1923
See also : France Matisse Eastern Europe Central and South Americas Picasso 1907-1931 Chagall The Woman Nude Orientalism Art Deco Instrument and equipment Inventions Development of Patek Philippe
1923 A Nice Farniente
2018 SOLD for $ 81M including premium
Installed in Nice after the war, Henri Matisse resumes his research of colors and compositions with a serenity that Paris could not bring him. With Antoinette and even better with Henriette, he maintains an intimate connivance with his models. Their body becomes the central element of the artwork.
Henriette poses complacently because she appreciates the beauty of her athletic body. In parallel to nude studies, Matisse stages her in orientalist attires that are a new excuse for the shimmer of colors in her surroundings. Her portraits exudes her confidence in the artist without inhibiting her sensuality.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 8 Odalisque couchée aux magnolias, oil on canvas 61 x 81 cm painted in 1923. The nice intimacy of this artwork had seduced David and Peggy Rockefeller.
The young woman enjoys the pleasures of idleness, ready to nap or just finishing it. She is reclining on a chaise longue probably in the gate of a veranda. She wears on her shoulders a light shirt completely opened to expose the naked chest to the beneficent sun of the Côte d'Azur.
The orientalist impression is brought by the Persian harem pants which loosely cover the lower part of her body and by the screen behind her whose right panel is centered on two large magnolia flowers.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
Henriette poses complacently because she appreciates the beauty of her athletic body. In parallel to nude studies, Matisse stages her in orientalist attires that are a new excuse for the shimmer of colors in her surroundings. Her portraits exudes her confidence in the artist without inhibiting her sensuality.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 8 Odalisque couchée aux magnolias, oil on canvas 61 x 81 cm painted in 1923. The nice intimacy of this artwork had seduced David and Peggy Rockefeller.
The young woman enjoys the pleasures of idleness, ready to nap or just finishing it. She is reclining on a chaise longue probably in the gate of a veranda. She wears on her shoulders a light shirt completely opened to expose the naked chest to the beneficent sun of the Côte d'Azur.
The orientalist impression is brought by the Persian harem pants which loosely cover the lower part of her body and by the screen behind her whose right panel is centered on two large magnolia flowers.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
1923 The Scream of the Carcass
2015 SOLD for $ 28M including premium
Despite his difficult and secretive behavior, Chaïm Soutine was not isolated in the Parisian art world. He had been a drinking companion of Modigliani and interested Zborowski. He decomposed the landscapes to better express the violence of colors, to the detriment not only of perspective but also of balance.
Visiting Paris in 1923, Barnes was overwhelmed by the highly original expressive approach of the young painter, but Soutine never reacts like everyone else. After this unexpected success, he moved his studio and rushed to La Villette to buy a beef carcass.
The series of images of carcasses, beef and afterwards other animals, is not a victory of the artist against hunger. He was indeed already threatened by his stomach ulcer that will kill him twenty years later.
The haunting red of blood and meat is the exacerbation of a child's nightmare. Soutine had been shocked by the contrast between the tragedy of the dead animal and the satisfaction of the butcher to offer a choice piece. His carcasses defy the balancing traditions of still life painting in a logical continuation of his compositions of landscapes.
Meat rots on its hook, offering new colors to the artist and alerting the neighbors who called the police but failed to halt this remarkable creative impulse. An oil on canvas 81 x 60 cm showing a beef carcass in close up view is estimated $ 20M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 11, lot 30A.
Visiting Paris in 1923, Barnes was overwhelmed by the highly original expressive approach of the young painter, but Soutine never reacts like everyone else. After this unexpected success, he moved his studio and rushed to La Villette to buy a beef carcass.
The series of images of carcasses, beef and afterwards other animals, is not a victory of the artist against hunger. He was indeed already threatened by his stomach ulcer that will kill him twenty years later.
The haunting red of blood and meat is the exacerbation of a child's nightmare. Soutine had been shocked by the contrast between the tragedy of the dead animal and the satisfaction of the butcher to offer a choice piece. His carcasses defy the balancing traditions of still life painting in a logical continuation of his compositions of landscapes.
Meat rots on its hook, offering new colors to the artist and alerting the neighbors who called the police but failed to halt this remarkable creative impulse. An oil on canvas 81 x 60 cm showing a beef carcass in close up view is estimated $ 20M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 11, lot 30A.
This beef painting is selling for the cost of about 400,000 rib-eyes http://t.co/Zcs8LR5a2C pic.twitter.com/MW7KxVGDEh
— Bon Appétit (@bonappetit) May 6, 2015
1923 The Real Olga
2019 SOLD for $ 25M including premium
The son of Pablo and Olga Picasso, Paulo, was born in 1921. The amazed artist paints maternities. Two years later, moods have already changed : the mother and the child are the subject of separate paintings. The couple is not well. Olga is increasingly melancholic and introverted, which does not suit the temperament of this forty-year-old who transfers his fantasies into his erotic drawings.
In 1923 Picasso seeks once again a style. After the Demoiselles d'Avignon and Cubisme, he uses his drawing skills for a neo-classicism. Hands and feet of his characters are exaggerated to express the monumental majesty of ancient goddesses. Picasso admired one of his predecessors, Paul Cézanne. In this same period his still lifes allow him to persevere in a Cubism where he hides the erotic references that could disturb Olga.
In April 1923 he paints three large portraits of Olga, two in oil and one in pastel. The sharp brush stroke is a tribute to the idealized beauty of the former ballerina of the Ballets Russes. The hues of great softness express a demand for empathy that Pablo still has with his wife but his erotic desire is no longer on her.
On May 13 in New York, Christie's sells La Lettre (la réponse), oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, lot 64A estimated $ 20M. The young woman is seated at a desk for writing a letter but she has entered her reverie and does not use her pen.
These three portraits are among the last paintings of Picasso's Ingresque period. In the following year, he radically reinterprets cubism by replacing collage-shaped flat areas with an application to human figures of the de-construction of the Cézannian space. In 1928 surrealism allows Picasso to stop differentiating Olga from other women. Their communication issue inevitably leads to the break.
In 1923 Picasso seeks once again a style. After the Demoiselles d'Avignon and Cubisme, he uses his drawing skills for a neo-classicism. Hands and feet of his characters are exaggerated to express the monumental majesty of ancient goddesses. Picasso admired one of his predecessors, Paul Cézanne. In this same period his still lifes allow him to persevere in a Cubism where he hides the erotic references that could disturb Olga.
In April 1923 he paints three large portraits of Olga, two in oil and one in pastel. The sharp brush stroke is a tribute to the idealized beauty of the former ballerina of the Ballets Russes. The hues of great softness express a demand for empathy that Pablo still has with his wife but his erotic desire is no longer on her.
On May 13 in New York, Christie's sells La Lettre (la réponse), oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, lot 64A estimated $ 20M. The young woman is seated at a desk for writing a letter but she has entered her reverie and does not use her pen.
These three portraits are among the last paintings of Picasso's Ingresque period. In the following year, he radically reinterprets cubism by replacing collage-shaped flat areas with an application to human figures of the de-construction of the Cézannian space. In 1928 surrealism allows Picasso to stop differentiating Olga from other women. Their communication issue inevitably leads to the break.
1923 La Cage d'Oiseaux by Picasso
Nov 10, 1988 SOLD for $ 15.4M including premium by Sotheby's
1923 The New Odalisques
2018 SOLD for $ 14.4M including premium
A theoretician of forms and colors, Matisse was too austere. Renoir advises him to develop his sensuality.
Matisse enjoys collecting exotic clothes and hangings that he buys during his vacation trips and also from a Parisian dealer. When he settles permanently in Nice a new life begins for him : he starts with Antoinette his Moorish scenes.
His co-operation with Henriette is decisive for this phase of his career. She loves art, music, theater and dance. Her body is healthy and sculptural and she rarely smiles. She enjoys playing Matisse's game and her frank and somewhat authoritarian nudity is not a figure of harem. The artist's family is not mistaken and warmly welcomes her.
Antoinette often appeared nervous. Henriette is cool, in attitudes of everyday life regardless of her costume. Odalisque couchée aux magnolias, oil on canvas 61 x 81 cm painted in 1923, was sold for $ 81M including premium by Christie's on May 8, 2018.
Standing nude from front is highlighting this modern Venus. A full nude painted in 1922 in a Moorish environment, oil on canvas 56 x 34 cm, was sold for £ 4.4M including premium by Christie's on June 27, 2017.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells Odalisque mains dans le dos, oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm painted in 1923, lot 9 A estimated $ 15M. Naked down to below the navel, the standing Henriette wears a long transparent exotic skirt with a golden belt. Behind her the screen in toile de Jouy confirms that exoticism was indeed nothing more for the artist than a pretext for revealing beauty.
Matisse enjoys collecting exotic clothes and hangings that he buys during his vacation trips and also from a Parisian dealer. When he settles permanently in Nice a new life begins for him : he starts with Antoinette his Moorish scenes.
His co-operation with Henriette is decisive for this phase of his career. She loves art, music, theater and dance. Her body is healthy and sculptural and she rarely smiles. She enjoys playing Matisse's game and her frank and somewhat authoritarian nudity is not a figure of harem. The artist's family is not mistaken and warmly welcomes her.
Antoinette often appeared nervous. Henriette is cool, in attitudes of everyday life regardless of her costume. Odalisque couchée aux magnolias, oil on canvas 61 x 81 cm painted in 1923, was sold for $ 81M including premium by Christie's on May 8, 2018.
Standing nude from front is highlighting this modern Venus. A full nude painted in 1922 in a Moorish environment, oil on canvas 56 x 34 cm, was sold for £ 4.4M including premium by Christie's on June 27, 2017.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells Odalisque mains dans le dos, oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm painted in 1923, lot 9 A estimated $ 15M. Naked down to below the navel, the standing Henriette wears a long transparent exotic skirt with a golden belt. Behind her the screen in toile de Jouy confirms that exoticism was indeed nothing more for the artist than a pretext for revealing beauty.
1923 A Muse for Matisse
2016 SOLD for £ 10.8M including premium
After the war, Henri Matisse escapes the Parisian bustle. He organizes the cosy comfort of his apartment in Nice, with wallpapers that are abstract and colorful decorations reminding the background walls in the photographers' studios. The beauty of the female body remains his favorite theme.
His daughter Marguerite is a young adult who becomes tired of sitting. In 1920, Henri sees Henriette dancing on a stage. She is about 19 years old and plays violin and piano. She becomes the preferred muse of Henri and is warmly welcomed in his family. She likes performing, accepts the nude and takes some pleasure to dress in the costumes of odalisques.
Henri encourages his muse to develop her musical skills and observes her in this quiet occupation. On February 3 in London, Sotheby's sells La Leçon de Piano, oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm painted in 1923, lot 14 estimated £ 12M.
The atmosphere is a family scene. The two very young brothers of Henriette are listening to the music. Walls, furniture, clothing and carpet offer the studies of colors that constitute the signature style of the artist.
Henriette will not play at concert. In the following year, she is caught in stage frights. Henri, ever friendly with his young protégée, encourages her to paint. The morning session, oil on canvas 74 x 61 cm, was sold for $ 19,2M including premium by Sotheby's on May 7, 2014.
I invite you to watch the teaser video shared by Sotheby's to announce the Piano lesson.
His daughter Marguerite is a young adult who becomes tired of sitting. In 1920, Henri sees Henriette dancing on a stage. She is about 19 years old and plays violin and piano. She becomes the preferred muse of Henri and is warmly welcomed in his family. She likes performing, accepts the nude and takes some pleasure to dress in the costumes of odalisques.
Henri encourages his muse to develop her musical skills and observes her in this quiet occupation. On February 3 in London, Sotheby's sells La Leçon de Piano, oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm painted in 1923, lot 14 estimated £ 12M.
The atmosphere is a family scene. The two very young brothers of Henriette are listening to the music. Walls, furniture, clothing and carpet offer the studies of colors that constitute the signature style of the artist.
Henriette will not play at concert. In the following year, she is caught in stage frights. Henri, ever friendly with his young protégée, encourages her to paint. The morning session, oil on canvas 74 x 61 cm, was sold for $ 19,2M including premium by Sotheby's on May 7, 2014.
I invite you to watch the teaser video shared by Sotheby's to announce the Piano lesson.
1923 A Caipirinha by Tarsila
2020 SOLD for BRL 57.5M including premium (worth US$ 11.2M) by Bolsa de Arte
narrated post sale in 2020
Tarsila do Amaral was in Paris in 1923. She was enthusiastic about the cosmopolitan desires of the artistic avant-gardes. She is the Brazilian, and more precisely a caipirinha. The caipiras are those people from the tropical countryside who are the laughing stock of city dwellers by their naivety and their appalling accent.
She is influenced by André Lhote's cubism, where the slightly deformed figurative elements are distributed on the canvas without consideration of their respective distances, with a partitioned geometry and simple colors.
On December 17, 2020, Bolsa de Arte sold A Caipirinha, oil on canvas 60 x 81 cm painted by Tarsila in Paris in 1923, for BRL 57.5M including premium, worth US $ 11.2M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The artist expresses the resolutely optimistic happiness of her childhood, when she was making her doll from the leaves collected in front of the farm. This allusion is not directly visible. The character is an adult and the doll is not there, but the symbolic leaf is in the foreground under the hand.
The iconography is bold, with some repetitions with no link in the meaning. The hand with five parallel fingers and the palisade with six boards are similar. The barn door on the right is copied to the left, where it loses its meaning by a position in front of the tree.
In the same period, Tarsila also shakes up the morphologies, without however joining the surrealists. Allusions to rural Brazil dot all her work, through ethnological details, tropical light, farm life. This resolutely regionalist art anticipates the school of Mexico.
She is influenced by André Lhote's cubism, where the slightly deformed figurative elements are distributed on the canvas without consideration of their respective distances, with a partitioned geometry and simple colors.
On December 17, 2020, Bolsa de Arte sold A Caipirinha, oil on canvas 60 x 81 cm painted by Tarsila in Paris in 1923, for BRL 57.5M including premium, worth US $ 11.2M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The artist expresses the resolutely optimistic happiness of her childhood, when she was making her doll from the leaves collected in front of the farm. This allusion is not directly visible. The character is an adult and the doll is not there, but the symbolic leaf is in the foreground under the hand.
The iconography is bold, with some repetitions with no link in the meaning. The hand with five parallel fingers and the palisade with six boards are similar. The barn door on the right is copied to the left, where it loses its meaning by a position in front of the tree.
In the same period, Tarsila also shakes up the morphologies, without however joining the surrealists. Allusions to rural Brazil dot all her work, through ethnological details, tropical light, farm life. This resolutely regionalist art anticipates the school of Mexico.
1923 Expressionism in a Still Life by Picasso
2013 SOLD 9.2 M$ including premium
The early 1920s are not the easiest period in the interpretation of Picasso's art. He realizes in parallel many portraits, hardly deformed by the Cubist experience, and still life which is the preferred theme of his formal research.
Picasso refuses to be realistic or abstract. He maintains a carnal dimension in the play of artifacts that come to overlap and to share their shadows: guitar, bowl, paper. He is a distant successor to Cézanne.
The use of deep and almost neutral colors, the sandy texture of the canvas invite to emotions in such a way that the object itself becomes secondary. Picasso is a distant predecessor of Rothko.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells a painting made in 1923, 97 x 130 cm, showing a mandolin, a book of music and their shadows on a barely discernable table. The broken ropes of the instrument and the music page have a common grammar of parallel lines.
This oil on canvas is estimated $ 8M. I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This Picasso was interesting without being exciting. Sold $ 9.2 million including premium, it logically remained in the region of its lower estimate.
Picasso refuses to be realistic or abstract. He maintains a carnal dimension in the play of artifacts that come to overlap and to share their shadows: guitar, bowl, paper. He is a distant successor to Cézanne.
The use of deep and almost neutral colors, the sandy texture of the canvas invite to emotions in such a way that the object itself becomes secondary. Picasso is a distant predecessor of Rothko.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells a painting made in 1923, 97 x 130 cm, showing a mandolin, a book of music and their shadows on a barely discernable table. The broken ropes of the instrument and the music page have a common grammar of parallel lines.
This oil on canvas is estimated $ 8M. I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This Picasso was interesting without being exciting. Sold $ 9.2 million including premium, it logically remained in the region of its lower estimate.
1923-1924 Moi et le Village by Chagall
2020 SOLD for $ 3.3M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
1923 Sport and Complication
2014 SOLD 2.96 M$ including premium
Realized as prototypes or custom, the most advanced watches by Patek Philippe were not published. Their characteristics were therefore not known to the public until they were made available as catalog models. Retroactively, it appears that Patek Philippe has always been the leader for the complications.
In the 1920s, their development teams managed to incorporate the complications in small and thin cases compatible with the use on the wrist, thus winning a major part in a promising market. Then the miniaturization of the combinations of complications generated the masterpieces of modern watchmaking.
Three prestigious complications received the greatest attention: repetition, perpetual calendar and split.
The chronographe à rattrapante (split seconds chronograph) includes two centered hands. One of them runs its rotation in sixty seconds. The other is stopped by the action of a pusher and joins the first hand when the measurement is achieved. This complication is very popular for the measurement of time intervals in sporting competitions.
In 1923, Patek Philippe manufactures and sells a single specimen of split seconds chronograph wristwatch assembled in an old 'montre d'officier' case. This piece that can be considered as a prototype had no immediate commercial following. For this reason, some of its other features are also unique such as its calibration to 60 minutes and the design of its dial.
This historic watch was sold for nearly CHF 3M by Antiquorum on November 14, 1999, equivalent at that time to $ 1.9 M. It is estimated $ 800K, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on June 10, lot 175.
POST SALE COMMENT
This watch is a key step in the fabulous technological development of Patek Philippe. It was sold for $ 2.96 million including premium.
In the 1920s, their development teams managed to incorporate the complications in small and thin cases compatible with the use on the wrist, thus winning a major part in a promising market. Then the miniaturization of the combinations of complications generated the masterpieces of modern watchmaking.
Three prestigious complications received the greatest attention: repetition, perpetual calendar and split.
The chronographe à rattrapante (split seconds chronograph) includes two centered hands. One of them runs its rotation in sixty seconds. The other is stopped by the action of a pusher and joins the first hand when the measurement is achieved. This complication is very popular for the measurement of time intervals in sporting competitions.
In 1923, Patek Philippe manufactures and sells a single specimen of split seconds chronograph wristwatch assembled in an old 'montre d'officier' case. This piece that can be considered as a prototype had no immediate commercial following. For this reason, some of its other features are also unique such as its calibration to 60 minutes and the design of its dial.
This historic watch was sold for nearly CHF 3M by Antiquorum on November 14, 1999, equivalent at that time to $ 1.9 M. It is estimated $ 800K, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on June 10, lot 175.
POST SALE COMMENT
This watch is a key step in the fabulous technological development of Patek Philippe. It was sold for $ 2.96 million including premium.
1923 Photography on Flexible Film
2018 SOLD for € 2.4M including premium
In 1911 Oskar Barnack was hired by Leitz. Founded in the mid-19th century, the Optische Werke Ernst Leitz company established in Wetzlar specialized in precision mechanics for optical instruments.
In the development phase of the cinema, setting the exposure time was an issue. To test it Barnack has the idea in 1913 to insert a 35 mm flexible film horizontally in a still camera. He builds two prototypes of this Leca that will later be spelled Leica for Leitz Camera. The horizontal position makes it possible to use 8 perforations per frame instead of 4 for the vertical rolling in a movie camera. The 24 x 36 mm was born.
Until then the usual practice for positive photography is the contact printing. Barnack loves hiking but he is sick and must avoid heavy equipment. He considers reusing his miniature 24 x 36 mm format. The positives will be achieved by enlargement. He makes a third prototype between 1918 and 1920.
Barnack convinces his boss Ernst Leitz II to continue this innovative experience. To evaluate the feasibility of a production and to test the market, Leitz authorizes in 1923 a small series of 31 cameras numbered from 100 to 130, the 0-Series (in German: Nullserie) of the Leica. It seems that some of these numbers were not finally used.
The 0-Series Leica has some improvements compared to its three precursors, including to allow loading and unloading the film in daylight. The lens cover is now essential for not fogging the film when arming.
The Leica 107 in B- condition was sold for € 1.32M including premium by WestLicht on May 28, 2011 over a lower estimate of € 350K. I commented this great result by stating that the 0-Series Leica is the absolute dream for any collector of cameras. The serial number 116 also graded B- was sold for € 2.16M including premium on May 12, 2012 by the same auction house over a lower estimate of € 600K.
In B+ condition the Leica 122 is one of the best preserved of the series. Its lens cover, folding viewfinder and paintwork are original. It is estimated € 700K for sale by WestLicht in Vienna on March 10, lot 3 here linked to the LiveAuctioneers bidding platform.
In the development phase of the cinema, setting the exposure time was an issue. To test it Barnack has the idea in 1913 to insert a 35 mm flexible film horizontally in a still camera. He builds two prototypes of this Leca that will later be spelled Leica for Leitz Camera. The horizontal position makes it possible to use 8 perforations per frame instead of 4 for the vertical rolling in a movie camera. The 24 x 36 mm was born.
Until then the usual practice for positive photography is the contact printing. Barnack loves hiking but he is sick and must avoid heavy equipment. He considers reusing his miniature 24 x 36 mm format. The positives will be achieved by enlargement. He makes a third prototype between 1918 and 1920.
Barnack convinces his boss Ernst Leitz II to continue this innovative experience. To evaluate the feasibility of a production and to test the market, Leitz authorizes in 1923 a small series of 31 cameras numbered from 100 to 130, the 0-Series (in German: Nullserie) of the Leica. It seems that some of these numbers were not finally used.
The 0-Series Leica has some improvements compared to its three precursors, including to allow loading and unloading the film in daylight. The lens cover is now essential for not fogging the film when arming.
The Leica 107 in B- condition was sold for € 1.32M including premium by WestLicht on May 28, 2011 over a lower estimate of € 350K. I commented this great result by stating that the 0-Series Leica is the absolute dream for any collector of cameras. The serial number 116 also graded B- was sold for € 2.16M including premium on May 12, 2012 by the same auction house over a lower estimate of € 600K.
In B+ condition the Leica 122 is one of the best preserved of the series. Its lens cover, folding viewfinder and paintwork are original. It is estimated € 700K for sale by WestLicht in Vienna on March 10, lot 3 here linked to the LiveAuctioneers bidding platform.
2.9 million! The Leica 0-series camera of 1923 sold by Westlicht (@WestLichtVienna) for a record $2,952,670 https://t.co/4T3CGKW40C #antiques #antique #auction #camera #photo #photography #Leica #art #record pic.twitter.com/Sa6piIVrpY
— Maine Antique Digest (@AntiqueDigest) May 31, 2018
1923-1924 The Modern Religieuse
2018 SOLD for $ 2.17M including premium
Paris wants to appear as the world capital of interior design. The ambitious project of an 'Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes' is reactivated after the war. It is delayed several times but the momentum is given. The workshops compete in engineering.
Pierre Chareau is an architect, furniture designer and art lover. He is little known at that time because he preferred to work for a circle of friends. He seeks to combine simplicity of form and functionality, without fearing the technical difficulties. In 1923 he designed two resolutely innovative models of furniture, the Table Eventail equipped with rotating trays and the Lampe Religieuse.
The Religieuse is a floor lamp 1.80 m high. The tall tapered base made of a single sheet of folded metal is a technical feat of the blacksmith Louis Dalbet. The alabaster shade looks like a complex shape although it is composed of only four identical triangles oriented in staggered rows.
This model was probably inspired by the cubist sculptures of Lipchitz. The resemblance of the lampshade with a nun's cornet may be unintentional but it has given an easy identification and a lasting fame to this unprecedented model.
The metal base is made in very small quantities in 1923 and 1924. The exact figure is not known. One of these lamps is estimated $ 800K for sale by Christie's in New York on June 20, lot 11.
The later production is in wood. The Chwast collection included a pair in mahogany dissociated by Sotheby's on November 21, 2016 for € 1.08M and 850K including premium over lower estimates of € 300K each.
The Exposition Internationale takes place in 1925. Its influence is considerable with in parallel the craze for the Art Déco style and the path to modernism. Chareau participates reluctantly, regretting that luxury dominates over mass production. He is thus a predecessor of Jean Prouvé.
The theories of Le Corbusier appear at that exhibition. For stating the inseparable character of architecture and furniture, he defines them jointly as a machine to live in. Chareau, Le Corbusier, Eileen Gray, Francis Jourdain and Auguste Perret invented the modern furniture around 1925 in Paris.
Pierre Chareau is an architect, furniture designer and art lover. He is little known at that time because he preferred to work for a circle of friends. He seeks to combine simplicity of form and functionality, without fearing the technical difficulties. In 1923 he designed two resolutely innovative models of furniture, the Table Eventail equipped with rotating trays and the Lampe Religieuse.
The Religieuse is a floor lamp 1.80 m high. The tall tapered base made of a single sheet of folded metal is a technical feat of the blacksmith Louis Dalbet. The alabaster shade looks like a complex shape although it is composed of only four identical triangles oriented in staggered rows.
This model was probably inspired by the cubist sculptures of Lipchitz. The resemblance of the lampshade with a nun's cornet may be unintentional but it has given an easy identification and a lasting fame to this unprecedented model.
The metal base is made in very small quantities in 1923 and 1924. The exact figure is not known. One of these lamps is estimated $ 800K for sale by Christie's in New York on June 20, lot 11.
The later production is in wood. The Chwast collection included a pair in mahogany dissociated by Sotheby's on November 21, 2016 for € 1.08M and 850K including premium over lower estimates of € 300K each.
The Exposition Internationale takes place in 1925. Its influence is considerable with in parallel the craze for the Art Déco style and the path to modernism. Chareau participates reluctantly, regretting that luxury dominates over mass production. He is thus a predecessor of Jean Prouvé.
The theories of Le Corbusier appear at that exhibition. For stating the inseparable character of architecture and furniture, he defines them jointly as a machine to live in. Chareau, Le Corbusier, Eileen Gray, Francis Jourdain and Auguste Perret invented the modern furniture around 1925 in Paris.
