Belgium 2nd page
in addition to Magritte.
See also : Sciences > 1800 Révolution and Empire Tintin
Chronology : 1800-1809 1892 1936 1941
See also : Sciences > 1800 Révolution and Empire Tintin
Chronology : 1800-1809 1892 1936 1941
1802-1816 Les Liliacées by Redouté
1985 SOLD for $ 5.5M including premiumby Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
Specializing in botanical watercolors, the Belgian artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté comes to Versailles in 1788 for his career after training in the Royal gardens of Kew. From 1800 he contributes by his drawings to the reissue of the Traité des Arbres et Arbustes by Duhamel du Monceau and from 1798 he is the favorite artist of the future empress Joséphine.
His direct commitment to botany takes place in two phases : 486 watercolors on vellum on Liliaceae from 1802 to 1816 followed by 168 Roses from 1817 to 1824. His scientifically accurate drawings are taken from life in the gardens of La Malmaison, Saint-Cloud, Versailles and Sèvres.
All the watercolors of the Liliacées, bound in 16 volumes 48 x 35 cm for a total weight of nearly 150 kg, were originally entrusted to Joséphine's library in La Malmaison.
The lot was sold on November 20, 1985 for $ 5.5M including premium by Sotheby's after a sensational opening bid of $ 5M, the highest at that time in an art sale.
The buyer was a young dealer of rare books and prints named W. Graham Arader, who immediately made him known. To carry out this operation, he had created a syndicate of clients. Each share gave the right to own four watercolors, some were still available and he kept 30% of the whole. He had been the only bidder but according to his statements gathered by the New York Times he was covered up to $ 20M.
The pieces were chosen in turn by Arader's clients according to a priority determined by a draw. Arader has not disclosed the names of his shareholders. Steve Jobs was probably one of them.
On October 10, 2020 Arader Galleries sold several Liliacées watercolors. The two top lots were sold for $ 530K each, including premium : cultivated pineapple, plate 456, lot 91, and banana, plate 444, lot 90, both linked here on LiveAuctioneers bidding platform.
His direct commitment to botany takes place in two phases : 486 watercolors on vellum on Liliaceae from 1802 to 1816 followed by 168 Roses from 1817 to 1824. His scientifically accurate drawings are taken from life in the gardens of La Malmaison, Saint-Cloud, Versailles and Sèvres.
All the watercolors of the Liliacées, bound in 16 volumes 48 x 35 cm for a total weight of nearly 150 kg, were originally entrusted to Joséphine's library in La Malmaison.
The lot was sold on November 20, 1985 for $ 5.5M including premium by Sotheby's after a sensational opening bid of $ 5M, the highest at that time in an art sale.
The buyer was a young dealer of rare books and prints named W. Graham Arader, who immediately made him known. To carry out this operation, he had created a syndicate of clients. Each share gave the right to own four watercolors, some were still available and he kept 30% of the whole. He had been the only bidder but according to his statements gathered by the New York Times he was covered up to $ 20M.
The pieces were chosen in turn by Arader's clients according to a priority determined by a draw. Arader has not disclosed the names of his shareholders. Steve Jobs was probably one of them.
On October 10, 2020 Arader Galleries sold several Liliacées watercolors. The two top lots were sold for $ 530K each, including premium : cultivated pineapple, plate 456, lot 91, and banana, plate 444, lot 90, both linked here on LiveAuctioneers bidding platform.
1889 La Partie de Tennis by van Rysselberghe
2020 SOLD for € 5.2M including premium by Christie's
narrated post sale in 2020
In 1886 in Paris, Théo van Rysselberghe visits the eighth impressionist exhibition. He is keenly interested in the new effects demonstrated by Un dimanche après-midi à l'Ile de la Grande Jatte and meets Seurat and Signac.
Van Rysselberghe was also inspired by frequent stays in Morocco. He sees like Signac the possibility of using the divisionist technique to accentuate the impression of light. His dots will be broad, with a preeminence of light over the details of the line.
On June 4, 2020 in Paris, Christie's sold for € 5.2M over a lower estimate of € 2M an oil on canvas 54 x 67 cm painted in 1889, lot 344, titled A Thuin ou La Partie de Tennis.
The theme of this scene is a game with tennis rackets in a park. The playground is bordered by large trees. The two women wear long dresses for their occupation which is not a sport but an entertainment. The pointillist blur also leaves a doubt about the nature of this game, probably a jeu de volant. A little girl watches, cautiously back from the action.
The family of Marie Monnom, who became Théo's wife in the same year, was renting a country house in Thuin, near Charleroi. Marie is probably one of the two women in this picture.
The colors are unreal, to better accentuate the contrasts of light. An influence from the Japanese prints is likely. Van Rysselberghe had managed in 1887 to capture the confidence of Toulouse-Lautrec who was the first owner of this painting.
The progression of van Rysselberghe's pointillist art towards the intense lights beloved by Signac does not stop here. L'Escaut en amont d'Anvers le soir, oil on canvas 67 x 90 cm painted in 1892, was sold for £ 8.5M including premium by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017. Painted in the same year, an oil on canvas 60 x 70 cm showing les Tartanes dans le port de Cette was sold for $ 7.2M including premium on November 14, 2017, also by Sotheby's.
Van Rysselberghe was also inspired by frequent stays in Morocco. He sees like Signac the possibility of using the divisionist technique to accentuate the impression of light. His dots will be broad, with a preeminence of light over the details of the line.
On June 4, 2020 in Paris, Christie's sold for € 5.2M over a lower estimate of € 2M an oil on canvas 54 x 67 cm painted in 1889, lot 344, titled A Thuin ou La Partie de Tennis.
The theme of this scene is a game with tennis rackets in a park. The playground is bordered by large trees. The two women wear long dresses for their occupation which is not a sport but an entertainment. The pointillist blur also leaves a doubt about the nature of this game, probably a jeu de volant. A little girl watches, cautiously back from the action.
The family of Marie Monnom, who became Théo's wife in the same year, was renting a country house in Thuin, near Charleroi. Marie is probably one of the two women in this picture.
The colors are unreal, to better accentuate the contrasts of light. An influence from the Japanese prints is likely. Van Rysselberghe had managed in 1887 to capture the confidence of Toulouse-Lautrec who was the first owner of this painting.
The progression of van Rysselberghe's pointillist art towards the intense lights beloved by Signac does not stop here. L'Escaut en amont d'Anvers le soir, oil on canvas 67 x 90 cm painted in 1892, was sold for £ 8.5M including premium by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017. Painted in the same year, an oil on canvas 60 x 70 cm showing les Tartanes dans le port de Cette was sold for $ 7.2M including premium on November 14, 2017, also by Sotheby's.
1891 Art Ensor and Ace of Spades
2016 SOLD for € 7.4M including premium
The expression of social mockery by pictorial art cannot be welcomed by the public at the end of the 19th century. James Ensor behaves in the opposite to any other artist. When he sees his works refused in exhibitions, he withdraws to his hometown of Ostend where he chooses the most suitable themes to shock the bourgeois. Many years later, when he will become famous and recognized, he will also stop painting.
The young artist is a very good connoisseur of ancient art. The Entrance of Christ in Brussels, painted in 1889, is an anarchist-inspired crowd scene in a theme in the follow of Bosch and Bruegel.
Ensor lives for his art without providing information about his private life, but he likes to introduce his real image amidst the carnival masks. The danses macabres (dances of death) inspire him and his skeletons are indeed self-portraits. He is tall and handsome. The hussar with a dead's head who dominates the other characters in the scene is him again.
James Ensor introduces in his art riddles and messages to be decoded. The small oil on canvas 16 x 21 cm entitled Squelettes se disputant un hareng (skeletons contesting a herring) painted in 1891 is a masterpiece of Surrealism a quarter of a century before the creation of that movement. There is no difference in French pronunciation between hareng saur and Art Ensor.
An oil on canvas 30 x 51 cm has just surfaced. Entitled Squelette arrêtant masques (skeleton stopping masks), this oil on canvas had long been kept by the artist who gave it to a friend. Emile Verhaeren had listed it in Ensor's studio in 1908 but it had never been photographed or exhibited. It is estimated € 1M for sale by Sotheby's in Paris on December 7, lot 11.
Squelette arrêtant masques was painted in 1891 and displays high similarities in style with Squelettes se disputant un hareng : the characters are seen half length leaving all the top part of the picture for a superb Ostend sky.
The scene shows seven masks typical of the carnival of Ostend opposed to the hussar who manages to repel them. Their opposition is social : we do not know which sordid truth every mask can hide or which actual role the good bourgeois of Ostend wishes to play during the carnival. The soldier's skull shows his reality, it is the opposite of the mask. This skeleton lives his own life within a derisory and rejectable world, as the artist himself is doing.
Squelette arrêtant masques is signed ENSOR accompanied by a red ace of spades that seems single in the art of Ensor and has not been explained. In my opinion, this ace designates the artist as the champion of his own dissenting opinions. The spades card (in French : pique) is a military symbol that reinforces the identification of the hussar as a self-portrait. Red is the symbol of the revolution for the socialists.
The young artist is a very good connoisseur of ancient art. The Entrance of Christ in Brussels, painted in 1889, is an anarchist-inspired crowd scene in a theme in the follow of Bosch and Bruegel.
Ensor lives for his art without providing information about his private life, but he likes to introduce his real image amidst the carnival masks. The danses macabres (dances of death) inspire him and his skeletons are indeed self-portraits. He is tall and handsome. The hussar with a dead's head who dominates the other characters in the scene is him again.
James Ensor introduces in his art riddles and messages to be decoded. The small oil on canvas 16 x 21 cm entitled Squelettes se disputant un hareng (skeletons contesting a herring) painted in 1891 is a masterpiece of Surrealism a quarter of a century before the creation of that movement. There is no difference in French pronunciation between hareng saur and Art Ensor.
An oil on canvas 30 x 51 cm has just surfaced. Entitled Squelette arrêtant masques (skeleton stopping masks), this oil on canvas had long been kept by the artist who gave it to a friend. Emile Verhaeren had listed it in Ensor's studio in 1908 but it had never been photographed or exhibited. It is estimated € 1M for sale by Sotheby's in Paris on December 7, lot 11.
Squelette arrêtant masques was painted in 1891 and displays high similarities in style with Squelettes se disputant un hareng : the characters are seen half length leaving all the top part of the picture for a superb Ostend sky.
The scene shows seven masks typical of the carnival of Ostend opposed to the hussar who manages to repel them. Their opposition is social : we do not know which sordid truth every mask can hide or which actual role the good bourgeois of Ostend wishes to play during the carnival. The soldier's skull shows his reality, it is the opposite of the mask. This skeleton lives his own life within a derisory and rejectable world, as the artist himself is doing.
Squelette arrêtant masques is signed ENSOR accompanied by a red ace of spades that seems single in the art of Ensor and has not been explained. In my opinion, this ace designates the artist as the champion of his own dissenting opinions. The spades card (in French : pique) is a military symbol that reinforces the identification of the hussar as a self-portrait. Red is the symbol of the revolution for the socialists.
1892 Light on the Scheldt
2017 SOLD for £ 8.5M including premium
The néo-impressionnisme of Seurat and Signac seeks to adapt to the painting the theories of Chevreul on color perception. The divisionnistes juxtapose their dots of pure colors supposed to recombine the complete spectrum from a remote observation.
The followers of this movement early reach its limits. The brightness can actually be spectacular but only if the composition is overwhelmed by yellow and orange. The weakening of the other colors considerably reduces the themes.
Seurat died prematurely in 1891. Signac left to meet the sun. His oil on canvas 47 x 55 cm painted in 1892 showing Saint-Tropez under a top midday sunshine was sold for $ 10.7M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2016.
Théo van Rysselberghe is a friend of Signac with whom he shares the anarchist opinions. He is convinced by the divisionnisme without joining its luministe variant promoted by Emile Claus and other Belgian néo-impressionnistes.
In 1892 and 1893 van Rysselberghe achieved some sensational luminosity in his oils on canvas. Decidedly attracted by the sun he settled in Provence in the late 1890s but already his art had become classic again.
On June 21 in London, Sotheby's sells L'Escaut en amont d'Anvers le soir, oil on canvas 67 x 90 cm painted in 1892. The composition is very simple, only displaying four poles and their reflections and a small sailboat that merges into the twilight blue of the other bank of the river. Sky and water are glowing. Remaining in its original artist's frame this painting is estimated £ 7M, lot 59.
The followers of this movement early reach its limits. The brightness can actually be spectacular but only if the composition is overwhelmed by yellow and orange. The weakening of the other colors considerably reduces the themes.
Seurat died prematurely in 1891. Signac left to meet the sun. His oil on canvas 47 x 55 cm painted in 1892 showing Saint-Tropez under a top midday sunshine was sold for $ 10.7M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2016.
Théo van Rysselberghe is a friend of Signac with whom he shares the anarchist opinions. He is convinced by the divisionnisme without joining its luministe variant promoted by Emile Claus and other Belgian néo-impressionnistes.
In 1892 and 1893 van Rysselberghe achieved some sensational luminosity in his oils on canvas. Decidedly attracted by the sun he settled in Provence in the late 1890s but already his art had become classic again.
On June 21 in London, Sotheby's sells L'Escaut en amont d'Anvers le soir, oil on canvas 67 x 90 cm painted in 1892. The composition is very simple, only displaying four poles and their reflections and a small sailboat that merges into the twilight blue of the other bank of the river. Sky and water are glowing. Remaining in its original artist's frame this painting is estimated £ 7M, lot 59.
#AuctionUpdate Showing his mastery of the #pointilliste technique, one of Théo van Rysselberghe’s finest #landscapes sells for record £8.5m pic.twitter.com/a7lGnm4Dpg
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) June 21, 2017
1892 The Cruise of the Olympia
2020 SOLD for $ 9.1M including premium
Paul Signac uses the divisionist principles to show the seascapes in the brightest sunshine. After Brittany, he validates his theories in the Mediterranean shores by spending the spring of 1889 in Cassis. A view of Cap Canaille was sold for $ 14M including premium by Christie's on November 6, 2007.
Seurat's untimely death in 1891 was a shock. Signac and Van Rysselberghe are organizing two exhibitions in his memory, in Brussels and in Paris. After the opening of the Paris exhibition in March 1892, they manage to change their minds by taking a cruise in the Mediterranea.
The two friends meet in Bordeaux on the Olympia, the small sailing boat that Signac had bought in the previous year. They reach the Mediterranea by the Canal du Midi. Théo van Rysselberghe paints several oils on canvas in the style of Signac, making of course great use of the cobalt blue. A view of the port of Cette (Sète), 60 x 70 cm, was sold for $ 7.2M including premium by Sotheby's on November 14, 2017.
On July 10 in New York, Christie's sells a view of the coast, probably near Cette, titled Barques de pêche, 63 x 84 cm including the liner painted by the artist, lot 59 estimated $ 7M. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The Grande Bleue is shown with a pattern of oblique lines that simulate the waves, while several rows of sails move away in a skillfully balanced composition. The use of complementary colors, orange and blue, yellow and violet, complies with Seurat's precepts.
The artist's frame is frequent in the work of van Rysselberghe at that period. It is painted as a decorative abstraction that echoes the pointillism. It is also present on the view of the Scheldt, painted in the same year probably after the trip, sold for £ 8.5M including premium by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017.
The cruise ends in early May in Saint-Tropez, the small port which was not yet accessible by road. Paul is dazzled by the discovery of his personal paradise. Théo leaves after a stay of a few weeks. Two views of Saint-Tropez painted in 1892 by Signac were sold respectively for £ 19.5M including premium by Christie's on February 27, 2019 and for $ 10.7M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2016.
Seurat's untimely death in 1891 was a shock. Signac and Van Rysselberghe are organizing two exhibitions in his memory, in Brussels and in Paris. After the opening of the Paris exhibition in March 1892, they manage to change their minds by taking a cruise in the Mediterranea.
The two friends meet in Bordeaux on the Olympia, the small sailing boat that Signac had bought in the previous year. They reach the Mediterranea by the Canal du Midi. Théo van Rysselberghe paints several oils on canvas in the style of Signac, making of course great use of the cobalt blue. A view of the port of Cette (Sète), 60 x 70 cm, was sold for $ 7.2M including premium by Sotheby's on November 14, 2017.
On July 10 in New York, Christie's sells a view of the coast, probably near Cette, titled Barques de pêche, 63 x 84 cm including the liner painted by the artist, lot 59 estimated $ 7M. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The Grande Bleue is shown with a pattern of oblique lines that simulate the waves, while several rows of sails move away in a skillfully balanced composition. The use of complementary colors, orange and blue, yellow and violet, complies with Seurat's precepts.
The artist's frame is frequent in the work of van Rysselberghe at that period. It is painted as a decorative abstraction that echoes the pointillism. It is also present on the view of the Scheldt, painted in the same year probably after the trip, sold for £ 8.5M including premium by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017.
The cruise ends in early May in Saint-Tropez, the small port which was not yet accessible by road. Paul is dazzled by the discovery of his personal paradise. Théo leaves after a stay of a few weeks. Two views of Saint-Tropez painted in 1892 by Signac were sold respectively for £ 19.5M including premium by Christie's on February 27, 2019 and for $ 10.7M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2016.
1892 Port de Cette by van Rysselberghe
2017 SOLD for $ 7.2M including premium by Sotheby's
1892 A Modern Proverb in Ostend
2015 SOLD for $ 7M including premium
James Ensor was born in a fantastic world. His parents run a souvenir shop in Ostend where they sold grotesque masks for the carnival. The young man was working in their attic where he could at leisure reconstitute macabre scenes in the style of the Renaissance.
He spent nearly his whole life in Ostend. The recognition of his art was long and hard in this provincial town where nobody was paying attention to his first colorful paintings close to the beginning of impressionism. His hatred of social conventions generated a period of intense creativity that lasted from 1888 to 1892.
He painted in 1889 his masterpiece, the Entry of Christ into Brussels, which is a diversion of the carnivals from Bruegel on which the crowd of masked characters is now waving revolutionary slogans.
Ensor is an artist of the social mockery long before the caricatures by Grosz and long before the surrealists. His Despair of Pierrot painted in 1892 anticipates the mournful clowns from Picasso's blue period. This oil on canvas 117 x 167 cm from the Saint-Laurent - Bergé collection was sold for € 5M including premium by Christie's on February 23, 2009.
On November 5 in New York, Sotheby's sells Les Poissardes mélancoliques, lot 19 estimated $ 3M.
This oil on canvas 110 x 80 cm painted in 1892 features two old women seated in an interior lined with trinkets. It is easy to appreciate why they are melancholic. Nothing remains from their fish trade excepted a mackerel shredded by the cat and a crab shell.
A niche with a proverb is inserted in the back wall, as in the old Dutch interior scenes. It is populated by three skulls with aggressive jaws. A sign marked with a slogan springs from this place as a challenge to the well-thinking bourgeoisie of Ostend: "Death to them! They ate too much fish!".
He spent nearly his whole life in Ostend. The recognition of his art was long and hard in this provincial town where nobody was paying attention to his first colorful paintings close to the beginning of impressionism. His hatred of social conventions generated a period of intense creativity that lasted from 1888 to 1892.
He painted in 1889 his masterpiece, the Entry of Christ into Brussels, which is a diversion of the carnivals from Bruegel on which the crowd of masked characters is now waving revolutionary slogans.
Ensor is an artist of the social mockery long before the caricatures by Grosz and long before the surrealists. His Despair of Pierrot painted in 1892 anticipates the mournful clowns from Picasso's blue period. This oil on canvas 117 x 167 cm from the Saint-Laurent - Bergé collection was sold for € 5M including premium by Christie's on February 23, 2009.
On November 5 in New York, Sotheby's sells Les Poissardes mélancoliques, lot 19 estimated $ 3M.
This oil on canvas 110 x 80 cm painted in 1892 features two old women seated in an interior lined with trinkets. It is easy to appreciate why they are melancholic. Nothing remains from their fish trade excepted a mackerel shredded by the cat and a crab shell.
A niche with a proverb is inserted in the back wall, as in the old Dutch interior scenes. It is populated by three skulls with aggressive jaws. A sign marked with a slogan springs from this place as a challenge to the well-thinking bourgeoisie of Ostend: "Death to them! They ate too much fish!".
1936 The Treachery of the Mirror
2016 SOLD for £ 7.3M including premium
La Trahison des images, featured by Magritte in 1929, is a manifesto or a guide of his vision concerning the artistic language. The image of the pipe is opposed by the writing : this is not a pipe. This statement is wrong, but it is also true: it is not a pipe but a painted canvas. Truth does not exist.
Paul Delvaux discovers in 1934 the surrealism in the manner of Magritte and De Chirico. He finds thereby the thread of his entire career. In the silence of the canvas, without a need for words, the reflection in the mirror and the shadows know how to lie.
Delvaux beautifully draws the nude women. Their psychology is not visible in their static attitude but through their surrounding. They face their double, who can be a dressed woman or a reflection or a dummy.
Le Miroir, oil on canvas 110 x 136 cm painted in 1936, demonstrates the creativity of the artist in the early days of his approach.
The woman turns her back to us, sitting on a stool in an interior. Her beautiful evening dress contrasts with the wall paper that peels into a misery which is certainly the truth that she wants to escape.
She watches her desire in the mirror. Her reflection is in the same seated position but now she is naked within a gate that opens onto a sunny courtyard with trees. The reflection of the shabby paper is also visible. The new angle reveals her smile of hope. The light remains logic with shadows that do not contradict it.
The doubt arises from the opposition between the inside and the outside. The title appeals for a mirror but does that woman look at her reflection or at a painted image which in this case would be a painting in the painting ? This question shall remain unanswered, both without truth and without lie.
Le Miroir was sold for £ 3.2M including premium by Christie's on December 8, 1999. It is estimated £ 5.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 3, lot 48.
Paul Delvaux discovers in 1934 the surrealism in the manner of Magritte and De Chirico. He finds thereby the thread of his entire career. In the silence of the canvas, without a need for words, the reflection in the mirror and the shadows know how to lie.
Delvaux beautifully draws the nude women. Their psychology is not visible in their static attitude but through their surrounding. They face their double, who can be a dressed woman or a reflection or a dummy.
Le Miroir, oil on canvas 110 x 136 cm painted in 1936, demonstrates the creativity of the artist in the early days of his approach.
The woman turns her back to us, sitting on a stool in an interior. Her beautiful evening dress contrasts with the wall paper that peels into a misery which is certainly the truth that she wants to escape.
She watches her desire in the mirror. Her reflection is in the same seated position but now she is naked within a gate that opens onto a sunny courtyard with trees. The reflection of the shabby paper is also visible. The new angle reveals her smile of hope. The light remains logic with shadows that do not contradict it.
The doubt arises from the opposition between the inside and the outside. The title appeals for a mirror but does that woman look at her reflection or at a painted image which in this case would be a painting in the painting ? This question shall remain unanswered, both without truth and without lie.
Le Miroir was sold for £ 3.2M including premium by Christie's on December 8, 1999. It is estimated £ 5.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 3, lot 48.
1936 The Colors of the Dragon
2021 SOLD for € 3.2M including premium
The edition by Le Petit Vingtième of Les Aventures de Tintin reporter en Extrême Orient is completed in October 1935. The album will be published in 1936 by Casterman under the title Le Lotus Bleu. The comic stripe is in black and white.
Hergé prepares for the cover a 34 x 34 cm drawing in India ink, watercolor and gouache. He is very proud of his new knowledge of Chinese culture, acquired through an effective collaboration with the Chinese diaspora from Brussels and Louvain. He chooses a scene in the vestibule of the opium den, with the image of a dragon in tapestry and a blue and white vase of monumental size.
Hergé has full confidence in Casterman but his cover design requires a perfect mastery of four-color printing. For the final version, he removes the pattern of thin clouds in which his dragon evolves, too complicated to print in yellow and red on a black background and unrelated to the story. The album is published with this second image pasted on the hard cover, in 6,000 copies.
The same album includes five full page illustrations for which Hergé did not work in direct colors. The black and white preparatory drawing of one of them was sold for HK $ 9.3M including premium by Artcurial on October 5, 2015.
The unused cover drawing is given by Hergé to the publisher's son who folds it in six to store it in a drawer. It surfaced in 1988 in Ixelles in an exhibition dedicated to the sixtieth anniversary of the Adventures of Tintin. It is estimated € 2.2M for sale by Artcurial in Paris on January 14, lot 18. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The dragon mutates for the reissue of the album in 1942. It becomes a black silhouette on a red background. On the vase, its barely legible figure is replaced by a little bird.
Hergé prepares for the cover a 34 x 34 cm drawing in India ink, watercolor and gouache. He is very proud of his new knowledge of Chinese culture, acquired through an effective collaboration with the Chinese diaspora from Brussels and Louvain. He chooses a scene in the vestibule of the opium den, with the image of a dragon in tapestry and a blue and white vase of monumental size.
Hergé has full confidence in Casterman but his cover design requires a perfect mastery of four-color printing. For the final version, he removes the pattern of thin clouds in which his dragon evolves, too complicated to print in yellow and red on a black background and unrelated to the story. The album is published with this second image pasted on the hard cover, in 6,000 copies.
The same album includes five full page illustrations for which Hergé did not work in direct colors. The black and white preparatory drawing of one of them was sold for HK $ 9.3M including premium by Artcurial on October 5, 2015.
The unused cover drawing is given by Hergé to the publisher's son who folds it in six to store it in a drawer. It surfaced in 1988 in Ixelles in an exhibition dedicated to the sixtieth anniversary of the Adventures of Tintin. It is estimated € 2.2M for sale by Artcurial in Paris on January 14, lot 18. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The dragon mutates for the reissue of the album in 1942. It becomes a black silhouette on a red background. On the vase, its barely legible figure is replaced by a little bird.
1937 The 34 Labours of Tintin
2014 SOLD 2.65 M€ including premium
From 1934, Casterman in Tournai publishes the new Tintin albums and reissues the earlier stories.
In 1937, when young readers open L'Oreille Cassée, they cannot miss a first double page consisting of 34 drawings in white on a dark blue background displaying Tintin in the most typical situations from his adventures.
The first album, Tintin au Pays des Soviets, is not used, not for political reasons but because Casterman could not work on this story whose some drawings had been lost.
The Tintinophiles rejoice to find an intruder (a single one) : Tintin and Snowy dressed as polar explorers, a situation that will not occur until five years later.
This double page used by Casterman until 1958 encouraged the users to read again and buy all the albums. It is a masterpiece of Hergé, and an outstanding example of wordless advertising.
The original art in black ink retouched with white gouache, 35 x 53 cm is estimated € 700K, for sale by Artcurial in Paris on May 24.
The same auction also includes two lots related to another mythical image : the cover of L'Ile Noire at its reissue in 1942.
The original line drawing in ink, 51 x 35 cm, is estimated € 600K. The original color formatting made in gouache over a gray print of the same image, 39 x 30 cm, is estimated € 70K.
POST SALE COMMENT
These drawings are well among the top masterpieces by Hergé. The double page for the Casterman albums was sold for € 2.1 million and the cover art in black ink for l'Ile Noire for € 800K. The gouache for l'Ile Noire was sold for € 80K.
The above prices do not include the premium.
In 1937, when young readers open L'Oreille Cassée, they cannot miss a first double page consisting of 34 drawings in white on a dark blue background displaying Tintin in the most typical situations from his adventures.
The first album, Tintin au Pays des Soviets, is not used, not for political reasons but because Casterman could not work on this story whose some drawings had been lost.
The Tintinophiles rejoice to find an intruder (a single one) : Tintin and Snowy dressed as polar explorers, a situation that will not occur until five years later.
This double page used by Casterman until 1958 encouraged the users to read again and buy all the albums. It is a masterpiece of Hergé, and an outstanding example of wordless advertising.
The original art in black ink retouched with white gouache, 35 x 53 cm is estimated € 700K, for sale by Artcurial in Paris on May 24.
The same auction also includes two lots related to another mythical image : the cover of L'Ile Noire at its reissue in 1942.
The original line drawing in ink, 51 x 35 cm, is estimated € 600K. The original color formatting made in gouache over a gray print of the same image, 39 x 30 cm, is estimated € 70K.
POST SALE COMMENT
These drawings are well among the top masterpieces by Hergé. The double page for the Casterman albums was sold for € 2.1 million and the cover art in black ink for l'Ile Noire for € 800K. The gouache for l'Ile Noire was sold for € 80K.
The above prices do not include the premium.
1941 The War Nudes of Paul Delvaux
2011 SOLD 6.6 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Delvaux is a figurative painter, but not narrative. His nude women do nothing but being looked, like geishas of theWest. They stay in antique architectures that seem familiar without being identified.
The oil on canvas, 110 x 130 cm, for sale by Christie's in New York on November 1, is an exception. It was painted in Brussels in 1941, in the stifling atmosphere of war.
Women are shown in three distances. Two are close. Two are intertwined in the background landscape. The other two, naked only above the waist, are each on the arm of a man with a bowler hat who seems to come straight from Magritte.
The two women in the foreground wish to communicate. Subtly, their anguish is only reflected by the twisting of the hands. A man, half-over on the left, could help but they do not look at him: it is one of very few paintings in which Delvaux has introduced his self-portrait.
Compared to the usual softly erotic works of Delvaux, this painting is exceptional. It is estimated $ 6M.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This rare painting loaded with emotion was sold $ 6.6M including premium.
Delvaux is a figurative painter, but not narrative. His nude women do nothing but being looked, like geishas of theWest. They stay in antique architectures that seem familiar without being identified.
The oil on canvas, 110 x 130 cm, for sale by Christie's in New York on November 1, is an exception. It was painted in Brussels in 1941, in the stifling atmosphere of war.
Women are shown in three distances. Two are close. Two are intertwined in the background landscape. The other two, naked only above the waist, are each on the arm of a man with a bowler hat who seems to come straight from Magritte.
The two women in the foreground wish to communicate. Subtly, their anguish is only reflected by the twisting of the hands. A man, half-over on the left, could help but they do not look at him: it is one of very few paintings in which Delvaux has introduced his self-portrait.
Compared to the usual softly erotic works of Delvaux, this painting is exceptional. It is estimated $ 6M.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This rare painting loaded with emotion was sold $ 6.6M including premium.
