Alps
See also : Landscape Klimt US painting < 1940 Russia Kandinsky Zhang Daqian
Chronology : 1900-1909 1903 1905 1909 1913 1915 1916 1965 1968 1986
Chronology : 1900-1909 1903 1905 1909 1913 1915 1916 1965 1968 1986
1903 Birch Forest by Klimt
2022 SOLD for $ 105M by Christie's
Gustav Klimt is the leader of the Sezessionsstil, or Viennese Secession, which he created in 1898 for the promotion of a new art including the utilitarian arts. He is the friend of Emilie Flöge who runs an avant-garde fashion house with her sisters. Gustav's art is made up of very rich textures that can be applied to Emilie's dresses. Helene Flöge is the widow of Gustav's younger brother.
Gustav's symbolism is charged with an eroticism which shocks the Viennese. He is not afraid of scandal but needs rest. He spends summers in Litzlberg on the Attersee, where he is the guest of the Flöge family.
In this tranquil atmosphere, Gustav maintains another art for his own pleasure. He paints outdoors the landscapes of forests, clearings and ponds on square formats, like Monet is doing at the same time. He does not forget the application to women's clothing, for which depth and horizon are of no use.
An oil on canvas 110 x 110 cm painted in 1903 was sold by Christie's on November 8, 2006 for $ 40M, lot 51 coming from the restitution to the heirs of the Bloch-Bauer family. It was sold for $ 105M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 17. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The birch trees form an unlimited pattern of vertical streaks with no horizon. The variable width of the trunks cancels the vanishing points, superseded by the overlaid arrangement of the color strokes. The leaves on the ground are painted with spots inspired by pointillism which bring a sparkle of colors.
Klimt's attention to the applied arts has taken him beyond post-impressionism up to the limits of an immersive abstraction.
Gustav's symbolism is charged with an eroticism which shocks the Viennese. He is not afraid of scandal but needs rest. He spends summers in Litzlberg on the Attersee, where he is the guest of the Flöge family.
In this tranquil atmosphere, Gustav maintains another art for his own pleasure. He paints outdoors the landscapes of forests, clearings and ponds on square formats, like Monet is doing at the same time. He does not forget the application to women's clothing, for which depth and horizon are of no use.
An oil on canvas 110 x 110 cm painted in 1903 was sold by Christie's on November 8, 2006 for $ 40M, lot 51 coming from the restitution to the heirs of the Bloch-Bauer family. It was sold for $ 105M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 17. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The birch trees form an unlimited pattern of vertical streaks with no horizon. The variable width of the trunks cancels the vanishing points, superseded by the overlaid arrangement of the color strokes. The leaves on the ground are painted with spots inspired by pointillism which bring a sparkle of colors.
Klimt's attention to the applied arts has taken him beyond post-impressionism up to the limits of an immersive abstraction.
1905 A Siesta by Sargent
2004 SOLD for $ 23.5M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
Influenced by impressionism, John Singer Sargent was one of the best portrait painters of his time. As he approaches fifty, he wants to live his life better. He has been traveling throughout Europe since his youth. He will now refocus his art on the landscapes of his travels and on the holiday scenes with his friends.
Group with Parasols (A Siesta) is an oil on canvas 55 x 71 cm painted in 1905. Two women and two men enjoy the farniente in a meadow on the border of a wood in the Swiss Alps.
The colors are very contrasted, in the chiaroscuro of a hot summer day. The removal of details takes some parts of the image to the borders of abstraction.
One of the men has his head resting on the belly of his mistress who is peacefully dozing under her white parasol. The painting was dedicated to this friend. This extramarital relationship, as well as the different position of each of the four sleepers, matches the artist's deep desire for a free life.
Group with Parasols was sold for $ 23.5M including premium by Sotheby's on December 1, 2004 over a lower estimate of $ 9M.
Group with Parasols (A Siesta) is an oil on canvas 55 x 71 cm painted in 1905. Two women and two men enjoy the farniente in a meadow on the border of a wood in the Swiss Alps.
The colors are very contrasted, in the chiaroscuro of a hot summer day. The removal of details takes some parts of the image to the borders of abstraction.
One of the men has his head resting on the belly of his mistress who is peacefully dozing under her white parasol. The painting was dedicated to this friend. This extramarital relationship, as well as the different position of each of the four sleepers, matches the artist's deep desire for a free life.
Group with Parasols was sold for $ 23.5M including premium by Sotheby's on December 1, 2004 over a lower estimate of $ 9M.
1909 Blue Mountain and Green House
2017 SOLD for £ 21M including premium
From his childhood Kandinsky was fascinated by colors. He settled in Munich in 1896 to integrate himself within the artistic avant-gardes that he will manage to regroup around him. From this first phase he is remarkably open to all the movements that escape classicism. The main themes of his personal art are the Bavarian landscapes and the rural legends of Russia.
After Cézanne and van Gogh he learns to shake the realism of the lines. After Gauguin, Matisse, the Fauvists and the post-Impressionists, he likes to exaggerate the colors and ceases to weaken them under a varnish. He follows his friend Jawlensky who was one of the first to systematically abandon the realism of colors. Attracted by mysticism, Kandinsky studies Goethe's theories on the psychological significance of colors.
Two summer stays at Murnau with Jawlensky and their companions Gabriele and Marianne are decisive for Kandinsky's career and for his role as a pioneer of modern art. In 1908 he experiments with new forms and new colors. In 1909 he revisits with blazing colors in thick layers his compositions of the previous year and prepares the theories of his new art.
Der blaue Berg is narrative. A group of riders travels in front of a mountain reduced to a triangular surface in an intense blue. Murnau - Studie zur Landschaft mit grünem Haus is an oil on board 33 x 45 cm painted in 1908.
Satisfied with the audacity of his study with the green house Kandinsky reuses the same composition in 1909 in a larger size with more saturated pure colors. Murnau - Landschaft mit grünem Haus, oil on board 70 x 96 cm, is estimated £ 15M for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 21, lot 47.
After Cézanne and van Gogh he learns to shake the realism of the lines. After Gauguin, Matisse, the Fauvists and the post-Impressionists, he likes to exaggerate the colors and ceases to weaken them under a varnish. He follows his friend Jawlensky who was one of the first to systematically abandon the realism of colors. Attracted by mysticism, Kandinsky studies Goethe's theories on the psychological significance of colors.
Two summer stays at Murnau with Jawlensky and their companions Gabriele and Marianne are decisive for Kandinsky's career and for his role as a pioneer of modern art. In 1908 he experiments with new forms and new colors. In 1909 he revisits with blazing colors in thick layers his compositions of the previous year and prepares the theories of his new art.
Der blaue Berg is narrative. A group of riders travels in front of a mountain reduced to a triangular surface in an intense blue. Murnau - Studie zur Landschaft mit grünem Haus is an oil on board 33 x 45 cm painted in 1908.
Satisfied with the audacity of his study with the green house Kandinsky reuses the same composition in 1909 in a larger size with more saturated pure colors. Murnau - Landschaft mit grünem Haus, oil on board 70 x 96 cm, is estimated £ 15M for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 21, lot 47.
1910 Murnau mit Kirche by Kandinsky
2023 SOLD for £ 37M by Sotheby's
Wassily Kandinsky is back in 1910 in Murnau where his companion Gabriele Münter had bought a summer home in the previous year. Kandinsky is completing his quest for the new art, divided into elaborate compositions and spontaneous improvisations, soon afterward released as On the Spiritual in Art.
At that stage Kandinsky is still a landscape painter, but colors and forms supersede the realism. Murnau's dazzling colors are the beloved lab of his researches, including the dark violet woods and the saturated green of the foliage.
He makes a further step forward by considering that the verticals, while required to recognize a landscape, may be tilted. A church steeple or a factory chimney can play this role. A consequence is the canceling of the perspective, supporting his desired domination of color over representational and going closer to his end goal to mingle painting with poetry and music as a new harmonic art.
Murnau mit Kirche I, oil on board 67 x 50 cm, is anchored by the tilted steeple, but the real verticals are re-established in the foreground fence and absent in the background.
Murnau mit Kirche II, oil on canvas 96 x 105 cm, achieves that new trend by tilting the village and the mountains in a unique angle all around the same steeple.
This groundbreaking picture comes to the market as a restitution from a Nazi spoliation after seven decades spent in a museum in Eindhoven. It was sold for £ 37M by Sotheby's on March 1, 2023, lot 115. The image is shared by Wikimedia. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
At that stage Kandinsky is still a landscape painter, but colors and forms supersede the realism. Murnau's dazzling colors are the beloved lab of his researches, including the dark violet woods and the saturated green of the foliage.
He makes a further step forward by considering that the verticals, while required to recognize a landscape, may be tilted. A church steeple or a factory chimney can play this role. A consequence is the canceling of the perspective, supporting his desired domination of color over representational and going closer to his end goal to mingle painting with poetry and music as a new harmonic art.
Murnau mit Kirche I, oil on board 67 x 50 cm, is anchored by the tilted steeple, but the real verticals are re-established in the foreground fence and absent in the background.
Murnau mit Kirche II, oil on canvas 96 x 105 cm, achieves that new trend by tilting the village and the mountains in a unique angle all around the same steeple.
This groundbreaking picture comes to the market as a restitution from a Nazi spoliation after seven decades spent in a museum in Eindhoven. It was sold for £ 37M by Sotheby's on March 1, 2023, lot 115. The image is shared by Wikimedia. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1913 Gustav Klimt is on Holidays
2010 SOLD 26.9 M£ including premium
In 1913, Gustav Klimt spent his summer time in the vicinity of Garda Lake. He did not work much: three paintings in two months! This is a proof that he was particularly enchanted by the village of Cassone.
His oil on canvas shows many houses clustered on the slopes of the hill, along with the church and cypresses. The square format, 110 x 110 cm, is the best to convey the serenity of the place, according to the theories of the artist. The structured forms attest to the influence of expressionism and cubism. The angle of view includes the lake shore, but does not rise up to the horizon line.
I found the image of this painting in the Wikipedia. Even a small picture seen on the screen gives an idea of the quality of light of the work.
Klimt's paintings are rare at auction. Most of his other landscapes show the Attersee in Salzkammergut. Sotheby's will sell the Cassone on February 3 in London. The conservative estimate of £ 12 million should attract customers.
POST SALE COMMENT
The estimate was conservative. The result, thankfully, is in line with the quality of the work and with the reputation of the artist: £ 26.9 million including premium.
His oil on canvas shows many houses clustered on the slopes of the hill, along with the church and cypresses. The square format, 110 x 110 cm, is the best to convey the serenity of the place, according to the theories of the artist. The structured forms attest to the influence of expressionism and cubism. The angle of view includes the lake shore, but does not rise up to the horizon line.
I found the image of this painting in the Wikipedia. Even a small picture seen on the screen gives an idea of the quality of light of the work.
Klimt's paintings are rare at auction. Most of his other landscapes show the Attersee in Salzkammergut. Sotheby's will sell the Cassone on February 3 in London. The conservative estimate of £ 12 million should attract customers.
POST SALE COMMENT
The estimate was conservative. The result, thankfully, is in line with the quality of the work and with the reputation of the artist: £ 26.9 million including premium.
1915 The Role of the Tree in Klimt's Landscapes
2011 SOLD 40.4 M$ including premium
Whether viewed from near or far, alone or in a forest, the tree offers to the artists the texture of its foliage.
It was a powerful source of inspiration for Klimt, who expressed it as a continuation of colored spots. This effect, precursor of abstraction, is of the same kind as the sumptuous backgrounds of his portraits of women. At the same time, another poet of color, Monet, studies the water lilies.
Yet Klimt does not push it up to abstraction. The view of the Attersee, 110 x 110 cm, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 2, is a real landscape, but the boldness of the composition makes it a masterpiece of the master.
In a narrow stripe at the bottom, the village by the lake and its reflection in the water are schematic and almost naive, like the details of the Krumau views of his former student Schiele at the same time. At the top, a small piece of the sky stresses the grandiose scale of the landscape. And the rest of the image only shows the side of the mountain covered by the forest.
This painting was made in the workshop in 1915, in Vienna. It is leaving the museum of Salzburg following a property dispute related to a Nazi plunder. The price announced by the auction house, in excess of $ 25M, is considered low by some observers of the art market.
POST SALE COMMENT
Announced several months ago, this landscape by Klimt is a masterpiece. Its price, $ 40.4 million including premium, is consistent with market expectations. I noted in the discussion above that $ 25M would not be sufficient.
In 2011, the top level art market requires masterpieces, and becomes more and more discerning. Thus, in the same sale, an Argenteuil bridge by Caillebotte reached $ 18M including premium, only three years after being sold for $ 8.5 million including premium by Christie's.
Here is the video shared by Sotheby's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
It was a powerful source of inspiration for Klimt, who expressed it as a continuation of colored spots. This effect, precursor of abstraction, is of the same kind as the sumptuous backgrounds of his portraits of women. At the same time, another poet of color, Monet, studies the water lilies.
Yet Klimt does not push it up to abstraction. The view of the Attersee, 110 x 110 cm, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 2, is a real landscape, but the boldness of the composition makes it a masterpiece of the master.
In a narrow stripe at the bottom, the village by the lake and its reflection in the water are schematic and almost naive, like the details of the Krumau views of his former student Schiele at the same time. At the top, a small piece of the sky stresses the grandiose scale of the landscape. And the rest of the image only shows the side of the mountain covered by the forest.
This painting was made in the workshop in 1915, in Vienna. It is leaving the museum of Salzburg following a property dispute related to a Nazi plunder. The price announced by the auction house, in excess of $ 25M, is considered low by some observers of the art market.
POST SALE COMMENT
Announced several months ago, this landscape by Klimt is a masterpiece. Its price, $ 40.4 million including premium, is consistent with market expectations. I noted in the discussion above that $ 25M would not be sufficient.
In 2011, the top level art market requires masterpieces, and becomes more and more discerning. Thus, in the same sale, an Argenteuil bridge by Caillebotte reached $ 18M including premium, only three years after being sold for $ 8.5 million including premium by Christie's.
Here is the video shared by Sotheby's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1916 Houses at Unterach by Klimt
2006 SOLD for $ 31.4M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
It is illusory to represent a volume on a canvas or on a photograph. Klimt takes this into account in his paintings, whatever the subject.
He does not work from a photo, but his removal of the perspective seems to be independent of Cézanne's deconstructions. He finds textures and geometric elements in the landscape, using a viewfinder made up of a hole in a cardboard. Later a friend will give him an ivory eyeglass.
After choosing his elements, Klimt reassembles them in square formats. His villages can be compared to the accumulations of houses in Krumau by Schiele. Both artists thus obtain a personification of the buildings in their compositions with no characters. Their final effect, however, is in opposition. Schiele wants to annihilate his haunted city but Klimt is on holidays : his colors are happy.
Klimt spends every summer at the residence of Emilie's family in Litzlberg on the Attersee. Unterach is a very picturesque village at the other end of the lake. To avoid any temptation of perspective and horizon, the artist takes his view with a telescope from the other side of the lake.
A view of Unterach, oil on canvas 110 x 110 cm painted circa 1916 and coming from the Bloch-Bauer restitution, was sold for $ 31.4M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006 over a lower estimate of $ 18M, lot 52. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
He does not work from a photo, but his removal of the perspective seems to be independent of Cézanne's deconstructions. He finds textures and geometric elements in the landscape, using a viewfinder made up of a hole in a cardboard. Later a friend will give him an ivory eyeglass.
After choosing his elements, Klimt reassembles them in square formats. His villages can be compared to the accumulations of houses in Krumau by Schiele. Both artists thus obtain a personification of the buildings in their compositions with no characters. Their final effect, however, is in opposition. Schiele wants to annihilate his haunted city but Klimt is on holidays : his colors are happy.
Klimt spends every summer at the residence of Emilie's family in Litzlberg on the Attersee. Unterach is a very picturesque village at the other end of the lake. To avoid any temptation of perspective and horizon, the artist takes his view with a telescope from the other side of the lake.
A view of Unterach, oil on canvas 110 x 110 cm painted circa 1916 and coming from the Bloch-Bauer restitution, was sold for $ 31.4M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006 over a lower estimate of $ 18M, lot 52. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1965 Study of Colors from the Swiss Mountains
2016 SOLD for RMB 165M including premium
Zhang Daqian leaves mainland China after the Second World War for political reasons. This great connoisseur of Chinese graphic arts now travels a lot.
In Brazil where he settled in 1953 or during his frequent visits to the Swiss Alps, he discovered landscapes that do not exist in China. He developed in the mid-1960s an entirely new pictorial style based on splashes of colors to express from memory this new sensory experience with a spontaneity of execution inspired by the Action Painting.
For these views, Zhang sometimes uses very large formats. On December 4 in Beijing, Poly Auction sells as lot 2030 an ink and colors on silk 173 x 344 cm on the theme of the Swiss snowy mountain.
This artwork realized in 1965 is one of the first of this new phase in the art of Zhang. The horizon reveals the mountain atmosphere with twin peaks licked by clouds but the foreground is a study of colors close to abstraction from where the drawing is absent.
In the next years, Zhang will go back to more figuration in a subtle blend of splash and line. An interpretation 176 x 264 cm of Lake Achensee made in 1968 in ink and colors on silk was sold for RMB 100M yuan including premium by China Guardian on May 17, 2010.
In Brazil where he settled in 1953 or during his frequent visits to the Swiss Alps, he discovered landscapes that do not exist in China. He developed in the mid-1960s an entirely new pictorial style based on splashes of colors to express from memory this new sensory experience with a spontaneity of execution inspired by the Action Painting.
For these views, Zhang sometimes uses very large formats. On December 4 in Beijing, Poly Auction sells as lot 2030 an ink and colors on silk 173 x 344 cm on the theme of the Swiss snowy mountain.
This artwork realized in 1965 is one of the first of this new phase in the art of Zhang. The horizon reveals the mountain atmosphere with twin peaks licked by clouds but the foreground is a study of colors close to abstraction from where the drawing is absent.
In the next years, Zhang will go back to more figuration in a subtle blend of splash and line. An interpretation 176 x 264 cm of Lake Achensee made in 1968 in ink and colors on silk was sold for RMB 100M yuan including premium by China Guardian on May 17, 2010.
1968 Mist at Dawn by Zhang Daqian
2021 SOLD for HK$ 215M by Sotheby's
Mist at dawn, splashed ink and color on paper 100 x 140 cm painted in Brazil in 1968, is a pinnacle of abstraction in the art of Zhang Daqian.
Zhang had been much impressed by the Swiss mountains and had a perfect memory of atmospheres and colors. He interprets here the extreme condition of high wind in the mist just before sunrise.
At first glance the result looks like a wandering of ochre flames in front of splashes of dark blue mingled with malachite green powder. By prolonging the inspection, the shape of the mountains and a cluster of clouds are revealed amidst the rare colors of a stormy dawn sky, at the moment when daylight comes out of a dark chaos.
This opus was sold for HK $ 215M by Sotheby's on October 11, 2021, lot 3065. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Zhang had been much impressed by the Swiss mountains and had a perfect memory of atmospheres and colors. He interprets here the extreme condition of high wind in the mist just before sunrise.
At first glance the result looks like a wandering of ochre flames in front of splashes of dark blue mingled with malachite green powder. By prolonging the inspection, the shape of the mountains and a cluster of clouds are revealed amidst the rare colors of a stormy dawn sky, at the moment when daylight comes out of a dark chaos.
This opus was sold for HK $ 215M by Sotheby's on October 11, 2021, lot 3065. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1986 Snow and Wind
2021 SOLD for HK$ 230M by Sotheby's
Expatriate in Paris since 1955, Chu Teh-Chun is reunited with his Chinese roots during a trip in 1983. In the meantime, he had specialized in abstract art in oil on canvas. He now wants his art to express the basics of nature, in very large formats. Les Eléments Confédérés, polyptych 162 x 650 cm dated 1984-1985, was sold for HK $ 114M including premium by Sotheby's on July 8, 2020.
Under these conditions, his amazed discovery of the movement of snow in the mountains in December 1985 was not fortuitous.
He watches the sublime Swiss Alps from his train window when a storm hits. The squall throws snowflakes and fog on a scenery of rocks and trees which changes at every moment by the movement of the train. As soon as he arrives, he rushes to his brushes to express what nature has just taught him. He will work for fifteen years on this theme, varying the effects of texture without ever returning to the figurative.
Harmonie Hivernale, painted in 1986, is one of the very first works in this series. This triptych 193 x 385 cm overall reproduces the whirlwinds blowing the snow and revealing the rocks in turn. It was sold for HK $ 230M from a lower estimate of HK $ 80M by Sotheby's on April 18, 2021, lot 1020. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The ultimate outcome is the expression of snowfall. He achieved this in 1999 by bringing a pointillism to Vertige Neigeux, a 200 x 400 cm diptych started in 1990, sold for HK $ 92M including premium by Christie's on November 26, 2016.
Under these conditions, his amazed discovery of the movement of snow in the mountains in December 1985 was not fortuitous.
He watches the sublime Swiss Alps from his train window when a storm hits. The squall throws snowflakes and fog on a scenery of rocks and trees which changes at every moment by the movement of the train. As soon as he arrives, he rushes to his brushes to express what nature has just taught him. He will work for fifteen years on this theme, varying the effects of texture without ever returning to the figurative.
Harmonie Hivernale, painted in 1986, is one of the very first works in this series. This triptych 193 x 385 cm overall reproduces the whirlwinds blowing the snow and revealing the rocks in turn. It was sold for HK $ 230M from a lower estimate of HK $ 80M by Sotheby's on April 18, 2021, lot 1020. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The ultimate outcome is the expression of snowfall. He achieved this in 1999 by bringing a pointillism to Vertige Neigeux, a 200 x 400 cm diptych started in 1990, sold for HK $ 92M including premium by Christie's on November 26, 2016.
