1925
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Top 10 China Modern China Mountains in China Qi Baishi Picasso 1907-1931 Miro Soutine Rodin Landscape Art Déco
See also : Top 10 China Modern China Mountains in China Qi Baishi 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 golden death mask of Tutankhamun (also known as King Tut) is arguably the most iconic artifact from ancient Egypt, a stunning funerary mask crafted around 1323 BCE during the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom. Made primarily of solid gold (about 11 kg or over 22 pounds), it covers the head and shoulders of the young pharaoh's mummified remains, depicting him as the god Osiris with divine attributes for protection in the afterlife.
The mask measures approximately 54 cm (21 inches) tall and features exquisite craftsmanship: hammered gold sheets joined together, inlaid with semi-precious stones and glass paste—including deep blue lapis lazuli for the striped nemes headdress, turquoise, carnelian, obsidian for the eyes, and quartz for the whites. The eyes are rimmed in bold blue, the eyebrows arched, and the serene face bears a subtle, youthful expression with full lips and high cheekbones. On the forehead sits the royal uraeus (rearing cobra) combined with the vulture goddess Nekhbet, symbolizing dominion over Upper and Lower Egypt. A long, plaited false beard (re-attached after a 2015 incident) extends downward, and the shoulders bear protective spells from Chapter 151b of the Book of the Dead in hieroglyphs.
The back reveals more hieroglyphic inscriptions and the elaborate headdress design.
As of February 2026, the mask is on public display at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) near the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo, where it forms the centerpiece of the Tutankhamun galleries alongside over 5,000 other objects from his tomb (KV62). The GEM fully opened in late 2025 after years of preparation, reuniting the collection in a state-of-the-art space.
The mask's discovery came on October 28, 1925, during the painstaking clearance of Tutankhamun's tomb by British archaeologist Howard Carter and his team, sponsored by Lord Carnarvon (who died in 1923). The tomb itself was famously found on November 4, 1922, when a staircase was uncovered beneath debris in the Valley of the Kings. After years of excavating layered shrines and nested coffins, the team reached the innermost solid-gold coffin. As Carter and assistants lifted its lid in the burial chamber, they revealed the wrapped mummy topped by the gleaming mask—untouched for over 3,300 years.
Carter described the moment with awe: the "golden effigy of the young king of magnificent workmanship" filled the interior, its tranquil face symbolizing eternal life. The scene was captured in photographs, including Carter examining the unwrapped mummy.
In art history and popular culture, the mask symbolizes ancient Egyptian mastery of metallurgy, symbolism, and idealized portraiture. It has sparked endless fascination, from "Tut-mania" in the 1920s to modern debates: some scholars argue (based on pierced ears, gold composition differences, and cartouche alterations) that it was originally made for a female ruler—possibly Nefertiti or another—and repurposed for Tutankhamun after his unexpected death at around 19. Regardless, its timeless beauty and technical perfection make it one of the greatest treasures of antiquity, embodying the pharaoh's journey to immortality.
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 golden death mask of Tutankhamun (also known as King Tut) is arguably the most iconic artifact from ancient Egypt, a stunning funerary mask crafted around 1323 BCE during the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom. Made primarily of solid gold (about 11 kg or over 22 pounds), it covers the head and shoulders of the young pharaoh's mummified remains, depicting him as the god Osiris with divine attributes for protection in the afterlife.
The mask measures approximately 54 cm (21 inches) tall and features exquisite craftsmanship: hammered gold sheets joined together, inlaid with semi-precious stones and glass paste—including deep blue lapis lazuli for the striped nemes headdress, turquoise, carnelian, obsidian for the eyes, and quartz for the whites. The eyes are rimmed in bold blue, the eyebrows arched, and the serene face bears a subtle, youthful expression with full lips and high cheekbones. On the forehead sits the royal uraeus (rearing cobra) combined with the vulture goddess Nekhbet, symbolizing dominion over Upper and Lower Egypt. A long, plaited false beard (re-attached after a 2015 incident) extends downward, and the shoulders bear protective spells from Chapter 151b of the Book of the Dead in hieroglyphs.
The back reveals more hieroglyphic inscriptions and the elaborate headdress design.
As of February 2026, the mask is on public display at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) near the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo, where it forms the centerpiece of the Tutankhamun galleries alongside over 5,000 other objects from his tomb (KV62). The GEM fully opened in late 2025 after years of preparation, reuniting the collection in a state-of-the-art space.
The mask's discovery came on October 28, 1925, during the painstaking clearance of Tutankhamun's tomb by British archaeologist Howard Carter and his team, sponsored by Lord Carnarvon (who died in 1923). The tomb itself was famously found on November 4, 1922, when a staircase was uncovered beneath debris in the Valley of the Kings. After years of excavating layered shrines and nested coffins, the team reached the innermost solid-gold coffin. As Carter and assistants lifted its lid in the burial chamber, they revealed the wrapped mummy topped by the gleaming mask—untouched for over 3,300 years.
Carter described the moment with awe: the "golden effigy of the young king of magnificent workmanship" filled the interior, its tranquil face symbolizing eternal life. The scene was captured in photographs, including Carter examining the unwrapped mummy.
In art history and popular culture, the mask symbolizes ancient Egyptian mastery of metallurgy, symbolism, and idealized portraiture. It has sparked endless fascination, from "Tut-mania" in the 1920s to modern debates: some scholars argue (based on pierced ears, gold composition differences, and cartouche alterations) that it was originally made for a female ruler—possibly Nefertiti or another—and repurposed for Tutankhamun after his unexpected death at around 19. Regardless, its timeless beauty and technical perfection make it one of the greatest treasures of antiquity, embodying the pharaoh's journey to immortality.
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.
The Twelve Landscape Screens (also known as Shan Shui Shi Er Tiao Ping or Twelve Landscapes) by Qi Baishi (齐白石, 1864–1957) is a monumental 12-panel ink-brush work created in 1925. It was sold at Beijing Poly Auction on December 17, 2017, as lot 2806 in the "Zhen Gu Shuo Jin" (震古烁今) special session for Chinese calligraphy and painting. The piece achieved a hammer price of RMB 810 million, resulting in a total成交价 (including buyer's premium) of RMB 931.5 million (approximately US$140–144 million at the time). This set a world record as the most expensive Chinese artwork ever sold at auction and the highest price for any Asian artwork at that point, surpassing previous benchmarks and marking the first Chinese work to break the $100 million threshold.
The screens depict a series of panoramic Chinese landscapes in ink and color, featuring mountains, villages, trees in bloom, rivers, and natural elements rendered in blues, grays, browns, and pinks. Each panel measures around 180 cm in height, forming a cohesive yet modular set typical of traditional Chinese screen formats.
Significance in Qi Baishi's Career
This work holds exceptional importance in Qi Baishi's oeuvre. Qi is celebrated for transforming traditional Chinese painting by blending folk art influences, bold experimentation, and a shift from his earlier meticulous style to freer, more expressive brushwork—often summarized in his philosophy that paintings should lie "between likeness and unlikeness" (似与不似之间). While Qi is most famous for his everyday subjects like shrimp, crabs, insects, flowers, birds, and fruits (which brought him widespread popularity and commercial success), his landscape paintings represent a rarer, more ambitious facet of his output.
The Twelve Landscape Screens stands out as one of his grandest and most accomplished landscape series. Created in 1925—during a mature phase after his major "Beijing period" relocation in 1919 at age 55—it exemplifies his ability to innovate within classical shan shui (mountains and water) traditions. Unlike his more prolific small-scale or album-format works, this large-scale screen set demonstrates mastery of composition, spatial depth, atmospheric effects, and poetic evocation of nature. It reflects his lifelong pursuit of renewal in ink painting, moving away from rigid orthodoxies toward a personal, vital style that infused traditional forms with fresh energy and rural authenticity.
This piece is frequently cited as a pinnacle achievement, especially in large-format or screen-format landscapes, and it helped solidify his status as a bridge between tradition and modernity in 20th-century Chinese art.
Inspiration
Qi Baishi drew inspiration from his humble rural origins in Hunan province, where he began as a carpenter and self-taught artist. His landscapes often evoke the natural scenery of his homeland—simple villages, misty mountains, and seasonal changes—filtered through personal experience rather than idealized classical models. By the 1920s, after travels, exposure to diverse influences (including some Western ideas via reformist circles), and settling in Beijing, he sought to revitalize Chinese painting. He emphasized direct observation, bold ink washes, and a sense of vitality over strict realism. The 1925 date places this work in a period when Qi was refining his "great freehand" (da xieyi) approach, applying it ambitiously to landscapes after success in flowers-and-insects genres.
Breakthrough
The series represented a breakthrough in scale and ambition for Qi's landscape work. While he produced notable earlier landscape albums (e.g., Borrowed Mountain Illustrations from around 1910 onward, emphasizing real-scene sketching and sparse, innovative compositions), the Twelve Screens elevated this to an epic, gallery-filling format. It showcased his confidence in handling vast compositions with rhythmic flow across panels, balancing detail and abstraction. Critically, it demonstrated that Qi—often pigeonholed as a "folk" or "popular" painter—could excel in the prestigious landscape genre long dominated by literati masters. This helped elevate his reputation among connoisseurs and institutions beyond his commercial appeal.
Legacy
The 2017 auction not only cemented Qi Baishi's market dominance (he remains one of the most auctioned and highly valued Chinese artists) but also highlighted global recognition of modern Chinese ink painting. The record price underscored the rising international appetite for 20th-century Chinese masters and Qi's enduring appeal as "China's Picasso"—a self-made genius who modernized tradition while staying rooted in cultural essence. The work's legacy extends to exhibitions, scholarship, and collections, where it exemplifies Qi's contribution to revitalizing ink art in the modern era. It continues to inspire discussions on tradition vs. innovation, rural sentiment in art, and the fusion of accessibility with profundity in Chinese painting. Today, Qi's landscapes (including this series) are praised for their emotional depth and timeless vitality, influencing contemporary artists and reaffirming his place as one of China's greatest 20th-century painters.
The screens depict a series of panoramic Chinese landscapes in ink and color, featuring mountains, villages, trees in bloom, rivers, and natural elements rendered in blues, grays, browns, and pinks. Each panel measures around 180 cm in height, forming a cohesive yet modular set typical of traditional Chinese screen formats.
Significance in Qi Baishi's Career
This work holds exceptional importance in Qi Baishi's oeuvre. Qi is celebrated for transforming traditional Chinese painting by blending folk art influences, bold experimentation, and a shift from his earlier meticulous style to freer, more expressive brushwork—often summarized in his philosophy that paintings should lie "between likeness and unlikeness" (似与不似之间). While Qi is most famous for his everyday subjects like shrimp, crabs, insects, flowers, birds, and fruits (which brought him widespread popularity and commercial success), his landscape paintings represent a rarer, more ambitious facet of his output.
The Twelve Landscape Screens stands out as one of his grandest and most accomplished landscape series. Created in 1925—during a mature phase after his major "Beijing period" relocation in 1919 at age 55—it exemplifies his ability to innovate within classical shan shui (mountains and water) traditions. Unlike his more prolific small-scale or album-format works, this large-scale screen set demonstrates mastery of composition, spatial depth, atmospheric effects, and poetic evocation of nature. It reflects his lifelong pursuit of renewal in ink painting, moving away from rigid orthodoxies toward a personal, vital style that infused traditional forms with fresh energy and rural authenticity.
This piece is frequently cited as a pinnacle achievement, especially in large-format or screen-format landscapes, and it helped solidify his status as a bridge between tradition and modernity in 20th-century Chinese art.
Inspiration
Qi Baishi drew inspiration from his humble rural origins in Hunan province, where he began as a carpenter and self-taught artist. His landscapes often evoke the natural scenery of his homeland—simple villages, misty mountains, and seasonal changes—filtered through personal experience rather than idealized classical models. By the 1920s, after travels, exposure to diverse influences (including some Western ideas via reformist circles), and settling in Beijing, he sought to revitalize Chinese painting. He emphasized direct observation, bold ink washes, and a sense of vitality over strict realism. The 1925 date places this work in a period when Qi was refining his "great freehand" (da xieyi) approach, applying it ambitiously to landscapes after success in flowers-and-insects genres.
Breakthrough
The series represented a breakthrough in scale and ambition for Qi's landscape work. While he produced notable earlier landscape albums (e.g., Borrowed Mountain Illustrations from around 1910 onward, emphasizing real-scene sketching and sparse, innovative compositions), the Twelve Screens elevated this to an epic, gallery-filling format. It showcased his confidence in handling vast compositions with rhythmic flow across panels, balancing detail and abstraction. Critically, it demonstrated that Qi—often pigeonholed as a "folk" or "popular" painter—could excel in the prestigious landscape genre long dominated by literati masters. This helped elevate his reputation among connoisseurs and institutions beyond his commercial appeal.
Legacy
The 2017 auction not only cemented Qi Baishi's market dominance (he remains one of the most auctioned and highly valued Chinese artists) but also highlighted global recognition of modern Chinese ink painting. The record price underscored the rising international appetite for 20th-century Chinese masters and Qi's enduring appeal as "China's Picasso"—a self-made genius who modernized tradition while staying rooted in cultural essence. The work's legacy extends to exhibitions, scholarship, and collections, where it exemplifies Qi's contribution to revitalizing ink art in the modern era. It continues to inspire discussions on tradition vs. innovation, rural sentiment in art, and the fusion of accessibility with profundity in Chinese painting. Today, Qi's landscapes (including this series) are praised for their emotional depth and timeless vitality, influencing contemporary artists and reaffirming his place as one of China's greatest 20th-century painters.
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.
René Magritte and Joan Miró, both pivotal figures in Surrealism, explored the tensions between words and images in strikingly different ways, reflecting their distinct approaches to the movement. Magritte's treatment is conceptual, analytical, and often confrontational, using text to expose the arbitrary and deceptive nature of representation. Miró's is more poetic, intuitive, and integrative, treating words as elements within a lyrical, symbolic visual language.
Magritte's Word-Image Tensions
Magritte's work systematically interrogates semiotics—the study of signs—challenging the assumed equivalence between objects, images, and words. His most famous example is The Treachery of Images (1929), featuring a realistic pipe captioned "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" ("This is not a pipe"). The painting denies its own mimetic power: the image is not the object, nor is the word the image or object. This creates deliberate paradox and betrayal ("treachery") of conventional signification.
Miró's Word-Image Tensions
Miró incorporated text more fluidly and playfully, often as part of his invented pictorial language during his "peinture-poésie" (painting-poetry) phase (1924–1927). Words function as poetic or symbolic elements within abstract, biomorphic compositions rather than tools of critique.
A prime example is Photo: This Is the Color of My Dreams (1925), where the phrase "ceci est la couleur de mes rêves" ("this is the color of my dreams") appears alongside a blue patch and surreal forms—blending text with color and shape to evoke dreamlike lyricism. In other works like his Constellations series or poem-paintings, inscriptions, letters, or fragments integrate into swirling, automatic compositions inspired by psychic automatism (Breton's emphasis on the unconscious).
Miró's tension is subtler: words are not used to contradict or expose deception but to complement and expand the visual poetry. He aimed to create a new symbolic language—biomorphic shapes, stars, eyes, and glyphs—where text adds rhythm or emotional resonance, like notes in music or words in verse. As Miró said, he applied "colours like words that shape poems." His approach is intuitive and automatist, drawing from literary influences (e.g., collaborating on illustrated poems), resulting in harmonious yet enigmatic fusions rather than stark oppositions.
Key Comparisons
Magritte's Word-Image Tensions
Magritte's work systematically interrogates semiotics—the study of signs—challenging the assumed equivalence between objects, images, and words. His most famous example is The Treachery of Images (1929), featuring a realistic pipe captioned "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" ("This is not a pipe"). The painting denies its own mimetic power: the image is not the object, nor is the word the image or object. This creates deliberate paradox and betrayal ("treachery") of conventional signification.
Miró's Word-Image Tensions
Miró incorporated text more fluidly and playfully, often as part of his invented pictorial language during his "peinture-poésie" (painting-poetry) phase (1924–1927). Words function as poetic or symbolic elements within abstract, biomorphic compositions rather than tools of critique.
A prime example is Photo: This Is the Color of My Dreams (1925), where the phrase "ceci est la couleur de mes rêves" ("this is the color of my dreams") appears alongside a blue patch and surreal forms—blending text with color and shape to evoke dreamlike lyricism. In other works like his Constellations series or poem-paintings, inscriptions, letters, or fragments integrate into swirling, automatic compositions inspired by psychic automatism (Breton's emphasis on the unconscious).
Miró's tension is subtler: words are not used to contradict or expose deception but to complement and expand the visual poetry. He aimed to create a new symbolic language—biomorphic shapes, stars, eyes, and glyphs—where text adds rhythm or emotional resonance, like notes in music or words in verse. As Miró said, he applied "colours like words that shape poems." His approach is intuitive and automatist, drawing from literary influences (e.g., collaborating on illustrated poems), resulting in harmonious yet enigmatic fusions rather than stark oppositions.
Key Comparisons
- Purpose: Magritte uses word-image tensions to deconstruct and reveal illusions (e.g., the sign is arbitrary; images betray reality). Miró uses them to construct a personal, poetic universe (e.g., text enhances the dreamlike flow).
- Style and Technique: Magritte's is veristic and deadpan—clear, recognizable objects with inserted text for maximum paradox. Miró's is abstract and gestural—biomorphic forms, automatic drawing, with words as organic parts of the composition.
- Philosophical Tone: Magritte's is skeptical and analytical (echoing semiotics; later influencing Foucault's This Is Not a Pipe). Miró's is celebratory and lyrical (closer to automatism and visual metaphor).
- Shared Surrealist Context: Both drew from Surrealism's interest in the unconscious and language's limits, but Magritte (via Belgian rationalism) leaned conceptual, while Miró (early influence on the movement) leaned toward creating new visual "poetry."
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.
Grok thought :
Quote
Marie Ruiz-Vidal @RuizVidal7 Sep 2
Joan Miró Peinture-Poème, Le corps de ma brune, 1925
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.
Grok thought :
Quote
Marie Ruiz-Vidal @RuizVidal7 Sep 2
Joan Miró Peinture-Poème, Le corps de ma brune, 1925
- The post shares Joan Miró's 1925 "Peinture-Poème: Le corps de ma brune," a Surrealist hybrid of abstract ink, watercolor, and handwritten French folk song lyrics evoking erotic whimsy on a mottled brown ground.
- The poem's text—"le corps de ma brune puisque je l'aime comme ma chatte habillée en vert salade comme de la grêle c'est pareil"—translates to "the body of my brunette since I love her like my cat dressed in green salad like hail it's the same," merging bodily desire with absurd humor.
- As part of Miró's early 1920s experiments in automatic creation, the work reflects Surrealist principles of subconscious expression, fitting poster Marie Ruiz-Vidal's curation of minimalist, poetic art alongside filmic tributes.
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.
Special Report
Miro in the Surrealist Exhibition
In 1925, Joan Miró played a central role in the public launch of Surrealist visual art in Paris through two key exhibitions at Galerie Pierre.
Miró's Solo Exhibition at Galerie Pierre (June 12–27, 1925)
This show, arranged with dealer Jacques Viot (and gallery director Pierre Loeb), marked a pivotal moment. It featured Miró's evolving "dream paintings" or peinture-poésie from his early Surrealist phase (1924–1927). These works used sparse grounds, schematic signs, biomorphic forms, automatic drawing, and poetic/symbolic elements drawn from the unconscious, Catalan folklore, hunger-induced hallucinations, and everyday life.
Key works likely or known to be associated with this period and context include:
The First Group Surrealist Exhibition: La Peinture Surréaliste (November 14–25, 1925)
This was the inaugural collective show of Surrealist painting at the same gallery. It opened at midnight on the 13th/14th and confirmed Surrealism's visual dimension (initially more literary under Breton).
Participants included Miró alongside André Masson, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Paul Klee, Jean Arp, Pablo Picasso, Pierre Roy, and others. Miró contributed works from his dream series, reinforcing his status. Breton and the group embraced visual automatism, dream imagery, and the irrational—Miró's spontaneous signs and hybrid forms fit perfectly.
Reception and Context
Miró's Solo Exhibition at Galerie Pierre (June 12–27, 1925)
This show, arranged with dealer Jacques Viot (and gallery director Pierre Loeb), marked a pivotal moment. It featured Miró's evolving "dream paintings" or peinture-poésie from his early Surrealist phase (1924–1927). These works used sparse grounds, schematic signs, biomorphic forms, automatic drawing, and poetic/symbolic elements drawn from the unconscious, Catalan folklore, hunger-induced hallucinations, and everyday life.
Key works likely or known to be associated with this period and context include:
- Harlequin's Carnival (1924–25): A crowded, whimsical scene of fantastical creatures, musicians, ladders (escape), and symbols like a black circle (Earth) or Eiffel Tower triangle—often seen as a subconscious carnival and one of his masterpieces.
- Emerging "dream" pieces with flat color fields, floating forms, text, and minimal marks (e.g., precursors to The Birth of the World, completed later in 1925, with poured/ brushed paint evoking genesis and amorphous life).
The First Group Surrealist Exhibition: La Peinture Surréaliste (November 14–25, 1925)
This was the inaugural collective show of Surrealist painting at the same gallery. It opened at midnight on the 13th/14th and confirmed Surrealism's visual dimension (initially more literary under Breton).
Participants included Miró alongside André Masson, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Paul Klee, Jean Arp, Pablo Picasso, Pierre Roy, and others. Miró contributed works from his dream series, reinforcing his status. Breton and the group embraced visual automatism, dream imagery, and the irrational—Miró's spontaneous signs and hybrid forms fit perfectly.
Reception and Context
- Among Surrealists and avant-garde: Highly positive and defining. Breton bought Miró's work earlier in 1925, and the shows solidified Miró as a core figure (even if not strictly "official"). It bridged his studio experiments with Masson/Ernst to the broader movement.
- Broader public/critics: Mixed—praised for innovation and poetry by supporters, but seen as bizarre, childish, or incomprehensible by others (echoing earlier reactions to his work). It helped establish Surrealism as a visual force beyond literature.
- Historical significance: These events followed Breton's 1924 Manifesto and helped legitimize Surrealist painting. Miró's involvement marked his full immersion in Paris's avant-garde scene, leading to more peinture-poésie experiments (e.g., text + image like This Is the Color of My Dreams).
1925 Rote Tiefe by Kandinsky
2026 for sale on May 19 by Sotheby's
Wassily Kandinsky taught at the Bauhaus from 1922 until the school closed under Nazi pressure in 1933. He joined in Weimar (initially heading the mural painting workshop and teaching form and color theory), moved with the school to Dessau in 1925, and continued until the end. This period marked a shift in his work toward greater geometric structure, influenced by Constructivism and Suprematism from his Russian years, combined with ongoing explorations of color psychology, form dynamics, and "inner necessity." He developed these ideas in teaching and in his 1926 treatise Point and Line to Plane. Both paintings in question belong firmly to this Bauhaus era, reflecting his focus on abstract elements—points, lines, planes, and their interactions with color to evoke emotional and spatial effects.
Rote Tiefe (Red Depth), 1925
Comparison with Tiefes Braun (Deep Brown), 1924
Both works date to the heart of Kandinsky's Bauhaus teaching period (1924–1925), when he lectured on color and form while producing chamber-scale abstractions that synthesized Russian avant-garde geometry with his earlier lyrical tendencies. They exemplify his shift from freer, more expressive pre-war and immediate post-Russian Revolution styles toward structured yet vibrant non-objective compositions.
Rote Tiefe (Red Depth), 1925
- Medium and size: Oil on canvas, 39 by 32 in. (100 by 81.3 cm).
- Auction context: Offered by Sotheby's in the Modern Evening Auction (May 19, 2026, lot 12), from the collection of Adele & Enrico Donati, with an estimate of $12,000,000–18,000,000 USD.
- Period and style: Created in 1925, during Kandinsky's Weimar/Dessau Bauhaus years. This places it amid his intensified engagement with geometric abstraction and color theory at the school.
Comparison with Tiefes Braun (Deep Brown), 1924
Both works date to the heart of Kandinsky's Bauhaus teaching period (1924–1925), when he lectured on color and form while producing chamber-scale abstractions that synthesized Russian avant-garde geometry with his earlier lyrical tendencies. They exemplify his shift from freer, more expressive pre-war and immediate post-Russian Revolution styles toward structured yet vibrant non-objective compositions.
- Similarities:
- Abstract language: Both prioritize non-representational elements—geometric and organic forms, lines, and planes—to generate inner resonance and dynamism, per Kandinsky's theories.
- Color as emotional/spatial force: They use rich, modulated palettes (red-dominant in Rote Tiefe; brown with red/yellow accents in Tiefes Braun) to explore contrasts, transparency, saturation, and depth. Kandinsky viewed color as a "keyboard" vibrating on the soul; these paintings test interrelationships between hue, form, and space.
- Bauhaus context: Created while teaching, they reflect influences from the school's environment (including interactions with peers like Paul Klee) and Constructivist aesthetics, with emphasis on precision, diagonals for energy, and balanced complexity. Both fit his "Compositions" category of deliberate, structured abstractions.
- Scale and intimacy: Relatively intimate easel paintings (around 80–100 cm in one dimension) that feel exploratory rather than monumental.
- Differences:
- Dominant hue and mood: Rote Tiefe foregrounds red (often linked by Kandinsky to intensity, advance, or warmth), potentially creating a more fiery or advancing "depth." Tiefes Braun anchors in deep brown (earthy, modulating into reds and softer tones), described as an "ambitious exercise in pictorial contrasts" with a grounded yet dynamic feel—more chromatic subtlety and possible landscape echoes.
- Form emphasis: Tiefes Braun explicitly features strong diagonals, piercing angular forms on one side (with transparency effects), and balanced organic curves, building complex networks of tension. Rote Tiefe (with less detailed public description available) likely leans into red-driven spatial recession, but without the same noted zig-zag or cloud-like hints.
- Date nuance: 1924 (Tiefes Braun) is slightly earlier, during initial Weimar integration of Constructivist ideas; 1925 (Rote Tiefe) coincides with the school's move to Dessau and Kandinsky's growing "free painting" classes.
- Provenance and market: Tiefes Braun has deeper institutional history (Guggenheim) and extensive exhibition/literature trail. Rote Tiefe appears in a high-estimate private-collection sale, highlighting market interest in strong-color Bauhaus Kandinskys.
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
Rodin authorized bronze editions during his lifetime and, via his will/bequest to the French state (Musée Rodin), permitted posthumous casts to support the museum and his legacy. The Alexis Rudier foundry (and later Georges Rudier) produced authorized casts. Roughly 40 high-quality authentic bronzes of this medium size exist across lifetime and early posthumous editions (lifetime ~17; early posthumous ~17 by Alexis Rudier 1919–1945; later ones by Georges Rudier). Many are in museums; only about 10 remain in private hands. Comité Rodin/Galerie Brame & Lorenceau authenticates them for the forthcoming catalogue critique.
Posthumous casts (post-1917) are highly regarded if early, well-patinated, and with strong provenance from the Musée Rodin. Quality, patina, foundry marks (e.g., Alexis Rudier), and inscriptions matter greatly. Market demand remains strong for prime examples due to the sculpture’s universal symbolism of contemplation and genius.
Overall context: Rodin multiples are a mature, transparent market. Prices for top Thinker casts have held or grown over decades despite economic cycles, driven by icon status and limited private supply. Authenticity (Comité Rodin), condition/patina, and provenance are key value drivers. Smaller or later casts trade at lower levels.
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.
Posthumous casts (post-1917) are highly regarded if early, well-patinated, and with strong provenance from the Musée Rodin. Quality, patina, foundry marks (e.g., Alexis Rudier), and inscriptions matter greatly. Market demand remains strong for prime examples due to the sculpture’s universal symbolism of contemplation and genius.
Overall context: Rodin multiples are a mature, transparent market. Prices for top Thinker casts have held or grown over decades despite economic cycles, driven by icon status and limited private supply. Authenticity (Comité Rodin), condition/patina, and provenance are key value drivers. Smaller or later casts trade at lower levels.
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.
