1928
See also : US painting < 1940 Eastern Europe Chagall Lempicka Early Magritte Man and woman Self portrait II Cars 1920s Mercedes-Benz
1928 Wonderful Love
2017 SOLD for $ 28.5M including premium
Marc and Bella are charming in their total empathy for one another. On November 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells Les Amoureux, oil on canvas 117 x 90 cm painted in 1928 by Chagall, lot 8 estimated $ 12M.
The theme of lovers portraying his own couple is recurrent in the art of Chagall but this work is especially touching by the attitudes, the realism of the very recognizable faces and some discretion of the surrealist attributes.
In their beatitude the lovers are floating. The young man with closed eyes is resting his head between the cheek and the shoulder of the woman. She gently welcomes this enthusiastic impulse but her eyes wide open indicate the lucidity with which she guides in real life this innocent husband.
Paris is their nest. In that same year Marc painted Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel where their dear little Ida is disguised as a floating angel to present the bouquet. This oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm was sold for £ 7M including premium by Christie's on February 2, 2016.
Let's go back to our Amoureux. Marc does not miss to express his gratitude to his host country. The tricolor dress of Bella ends with a blue in which is transposed the sky centered by a dazzling sun. In this sky a tiny bird comes to offer its auspices to the embraced couple. Leaves and flowers bring their frame to this ethereal scene.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's in which the love of Marc and Bella is commented by one of their granddaughters.
The theme of lovers portraying his own couple is recurrent in the art of Chagall but this work is especially touching by the attitudes, the realism of the very recognizable faces and some discretion of the surrealist attributes.
In their beatitude the lovers are floating. The young man with closed eyes is resting his head between the cheek and the shoulder of the woman. She gently welcomes this enthusiastic impulse but her eyes wide open indicate the lucidity with which she guides in real life this innocent husband.
Paris is their nest. In that same year Marc painted Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel where their dear little Ida is disguised as a floating angel to present the bouquet. This oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm was sold for £ 7M including premium by Christie's on February 2, 2016.
Let's go back to our Amoureux. Marc does not miss to express his gratitude to his host country. The tricolor dress of Bella ends with a blue in which is transposed the sky centered by a dazzling sun. In this sky a tiny bird comes to offer its auspices to the embraced couple. Leaves and flowers bring their frame to this ethereal scene.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's in which the love of Marc and Bella is commented by one of their granddaughters.
1928 View of New York by Edward Hopper
2013 SOLD 19 M$ including premium
Hopper does not want to be blinded by the foils of America, but he loves his country and New York. In reaction against his time, he developed a passion for anonymous houses in front of which he goes his way by road, rail or river. He does not know whether they are used or abandoned, but their menace of ruins are the symbol of the past that he does not wish to leave.
On May 23 in New York, Christie's sells Blackwell's Island, an oil on canvas painted in 1928, 88 x 151 cm, estimated $ 15M. It is a very good example showing the independence of Hopper against any art trend.
Blackwell's is part of Manhattan, but this district without skyscrapers chosen by Hopper to symbolize New York was known for its prison and penitentiary hospital. Always in search of the past, the artist pretends to ignore that its name was Welfare Island since 1921 (to become Roosevelt Island later).
On East River shore, buildings align with factory chimneys. A small motor boat, single direct example of a human activity, is almost out of field going to a future that does not concern us.
This is a very geometric composition with sharp colors. The sky is crossed by radiant tracks. All front sides of the buildings shine under the sun excepted one of them. The river is too blue, voluntarily, to capture all the attention. This landscape is not classical and is the opposite of impressionism. It is not far from surrealism. It is a Hopper.
SELECTED TWEET
Sunlight on the side of Hopper's houses is as artificial as stage lighting & sets the scene for the drama called American Loneliness.
— Lee Mamunes (@HopperAtoZ) May 18, 2013
POST SALE COMMENT
Hopper is always fascinating, and this painting is outstanding. It was sold $ 19M including premium.
On May 23 in New York, Christie's sells Blackwell's Island, an oil on canvas painted in 1928, 88 x 151 cm, estimated $ 15M. It is a very good example showing the independence of Hopper against any art trend.
Blackwell's is part of Manhattan, but this district without skyscrapers chosen by Hopper to symbolize New York was known for its prison and penitentiary hospital. Always in search of the past, the artist pretends to ignore that its name was Welfare Island since 1921 (to become Roosevelt Island later).
On East River shore, buildings align with factory chimneys. A small motor boat, single direct example of a human activity, is almost out of field going to a future that does not concern us.
This is a very geometric composition with sharp colors. The sky is crossed by radiant tracks. All front sides of the buildings shine under the sun excepted one of them. The river is too blue, voluntarily, to capture all the attention. This landscape is not classical and is the opposite of impressionism. It is not far from surrealism. It is a Hopper.
SELECTED TWEET
Sunlight on the side of Hopper's houses is as artificial as stage lighting & sets the scene for the drama called American Loneliness.
— Lee Mamunes (@HopperAtoZ) May 18, 2013
POST SALE COMMENT
Hopper is always fascinating, and this painting is outstanding. It was sold $ 19M including premium.
1928 Odalisques jouant aux Dames by Matisse
2010 SOLD for £ 11.8M by Sotheby's
Henri Matisse is throughout his career a lover of color. When he settles in Nice after the First World War, his themes change. He now considers Orientalist scenes as a pretext for the most colorful arrangements.
Odalisques jouant aux dames, painted in 1928, features two women in a lush interior that could be a room in a harem. One of them is reclining in the nude on a sofa, with a small cloth over the hips. The other woman is seated barefoot on the floor, in a vibrant garment inspired from the collection of Moroccan textiles of the artist. The background is richly decorated with ornate patterns from models that were probably installed in the studio for the purpose of that painting.
An empty checkerboard is placed on the floor in front of them. The women do not look at it and no play is running. This board provides a contrast by its square black and white geometry against the roundnesses of its vivid surrounding. The title proposed for this work may have a double meaning of playing checkers and behaving like Ladies.
This oil on canvas 50 x 65 cm was sold for £ 11.8M fby Sotheby's on June 22, 2010, lot 14.
Odalisques jouant aux dames, painted in 1928, features two women in a lush interior that could be a room in a harem. One of them is reclining in the nude on a sofa, with a small cloth over the hips. The other woman is seated barefoot on the floor, in a vibrant garment inspired from the collection of Moroccan textiles of the artist. The background is richly decorated with ornate patterns from models that were probably installed in the studio for the purpose of that painting.
An empty checkerboard is placed on the floor in front of them. The women do not look at it and no play is running. This board provides a contrast by its square black and white geometry against the roundnesses of its vivid surrounding. The title proposed for this work may have a double meaning of playing checkers and behaving like Ladies.
This oil on canvas 50 x 65 cm was sold for £ 11.8M fby Sotheby's on June 22, 2010, lot 14.
1928 Romana de la Salle by Lempicka
2022 SOLD for $ 14M by Sotheby's
In the roaring twenties (in French the années folles), Tamara de Lempicka is the illustrator of dandies and of what was called the new woman.
While cultivating her own glamour, the artist appreciated the grand life that daring women managed to live in full visibility and exuberance. Her portrait of the Duchesse de la Salle dressed for horse riding in a masculine fashion with an open collar, oil on canvas 162 x 97 cm painted in 1925, is typical. It was sold for $ 4.45M by Sotheby's on May 5, 2009, lot 26.
That 38 year old Greek born androgynous Lady was not a fancy aristocrat but a former duchess, having divorced in 1911 from the duc de la Salle de Rochemaure. Her full length portrait is both inspired from 16th or 17th Mannerism in her attitude and staging and of Cubism in the stylized nocturnal cityscape.
In 1928 Lempicka painted the portrait of the Duchesse's daughter Romana de la Salle de Rochemaure, a sculptural 22 year old woman. This oil on canvas 116 x 73 cm was sold for $ 14M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 115. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Its style is inspired by Renaisssance and Mannerism in the follow of the portrait of her mother. The bright lipstick is in the style of the period Hollywood stars. The dark gaze and severe mouth are commanding. The flying drape of her dress appeals for a new female freedom.
While cultivating her own glamour, the artist appreciated the grand life that daring women managed to live in full visibility and exuberance. Her portrait of the Duchesse de la Salle dressed for horse riding in a masculine fashion with an open collar, oil on canvas 162 x 97 cm painted in 1925, is typical. It was sold for $ 4.45M by Sotheby's on May 5, 2009, lot 26.
That 38 year old Greek born androgynous Lady was not a fancy aristocrat but a former duchess, having divorced in 1911 from the duc de la Salle de Rochemaure. Her full length portrait is both inspired from 16th or 17th Mannerism in her attitude and staging and of Cubism in the stylized nocturnal cityscape.
In 1928 Lempicka painted the portrait of the Duchesse's daughter Romana de la Salle de Rochemaure, a sculptural 22 year old woman. This oil on canvas 116 x 73 cm was sold for $ 14M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 115. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Its style is inspired by Renaisssance and Mannerism in the follow of the portrait of her mother. The bright lipstick is in the style of the period Hollywood stars. The dark gaze and severe mouth are commanding. The flying drape of her dress appeals for a new female freedom.
1928 Le Penseur by Rodin (posthumous)
2022 SOLD for € 10.7M by Christie's
The central figure of the Porte de l'Enfer commissioned to Rodin in 1880, Le Penseur is the representation of introspection embedded in a colossal male human body at rest in the nude.
The 71 cm high prototype is made in clay in 1882. The highly popular monumental version 1.85 m high is revealed in 1904. Small versions are also prepared.
The bronzes from the original size are identified as 'taille de la Porte' or 'Moyen modèle'. They were cast from 1884 to 1969 by the foundries Griffoul, François Rudier, Alexis Rudier and Georges Rudier.
A Moyen modèle made by the company of Alexis Rudier ca 1928 with a dark brown patina was sold for € 10.7M by Christie's on June 30, 2022, lot 41. Its wooden plinth had been commissioned by the interior designer Alberto Pinto for the use of a 'grand style' apartment on the Quai d'Orsay.
The 71 cm high prototype is made in clay in 1882. The highly popular monumental version 1.85 m high is revealed in 1904. Small versions are also prepared.
The bronzes from the original size are identified as 'taille de la Porte' or 'Moyen modèle'. They were cast from 1884 to 1969 by the foundries Griffoul, François Rudier, Alexis Rudier and Georges Rudier.
A Moyen modèle made by the company of Alexis Rudier ca 1928 with a dark brown patina was sold for € 10.7M by Christie's on June 30, 2022, lot 41. Its wooden plinth had been commissioned by the interior designer Alberto Pinto for the use of a 'grand style' apartment on the Quai d'Orsay.
1928 Still Life with Lilac by Petrov-Vodkin
2019 SOLD for £ 9.3M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin devotes most of his career to artistic education while looking for new solutions. His paintings often have a didactic purpose. He is also a theater decorator and a portrait painter.
He is influenced by Matisse's La Danse, with its pure colors and also with the suppression of the perspective which creates a new poetry by eliminating the information of the dimension of the subject and its distance. After the October Revolution, he is one of the main organizers of art education in the Soviet Union.
Cézanne and Matisse had used still life to experiment with bold staging. Petrov-Vodkin chose as early as 1918 to display his tabletops in an almost vertical angle.
His works are very rare in private hands. On June 3, 2019, Christie's sold for £ 9.3M including premium over a lower estimate of £ 1M a Still Life with Lilac, lot 84. This painting had been bought around 1932 by an Italian art critic.
This oil on canvas 80 x 65 cm painted in 1928 is a synthesis of the artist's studies on this theme. The angle is bold and only the primary colors are used. The freshly cut branch of lilac is placed in a transparent glass, and the absence of perspective allows a lush vision on its blossoms. The rest of the composition is populated by various objects that are symbols of the artist's personal life.
At the end of 1928 Petrov-Vodkin is infected with tuberculosis. He considerably slows down his work as a painter for medical reasons and begins to write his memoirs. He will not give up teaching and becomes in 1932 the very first president of the Leningrad Association of Painters, just created to put a termination to all previous literary and artistic groups of the post-revolutionary period.
He is influenced by Matisse's La Danse, with its pure colors and also with the suppression of the perspective which creates a new poetry by eliminating the information of the dimension of the subject and its distance. After the October Revolution, he is one of the main organizers of art education in the Soviet Union.
Cézanne and Matisse had used still life to experiment with bold staging. Petrov-Vodkin chose as early as 1918 to display his tabletops in an almost vertical angle.
His works are very rare in private hands. On June 3, 2019, Christie's sold for £ 9.3M including premium over a lower estimate of £ 1M a Still Life with Lilac, lot 84. This painting had been bought around 1932 by an Italian art critic.
This oil on canvas 80 x 65 cm painted in 1928 is a synthesis of the artist's studies on this theme. The angle is bold and only the primary colors are used. The freshly cut branch of lilac is placed in a transparent glass, and the absence of perspective allows a lush vision on its blossoms. The rest of the composition is populated by various objects that are symbols of the artist's personal life.
At the end of 1928 Petrov-Vodkin is infected with tuberculosis. He considerably slows down his work as a painter for medical reasons and begins to write his memoirs. He will not give up teaching and becomes in 1932 the very first president of the Leningrad Association of Painters, just created to put a termination to all previous literary and artistic groups of the post-revolutionary period.
1928 Les Jours Gigantesques by Magritte
2012 SOLD for £ 7.2M by Christie's
A fan of the Fantômas movie series, René Magritte manages to express the sexual violence, a trending theme in the Parisian Surrealist group.
The rape stages a clothed man holding high a nude woman. She is in terror with an extended arm which mimics the Ratto delle Sabine by Giambologna.
Magritte adds his own special wit. The man is in front of his victim but is trimmed in his head and back so that he does not overlap her outline. In a close view the woman is indeed threatened by a part of herself, somehow composed like a movie poster. Her struggle is psychological. The artist originally proposed the title La Peur de l'Amour, describing a balance between violence and union.
The 30 year old artist appealed his Surrealist poet friends to coin a better title. He was ready to accept L'Aube désarmé suggested by Nougé before converging with Scutenaire for a megalomaniac Les Jours Gigantesques.
This oil on canvas 72 x 54 cm painted in 1928 was sold for £ 7.2M from a lower estimate of £ 800K by Christie's on June 20, 2012, lot 56.
The rape stages a clothed man holding high a nude woman. She is in terror with an extended arm which mimics the Ratto delle Sabine by Giambologna.
Magritte adds his own special wit. The man is in front of his victim but is trimmed in his head and back so that he does not overlap her outline. In a close view the woman is indeed threatened by a part of herself, somehow composed like a movie poster. Her struggle is psychological. The artist originally proposed the title La Peur de l'Amour, describing a balance between violence and union.
The 30 year old artist appealed his Surrealist poet friends to coin a better title. He was ready to accept L'Aube désarmé suggested by Nougé before converging with Scutenaire for a megalomaniac Les Jours Gigantesques.
This oil on canvas 72 x 54 cm painted in 1928 was sold for £ 7.2M from a lower estimate of £ 800K by Christie's on June 20, 2012, lot 56.
1928 Under the Romantic Protection of the Eiffel Tower
2016 SOLD for £ 7M including premium
In his first long stay in Paris from 1910 to 1914, Marc Chagall admired the joyous city under the protection of its benefactor totem, the Eiffel Tower.
The following years were very hard, but his return to Paris in 1923 with his wife Bella opens to this hypersensitive artist the happiest period of his life. His little family now lives in comfort thanks to a contract with the dealer Bernheim-Jeune and to the projects of illustrations undertaken with Vollard.
Few figurative artists managed to express a perfect happiness. On February 2 in London, Christie's sells Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel, oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm painted in 1928, lot 24 estimated £ 4.8M.
The title is nice. Marc had married his muse thirteen years earlier but their couple in the lower right of the image retains the freshness of tenderly embraced newlyweds. Both gaze out towards the viewer while their daughter Ida aged 12 flies with her angel wings through a window to present to her parents a big bouquet of flowers.
Paris provided them the happiness and the colors are joyous. The Eiffel Tower is viewed beyond the gently animated green lawn of the Champ de Mars. The surrealism in the manner of Chagall is included : behind the Tower, trees float like clouds, bringing an additional lightness to this romantic composition.
The following years were very hard, but his return to Paris in 1923 with his wife Bella opens to this hypersensitive artist the happiest period of his life. His little family now lives in comfort thanks to a contract with the dealer Bernheim-Jeune and to the projects of illustrations undertaken with Vollard.
Few figurative artists managed to express a perfect happiness. On February 2 in London, Christie's sells Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel, oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm painted in 1928, lot 24 estimated £ 4.8M.
The title is nice. Marc had married his muse thirteen years earlier but their couple in the lower right of the image retains the freshness of tenderly embraced newlyweds. Both gaze out towards the viewer while their daughter Ida aged 12 flies with her angel wings through a window to present to her parents a big bouquet of flowers.
Paris provided them the happiness and the colors are joyous. The Eiffel Tower is viewed beyond the gently animated green lawn of the Champ de Mars. The surrealism in the manner of Chagall is included : behind the Tower, trees float like clouds, bringing an additional lightness to this romantic composition.
1928 Magritte at the Edge of the Wall
2014 SOLD 6.6 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
In 1928, René Magritte is in Paris. Same as Dali and Ernst, he expresses his vision of life by creating parallel universes. He is passionate about Poe but he is also still shocked by the suicide of his mother in the Sambre river 16 years earlier when he was 14.
On February 4 in London, Christie's sells Les chasseurs au bord de la nuit (Hunters at the edge of night), oil on canvas 81 x 116 cm estimated £ 6M. It was the largest format used at that time by Magritte.
Two bulky men with boots and rifles are desperately clinging to a wall. On the right, the space is free to the horizon. Nothing explains why these men do not circumvent the edge of the wall excepted the hostile vacuum of this endless landscape.
It was assumed that the wall came suddenly for separating them from any logical reality, as the Pit and the Pendulum in Poe's short story. A hunter is a killer who does not have to attract sympathy but the attitude of these men is a masterpiece of the surrealist expression of anguish and a beautiful symbol of the impotence of humanity.
The artist plays with day and night. The angle of the shadow is from twilight but the blank light does not come from the sun which just set off at the opposite.
POST SALE COMMENT
The result, £ 6.6M including premium, is in line with the estimate.
In 1928, René Magritte is in Paris. Same as Dali and Ernst, he expresses his vision of life by creating parallel universes. He is passionate about Poe but he is also still shocked by the suicide of his mother in the Sambre river 16 years earlier when he was 14.
On February 4 in London, Christie's sells Les chasseurs au bord de la nuit (Hunters at the edge of night), oil on canvas 81 x 116 cm estimated £ 6M. It was the largest format used at that time by Magritte.
Two bulky men with boots and rifles are desperately clinging to a wall. On the right, the space is free to the horizon. Nothing explains why these men do not circumvent the edge of the wall excepted the hostile vacuum of this endless landscape.
It was assumed that the wall came suddenly for separating them from any logical reality, as the Pit and the Pendulum in Poe's short story. A hunter is a killer who does not have to attract sympathy but the attitude of these men is a masterpiece of the surrealist expression of anguish and a beautiful symbol of the impotence of humanity.
The artist plays with day and night. The angle of the shadow is from twilight but the blank light does not come from the sun which just set off at the opposite.
POST SALE COMMENT
The result, £ 6.6M including premium, is in line with the estimate.
1928 Mercedes-Benz 680S
2013 SOLD for $ 8.3M by RM Auctions
Made in 1928 and sole survivor from three built with a low windshield, a Mercedes-Benz 680S 26/120/180 hp coachworked by Saoutchik as a Torpedo roadster is a great example of the perfection and modernism that could be achieved at that time.
Its mechanics are German but the elegance is French. It is an early masterpiece by Jacques Saoutchik, a former cabinetmaker inspired by the Parisian Art Déco who knew to combine style and innovation. Made on order for an American businessman who failed to take it after a reversal of fortunes, it was exhibited at the New York Auto Salon in 1929.
After a stunning restoration, this car was awarded the highest honors : perfect with 100 points and Best of Show at the 2012 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Restoration of the Year at the 2012 International Historic Motoring Awards and First in Class at the 2013 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. This car was sold for $ 8.3M by RM Auctions on August 17, 2013, lot 216, and passed at RM on May 27, 2017, lot 144.
Its mechanics are German but the elegance is French. It is an early masterpiece by Jacques Saoutchik, a former cabinetmaker inspired by the Parisian Art Déco who knew to combine style and innovation. Made on order for an American businessman who failed to take it after a reversal of fortunes, it was exhibited at the New York Auto Salon in 1929.
After a stunning restoration, this car was awarded the highest honors : perfect with 100 points and Best of Show at the 2012 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Restoration of the Year at the 2012 International Historic Motoring Awards and First in Class at the 2013 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. This car was sold for $ 8.3M by RM Auctions on August 17, 2013, lot 216, and passed at RM on May 27, 2017, lot 144.
