1952
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Sculpture The Woman Bacon Bacon < 1963 Rothko Early Rothko Newman Giacometti Giacometti 1947-53 Femme debout Sanyu Calder Post war French art Sport in art Glass and crystal
See also : Sculpture The Woman Bacon Bacon < 1963 Rothko Early Rothko Newman Giacometti Giacometti 1947-53 Femme debout Sanyu Calder Post war French art Sport in art Glass and crystal
1951-1952 GIACOMETTI
1
Le Chariot
2014 SOLD for $ 101M by Sotheby's
Alberto Giacometti had been close to the Surrealists. The theme of the woman on the chariot was inscribed in his mind from 1938. It remained therein for twelve years during which the artist tried a few tests, sometimes with rotating wheels.
In 1948, Alberto populates his universe with his wire-like characters who question the existentialism. Men walk with energy without knowing where they are going. In contrast, women are straight and motionless.
The woman is still an ancient idol whose authority may not be challenged. She brings peace and truth. In Alberto's dream, she is perched on a pedestal placed on the axle of an antique chariot with very high wheels. This is the great paradox of Giacometti: the motionless woman symbolizes the movement because she is worshiped on the chariot.
Alberto is a perfectionist. He waits until 1950 to execute his fantasy. Any detail is important, such as the tightly attached legs. The arms are away from the body in a gesture of glory or freedom, but the angle of the elbows disappears when the sculpture is viewed from front. The work is of medium size, 1.45 m high, because it must not be intimidating or diminutive.
The bronze cast in 1951-1952 is a technical feat by Alexis Rudier company. The number 2/6 was sold for $ 101M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2014, lot 25. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This is an exceptional specimen by its golden patina that glorifies the subject and also because it has been carefully painted by the artist.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Bernadette Keefe @nxtstop1 Nov 9, 2014
Replying to @GTCost
“@GTCost: RT @BloombergNews: Giacometti’s “Chariot” sells 4 $101M -record Sotheby's art sale: http://bloom.bg/1zwyg9C
In 1948, Alberto populates his universe with his wire-like characters who question the existentialism. Men walk with energy without knowing where they are going. In contrast, women are straight and motionless.
The woman is still an ancient idol whose authority may not be challenged. She brings peace and truth. In Alberto's dream, she is perched on a pedestal placed on the axle of an antique chariot with very high wheels. This is the great paradox of Giacometti: the motionless woman symbolizes the movement because she is worshiped on the chariot.
Alberto is a perfectionist. He waits until 1950 to execute his fantasy. Any detail is important, such as the tightly attached legs. The arms are away from the body in a gesture of glory or freedom, but the angle of the elbows disappears when the sculpture is viewed from front. The work is of medium size, 1.45 m high, because it must not be intimidating or diminutive.
The bronze cast in 1951-1952 is a technical feat by Alexis Rudier company. The number 2/6 was sold for $ 101M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2014, lot 25. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This is an exceptional specimen by its golden patina that glorifies the subject and also because it has been carefully painted by the artist.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Bernadette Keefe @nxtstop1 Nov 9, 2014
Replying to @GTCost
“@GTCost: RT @BloombergNews: Giacometti’s “Chariot” sells 4 $101M -record Sotheby's art sale: http://bloom.bg/1zwyg9C
- The image depicts "The Chariot" by Alberto Giacometti, a 1950 bronze sculpture sold for $101 million at Sotheby's in 2014, reflecting the artwork's rarity and the booming postwar art market, which saw prices soar due to wealthy collectors and institutional buyers, as noted in a 2014 Artnet study on auction trends.
- Giacometti’s minimalist style, influenced by existentialism post-World War II, uses elongated figures and abstract forms to explore human fragility, a theme resonant with the era’s trauma, supported by art historian Reinhold Hohl’s analysis in his 1994 book "Giacometti: A Biography."
- The record-breaking sale occurred amid a global art market peak, later contrasted by a 2025 Bloomberg report on a sluggish market due to economic uncertainty and tariffs, highlighting the cyclical nature of art investment.
2
Trois Hommes qui marchent
2022 SOLD for $ 30M by Sotheby's
The story told by Giacometti takes place immediately after the war, tentatively in 1945. He goes to the cinema in Montparnasse. On the boulevard, he sees men walking and women standing. Everyone knows the reason for his or her immediate action, which is not accessible to others. A crowd is a gathering of lonely characters. Alberto is no longer inspired by cinema, which is nothing more than a projection of light on a screen. He decides that his art will be closer to real life.
He creates his world in 1947 with characters as threadlike as the barrels of the lamps which he produced before the war for Frank. His seminal trinity includes the man with the finger who will never reappear, like the Godot of his friend Beckett.
From 1948 he tries some variations of attitude such as L'Homme qui marche sous la pluie or L'Homme qui chavire. They are as ephemeral as L'Homme au doigt, because they do not deal with the mystery of the solitude of the individual in the group.
In 1948 he positions together on a tray several copies of his walking man, like a child playing with toy soldiers. The Trois Hommes qui marchent are produced in two versions, identified I and II (grand plateau and petit plateau respectively). The three characters approach or move away from each other. Compared with the petit plateau, the grand plateau provides the illusion of an open and non claustrophobic scenery.
Beside Trois hommes qui marchent, La Place, featuring four walking men and a standing woman, is also prepared in two versions. The movements in La Place cease to be incoherent : a group is being formed. These four works provide the most genuine response to the artist's existentialist quest. In 1950 his creativity will be more fanciful, with the grouping of characters of various scales.
The bronzes of such difficult figures with several thin characters were feats by the Alexis Rudier foundry.
Trois Hommes qui marchent I, 72 cm high, was edited in six copies starting in 1950. The number 2/6, made in 1950 with a dark brown patina, was sold for £ 9.4M by Sotheby's on June 25, 2008 and for £ 11.3M by Christie's on February 5, 2020, lot 14.
The 4/6, cast in 1950 with a brown and gold patina, was sold for $ 11.5M by Christie's on November 6, 2008, lot 21.
The bronze 5/6 of Trois hommes qui marchent (grand plateau), 72 cm high, was cast in 1951. Damaged in October 1951 during its custom clearance in the USA. It was sent back to Giacometti who had it recast and hand painted it in 1952 in various tones as specified by its new owner David M. Solinger.
It was sold for $ 30M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 8 in the auction of the Solinger collection. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
A bronze cast in 1948 of Trois Hommes qui marchent II, 76 cm high, was sold for £ 10.7M by Sotheby's on June 22, 2011.
He creates his world in 1947 with characters as threadlike as the barrels of the lamps which he produced before the war for Frank. His seminal trinity includes the man with the finger who will never reappear, like the Godot of his friend Beckett.
From 1948 he tries some variations of attitude such as L'Homme qui marche sous la pluie or L'Homme qui chavire. They are as ephemeral as L'Homme au doigt, because they do not deal with the mystery of the solitude of the individual in the group.
In 1948 he positions together on a tray several copies of his walking man, like a child playing with toy soldiers. The Trois Hommes qui marchent are produced in two versions, identified I and II (grand plateau and petit plateau respectively). The three characters approach or move away from each other. Compared with the petit plateau, the grand plateau provides the illusion of an open and non claustrophobic scenery.
Beside Trois hommes qui marchent, La Place, featuring four walking men and a standing woman, is also prepared in two versions. The movements in La Place cease to be incoherent : a group is being formed. These four works provide the most genuine response to the artist's existentialist quest. In 1950 his creativity will be more fanciful, with the grouping of characters of various scales.
The bronzes of such difficult figures with several thin characters were feats by the Alexis Rudier foundry.
Trois Hommes qui marchent I, 72 cm high, was edited in six copies starting in 1950. The number 2/6, made in 1950 with a dark brown patina, was sold for £ 9.4M by Sotheby's on June 25, 2008 and for £ 11.3M by Christie's on February 5, 2020, lot 14.
The 4/6, cast in 1950 with a brown and gold patina, was sold for $ 11.5M by Christie's on November 6, 2008, lot 21.
The bronze 5/6 of Trois hommes qui marchent (grand plateau), 72 cm high, was cast in 1951. Damaged in October 1951 during its custom clearance in the USA. It was sent back to Giacometti who had it recast and hand painted it in 1952 in various tones as specified by its new owner David M. Solinger.
It was sold for $ 30M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 8 in the auction of the Solinger collection. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
A bronze cast in 1948 of Trois Hommes qui marchent II, 76 cm high, was sold for £ 10.7M by Sotheby's on June 22, 2011.
1952 ROTHKO
1
Untitled
2014 SOLD for $ 66M by Christie's
Mark Rothko was a philosopher, musician, theorist, chemist. These qualities enabled him to develop a new artistic language. He was not alone, of course, and this new path is enriched by the experiences of Barnett Newman and Clyfford Still, in contrast to the action painting of Pollock and Kline.
His theme now so recognizable of the color fields had matured over two decades. He begins by challenging the figuration considered as a betrayal of the represented subject, and welcomes the moves of De Kooning and probably also Gorky who delete the difference between figurative and abstract.
He deviates from this trend by observing the intricacies of colors in the latest works by Matisse and Bonnard. He then develops a mixture suitable for his project with the best available pigments associated with turpentine and organic materials.
His goal is reached: Rothko's paint may be placed on the canvas in thin translucent layers that dry quickly and can be spread in wash or drawn with brush.
From his first trial of his new technique in 1950, Rothko achieved by his meticulous layering an infinite variety of colors mostly visible at the limits of his large rectangles. His color fields do not have a geometric border, in opposition to Mondrian.
One of his sixteen dramas made in 1950 welcomed four players : white, yellow, pink and lavender. This painting 206 x 141 cm was sold for $ 73M by Sotheby's in 2007.
He had been working in his apartment but deserved a more suitable working place to release his creative energy. In 1952 he set up his studio in the 53rd street in Manhattan, close to the MoMA.
The paintings made in 1952 are composed in confrontations of rectangles whose loose edges offer a gradient of colors which accentuates the feeling of attraction or repulsion between the blocks. His output was rather low but his work from that year displays a remarkable diversity in his experiments of colors.
On May 13, 2014, Christie's sold for $ 66M an oil on canvas 262 x 159 cm painted in 1952, lot 31.
This work is dominated at the top of the canvas by a huge purple square whose mesmerizing effect is balanced by a solid dark rectangle at the bottom of the image. These two conflicting actors are separated by an orange field. The yellow orange outlining the scene reminds that Rothko did not want his paintings to be enclosed in frames.
Grok thoughts :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 14, 2014
Mark Rothko's Untitled, 1952 realized $66,245,000
His theme now so recognizable of the color fields had matured over two decades. He begins by challenging the figuration considered as a betrayal of the represented subject, and welcomes the moves of De Kooning and probably also Gorky who delete the difference between figurative and abstract.
He deviates from this trend by observing the intricacies of colors in the latest works by Matisse and Bonnard. He then develops a mixture suitable for his project with the best available pigments associated with turpentine and organic materials.
His goal is reached: Rothko's paint may be placed on the canvas in thin translucent layers that dry quickly and can be spread in wash or drawn with brush.
From his first trial of his new technique in 1950, Rothko achieved by his meticulous layering an infinite variety of colors mostly visible at the limits of his large rectangles. His color fields do not have a geometric border, in opposition to Mondrian.
One of his sixteen dramas made in 1950 welcomed four players : white, yellow, pink and lavender. This painting 206 x 141 cm was sold for $ 73M by Sotheby's in 2007.
He had been working in his apartment but deserved a more suitable working place to release his creative energy. In 1952 he set up his studio in the 53rd street in Manhattan, close to the MoMA.
The paintings made in 1952 are composed in confrontations of rectangles whose loose edges offer a gradient of colors which accentuates the feeling of attraction or repulsion between the blocks. His output was rather low but his work from that year displays a remarkable diversity in his experiments of colors.
On May 13, 2014, Christie's sold for $ 66M an oil on canvas 262 x 159 cm painted in 1952, lot 31.
This work is dominated at the top of the canvas by a huge purple square whose mesmerizing effect is balanced by a solid dark rectangle at the bottom of the image. These two conflicting actors are separated by an orange field. The yellow orange outlining the scene reminds that Rothko did not want his paintings to be enclosed in frames.
Grok thoughts :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 14, 2014
Mark Rothko's Untitled, 1952 realized $66,245,000
- Mark Rothko's "Untitled" (1952) is an oil-on-canvas abstract expressionist work measuring 102.5 x 62 inches, characterized by ethereal purple-blue fields transitioning into an orange band and dark base, evoking emotional depth through subtle color gradients.
- The painting sold at Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York on May 13, 2014, for $66,245,000—hammer price $58 million plus premium—exceeding its $40-60 million estimate and contributing to the auction's record $1.07 billion total.
- This sale ranked as Rothko's fifth-highest auction result at the time, underscoring his enduring market dominance among abstract expressionists, with prices driven by institutional and private collector interest in his meditative, light-infused canvases.
2
No. 15
2008 SOLD for $ 50M by Christie's
No. 15, oil on canvas painted by Mark Rothko in 1952, was sold for $ 50M by Christie's on May 13, 2008, lot 23.
This important opus looks somehow experimental, in that breakthrough year when the artist improves his working conditions in his new studio.
The format, 233 x 203 cm, is nearly square, parting from his usual vertical compositions. The blocks look like a flat piece crushed between two tall and slightly wider vise jaws. The edges of these three blocks are severely jagged in the manner of Clyfford Still.
Viewed from far away the three masses seem to be in the same scarlet red. It is not the case. The upper and lower blocks are not in the same technique. One of them is denser while the other one was made in wet in wet. Similarly an underlining of the blocks breaks the apparent symmetries.
Over the yellow background, the red blocks achieve a 'shimmer', a wording used by the artist. In their actually steady position, they acquired and display a levitation, not far from a musical vibration.
Asking Grok to define significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Mark Rothko's "No. 15" (1952) represents a pivotal work from the zenith of his mature period, marking the full realization of his signature color field style that he developed around 1950 and sustained until his death in 1970.
This painting exemplifies his transition from earlier figurative and surrealist experiments in the 1930s and 1940s—rooted in Abstract Expressionism and a rejection of representational art's limitations—to a refined abstraction aimed at evoking profound human emotions like tragedy, ecstasy, and doom through large-scale chromatic fields.
By the early 1950s, Rothko had eliminated figures, interiors, and multiform shapes from his compositions, focusing instead on floating rectangular motifs that create a "shimmer" of color, fostering a visual silence akin to musical eloquence (drawing parallels to Mozart's pathos). Influenced by artists like Matisse, Mondrian, Bonnard, and Edward Hopper, as well as urban sensibilities and concepts from Romanticism (e.g., emotional afterglow reminiscent of Turner or Wordsworth), "No. 15" embodies Rothko's philosophy that "all of art is the portrait of an idea," inviting intimate viewer "transactions" with the canvas to provoke contemplation and inward reflection.
Its stylistic elements—such as layered reds, mustard yellows, lilac grays, varied textures (from glossy to matte), and subtle asymmetries—highlight the diversity and humanized abstraction within his oeuvre of over 400 mature canvases, underscoring his role in elevating color as a vehicle for spiritual and emotional depth during the height of his creative output in the 1950s.
This important opus looks somehow experimental, in that breakthrough year when the artist improves his working conditions in his new studio.
The format, 233 x 203 cm, is nearly square, parting from his usual vertical compositions. The blocks look like a flat piece crushed between two tall and slightly wider vise jaws. The edges of these three blocks are severely jagged in the manner of Clyfford Still.
Viewed from far away the three masses seem to be in the same scarlet red. It is not the case. The upper and lower blocks are not in the same technique. One of them is denser while the other one was made in wet in wet. Similarly an underlining of the blocks breaks the apparent symmetries.
Over the yellow background, the red blocks achieve a 'shimmer', a wording used by the artist. In their actually steady position, they acquired and display a levitation, not far from a musical vibration.
Asking Grok to define significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Mark Rothko's "No. 15" (1952) represents a pivotal work from the zenith of his mature period, marking the full realization of his signature color field style that he developed around 1950 and sustained until his death in 1970.
This painting exemplifies his transition from earlier figurative and surrealist experiments in the 1930s and 1940s—rooted in Abstract Expressionism and a rejection of representational art's limitations—to a refined abstraction aimed at evoking profound human emotions like tragedy, ecstasy, and doom through large-scale chromatic fields.
By the early 1950s, Rothko had eliminated figures, interiors, and multiform shapes from his compositions, focusing instead on floating rectangular motifs that create a "shimmer" of color, fostering a visual silence akin to musical eloquence (drawing parallels to Mozart's pathos). Influenced by artists like Matisse, Mondrian, Bonnard, and Edward Hopper, as well as urban sensibilities and concepts from Romanticism (e.g., emotional afterglow reminiscent of Turner or Wordsworth), "No. 15" embodies Rothko's philosophy that "all of art is the portrait of an idea," inviting intimate viewer "transactions" with the canvas to provoke contemplation and inward reflection.
Its stylistic elements—such as layered reds, mustard yellows, lilac grays, varied textures (from glossy to matte), and subtle asymmetries—highlight the diversity and humanized abstraction within his oeuvre of over 400 mature canvases, underscoring his role in elevating color as a vehicle for spiritual and emotional depth during the height of his creative output in the 1950s.
3
Lavender and Green
2015 SOLD for $ 20.4M by Sotheby's
On November 4, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 20.4M an oil on canvas 172 x 113 cm painted in 1952, lot 33T.
The balance between lavender and green offers here a further refinement with a lightening effect in the middle of the upper block. It is one of the works in which the abstraction by Rothko is closest to nature with an unmistakable influence from the colors of Monet's pond.
Please watch the video in which Sotheby's introduces this lot followed by a painting made ten years later by the same artist, offered in the same sale with the same estimate.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
The balance between lavender and green offers here a further refinement with a lightening effect in the middle of the upper block. It is one of the works in which the abstraction by Rothko is closest to nature with an unmistakable influence from the colors of Monet's pond.
Please watch the video in which Sotheby's introduces this lot followed by a painting made ten years later by the same artist, offered in the same sale with the same estimate.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
- This 2015 X post from @ArtHitParade previews the November 4 Sotheby's New York auction of Mark Rothko's abstract oil painting Untitled (Lavender and Green) (1952), featuring soft overlapping fields of lavender, green, and subtle earth tones evoking emotional depth typical of Rothko's mid-century style.
- The work sold for $20.4 million, just meeting its low estimate, as part of the $377 million dispersal of A. Alfred Taubman's collection—Taubman, former Sotheby's chairman, had amassed it amid his 2002 conviction for auction house price-fixing.
- Rothko's market resilience is evident here; despite economic uncertainties, his pieces from this period averaged $25-40 million in sales through 2015, per auction data, underscoring sustained demand for Abstract Expressionist works blending spirituality and color theory.
1952 Study for a Head by Bacon
2019 SOLD for $ 50M by Sotheby's
Francis Bacon used to destroy his own works as soon as they did not suit him anymore. Almost everything has gone. An oil on linen simply titled and dated Painting 1946 survived because it was bought very early by the gallerist Erica Brausen for Graham Sutherland.
Painting 1946 is a surrealist work. The artist originally wanted to stage a chimpanzee because visitors like to recognize themselves in a painting as in their own mirror. The monkey turned into a bird of prey and then into a foul creature encircled behind a barrier like in a museum.
The success of Painting 1946 led in 1949 to the project of a series of six Heads, also supported by Brausen. With an increasing intensity from I to VI, Bacon frees two of his major obsessions, the snapshot of death symbolized by the scream of the old woman in Battleship Potemkin, and the vanity of power symbolized by Velazquez's Innocent X.
For many years Bacon paints studies associating the same hallucinations. An impotent pope is trapped on his throne as in a cage. The resemblance to the Eisenstein film scene is reinforced by the broken nose-clip in front of the swollen eye. He no longer needs a monkey to offer to the viewer the mirror of his horror.
On May 16, 2019, Sotheby's sold for $ 50M from a lower estimate of $ 20M Study for a Head, oil and sand on canvas 66 x 56 cm painted in 1952, lot 9.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys May 17, 2019
#AuctionUpdate: Bringing home the Bacon: From the collection of Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis, Francis Bacon’s ‘Study for a Head’, an outstanding example of the artist’s most recognizable iconography: the ‘screaming Pope’ brings $50.4 million
Painting 1946 is a surrealist work. The artist originally wanted to stage a chimpanzee because visitors like to recognize themselves in a painting as in their own mirror. The monkey turned into a bird of prey and then into a foul creature encircled behind a barrier like in a museum.
The success of Painting 1946 led in 1949 to the project of a series of six Heads, also supported by Brausen. With an increasing intensity from I to VI, Bacon frees two of his major obsessions, the snapshot of death symbolized by the scream of the old woman in Battleship Potemkin, and the vanity of power symbolized by Velazquez's Innocent X.
For many years Bacon paints studies associating the same hallucinations. An impotent pope is trapped on his throne as in a cage. The resemblance to the Eisenstein film scene is reinforced by the broken nose-clip in front of the swollen eye. He no longer needs a monkey to offer to the viewer the mirror of his horror.
On May 16, 2019, Sotheby's sold for $ 50M from a lower estimate of $ 20M Study for a Head, oil and sand on canvas 66 x 56 cm painted in 1952, lot 9.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys May 17, 2019
#AuctionUpdate: Bringing home the Bacon: From the collection of Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis, Francis Bacon’s ‘Study for a Head’, an outstanding example of the artist’s most recognizable iconography: the ‘screaming Pope’ brings $50.4 million
- Sotheby's announced the $50.4 million sale of Francis Bacon's 1952 "Study for a Head" from a private collection, exceeding its $20-30 million estimate in the 2019 Contemporary Art Evening Auction.
- The painting depicts a distorted, screaming figure in clerical attire, part of Bacon's iconic "screaming Pope" series inspired by Velázquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X, symbolizing existential anguish through smeared oil and sand on canvas.
- This record price underscored Bacon's enduring market dominance, with his works averaging over $20 million at auction since 2010, reflecting collector interest in his raw exploration of human suffering.
1952 Quatre Nus by Sanyu
2020 SOLD for HK$ 260M by Sotheby's
When he quarreled with Roché in 1932, Sanyu lost his chances of a commercial recognition of his art. After the second world war, his works become more experimental, in search of a perfection that would mix the pictorial traditions of East and West. Most of his paintings from this period are made on masonite, which had the advantage of being cheap.
The 1950s were very difficult for Sanyu. Returning to Paris in 1950, he lived with small jobs : painting of furniture, carpentry, promotion of ping pong. He does not forget that he is mostly an artist. He no longer has a customer, but he feels a new maturity in him. Eroticism succeeds innocence. He is much isolated and his works from this period are generally impossible to date with precision.
Sanyu died of gas poisoning in August 1966. He had no heir and his workshop was dispersed in the following month at the Hôtel Drouot. Fortunately, a regular in that auction room named Yves Bideau had the right feeling : he bought the top lots. This event marks the start of the posthumous fame of this artist who had introduced Chinese sensibility into Western art.
Bideau bought in particular Léopard rose, Cinq nus and the ultimate Nu dated 4.1965. The recent results recorded on these lots were respectively HK $ 49M by Sotheby's on March 31, 2018, HK $ 304M by Christie's on November 23, 2019 and HK $ 198M by Sotheby's on October 5, 2019.
On July 8, 2020, Sotheby's sold as lot 1024 for HK $ 260M Quatre nus, oil on masonite 100 x 122 cm originally purchased by Bideau at the same Drouot sale.
The four women are reclining side by side on an emerald green background which evokes a quiet nap on the grass on a hot summer day. Two of them chat, breaking away from the usual inactivity of Sanyu's women.
Compared to the standing women of the Cinq nus referred above, the skin color is warm. The same desire to show the diversity of hair colors for European women indicates that these two artworks were conceived for the same series. The eyes are awkward : Sanyu could not convincingly explain why so many of his women are one eyed. These two pieces are to be compared with the desire for an easy life pushed by the cinema in the 1950s.
Description by Grok , including some comparison with the 1955 Cinq nus.
Composition
Four nude women lounging on a golden "tapis d’or" (golden carpet or lawn), each with distinct facial expressions and postures (e.g., one gazing upward, another in profile). More static and seductive, with a layered, almost theatrical arrangement that highlights diversity in body types and cultural influences (e.g., subtle nods to non-Western features). Part of a rare set of three similar group nudes (the largest of the trio).
Style & Technique
Similar calligraphic lines and pastel palette, but with richer golds and earth tones for a warmer, more "seductive" glow. Figures reduced to essential curves, blending Rothko-like color fields with Eastern freehand sensibility. Described as the "most seductive" of Sanyu's nudes, with a focus on emotional repose. Signed lower right.
Cultural/Market Significance
Quatre : Highlights Sanyu's 1950s "breakthrough" in group nudes; rare as one of just six such multi-figure works. Its 2020 sale (up 1,500% from 2005) reflects surging demand amid Hong Kong's auction boom, positioning it as a "masterwork from an era of stunning beauty."
In summary, Cinq Nus stands out for its grandeur and record-shattering scale, embodying Sanyu's most ambitious synthesis of East-West aesthetics, while Quatre Nus captivates with intimate sensuality and rarity as part of a matched set. Both fueled Sanyu's market ascent, with combined sales exceeding US$67 million, and remain cornerstones of his ~56 nude oils, which comprise a core of his oeuvre.
Estimated Execution Date
Sanyu's nude series evolved gradually without precise dating, often based on stylistic shifts, provenance, and exhibition records. Scholarly sources (e.g., Rita Wong's Sanyu Catalogue Raisonné: Oil Paintings, 2001/2011) and auction house analyses provide the following estimates:
The 1950s were very difficult for Sanyu. Returning to Paris in 1950, he lived with small jobs : painting of furniture, carpentry, promotion of ping pong. He does not forget that he is mostly an artist. He no longer has a customer, but he feels a new maturity in him. Eroticism succeeds innocence. He is much isolated and his works from this period are generally impossible to date with precision.
Sanyu died of gas poisoning in August 1966. He had no heir and his workshop was dispersed in the following month at the Hôtel Drouot. Fortunately, a regular in that auction room named Yves Bideau had the right feeling : he bought the top lots. This event marks the start of the posthumous fame of this artist who had introduced Chinese sensibility into Western art.
Bideau bought in particular Léopard rose, Cinq nus and the ultimate Nu dated 4.1965. The recent results recorded on these lots were respectively HK $ 49M by Sotheby's on March 31, 2018, HK $ 304M by Christie's on November 23, 2019 and HK $ 198M by Sotheby's on October 5, 2019.
On July 8, 2020, Sotheby's sold as lot 1024 for HK $ 260M Quatre nus, oil on masonite 100 x 122 cm originally purchased by Bideau at the same Drouot sale.
The four women are reclining side by side on an emerald green background which evokes a quiet nap on the grass on a hot summer day. Two of them chat, breaking away from the usual inactivity of Sanyu's women.
Compared to the standing women of the Cinq nus referred above, the skin color is warm. The same desire to show the diversity of hair colors for European women indicates that these two artworks were conceived for the same series. The eyes are awkward : Sanyu could not convincingly explain why so many of his women are one eyed. These two pieces are to be compared with the desire for an easy life pushed by the cinema in the 1950s.
Description by Grok , including some comparison with the 1955 Cinq nus.
Composition
Four nude women lounging on a golden "tapis d’or" (golden carpet or lawn), each with distinct facial expressions and postures (e.g., one gazing upward, another in profile). More static and seductive, with a layered, almost theatrical arrangement that highlights diversity in body types and cultural influences (e.g., subtle nods to non-Western features). Part of a rare set of three similar group nudes (the largest of the trio).
Style & Technique
Similar calligraphic lines and pastel palette, but with richer golds and earth tones for a warmer, more "seductive" glow. Figures reduced to essential curves, blending Rothko-like color fields with Eastern freehand sensibility. Described as the "most seductive" of Sanyu's nudes, with a focus on emotional repose. Signed lower right.
Cultural/Market Significance
Quatre : Highlights Sanyu's 1950s "breakthrough" in group nudes; rare as one of just six such multi-figure works. Its 2020 sale (up 1,500% from 2005) reflects surging demand amid Hong Kong's auction boom, positioning it as a "masterwork from an era of stunning beauty."
In summary, Cinq Nus stands out for its grandeur and record-shattering scale, embodying Sanyu's most ambitious synthesis of East-West aesthetics, while Quatre Nus captivates with intimate sensuality and rarity as part of a matched set. Both fueled Sanyu's market ascent, with combined sales exceeding US$67 million, and remain cornerstones of his ~56 nude oils, which comprise a core of his oeuvre.
Estimated Execution Date
Sanyu's nude series evolved gradually without precise dating, often based on stylistic shifts, provenance, and exhibition records. Scholarly sources (e.g., Rita Wong's Sanyu Catalogue Raisonné: Oil Paintings, 2001/2011) and auction house analyses provide the following estimates:
- Quatre Nus: 1952 (precise) or circa 1950s (broader). Sotheby's and The Value cite 1952 explicitly, linking it to contemporaneous works like Trois Nus and Quatre Nus sur un Tapis d’Or (for a 1952 Taipei solo exhibition at the National Museum of History). Artsy and Widewalls use "1950s," but the consensus narrows to early in the decade, reflecting his post-war refinement of multi-figure harmony.
1952 Onement V by Newman
2020 SOLD for $ 31M by Christie's
For Barnett Newman, creation is not an empty word. The atrocities of his time made figurative art inappropriate and indecent. He will develop an expiatory art to redefine the sublime.
He finds the solution in 1948 by covering the canvas with a monochrome painting centered with a sticky strip coated with another color. This area will later be called the zip. To better express the mystical forces that govern the universe, it is strictly vertical, axial and complete from top to bottom of the image.
When the zip is narrow, it is perceived as a gathering of the left and right sides and not as a separation. For his first zipped work, Newman builds the neologism Onement, an apheresis of atonement for evoking the wholeness.
Onement II, III and IV are variations executed in 1948 and 1949. In 1949 he paints his first work with two vertical zips, appropriately titled Galaxy. This oil on canvas 63 x 51 cm was sold for $ 10M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018. Other titles will invite later for a biblical interpretation.
Onement V is painted in 1952, which coincides by chance or by intellectual refinement with the fifth year of the series. There is a minimal contrast between the monochrome blue and the green-cyan zip. His process at that date includes a lightning tear of the sticky tape.
Onement V, oil on canvas 152 x 96 cm, was sold by Christie's for $ 22.5M on May 8, 2012, lot 24 and for $ 31M on July 10, 2020, lot 66 renumbered 52A.
With the same logic, the apotheosis of the series is Onement VI, painted during the sixth year of the creation. This large oil on canvas 300 x 260 cm is again blue but it is centered with a bright white zip. It was sold for $ 44M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2013.
Barnett Newman has the same goal as Rothko to integrate the visitor into his space but his process of realization is much simpler. His minimalist art anticipates the monochromes of Yves Klein and the lacerations of Lucio Fontana.
He finds the solution in 1948 by covering the canvas with a monochrome painting centered with a sticky strip coated with another color. This area will later be called the zip. To better express the mystical forces that govern the universe, it is strictly vertical, axial and complete from top to bottom of the image.
When the zip is narrow, it is perceived as a gathering of the left and right sides and not as a separation. For his first zipped work, Newman builds the neologism Onement, an apheresis of atonement for evoking the wholeness.
Onement II, III and IV are variations executed in 1948 and 1949. In 1949 he paints his first work with two vertical zips, appropriately titled Galaxy. This oil on canvas 63 x 51 cm was sold for $ 10M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018. Other titles will invite later for a biblical interpretation.
Onement V is painted in 1952, which coincides by chance or by intellectual refinement with the fifth year of the series. There is a minimal contrast between the monochrome blue and the green-cyan zip. His process at that date includes a lightning tear of the sticky tape.
Onement V, oil on canvas 152 x 96 cm, was sold by Christie's for $ 22.5M on May 8, 2012, lot 24 and for $ 31M on July 10, 2020, lot 66 renumbered 52A.
With the same logic, the apotheosis of the series is Onement VI, painted during the sixth year of the creation. This large oil on canvas 300 x 260 cm is again blue but it is centered with a bright white zip. It was sold for $ 44M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2013.
Barnett Newman has the same goal as Rothko to integrate the visitor into his space but his process of realization is much simpler. His minimalist art anticipates the monochromes of Yves Klein and the lacerations of Lucio Fontana.
1952 Parc des Princes by de Staël
2019 SOLD for € 20M by Christie's
Nicolas de Staël wanted to introduce a new modernism in pictorial art at a time when American artists were developing the abstract expressionism. He tries geometric structures painted in various shades of gray sprinkled with traces of his knife in the impasto. This period culminates with a monumental opus 204 x 405 cm named Composition 1950 which was sold for € 4.2M by Sotheby's on June 3, 2014.
He appreciates that a full abstraction cannot express an artist's relationship to the world. He begins to state that abstraction and figuration are not incompatible. One of his confidants is René Char, the poet who gave freedom to words.
Nicolas and his wife attend a football match at the Parc des Princes on March 26, 1952. This event was an example of modernism, being one of the first to be played in the night under the spotlights. Saturated colors are new to the sport. The atmosphere does not alter the vitality of the boys focused on their actions. The result, 1-0 for Sweden against France, probably did not interest Nicolas.
The hypersensitive artist felt a lasting empathy for both teams. Back in his workshop, he produced in a few weeks a series of 25 paintings, providing his interpretation of the variety of movements.
Almost all these Footballeurs paintings are in small sizes. An oil on canvas 200 x 350 cm is an exception. Titled Parc des Princes by the artist and differentiated from the others by its subtitle Les Grands Footballeurs, it has been kept by the family until being sold for € 20M by Christie's on October 17, 2019, lot 12.
He appreciates that a full abstraction cannot express an artist's relationship to the world. He begins to state that abstraction and figuration are not incompatible. One of his confidants is René Char, the poet who gave freedom to words.
Nicolas and his wife attend a football match at the Parc des Princes on March 26, 1952. This event was an example of modernism, being one of the first to be played in the night under the spotlights. Saturated colors are new to the sport. The atmosphere does not alter the vitality of the boys focused on their actions. The result, 1-0 for Sweden against France, probably did not interest Nicolas.
The hypersensitive artist felt a lasting empathy for both teams. Back in his workshop, he produced in a few weeks a series of 25 paintings, providing his interpretation of the variety of movements.
Almost all these Footballeurs paintings are in small sizes. An oil on canvas 200 x 350 cm is an exception. Titled Parc des Princes by the artist and differentiated from the others by its subtitle Les Grands Footballeurs, it has been kept by the family until being sold for € 20M by Christie's on October 17, 2019, lot 12.
Nicolas de Staël: A Retrospective Psychological Interpretation of Life and Art
Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955), a Russian-born French painter, led a life marked by early trauma, artistic intensity, and ultimate despair. While no formal psychiatric diagnosis exists from his lifetime—mental health evaluation was less advanced in mid-20th-century France—biographical accounts consistently describe symptoms of severe depression, exhaustion, insomnia, and overwhelming pressure. His suicide at age 41, by jumping from his studio terrace in Antibes on March 16, 1955, came amid professional success but personal turmoil, including a recent critical rejection and separation from his family. This act aligns with major depressive disorder, potentially compounded by existential crisis or unresolved grief.
Early Life and Traumatic Foundations
Born into Russian aristocracy in St. Petersburg, de Staël fled the 1917 Revolution with his family, who died soon after (parents by 1922). Orphaned and exiled, he was raised in Brussels by a Russian family. These losses—displacement, bereavement, and rootlessness—likely fostered deep insecurity and alienation, common precursors to depressive vulnerability. His nomadic travels in the 1930s (Europe, North Africa) and wartime hardships (French Foreign Legion service, poverty in occupied France) intensified this, culminating in the 1946 death of his partner Jeannine Guillou from illness amid deprivation.
Such cumulative trauma often contributes to chronic low mood, emotional numbness, or heightened sensitivity—evident in de Staël's self-described need to paint as liberation from "impressions, feelings, and anxieties."
Artistic Evolution as Psychological Expression
De Staël's style evolved dramatically, reflecting internal struggles between abstraction (emotional detachment) and figuration (engagement with reality):
Key Paintings Illustrating Psychological Themes
De Staël's mature works often evoke melancholy horizons, vast spaces, and material thickness—symbolizing isolation, burden, or yearning for transcendence.
De Staël painted to process anxiety and seek beauty, describing himself as "hungry to paint beautiful things." Yet success amplified isolation—he felt unable to reconcile abstraction/figuration or sustain energy. His suicide, after writing "I have not the strength to complete my paintings," reflects profound hopelessness. In modern terms, this suggests untreated major depression, possibly with existential features common in creative individuals. His legacy endures as a poignant fusion of torment and transcendence.
Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955), a Russian-born French painter, led a life marked by early trauma, artistic intensity, and ultimate despair. While no formal psychiatric diagnosis exists from his lifetime—mental health evaluation was less advanced in mid-20th-century France—biographical accounts consistently describe symptoms of severe depression, exhaustion, insomnia, and overwhelming pressure. His suicide at age 41, by jumping from his studio terrace in Antibes on March 16, 1955, came amid professional success but personal turmoil, including a recent critical rejection and separation from his family. This act aligns with major depressive disorder, potentially compounded by existential crisis or unresolved grief.
Early Life and Traumatic Foundations
Born into Russian aristocracy in St. Petersburg, de Staël fled the 1917 Revolution with his family, who died soon after (parents by 1922). Orphaned and exiled, he was raised in Brussels by a Russian family. These losses—displacement, bereavement, and rootlessness—likely fostered deep insecurity and alienation, common precursors to depressive vulnerability. His nomadic travels in the 1930s (Europe, North Africa) and wartime hardships (French Foreign Legion service, poverty in occupied France) intensified this, culminating in the 1946 death of his partner Jeannine Guillou from illness amid deprivation.
Such cumulative trauma often contributes to chronic low mood, emotional numbness, or heightened sensitivity—evident in de Staël's self-described need to paint as liberation from "impressions, feelings, and anxieties."
Artistic Evolution as Psychological Expression
De Staël's style evolved dramatically, reflecting internal struggles between abstraction (emotional detachment) and figuration (engagement with reality):
- Early abstraction (1940s–early 1950s) — Thick impasto in muted, dark palettes (grays, blacks) suggests emotional heaviness and introspection, possibly mirroring depressive withdrawal.
- Mid-period shift (1950s) — Brighter colors and landscapes (inspired by southern France) indicate attempts at vitality and connection.
- Late return to figuration (1953–1955) — Seascapes, still lifes, and scenes like football matches or musicians show bolder, luminous works—yet unfinished canvases (e.g., Le Grand Concert) hint at frustration and depletion.
Key Paintings Illustrating Psychological Themes
De Staël's mature works often evoke melancholy horizons, vast spaces, and material thickness—symbolizing isolation, burden, or yearning for transcendence.
- Mediterranean Landscape (1953): Vibrant yet abstracted Provence scene; reflects recovery attempts in the south but underscores unresolved tension.
- Marine la Nuit (1954): Dark nocturnal seascape; evokes insomnia and nocturnal despair.
- Agrigente (1954): Luminous Sicilian landscape; brighter palette suggests fleeting hope.
- Parc des Princes (1952): Dynamic football match under lights; energetic yet impersonal figures may represent observed vitality amid personal detachment.
De Staël painted to process anxiety and seek beauty, describing himself as "hungry to paint beautiful things." Yet success amplified isolation—he felt unable to reconcile abstraction/figuration or sustain energy. His suicide, after writing "I have not the strength to complete my paintings," reflects profound hopelessness. In modern terms, this suggests untreated major depression, possibly with existential features common in creative individuals. His legacy endures as a poignant fusion of torment and transcendence.
1952 Fish by Calder
2019 SOLD for $ 17.5M by Christie's
The mobiles were invented by Calder. Built around a trunk or suspended from the ceiling by a string, these works of art move with the air flow. They are appealing by their humor but their balance that may seem precarious meets the design accuracy of the engineer. The materials are commonplace.
Calder's encounter with the fish was a must. The animal moves freely in its aquarium like the leaf of a mobile. Its shape seen by Calder is childishly simple : the lines of the body cross to form the tail.
Around 1942 he hooks two filiform fish as mobiles within a stabile surrounding of water weeds. This composite work 52 cm high was sold for $ 2.53M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018.
In 1946 he creates for Peggy Guggenheim's personal use a fish mobile which will become a subject of amusement in her cocktail parties.
On May 15, 2019, Christie's sold for $ 17.5M from a lower estimate of $ 12.5M Fish, hanging mobile 39 x 112 cm made by Calder around 1952, lot 14 B. The outline of this nice fish is made of a few metal rods in the style of a child's drawing. The mouth is wide open. The crossing of two rods binds body and tail. The signature of the initials CA of the artist, made in two folded strings, hangs from that place.
In this subtle frame that might seem rudimentary, the artist has positioned an eye and 33 fish scales. An inner circle reinforces the figure of the eye. A piece of broken glass is tied by a string in each cell. Each piece of glass has another shape and the colors are of high diversity. The movement of the mobile changes the shining effect of these colored elements.
Calder's encounter with the fish was a must. The animal moves freely in its aquarium like the leaf of a mobile. Its shape seen by Calder is childishly simple : the lines of the body cross to form the tail.
Around 1942 he hooks two filiform fish as mobiles within a stabile surrounding of water weeds. This composite work 52 cm high was sold for $ 2.53M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018.
In 1946 he creates for Peggy Guggenheim's personal use a fish mobile which will become a subject of amusement in her cocktail parties.
On May 15, 2019, Christie's sold for $ 17.5M from a lower estimate of $ 12.5M Fish, hanging mobile 39 x 112 cm made by Calder around 1952, lot 14 B. The outline of this nice fish is made of a few metal rods in the style of a child's drawing. The mouth is wide open. The crossing of two rods binds body and tail. The signature of the initials CA of the artist, made in two folded strings, hangs from that place.
In this subtle frame that might seem rudimentary, the artist has positioned an eye and 33 fish scales. An inner circle reinforces the figure of the eye. A piece of broken glass is tied by a string in each cell. Each piece of glass has another shape and the colors are of high diversity. The movement of the mobile changes the shining effect of these colored elements.
