Plus 1910s
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Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
1913 MONET
Les Arceaux de Roses
2022 SOLD for $ 23.3M by Sotheby's
Claude Monet once defined himself in a short formula : a man who was interested by nothing in the world excepted his painting - and also his garden and flowers.
After his long stay in Venice in 1908, he does not leave Giverny. He exerts his gardening skill with the same care as his painting, but sometimes nature takes over, as in the 1910 floods.
Bassin aux nymphéas - les rosiers, oil on canvas 73 x 100 cm painted in 1913 was sold for RMB 154M by China Guardian in November 2021. This result is reported by ArtfixDaily.
The composition is divided into two equal parts. The upper image shows the rose arches. The sky, so often missing in his series of Nymphéas, reappears. The absence of the tall trees confirms that the garden is the main theme of this view. The foreground shows the usual groups of water lilies playing with the reflections from the arches.
This garden is the pride of Monet. The colors that swirl in the heat of summer remind the small size landscapes of the Midi made by Renoir in his later career.
With another title from the example above, the previous Wildenstein reference shows the same view by Monet of his pond with the arched trellies of roses on the opposite side and a significant sky, in a less panoramic format.
Les Arceaux de roses, oil on canvas 82 x 94 cm painted in 1913, was sold for £ 9M by Christie's on June 18, 2007, lot 11, and for $ 19.4M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2017, lot 43. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. It was sold for $ 23.3M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 46.
1913 is a period of low painting activity for Monet, discouraged by Alice's death in 1911, by the illness of his son Jean and by his own double failing eyesight from cataracts. Only four works are recorded by Wildenstein : the two referred here plus a third similar example and a remake of the 1912 Maison de l'artiste.
After his long stay in Venice in 1908, he does not leave Giverny. He exerts his gardening skill with the same care as his painting, but sometimes nature takes over, as in the 1910 floods.
Bassin aux nymphéas - les rosiers, oil on canvas 73 x 100 cm painted in 1913 was sold for RMB 154M by China Guardian in November 2021. This result is reported by ArtfixDaily.
The composition is divided into two equal parts. The upper image shows the rose arches. The sky, so often missing in his series of Nymphéas, reappears. The absence of the tall trees confirms that the garden is the main theme of this view. The foreground shows the usual groups of water lilies playing with the reflections from the arches.
This garden is the pride of Monet. The colors that swirl in the heat of summer remind the small size landscapes of the Midi made by Renoir in his later career.
With another title from the example above, the previous Wildenstein reference shows the same view by Monet of his pond with the arched trellies of roses on the opposite side and a significant sky, in a less panoramic format.
Les Arceaux de roses, oil on canvas 82 x 94 cm painted in 1913, was sold for £ 9M by Christie's on June 18, 2007, lot 11, and for $ 19.4M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2017, lot 43. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. It was sold for $ 23.3M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 46.
1913 is a period of low painting activity for Monet, discouraged by Alice's death in 1911, by the illness of his son Jean and by his own double failing eyesight from cataracts. Only four works are recorded by Wildenstein : the two referred here plus a third similar example and a remake of the 1912 Maison de l'artiste.
#AuctionUpdate Claude Monet's 'Les Arceaux de roses, Giverny' $23 million #SothebysModern pic.twitter.com/DUVCJGHIyi
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) May 18, 2022
Bassin aux Nymphéas - Les Rosiers
2021 SOLD for RMB 154M by China Guardian
On May 5, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 20.4M Bassin aux nymphéas - les rosiers, oil on canvas 73 x 100 cm painted in 1913, lot 47. It was sold for RMB 154M by China Guardian in November 2021. This result is reported by ArtfixDaily.
The composition is divided into two equal parts. The upper image shows the rose arches. The sky, so often missing in his series of Nymphéas, reappears. The absence of the tall trees confirms that the garden is the main theme of this view. The foreground shows the usual groups of water lilies playing with the reflections from the arches.
This garden is the pride of Monet. The colors that swirl in the heat of summer remind the small size landscapes of the Midi made by Renoir in his later career.
The composition is divided into two equal parts. The upper image shows the rose arches. The sky, so often missing in his series of Nymphéas, reappears. The absence of the tall trees confirms that the garden is the main theme of this view. The foreground shows the usual groups of water lilies playing with the reflections from the arches.
This garden is the pride of Monet. The colors that swirl in the heat of summer remind the small size landscapes of the Midi made by Renoir in his later career.
1913 Il Pomeriggio di Arianna by De Chirico
2020 SOLD for $ 16M by Sotheby's
The Greek mythology is an enigmatic poetry. The myth of Ariadne, mixing life and death, past and present, truth and dream, inspired Nietzsche. A granddaughter of Zeus, she is a mortal princess and the half-sister of the Minotaur. She dies when Theseus abandons her, but the ancient accounts are contradictory. She is the complement or the antithesis of Dionysus who may have married her. An allegory of vegetation, she will be reborn in spring.
In 1910 Giorgio de Chirico conceives that painting can display the indistinguishable and the revelation. In 1912 and 1913, he devotes eight works to Ariadne's final sleep in Naxos, when she did not yet know that Theseus had fled.
The piazza is huge and deserted. Ariadne is a recumbent in marble symbolizing loneliness, but the position of the arms evokes sleep and life. The late afternoon brings the mysterious threat of shadows. The piazza is closed by an antique brick tomb but personal symbols of the artist, the train and the boat, are still beyond.
Il Pomeriggio di Arianna, painted in 1913, is the dreamlike culmination of the series. Ariadne is almost androgynous. The brick tower, as vertiginous as a skyscraper, is flanked by a broken column of similar height. This oil on canvas 135 x 65 cm was sold for $ 16M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on October 28, 2020, lot 115.
De Chirico brought a metaphysical dimension to symbolism. His Ariadne series anticipates surrealism in substance, through recourse to the psyche, and in form, through deliberately contradictory elements. Especially in Il Pomeriggio, the inverted perspective of the stele reminds the foreshortening of the Dead Christ by Mantegna.
In 1910 Giorgio de Chirico conceives that painting can display the indistinguishable and the revelation. In 1912 and 1913, he devotes eight works to Ariadne's final sleep in Naxos, when she did not yet know that Theseus had fled.
The piazza is huge and deserted. Ariadne is a recumbent in marble symbolizing loneliness, but the position of the arms evokes sleep and life. The late afternoon brings the mysterious threat of shadows. The piazza is closed by an antique brick tomb but personal symbols of the artist, the train and the boat, are still beyond.
Il Pomeriggio di Arianna, painted in 1913, is the dreamlike culmination of the series. Ariadne is almost androgynous. The brick tower, as vertiginous as a skyscraper, is flanked by a broken column of similar height. This oil on canvas 135 x 65 cm was sold for $ 16M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on October 28, 2020, lot 115.
De Chirico brought a metaphysical dimension to symbolism. His Ariadne series anticipates surrealism in substance, through recourse to the psyche, and in form, through deliberately contradictory elements. Especially in Il Pomeriggio, the inverted perspective of the stele reminds the foreshortening of the Dead Christ by Mantegna.
1914-1918 Femme en Corset lisant un Livre by Picasso
2023 SOLD for $ 14.8M by Phillips
In 1911 Pablo Picasso begins an affair with Eva Gouel who was the girlfriend of Louis Marcoussis. Fernande Olivier leaves him in the following year.
In his paintings the artist transfers Eva as a guitar which he authenticates by the love declarations Ma Jolie or J'aime Eva. The hermetic phase known as analytic cubism helps the artist to cancel the appearance of his lover as he will do again in the surrealist phase fifteen years later with the still minor Marie-Thérèse.
Femme en corset lisant un livre was executed in the summer of 1914 in Avignon. Picasso experimented the emotional theme of the seated woman in a recognizable form in a quest for superseding the deadlock of his papiers collés. She is here featured in undergarments as evidenced by the corset.
Eva died of cancer in 1915, aged 30. Picasso completed the painting around 1918, possibly influenced by the joyous colors of the Ballets Russes first staged in 1917.
Picasso did not part of it. This oil and sand on canvas 92 x 60 cm was sold for $ 14.8M by Phillips on November 14, 2023, lot 16.
Eva Gouel (born Eve/Marcelle Humbert, also known as Marcelle Gouel or Eva Gouel; 1885 – 14 December 1915) was a French woman who served as Pablo Picasso’s lover and muse during his pivotal Analytic and Synthetic Cubist periods (roughly 1911–1915). Often called the “queen of Cubism,” she inspired works featuring the affectionate nickname “Ma Jolie” (“My Pretty One”).
Early Life
Little is known about her background. She was born in 1885 in Vincennes, France (near Paris), to Adrian Gouel and Marie-Louise Ghérouze. She sometimes used the name Marcelle Humbert and claimed (possibly fictitiously) to have been married to a man named Humbert. Before meeting Picasso, she was romantically involved with the Cubist sculptor Louis Marcoussis and was a friend of Fernande Olivier (Picasso’s previous partner). Some accounts describe her as small, doll-like, and of delicate health.
Relationship with Picasso
Picasso met Eva (then going by Marcelle Humbert) in late 1911 at the Café Ermitage in Paris, while still involved with Fernande Olivier. Their affair began secretly around that time. After Fernande’s infidelity came to light, Picasso left her in 1912 and openly began his relationship with Eva.Key aspects of their time together:
Illness and Death
In 1913, Eva fell seriously ill (diagnosed with tuberculosis; some accounts mention cancer). Her health declined rapidly. Picasso cared for her during hospitalizations, but he also began a secret affair with another woman (Gaby Depeyre/Lespinasse) while Eva was ill.
Eva Gouel died on 14 December 1915 in Paris at age 30. Picasso was deeply affected and devastated. His 1915 painting Harlequin is often interpreted as reflecting his grief and sorrow.
Legacy
Eva remains somewhat enigmatic compared to Picasso’s other muses, largely because so little independent documentation of her life survives—most knowledge comes through her connection to him. She played a crucial role during his transition to Synthetic Cubism and the incorporation of text and personal references into his art.
Her short life and tragic death highlight the fragility behind the bohemian world of early 20th-century Paris. Picasso moved on (meeting Olga Khokhlova in 1917), but the “Ma Jolie” works endure as tender, coded tributes to their time together. Novels like Madame Picasso (by Anne Girard) have fictionalized her story for modern audiences.
In his paintings the artist transfers Eva as a guitar which he authenticates by the love declarations Ma Jolie or J'aime Eva. The hermetic phase known as analytic cubism helps the artist to cancel the appearance of his lover as he will do again in the surrealist phase fifteen years later with the still minor Marie-Thérèse.
Femme en corset lisant un livre was executed in the summer of 1914 in Avignon. Picasso experimented the emotional theme of the seated woman in a recognizable form in a quest for superseding the deadlock of his papiers collés. She is here featured in undergarments as evidenced by the corset.
Eva died of cancer in 1915, aged 30. Picasso completed the painting around 1918, possibly influenced by the joyous colors of the Ballets Russes first staged in 1917.
Picasso did not part of it. This oil and sand on canvas 92 x 60 cm was sold for $ 14.8M by Phillips on November 14, 2023, lot 16.
Eva Gouel (born Eve/Marcelle Humbert, also known as Marcelle Gouel or Eva Gouel; 1885 – 14 December 1915) was a French woman who served as Pablo Picasso’s lover and muse during his pivotal Analytic and Synthetic Cubist periods (roughly 1911–1915). Often called the “queen of Cubism,” she inspired works featuring the affectionate nickname “Ma Jolie” (“My Pretty One”).
Early Life
Little is known about her background. She was born in 1885 in Vincennes, France (near Paris), to Adrian Gouel and Marie-Louise Ghérouze. She sometimes used the name Marcelle Humbert and claimed (possibly fictitiously) to have been married to a man named Humbert. Before meeting Picasso, she was romantically involved with the Cubist sculptor Louis Marcoussis and was a friend of Fernande Olivier (Picasso’s previous partner). Some accounts describe her as small, doll-like, and of delicate health.
Relationship with Picasso
Picasso met Eva (then going by Marcelle Humbert) in late 1911 at the Café Ermitage in Paris, while still involved with Fernande Olivier. Their affair began secretly around that time. After Fernande’s infidelity came to light, Picasso left her in 1912 and openly began his relationship with Eva.Key aspects of their time together:
- Picasso renamed her Eva Gouel (or Eve) and expressed deep affection, signing works with “Ma Jolie” or incorporating her name and phrases like “J’aime Eva” into Cubist collages and paintings.
- They traveled together, including to Céret in the French Pyrenees (1912–1913) and other spots in the South of France. They visited Picasso’s family in Barcelona and reportedly discussed marriage.
- Eva provided emotional stability and inspiration during Picasso’s intense Cubist experimentation with collage, fragmented forms, and still lifes. She is the hidden subject of major works like Woman with a Guitar (Ma Jolie) (1911–1912, MoMA) and other compositions from 1912–1914.
- During the early months of World War I (1914), they stayed in the South of France to avoid drama with Fernande and the stresses of Paris.
Illness and Death
In 1913, Eva fell seriously ill (diagnosed with tuberculosis; some accounts mention cancer). Her health declined rapidly. Picasso cared for her during hospitalizations, but he also began a secret affair with another woman (Gaby Depeyre/Lespinasse) while Eva was ill.
Eva Gouel died on 14 December 1915 in Paris at age 30. Picasso was deeply affected and devastated. His 1915 painting Harlequin is often interpreted as reflecting his grief and sorrow.
Legacy
Eva remains somewhat enigmatic compared to Picasso’s other muses, largely because so little independent documentation of her life survives—most knowledge comes through her connection to him. She played a crucial role during his transition to Synthetic Cubism and the incorporation of text and personal references into his art.
Her short life and tragic death highlight the fragility behind the bohemian world of early 20th-century Paris. Picasso moved on (meeting Olga Khokhlova in 1917), but the “Ma Jolie” works endure as tender, coded tributes to their time together. Novels like Madame Picasso (by Anne Girard) have fictionalized her story for modern audiences.
1915 Beatrice Hastings by Modigliani
2022 SOLD for $ 17.6M by Christie's
From 1909 to 1913 Amedeo Modigliani had worked almost exclusively in sculpture. His poor health made him returning to oil painting, especially the sensitive portraits of his friends.
Beatrice Hastings, the highly unconventional "poétesse anglaise", arrives in Montparnasse in 1914, appealed by the bohemian life, and begins an affair with Modigliani. They part from one another in 1916 after two years of debauchery and quarrels.
This short period built the image of a villain Modigliani as a temperamental artist, an Italian womanizer, a heavy drunker, defined by Beatrice as altogether a swine and a pearl. A few years later his fair behavior with Jeanne Hébuterne will not be sufficient to rehabilitate him.
Amedeo painted 14 portraits of Beatrice in all the features of her excessive temper, from charming or vulnerable to arrogant or witty. She wore in a ball a trompe l'oeil dress painted by him on her naked body.
Beatrice Hastings devant une porte is a half length portrait painted in 1915 in the stylized pose of his former sculpted ideal women and caryatids. A gentle and elegant Beatrice has an elongated neck and wears a stylish plumed hat.
This oil on canvas 81 x 46 cm was sold for $ 17.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 9. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Beatrice Hastings, the highly unconventional "poétesse anglaise", arrives in Montparnasse in 1914, appealed by the bohemian life, and begins an affair with Modigliani. They part from one another in 1916 after two years of debauchery and quarrels.
This short period built the image of a villain Modigliani as a temperamental artist, an Italian womanizer, a heavy drunker, defined by Beatrice as altogether a swine and a pearl. A few years later his fair behavior with Jeanne Hébuterne will not be sufficient to rehabilitate him.
Amedeo painted 14 portraits of Beatrice in all the features of her excessive temper, from charming or vulnerable to arrogant or witty. She wore in a ball a trompe l'oeil dress painted by him on her naked body.
Beatrice Hastings devant une porte is a half length portrait painted in 1915 in the stylized pose of his former sculpted ideal women and caryatids. A gentle and elegant Beatrice has an elongated neck and wears a stylish plumed hat.
This oil on canvas 81 x 46 cm was sold for $ 17.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 9. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
ca 1918 Coin du Bassin aux Nymphéas by Monet
2019 SOLD for $ 22M by Christie's
Viewed from a vantage point, an undated Coin du bassin aux nymphéas, oil on canvas 130 x 89 cm, was sold for $ 22M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on May 13, 2019, lot 35A.
The aging Monet was certainly anxious when he made this specific painting. The incandescent light behind the trees of his own garden is otherworldly. He kept this highly personal work in his studio until his death.
The aging Monet was certainly anxious when he made this specific painting. The incandescent light behind the trees of his own garden is otherworldly. He kept this highly personal work in his studio until his death.
From a Distinguished French Collection, Claude Monet's 'Coin du basin aux nymphéas' realizes $21,840,000 against a low estimate of $15,000,000 https://t.co/hjbua8uE9b pic.twitter.com/FWynWNNsCS
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 14, 2019
1918 La Quiétude by Van Dongen
2023 SOLD for £ 10.8M by Christie's
At the time of the Fauvisme, red unexpectedly becomes a preferred color for the human flesh, used for example on a blue background by Matisse in La Danse.
Van Dongen follows. His Jeune arabe, painted in an orientalist mood in 1910-1911 from his Southern trip, has a shocking cadmium red bare torso. This oil on canvas 102 x 65 cm was sold for $ 13.8M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2009, lot 7.
La Quiétude, painted in 1918, is an orientalist fancy and an allegory for quietness. A languorous entwined couple reclines in the nude. Its main character is a bright red woman somnolent on her back with raised knees. Both legs are terminated with heel boots unseparated from the feet. The drawing is simplified as Sanyu will do a few years later.
The other human is in her shadow, the head resting between her thighs. He or she is midnight blue. A pair of doves listen in the same colors. The foreground stages a smiling monkey and a sleeping dog whose tapered nose reminds Franz Marc's foxes.
In the same year van Dongen executed a series to illustrate the harem stories of the One thousand and One Nights. At the same time he was living his Oriental dream in a home filled with dark colors, velvet curtains, sumptuous carpets and blue tinted windows decorated with garlands of exotic flowers.
This oil on canvas 115 x 146 cm was painted in that home and acquired directly from the artist by the fashion designer Paul Poiret nicknamed le Magnifique by reference to Suleyman. It was sold for £ 10.8 M from a lower estimate of £ 3M by Christie's on October 13, 2023, lot 9.
Van Dongen follows. His Jeune arabe, painted in an orientalist mood in 1910-1911 from his Southern trip, has a shocking cadmium red bare torso. This oil on canvas 102 x 65 cm was sold for $ 13.8M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2009, lot 7.
La Quiétude, painted in 1918, is an orientalist fancy and an allegory for quietness. A languorous entwined couple reclines in the nude. Its main character is a bright red woman somnolent on her back with raised knees. Both legs are terminated with heel boots unseparated from the feet. The drawing is simplified as Sanyu will do a few years later.
The other human is in her shadow, the head resting between her thighs. He or she is midnight blue. A pair of doves listen in the same colors. The foreground stages a smiling monkey and a sleeping dog whose tapered nose reminds Franz Marc's foxes.
In the same year van Dongen executed a series to illustrate the harem stories of the One thousand and One Nights. At the same time he was living his Oriental dream in a home filled with dark colors, velvet curtains, sumptuous carpets and blue tinted windows decorated with garlands of exotic flowers.
This oil on canvas 115 x 146 cm was painted in that home and acquired directly from the artist by the fashion designer Paul Poiret nicknamed le Magnifique by reference to Suleyman. It was sold for £ 10.8 M from a lower estimate of £ 3M by Christie's on October 13, 2023, lot 9.
1918 Gefärliche Strasse by Grosz
2020 SOLD for £ 9.7M by Christie's
Born in Berlin, George Grosz is 21 years old in 1914. Disgusted by the atrocities of war, he is twice discharged from the German army. He escapes in 1917 a scheduled execution because he is considered as insane.
The civil society disgusts him just as much. While the corpses are rotting on the barbed wire, the survivors indulge in all the sins in Friedrichstrasse. Prostitutes reign over this increasingly miserable decadence. The war will be lost but nobody pays attention to it.
Grosz protests in a proletarian caricature, violently anti-militarist and anti-bourgeois. He will try unsuccessfully to approach revolutionary and Dadaist movements and his art will be censored by all regimes. For the Nazis, he will be the worst cultural Bolshevik. Many of his works have been destroyed.
On February 5, 2020, Christie's sold for £ 9.7M from a lower estimate of £ 4.5M Gefährliche Strasse (the dangerous street), oil on canvas 47 x 65 cm painted in July 1918, lot 6.
The image juxtaposes two nightmarish scenes, symbolizing sex and death. A hilarious prostitute, naked under her transparent clothes, excites a lecherous crowd. In the foreground, an austere soldier with emaciated cheeks resolutely turns his back on the rest of the action. Grosz's screams are worthy of Goya's disasters.
The scene is staged by night in dark colors, with a Futurist fragmentation in the style of Boccioni. In the bottom right, the silhouette of a head expressing repulsion or anger is considered to be a self-portrait of the artist.
The civil society disgusts him just as much. While the corpses are rotting on the barbed wire, the survivors indulge in all the sins in Friedrichstrasse. Prostitutes reign over this increasingly miserable decadence. The war will be lost but nobody pays attention to it.
Grosz protests in a proletarian caricature, violently anti-militarist and anti-bourgeois. He will try unsuccessfully to approach revolutionary and Dadaist movements and his art will be censored by all regimes. For the Nazis, he will be the worst cultural Bolshevik. Many of his works have been destroyed.
On February 5, 2020, Christie's sold for £ 9.7M from a lower estimate of £ 4.5M Gefährliche Strasse (the dangerous street), oil on canvas 47 x 65 cm painted in July 1918, lot 6.
The image juxtaposes two nightmarish scenes, symbolizing sex and death. A hilarious prostitute, naked under her transparent clothes, excites a lecherous crowd. In the foreground, an austere soldier with emaciated cheeks resolutely turns his back on the rest of the action. Grosz's screams are worthy of Goya's disasters.
The scene is staged by night in dark colors, with a Futurist fragmentation in the style of Boccioni. In the bottom right, the silhouette of a head expressing repulsion or anger is considered to be a self-portrait of the artist.
1919 Jeune Homme Roux Assis by Modigliani
2014 SOLD for $ 17.6M by Christie's
From 1916 to 1918 in Montparnasse, Zborowski had sponsored the theme of the nude woman by Modigliani. The artist had a great delicacy and was not always at ease in front of his models. He succeeded to create an unprecedented new style, not overlooking the shyness of the girls.
Under the increasing pressure of the war, he leaves with Zbo in April 1918 for the Côte d'Azur. During their 13 months stay, life was not the same. Their clients were far away. Amedeo took a keen interest in the portraits of local children and teenagers, pictured frontally seated on a simple chair. He tried to reveal their individuality behind their clumsiness or boredom while being observed by the artist.
This new theme became a pretext to improve the features, in another new signature style. Bodies and necks became elongated and flexible. The background was made in light warm colors.
Often the eyes were completely filled in sky blue, without pupil, bringing an enigmatic gaze. This unprecedented feature was probably inspired by his earlier practice in sculpture beside his friend Brancusi, under the influence of African masks lit from behind. Some Montparnasse nudes had similarly filled eyes but slightly darker with a lesser empathy.
Jeune homme roux assis, oil on canvas 100 x 65 cm painted in 1919, is in the follow of the series of seated young people by Modigliani.
The handsome red haired guy between adolescence and a confident adulthood does not belong to the working class. The eyes are filled in cerulean blue.
It was sold for $ 17.6M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Christie's on May 6, 2014, lot 5.
Under the increasing pressure of the war, he leaves with Zbo in April 1918 for the Côte d'Azur. During their 13 months stay, life was not the same. Their clients were far away. Amedeo took a keen interest in the portraits of local children and teenagers, pictured frontally seated on a simple chair. He tried to reveal their individuality behind their clumsiness or boredom while being observed by the artist.
This new theme became a pretext to improve the features, in another new signature style. Bodies and necks became elongated and flexible. The background was made in light warm colors.
Often the eyes were completely filled in sky blue, without pupil, bringing an enigmatic gaze. This unprecedented feature was probably inspired by his earlier practice in sculpture beside his friend Brancusi, under the influence of African masks lit from behind. Some Montparnasse nudes had similarly filled eyes but slightly darker with a lesser empathy.
Jeune homme roux assis, oil on canvas 100 x 65 cm painted in 1919, is in the follow of the series of seated young people by Modigliani.
The handsome red haired guy between adolescence and a confident adulthood does not belong to the working class. The eyes are filled in cerulean blue.
It was sold for $ 17.6M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Christie's on May 6, 2014, lot 5.
1919 Jeune Fille en Bleu by Modigliani
2021 SOLD for $ 16.4M by Sotheby's
From 1916 to 1918 in Montparnasse, Zborowski had sponsored the theme of the nude woman by Modigliani. The artist had a great delicacy and was not always at ease in front of his models. He succeeded to create an unprecedented new style, not overlooking the shyness of the girls.
Under the increasing pressure of the war, he leaves with Zbo in April 1918 for the Côte d'Azur. During their 13 months stay, life was not the same. Their clients were far away. Amedeo took a keen interest in the portraits of local children and teenagers, pictured frontally seated on a simple chair. He tried to reveal their individuality behind their clumsiness or boredom while being observed by the artist.
This new theme became a pretext to improve the features, in another new signature style. Bodies and necks became elongated and flexible. The background was made in light warm colors.
Often the eyes were completely filled in sky blue, without pupil, bringing an enigmatic gaze. This unprecedented feature was probably inspired by his earlier practice in sculpture beside his friend Brancusi, under the influence of African masks lit from behind. Some Montparnasse nudes had similarly filled eyes but slightly darker with a lesser empathy.
On May 12, 2021, Sotheby's sold for $ 16.4M Jeune Fille en bleu, lot 1023. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. This oil on canvas 100 x 64 cm was painted in soft tones throughout, in 1919, probably before they left the Riviera.
Under the increasing pressure of the war, he leaves with Zbo in April 1918 for the Côte d'Azur. During their 13 months stay, life was not the same. Their clients were far away. Amedeo took a keen interest in the portraits of local children and teenagers, pictured frontally seated on a simple chair. He tried to reveal their individuality behind their clumsiness or boredom while being observed by the artist.
This new theme became a pretext to improve the features, in another new signature style. Bodies and necks became elongated and flexible. The background was made in light warm colors.
Often the eyes were completely filled in sky blue, without pupil, bringing an enigmatic gaze. This unprecedented feature was probably inspired by his earlier practice in sculpture beside his friend Brancusi, under the influence of African masks lit from behind. Some Montparnasse nudes had similarly filled eyes but slightly darker with a lesser empathy.
On May 12, 2021, Sotheby's sold for $ 16.4M Jeune Fille en bleu, lot 1023. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. This oil on canvas 100 x 64 cm was painted in soft tones throughout, in 1919, probably before they left the Riviera.
