Holland 2nd page
In addition to Van Gogh. Including Dutch born artists.
See also : Old Dutch masters Ancient painting Ancient sculpture Christianity Orientalism Orientalism 1850-1900 De Kooning Abstract art II
Chronology : 17th century 1620-1629 1660-1679 1904 1920-1929 1929 1950-1959 1955 1970-1979 1972 1977
See also : Old Dutch masters Ancient painting Ancient sculpture Christianity Orientalism Orientalism 1850-1900 De Kooning Abstract art II
Chronology : 17th century 1620-1629 1660-1679 1904 1920-1929 1929 1950-1959 1955 1970-1979 1972 1977
1626 A Mannerist Bronze atop a Fountain
2014 SOLD for $ 28M including premium
Christie's had cancelled the sale of a bronze by Adriaen de Vries just before the auction that had been scheduled for July 7, 2011, for reasons related to the export of the item. Here is the press releasewhich was issued by Christie's for announcing the 2011 sale.
It is now listed by Christie's for sale in New York on December 11, lot 10 estimated $ 15M.
Here is my 2011 discussion (slightly reworded) introducing this lot:
During a routine visit to a castle in 2010, the expert from Christie's takes a look at the fountain in the middle of the yard. Thus a previously unknown masterpiece enters the art history.
The bronze 109 cm high adorning the top of the fountain had been in that place for at least 300 years. It is signed by Adriaen de Vries and dated 1626, the year of the artist's death.
Influenced by Giambologna, De Vries was spreading the new fashion for mannerism. Their bronzes give life to muscular bodies twisted in expressive attitudes inspired by antiquity, and which will be much later admired by Rodin.
The theme of the artwork is a naked standing mythological figure carrying a globe. This statue is shown on the article shared in 2011 by Antique Trader.
De Vries is particularly known for his statues for gardens and fountains. Working in Prague for the Emperor Rudolf II, he remained in that city after the death of his patron and accepted private commissions.
The arrival of such a lot on the art market is exceptional. We must go back over twenty years ago to find another authentic bronze by this artist. On 7 December 1989, the Getty bought at Sotheby's for £ 6.8 million including premium a Dancing faun 76 cm high.
It is now listed by Christie's for sale in New York on December 11, lot 10 estimated $ 15M.
Here is my 2011 discussion (slightly reworded) introducing this lot:
During a routine visit to a castle in 2010, the expert from Christie's takes a look at the fountain in the middle of the yard. Thus a previously unknown masterpiece enters the art history.
The bronze 109 cm high adorning the top of the fountain had been in that place for at least 300 years. It is signed by Adriaen de Vries and dated 1626, the year of the artist's death.
Influenced by Giambologna, De Vries was spreading the new fashion for mannerism. Their bronzes give life to muscular bodies twisted in expressive attitudes inspired by antiquity, and which will be much later admired by Rodin.
The theme of the artwork is a naked standing mythological figure carrying a globe. This statue is shown on the article shared in 2011 by Antique Trader.
De Vries is particularly known for his statues for gardens and fountains. Working in Prague for the Emperor Rudolf II, he remained in that city after the death of his patron and accepted private commissions.
The arrival of such a lot on the art market is exceptional. We must go back over twenty years ago to find another authentic bronze by this artist. On 7 December 1989, the Getty bought at Sotheby's for £ 6.8 million including premium a Dancing faun 76 cm high.
1661 Saint James the Greater by Rembrandt
2007 SOLD for $ 26M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
The portraits inspired to Rembrandt by the New Testament are from figures of the artist's entourage, with a view to realism. In Sevilla, Murillo has a similar approach.
Around 1648 Rembrandt was in one of his frequent financially and socially difficult periods, and he would like his Supper at Emmaus, a modern painting on a biblical theme, to relaunch his career. The portraits of a young man as Christ are studies painted in parallel or for the preparation of this masterpiece. An oil on panel 25 x 21 cm was sold for £ 9.5M including premium by Sotheby's on December 5, 2018.
The artist is indeed satisfied with this personification of Christ. The same young man appears as a Christ in half length with folded arms, oil on canvas 110 x 90 cm generally dated between 1657 and 1661.
In 1661 Rembrandt paints a series of Apostles, looking again at what the like of some of Christ's companions could be. This set of oils on canvas is homogeneous by its format, around 92 x 75 cm, by its chromatic richness, and by the presence of a thin black border which has not always been preserved.
This corpus of six works including a self portrait as Saint Paul was not documented in period. They were painted in another difficult phase for the artist and may have been conceived as a new demonstrator of the ever increasing quality of his art.
Rembrandt's faith was complex. His father was from a Jewish family converted to the Reformed church and his mother was Catholic. His realism excludes an identification of the character's religious position by a halo. The half length portrait of an old pilgrim in neglected clothes enters through its pictorial characteristics in the series of the Apostles, and the differentiated history of the companions of Christ after the Passion makes it attribute to Saint James the Greater.
This portrait of a man with a face concentrated on his prayer, whose very large joined hands form the focal point of the image, is an allegory of a faith that transcends appearances, directly linked to the Gospels and without any reference to the Mendicant orders. .
This painting was sold for $ 26M including premium by Sotheby's on January 25, 2007, lot 74. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Around 1648 Rembrandt was in one of his frequent financially and socially difficult periods, and he would like his Supper at Emmaus, a modern painting on a biblical theme, to relaunch his career. The portraits of a young man as Christ are studies painted in parallel or for the preparation of this masterpiece. An oil on panel 25 x 21 cm was sold for £ 9.5M including premium by Sotheby's on December 5, 2018.
The artist is indeed satisfied with this personification of Christ. The same young man appears as a Christ in half length with folded arms, oil on canvas 110 x 90 cm generally dated between 1657 and 1661.
In 1661 Rembrandt paints a series of Apostles, looking again at what the like of some of Christ's companions could be. This set of oils on canvas is homogeneous by its format, around 92 x 75 cm, by its chromatic richness, and by the presence of a thin black border which has not always been preserved.
This corpus of six works including a self portrait as Saint Paul was not documented in period. They were painted in another difficult phase for the artist and may have been conceived as a new demonstrator of the ever increasing quality of his art.
Rembrandt's faith was complex. His father was from a Jewish family converted to the Reformed church and his mother was Catholic. His realism excludes an identification of the character's religious position by a halo. The half length portrait of an old pilgrim in neglected clothes enters through its pictorial characteristics in the series of the Apostles, and the differentiated history of the companions of Christ after the Passion makes it attribute to Saint James the Greater.
This portrait of a man with a face concentrated on his prayer, whose very large joined hands form the focal point of the image, is an allegory of a faith that transcends appearances, directly linked to the Gospels and without any reference to the Mendicant orders. .
This painting was sold for $ 26M including premium by Sotheby's on January 25, 2007, lot 74. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1883 Antony and Cleopatra by Alma-Tadema
2011 SOLD 29 M$ including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
The Dutch artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema moved to England in 1870. Taking advantage of the pre-Raphaelite fashion for ancient themes, he spent the rest of his career there. His business was flourishing and meticulously managed, and he was covered with honors in Victorian and Edwardian England.
Alma-Tadema paints the antique passions, with a sharp drawing and bright colors that evoke the Orient. He depicts the most beautiful women and their lovers, languid to the limits of debauchery. He surrounds them with luxurious objects for which he accumulates a strong documentation through his trips to Greco-Roman sites, his visits to museums and his abundant collection of photographs.
In 1883 Alma-Tadema is inspired by Shakespeare's play to paint the First meeting of Antony and Cleopatra for a private commission. The queen displays her beauty as in a window, in a barge covered with a canopy. The lover docks in a sort of gondola driven by Roman soldiers. Between the two, a slave girl plays the flute.
The composition is bold, letting see through the boats the sea and some elements of antique architecture. According to historians, this scene took place in Tarsus in 41 BCE. Never mind : it especially gives Victorian England the envy of the scandalous pleasures which indulgently appealed the greatest characters of antiquity.
This Antony and Cleopatra is the opus CCXLVI in the chronological list maintained by Alma-Tadema for avoiding counterfeits. This oil on panel 66 x 91 cm was sold for $ 29M including premium by Sotheby's on May 5, 2011 over a lower estimate of $ 3M, lot 65. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The display of an instant effect into a dramatic action is a specialty of Alma-Tadema and will influence the scenarios and even some framings of the cinema. He is in some way an orientalist precursor of Norman Rockwell.
Alma-Tadema paints the antique passions, with a sharp drawing and bright colors that evoke the Orient. He depicts the most beautiful women and their lovers, languid to the limits of debauchery. He surrounds them with luxurious objects for which he accumulates a strong documentation through his trips to Greco-Roman sites, his visits to museums and his abundant collection of photographs.
In 1883 Alma-Tadema is inspired by Shakespeare's play to paint the First meeting of Antony and Cleopatra for a private commission. The queen displays her beauty as in a window, in a barge covered with a canopy. The lover docks in a sort of gondola driven by Roman soldiers. Between the two, a slave girl plays the flute.
The composition is bold, letting see through the boats the sea and some elements of antique architecture. According to historians, this scene took place in Tarsus in 41 BCE. Never mind : it especially gives Victorian England the envy of the scandalous pleasures which indulgently appealed the greatest characters of antiquity.
This Antony and Cleopatra is the opus CCXLVI in the chronological list maintained by Alma-Tadema for avoiding counterfeits. This oil on panel 66 x 91 cm was sold for $ 29M including premium by Sotheby's on May 5, 2011 over a lower estimate of $ 3M, lot 65. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The display of an instant effect into a dramatic action is a specialty of Alma-Tadema and will influence the scenarios and even some framings of the cinema. He is in some way an orientalist precursor of Norman Rockwell.
1904 The Antique Nile of Alma-Tadema
2010 SOLD 35.9 M$ including premium
No painter is more typical of Victorian and Edwardian art than Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. We are therefore surprised to know that this artist, in fact, was of Dutch origin.
He followed a theme that appealed to the public of his time: the exotic antiques. He was amazed by the collections of the British Museum, and featured his characters amidst monuments for which he relied on photographs. He particularly liked the marble seats in which he showed languid ladies.
Strong personality, he had managed his career and became wealthy and famous. His name was Laurens Alma Tadema, which he adapted to be better positioned in alphabetical lists. He gave an opus number to each of his paintings, creating himself a record that protected his work against counterfeits.
He would not adapt to the trends of modern art, and was forgotten for more than half a century after his death.
Opus CCCLXXVII is best known in the art market, having been sold $ 2.7 million including premium at Christie's on May 25, 1995. This is a commissioned work for the benefit of the engineer who had invited him in 1902 at the opening of the Aswan Dam.
Completed in 1904, this large oil on canvas, 137 x 213 cm, shows a scene from the finding of Moses on the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter is surrounded by an opulent procession of servants and slaves. From the top of her carriage, she fondly looks at the baby in his basket, carried by two women.
This lot is again for sale, estimated $ 3M, by Sotheby's in New York on November 4.
POST SALE COMMENT
Two very high results were recorded in this sale of Belle Epoque art. The painting of Alma-Tadema, subject of this article, was sold for $ 35.9 million including premium. A woman's portrait painted in 1892 by Boldini, 201 x 101 cm, was sold for $ 6.5 million including premium on an estimate of $ 1M.
Analyses will certainly be made to understand this shift in the market for a period that seemed difficult to sell. We can already say with certainty that some artworks will reappear on the market. Expect Gérôme, Béraud, Bouguereau, ...
The image is shared post sale by Artdaily.
Shared on Wikimedia :
He followed a theme that appealed to the public of his time: the exotic antiques. He was amazed by the collections of the British Museum, and featured his characters amidst monuments for which he relied on photographs. He particularly liked the marble seats in which he showed languid ladies.
Strong personality, he had managed his career and became wealthy and famous. His name was Laurens Alma Tadema, which he adapted to be better positioned in alphabetical lists. He gave an opus number to each of his paintings, creating himself a record that protected his work against counterfeits.
He would not adapt to the trends of modern art, and was forgotten for more than half a century after his death.
Opus CCCLXXVII is best known in the art market, having been sold $ 2.7 million including premium at Christie's on May 25, 1995. This is a commissioned work for the benefit of the engineer who had invited him in 1902 at the opening of the Aswan Dam.
Completed in 1904, this large oil on canvas, 137 x 213 cm, shows a scene from the finding of Moses on the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter is surrounded by an opulent procession of servants and slaves. From the top of her carriage, she fondly looks at the baby in his basket, carried by two women.
This lot is again for sale, estimated $ 3M, by Sotheby's in New York on November 4.
POST SALE COMMENT
Two very high results were recorded in this sale of Belle Epoque art. The painting of Alma-Tadema, subject of this article, was sold for $ 35.9 million including premium. A woman's portrait painted in 1892 by Boldini, 201 x 101 cm, was sold for $ 6.5 million including premium on an estimate of $ 1M.
Analyses will certainly be made to understand this shift in the market for a period that seemed difficult to sell. We can already say with certainty that some artworks will reappear on the market. Expect Gérôme, Béraud, Bouguereau, ...
The image is shared post sale by Artdaily.
Shared on Wikimedia :
1929 Constructing the Balance
2015 SOLD for $ 50.6M including premium
On a small canvas, Piet Mondrian looks for the absolute balance by drawing strictly horizontal and vertical lines which are interrupted or not when meeting. They form squares or rectangles of which some of them may seem dominant. Basically formed of non-colors, these subspaces lose their respective imbalances when some are filled with pure colors.
In 1929, the artist manages to simplify this structure to the extreme without however reaching the ultimate outcome of the squares by Malevich. Only one vertical and one horizontal lines go from edge to edge, dividing the canvas into four nearly equal areas. The broken lines complement a square over the bottom right with divided stripes on their edges.
On May 14 in New York, Christie's sells a Composition No. III with red, blue, yellow and black, 50 x 50 cm, lot 6C estimated $ 15M, which is a prototype and perhaps the most outstanding painting using this new geometry. The deep red on the top left distracts the attention away from the non-colored central square. The other two colors along with the black and a non-color fill the narrow stripes on the bottom right of the figure.
Mondrian is happy. He presents this painting to Michel Seuphor, who is one of the first critics to actively support this new conception of abstract art, and reuses this effective geometry with other color schemes.
Painted in 1930 on a canvas of same size, Composition No. II with blue and yellow was sold for £ 12.4 million including premium by Christie's on February 4, 2014.
In 1929, the artist manages to simplify this structure to the extreme without however reaching the ultimate outcome of the squares by Malevich. Only one vertical and one horizontal lines go from edge to edge, dividing the canvas into four nearly equal areas. The broken lines complement a square over the bottom right with divided stripes on their edges.
On May 14 in New York, Christie's sells a Composition No. III with red, blue, yellow and black, 50 x 50 cm, lot 6C estimated $ 15M, which is a prototype and perhaps the most outstanding painting using this new geometry. The deep red on the top left distracts the attention away from the non-colored central square. The other two colors along with the black and a non-color fill the narrow stripes on the bottom right of the figure.
Mondrian is happy. He presents this painting to Michel Seuphor, who is one of the first critics to actively support this new conception of abstract art, and reuses this effective geometry with other color schemes.
Painted in 1930 on a canvas of same size, Composition No. II with blue and yellow was sold for £ 12.4 million including premium by Christie's on February 4, 2014.
A #newworldrecord set for #PietMondrian @ChristiesInc as 'Composition III' sells for $50,565,000 pic.twitter.com/G3PTht6pTl
— Art Observed (@ArtObserved) May 14, 20151955 The Venus of Long Island
2018 SOLD for $ 69M including premium
Close to the avant-gardes in New York, Willem de Kooning nevertheless does not want his art to be assimilated with any school. He observes that oil painting is the ideal technique for simulating flesh. In 1950 he begins painting a larger-than-life woman on a canvas 197 x 147 cm. He reworks it for months with his brushes and his knives and considers it as finished in June 1952 thanks to the intervention of a friend.
In late 1952 and in 1953 the artist makes new versions of his woman. This ideal woman is a synthesis between the opulent Paleolithic statuettes of fertility and a grotesque vixen of modern time.
This work resulted in the side-by-side exhibition of six paintings titled Woman I to Woman VI. They are standing in similar frontal positions. The bright and varied colors of the clothes could simulate according to the artist the evolution of the fashions. De Kooning demonstrates here that Action painting was not incompatible with a figurative theme.
I to VI are not the only artworks on this theme. This series did not include a Woman with Bicycle painted in 1952 in the same style but in a slightly different attitude. Oils on paper are made in smaller sizes.
In 1955 the artist continues his experiments in Long Island. On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells Woman as Landscape, oil and charcoal on canvas 166 x 125 cm, lot 7 Bestimated $ 60M.
The colors of a landscape with its blue sky and green ground surround the woman. The title is significant with 'as landscape' and not 'in landscape' to indicate that the artist is ready to mix the genres. Indeed at the end of the year he returns to abstract compositions in which his figurative intentions, when they exist, are intertwined and can only be deciphered by him.
In late 1952 and in 1953 the artist makes new versions of his woman. This ideal woman is a synthesis between the opulent Paleolithic statuettes of fertility and a grotesque vixen of modern time.
This work resulted in the side-by-side exhibition of six paintings titled Woman I to Woman VI. They are standing in similar frontal positions. The bright and varied colors of the clothes could simulate according to the artist the evolution of the fashions. De Kooning demonstrates here that Action painting was not incompatible with a figurative theme.
I to VI are not the only artworks on this theme. This series did not include a Woman with Bicycle painted in 1952 in the same style but in a slightly different attitude. Oils on paper are made in smaller sizes.
In 1955 the artist continues his experiments in Long Island. On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells Woman as Landscape, oil and charcoal on canvas 166 x 125 cm, lot 7 Bestimated $ 60M.
The colors of a landscape with its blue sky and green ground surround the woman. The title is significant with 'as landscape' and not 'in landscape' to indicate that the artist is ready to mix the genres. Indeed at the end of the year he returns to abstract compositions in which his figurative intentions, when they exist, are intertwined and can only be deciphered by him.
1972 De Kooning kneads the Man in his Own Image
2014 SOLD for $ 29.3M including premium
Willem de Kooning was first of all a painter, of course. Refusing allegiance to any school and any tendency, his works suppressed the border between abstract and biomorphic, generating in the viewer some disorder that was sometimes difficult to characterize.
Suddenly in 1969, de Kooning decided to become a sculptor. He kneaded the clay with energy and passion, creating a turbulent texture reminiscent of Giacometti. His first theme remains his masterpiece as a sculptor : the Clamdigger.
The Clamdigger is searching in sand to extract the shells. His gesture gathers the symbols of creation: sea water, clay, primitive animal, man. It has even been suggested that the Clamdigger by de Kooning is a self-portrait. The texture mimics the lapping waves.
This sculpture 1.51 m high was edited in bronze in 1972 in seven copies plus three artist's proofs. On November 12 in New York, Christie's sells the artist's proof that de Kooning had installed at the entrance to his studio. The statue remained up to now with his descendants. It is estimated $ 25M, lot 21.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
Suddenly in 1969, de Kooning decided to become a sculptor. He kneaded the clay with energy and passion, creating a turbulent texture reminiscent of Giacometti. His first theme remains his masterpiece as a sculptor : the Clamdigger.
The Clamdigger is searching in sand to extract the shells. His gesture gathers the symbols of creation: sea water, clay, primitive animal, man. It has even been suggested that the Clamdigger by de Kooning is a self-portrait. The texture mimics the lapping waves.
This sculpture 1.51 m high was edited in bronze in 1972 in seven copies plus three artist's proofs. On November 12 in New York, Christie's sells the artist's proof that de Kooning had installed at the entrance to his studio. The statue remained up to now with his descendants. It is estimated $ 25M, lot 21.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
1977 Contemplation in Long Island
2016 SOLD for $ 66M including premium
Willem de Kooning was a lover of women and a heavy drinker. His artistic career is uneven, marked by breaks and restarts. The beauty of Long Island offers him a late redemption in his seventies.
De Kooning buys a piece of land near Springs in 1958, two years after Pollock's death. Pollock had his studio in the same village where he was imbued with the richly colorful nature facing the sea. It took 17 years to de Kooning to start a creativity of similar inspiration.
In 1975 the old artist is happy. His art is acclaimed. He is pleased with his young girlfriend Mimi Kilgore. His wife Elaine of whom he had never divorced comes back to him in the following year. He finally takes time to contemplate the nature through observations of very long duration ending in a sudden rush on his canvas, colors and brushes.
The bright colors that cover the entire surface of the canvas were not spontaneous at all. They are made of mixed layers varying from impasto to flowing paint. The visionary artist knows in advance which result he desires and has no doubt that he will succeed. Once finished he considers that what he achieved is impossible to repeat. And he starts again with another canvas.
All these Untitled paintings are different because they are based on other contemplations. Sometimes a figure or a tree arises beyond abstraction by a careful observation. Pollock also was upset when his art was considered abstract.
This new creativity of de Kooning reaches its highest maturity in 1977 and will be immediately followed by his inevitable relapse. Untitled XXV, oil on canvas 196 x 224 cm painted in 1977, was sold for $ 27M by Christie's in New York on 15 November 2006. It returns in the same auction room on November 15, 2016, exactly ten years later, lot 8 A. The press release of September 29 announces an estimate in the region of $ 40M.
De Kooning buys a piece of land near Springs in 1958, two years after Pollock's death. Pollock had his studio in the same village where he was imbued with the richly colorful nature facing the sea. It took 17 years to de Kooning to start a creativity of similar inspiration.
In 1975 the old artist is happy. His art is acclaimed. He is pleased with his young girlfriend Mimi Kilgore. His wife Elaine of whom he had never divorced comes back to him in the following year. He finally takes time to contemplate the nature through observations of very long duration ending in a sudden rush on his canvas, colors and brushes.
The bright colors that cover the entire surface of the canvas were not spontaneous at all. They are made of mixed layers varying from impasto to flowing paint. The visionary artist knows in advance which result he desires and has no doubt that he will succeed. Once finished he considers that what he achieved is impossible to repeat. And he starts again with another canvas.
All these Untitled paintings are different because they are based on other contemplations. Sometimes a figure or a tree arises beyond abstraction by a careful observation. Pollock also was upset when his art was considered abstract.
This new creativity of de Kooning reaches its highest maturity in 1977 and will be immediately followed by his inevitable relapse. Untitled XXV, oil on canvas 196 x 224 cm painted in 1977, was sold for $ 27M by Christie's in New York on 15 November 2006. It returns in the same auction room on November 15, 2016, exactly ten years later, lot 8 A. The press release of September 29 announces an estimate in the region of $ 40M.
1977 Body, Soul, Landscape and Colors
2013 SOLD 32 M$ including premium
When Willem de Kooning takes his brushes again in 1975 for expressing his emotions through the full range of colors, observers might think that abstract art had already told everything. The explosion of bright colors by Joan Mitchell had been made fifteen years earlier.
However, De Kooning reuses his previous style of partitioned composition covering all the available surface, as boundless as a Pollock painting. The observer continuously discovers new details by varying the reading trip.
Two years later, De Kooning reaches the top of this final phase of his creativity. He lives in Long Island and he is happy.
His Untitled VIII from 1977, oil on canvas 178 x 203 cm, is estimated $ 20M, for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12.
This painting is a rare synthesis of all the research by De Kooning at the border between biomorphic and abstraction. In the foreground on the right, the structure in the form of inverted S is a woman sitting in nature. This discovery makes in turn perceive another woman and then the perspective of a landscape.
Through the doubts and changes in his career, De Kooning, away from any school, had never given up his goal to express altogether the body, the soul and the landscape. At over 70 years old, he had also become the most skilled colorist of his time.
POST SALE COMMENT
This masterpiece from the later period of the art of De Kooning was sold for $ 32 million including premium.
However, De Kooning reuses his previous style of partitioned composition covering all the available surface, as boundless as a Pollock painting. The observer continuously discovers new details by varying the reading trip.
Two years later, De Kooning reaches the top of this final phase of his creativity. He lives in Long Island and he is happy.
His Untitled VIII from 1977, oil on canvas 178 x 203 cm, is estimated $ 20M, for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12.
This painting is a rare synthesis of all the research by De Kooning at the border between biomorphic and abstraction. In the foreground on the right, the structure in the form of inverted S is a woman sitting in nature. This discovery makes in turn perceive another woman and then the perspective of a landscape.
Through the doubts and changes in his career, De Kooning, away from any school, had never given up his goal to express altogether the body, the soul and the landscape. At over 70 years old, he had also become the most skilled colorist of his time.
POST SALE COMMENT
This masterpiece from the later period of the art of De Kooning was sold for $ 32 million including premium.
1977 The Pastoral Force
2019 SOLD for $ 30M including premium
After many years of difficulties and doubts, Willem de Kooning suddenly recovers the joy of painting in 1975. He lives in Springs on Long Island and often goes to contemplate the ocean. His young mistress Mimi Kilgore encourages his creativity. Elaine, whom he never divorced, will soon be back to help.
For this artist in his seventies, painting is no longer a job but a reason of being. From 1975 to 1977 with a limited prolongation in 1978 and 1979, he paints his universe, as a surrealist would do except that his art is totally abstract. The works from this period are sometimes called "pastoral".
The colors blend in a total diversity. They are brought with apparent violence by industrial brushes of great length. Yet the execution is not at all spontaneous. The artist knows in advance what balance he will manage between the gray of the sea, the green of the trees and the brown of the soil. When one work is finished, the next will be another step in the expression of his world.
In this phase de Kooning's paintings gradually lose their last references to human beings and even to landscape. Before deciding whether a painting suits him, he looks at it from every angle, including by overturning it. With a different technique and other confrontations of colors, he matches the other great abstract artist of Springs, Jackson Pollock.
The most important paintings of this period are named Untitled, with the indication of the year and a serialization per year in Roman numerals. The formats are varied, but the larger ones translate at its best the contemplation of the lush nature by the artist.
The Untitled XXV of 1977 is one of the masterpieces of this series by the brightness of the colors and the interwoven complexity of the forms. This 196 x 224 cm oil on canvas was sold for $ 66M including premium by Christie's on November 15, 2016.
On November 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells the Untitled XXII from the same year, lot 13 estimated $ 25M. This oil on canvas 178 x 203 cm expresses with high energy the forces of nature by the violence of the brush strokes that constitute a sort of grid over the light background.
For this artist in his seventies, painting is no longer a job but a reason of being. From 1975 to 1977 with a limited prolongation in 1978 and 1979, he paints his universe, as a surrealist would do except that his art is totally abstract. The works from this period are sometimes called "pastoral".
The colors blend in a total diversity. They are brought with apparent violence by industrial brushes of great length. Yet the execution is not at all spontaneous. The artist knows in advance what balance he will manage between the gray of the sea, the green of the trees and the brown of the soil. When one work is finished, the next will be another step in the expression of his world.
In this phase de Kooning's paintings gradually lose their last references to human beings and even to landscape. Before deciding whether a painting suits him, he looks at it from every angle, including by overturning it. With a different technique and other confrontations of colors, he matches the other great abstract artist of Springs, Jackson Pollock.
The most important paintings of this period are named Untitled, with the indication of the year and a serialization per year in Roman numerals. The formats are varied, but the larger ones translate at its best the contemplation of the lush nature by the artist.
The Untitled XXV of 1977 is one of the masterpieces of this series by the brightness of the colors and the interwoven complexity of the forms. This 196 x 224 cm oil on canvas was sold for $ 66M including premium by Christie's on November 15, 2016.
On November 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells the Untitled XXII from the same year, lot 13 estimated $ 25M. This oil on canvas 178 x 203 cm expresses with high energy the forces of nature by the violence of the brush strokes that constitute a sort of grid over the light background.
