1954
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Magritte Rothko Early Rothko Giacometti Picasso 1940-60 Germany II Bacon < 1963 Fu Baoshi Cities Cars Cars of the 1950s Cars 1953-54 Mercedes-Benz Formula One
See also : Magritte Rothko Early Rothko Giacometti Picasso 1940-60 Germany II Bacon < 1963 Fu Baoshi Cities Cars Cars of the 1950s Cars 1953-54 Mercedes-Benz Formula One
masterpiece
1954-1955 Flag by Johns
MoMA
Artistic creation has no limits in New York in 1954. Very young artists endeavor to reject into the past the Abstract Expressionism that was yet barely ten years old.
After meeting Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, aged 24, had one of the most effective intuitions of modern art. Duchamp had introduced the ready mades in artistic creation. In an extension from Malevich, not only the canvas is an object but also the paint and the theme are objects.
The three saturated colors of the American flag are to Johns an incentive for new art. His flags identical to the official pieces will be painted on all kinds of materials including newspapers and actual flags.
Like Cézanne, he works within the contours as in a cloisonné. Unlike Pollock and Rothko, the first meticulous gesture must be the right one. Any dripping is therefore intentional, which requires a fast drying : Johns painted in wax.
In his artistic vision, that theme of the US flag enables to offer to the public a familiar theme without falling into a hermetic abstraction.
Leo Castelli understands how much the art can be changed by this innovation. Favoring the material instead of shape and color, Johns comes in the follow of Burri. He anticipates Manzoni's achromes and Ryder's white on white while his treatment of a recognizable object is announcing the pop art by Warhol and Lichtenstein.
Analyze Johns's Flag painting
Jasper Johns – Flag (1954–1955)
Encaustic, oil, and collage on plywood, 42¼ × 60⅝ in (107.3 × 154 cm)
Museum of Modern Art, New York (gift of Philip Johnson in honor of Alfred H. Barr, Jr.)
This is the painting that changed everything.
1. The Origin Story
Johns famously said he dreamed of painting an American flag and then woke up and did it. Executed in 1954–55 (with several versions made over the next few years), this first Flag is the one that stunned Leo Castelli when he visited Johns’s studio in 1958 and immediately offered him a solo show. Alfred Barr bought three paintings from that debut exhibition for MoMA on the spot — including this Flag.
2. Technique and Physical Presence
A. It is both a flag and a painting of a flag
The central question Johns forces:
When is a flag no longer a flag and just a painting?
When is a painting no longer just a painting but a flag?
The work collapses the distinction between object and representation.
B. “Things the mind already knows”
Like targets, maps, and numbers, the flag is an image everyone recognizes instantly. By choosing something pre-known, Johns removes the need for invention and instead focuses on perception itself. There is no “subject matter” to interpret — only the act of looking.
C. Deadpan neutrality vs. emotional charge
The flag is one of the most emotionally loaded symbols in American life (patriotism, war, protest, death). Yet Johns paints it with cool detachment — no heroic gestures, no commentary. The neutrality becomes the commentary: the painting refuses to tell you how to feel about the flag.D. Critique of Abstract Expressionism
In 1954, AbEx (Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko) was still the dominant mode: large scale, personal gesture, spiritual ambition. Johns uses the same scale and all-over energy, but replaces existential anguish with a readymade image. The brushstrokes are visible, sensual, and lush — yet they serve no expressive purpose. It is heroic painting with the heroism deliberately drained out.4. Historical Impact
Johns returned obsessively to the flag motif for decades:
6. One Sentence Summary
With Flag, Jasper Johns took the most familiar, over-determined image in American visual culture, painted it with exquisite sensuality and absolute emotional restraint, and in doing so invented the strategy that would dominate advanced art for the next half-century: the use of the readymade image to question the very nature of painting, meaning, and perception.
After meeting Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, aged 24, had one of the most effective intuitions of modern art. Duchamp had introduced the ready mades in artistic creation. In an extension from Malevich, not only the canvas is an object but also the paint and the theme are objects.
The three saturated colors of the American flag are to Johns an incentive for new art. His flags identical to the official pieces will be painted on all kinds of materials including newspapers and actual flags.
Like Cézanne, he works within the contours as in a cloisonné. Unlike Pollock and Rothko, the first meticulous gesture must be the right one. Any dripping is therefore intentional, which requires a fast drying : Johns painted in wax.
In his artistic vision, that theme of the US flag enables to offer to the public a familiar theme without falling into a hermetic abstraction.
Leo Castelli understands how much the art can be changed by this innovation. Favoring the material instead of shape and color, Johns comes in the follow of Burri. He anticipates Manzoni's achromes and Ryder's white on white while his treatment of a recognizable object is announcing the pop art by Warhol and Lichtenstein.
Analyze Johns's Flag painting
Jasper Johns – Flag (1954–1955)
Encaustic, oil, and collage on plywood, 42¼ × 60⅝ in (107.3 × 154 cm)
Museum of Modern Art, New York (gift of Philip Johnson in honor of Alfred H. Barr, Jr.)
This is the painting that changed everything.
1. The Origin Story
Johns famously said he dreamed of painting an American flag and then woke up and did it. Executed in 1954–55 (with several versions made over the next few years), this first Flag is the one that stunned Leo Castelli when he visited Johns’s studio in 1958 and immediately offered him a solo show. Alfred Barr bought three paintings from that debut exhibition for MoMA on the spot — including this Flag.
2. Technique and Physical Presence
- Medium: Encaustic (pigmented hot wax) mixed with oil paint, applied over strips of newspaper and fabric collage.
- Surface: Thick, buttery, heavily worked — you can see fingerprints, drips, and the weave of the cloth through the wax.
- The encaustic gives the flag a strange, ancient, almost archaeological feel — as if it were an artifact dug up rather than a freshly painted image.
- The 48-star flag (pre-Alaska and Hawaii) is rendered at almost exactly to official proportions, but slightly imperfect by hand.
A. It is both a flag and a painting of a flag
The central question Johns forces:
When is a flag no longer a flag and just a painting?
When is a painting no longer just a painting but a flag?
The work collapses the distinction between object and representation.
B. “Things the mind already knows”
Like targets, maps, and numbers, the flag is an image everyone recognizes instantly. By choosing something pre-known, Johns removes the need for invention and instead focuses on perception itself. There is no “subject matter” to interpret — only the act of looking.
C. Deadpan neutrality vs. emotional charge
The flag is one of the most emotionally loaded symbols in American life (patriotism, war, protest, death). Yet Johns paints it with cool detachment — no heroic gestures, no commentary. The neutrality becomes the commentary: the painting refuses to tell you how to feel about the flag.D. Critique of Abstract Expressionism
In 1954, AbEx (Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko) was still the dominant mode: large scale, personal gesture, spiritual ambition. Johns uses the same scale and all-over energy, but replaces existential anguish with a readymade image. The brushstrokes are visible, sensual, and lush — yet they serve no expressive purpose. It is heroic painting with the heroism deliberately drained out.4. Historical Impact
- Ended the reign of Abstract Expressionism almost single-handedly (along with Rauschenberg’s combines).
- Opened the door to Pop Art (Warhol’s flags and disasters owe a direct debt), Minimalism, and Conceptual Art.
- Made it acceptable — even radical — for an artist to use pre-existing imagery without irony, appropriation, and the questioning of authorship all begin here.
Johns returned obsessively to the flag motif for decades:
- Three Flags (1958) — stacked in diminishing size, creating a 3D effect
- White Flag (1955), Flag (Moratorium) (1969), burned and gunshot flags in the 1980s
- Even in the 2010s, flag fragments appear in the Regrets series
6. One Sentence Summary
With Flag, Jasper Johns took the most familiar, over-determined image in American visual culture, painted it with exquisite sensuality and absolute emotional restraint, and in doing so invented the strategy that would dominate advanced art for the next half-century: the use of the readymade image to question the very nature of painting, meaning, and perception.
1954 L'Empire des Lumières by Magritte
2024 SOLD for $ 120M by Christie's
Surrealism is most often requiring an uneasy decoding. When practiced by René Magritte, it sometimes disturbs the viewer by the very simplicity of the message. La Trahison des Images painted in 1929 became the symbol of that language which is both offbeat and poetic.
With its title attributed by Paul Nougé, L'Empire des lumières reached a similar notoriety. The theme is commonplace : a night view of a suburb inspired by the Brussels district where Magritte resides.
The inhabitants are not visible but we imagine them behind the lighted windows. A lamppost illuminates the street with a questionable effectiveness. Beside these few glows the shadows are saturated. No contradiction of scale comes to puzzle the viewer.
Above this peaceful night the sky is blue, dotted with white clouds. The artist asks a poetic question for which he knows that there is no answer : are day and night incompatible or are they two complementary elements of real life ? In pre war works such as Le Poison, the addition of the crescent moon and starred sky on the façade added the surrealist feeling that Magritte removed in L'Empire des lumières.
The first oil variant of the Empire des lumières was completed in 1949. This canvas 49 x 59 cm was sold by Christie's for $ 35M on November 9, 2023, lot 16 B.
Nobody dared questioning if the Empire des lumières was not just a mere realistic twilight. It somehow illustrates a typically Surrealist verse by Breton : 'Si seulement il faisait du soleil cette nuit'. Indeed when Magritte relocated in a quiet residential corner in Brussels in the fall of 1955, he wrote to a friend : “You will see: in the evenings, it’s like being in the picture L'Empire des Lumières".
René Magritte used to execute remakes of his preferred titles with images slightly different from one another. The 17 oil variants of L'Empire des Lumières are all different while maintaining the same theme of night and day in a quiet suburb.
The number III, oil in canvas 80 x 66 cm, was painted in 1951. It is departing from the first two by a setting in the distance that cancels the street and the streetlamp. Beside the dark foreground the row of a single house with silhouetted trees looks desperately flat. The ten apertures of the house in two floors are brilliantly lit from behind.
The residents are absent. Viewers looking for a human representation cannot any more focus on the lamp. They find a boulder on the lawn and an oversized tree beside the house. At the same time with La Forêt, Giacometti personalized the trees.
This version was sold for $ 42M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2023, lot 3.
The removal of the streetlamp was not convincing for the balance of the image. This equipment was restituted in all the subsequent oil versions.
In 1954 Magritte added a significant goodie in three opuses of L'Empire des Lumières. He superseded the dark foreground by a waterway, doubling the points of light by their rippling reflection. The three were prepared by the artist for deceived buyers disappointed after he sold a promised large size example to Peggy Guggenheim at the Venice Biennale.
One of them, 146 x 114 cm, is still kept by its original owner, the Musées Royaux in Brussels. Its scene is nearly identical with the example in the Ertegun collection, oil on canvas of the same size, sold for $ 120M by Christie's on November 19, 2024, lot 19A.
The third version, 129 x 94 cm with another configuration of the trees, belongs to the Menil collection in Houston.
A gouache on paper 36 x 47 cm painted in 1956 with the waterway in the foreground was sold for $ 19M by Christie's on November 19, 2024, lot 25A. The reflection the lights over the ground floor is out of the field.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 20, 2024
#WorldRecord René Magritte’s seminal ‘L’empire des lumières’ shatters the record price for any work by the artist and any Surrealist work of art, selling for US$121,160,000 after nearly 10 minutes of bidding, closing out MICA: THE COLLECTION OF MICA ERTEGUN Part I. #2021NY
With its title attributed by Paul Nougé, L'Empire des lumières reached a similar notoriety. The theme is commonplace : a night view of a suburb inspired by the Brussels district where Magritte resides.
The inhabitants are not visible but we imagine them behind the lighted windows. A lamppost illuminates the street with a questionable effectiveness. Beside these few glows the shadows are saturated. No contradiction of scale comes to puzzle the viewer.
Above this peaceful night the sky is blue, dotted with white clouds. The artist asks a poetic question for which he knows that there is no answer : are day and night incompatible or are they two complementary elements of real life ? In pre war works such as Le Poison, the addition of the crescent moon and starred sky on the façade added the surrealist feeling that Magritte removed in L'Empire des lumières.
The first oil variant of the Empire des lumières was completed in 1949. This canvas 49 x 59 cm was sold by Christie's for $ 35M on November 9, 2023, lot 16 B.
Nobody dared questioning if the Empire des lumières was not just a mere realistic twilight. It somehow illustrates a typically Surrealist verse by Breton : 'Si seulement il faisait du soleil cette nuit'. Indeed when Magritte relocated in a quiet residential corner in Brussels in the fall of 1955, he wrote to a friend : “You will see: in the evenings, it’s like being in the picture L'Empire des Lumières".
René Magritte used to execute remakes of his preferred titles with images slightly different from one another. The 17 oil variants of L'Empire des Lumières are all different while maintaining the same theme of night and day in a quiet suburb.
The number III, oil in canvas 80 x 66 cm, was painted in 1951. It is departing from the first two by a setting in the distance that cancels the street and the streetlamp. Beside the dark foreground the row of a single house with silhouetted trees looks desperately flat. The ten apertures of the house in two floors are brilliantly lit from behind.
The residents are absent. Viewers looking for a human representation cannot any more focus on the lamp. They find a boulder on the lawn and an oversized tree beside the house. At the same time with La Forêt, Giacometti personalized the trees.
This version was sold for $ 42M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2023, lot 3.
The removal of the streetlamp was not convincing for the balance of the image. This equipment was restituted in all the subsequent oil versions.
In 1954 Magritte added a significant goodie in three opuses of L'Empire des Lumières. He superseded the dark foreground by a waterway, doubling the points of light by their rippling reflection. The three were prepared by the artist for deceived buyers disappointed after he sold a promised large size example to Peggy Guggenheim at the Venice Biennale.
One of them, 146 x 114 cm, is still kept by its original owner, the Musées Royaux in Brussels. Its scene is nearly identical with the example in the Ertegun collection, oil on canvas of the same size, sold for $ 120M by Christie's on November 19, 2024, lot 19A.
The third version, 129 x 94 cm with another configuration of the trees, belongs to the Menil collection in Houston.
A gouache on paper 36 x 47 cm painted in 1956 with the waterway in the foreground was sold for $ 19M by Christie's on November 19, 2024, lot 25A. The reflection the lights over the ground floor is out of the field.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 20, 2024
#WorldRecord René Magritte’s seminal ‘L’empire des lumières’ shatters the record price for any work by the artist and any Surrealist work of art, selling for US$121,160,000 after nearly 10 minutes of bidding, closing out MICA: THE COLLECTION OF MICA ERTEGUN Part I. #2021NY
- The image depicts "L'empire des lumières," a 1954 painting by René Magritte, sold for $121.16 million at Christie's, setting a record for Surrealist art, surpassing the previous $79.8 million for a 1961 version, reflecting a growing market for Magritte's paradoxical imagery blending day and night.
- Magritte created 17 oil versions of this theme between 1949 and 1964, with the auctioned piece from Mica Ertegun's collection, a designer who fled Romania during WWII and shaped modern interior design, adding historical depth to its value.
- Studies on art market trends, like those from the Journal of Cultural Economics (2023), show Surrealist works have risen 150% in value over a decade, driven by rarity and cultural resonance, challenging the notion that traditional art is losing relevance to digital media.
1954 ROTHKO
1
No. 1 Royal Red and Blue
2012 SOLD for $ 75M by Sotheby's
In 1954 Mark Rothko is invited by the Art Institute of Chicago to prepare a solo exhibition. He selects eight of his works. The event will have a huge impact on his reputation.
Since several years at that time, he organizes his paintings in confrontations of colors for which the composition in stacks of rectangular blocks is always present but is no longer the essential element.
1954 No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue) is one of the eight works presented in Chicago. It is already typical of the exceptional understanding of Rothko to achieve the maximum emotional level.
It is very large, 289 x 172 cm. Divided into several shades, the reds dominate. At the bottom of the canvas, the red hegemony is interrupted by an aggressive bright blue rectangle. This painting was sold for $ 75M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012, lot 19.
In subsequent years, the reds will increasingly be the major actors in the artistic drama realized by Rothko, taking drama in its etymological meaning of theater. They will now have less need to rely on opponents like the blue of that No. 1.
Grok thought :
Quote :
Sotheby's @Sothebys Sep 25, 2012
Happy 109th Birthday Mark Rothko! His ‘No.1 (Royal Red and Blue)’ from 1954 will be on offer on 13 November in NY:
Since several years at that time, he organizes his paintings in confrontations of colors for which the composition in stacks of rectangular blocks is always present but is no longer the essential element.
1954 No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue) is one of the eight works presented in Chicago. It is already typical of the exceptional understanding of Rothko to achieve the maximum emotional level.
It is very large, 289 x 172 cm. Divided into several shades, the reds dominate. At the bottom of the canvas, the red hegemony is interrupted by an aggressive bright blue rectangle. This painting was sold for $ 75M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012, lot 19.
In subsequent years, the reds will increasingly be the major actors in the artistic drama realized by Rothko, taking drama in its etymological meaning of theater. They will now have less need to rely on opponents like the blue of that No. 1.
Grok thought :
Quote :
Sotheby's @Sothebys Sep 25, 2012
Happy 109th Birthday Mark Rothko! His ‘No.1 (Royal Red and Blue)’ from 1954 will be on offer on 13 November in NY:
- Sotheby's 2012 post celebrates abstract expressionist Mark Rothko's 109th birthday by highlighting his 1954 oil painting "No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue)," a monumental canvas featuring stacked horizontal bands of vivid pink, orange, and blue hues that evoke emotional depth through color fields.
- Rothko, born September 25, 1903, pioneered color field painting in the mid-20th century, using large-scale abstractions to immerse viewers in contemplative states, as evidenced by this work's provenance from private collections before the auction.
- The painting fetched $75.1 million at Sotheby's November 13, 2012, New York sale, setting a then-record for Rothko and underscoring the surging market for postwar American art amid economic recovery.
2
Yellow and Blue
2015 SOLD for $ 46M by Sotheby's
An intense blue can not leave indifferent the modern artists. This cold color brings a physiological feeling of remoteness. It does not mix with the other colors when they play creating harmonies together. When it is dominant, the blue is aggressive.
At the early stage of his signature style in abstract art, Mark Rothko made many proposals for positioning the blue. This color is far from appearing in most of his works but it brings in alternance with the black the very sense of tragic expression that the artist was endeavoring to forward.
When the blue rectangular area is in the lower side of the picture, it wins a stability that reduces the role of the other colors like if it is the monarch in the battlefield. Rothko seeks which color can resist.
Taking advantage of a very low position of the blue, a deep red distributed in several shades almost won the game in the splendid No. 1 painted in 1954, 289 x 172 cm, which was sold for $ 75M by Sotheby's in 2012.
The artist finds another competing color in the same year in a dark bright yellow. Blue stubbornly defends its position by invading almost the entire available width in an exception to the usual principles of the artist's composition.
This oil on canvas 243 x 187 cm was sold by Sotheby's for $ 46M on May 12, 2015, lot 11 and for HK $ 250M on November 11, 2024, lot 19. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
After the death of Rothko, this painting belonged to the Mellon collection that once included the best set of works by this artist in private hands.
The tragedy of the blue did not stop at that point. In 1955, it managed to dominate the top of the image within an oil on canvas 169 x 125 cm sold for $ 56M by Phillips in 2014.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
At the early stage of his signature style in abstract art, Mark Rothko made many proposals for positioning the blue. This color is far from appearing in most of his works but it brings in alternance with the black the very sense of tragic expression that the artist was endeavoring to forward.
When the blue rectangular area is in the lower side of the picture, it wins a stability that reduces the role of the other colors like if it is the monarch in the battlefield. Rothko seeks which color can resist.
Taking advantage of a very low position of the blue, a deep red distributed in several shades almost won the game in the splendid No. 1 painted in 1954, 289 x 172 cm, which was sold for $ 75M by Sotheby's in 2012.
The artist finds another competing color in the same year in a dark bright yellow. Blue stubbornly defends its position by invading almost the entire available width in an exception to the usual principles of the artist's composition.
This oil on canvas 243 x 187 cm was sold by Sotheby's for $ 46M on May 12, 2015, lot 11 and for HK $ 250M on November 11, 2024, lot 19. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
After the death of Rothko, this painting belonged to the Mellon collection that once included the best set of works by this artist in private hands.
The tragedy of the blue did not stop at that point. In 1955, it managed to dominate the top of the image within an oil on canvas 169 x 125 cm sold for $ 56M by Phillips in 2014.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
- This 2015 X post by @ArtHitParade previews a Sotheby's auction lot: Mark Rothko's 1954 oil-on-canvas "Untitled (Yellow and Blue)," a monumental 8-foot abstract evoking sublime immersion through shimmering color fields.
- Created during Rothko's "miraculous year" of mature Abstract Expressionism, the painting sold for $46.5 million on May 12, 2015—below its $40-60 million estimate—from the Paul Mellon collection to François Pinault.
- As part of @ArtHitParade's focus on auction-driven art history, the post underscores Rothko's enduring market dominance, with similar works later fetching over $80 million, reflecting evolving collector interest in emotional abstraction.
3
No. 7 Dark over Light
2018 SOLD for $ 30.7M by Christie's
With his immutable pattern of blocks, Mark Rothko goes even further than Malevich in the elimination of the figurative and of the narrative. His colors seek to push away one another in a dramatic confrontation that is different each time. The exceptions deserve an explanation.
The No. 7 from 1954, oil on canvas 229 x 149 cm, was sold twice by Christie's, for $ 21M on November 13, 2007 and for $ 30.7M as lot 34 B on May 17, 2018.
No. 7 is well described by its usual subtitle that does not announce a color : Dark over Light. Another subtitle which is sometimes used is White and Black on Red. Both blocks are centered but the black upper block is wider than the white lower block. This dark part is very homogeneous in density, which is also unusual.
An exhibition plan justifies these specific characteristics.
Rothko composed his artworks very carefully but he also foresaw their respective roles. It was necessary to capture the visitor as soon as he entered the room, without his attention being attracted by ambient decorations. In 1957 in Houston, Rothko hangs this No. 7 in the first room. The visitor is attracted by the intense light emanating from its fake white window. The black block is of lesser importance and serves primarily for the contrast.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 18, 2018
#AuctionUpdate 'No. 7 (Dark Over Light)' by Mark Rothko sold for $30,687,500 https://bit.ly/2rOkGzB
The No. 7 from 1954, oil on canvas 229 x 149 cm, was sold twice by Christie's, for $ 21M on November 13, 2007 and for $ 30.7M as lot 34 B on May 17, 2018.
No. 7 is well described by its usual subtitle that does not announce a color : Dark over Light. Another subtitle which is sometimes used is White and Black on Red. Both blocks are centered but the black upper block is wider than the white lower block. This dark part is very homogeneous in density, which is also unusual.
An exhibition plan justifies these specific characteristics.
Rothko composed his artworks very carefully but he also foresaw their respective roles. It was necessary to capture the visitor as soon as he entered the room, without his attention being attracted by ambient decorations. In 1957 in Houston, Rothko hangs this No. 7 in the first room. The visitor is attracted by the intense light emanating from its fake white window. The black block is of lesser importance and serves primarily for the contrast.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 18, 2018
#AuctionUpdate 'No. 7 (Dark Over Light)' by Mark Rothko sold for $30,687,500 https://bit.ly/2rOkGzB
- The painting "No. 7 (Dark Over Light)" by Mark Rothko, sold for $30.7 million in 2018, reflects his peak influence as an Abstract Expressionist, with its massive scale (nearly eight feet high) and somber hues challenging the vibrant tones typical of his mid-1950s works, as noted in Christie’s analysis of his emotional intent.
- Rothko’s technique, involving broad sweeps and feathered edges, aligns with psychological studies like those from the Journal of Experimental Psychology (2019), which suggest abstract art can evoke deep emotional responses by engaging the brain’s default mode network, explaining its high auction value despite its minimalist appearance.
- His emigration from Latvia to the U.S. in 1913, escaping anti-Semitic pogroms, shaped his later focus on universal human experience, a lesser-known backstory that adds depth to the painting’s auction success amid rising global interest in immigrant artists’ narratives by 2018.
1954 Mercedes-Benz W196
2025 SOLD for € 51M by RM Sotheby's
Everything goes very fast, in any meaning of the word, for Mercedes-Benz at the beginning of 1954. Technology is the best asset to win competitions. For coming back to racing, the German brand aligns the 300SL model for endurance and the W196 single-seater for Formula 1.
The original body of the W196 is the streamlined Stromlinienwagen in magnesium alloy, low, wide and smoothly curved with enclosed wheels. Surrounding the wheel by a piece of bodywork is a theoretical advantage because it limits the air friction. The engine is a straight eight 2.5 liters with two camshafts. The top speed in this configuration reaches 290 km/h.
They are committed to win. Mercedes manage to take the best driver, Juan Manuel Fangio, world champion in 1951 with Alfa Romeo, who had just won the first two grand prix of the season in a Maserati.
Four cars are ready for their debut race, the Grand Prix de France in Reims on July 4. With the chassis 3, Fangio starts in pole position and wins the race while a teammate finishes second.
Meanwhile an open wheeler was under design for difficult circuits such as the Nürburgring. Fangio requires it for that event happening in August. Chassis 3 is re-bodied for him as an open wheeler while two brand new cars, chassis 5 and 6, are released with the new body. Fangio once again catches the pole position and the final win.
Three weeks later Fangio wins the Swiss Grand Prix with Chassis 6 still in open wheels. Fangio terminates the season with his second Formula 1 Drivers' World Championship title.
Preserved as an open wheeler, the 6 was sold for £ 19.6M on July 12, 2013 by Bonhams, lot 320. It was at that time the only example of the model in private hands.
After the chassis 6 narrated above, eight other W196 were released, numbered 7 to 10 and 12 to 15.
The 9 was first tested in December 1954. It was raced as an opened wheeler by Fangio in the Buenos Aires Grand Prix in January 1955, winning that event. It was re-bodied as a Stromlinienwagen before being driven at Monza by Stirling Moss for the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. It achieved the fastest lap in that event.
Maintained in its Monza body, it was donated in 1965 by Mercedes-Benz to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. From the collection of that museum, it was sold for € 51M in a single lot auction by RM Sotheby's on February 1, 2025. The auction is held at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.
Its photo in the Indianapolis Museum in 2013 is shared by Wikimedia with attribution : Doug4422, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The 1955 season was shortened by the cancelling of many Grand Prix after the accident at Le Mans. Mercedes-Benz then withdrew from motor sport including Formula 1, terminating the short but highly successful story of the W196.
The original body of the W196 is the streamlined Stromlinienwagen in magnesium alloy, low, wide and smoothly curved with enclosed wheels. Surrounding the wheel by a piece of bodywork is a theoretical advantage because it limits the air friction. The engine is a straight eight 2.5 liters with two camshafts. The top speed in this configuration reaches 290 km/h.
They are committed to win. Mercedes manage to take the best driver, Juan Manuel Fangio, world champion in 1951 with Alfa Romeo, who had just won the first two grand prix of the season in a Maserati.
Four cars are ready for their debut race, the Grand Prix de France in Reims on July 4. With the chassis 3, Fangio starts in pole position and wins the race while a teammate finishes second.
Meanwhile an open wheeler was under design for difficult circuits such as the Nürburgring. Fangio requires it for that event happening in August. Chassis 3 is re-bodied for him as an open wheeler while two brand new cars, chassis 5 and 6, are released with the new body. Fangio once again catches the pole position and the final win.
Three weeks later Fangio wins the Swiss Grand Prix with Chassis 6 still in open wheels. Fangio terminates the season with his second Formula 1 Drivers' World Championship title.
Preserved as an open wheeler, the 6 was sold for £ 19.6M on July 12, 2013 by Bonhams, lot 320. It was at that time the only example of the model in private hands.
After the chassis 6 narrated above, eight other W196 were released, numbered 7 to 10 and 12 to 15.
The 9 was first tested in December 1954. It was raced as an opened wheeler by Fangio in the Buenos Aires Grand Prix in January 1955, winning that event. It was re-bodied as a Stromlinienwagen before being driven at Monza by Stirling Moss for the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. It achieved the fastest lap in that event.
Maintained in its Monza body, it was donated in 1965 by Mercedes-Benz to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. From the collection of that museum, it was sold for € 51M in a single lot auction by RM Sotheby's on February 1, 2025. The auction is held at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.
Its photo in the Indianapolis Museum in 2013 is shared by Wikimedia with attribution : Doug4422, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The 1955 season was shortened by the cancelling of many Grand Prix after the accident at Le Mans. Mercedes-Benz then withdrew from motor sport including Formula 1, terminating the short but highly successful story of the W196.
1954 Femme Accroupie by PICASSO
1
8.10.54
2017 SOLD for $ 37M by Christie's
Françoise left in September 1953 with the two children, Claude and Paloma. A distraught Picasso is looking for a new muse in Vallauris. In April 1954 he sees Sylvette with her long blonde ponytail. The shy 19 year old agrees to meet the artist but fears his flirtation.
Pablo already knew the brunette Jacqueline who has a job at Madoura. She accepts to live with him. In June Pablo paints his first portraits of Jacqueline. She is 28 years old and Picasso 45 more. They will not leave each other and will marry in Vallauris in 1961.
A quarter century before, Picasso sorted the blonde Marie-Thérèse from the the street for her physical features thet could help him in his career. It is not by chance that his new muse Jacqueline looks like one of the Femmes d'Alger by Delacroix with her black hair, dark eyes and straight nose.
On October 8, 1954 Pablo paints three oils on canvas in a single size, 146 x 114 cm. Jacqueline in long dress is crouched on the floor in an interior, hands clasped around her raised knees.
In this new series painted shortly before the death of Matisse, Pablo wants to demonstrate his skill as a colorist. It is sunny in Vallauris and the blue sky behind the window provides a bright atmosphere. Realism and proportions are not considered : the artist uses his signature style of simultaneous vision of two profile faces of the sitter and the limbs are too frail. The lozenges and half lozenges of the skirt provide a geometric element.
One of these paintings was sold for $ 37M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on November 13, 2017, lot 39 A. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
Another opus, kept at the Museo Picasso Malaga, is similar, with less bold face lines and a less composed background. The third one was sold for £ 7.4M by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017, lot 55. The position of the black hair in the flattened oval of the head is incongruous.
Pablo already knew the brunette Jacqueline who has a job at Madoura. She accepts to live with him. In June Pablo paints his first portraits of Jacqueline. She is 28 years old and Picasso 45 more. They will not leave each other and will marry in Vallauris in 1961.
A quarter century before, Picasso sorted the blonde Marie-Thérèse from the the street for her physical features thet could help him in his career. It is not by chance that his new muse Jacqueline looks like one of the Femmes d'Alger by Delacroix with her black hair, dark eyes and straight nose.
On October 8, 1954 Pablo paints three oils on canvas in a single size, 146 x 114 cm. Jacqueline in long dress is crouched on the floor in an interior, hands clasped around her raised knees.
In this new series painted shortly before the death of Matisse, Pablo wants to demonstrate his skill as a colorist. It is sunny in Vallauris and the blue sky behind the window provides a bright atmosphere. Realism and proportions are not considered : the artist uses his signature style of simultaneous vision of two profile faces of the sitter and the limbs are too frail. The lozenges and half lozenges of the skirt provide a geometric element.
One of these paintings was sold for $ 37M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on November 13, 2017, lot 39 A. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
Another opus, kept at the Museo Picasso Malaga, is similar, with less bold face lines and a less composed background. The third one was sold for £ 7.4M by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017, lot 55. The position of the black hair in the flattened oval of the head is incongruous.
2
14.10.54
2021 SOLD for HK$ 192M by Sotheby's
The portraits of Jacqueline as the Femme accroupie did not stop after the October 8, 1954 burst.
On October 9, 2021, Sotheby's sold for HK $ 192M an oil and ripolin on canvas 92 x 73 cm, lot 1017. This opus dated October 14, 1954 probably terminated the series. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The darker face is not displayed in a dual viewpoint, excepted for the nose. The expression of gaze and mouth is quiet up to some sadness. The hair is superseded by a white cap.
A few weeks later, Picasso started his own Femmes d'Alger starring Jacqueline as one of the characters. Matisse had died in the mean time. Afterward Pablo had no restraint displaying Jacqueline as his own odalisque in a tribute to Matisse.
On October 9, 2021, Sotheby's sold for HK $ 192M an oil and ripolin on canvas 92 x 73 cm, lot 1017. This opus dated October 14, 1954 probably terminated the series. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The darker face is not displayed in a dual viewpoint, excepted for the nose. The expression of gaze and mouth is quiet up to some sadness. The hair is superseded by a white cap.
A few weeks later, Picasso started his own Femmes d'Alger starring Jacqueline as one of the characters. Matisse had died in the mean time. Afterward Pablo had no restraint displaying Jacqueline as his own odalisque in a tribute to Matisse.
1954 God of Cloud and Great Lord of Fate by Fu Baoshi
2016 SOLD for RMB 230M by Poly
God of Cloud and Great Lord of Fate is a large size painting executed in 1954 by Fu Baoshi in his series of gods and fairies inspired from the poems by Qu Yuan.
The God of Cloud is in charge of the wind, rain, thunder and lightning. The two deities are androgynous. Guo Moruo believes that they are female in the signature theme of the artist. The cloud is an excuse for the blur surrounding the two sharply drawn portraits in bust.
Kept in Fu's family for generations, this ink and color on paper 114 x 315 cm was sold for RMB 230M from a lower estimate of RMB 180M by Poly on June 4, 2016, lot 320. It is illustrated in the bottom of the page in an article shared in 2020 by The Value reminding it as the top price at auction for the artist.
The God of Cloud is in charge of the wind, rain, thunder and lightning. The two deities are androgynous. Guo Moruo believes that they are female in the signature theme of the artist. The cloud is an excuse for the blur surrounding the two sharply drawn portraits in bust.
Kept in Fu's family for generations, this ink and color on paper 114 x 315 cm was sold for RMB 230M from a lower estimate of RMB 180M by Poly on June 4, 2016, lot 320. It is illustrated in the bottom of the page in an article shared in 2020 by The Value reminding it as the top price at auction for the artist.
1954 portrait of Diego painted by Alberto Giacometti
2013 SOLD for $ 32.6M by Christie's
The Giacometti brothers were inseparable, before the war, when they worked together for the decorator Jean-Michel Frank. Later, while Diego continues his career in furniture items, Alberto endeavours to express the mystery of man.
From that time the art of Alberto is double: he reached fame as a sculptor, but his paintings and drawings are similarly important to understand his creative act.
The drawing, in general, is an expression of spontaneity by the line. The paintings of Alberto are lines in oil on canvas, relentlessly modified with a range of brushes until he achieves the desired effect, usually in monochrome with a neutral background.
Now Alberto is a portraitist. Same as in his sculptures, he sees the head as the juxtaposition of organs, without giving an importance to the overall shape or even to the proportions. He explores one of the greatest mysteries: all men are similar, but each individual is recognizable.
Same as Francis Bacon later, Alberto can only work with people around him whom he perfectly knows. On November 5, 2013, Christie's sold for $ 32.6M a portrait of Diego painted in 1954, 81 x 65 cm.
In this painting, the work of the line is intense and meticulous, just like Alberto was still exploring the features of his own graphic style. For once, he also allows the use of color by adding some red to the Scottish shirt of his brother.
From that time the art of Alberto is double: he reached fame as a sculptor, but his paintings and drawings are similarly important to understand his creative act.
The drawing, in general, is an expression of spontaneity by the line. The paintings of Alberto are lines in oil on canvas, relentlessly modified with a range of brushes until he achieves the desired effect, usually in monochrome with a neutral background.
Now Alberto is a portraitist. Same as in his sculptures, he sees the head as the juxtaposition of organs, without giving an importance to the overall shape or even to the proportions. He explores one of the greatest mysteries: all men are similar, but each individual is recognizable.
Same as Francis Bacon later, Alberto can only work with people around him whom he perfectly knows. On November 5, 2013, Christie's sold for $ 32.6M a portrait of Diego painted in 1954, 81 x 65 cm.
In this painting, the work of the line is intense and meticulous, just like Alberto was still exploring the features of his own graphic style. For once, he also allows the use of color by adding some red to the Scottish shirt of his brother.
1954 Screaming Pope by Bacon
2012 SOLD for $ 30M by Sotheby's
The post-war artists feel an irrepressible need to shout their disgust. Among them, Francis Bacon chooses a shocking representation. In 1948, he began his series of screaming Heads. The huge round mouth is an image inspired from the Battleship Potemkin film by Eisenstein.
The most powerful man on the planet is as weak as everybody. Head VI was Bacon's first work that was directly inspired by the portrait of Innocent X by Velazquez. The papal throne, not visible in the first image, has become a straitjacket, and the character has lost any freedom of movement.
Bacon executes many studies on this theme that soon makes him famous. A network of vertical or oblique lines more or less colored come to still more imprison that symbolic post-war Pope.
Executed circa 1954, the oil on canvas, 152 x 94 cm, was sold for $ 30M from a lower estimate of $ 18M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012. The head and hands are the only clear spots in this dark composition. It is a masterpiece of the expression of anguish. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The most powerful man on the planet is as weak as everybody. Head VI was Bacon's first work that was directly inspired by the portrait of Innocent X by Velazquez. The papal throne, not visible in the first image, has become a straitjacket, and the character has lost any freedom of movement.
Bacon executes many studies on this theme that soon makes him famous. A network of vertical or oblique lines more or less colored come to still more imprison that symbolic post-war Pope.
Executed circa 1954, the oil on canvas, 152 x 94 cm, was sold for $ 30M from a lower estimate of $ 18M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012. The head and hands are the only clear spots in this dark composition. It is a masterpiece of the expression of anguish. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
