Cities
See also : France Paris Venice Los Angeles Monet London and Venice Renoir UK II Hockney US painting < 1940 USA by Warhol Old Flanders and Belgium Magritte Groups Music and dance
Chronology : 19th century 1870-1879 1900-1909 1903 1908 1934 1961 1962 1969 1980
Chronology : 19th century 1870-1879 1900-1909 1903 1908 1934 1961 1962 1969 1980
1876 Bal du Moulin de la Galette by Renoir
1990 SOLD for $ 78 M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
In 1863 Charles Gleyre admonishes Monet because he does not follow the model of the antique. Bringing with him three friends, Sisley, Renoir and Bazille, Monet slams the door and manages to paint outdoors.
Their temperaments are different. They are young and tempted by the good life of dancing balls. While Monet is overtaken by his wife, Renoir expresses the carefree joie de vivre of the groups to which he applies the impressionist style. Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette in 1876 and Le Déjeuner des Canotiers, exhibited in 1882, are among the most important masterpieces of painting.
Renoir painted two identical versions of the Moulin de la Galette. The largest, 131 x 175 cm, became the property of the French State through the Caillebotte bequest and is currently at the Musée d'Orsay.
The other version is an oil on canvas 78 x 114 cm damaged by folding. Coming from the Whitney collection, it was sold for $ 78M including premium by Sotheby's on May 17, 1990. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The buyer was a Japanese collector named Ryoei Saito, who had acquired the Portrait of Dr Gachet by Van Gogh two days earlier at Christies for $ 82M including premium. Saito creates some terror in the art world by announcing that at his death he will be cremated with the two paintings to avoid that enormous inheritance rights are required to his heirs.
Saito died in 1996. His threat was not carried out because his wealth had turned down and the artworks were sequestered by his creditors, but the two paintings were never seen again. The Van Gogh was reportedly located in 2007 in the collection of an Austrian financier who has since gone bankrupt.
Their temperaments are different. They are young and tempted by the good life of dancing balls. While Monet is overtaken by his wife, Renoir expresses the carefree joie de vivre of the groups to which he applies the impressionist style. Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette in 1876 and Le Déjeuner des Canotiers, exhibited in 1882, are among the most important masterpieces of painting.
Renoir painted two identical versions of the Moulin de la Galette. The largest, 131 x 175 cm, became the property of the French State through the Caillebotte bequest and is currently at the Musée d'Orsay.
The other version is an oil on canvas 78 x 114 cm damaged by folding. Coming from the Whitney collection, it was sold for $ 78M including premium by Sotheby's on May 17, 1990. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The buyer was a Japanese collector named Ryoei Saito, who had acquired the Portrait of Dr Gachet by Van Gogh two days earlier at Christies for $ 82M including premium. Saito creates some terror in the art world by announcing that at his death he will be cremated with the two paintings to avoid that enormous inheritance rights are required to his heirs.
Saito died in 1996. His threat was not carried out because his wealth had turned down and the artworks were sequestered by his creditors, but the two paintings were never seen again. The Van Gogh was reportedly located in 2007 in the collection of an Austrian financier who has since gone bankrupt.
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1876 Jeune Homme à sa Fenêtre by Caillebotte
2021 SOLD for $ 53M by Christie's
Born in Paris to a family of wealthy bourgeois, Gustave Caillebotte graduated in law but could manage his life like a spare time. He took an interest in painting and made many friends in the avant-gardes. He was a keen visitor in 1874 of the exhibition afterward known as the Première exposition des peintres impressionnistes.
The young artists were innovating in the brush stroke, but also in the themes. Monet managed to display some instantaneous views of daily realism that went against the expectations of the official Salons. Un Coin d'appartement, painted by Monet in 1875, was acquired by Caillebotte whom it certainly deeply influenced.
In 1876 Caillebotte is invited to participate in the Seconde exposition des peintres impressionnistes. He hangs eight paintings including his masterpiece Les Raboteurs de parquet that does not feature the bourgeois but an instantaneous of three workers preparing the floor in a bourgeois apartment. This picture had of course been refused by the Salon for its ordinary theme in the previous year.
Another scene exhibited by Caillebotte at the Seconde exposition is Jeune Homme à sa fenêtre, mingling the keen interests of the artist for his family and for the bourgeois comfort of the districts recently rebuilt by Haussmann. It features his younger brother René from back, standing at the balcony of the family's apartment to have a look towards the rue de Miromesnil and its sparse pedestrians.
This oil on canvas 116 x 81 cm painted in 1876 was sold for $ 53M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 23C. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The sun bathed rue de Miromesnil is rendered here in a highly realistic brush stroke. Now entered in the Impressionniste group, Caillebotte will then keenly use their style of painting and be instrumental in promoting their exhibitions.
L'Homme au balcon boulevard Haussmann, oil on canvas 117 x 90 cm painted in 1880, is a similar composition from an elevated point executed with an impressionist brushstroke in the trees. It has been sold for $ 14.3M by Christie's on May 8, 2000, lot 8.
The young artists were innovating in the brush stroke, but also in the themes. Monet managed to display some instantaneous views of daily realism that went against the expectations of the official Salons. Un Coin d'appartement, painted by Monet in 1875, was acquired by Caillebotte whom it certainly deeply influenced.
In 1876 Caillebotte is invited to participate in the Seconde exposition des peintres impressionnistes. He hangs eight paintings including his masterpiece Les Raboteurs de parquet that does not feature the bourgeois but an instantaneous of three workers preparing the floor in a bourgeois apartment. This picture had of course been refused by the Salon for its ordinary theme in the previous year.
Another scene exhibited by Caillebotte at the Seconde exposition is Jeune Homme à sa fenêtre, mingling the keen interests of the artist for his family and for the bourgeois comfort of the districts recently rebuilt by Haussmann. It features his younger brother René from back, standing at the balcony of the family's apartment to have a look towards the rue de Miromesnil and its sparse pedestrians.
This oil on canvas 116 x 81 cm painted in 1876 was sold for $ 53M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 23C. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The sun bathed rue de Miromesnil is rendered here in a highly realistic brush stroke. Now entered in the Impressionniste group, Caillebotte will then keenly use their style of painting and be instrumental in promoting their exhibitions.
L'Homme au balcon boulevard Haussmann, oil on canvas 117 x 90 cm painted in 1880, is a similar composition from an elevated point executed with an impressionist brushstroke in the trees. It has been sold for $ 14.3M by Christie's on May 8, 2000, lot 8.
London by MONET
1
1903 Le Parlement
2022 SOLD for $ 76M by Christie's
During a brief stay in London in 1899 for family purpose, Monet observed the Thames. He came back for painting on the late winter of the following year.
Through his window at the Savoy Hotel, Monet watches Waterloo and Charing Cross bridges in the pink fog of the morning. On one of the first evenings he sees the sunset above the neo-Gothic buildings of the Houses of Parliament and the river. Like Constable, he will be an extraordinary interpreter of the English sky.
The best view is selected in February 1900 from the garden of St. Thomas's Hospital. The artist is already famous. He easily gets the authorization to work every day in this place. Every afternoon at 4:00, he leaves the hotel to retrieve or resettle his easels at the hospital.
The light changes at every moment with the clouds pushed by the wind and the instability of the fog. As for the poplars in 1891, Monet works on several paintings in parallel. His control is total and even his method for applying his brush varies depending on the desired effect.
This project is the most amazing in the history of painting. By considering the three motifs altogether (the two bridges and the Parliament), Monet maintains a hundred paintings during this 1900 stay. He leaves London before spring when the sun is now higher and the light has changed. He returns with his paintings in the following year but snow and cold prevent a new progress.
Monet finishes his paintings at Giverny and scrupulously notes the year of completion beside his signature. He considers the whole as inseparable until the 1904 exhibition by Durand-Ruel that gets a considerable success, anticipating his famous uncompromising attitude before the first exhibition of his Water Lilies series.
The subgroup of the Parliament from St. Thomas's at sunset consists of 19 oil paintings in a unique format 81 x 93 cm.
Le Parlement - soleil couchant, numbered 1603 by Wildenstein, was sold for $ 40.5M by Christie's on May 11, 2015, lot 24A. Dated 1902, this painting is one of the first that was completed by the artist, perhaps because the very expressive sky is particularly successful. Despite the clouds, the sun plays behind the high tower and the soft pink shades apply to the edges of the clouds and to the reflections in the river.
The Wildenstein 1604, with the same title and subtitle, was dated 1903 by the artist. Both were included in the 1904 exhibition of Monet's Vues de la Tamise à Londres at the Galerie Durand-Ruel.
Both sceneries were captured at about the same time at around 5 o'clock in another twilight, W1603 at a later date. W1603 displays a striking appearance of the sun amidst dramatic clouds while W1604 is foggy in violets, lilacs, blues and deep pink with a ghostly silhouette of the Parliament buildings.
W1604 was sold for $ 76M from a lower estimate of $ 40M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 10C.
Through his window at the Savoy Hotel, Monet watches Waterloo and Charing Cross bridges in the pink fog of the morning. On one of the first evenings he sees the sunset above the neo-Gothic buildings of the Houses of Parliament and the river. Like Constable, he will be an extraordinary interpreter of the English sky.
The best view is selected in February 1900 from the garden of St. Thomas's Hospital. The artist is already famous. He easily gets the authorization to work every day in this place. Every afternoon at 4:00, he leaves the hotel to retrieve or resettle his easels at the hospital.
The light changes at every moment with the clouds pushed by the wind and the instability of the fog. As for the poplars in 1891, Monet works on several paintings in parallel. His control is total and even his method for applying his brush varies depending on the desired effect.
This project is the most amazing in the history of painting. By considering the three motifs altogether (the two bridges and the Parliament), Monet maintains a hundred paintings during this 1900 stay. He leaves London before spring when the sun is now higher and the light has changed. He returns with his paintings in the following year but snow and cold prevent a new progress.
Monet finishes his paintings at Giverny and scrupulously notes the year of completion beside his signature. He considers the whole as inseparable until the 1904 exhibition by Durand-Ruel that gets a considerable success, anticipating his famous uncompromising attitude before the first exhibition of his Water Lilies series.
The subgroup of the Parliament from St. Thomas's at sunset consists of 19 oil paintings in a unique format 81 x 93 cm.
Le Parlement - soleil couchant, numbered 1603 by Wildenstein, was sold for $ 40.5M by Christie's on May 11, 2015, lot 24A. Dated 1902, this painting is one of the first that was completed by the artist, perhaps because the very expressive sky is particularly successful. Despite the clouds, the sun plays behind the high tower and the soft pink shades apply to the edges of the clouds and to the reflections in the river.
The Wildenstein 1604, with the same title and subtitle, was dated 1903 by the artist. Both were included in the 1904 exhibition of Monet's Vues de la Tamise à Londres at the Galerie Durand-Ruel.
Both sceneries were captured at about the same time at around 5 o'clock in another twilight, W1603 at a later date. W1603 displays a striking appearance of the sun amidst dramatic clouds while W1604 is foggy in violets, lilacs, blues and deep pink with a ghostly silhouette of the Parliament buildings.
W1604 was sold for $ 76M from a lower estimate of $ 40M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 10C.
#AuctionUpdate Claude Monet’s ‘Le Parlement, soleil couchant’ realizes $75.96 million  pic.twitter.com/BpjEOoZ7nY
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 12, 2022
2
1903 Waterloo Bridge
2021 SOLD for $ 48M by Christie's
During his frequent and long duration stays in London from 1899 to 1904, Monet made a unprecedented artistic move : he selected only three view points, all of them along the River Thames, two of them from the balcony of his hotel room. He loved the winter fog of London. Not for its mist but for its ever vanishing colors.
As early as 1900 he counted in his hotel room 65 canvases covered of paint with his impressions from all kinds of weather. He reworked them simultaneously in his studio at Giverny and signed them with the date of the completion. He thus painted 41 views of the elegant Waterloo bridge, 37 views of Charing Cross bridge and 19 views of the Towers of Parliament. He considered that work as a whole and did not give visibility before the last of them was finished in 1904. He also made pastels.
On May 13, 2021, Christie's sold for $ 48M Waterloo Bridge effet de Brouillard, oil on canvas 66 x 100 cm dated 1903, lot 8 B. The March 18 press release announces an estimate in the region of $ 35M. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
The intense fog displays here an ethereal blue iridescent with soft hues of violet, pink and orange, dissolving the animation of the passing carriages and reducing the shores to mere shadows. This significant opus had been included in 1904 in the ground-breaking Durand-Ruel exhibition entitled Claude Monet : Vues de la Tamise à Londres.
As early as 1900 he counted in his hotel room 65 canvases covered of paint with his impressions from all kinds of weather. He reworked them simultaneously in his studio at Giverny and signed them with the date of the completion. He thus painted 41 views of the elegant Waterloo bridge, 37 views of Charing Cross bridge and 19 views of the Towers of Parliament. He considered that work as a whole and did not give visibility before the last of them was finished in 1904. He also made pastels.
On May 13, 2021, Christie's sold for $ 48M Waterloo Bridge effet de Brouillard, oil on canvas 66 x 100 cm dated 1903, lot 8 B. The March 18 press release announces an estimate in the region of $ 35M. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
The intense fog displays here an ethereal blue iridescent with soft hues of violet, pink and orange, dissolving the animation of the passing carriages and reducing the shores to mere shadows. This significant opus had been included in 1904 in the ground-breaking Durand-Ruel exhibition entitled Claude Monet : Vues de la Tamise à Londres.
#AuctionUpdate Claude Monet's 'Waterloo Bridge, effet de brouillard' from the artist's landmark series of London views achieves $48,450,000 pic.twitter.com/xdEgAyxatl
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 13, 2021
1908 Grand Canal by Monet
2022 SOLD for $ 57M by Sotheby's
The next Wildenstein number from the example above is a very similar view of the Grand Canal with Santa Maria della Salute in the opposite bank, in the same 73 x 92 cm format. It is taken from farther away from the first pole, and the lower step corner of the Palazzo Barbaro over the canal has been added.
These after lunch pictures ended at 3 o'clock Claude's working day. He would then relax until twilight in a gondola tour with Alice.
The weather is sunny. The difference between both pieces is the attempt by the artist to catch subtle changes in the mirage-like atmosphere and haze of the water scenery caught in another early afternoon.
The surface of the canal is iridescent of a wide range of reflected colors providing the effect of a splashing water. Far away gondolas have been added.
This oil on canvas was sold for $ 57M by Sotheby's on May 18, 2022, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
These after lunch pictures ended at 3 o'clock Claude's working day. He would then relax until twilight in a gondola tour with Alice.
The weather is sunny. The difference between both pieces is the attempt by the artist to catch subtle changes in the mirage-like atmosphere and haze of the water scenery caught in another early afternoon.
The surface of the canal is iridescent of a wide range of reflected colors providing the effect of a splashing water. Far away gondolas have been added.
This oil on canvas was sold for $ 57M by Sotheby's on May 18, 2022, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The Monet market has been raging. Now Sotheby's is pulling out a Venetian painting with a $50m asking price. They may be shooting too low: https://t.co/wmtcwaJhA4 pic.twitter.com/Hj59nApK2e
— LiveArt (@artmarket) March 25, 2022
1934 Suburbs for Sale
2013 SOLD 40.5 M$ including premium
The house is for Hopper the theme that ensures the continuity of civilization. It symbolizes the past by surviving after the move or death of its residents. The 1929 crisis could only exacerbate his reluctant vision of the modern world.
Hopper is the most famous car user in the history of art. He tirelessly revisits the same places to perform sketches which he then reworks in his workshop in the form of large oil paintings.
Painted in 1934, East Wind over Weehawken, 86 x 128 cm, shows houses viewed from a small crossing of streets in suburban New Jersey. This place should support life but the streets are empty. These houses are promoted to the rank of major characters in the drama and wait for who knows what.
In the foreground, a tall unsightly city lamp divides the picture as if it were the keeper of nothingness. Seeking other marks, we see a sign at the limit of readability announcing For Sale. The moment before or after can reveal life. Two very small spots on far left edge are characters. Or not. Mankind does not matter.
This painting is estimated $ 22M, for sale by Christie 's in New York on December 5.
POST SALE COMMENT
The pessimistic view of civilization expressed by Hopper in the 1930s is still relevant. This outstanding example of his art has been sold for $ 40.5 million including premium.
The image is shared in Wikimedia :
Hopper is the most famous car user in the history of art. He tirelessly revisits the same places to perform sketches which he then reworks in his workshop in the form of large oil paintings.
Painted in 1934, East Wind over Weehawken, 86 x 128 cm, shows houses viewed from a small crossing of streets in suburban New Jersey. This place should support life but the streets are empty. These houses are promoted to the rank of major characters in the drama and wait for who knows what.
In the foreground, a tall unsightly city lamp divides the picture as if it were the keeper of nothingness. Seeking other marks, we see a sign at the limit of readability announcing For Sale. The moment before or after can reveal life. Two very small spots on far left edge are characters. Or not. Mankind does not matter.
This painting is estimated $ 22M, for sale by Christie 's in New York on December 5.
POST SALE COMMENT
The pessimistic view of civilization expressed by Hopper in the 1930s is still relevant. This outstanding example of his art has been sold for $ 40.5 million including premium.
The image is shared in Wikimedia :
1961 L'Empire des Lumières by Magritte
2022 SOLD for £ 60M by Sotheby'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 ?
The first variant of the Empire des lumières was completed in 1949. This oil on canvas 49 x 59 cm was sold for $ 20.6M by Christie's on November 13, 2017, lot 12 A.
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'.
The friends of the artist are enthusiastic about L'Empire des Lumières and Magritte makes a total of seventeen variants over the years. An Empire des lumières 100 x 80 cm painted in 1952 was sold for $ 12.7M by Christie's on May 7, 2002, lot 36.
The largest version of L'Empire des Lumières is the fifteenth, painted by Magritte from order for a present to a friend's daughter. It is an exceptional enlarged remake of a segment of the original painting in a rare panoramic format of similar proportions.
Matching some features of Magritte's ideal woman, the daughter revealed in 2015 that she had been the charming blonde model for La Fée ignorante, a beautiful title of an artwork indeed. The artist kindly said to the teenager : “tu vois, je te peignais déjà avant de te connaître...”»
Now consigned from that single ownership, this oil on canvas 115 x 146 cm was sold for £ 60M by Sotheby's on March 2, 2022, lot 114.
Magritte himself brings a disturbing continuation much later with La Fin du monde. Over the same place the sky has become black and in a better logic the horizon is still bright. The signature head with the bowler hat appears as a threat amidst the black silhouettes of the trees. This oil on canvas 82 x 100 cm painted in 1963 was sold for $ 7M by Christie's on November 1, 2011.
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 ?
The first variant of the Empire des lumières was completed in 1949. This oil on canvas 49 x 59 cm was sold for $ 20.6M by Christie's on November 13, 2017, lot 12 A.
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'.
The friends of the artist are enthusiastic about L'Empire des Lumières and Magritte makes a total of seventeen variants over the years. An Empire des lumières 100 x 80 cm painted in 1952 was sold for $ 12.7M by Christie's on May 7, 2002, lot 36.
The largest version of L'Empire des Lumières is the fifteenth, painted by Magritte from order for a present to a friend's daughter. It is an exceptional enlarged remake of a segment of the original painting in a rare panoramic format of similar proportions.
Matching some features of Magritte's ideal woman, the daughter revealed in 2015 that she had been the charming blonde model for La Fée ignorante, a beautiful title of an artwork indeed. The artist kindly said to the teenager : “tu vois, je te peignais déjà avant de te connaître...”»
Now consigned from that single ownership, this oil on canvas 115 x 146 cm was sold for £ 60M by Sotheby's on March 2, 2022, lot 114.
Magritte himself brings a disturbing continuation much later with La Fin du monde. Over the same place the sky has become black and in a better logic the horizon is still bright. The signature head with the bowler hat appears as a threat amidst the black silhouettes of the trees. This oil on canvas 82 x 100 cm painted in 1963 was sold for $ 7M by Christie's on November 1, 2011.
1962 The Blurred Image of Liberty
2012 SOLD 43.7 M$ including premium
For Warhol, in 1962, all experiences, all messages are possible. His artistic language is entirely new.
The use of silkscreen ink applied to the enlargement of a trivial photograph is the decisive creative invention of Warhol. It allows the endless repetition of the same image, with a speed of execution that quickly diversifies the catalog of the artist. It is not to be considered as a print due to the variants from a completed artwork to another and also because of the finish with spray enamel and graphite.
But what does exactly want this former designer of ads? Present to the world a publicity for America, or deride its consumer society? Exalt the hope of a sheltered life, or exacerbate the futility of politics?
If there were only stars and soup cans, Warhol's message is simple. Disasters, electric chairs, car crashes put everything into question. Executed in 1962, Warhol's Statue of Liberty anticipates all the social gnashing of his art. In our world, everything is false.
The symbol is present, as in reality, off Manhattan. Warhol well knows that the multiplicity of images kills emotion. Thanks to his screen printing technique, he kills the hope of Liberty by aligning 4 rows of 6 identical images.
Warhol knows that painting is an illusory representation of the three-dimensional reality of the world. Each of the 24 units of Miss Liberty is treated in green and red like an anaglyph, but the two views are from one single postcard. The viewer with his stereoscopic glasses marvels at a false illusion of 3D due to inequality of the finish.
This canvas 198 x 206 cm is for sale by Christie's on November 14 in New York. The logics would be that it is acknowledged as one of the key works of Warhol, in excess of $ 35M. The auction house has not published an estimate. Here is the link to the catalog.
I invite you to play the video featured by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This surprising artwork provides a final denial to whoever thinks that the art, personality and ambition of Warhol are simple to decode. This Statue of Liberty is one of the masterpieces of the first great year of the artist, as well as the 200 One Dollar Bills, sold exactly for the same price at Sotheby's in 2009: $ 43.7 million including premium.
The use of silkscreen ink applied to the enlargement of a trivial photograph is the decisive creative invention of Warhol. It allows the endless repetition of the same image, with a speed of execution that quickly diversifies the catalog of the artist. It is not to be considered as a print due to the variants from a completed artwork to another and also because of the finish with spray enamel and graphite.
But what does exactly want this former designer of ads? Present to the world a publicity for America, or deride its consumer society? Exalt the hope of a sheltered life, or exacerbate the futility of politics?
If there were only stars and soup cans, Warhol's message is simple. Disasters, electric chairs, car crashes put everything into question. Executed in 1962, Warhol's Statue of Liberty anticipates all the social gnashing of his art. In our world, everything is false.
The symbol is present, as in reality, off Manhattan. Warhol well knows that the multiplicity of images kills emotion. Thanks to his screen printing technique, he kills the hope of Liberty by aligning 4 rows of 6 identical images.
Warhol knows that painting is an illusory representation of the three-dimensional reality of the world. Each of the 24 units of Miss Liberty is treated in green and red like an anaglyph, but the two views are from one single postcard. The viewer with his stereoscopic glasses marvels at a false illusion of 3D due to inequality of the finish.
This canvas 198 x 206 cm is for sale by Christie's on November 14 in New York. The logics would be that it is acknowledged as one of the key works of Warhol, in excess of $ 35M. The auction house has not published an estimate. Here is the link to the catalog.
I invite you to play the video featured by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This surprising artwork provides a final denial to whoever thinks that the art, personality and ambition of Warhol are simple to decode. This Statue of Liberty is one of the masterpieces of the first great year of the artist, as well as the 200 One Dollar Bills, sold exactly for the same price at Sotheby's in 2009: $ 43.7 million including premium.
1969 Curator and Partner
2019 SOLD for £ 38M including premium
Looking for sexual freedom, David Hockney arrives in California in 1964. The easy life nevertheless does not answer his questioning about communication within a couple.
Between 1968 and 1977 he makes double portraits in very large format, 214 x 305 cm. He alternates between homosexual and heterosexual couples and ends the series with his own parents, clearly assessing that his concern is no longer sex but dialogue. The sitters are most often identified in the title and are very recognizable.
Invariably the two characters are distant from each other with a deliberately orthogonal gazing. In this strange intimacy, the painter is an invisible social voyeur.
Installed again in London in 1968, he does not neglect America. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is preparing a major exhibition that will reveal post-war American art to the general public. The curator of this important cultural operation is the highly influential Henry Geldzahler.
Hockney arrives in Geldzahler's living room in Manhattan with his sketchbook, polaroid camera and flu. Back in his studio in London, he paints in 1969 'Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott'. This acrylic on canvas will be sold by Christie's in London on March 6, lot 8. The December 17 press release announces an estimate in excess of £ 30M.
The two men could not be more dissimilar and yet their life as a couple is sustainable. Robust and confident in himself, Geldzahler is comfortably seated in the middle of a beautiful sofa worthy of the greatest Art Deco collections. On the right, his young partner is standing, dressed in a raincoat too big for him and as stiff as the floor lamp. The scene is located by the skyscrapers beyond the small window.
Between 1968 and 1977 he makes double portraits in very large format, 214 x 305 cm. He alternates between homosexual and heterosexual couples and ends the series with his own parents, clearly assessing that his concern is no longer sex but dialogue. The sitters are most often identified in the title and are very recognizable.
Invariably the two characters are distant from each other with a deliberately orthogonal gazing. In this strange intimacy, the painter is an invisible social voyeur.
Installed again in London in 1968, he does not neglect America. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is preparing a major exhibition that will reveal post-war American art to the general public. The curator of this important cultural operation is the highly influential Henry Geldzahler.
Hockney arrives in Geldzahler's living room in Manhattan with his sketchbook, polaroid camera and flu. Back in his studio in London, he paints in 1969 'Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott'. This acrylic on canvas will be sold by Christie's in London on March 6, lot 8. The December 17 press release announces an estimate in excess of £ 30M.
The two men could not be more dissimilar and yet their life as a couple is sustainable. Robust and confident in himself, Geldzahler is comfortably seated in the middle of a beautiful sofa worthy of the greatest Art Deco collections. On the right, his young partner is standing, dressed in a raincoat too big for him and as stiff as the floor lamp. The scene is located by the skyscrapers beyond the small window.
1980 Pleasure of the Road
2020 SOLD for $ 41M including premium
David Hockney could not do any more without Los Angeles. In 1978 he moves there permanently. The workshop is downside, in the plain of Santa Monica. The residence is up, in the Hollywood Hills. Everyday, morning and evening, his journey passes through Nichols Canyon. The environment is idyllic : swimming pools, palm trees, blue sky, bright colors.
The road is both winding and wide. It was built in 1925 to give the megalopolis a comfortable road escape to the north. David knows all its twists and turns. He drives with musical gestures. The melody he sings compensates for his increasing deafness.
David is not a professional musician. He is a pictorial artist. To express the pleasure of his journey, he paints in 1980 Nichols Canyon, acrylic on canvas 213 x 152 cm, with colors inspired by the vibrant exaggerations of the Fauvistes.
The musical meanders of the road cross all the space. It is a real road : its shortened name, Nichols Cyn Rd, is inscribed like on a road map. The STOP at the place where the road leaves the hills, in the foreground, marks the exit from that paradise. The red dot in the middle of the route symbolizes the artist's Mercedes-Benz.
Nichols Canyon will be sold by Phillips in New York on December 7, lot 10. The October 26 press release announces an estimate in the region of $ 35M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
David had pleasure in communicating in this work his musical style of driving in the hills. Painted ten years later with the same inspiration in a more spectacular perspective, Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica, oil on canvas 198 x 305 cm, was sold for $ 28.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018.
The road is both winding and wide. It was built in 1925 to give the megalopolis a comfortable road escape to the north. David knows all its twists and turns. He drives with musical gestures. The melody he sings compensates for his increasing deafness.
David is not a professional musician. He is a pictorial artist. To express the pleasure of his journey, he paints in 1980 Nichols Canyon, acrylic on canvas 213 x 152 cm, with colors inspired by the vibrant exaggerations of the Fauvistes.
The musical meanders of the road cross all the space. It is a real road : its shortened name, Nichols Cyn Rd, is inscribed like on a road map. The STOP at the place where the road leaves the hills, in the foreground, marks the exit from that paradise. The red dot in the middle of the route symbolizes the artist's Mercedes-Benz.
Nichols Canyon will be sold by Phillips in New York on December 7, lot 10. The October 26 press release announces an estimate in the region of $ 35M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
David had pleasure in communicating in this work his musical style of driving in the hills. Painted ten years later with the same inspiration in a more spectacular perspective, Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica, oil on canvas 198 x 305 cm, was sold for $ 28.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018.
