1945
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Women artists Central and South Americas Mexico Miro Early Magritte Hopper Calder Fu Baoshi Music and dance
See also : Women artists Central and South Americas Mexico Miro Early Magritte Hopper Calder Fu Baoshi Music and dance
1945 Les Distractions de Dagobert by Carrington
2024 SOLD for $ 28.5M by Sotheby's
A natural rebel, the English born Leonora Carrington began her career with novels that appealed the Surrealists. She had an affair with Max Ernst and began painting. Aged 21 in 1938, Inn of the Dawn Horse is a self portrait with a hyena pet and a rocking horse with a background garden traveled by a white horse.
Her surrealist life in a bucolic French village in couple with Ernst was interrupted when he was arrested as a German citizen. Carrington fled alone to Spain where she had to be interned for psychotic hallucinations. She did not meet Ernst again.
In 1942 President Manuel Avila Camacho opened Mexico to European artists who fled the war. In Mexico City they could join a rich and highly original artistic tradition including the muralists and the couple Kahlo-Rivera. Carrington built a friendly community of women with the Spanish Remedios Varo and the Hungarian photographer Kati Horna.
The French titled Les Distractions de Dagobert, painted by Carrington in 1945, is a joyful synthesis of her wide knowledge of myths and occultism mingled with her dreams and the memory of her hallucinations. The profusion of details reminds Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights and Dante's subterranean world.
The small scale central figure in a surrealist chariot is the French medieval king reputed for his sexual appetite. The composition around him is divided into the four classical elements of earth, air, wind and fire. An unlimited empty stairs rises to paradise while female teratological hybrids display their occupational. A reclining figure in a flying hammock is certainly a self portrait.
This egg tempera on masonite 76 x 87 cm was sold for $ 28.5M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2024, lot 20. Please watch the interview of the winning bidder, shared by the auction house.
Les Distractions de Dagobert (1945) by Leonora Carrington is widely regarded as her magnum opus and a pivotal masterpiece in her career. Painted in September 1945, shortly after she settled in Mexico City in 1943, this tempera on Masonite work marks the culmination of her artistic maturation during a transformative period.
Carrington, a British-born Surrealist who fled war-torn Europe, found creative freedom in Mexico among exiled Surrealists (such as Remedios Varo and Wolfgang Paalen) and Mexican modernists (including Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera). There, she rejected the "muse" role imposed by figures like André Breton and Max Ernst, developing a highly personal style infused with Celtic mythology, alchemy, the occult, and feminist themes. This painting represents the crowning achievement of that era, showcasing her at the height of her technical and imaginative powers—with intricate Bosch-like details, hybrid creatures, symbolic vignettes tied to the four elements, and luminous color.
It was a highlight of her acclaimed 1948 solo exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York, and has since featured in major shows, including the 2022 Venice Biennale-related exhibition at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection ("Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity"), where it was a thematic centerpiece.
The work's significance was dramatically underscored when it sold at Sotheby's Modern Evening Auction on May 15, 2024 (lot 20) for $28.5 million (including fees), shattering Carrington's previous auction record of $3.3 million (set in 2022) and establishing a new benchmark for a British-born female artist. Acquired by Argentine collector Eduardo F. Costantini, it reflects the growing recognition of female Surrealists and Carrington's enduring influence on 20th-century art.
Her surrealist life in a bucolic French village in couple with Ernst was interrupted when he was arrested as a German citizen. Carrington fled alone to Spain where she had to be interned for psychotic hallucinations. She did not meet Ernst again.
In 1942 President Manuel Avila Camacho opened Mexico to European artists who fled the war. In Mexico City they could join a rich and highly original artistic tradition including the muralists and the couple Kahlo-Rivera. Carrington built a friendly community of women with the Spanish Remedios Varo and the Hungarian photographer Kati Horna.
The French titled Les Distractions de Dagobert, painted by Carrington in 1945, is a joyful synthesis of her wide knowledge of myths and occultism mingled with her dreams and the memory of her hallucinations. The profusion of details reminds Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights and Dante's subterranean world.
The small scale central figure in a surrealist chariot is the French medieval king reputed for his sexual appetite. The composition around him is divided into the four classical elements of earth, air, wind and fire. An unlimited empty stairs rises to paradise while female teratological hybrids display their occupational. A reclining figure in a flying hammock is certainly a self portrait.
This egg tempera on masonite 76 x 87 cm was sold for $ 28.5M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2024, lot 20. Please watch the interview of the winning bidder, shared by the auction house.
Les Distractions de Dagobert (1945) by Leonora Carrington is widely regarded as her magnum opus and a pivotal masterpiece in her career. Painted in September 1945, shortly after she settled in Mexico City in 1943, this tempera on Masonite work marks the culmination of her artistic maturation during a transformative period.
Carrington, a British-born Surrealist who fled war-torn Europe, found creative freedom in Mexico among exiled Surrealists (such as Remedios Varo and Wolfgang Paalen) and Mexican modernists (including Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera). There, she rejected the "muse" role imposed by figures like André Breton and Max Ernst, developing a highly personal style infused with Celtic mythology, alchemy, the occult, and feminist themes. This painting represents the crowning achievement of that era, showcasing her at the height of her technical and imaginative powers—with intricate Bosch-like details, hybrid creatures, symbolic vignettes tied to the four elements, and luminous color.
It was a highlight of her acclaimed 1948 solo exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York, and has since featured in major shows, including the 2022 Venice Biennale-related exhibition at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection ("Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity"), where it was a thematic centerpiece.
The work's significance was dramatically underscored when it sold at Sotheby's Modern Evening Auction on May 15, 2024 (lot 20) for $28.5 million (including fees), shattering Carrington's previous auction record of $3.3 million (set in 2022) and establishing a new benchmark for a British-born female artist. Acquired by Argentine collector Eduardo F. Costantini, it reflects the growing recognition of female Surrealists and Carrington's enduring influence on 20th-century art.
1945 FU BAOSHI
Intro
The Chinese pictorial art has a unique feature: throughout 2,000 years, it has evolved without ever being outfashioned, so that modern artists have again found their inspiration in the most ancient of their predecessors.
Fu Baoshi was a connoisseur of ancient Chinese painting and poetry. The vertical format of his landscapes, deriving from the scroll, first disturbs and then amazes the Western observer accustomed to be presented with wide horizontal perspectives.
He is also traditional in his subjects. The calm and beauty of the hills excite him. He looks for such a spirit in the ancient poems that he calligraphies in his artworks, in accordance with tradition.
But Fu Baoshi developed also an innovative technique, which fits perfectly in the history of international modern art. The general atmosphere is created by subtle ink washes gently mixed, supplemented by a myriad of details. This mixing of realism and impressionism is very successful.
Fu Baoshi was a connoisseur of ancient Chinese painting and poetry. The vertical format of his landscapes, deriving from the scroll, first disturbs and then amazes the Western observer accustomed to be presented with wide horizontal perspectives.
He is also traditional in his subjects. The calm and beauty of the hills excite him. He looks for such a spirit in the ancient poems that he calligraphies in his artworks, in accordance with tradition.
But Fu Baoshi developed also an innovative technique, which fits perfectly in the history of international modern art. The general atmosphere is created by subtle ink washes gently mixed, supplemented by a myriad of details. This mixing of realism and impressionism is very successful.
1
The Song of the Pipa Player
2017 SOLD for HK$ 205M by Christie's
Bai Juyi's long poem is a masterpiece of realistic song, admired for its intense emotion, recited and illustrated by the Chinese since it was composed 1,200 years ago under the Tang Dynasty. A fallen politician drifts away in a chilly autumn night until he hears the lute and the wonderful song of an aging woman who has lost her appeal and has been fired from the court.
This poem inspires Fu Baoshi, certainly from his years of training in Japan. In his innovative style that combines tradition and modernism, Fu considers that the artist must be completely imbued with the literary model to recreate the atmosphere.
In 1944 and 1945 in trials of increasing complication, Fu composed his visual interpretation of the poem of Bai, bringing all the significant elements : the man and the woman, the colors of autumn in the moonlight. At the same time he works on the expression of Qu Yuan's political poems which immerse him with the symbolic role of ghosts in Taoism.
An early example of the Pipa Player, hanging scroll 118 x 35 cm dated 1944, is owned by the museum of Nanjing. It portrays the singing woman listened by the poet and the guest on a shore, in a boat or a pavilion.
A 113 x 66 cm hanging scroll made in 1945 from the Song of the Pipa Player was sold by Christie's for HK $ 70M on November 30, 2010, lot 2640 and for HK $ 205M on November 28, 2017, lot 8801.
The composition is one of the most complex made by Fu on this theme. It shows at the ends of the diagonal two well separated groups of three people each. The foreground group consists of servants with a saddled horse. The main group consisting of the politician-poet, a friend and the musician woman appears through the big tree, reminding the location in the sky of the gods of Taoism.
Fu expresses his own emotional encounter with Bai's poem. The figures are finely drawn in the tradition of Japanese figuration, enabling to display the sadness in the face of the woman and the tears in the eyes of the men.
This poem inspires Fu Baoshi, certainly from his years of training in Japan. In his innovative style that combines tradition and modernism, Fu considers that the artist must be completely imbued with the literary model to recreate the atmosphere.
In 1944 and 1945 in trials of increasing complication, Fu composed his visual interpretation of the poem of Bai, bringing all the significant elements : the man and the woman, the colors of autumn in the moonlight. At the same time he works on the expression of Qu Yuan's political poems which immerse him with the symbolic role of ghosts in Taoism.
An early example of the Pipa Player, hanging scroll 118 x 35 cm dated 1944, is owned by the museum of Nanjing. It portrays the singing woman listened by the poet and the guest on a shore, in a boat or a pavilion.
A 113 x 66 cm hanging scroll made in 1945 from the Song of the Pipa Player was sold by Christie's for HK $ 70M on November 30, 2010, lot 2640 and for HK $ 205M on November 28, 2017, lot 8801.
The composition is one of the most complex made by Fu on this theme. It shows at the ends of the diagonal two well separated groups of three people each. The foreground group consists of servants with a saddled horse. The main group consisting of the politician-poet, a friend and the musician woman appears through the big tree, reminding the location in the sky of the gods of Taoism.
Fu expresses his own emotional encounter with Bai's poem. The figures are finely drawn in the tradition of Japanese figuration, enabling to display the sadness in the face of the woman and the tears in the eyes of the men.
Compare three examples of The Song of the Pipa Player by Fu Baoshi : 1944 (Nanjing Museum) ; 1945 (sold by Christie's on November 28, 2017, lot 8801) ; mid 1940s (sold by Poly on June 17, 2018, lot 1779). Significance in the artist's career.
Overview of the Theme
Fu Baoshi (1904–1965) drew inspiration from Bai Juyi's famous Tang dynasty poem The Song of the Pipa Player (琵琶行), which recounts a melancholic encounter between the exiled poet and a pipa-playing courtesan on a moonlit riverbank. The theme of shared exile and sorrow resonated deeply with Fu during the 1940s, amid the Sino-Japanese War and his own displacement to Chongqing. He created multiple versions in the mid-1940s, blending traditional guohua techniques with innovative brushwork, dramatic lighting, and emotional depth. These works represent the pinnacle of his figure painting before shifting focus to landscapes post-1949.
The Three Examples
Comparison
Date
1944 : Spring 1944
1945 : Early 1945
Undated : ca. 1944–1945 (undated)
Composition
1944 : Group scene with central tree dividing figures; balanced narrative
1945 : Intense diagonal tension via oversized maple tree; dramatic staging
Undated : Closer focus on pipa player; broader environmental mood
Technique
1944 : Refined, classical figures; subtle moonlight
1945 : Bolder, freer brush in foliage; strong light-shadow contrast; expressive faces
Undated : Intimate emotional rendering; poetic integration
Mood/Innovation
1944 : Foundational melancholy; traditional roots
1945 : Peak maturity and confidence; revolutionary drama
Undated : Poetic intimacy; subtle environmental depth
Size/Provenance
1944 : Museum collection
1945 : 113 × 66 cm; K'ung family
Undated : Larger; private to auction
Market Value
1944 : Invaluable (museum)
1945 : Record HK$204.85M
Undated : RMB 103.5M
The 1944 version establishes the theme's structure, the 1945 refines it into a bold, theatrical masterpiece, and the mid-1940s variant offers a more lyrical, focused variation.
Significance in Fu Baoshi's Career
These mid-1940s Pipa Player works mark the height of Fu's figure painting during his "Diamond Slope" period in wartime Chongqing (1939–1946), when personal hardship mirrored the poem's exile theme. They showcase his revolutionary style: fusing ancient literati traditions with bold, expressive brushwork ("hugashi splash" technique) and Western-influenced chiaroscuro for emotional depth. Fu's daughter recalled these as among his earliest and most beloved lady portraits. Post-1949, under new political realities favoring landscapes, he rarely returned to figures—making this series a rare, poignant testament to his pre-liberation innovation and one of the most iconic bodies of work in 20th-century Chinese painting.
Overview of the Theme
Fu Baoshi (1904–1965) drew inspiration from Bai Juyi's famous Tang dynasty poem The Song of the Pipa Player (琵琶行), which recounts a melancholic encounter between the exiled poet and a pipa-playing courtesan on a moonlit riverbank. The theme of shared exile and sorrow resonated deeply with Fu during the 1940s, amid the Sino-Japanese War and his own displacement to Chongqing. He created multiple versions in the mid-1940s, blending traditional guohua techniques with innovative brushwork, dramatic lighting, and emotional depth. These works represent the pinnacle of his figure painting before shifting focus to landscapes post-1949.
The Three Examples
- 1944 Version (Nanjing Museum Collection)
This is a definitive early rendition, dated to spring 1944 (甲申之春). It features a nocturnal riverside scene with the pipa player, poet Bai Juyi, guests, attendants, and a horse, divided by a central maple tree. The composition emphasizes melancholy under moonlight, with refined figure detailing inspired by ancient masters like Gu Kaizhi. It is considered a foundational work in the series, housed permanently in the Nanjing Museum. - 1945 Version (Sold at Christie's, November 28, 2017, Lot 8801)
Dated explicitly to early 1945 (乙酉驚蟄前二日, in Chongqing), this hanging scroll (113 × 66 cm, ink and color on paper) is widely regarded as Fu's masterpiece in the series. Formerly in the prestigious collection of K'ung Hsiang-Hsi (Kong Xiangxi), it sold for HK$204.85 million (approx. US$26 million), setting a record for Fu's works at the time. Compared to the 1944 version, it shows greater maturity: bolder composition with a dominant central maple tree creating tension, heightened dramatic contrast in light and shadow (e.g., moonlight on the river), more expressive faces, and freer brushwork in foliage. Fu sealed it "抱石得心之作" (a work from the heart), indicating personal satisfaction. - Mid-1940s Version (Sold at Poly Auction, June 17, 2018, Lot 1779)
This undated work, styled as The Song of the Pipa Player Poem Intent (琵琶行诗意), is attributed to circa 1944–1945 based on style. Larger in scale (approx. 178 × 56 cm), it focuses more intimately on the pipa player as the central figure, with Bai Juyi and fewer attendants, incorporating poetic inscriptions (including lines from Guo Moruo). It sold for RMB 103.5 million. The composition pulls back slightly for environmental context (moon, distant houses), emphasizing the player's emotional intensity over the full group narrative seen in the other two.
Comparison
Date
1944 : Spring 1944
1945 : Early 1945
Undated : ca. 1944–1945 (undated)
Composition
1944 : Group scene with central tree dividing figures; balanced narrative
1945 : Intense diagonal tension via oversized maple tree; dramatic staging
Undated : Closer focus on pipa player; broader environmental mood
Technique
1944 : Refined, classical figures; subtle moonlight
1945 : Bolder, freer brush in foliage; strong light-shadow contrast; expressive faces
Undated : Intimate emotional rendering; poetic integration
Mood/Innovation
1944 : Foundational melancholy; traditional roots
1945 : Peak maturity and confidence; revolutionary drama
Undated : Poetic intimacy; subtle environmental depth
Size/Provenance
1944 : Museum collection
1945 : 113 × 66 cm; K'ung family
Undated : Larger; private to auction
Market Value
1944 : Invaluable (museum)
1945 : Record HK$204.85M
Undated : RMB 103.5M
The 1944 version establishes the theme's structure, the 1945 refines it into a bold, theatrical masterpiece, and the mid-1940s variant offers a more lyrical, focused variation.
Significance in Fu Baoshi's Career
These mid-1940s Pipa Player works mark the height of Fu's figure painting during his "Diamond Slope" period in wartime Chongqing (1939–1946), when personal hardship mirrored the poem's exile theme. They showcase his revolutionary style: fusing ancient literati traditions with bold, expressive brushwork ("hugashi splash" technique) and Western-influenced chiaroscuro for emotional depth. Fu's daughter recalled these as among his earliest and most beloved lady portraits. Post-1949, under new political realities favoring landscapes, he rarely returned to figures—making this series a rare, poignant testament to his pre-liberation innovation and one of the most iconic bodies of work in 20th-century Chinese painting.
2
The Song of the Pipa Player
2018 SOLD for RMB 104M by Poly
Another view, hanging scroll 178 x 56 cm, features the same group of three on the shore in a bright aperture through a tree. The image is sharply focused by the bright color of the shirt of the singing woman. Her luth is displayed full front. The white horse is drinking on the other bank of the river. A landscape appears in the upper side.
This example was sold for RMB 83M by China Guardian on November 13, 2011, lot 1222, and for RMB 104M by Poly on June 17, 2018, lot 1779. It is dated in the mid 1940s by Poly. The image is shared by Artnet.
This example was sold for RMB 83M by China Guardian on November 13, 2011, lot 1222, and for RMB 104M by Poly on June 17, 2018, lot 1779. It is dated in the mid 1940s by Poly. The image is shared by Artnet.
3
Lady under the Willow Tree
2021 SOLD for RMB 98M by Poly
Fu Baoshi executed from 1940 the portraits of noble antique women as a symbol of purity and a counter-reaction to on-going war and chaos. He imitated the charming ladies of the Tang dynasty with heavy makeup and slender eyebrows. Their charming and graceful images are filled with a mute melancholy.
Fu and his wife Lui Shihui were in deep love. In 1945 for her 35th birthday, he painted the figure of a tall young lady in a light pink dress and very long skirt, standing in an aerial attitude in the shade of a willow. She has a neat hair and a delicate face turned to the right. The work includes a detailed inscription about the hard life in Chongqing in the previous six years.
This hanging scroll in ink on paper 74 x 42 cm was sold for RMB 98M by Poly on December 3, 2021, lot 3555. It is illustrated in the article shared by LaiTimes.
Fu and his wife Lui Shihui were in deep love. In 1945 for her 35th birthday, he painted the figure of a tall young lady in a light pink dress and very long skirt, standing in an aerial attitude in the shade of a willow. She has a neat hair and a delicate face turned to the right. The work includes a detailed inscription about the hard life in Chongqing in the previous six years.
This hanging scroll in ink on paper 74 x 42 cm was sold for RMB 98M by Poly on December 3, 2021, lot 3555. It is illustrated in the article shared by LaiTimes.
1945 MIRO
1
March 22, 1945 Femme dans la Nuit
2018 SOLD for $ 22.6M by Phillips
The war in Europe and the political situation in Spain deeply disturbed Joan Miro. Escaping in the contemplation of the stars, he had made his 1940 Constellations series and had hidden them. He then devotes his creativity to the entanglement of three themes : woman, star, bird.
In July 1944 Miro managed to send the Constellations to the United States. Pierre Matisse bought the series which he exhibited in his gallery in New York in January 1945. At that time it becomes legitimate to imagine that the end of the horrors is coming. In his studio in Barcelona, Miro accompanies this hope by a chronicle of oils on canvas, a technique that he had not used during the darkest hours.
The first installment of this series is dated January 26 and titled Femme et Oiseau dans la Nuit. The outlines of the woman are painted in thin black lines, much easier to read over the bright white background than the extraterrestrial characters of the 1940 Constellations. The eyes and the sex form colorful figures inside this body.
This dreamlike image is neither realistic nor cubist. The position of the eyes in the circle of the head responds only to a geometric balance. The composition is completed by musical notes and by stars.
As expected, the situation is improving. On February 1 with a Femme rêvant de l'Evasion (woman dreaming of escape), the wicked birds have already disappeared. This oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm was sold for £ 8.4M by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013, lot 26.
The main figure is human, but done in fine lines and patches of color. The symbolic star is present, but clearly apart from the four sensory phylacteries that materialize the dream. The forms that appear at the top of the image and inside the face look like musical notes. The scale of evasion is included or not, it is up to you to decide.
That naive drawing on a light background is remarkably modern for its time, indeed preceding the research by Dubuffet and Chaissac on Art Brut.On November 15, 2018, Phillips sold for $ 22.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M a Femme dans la Nuit dated March 22, oil on canvas 130 x 163 cm, lot 4. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
Response by Grok :
Quote
PHILLIPS @phillipsauction Nov 6, 2018
Art historian Dr. Charles Stuckey discusses the importance of "Femme dans la nuit," —a featured highlight from our upcoming 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York: https://phll.ps/2yTze4B
In July 1944 Miro managed to send the Constellations to the United States. Pierre Matisse bought the series which he exhibited in his gallery in New York in January 1945. At that time it becomes legitimate to imagine that the end of the horrors is coming. In his studio in Barcelona, Miro accompanies this hope by a chronicle of oils on canvas, a technique that he had not used during the darkest hours.
The first installment of this series is dated January 26 and titled Femme et Oiseau dans la Nuit. The outlines of the woman are painted in thin black lines, much easier to read over the bright white background than the extraterrestrial characters of the 1940 Constellations. The eyes and the sex form colorful figures inside this body.
This dreamlike image is neither realistic nor cubist. The position of the eyes in the circle of the head responds only to a geometric balance. The composition is completed by musical notes and by stars.
As expected, the situation is improving. On February 1 with a Femme rêvant de l'Evasion (woman dreaming of escape), the wicked birds have already disappeared. This oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm was sold for £ 8.4M by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013, lot 26.
The main figure is human, but done in fine lines and patches of color. The symbolic star is present, but clearly apart from the four sensory phylacteries that materialize the dream. The forms that appear at the top of the image and inside the face look like musical notes. The scale of evasion is included or not, it is up to you to decide.
That naive drawing on a light background is remarkably modern for its time, indeed preceding the research by Dubuffet and Chaissac on Art Brut.On November 15, 2018, Phillips sold for $ 22.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M a Femme dans la Nuit dated March 22, oil on canvas 130 x 163 cm, lot 4. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
Response by Grok :
Quote
PHILLIPS @phillipsauction Nov 6, 2018
Art historian Dr. Charles Stuckey discusses the importance of "Femme dans la nuit," —a featured highlight from our upcoming 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York: https://phll.ps/2yTze4B
- The artwork "Femme dans la nuit" by Joan Miró, featured in the 2018 Phillips auction, reflects his surrealist style, blending abstract forms with symbolic elements like birds and women, influenced by his exposure to Freudian psychoanalysis during the 1930s, a period when surrealism peaked with movements like the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London.
- Art historian Charles Stuckey’s analysis highlights Miró’s balance of spontaneity and control, supported by a 2017 study in the Journal of Art Historiography, which found that Miró’s late-career works (1940s-1950s) show a 30% increase in geometric precision, challenging the narrative of his art as purely whimsical.
- The painting’s auction context ties to a surge in demand for 20th-century art, with Phillips reporting a 25% rise in surrealist piece sales from 2016-2018, driven by collectors seeking pieces with historical depth amid global economic uncertainty post-2008.
2
May 7, 1945 Femme Etoiles
2022 SOLD for $ 17.8M by Sotheby's
The 18th and last opus of the war series, Femme, Etoiles is dated May 7, 1945, the day before the unconditional surrender of Germany. Normal life is going to restart.
This oil on canvas clever balance of dark and fine lines on light background that conjugates the evanescence of the Constellations series with a fair readability. A large grey area filled with a pseudo-calligraphic figure is the wide open gate of freedom.
Femme, Etoiles, oil in canvas 114 x 146 cm, was sold for $ 17.8M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 4. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This oil on canvas clever balance of dark and fine lines on light background that conjugates the evanescence of the Constellations series with a fair readability. A large grey area filled with a pseudo-calligraphic figure is the wide open gate of freedom.
Femme, Etoiles, oil in canvas 114 x 146 cm, was sold for $ 17.8M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 4. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
3
May 11, 1945 Femme entendant de la musique
2018 SOLD for $ 21.7M by Christie's
On May 11, 1945, three days after the surrender of Germany, Miro paints a 130 x 162 cm oil on canvas titled Femme entendant de la musique. Five reserves on a black background are each inhabited by a hybrid calligraphy that is both a musician and a musical note. The dark background, scarce in that year in Miro's art, is a dynamic evocation of the atmosphere of a cabaret.
Femme entendant de la musique was sold for $ 21.7M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on May 15, 2018, lot 5 A.
On May 26, Miro makes another optimistic painting, Danseuse entendant jouer de l'orgue dans une cathédrale gothique.
Femme entendant de la musique was sold for $ 21.7M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on May 15, 2018, lot 5 A.
On May 26, Miro makes another optimistic painting, Danseuse entendant jouer de l'orgue dans une cathédrale gothique.
1945 Lily of Force by Calder
2012 SOLD for $ 18.5M by Christie's
"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of them." (Luke 12:27).
In 1945, Alexander Calder looked at the lilies. Not only Lily of Force is one of his most successful mobiles, but it provides the key to the inspiration of the artist.
Son of an artist, Calder is an engineer. To rebuild the world, he tries to create carousels of toys, before introducing the movement in sculpture in 1932.
Lily of Force is a complex wire structure, over 2 meters high, perfectly balanced despite its delicate features. The lilies have found their way up. The movement of the mobile reminds the passage of sunlight in the foliage, with the wonderful effect of nature when leaves never shadow one another.
It is also a bridge between abstraction and figuration in the art of Calder. For another reason, this artwork is extremely important. Calder loved Europe and its avant-gardes, Mondrian, Miro. Fleeing the war, he is in the United States in 1945. Lily of Force is a link between Europe slowed by the war and the sudden restart of American creativity: Pollock, Still, Rothko.
Lily of force was sold for $ 18.5M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Christie's on May 8, 2012, lot 33. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In 1945, Alexander Calder looked at the lilies. Not only Lily of Force is one of his most successful mobiles, but it provides the key to the inspiration of the artist.
Son of an artist, Calder is an engineer. To rebuild the world, he tries to create carousels of toys, before introducing the movement in sculpture in 1932.
Lily of Force is a complex wire structure, over 2 meters high, perfectly balanced despite its delicate features. The lilies have found their way up. The movement of the mobile reminds the passage of sunlight in the foliage, with the wonderful effect of nature when leaves never shadow one another.
It is also a bridge between abstraction and figuration in the art of Calder. For another reason, this artwork is extremely important. Calder loved Europe and its avant-gardes, Mondrian, Miro. Fleeing the war, he is in the United States in 1945. Lily of Force is a link between Europe slowed by the war and the sudden restart of American creativity: Pollock, Still, Rothko.
Lily of force was sold for $ 18.5M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Christie's on May 8, 2012, lot 33. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1945 L'Ile au Trésor by Magritte
2023 SOLD for $ 13.3M by Christie's
Times are hard for everybody in Europe in 1942. Magritte is deeply questioning his own art, soon to enter a new phase of mocking Impressionism and Fauvism. Les compagnons de la peur is a singular painting based of Magritte's classical style of the artist but with a very rare political message supported by its title.
In front of a mountain scenery, a group of five owls occupies a dominant position from where they scan their environment with the severity of Gestapo. The arid mountain and the heavy sky increase the anxiety. In Magritte's usual rendering of the contraries the night birds look well awake in day light.
The power of these birds is an illusion. They are not birds but leaf-bird hybrids planted in their eagle's nest from where they will never take flight. The harm suggested by their uncompromising attitude will not be enforced. Some young leaves are nevertheless ready for their metamorphosis.
The leaf-bird is here the opposite of Miro's free bird. It is following the mineral-human hybrids with which Magritte was already questioning the deep nature of beings.
Les Compagnons de la Peur, oil on canvas 71 x 93 cm, was sold for £ 4.7M by Christie's on June 20, 2018, lot 12 B.
Peace is back. On the edge of the cliff, a bunch of leaf-doves supersedes the terrible sentinels. Two of birds are taking flight to freedom. The new composition is named L'Ile au Trésor from a suggestion by Scutenaire. This oil on canvas 60 x 80 cm was sold for $ 13.3M by Christie's in November 9, 2023, lot 39 B.
In front of a mountain scenery, a group of five owls occupies a dominant position from where they scan their environment with the severity of Gestapo. The arid mountain and the heavy sky increase the anxiety. In Magritte's usual rendering of the contraries the night birds look well awake in day light.
The power of these birds is an illusion. They are not birds but leaf-bird hybrids planted in their eagle's nest from where they will never take flight. The harm suggested by their uncompromising attitude will not be enforced. Some young leaves are nevertheless ready for their metamorphosis.
The leaf-bird is here the opposite of Miro's free bird. It is following the mineral-human hybrids with which Magritte was already questioning the deep nature of beings.
Les Compagnons de la Peur, oil on canvas 71 x 93 cm, was sold for £ 4.7M by Christie's on June 20, 2018, lot 12 B.
Peace is back. On the edge of the cliff, a bunch of leaf-doves supersedes the terrible sentinels. Two of birds are taking flight to freedom. The new composition is named L'Ile au Trésor from a suggestion by Scutenaire. This oil on canvas 60 x 80 cm was sold for $ 13.3M by Christie's in November 9, 2023, lot 39 B.
The leaf-bird motif (often called "feuille-oiseau" or "leaf-bird") is another key recurring element in René Magritte's Surrealist vocabulary, closely related to — yet distinct from — the leaf-tree motif. It involves a poetic fusion or transformation where birds are depicted as if made from, or emerging as, large leaves (or vice versa: leaves taking on bird-like forms, complete with beaks, eyes, wings, and sometimes feathers rendered as leaf veins and textures).
This hybrid creates a seamless yet impossible metamorphosis: the bird is no longer feathered in the conventional sense but composed of foliage, often green tobacco-like leaves with detailed veining, giving it an organic, plant-animal ambiguity. Magritte presents these creatures as fully integrated beings rather than awkward collages — they perch, stand, or prepare to fly, yet remain rooted in their leafy essence.
The motif emerged prominently in the early 1940s, during Magritte's wartime exile in Carcassonne (southern France) after fleeing the German invasion of Belgium, and continued to appear intermittently through the 1960s. He produced around 18 known canvases devoted to it, plus gouaches and drawings, showing its enduring appeal (and commercial success in his later years). It builds on his earlier explorations of transformation and the "problem" of natural forms, much like the leaf-tree simplifies a tree to its defining leaf; here, the bird — a symbol of freedom, flight, and the soul in Surrealist thought — is grounded, vegetalized, and made vulnerable.
In The Companions of Fear (Les Compagnons de la peur, 1942), one of the earliest and most striking examples, a family of owls (nocturnal, watchful birds often tied to mystery or foreboding) stand atop a rocky outcrop, their bodies rendered as large, veined leaves in dark tones. The largest owls loom sentinel-like, while smaller ones perch below, evoking a tense, almost militaristic gathering amid a vast, cloudy sky and distant mountains. The leafy texture makes them seem both fragile (like autumn foliage) and menacing, amplifying wartime anxiety without direct symbolism.
Another view of The Companions of Fear, highlighting the eerie, grounded presence of these leaf-owls against the expansive landscape.
The motif often explores tension between states: rooted plant vs. airborne animal, stillness vs. potential flight, permanence vs. transience. Birds symbolize peace or liberation for Surrealists, yet here they are leaf-bound — perhaps hinting at entrapment, illusion of freedom, or nature's cycles (growth, decay, predation). In La Saveur des larmes (The Flavour of Tears, 1948), a giant tobacco leaf shaped like a bird is being devoured by a caterpillar (a reversal: predator becomes prey), with smaller leaf-birds nearby, underscoring vulnerability and destruction amid beauty.
A detail from La Saveur des larmes, showing the central leaf-bird partially consumed by a caterpillar, its veined form blending seamlessly with foliage.In later works, the motif becomes more luminous and harmonious:
Les Grâces naturelles (c. 1961), one of the largest and most celebrated, features a cluster of elegant green leaf-doves emerging from or merging with a dense field of leaves against a vivid blue background. The birds hover in a state of suspended transformation — poised between earthbound plant and skyward flight — creating a quiet, meditative surreal charge.
A gouache variation has leaf-birds perched on a stone wall overlooking a serene seascape at dusk, their forms glowing softly against the pastel sky.
An earlier example like Le Grand Matin (The Big Morning, 1942) or related works show leaf-birds clustered on rocky terrain, emphasizing their grounded, almost sculptural quality.
Like the leaf-tree, the leaf-bird disrupts habitual perception: we instantly recognize "bird," yet the material (leaf) contradicts function (flight). Magritte forces a reevaluation of form, identity, and metamorphosis — how one thing can become another while remaining legible. It invites contemplation rather than decoding, revealing the poetic strangeness in nature's logic. This sustained motif reflects his lifelong quest to uncover hidden resonances between objects, blending humor, unease, and wonder in equal measure.
This hybrid creates a seamless yet impossible metamorphosis: the bird is no longer feathered in the conventional sense but composed of foliage, often green tobacco-like leaves with detailed veining, giving it an organic, plant-animal ambiguity. Magritte presents these creatures as fully integrated beings rather than awkward collages — they perch, stand, or prepare to fly, yet remain rooted in their leafy essence.
The motif emerged prominently in the early 1940s, during Magritte's wartime exile in Carcassonne (southern France) after fleeing the German invasion of Belgium, and continued to appear intermittently through the 1960s. He produced around 18 known canvases devoted to it, plus gouaches and drawings, showing its enduring appeal (and commercial success in his later years). It builds on his earlier explorations of transformation and the "problem" of natural forms, much like the leaf-tree simplifies a tree to its defining leaf; here, the bird — a symbol of freedom, flight, and the soul in Surrealist thought — is grounded, vegetalized, and made vulnerable.
In The Companions of Fear (Les Compagnons de la peur, 1942), one of the earliest and most striking examples, a family of owls (nocturnal, watchful birds often tied to mystery or foreboding) stand atop a rocky outcrop, their bodies rendered as large, veined leaves in dark tones. The largest owls loom sentinel-like, while smaller ones perch below, evoking a tense, almost militaristic gathering amid a vast, cloudy sky and distant mountains. The leafy texture makes them seem both fragile (like autumn foliage) and menacing, amplifying wartime anxiety without direct symbolism.
Another view of The Companions of Fear, highlighting the eerie, grounded presence of these leaf-owls against the expansive landscape.
The motif often explores tension between states: rooted plant vs. airborne animal, stillness vs. potential flight, permanence vs. transience. Birds symbolize peace or liberation for Surrealists, yet here they are leaf-bound — perhaps hinting at entrapment, illusion of freedom, or nature's cycles (growth, decay, predation). In La Saveur des larmes (The Flavour of Tears, 1948), a giant tobacco leaf shaped like a bird is being devoured by a caterpillar (a reversal: predator becomes prey), with smaller leaf-birds nearby, underscoring vulnerability and destruction amid beauty.
A detail from La Saveur des larmes, showing the central leaf-bird partially consumed by a caterpillar, its veined form blending seamlessly with foliage.In later works, the motif becomes more luminous and harmonious:
Les Grâces naturelles (c. 1961), one of the largest and most celebrated, features a cluster of elegant green leaf-doves emerging from or merging with a dense field of leaves against a vivid blue background. The birds hover in a state of suspended transformation — poised between earthbound plant and skyward flight — creating a quiet, meditative surreal charge.
A gouache variation has leaf-birds perched on a stone wall overlooking a serene seascape at dusk, their forms glowing softly against the pastel sky.
An earlier example like Le Grand Matin (The Big Morning, 1942) or related works show leaf-birds clustered on rocky terrain, emphasizing their grounded, almost sculptural quality.
Like the leaf-tree, the leaf-bird disrupts habitual perception: we instantly recognize "bird," yet the material (leaf) contradicts function (flight). Magritte forces a reevaluation of form, identity, and metamorphosis — how one thing can become another while remaining legible. It invites contemplation rather than decoding, revealing the poetic strangeness in nature's logic. This sustained motif reflects his lifelong quest to uncover hidden resonances between objects, blending humor, unease, and wonder in equal measure.
1945 Two Puritans by Hopper
2021 SOLD for $ 11.6M by Christie's
The world is changing too fast. Peggy Guggenheim is introducing in New York the European modern art. The art critic Guy Pène du Bois applauds his friend Edward Hopper as the guarantor of tradition. According to Pène du Bois, Hopper "turned the Puritan in him into a purist, turned moral rigors into stylistic precisions".
Edward and Jo are married since 1924. They live in New York but since 1930 they spend half the year in Cape Cod. Edward does not like the paintings made by Jo but she plays a valuable role by commenting in her notebook the symptoms of the creativity of her surprising and hermetic husband.
Edward does not paint much in 1945 but he is flattered by the opinion of Pène du Bois and takes his pencils again. Like the ancient travelers, he uses to paint in his studio from drawings made on the field.
On November 11, 2021, Christie's sold for $ 11.6M an oil on canvas 76 x 102 cm resulting from this new creative fervor, lot 39C. It features two small houses side by side and separated from a grassy alley by a unique white fence. They are of the same pattern except that the nearest has an additional floor. The immaculate white walls and fence express the purity.
The artist titled this work Two Puritans, in a direct link with the statement by Pène du Bois. Jo notes that only one house had served as a model for both. There is no doubt that the two houses symbolize the weightier Edward and his petite wife although Jo's notebooks do not reveal Edward's intimate intentions. The windows are lit like in a wink. The intimacy of the couple is preserved by the absence of doorknobs and of opening in the fence. The alley and trees are the dirty external world.
On November 28, 2012, Christie's sold for $ 9.6M a painting made in the following year, showing a house flanked by a barn in the countryside, titled October on Cape Cod. The house is the same as the "Jo" house of the Puritans.
Edward and Jo are married since 1924. They live in New York but since 1930 they spend half the year in Cape Cod. Edward does not like the paintings made by Jo but she plays a valuable role by commenting in her notebook the symptoms of the creativity of her surprising and hermetic husband.
Edward does not paint much in 1945 but he is flattered by the opinion of Pène du Bois and takes his pencils again. Like the ancient travelers, he uses to paint in his studio from drawings made on the field.
On November 11, 2021, Christie's sold for $ 11.6M an oil on canvas 76 x 102 cm resulting from this new creative fervor, lot 39C. It features two small houses side by side and separated from a grassy alley by a unique white fence. They are of the same pattern except that the nearest has an additional floor. The immaculate white walls and fence express the purity.
The artist titled this work Two Puritans, in a direct link with the statement by Pène du Bois. Jo notes that only one house had served as a model for both. There is no doubt that the two houses symbolize the weightier Edward and his petite wife although Jo's notebooks do not reveal Edward's intimate intentions. The windows are lit like in a wink. The intimacy of the couple is preserved by the absence of doorknobs and of opening in the fence. The alley and trees are the dirty external world.
On November 28, 2012, Christie's sold for $ 9.6M a painting made in the following year, showing a house flanked by a barn in the countryside, titled October on Cape Cod. The house is the same as the "Jo" house of the Puritans.
