transfer is successful.
The reaction of the administration after the Inverted error discovery had been extremely rapid. For the following runs, the word TOP is added at the top edge of the sheet and is checked in a specific production control. On May 21, when the dealer Eugene Klein buys for $ 15,000 from Robey this Inverted Jenny sheet paid for $ 24 six days earlier, it already appears that the additional checks have been effective and that this example will remain unique.
A few hours later, Klein sells the complete sheet to the rich and eccentric collector Colonel Green. This sheet 8493 had been poorly cut, deleting the top and right margins as well as the perforations in their adjacent stamps. Green does not want to keep the whole. He will only accept the best positions for his collection and entrusts the sale of the rest to Klein. It is at this point that Klein numbers each stamp from 1 to 100 on the reverse of the sheet to record the original position of each stamp before dividing the sheet into singles and blocks.
The plate number is printed in blue in the sheet margin below position 97. One of the elements kept by Green is a block of eight, 85-88 and 95-98, with its sheet margins, therefore including the plate number.
The quality of the eight stamps was uneven. In 1944 a new owner removed individually the four stamps on the left, which had gum defects and thinning. This operation was judicious. The remaining block, consisting of positions 87, 88, 97, 98 plus the two sheet margins including the plate number below the 97, is perfect for the paper, colors, perforations, thickness, original gum and centering.
The unique Inverted Jenny plate block was sold for $ 1.1M by Christie's on October 12, 1989 and for $ 2.97M by Robert A. Siegel on October 19, 2005.
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