Eastern Europe and Beyond
See also : Brancusi Chagall Soutine Lempicka Sculpture Bust Man and woman Bird Self portrait II
Chronology : 1910 1914 1920-1929 1923 1927 1928 1930-1939 1932 1946
Chronology : 1910 1914 1920-1929 1923 1927 1928 1930-1939 1932 1946
1910 The Ovoid Muse
2017 SOLD for $ 57M including premium
The art of Brancusi is too fundamental, too seminal and too personal to be associated with any artistic movement. Very gifted in his hands since his childhood, this son of poor Carpathian peasants arrived in Paris on foot in 1904. The period is exceptional : the artistic Parisian bubbling opens the way to his creativity.
He learns with Rodin that the human figure can be reduced to a single element. A head lying on a ground symbolizes the serenity. He appreciates from Gauguin that Oceanic tribal art can influence the modern universal art through its extreme simplification of forms. The skilled bearded strongman chooses the direct cut contrary to the practice of his time. He will influence Modigliani.
Brancusi began in 1907 to conceive his series of masterpieces. In Le Baiser he is the first artist who suggests a development of Cubism in sculpture.
In 1909 he creates the prototype of La Muse endormie in white marble. The lying head is an egg in which the facial features and the hair are only lightly incised. The nape of the neck is used as a support. Despite the stylization it is unquestionably a portrait of his model the baronne Frachon. The artist succeeded in the impossible synthesis between geometry and portraiture.
In 1910 Brancusi produces three plasters and six bronzes from his first Muse endormie. The bronzes are cast by Valsuani but the patina different in each of the bronzes is executed by the artist himself with a painstaking care.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells one of the six bronzes, 27 cm long, lot 32 A estimated $ 20M. This specimen has an exceptional matte and warm patina enhanced in places with gold leaf which is perfectly suited to the illusion of serenity desired by the artist. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
He learns with Rodin that the human figure can be reduced to a single element. A head lying on a ground symbolizes the serenity. He appreciates from Gauguin that Oceanic tribal art can influence the modern universal art through its extreme simplification of forms. The skilled bearded strongman chooses the direct cut contrary to the practice of his time. He will influence Modigliani.
Brancusi began in 1907 to conceive his series of masterpieces. In Le Baiser he is the first artist who suggests a development of Cubism in sculpture.
In 1909 he creates the prototype of La Muse endormie in white marble. The lying head is an egg in which the facial features and the hair are only lightly incised. The nape of the neck is used as a support. Despite the stylization it is unquestionably a portrait of his model the baronne Frachon. The artist succeeded in the impossible synthesis between geometry and portraiture.
In 1910 Brancusi produces three plasters and six bronzes from his first Muse endormie. The bronzes are cast by Valsuani but the patina different in each of the bronzes is executed by the artist himself with a painstaking care.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells one of the six bronzes, 27 cm long, lot 32 A estimated $ 20M. This specimen has an exceptional matte and warm patina enhanced in places with gold leaf which is perfectly suited to the illusion of serenity desired by the artist. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
1913 Danaïde by Brancusi
2002 SOLD for $ 18M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
Each human head is different from the others. Constantin Brancusi goes against the realistic tradition of sculpted portraiture : he seeks the essential characteristics for simplifying them to the extreme. As long as the model takes pleasure in recognizing herself, we may consider that the work is successful. He is too far ahead of his time : art critics and the public do not follow.
The baronne Frachon was his muse from 1908 to 1910. Brancusi then met Margit Pogany, a Hungarian student recognizable by her round head, bulging eyes, thick eyebrows and austere bun. He invites her to come and see his recent works in his studio in Montparnasse. She recognizes her own gaze in a face that was not hers.
Pogany agrees to pose for the artist in December 1910 and January 1911. Brancusi observes his visitor and then destroys his own clay sketches : a portrait taken from life is not his business. Pogany leaves Paris shortly after.
The artist begins in parallel two series of heads, which are added to the Muses inspired by Frachon. One of them, with bulging eyes, is titled Mlle Pogany. The other, titled Danaïde, shows an arcature of the eyes that reminds the pure geometry of the best African masks. For several decades, he produces variants from this catalog of heads. Danaïde, which is a reference to the fifty daughters of Danaos, is an incentive to create multiples.
On May 7, 2002, Christie's sold a Danaïde for $ 18M including premium from a lower estimate of $ 8M, lot 27. This 28 cm high bronze was designed in 1913, cast by Valsuani with a dark brown patina, and the face has been leaf gilded. Six other bronzes are known, only one of which is gilded.
The baronne Frachon was his muse from 1908 to 1910. Brancusi then met Margit Pogany, a Hungarian student recognizable by her round head, bulging eyes, thick eyebrows and austere bun. He invites her to come and see his recent works in his studio in Montparnasse. She recognizes her own gaze in a face that was not hers.
Pogany agrees to pose for the artist in December 1910 and January 1911. Brancusi observes his visitor and then destroys his own clay sketches : a portrait taken from life is not his business. Pogany leaves Paris shortly after.
The artist begins in parallel two series of heads, which are added to the Muses inspired by Frachon. One of them, with bulging eyes, is titled Mlle Pogany. The other, titled Danaïde, shows an arcature of the eyes that reminds the pure geometry of the best African masks. For several decades, he produces variants from this catalog of heads. Danaïde, which is a reference to the fifty daughters of Danaos, is an incentive to create multiples.
On May 7, 2002, Christie's sold a Danaïde for $ 18M including premium from a lower estimate of $ 8M, lot 27. This 28 cm high bronze was designed in 1913, cast by Valsuani with a dark brown patina, and the face has been leaf gilded. Six other bronzes are known, only one of which is gilded.
1914-1917 Brancusi from Cubism to Abstraction
2009 SOLD 29 M€ including premium
A visit to the archives of Christie's, caused by a forthcoming sale in Paris, allows us to appreciate the evolution of the work of Constantin Brancusi, this artist reputed to have invented the modern sculpture.
The Cubist painting was developed in 1907 by Picasso in search of a representation of depth that would no longer use the perspective. At the same time, 1907-1908, the Kiss by Brancusi destructures also the forms. Two stylized head, face to face, form a cube. A simple plaster of this seminal work has been sold $ 3.6 million including expenses by Christie's in 2005.
In 1913, the shape of the Danaid is summarized by a perfect ovoid head on which two arcs draw the eyebrows and the nose. We are halfway between the figurative and the abstraction. Figurative is still dominating due to the bun and neck applied to the head egg. A small bronze 28 cm high was sold $ 18 million including expenses by Christie's in 2002.
The Brancusi from the Saint-Laurent collection, that Christie's and Pierre Bergé will sell in Paris from 23 to 25 February, is entitled Portrait de Madame LR. This wooden statue of 1.20 meter high has the global look of an African statuette. In focus, it is a geometrical construction where the figurative has almost disappeared. This work was done between 1914 and 1917. It is estimated 15 million €.
Then, the lines get longer and become pure forms. The Bird in Space of 1922-1923 is not a bird, excepted for the title of the work and the inspiration of the artist. In marble, one of those statues of 85 cm high, mounted on a stone base, has reached $ 27 million including expenses at Christie's in 2005. As Malevich, as Mondrian, Brancusi was able to free his art from any emotional aspect, to only retain shape and texture.
In 1920-1925, the work entitled Mademoiselle Pogany resumed some characteristics of the Danaid. Christie's sold a bronze $ 7 million in 1997.
POST SALE COMMENT
The Brancusi of the Saint-Laurent collection was a masterpiece, it was obvious. It was sold € 29 million including premium.
The Cubist painting was developed in 1907 by Picasso in search of a representation of depth that would no longer use the perspective. At the same time, 1907-1908, the Kiss by Brancusi destructures also the forms. Two stylized head, face to face, form a cube. A simple plaster of this seminal work has been sold $ 3.6 million including expenses by Christie's in 2005.
In 1913, the shape of the Danaid is summarized by a perfect ovoid head on which two arcs draw the eyebrows and the nose. We are halfway between the figurative and the abstraction. Figurative is still dominating due to the bun and neck applied to the head egg. A small bronze 28 cm high was sold $ 18 million including expenses by Christie's in 2002.
The Brancusi from the Saint-Laurent collection, that Christie's and Pierre Bergé will sell in Paris from 23 to 25 February, is entitled Portrait de Madame LR. This wooden statue of 1.20 meter high has the global look of an African statuette. In focus, it is a geometrical construction where the figurative has almost disappeared. This work was done between 1914 and 1917. It is estimated 15 million €.
Then, the lines get longer and become pure forms. The Bird in Space of 1922-1923 is not a bird, excepted for the title of the work and the inspiration of the artist. In marble, one of those statues of 85 cm high, mounted on a stone base, has reached $ 27 million including expenses at Christie's in 2005. As Malevich, as Mondrian, Brancusi was able to free his art from any emotional aspect, to only retain shape and texture.
In 1920-1925, the work entitled Mademoiselle Pogany resumed some characteristics of the Danaid. Christie's sold a bronze $ 7 million in 1997.
POST SALE COMMENT
The Brancusi of the Saint-Laurent collection was a masterpiece, it was obvious. It was sold € 29 million including premium.
masterpiece
1919 Le Pâtissier by Soutine
Barnes Foundation
Soutine has all the qualities of a true artist. He followed his own path, leaving no writings, destroying progressively his works that did not please him anymore.
On his arrival in Paris, Soutine had a job of luggage carrier at Montparnasse railway station. He took as subjects of his portraits the petty employees of hotels or restaurants, these people who help wealthy customers but are never considered by anyone.
He listened only to his inspiration exacerbated by his stomach ulcer, and his themes are new. Yet he had a predecessor: Modigliani, another Jew in Paris, his drinking companion in Montparnasse, who died in 1920.
The young foreign artists who settled in Paris had not foreseen the war. Zborowski, arrived from Poland around 1910, takes their destiny in hand. Zbo and his wife organize in April 1918 the exodus to Cagnes-sur-Mer of Modigliani with his friend Jeanne and her mother, Foujita and his wife Fernande, and Soutine.
He lived in poverty from 1919 on Zbo's expense at Céret, the Catalan village in French Pyrénées of Picasso's Cubist fame. He painted twisted landscapes as trials of colors. He got bored of that theme and would later try to recuperate his Céret landscapes for destruction.
Soutine put all his energy into his art. Unlike Modigliani, he varied his themes. The rotten meats brought to the artist some sensorial communion with his environment by their unbearable odor. For the human dimension, Soutine chose to highlight the humblest employees of hotels and restaurants. These men have their own petty and miserable life beyond the disguise of their job. They are ugly and unintelligent in their tightly buttoned ill-fitting uniforms.
Soutine was hypersensitive. He did not plan to withstand the emotional stress of a sitting session with one of his few friends and could not become a worldly artist. Pastry cooks, hotel boys and valets interested him because he had no sympathy for them. Soutine never commented his art. I cannot imagine that he spent time in front of such guys. He was possibly working from memory.
On December 1922 the US collector Albert Barnes registers his Barnes Foundation as an educational institution dedicated to promoting the appreciation of fine arts and arboriculture.
In January 1923 Barnes is in Paris for acquiring additional paintings for his project. He is overwhelmed by a Pâtissier with huge ears at the home of the dealer Paul Guillaume and purchases it. In the same trip Barnes buys about 50 artworks to Soutine, about 20 for his collection and the rest for dissemination through resale, enabling the artist to reach fame and to greatly improve his life conditions.
The image of the Barnes Pâtissier ex Guillaume, oil on canvas 66 x 51 cm painted by Soutine ca 1919 is shared by Wikimedia.
On his arrival in Paris, Soutine had a job of luggage carrier at Montparnasse railway station. He took as subjects of his portraits the petty employees of hotels or restaurants, these people who help wealthy customers but are never considered by anyone.
He listened only to his inspiration exacerbated by his stomach ulcer, and his themes are new. Yet he had a predecessor: Modigliani, another Jew in Paris, his drinking companion in Montparnasse, who died in 1920.
The young foreign artists who settled in Paris had not foreseen the war. Zborowski, arrived from Poland around 1910, takes their destiny in hand. Zbo and his wife organize in April 1918 the exodus to Cagnes-sur-Mer of Modigliani with his friend Jeanne and her mother, Foujita and his wife Fernande, and Soutine.
He lived in poverty from 1919 on Zbo's expense at Céret, the Catalan village in French Pyrénées of Picasso's Cubist fame. He painted twisted landscapes as trials of colors. He got bored of that theme and would later try to recuperate his Céret landscapes for destruction.
Soutine put all his energy into his art. Unlike Modigliani, he varied his themes. The rotten meats brought to the artist some sensorial communion with his environment by their unbearable odor. For the human dimension, Soutine chose to highlight the humblest employees of hotels and restaurants. These men have their own petty and miserable life beyond the disguise of their job. They are ugly and unintelligent in their tightly buttoned ill-fitting uniforms.
Soutine was hypersensitive. He did not plan to withstand the emotional stress of a sitting session with one of his few friends and could not become a worldly artist. Pastry cooks, hotel boys and valets interested him because he had no sympathy for them. Soutine never commented his art. I cannot imagine that he spent time in front of such guys. He was possibly working from memory.
On December 1922 the US collector Albert Barnes registers his Barnes Foundation as an educational institution dedicated to promoting the appreciation of fine arts and arboriculture.
In January 1923 Barnes is in Paris for acquiring additional paintings for his project. He is overwhelmed by a Pâtissier with huge ears at the home of the dealer Paul Guillaume and purchases it. In the same trip Barnes buys about 50 artworks to Soutine, about 20 for his collection and the rest for dissemination through resale, enabling the artist to reach fame and to greatly improve his life conditions.
The image of the Barnes Pâtissier ex Guillaume, oil on canvas 66 x 51 cm painted by Soutine ca 1919 is shared by Wikimedia.
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1922 Oiseau dans l'Espace by Brancusi
2005 SOLD for $ 27.5M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
Brancusi has no desire for a figurative representation of nature. The theme of the bird appeals him because the flight is an ascending link from earth to sky. The ultimate outcome is the Oiseau dans l'Espace, designed in the 1920s in the continuation of the Colonnes sans fin. The abstraction is total, except that if the bird was placed on its side it would look like a later childish fish by Calder.
A previously unknown example came out of its crate, where it had been installed by its owner Léonie Ricou preparing a move to Brussels. A protector of artists and poets, Mme Ricou had been the designated model of the abstract wooden figure titled Portrait de Madame L.R. sculpted by Brancusi between 1914 and 1917.
This newly surfaced Oiseau in a gray-blue marble with white veins on a limestone socle and pedestal is one of the smallest, with 85 cm high for the marble and 122 cm overall. Its proportions are remarkably balanced, with a superb polished stone which has been perfectly preserved by its long-term storage. It is possibly the very first Oiseau dans l'Espace, even before the 137 cm Etude, already closer to the sky, dated 1922.
This seminal piece was sold for $ 27.5M including premium by Christie's on May 4, 2005 over a lower estimate of $ 8M, lot 7. This result was at that time the highest price recorded at auction for any sculpture.
Brancusi and his Birds were ahead of their time. An anecdote is famous in the history of art. In 1926 a bronze sent to the United States for an exhibition was intercepted by customs officials, refusing to qualify it as a work of art which would have exempted it from import tax. It was reclassified in the category of kitchen utensils while awaiting the final decision, which will fortunately be favorable to the artist and will set a precedent for the legal recognition of abstract sculpture.
A previously unknown example came out of its crate, where it had been installed by its owner Léonie Ricou preparing a move to Brussels. A protector of artists and poets, Mme Ricou had been the designated model of the abstract wooden figure titled Portrait de Madame L.R. sculpted by Brancusi between 1914 and 1917.
This newly surfaced Oiseau in a gray-blue marble with white veins on a limestone socle and pedestal is one of the smallest, with 85 cm high for the marble and 122 cm overall. Its proportions are remarkably balanced, with a superb polished stone which has been perfectly preserved by its long-term storage. It is possibly the very first Oiseau dans l'Espace, even before the 137 cm Etude, already closer to the sky, dated 1922.
This seminal piece was sold for $ 27.5M including premium by Christie's on May 4, 2005 over a lower estimate of $ 8M, lot 7. This result was at that time the highest price recorded at auction for any sculpture.
Brancusi and his Birds were ahead of their time. An anecdote is famous in the history of art. In 1926 a bronze sent to the United States for an exhibition was intercepted by customs officials, refusing to qualify it as a work of art which would have exempted it from import tax. It was reclassified in the category of kitchen utensils while awaiting the final decision, which will fortunately be favorable to the artist and will set a precedent for the legal recognition of abstract sculpture.
1923 Le Boeuf by Soutine
2015 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
Despite his difficult and secretive behavior, Chaïm Soutine was not isolated in the Parisian art world. He had been a drinking companion of Modigliani and interested Zborowski. He decomposed the landscapes to better express the violence of colors, to the detriment not only of perspective but also of balance.
Visiting Paris in 1923, Barnes was overwhelmed by the highly original expressive approach of the young painter, but Soutine never reacts like everyone else. After this unexpected success, he moved his studio and rushed to La Villette and bought a beef carcass.
The series of images of carcasses, beef and afterwards other animals, is not a victory of the artist against hunger. He was indeed already threatened by his stomach ulcer that will kill him twenty years later.
The haunting red of blood and meat is the exacerbation of a child's nightmare. Soutine had been shocked by the contrast between the tragedy of the dead animal and the satisfaction of the butcher to offer a choice piece. His carcasses defy the balancing traditions of still life painting in a logical continuation of his compositions of landscapes.
Meat rots on its hook, offering new colors to the artist and alerting the neighbors who called the police but failed to halt this remarkable creative impulse. An oil on canvas 81 x 60 cm showing a beef carcass in close up view was sold for $ 28M from a lower estimate of $ 20M for sale by Christie's on May 11, 2015, lot 30A.
The views of a beef carcass are indeed an experience by the artist for expressing the colors of flesh and blood. The example above is a close up. Displaying the same carcass in full view including the hooks and the surrounding of his new studio, Le Boeuf écorché looks like a crucifixion with its stretched limbs. This specific composition composition closely follows a slaughtered ox painted by Rembrandt. This large size oil on canvas 130 x 75 cm painted ca 1924 was sold for £ 7.8M by Christie's on February 6, 2006, lot 68.
Visiting Paris in 1923, Barnes was overwhelmed by the highly original expressive approach of the young painter, but Soutine never reacts like everyone else. After this unexpected success, he moved his studio and rushed to La Villette and bought a beef carcass.
The series of images of carcasses, beef and afterwards other animals, is not a victory of the artist against hunger. He was indeed already threatened by his stomach ulcer that will kill him twenty years later.
The haunting red of blood and meat is the exacerbation of a child's nightmare. Soutine had been shocked by the contrast between the tragedy of the dead animal and the satisfaction of the butcher to offer a choice piece. His carcasses defy the balancing traditions of still life painting in a logical continuation of his compositions of landscapes.
Meat rots on its hook, offering new colors to the artist and alerting the neighbors who called the police but failed to halt this remarkable creative impulse. An oil on canvas 81 x 60 cm showing a beef carcass in close up view was sold for $ 28M from a lower estimate of $ 20M for sale by Christie's on May 11, 2015, lot 30A.
The views of a beef carcass are indeed an experience by the artist for expressing the colors of flesh and blood. The example above is a close up. Displaying the same carcass in full view including the hooks and the surrounding of his new studio, Le Boeuf écorché looks like a crucifixion with its stretched limbs. This specific composition composition closely follows a slaughtered ox painted by Rembrandt. This large size oil on canvas 130 x 75 cm painted ca 1924 was sold for £ 7.8M by Christie's on February 6, 2006, lot 68.
This beef painting is selling for the cost of about 400,000 rib-eyes http://t.co/Zcs8LR5a2C pic.twitter.com/MW7KxVGDEh
— Bon Appetit Magazine (@bonappetit) May 6, 20151927 Le Petit Pâtissier by Soutine
2013 SOLD for $ 18M by Christie's
The portrait of apprentice pastry cooks is a recurring theme for Soutine. These boys engaged in a job that they have not chosen are a mirror of the difficulties of his own life. These young people are already ugly and sad. Their uniform reveals their lower class profession for the service of the rich.
One of the first versions astonishes Paul Guillaume and Dr. Barnes, ensuring the lasting fame of the artist, a fame of which he so rarely profited because of his ever dissatisfied nature.
On May 8, 2013, Christie's sold for $ 18M the sixth and final portrait of pastry cooks, painted circa 1927. This oil on canvas, 76 x 70 cm, is extraordinary for its emotional intensity and technical quality. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The malaise of the boy is visible from his sickly eye, pouting mouth and clumsy hands clutching the hips.
The artwork is at the intersection of Modigliani's ideal compositions, Picasso's pauperism in the blue period and Monet's chromatic subtlety within the white, and of course the nervousness of the brushwork is proper to Soutine.
One of the first versions astonishes Paul Guillaume and Dr. Barnes, ensuring the lasting fame of the artist, a fame of which he so rarely profited because of his ever dissatisfied nature.
On May 8, 2013, Christie's sold for $ 18M the sixth and final portrait of pastry cooks, painted circa 1927. This oil on canvas, 76 x 70 cm, is extraordinary for its emotional intensity and technical quality. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The malaise of the boy is visible from his sickly eye, pouting mouth and clumsy hands clutching the hips.
The artwork is at the intersection of Modigliani's ideal compositions, Picasso's pauperism in the blue period and Monet's chromatic subtlety within the white, and of course the nervousness of the brushwork is proper to Soutine.
1928 Wonderful Love
2017 SOLD for $ 28.5M including premium
Marc and Bella are charming in their total empathy for one another. On November 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells Les Amoureux, oil on canvas 117 x 90 cm painted in 1928 by Chagall, lot 8 estimated $ 12M.
The theme of lovers portraying his own couple is recurrent in the art of Chagall but this work is especially touching by the attitudes, the realism of the very recognizable faces and some discretion of the surrealist attributes.
In their beatitude the lovers are floating. The young man with closed eyes is resting his head between the cheek and the shoulder of the woman. She gently welcomes this enthusiastic impulse but her eyes wide open indicate the lucidity with which she guides in real life this innocent husband.
Paris is their nest. In that same year Marc painted Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel where their dear little Ida is disguised as a floating angel to present the bouquet. This oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm was sold for £ 7M including premium by Christie's on February 2, 2016.
Let's go back to our Amoureux. Marc does not miss to express his gratitude to his host country. The tricolor dress of Bella ends with a blue in which is transposed the sky centered by a dazzling sun. In this sky a tiny bird comes to offer its auspices to the embraced couple. Leaves and flowers bring their frame to this ethereal scene.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's in which the love of Marc and Bella is commented by one of their granddaughters.
The theme of lovers portraying his own couple is recurrent in the art of Chagall but this work is especially touching by the attitudes, the realism of the very recognizable faces and some discretion of the surrealist attributes.
In their beatitude the lovers are floating. The young man with closed eyes is resting his head between the cheek and the shoulder of the woman. She gently welcomes this enthusiastic impulse but her eyes wide open indicate the lucidity with which she guides in real life this innocent husband.
Paris is their nest. In that same year Marc painted Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel where their dear little Ida is disguised as a floating angel to present the bouquet. This oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm was sold for £ 7M including premium by Christie's on February 2, 2016.
Let's go back to our Amoureux. Marc does not miss to express his gratitude to his host country. The tricolor dress of Bella ends with a blue in which is transposed the sky centered by a dazzling sun. In this sky a tiny bird comes to offer its auspices to the embraced couple. Leaves and flowers bring their frame to this ethereal scene.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's in which the love of Marc and Bella is commented by one of their granddaughters.
1932 The Faceless Head
2018 SOLD for $ 71M including premium
Being a muse for Brancusi was not a difficult task. He had met Margit Pogany very briefly in 1910 but liked the shape of her head which inspired him until the mid-1920s.
The heads sculpted by Brancusi are not abstract. He considers that everything that overflows, mainly nose and ears, is inappropriate to express the deep reality of a portrait. He gradually reduces these growths to a surface carving up to removing them completely.
Around 1925 he made a wooden bust 55 cm high on the theme of La Jeune Fille Sophistiquée. He takes Nancy Cunard as a model, without telling her. The heiress of the Cunard shipowners, she has an eccentric life that symbolizes the roaring twenties in the Parisian literary and artistic circles. She is sexually liberated and anarchist, and her attires are inspired by Africa.
The almost abstract head is indeed a portrait. Comparing with the photos of the period, we recognize the bulging forehead and the receding chin, and the stiff neck from behind. This disturbing muse always offers in the photos an unpleasant pout that we imagine also through the rare incisions of the sculpture. The pinched bun is an evocation of her signature bunches.
Brancusi made a plaster in 1928 and a unique polished bronze in 1932. This bronze is still installed on the marble base designed by the artist, for a total height of 80 cm. It will be sold at lot 19 A by Christie's in New York on May 15. Please watch the videoshared by the auction house.
Nancy Cunard discovered many years later that she had served as a model for this artwork. After hesitating in its interpretation as a bust or a torso, she expressed her admiration for the artist.
The heads sculpted by Brancusi are not abstract. He considers that everything that overflows, mainly nose and ears, is inappropriate to express the deep reality of a portrait. He gradually reduces these growths to a surface carving up to removing them completely.
Around 1925 he made a wooden bust 55 cm high on the theme of La Jeune Fille Sophistiquée. He takes Nancy Cunard as a model, without telling her. The heiress of the Cunard shipowners, she has an eccentric life that symbolizes the roaring twenties in the Parisian literary and artistic circles. She is sexually liberated and anarchist, and her attires are inspired by Africa.
The almost abstract head is indeed a portrait. Comparing with the photos of the period, we recognize the bulging forehead and the receding chin, and the stiff neck from behind. This disturbing muse always offers in the photos an unpleasant pout that we imagine also through the rare incisions of the sculpture. The pinched bun is an evocation of her signature bunches.
Brancusi made a plaster in 1928 and a unique polished bronze in 1932. This bronze is still installed on the marble base designed by the artist, for a total height of 80 cm. It will be sold at lot 19 A by Christie's in New York on May 15. Please watch the videoshared by the auction house.
Nancy Cunard discovered many years later that she had served as a model for this artwork. After hesitating in its interpretation as a bust or a torso, she expressed her admiration for the artist.
1932 Marjorie Ferry by Lempicka
2020 SOLD for £ 16.3M by Christie's
Tamara de Lempicka manages her career with the skill of a businesswoman. To make her own style of portraits easily recognizable, she conceives a synthesis between the precise features of the Italian Mannerists and the elongated naked bodies by Ingres. The shape and color should remain simple and natural, in the opposite of the impressionism. For the background atmosphere, she is inspired by Lhote's cubism.
After the first successes, she gains her autonomy. In 1928 she buys an apartment in Paris. After having it furnished in the modernist style by Mallet-Stevens, she uses it as a workshop, showroom and social salon. She no longer needs her husband. By divorcing, she appears as a liberated woman who influences the lifestyle.
The young men were decimated by the war and the survivors lost their landmarks. They constitute the "lost generation". Social relationships are transformed to the advantage of the most enterprising women for whom Greta Garbo becomes the reference.
The financial crisis of 1929 accentuated these issues. The eccentric aristocrats who had constituted her early clientele are ruined. The nouveaux riches seek ostentatious signs of the sustainability of their power. They buy luxury cars and marry the prettiest women. Lempicka paints the portraits of these young ladies, with an intimacy favored by her bisexuality. Her only competitor in Paris is Van Dongen.
The portraits of women painted at that time by Lempicka display a domineering and inaccessible attitude, with a gaze in the shade and a small mocking smile. The drapes are of a great variety, without necessarily relying on the fashion of the period.
This phase ends in 1934 when she marries a wealthy Hungarian baron. She no longer needs her clients and her themes become more allegorical without however changing their style.
Painted in 1932, the portrait of Marjorie Ferry is an oil on canvas 100 x 65 cm. Marjorie is an English cabaret singer who married a wealthy financier. The husband had commissioned that artwork, which will be kept by the descendants until 1995.
The pretty blonde is naked above the hips, and wrapped in a large satin drapery that makes her compare to an antique goddess. The well-lit back is sensual and the gaze turned to the spectator is a little cheeky. She is standing behind a wooden bench that can be a theater accessory and the Hollywoodian background consists of Greek columns. She lowers her head to stay in the frame, like Audubon's flamingo.
This painting was sold for $ 4.9M including premium by Sotheby's on May 5, 2009, lot 24. It is estimated £ 8M for sale by Christie's in London on February 5, lot 8.
After the first successes, she gains her autonomy. In 1928 she buys an apartment in Paris. After having it furnished in the modernist style by Mallet-Stevens, she uses it as a workshop, showroom and social salon. She no longer needs her husband. By divorcing, she appears as a liberated woman who influences the lifestyle.
The young men were decimated by the war and the survivors lost their landmarks. They constitute the "lost generation". Social relationships are transformed to the advantage of the most enterprising women for whom Greta Garbo becomes the reference.
The financial crisis of 1929 accentuated these issues. The eccentric aristocrats who had constituted her early clientele are ruined. The nouveaux riches seek ostentatious signs of the sustainability of their power. They buy luxury cars and marry the prettiest women. Lempicka paints the portraits of these young ladies, with an intimacy favored by her bisexuality. Her only competitor in Paris is Van Dongen.
The portraits of women painted at that time by Lempicka display a domineering and inaccessible attitude, with a gaze in the shade and a small mocking smile. The drapes are of a great variety, without necessarily relying on the fashion of the period.
This phase ends in 1934 when she marries a wealthy Hungarian baron. She no longer needs her clients and her themes become more allegorical without however changing their style.
Painted in 1932, the portrait of Marjorie Ferry is an oil on canvas 100 x 65 cm. Marjorie is an English cabaret singer who married a wealthy financier. The husband had commissioned that artwork, which will be kept by the descendants until 1995.
The pretty blonde is naked above the hips, and wrapped in a large satin drapery that makes her compare to an antique goddess. The well-lit back is sensual and the gaze turned to the spectator is a little cheeky. She is standing behind a wooden bench that can be a theater accessory and the Hollywoodian background consists of Greek columns. She lowers her head to stay in the frame, like Audubon's flamingo.
This painting was sold for $ 4.9M including premium by Sotheby's on May 5, 2009, lot 24. It is estimated £ 8M for sale by Christie's in London on February 5, lot 8.
1946 Charred Beloved by Gorky
2023 SOLD for $ 23.4M by Christie's
Arshile Gorky arrived in New York in 1925. His maturity came early and his artistic language was similar as Miro's. War created a forced link between the two sides of the Atlantic. In exile in New York in 1944, André Breton admired his work.
Gorky the Armenian is very close to de Kooning the Dutch. The involvement between the two artists is intense. In 1944, de Kooning said that Gorky had a powerful influence on his art, and not the contrary.
In the mean time the style of Gorky is gradually changing. The figures are no more symbols, but an abundance of biomorphic forms. Details fade, colors and characters collide into abstraction. He somehow extended the Cubist research for movement of Severini or the Delaunays.
By its apparent spontaneity, its emotional title "Impatience", the oil on canvas dated 1945, 62 x 78 cm, is one that paves the way for abstract expressionism, the fruitful movement that Gorky, dying too soon, will not know. Like Calder at the same time, Gorky was managing to instill in America the influence of the modernist trends of Europe. Impatience was sold for $ 6.8M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012, lot 12.
In September 1945 Gorky and his family relocated in rural Connecticut where he was the neighbor of exiled Surrealist artists including Yves Tanguy and Kay Sage, Masson, Calder. He installed his studio in the barn, which was burnt to the ground in January 1946, canceeling the paintings and drawings of his previous three years and his library of artistic references.
He then moved to a loaned ballroom in a skyscraper in New York City where he achieved a few paintings in his new style. They were his swan song : he was soon diagnosed with cancer complicated by a car wreck and by his divorce.
Charred Beloved is a title directly inspired by Gorky's desire to restart after the fire. It is applied to three paintings executed in 1946. The opus I, oil on canvas 136 x 100 cm, was sold for $ 23.4M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 6 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Gorky the Armenian is very close to de Kooning the Dutch. The involvement between the two artists is intense. In 1944, de Kooning said that Gorky had a powerful influence on his art, and not the contrary.
In the mean time the style of Gorky is gradually changing. The figures are no more symbols, but an abundance of biomorphic forms. Details fade, colors and characters collide into abstraction. He somehow extended the Cubist research for movement of Severini or the Delaunays.
By its apparent spontaneity, its emotional title "Impatience", the oil on canvas dated 1945, 62 x 78 cm, is one that paves the way for abstract expressionism, the fruitful movement that Gorky, dying too soon, will not know. Like Calder at the same time, Gorky was managing to instill in America the influence of the modernist trends of Europe. Impatience was sold for $ 6.8M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012, lot 12.
In September 1945 Gorky and his family relocated in rural Connecticut where he was the neighbor of exiled Surrealist artists including Yves Tanguy and Kay Sage, Masson, Calder. He installed his studio in the barn, which was burnt to the ground in January 1946, canceeling the paintings and drawings of his previous three years and his library of artistic references.
He then moved to a loaned ballroom in a skyscraper in New York City where he achieved a few paintings in his new style. They were his swan song : he was soon diagnosed with cancer complicated by a car wreck and by his divorce.
Charred Beloved is a title directly inspired by Gorky's desire to restart after the fire. It is applied to three paintings executed in 1946. The opus I, oil on canvas 136 x 100 cm, was sold for $ 23.4M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 6 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
#AuctionRecord: From our 20th Century Evening Sale, Arshile Gorky’s ‘Charred Beloved I’ realizes $23.41M pic.twitter.com/LRFMYtXTaR
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 10, 2023
