1925
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Top 10 China Modern China Mountains in China Picasso 1907-1931 Miro Soutine Rodin Landscape Art Déco
See also : Top 10 China Modern China Mountains in China Picasso 1907-1931 Miro Soutine Rodin Landscape Art Déco
masterpiece
1325 BCE - 1925 Funerary Mask of Tutankhamun
Cairo Museum
Discovered in 1925.
The image is shared by Wikimedia with attribution Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
The image is shared by Wikimedia with attribution Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
masterpiece
1925 House by the Railroad by Hopper
MoMA
Painted in 1925 by Edward Hopper, House by the railroad features an outdated Victorian mansion confronted with a surrounding which is void of any living being. Despite the breakthrough of his new style to express a lonely mood, the artist preferred puzzling his followers by stating that he "was more interested in the sunlight on the buildings and on the figures than any symbolism".
1925 Twelve Landscapes by Qi Baishi
2017 SOLD for RMB 930M by Poly
The traditional Chinese graphic art is an uninterrupted series of imitations of the old masters. Bada Shanren's eccentric approach at the very beginning of the Qing dynasty is a rare exception.
Born in Hunan province into a family of poor peasants, Qi Baishi was self-taught. Settled in Beijing at the age of 53 in 1917, he drew inspiration from Bada Shanren to develop a vigorous and spontaneous line, reaching poetry through a free realism. His greatest innovation is the use of inks in very bright colors.
His themes are varied while being ordinary and peaceful : landscapes, trees, countless small things. He paints according to his own observations, is not interested in symbols and allegories and does not follow Bada Shanren in the rebellion.
Qi Baishi executed in 1925 a monumental series of twelve vertical panels in light blue, gray, brown and pink on paper 180 x 47 cm each. The simple graphic style is inspired from Bada Shanren amended by the teaching of Wu Changshuo. The painting technique combines outline and splashing of ink, with bright colors in between. Calligraphed poems are included.
They manage to express the variety of mountains, villages and blossoming trees, as evidenced by the twelve individual titles (Google translation from Chinese) : "Houses on the River", "Double Shadows of Rocks", "Lonely Sail on Banqiao", "Cypress Trees", "Afterglow on the Far Shore", "Pine Trees and White Houses", "Apricots" "Flower and Grass Hall", "Fir Tree Tower", "Deep Smoke and Shadow of Sail", "Spring Rain in the Mountains", "Mangroves and White Spring", "Bantang Lotus Fragrance".
The full set had been presented by the artist to a doctor in Beijing who specialized in treating senior Kuomintang officials and also artists and literati. It was sold for RMB 930M from a lower estimate of RMB 500M by Poly on December 17, 2017, lot 2806. The image is shared by China Daily.
There is only one other similar set. Painted in 1932, it is kept in a museum in Chongqing.
Born in Hunan province into a family of poor peasants, Qi Baishi was self-taught. Settled in Beijing at the age of 53 in 1917, he drew inspiration from Bada Shanren to develop a vigorous and spontaneous line, reaching poetry through a free realism. His greatest innovation is the use of inks in very bright colors.
His themes are varied while being ordinary and peaceful : landscapes, trees, countless small things. He paints according to his own observations, is not interested in symbols and allegories and does not follow Bada Shanren in the rebellion.
Qi Baishi executed in 1925 a monumental series of twelve vertical panels in light blue, gray, brown and pink on paper 180 x 47 cm each. The simple graphic style is inspired from Bada Shanren amended by the teaching of Wu Changshuo. The painting technique combines outline and splashing of ink, with bright colors in between. Calligraphed poems are included.
They manage to express the variety of mountains, villages and blossoming trees, as evidenced by the twelve individual titles (Google translation from Chinese) : "Houses on the River", "Double Shadows of Rocks", "Lonely Sail on Banqiao", "Cypress Trees", "Afterglow on the Far Shore", "Pine Trees and White Houses", "Apricots" "Flower and Grass Hall", "Fir Tree Tower", "Deep Smoke and Shadow of Sail", "Spring Rain in the Mountains", "Mangroves and White Spring", "Bantang Lotus Fragrance".
The full set had been presented by the artist to a doctor in Beijing who specialized in treating senior Kuomintang officials and also artists and literati. It was sold for RMB 930M from a lower estimate of RMB 500M by Poly on December 17, 2017, lot 2806. The image is shared by China Daily.
There is only one other similar set. Painted in 1932, it is kept in a museum in Chongqing.
1925 La Femme Sculpteur by Picasso
2024 SOLD for $ 25M by Sotheby's
Both Cubism and neo-Classicism had reached their limits in the art of Picasso. Something new must be tried to integrate the surrealism.
A scene in the well-lit artist's studio rue La Boétie marks this breakthrough. It features a woman three times. The pink lady is seated in an artist's smock and doubled by a black shadow. The black arms are joining to touch a white bust posed on a high tripod. Pink and white look straight at the observer in a slightly different attitude while the black is in a sharp profile. The balcony behind is a symbol of Hausmannian Paris.
This oil on canvas 130 x 98 cm painted in 1925 was titled la Femme Sculpteur when it was exhibited by Paul Rosenberg in 1926. Zervos preferred La Statuaire which refers it as an allegory. Indeed the female figure may also be the model for the bust.
This work was very important for Picasso who included it in 1932 in the seminal retrospective at the Galerie Georges Petit, on the same wall as Femme nue, Feuilles et Buste starring Marie-Thérèse Walter with a full resemblance between woman and bust.
It was sold for $ 25M by Sotheby's on November 18, 2024, lot 16. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
A scene in the well-lit artist's studio rue La Boétie marks this breakthrough. It features a woman three times. The pink lady is seated in an artist's smock and doubled by a black shadow. The black arms are joining to touch a white bust posed on a high tripod. Pink and white look straight at the observer in a slightly different attitude while the black is in a sharp profile. The balcony behind is a symbol of Hausmannian Paris.
This oil on canvas 130 x 98 cm painted in 1925 was titled la Femme Sculpteur when it was exhibited by Paul Rosenberg in 1926. Zervos preferred La Statuaire which refers it as an allegory. Indeed the female figure may also be the model for the bust.
This work was very important for Picasso who included it in 1932 in the seminal retrospective at the Galerie Georges Petit, on the same wall as Femme nue, Feuilles et Buste starring Marie-Thérèse Walter with a full resemblance between woman and bust.
It was sold for $ 25M by Sotheby's on November 18, 2024, lot 16. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1925 MIRO
Intro
In 1924 Joan Miro is one of the signatories of the Manifeste du Surréalisme. The artist receives the highest possible compliment of André Breton: "Miro is the most surrealist of ourselves."
Indeed, the artist has lost interest in realism and is exploring the dream and the subconscious. His abstraction is nevertheless inspired by his hallucinations caused by poor life conditions including hunger.
Miro's approach is deeply original and will be recognized as such by Picasso. He is the first surrealist to transcend the boundaries between poetry and painting.
Nevertheless the surrealist influence on Miro faded in the following year with the first abstract works, sometimes overwritten with a short poem. As early as 1926, a work by Miro and Ernst for the Ballets Russes was considered a bourgeois drift by the surrealists and their communist friends. Miro will keep his creative autonomy intact.
Indeed, the artist has lost interest in realism and is exploring the dream and the subconscious. His abstraction is nevertheless inspired by his hallucinations caused by poor life conditions including hunger.
Miro's approach is deeply original and will be recognized as such by Picasso. He is the first surrealist to transcend the boundaries between poetry and painting.
Nevertheless the surrealist influence on Miro faded in the following year with the first abstract works, sometimes overwritten with a short poem. As early as 1926, a work by Miro and Ernst for the Ballets Russes was considered a bourgeois drift by the surrealists and their communist friends. Miro will keep his creative autonomy intact.
1
Le Corps de ma Brune
2012 SOLD for £ 17M by Christie's
The literary and artistic expression must be free from conventions, but not indispensably spontaneous. The words of the poem escape without building a usual phrase. The language of the image, close to abstraction, invites for multiple interpretations.
If the poem deals with the female body, for example, the observer led on by the erotic force of the words will look for some marks, and find and lose. Those two spots of color : are they the breasts or are they the eyes ?
An abstract opus painted in 1925 is set with an automatic poem in a cursive script. The layout of the words is free, like in a poem by Apollinaire : "le corps de ma brune puisque je l'aime comme ma chatte habillée en vert salade comme de la grêle c'est pareil".
This oil on canvas 130 x 96 cm was sold for £ 17M from a lower estimate of £ 6M by Christie's on February 7, 2012.
This painting provides the key to the later style, so often hermetic but always dreamlike, of Miro. When the letters will disappear from the field, the title will provide the link between the image and its multiple interpretations.
If the poem deals with the female body, for example, the observer led on by the erotic force of the words will look for some marks, and find and lose. Those two spots of color : are they the breasts or are they the eyes ?
An abstract opus painted in 1925 is set with an automatic poem in a cursive script. The layout of the words is free, like in a poem by Apollinaire : "le corps de ma brune puisque je l'aime comme ma chatte habillée en vert salade comme de la grêle c'est pareil".
This oil on canvas 130 x 96 cm was sold for £ 17M from a lower estimate of £ 6M by Christie's on February 7, 2012.
This painting provides the key to the later style, so often hermetic but always dreamlike, of Miro. When the letters will disappear from the field, the title will provide the link between the image and its multiple interpretations.
2
Peinture
2021 SOLD for £ 10.2M by Christie's
Surrealism is the expression of the subconscious. In 1924 André Breton explains the new literary theories. Joan Miro has his studio on rue Blomet, next to André Masson's. A sort of cenacle of young poets is formed, including Aragon, Eluard, Desnos, Leiris, Queneau.
Miro knew how to stage colorful symbols in a landscape environment. The influence of his new friends leads him to dreamlike abstraction. The colors he distributes on his canvases are the mirror of his subconscious. In 1925 he reflects his great personal concern of that time, the search for a woman.
The public loves these warm colors interspersed with biomorphic details that are not identifiable. He would later say that he was more inspired by poets than by painters. His abstraction completely escapes the geometries of Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian. His art is Peinture, and he often uses this French title.
Peinture, oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm painted in 1925, was sold for £ 10.2M by Christie's on March 23, 2021, lot 106. The space is filled with undulating abstract lines of great thinness, prefiguring his crypto-figurations which will culminate in 1927 with the blue period and in 1940 with the Constellations series.
Le Corps de ma Brune, sold for £ 17M by Christie's on February 7, 2012, had been painted in the same year in similar colors.
Miro knew how to stage colorful symbols in a landscape environment. The influence of his new friends leads him to dreamlike abstraction. The colors he distributes on his canvases are the mirror of his subconscious. In 1925 he reflects his great personal concern of that time, the search for a woman.
The public loves these warm colors interspersed with biomorphic details that are not identifiable. He would later say that he was more inspired by poets than by painters. His abstraction completely escapes the geometries of Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian. His art is Peinture, and he often uses this French title.
Peinture, oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm painted in 1925, was sold for £ 10.2M by Christie's on March 23, 2021, lot 106. The space is filled with undulating abstract lines of great thinness, prefiguring his crypto-figurations which will culminate in 1927 with the blue period and in 1940 with the Constellations series.
Le Corps de ma Brune, sold for £ 17M by Christie's on February 7, 2012, had been painted in the same year in similar colors.
3
Peinture (femme, journal, chien)
2012 SOLD for $ 13.7M by Christie's
In his studio located Rue Blomet, Miro is a neighbor of the most original intellectuals of Paris. In 1925, these young people are not satisfied with any academicism and wish to integrate the absurd within their system of thought.
Surrealism is just born but pataphysics, that parody of metaphysics and of all serious systems, had been started in 1898 by Alfred Jarry with his calculation of the area of God.
Miro wants to push his work into a new semiotic and manages to attract the admiration of Breton. He is young and single, and when walking in the streets of Paris he seeks to decipher the mystery of the woman.
On November 7, 2012, Christie's sold for $ 13.7M an oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm titled Peinture (femme, journal, chien). At that time, the title is of considerable importance in the art of Miro. In the first reading of this work, the image and the word are matching.
It is a peinture, of course. The woman is a silhouette in bodice and skirt, the other elements are stylized including an absurd hat and the head replaced by a red heart that reflects the desires of the artist. She is walking the dog and waving the newspaper, a trapezoid whose text is limited to three letters, JOU, common start for JOUrnal (newspaper) and JOUeur (player).
The first owner of this painting was Raymond Queneau, who will be the most important pataphysician and a great shaker of the French language. Aged 22 in 1925, he was already frequenting the circle of the Surrealists. Finding a meaning to the mysterious JOU and to the symbolism of the heart-head certainly amazed him.
Surrealism is just born but pataphysics, that parody of metaphysics and of all serious systems, had been started in 1898 by Alfred Jarry with his calculation of the area of God.
Miro wants to push his work into a new semiotic and manages to attract the admiration of Breton. He is young and single, and when walking in the streets of Paris he seeks to decipher the mystery of the woman.
On November 7, 2012, Christie's sold for $ 13.7M an oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm titled Peinture (femme, journal, chien). At that time, the title is of considerable importance in the art of Miro. In the first reading of this work, the image and the word are matching.
It is a peinture, of course. The woman is a silhouette in bodice and skirt, the other elements are stylized including an absurd hat and the head replaced by a red heart that reflects the desires of the artist. She is walking the dog and waving the newspaper, a trapezoid whose text is limited to three letters, JOU, common start for JOUrnal (newspaper) and JOUeur (player).
The first owner of this painting was Raymond Queneau, who will be the most important pataphysician and a great shaker of the French language. Aged 22 in 1925, he was already frequenting the circle of the Surrealists. Finding a meaning to the mysterious JOU and to the symbolism of the heart-head certainly amazed him.
1925 Le Chasseur de chez Maxim's by Soutine
2012 SOLD for $ 9.4M by Sotheby's
In the last year of the war, Zborowski had moved from Paris to Cagnes-sur-Mer with Modigliani, Soutine and Foujita for keeping them safe. Far away from Zbo's clients, Modigliani made non-commercial portraits of children sitting front face on a chair with their personal, often shy, attitude. The beauty of the line and the balance of the composition make them masterpieces.
Soutine transfers that theme to boys in the typical occupationals of their age, cooks, grooms or valets. Their bored or unfriendly expression is fully different from the schoolboys of their age.
From the moment of the discovery of his art by Barnes, Soutine had some money in his pocket. He was able to take some meals at the fashionable Maxim's restaurant.
Le Chasseur de chez Maxim's (Maxim's Groom), oil on canvas 82 x 75 cm made circa 1925, was sold by Sotheby's for $ 6.7M on November 4, 2004, lot 24 and for $ 9.4M on May 2, 2012, lot 7. The groom boy is attired in a red cap and uniform over a non homogenous dark blue background.
Soutine transfers that theme to boys in the typical occupationals of their age, cooks, grooms or valets. Their bored or unfriendly expression is fully different from the schoolboys of their age.
From the moment of the discovery of his art by Barnes, Soutine had some money in his pocket. He was able to take some meals at the fashionable Maxim's restaurant.
Le Chasseur de chez Maxim's (Maxim's Groom), oil on canvas 82 x 75 cm made circa 1925, was sold by Sotheby's for $ 6.7M on November 4, 2004, lot 24 and for $ 9.4M on May 2, 2012, lot 7. The groom boy is attired in a red cap and uniform over a non homogenous dark blue background.
1925 Le Penseur by Rodin (posthumous)
2015 SOLD for £ 6.3M by Sotheby's
A colossal bronze of Rodin's Penseur had been exhibited in 1904 at the Saint-Louis World's Fair celebrating the centennial of the Louisiana purchase.
A visitor was dazzled forever. In December 1924 he commissioned to the Musée Rodin a copy of the moyen modèle which was cast in the same month by Alexis Rudier fondeur. This high quality example with a beautiful black and brown patina was sold for $ 8.2M by Christie's on May 15, 2018, lot 22A, from the family of its original owner.
Between 1922 and 1931 the Japan based art dealer Herman d'Oelsnitz organized a series of commercial exhibitions of works by Rodin, some of them directly acquired from Musée Rodin.
An undated Penseur moyen modèle inscribed with the foundry mark Alexis Rudier fondeur Paris was acquired by d'Oelsnitz in 1925 probably for the use of a younger brother of the emperor Hirohito. Its patina is a rich dark brown.
It was sold for £ 6.3M from a lower estimate of £ 3M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2015, lot 14.
A visitor was dazzled forever. In December 1924 he commissioned to the Musée Rodin a copy of the moyen modèle which was cast in the same month by Alexis Rudier fondeur. This high quality example with a beautiful black and brown patina was sold for $ 8.2M by Christie's on May 15, 2018, lot 22A, from the family of its original owner.
Between 1922 and 1931 the Japan based art dealer Herman d'Oelsnitz organized a series of commercial exhibitions of works by Rodin, some of them directly acquired from Musée Rodin.
An undated Penseur moyen modèle inscribed with the foundry mark Alexis Rudier fondeur Paris was acquired by d'Oelsnitz in 1925 probably for the use of a younger brother of the emperor Hirohito. Its patina is a rich dark brown.
It was sold for £ 6.3M from a lower estimate of £ 3M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2015, lot 14.
1925 Suprematism by Kliun
2019 SOLD for £ 4.9M by Sotheby's
Throughout Europe, the artistic and literary avant-gardes of the early twentieth century start from the observation of the rapid changes in society and in the living conditions. The past must be annihilated, no tolerance is accepted.
Ivan Kliun met Malevich in 1907. Around 1914, he painted Cubo-Futurist works, bringing bright colors to the analytical Cubist style of Braque and Picasso. He is one of the first Suprematist artists, participating in Petrograd in 1915 at the 0,10 exhibition where Malevich unveils his Black Square.
A painting is no longer a representation of nature but an autonomous object. Suprematists promote the simulation of movement through forms and colors, with a total deletion of perspective.
In 1921 Kliun reintroduces the light. His art remains non-objective but he uses in his new research the projection of spheres on the surface, revealing the reflections. Malevich states that this new approach is a step backwards. In 1932 the Soviet government put an end to Suprematism by banning abstract art.
Very few major works by Kliun have survived. On November 26, 2019, Sotheby's sold for £ 4.9M from a lower estimate of £ 2.5M an oil on board 102 x 70 cm, lot 51. The source of light is shown at the upper left corner. Typical of the Spherical Suprematism, it is probably one of the three examples of this variant of Suprematism that were exhibited in Moscow in 1925.
Ivan Kliun met Malevich in 1907. Around 1914, he painted Cubo-Futurist works, bringing bright colors to the analytical Cubist style of Braque and Picasso. He is one of the first Suprematist artists, participating in Petrograd in 1915 at the 0,10 exhibition where Malevich unveils his Black Square.
A painting is no longer a representation of nature but an autonomous object. Suprematists promote the simulation of movement through forms and colors, with a total deletion of perspective.
In 1921 Kliun reintroduces the light. His art remains non-objective but he uses in his new research the projection of spheres on the surface, revealing the reflections. Malevich states that this new approach is a step backwards. In 1932 the Soviet government put an end to Suprematism by banning abstract art.
Very few major works by Kliun have survived. On November 26, 2019, Sotheby's sold for £ 4.9M from a lower estimate of £ 2.5M an oil on board 102 x 70 cm, lot 51. The source of light is shown at the upper left corner. Typical of the Spherical Suprematism, it is probably one of the three examples of this variant of Suprematism that were exhibited in Moscow in 1925.
1924-1925 Le Violoniste by Chagall
2023 SOLD for $ 5.9M by Christie's
Marc Chagall had lost his art during the First World War. A stabilized life will enable him to restart from memory his favorite themes.
The street violinist is anchored in the ritual of his Jewish upbringing in Vitebsk. One theme features the old musician playing in the air surrounded by small houses. In a less oneiric theme, he is seating at rest on a bench in front of an izba with his instrument under the elbow and the unused bow in the other hand.
The 1920 version of the seated violinist features behind the scene a small scale view of the man leaving out of field like the wandering Jew, without the instrument.
Things go better in 1923 when he arrives in Paris. A few months later he is reunited with his wife Bella and his daughter Ida. His palette becomes more vibrant.
A new version of Le Violoniste sur le banc is painted in rich colors ca 1924-1925. The face of the old Jew is now detailed and colorful and he is now welcoming and happy. His small counterpart is leaving from the same place as in the 1920 picture.
This oil on canvas 72 x 57 cm was sold for $ 5.9M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 52A.
The street violinist is anchored in the ritual of his Jewish upbringing in Vitebsk. One theme features the old musician playing in the air surrounded by small houses. In a less oneiric theme, he is seating at rest on a bench in front of an izba with his instrument under the elbow and the unused bow in the other hand.
The 1920 version of the seated violinist features behind the scene a small scale view of the man leaving out of field like the wandering Jew, without the instrument.
Things go better in 1923 when he arrives in Paris. A few months later he is reunited with his wife Bella and his daughter Ida. His palette becomes more vibrant.
A new version of Le Violoniste sur le banc is painted in rich colors ca 1924-1925. The face of the old Jew is now detailed and colorful and he is now welcoming and happy. His small counterpart is leaving from the same place as in the 1920 picture.
This oil on canvas 72 x 57 cm was sold for $ 5.9M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 52A.
1925 Pink Tulip by O'Keeffe
2023 SOLD for $ 5.7M by Sotheby's
Born in a dairy farm in Wisconsin, Georgia O'Keeffe observes nature. When she became a pioneer of abstract art, she explained that she expresses her sensations or her imagination, without saying too much that the humble wild flowers contribute significantly to her inspiration.
Georgia seeks to reconcile with the most intimate forms of nature. She lives with Stieglitz from 1918. Since his childhood, Alfred spends summers in Lake George. Georgia discovers this beautiful site of the Adirondack mountains in upper New York state.
Georgia's approach to the details of nature is methodical and global. She prepares in parallel several supports, paper or canvas, on which she begins a realistic representation of her subject, in watercolor or oil, from the most varied angles. Seeking the purity of forms, she reworks them up to a level of abstraction that suits her.
In 1919 at Lake George, Georgia takes as a model a canna with a bright red flower and a purple leaf and executes six watercolors and eight oils on this theme. A very geometric composition with the triangular flower surmounted by the diagonal leaf, oil on canvas 42 x 26 cm, was sold for $ 960K by Christie's on December 4, 2003.
Inside Red Canna, oil on canvas 56 x 43 cm, painted in 1919, passed at Christie's on May 22, 2019, lot 12. Georgia went at the closest of her flower up to satisfying one of her deepest artistic obsessions : achieving a perfect symmetry. The bright red petals protecting the brown and pink intimate center of this plant bring a cozy, almost carnal, impression.
This work is one of those that fed from 1923 the debates on an assimilation of the flower to the artist's sexual anatomy. Both are wild, vigorous, sensual, authoritarian, independent.
This interpretation is not credible because the other opus of this series do not have such a characteristic. This fable was probably invented by Stieglitz to draw attention to his wife who was also the model of his photographs, mostly in the nude. Georgia denied, while painting other flowers that illustrated this fantasy of her husband.
Painted in 1925, Pink Tulip, also titled Abstraction and # 77 Tulip, is an example where the extreme enlargement of details of a flower is going into abstraction as a new form of objectivity. Vibrant pink, yellow and green dissolve together at the edges of their attributed sections. This oil on canvas in an unusual vertical size 81 x 30 cm was sold for $ 5.7M from a lower estimate of $ 3M by Sotheby's on November 8, 2023, lot 2.
Georgia seeks to reconcile with the most intimate forms of nature. She lives with Stieglitz from 1918. Since his childhood, Alfred spends summers in Lake George. Georgia discovers this beautiful site of the Adirondack mountains in upper New York state.
Georgia's approach to the details of nature is methodical and global. She prepares in parallel several supports, paper or canvas, on which she begins a realistic representation of her subject, in watercolor or oil, from the most varied angles. Seeking the purity of forms, she reworks them up to a level of abstraction that suits her.
In 1919 at Lake George, Georgia takes as a model a canna with a bright red flower and a purple leaf and executes six watercolors and eight oils on this theme. A very geometric composition with the triangular flower surmounted by the diagonal leaf, oil on canvas 42 x 26 cm, was sold for $ 960K by Christie's on December 4, 2003.
Inside Red Canna, oil on canvas 56 x 43 cm, painted in 1919, passed at Christie's on May 22, 2019, lot 12. Georgia went at the closest of her flower up to satisfying one of her deepest artistic obsessions : achieving a perfect symmetry. The bright red petals protecting the brown and pink intimate center of this plant bring a cozy, almost carnal, impression.
This work is one of those that fed from 1923 the debates on an assimilation of the flower to the artist's sexual anatomy. Both are wild, vigorous, sensual, authoritarian, independent.
This interpretation is not credible because the other opus of this series do not have such a characteristic. This fable was probably invented by Stieglitz to draw attention to his wife who was also the model of his photographs, mostly in the nude. Georgia denied, while painting other flowers that illustrated this fantasy of her husband.
Painted in 1925, Pink Tulip, also titled Abstraction and # 77 Tulip, is an example where the extreme enlargement of details of a flower is going into abstraction as a new form of objectivity. Vibrant pink, yellow and green dissolve together at the edges of their attributed sections. This oil on canvas in an unusual vertical size 81 x 30 cm was sold for $ 5.7M from a lower estimate of $ 3M by Sotheby's on November 8, 2023, lot 2.
