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1884 La Grande Jatte by Seurat
1999 SOLD for $ 35M by Sotheby's
Georges Seurat seeks to define a new painting technique that will support his anti-bourgeois ideal. The composition is based on the balance of proportions. The perceived colors are not those of his palette but a reconstruction of the spectrum by the opposition of the complementary.
He wants his demonstrations to be perfect. His achieved paintings are very rare. The very long preparation phases include drawings and oil sketches. In 1884 he exhibits at the Salon des Indépendants his first major work, Une Baignade à Asnières, oil on canvas 2 x 3 m.
Seurat immediately begins another project, on the same social theme of the aberrant life of the bourgeois. He chooses a green corner by the Seine in the leisure park on the island of La Grande Jatte, on the border between Neuilly and Levallois.
Three oil sketches on canvas are started in parallel in May 1884. One of them is a Paysage empty of any character, 65 x 79 cm, on which he sets up the theoretical elements of its composition. The second is a full version 70 x 104 cm, scaled as one third of the size of the final work. The other sketch is a study for the couple in the foreground.
Unlike the Bathing in Asnières, the colors are dull, with too much space provided to the shadows in the foreground. Signac will succeed in convincing Seurat that the brightest lights bring a much better effect to the divisionist technique, but for Un dimanche après-midi à l'île de la Grande Jatte, which will be finished in 1886, it is already too late.
The preparatory Paysage was sold for $ 35M by Sotheby's on May 10, 1999.
He wants his demonstrations to be perfect. His achieved paintings are very rare. The very long preparation phases include drawings and oil sketches. In 1884 he exhibits at the Salon des Indépendants his first major work, Une Baignade à Asnières, oil on canvas 2 x 3 m.
Seurat immediately begins another project, on the same social theme of the aberrant life of the bourgeois. He chooses a green corner by the Seine in the leisure park on the island of La Grande Jatte, on the border between Neuilly and Levallois.
Three oil sketches on canvas are started in parallel in May 1884. One of them is a Paysage empty of any character, 65 x 79 cm, on which he sets up the theoretical elements of its composition. The second is a full version 70 x 104 cm, scaled as one third of the size of the final work. The other sketch is a study for the couple in the foreground.
Unlike the Bathing in Asnières, the colors are dull, with too much space provided to the shadows in the foreground. Signac will succeed in convincing Seurat that the brightest lights bring a much better effect to the divisionist technique, but for Un dimanche après-midi à l'île de la Grande Jatte, which will be finished in 1886, it is already too late.
The preparatory Paysage was sold for $ 35M by Sotheby's on May 10, 1999.
1885 A Summer with Seurat
2018 SOLD for $ 34M including premium
Georges Seurat wants his art to be for social criticism. He blames the Impressionist techniques for being emotional and not strict enough. He begins in 1884 a demonstration painting in very large size 208 x 308 cm : Un dimanche après-midi à l'Ile de la Grande Jatte.
Everything is important but everything is mingled. An image with rising lines and warm colors will look optimistic. The Grande Jatte will have to be chilling, with an invading shadow in the foreground and stiff figures symbolizing the aberrations of the bourgeoisie.
The young artist is receptive to ideas about the balance of colors. Chevreul's psychophysiological observations that the vision of a pure color is accompanied by the perception of a halo of its complementary color convince him that the composition of the colors of a painting must not slavishly follow the nature.
Seurat spends the summer 1885 at the seaside, in Grandcamp, on the advice of Signac who also invites him to take an interest in intense lights. Seurat then tests with marine views his interpretation of Chevreul's theories, developing his new technique of dividing colors by horizontal brush strokes that will soon become dots. He names that practice the chromo-luminarisme.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 18 La Rade de Grandcamp, oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm on the rather happy theme of a regatta of horizontally aligned white sails.
The achievement of the Grandcamp series pleases him. Back in his studio, he retouches the Grande Jatte by reducing chromatic variations and by introducing the pointillism. When this work is completed in 1886, it triggers the inevitable break with the Impressionnistes. Only Fénéon is convinced. In 1887 Fénéon coins the neo-Impressionist wording to try showing that Seurat's art is not an opposition to Impressionism but another step on the path to a new art.
Passionate about his theories, Seurat retouched his artworks. Rade de Grandcamp is perhaps the only example left in its original state from his very first experiences in complementary color techniques.
Everything is important but everything is mingled. An image with rising lines and warm colors will look optimistic. The Grande Jatte will have to be chilling, with an invading shadow in the foreground and stiff figures symbolizing the aberrations of the bourgeoisie.
The young artist is receptive to ideas about the balance of colors. Chevreul's psychophysiological observations that the vision of a pure color is accompanied by the perception of a halo of its complementary color convince him that the composition of the colors of a painting must not slavishly follow the nature.
Seurat spends the summer 1885 at the seaside, in Grandcamp, on the advice of Signac who also invites him to take an interest in intense lights. Seurat then tests with marine views his interpretation of Chevreul's theories, developing his new technique of dividing colors by horizontal brush strokes that will soon become dots. He names that practice the chromo-luminarisme.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 18 La Rade de Grandcamp, oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm on the rather happy theme of a regatta of horizontally aligned white sails.
The achievement of the Grandcamp series pleases him. Back in his studio, he retouches the Grande Jatte by reducing chromatic variations and by introducing the pointillism. When this work is completed in 1886, it triggers the inevitable break with the Impressionnistes. Only Fénéon is convinced. In 1887 Fénéon coins the neo-Impressionist wording to try showing that Seurat's art is not an opposition to Impressionism but another step on the path to a new art.
Passionate about his theories, Seurat retouched his artworks. Rade de Grandcamp is perhaps the only example left in its original state from his very first experiences in complementary color techniques.
#AuctionUpdate Georges Seurat’s ‘La rade de Grandcamp (Le port de Grandcamp)’ auctions for $34,062,500. https://t.co/Dvt3rbsVQ1 pic.twitter.com/2OZswikdNo
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 9, 2018
1932 La Lecture by Picasso
2011 SOLD for £ 25.2M by Sotheby's
The very young Marie-Thérèse Walter was a beauty. Picasso, who had met her by chance in a Paris street, was dazzled by her body and face.
Pablo was married and waited five years before turning into art his passion for Marie-Thérèse. The art market has already twice acknowledged these portraits made in 1932 as major works of modern art and masterpieces of eroticism.
The beautiful blonde was at once voluptuous and innocent, and Pablo loved to see her in her sleep. She is naked and lying asleep next to the image of her carved bust, in the painting sold for $ 106.5 million including premium at Christie's on May 4, 2010.
Lightly dressed, she dozes in an armchair in the painting titled Le Rêve (The Dream), 130 x 97 cm. Steve Wynn wanted it to become the world's most expensive artwork, but the transaction foreseen at $ 139M was set aside when he accidentally damaged the canvas in October 2006.
La Lecture (The Reading), oil on panel 65 x 51 cm painted on December 11, 1932, has a composition similar to the Dream. Marie-Thérèse, a little more undressed, forgets the book on her lap and sleeps chastely and candidly, her head turned upward. The same sinuous lines surround the head and body, getting a remarkable realism by a geometric drawing of great simplicity. The solid colors are close to a Matisse or a Léger.
La Lecture was sold for £ 25.2M from a lower estimate of £ 12M on February 8, 2011 by Sotheby's, lot 8.
Pablo was married and waited five years before turning into art his passion for Marie-Thérèse. The art market has already twice acknowledged these portraits made in 1932 as major works of modern art and masterpieces of eroticism.
The beautiful blonde was at once voluptuous and innocent, and Pablo loved to see her in her sleep. She is naked and lying asleep next to the image of her carved bust, in the painting sold for $ 106.5 million including premium at Christie's on May 4, 2010.
Lightly dressed, she dozes in an armchair in the painting titled Le Rêve (The Dream), 130 x 97 cm. Steve Wynn wanted it to become the world's most expensive artwork, but the transaction foreseen at $ 139M was set aside when he accidentally damaged the canvas in October 2006.
La Lecture (The Reading), oil on panel 65 x 51 cm painted on December 11, 1932, has a composition similar to the Dream. Marie-Thérèse, a little more undressed, forgets the book on her lap and sleeps chastely and candidly, her head turned upward. The same sinuous lines surround the head and body, getting a remarkable realism by a geometric drawing of great simplicity. The solid colors are close to a Matisse or a Léger.
La Lecture was sold for £ 25.2M from a lower estimate of £ 12M on February 8, 2011 by Sotheby's, lot 8.
1932 An Epic Rescue
2014 SOLD 31.5 M$ including premium
On May 7 in New York, Sotheby's sells an enigmatic painting by Picasso, estimated $ 14M, lot 24 in the catalog. Titled Le Sauvetage, this oil on canvas 97 x 130 cm made in November 1932 is the ultimate piece in a small series that Picasso explained. But must we ever believe what artists say, especially when they have the wit and humor of Pablo ?
Pablo is madly in love with Marie-Thérèse but could not spend the summer vacation with her. The reckless young woman was seriously ill after a swim in a polluted river. The announced inspiration for Le Sauvetage is a mixing between this tragedy and the happy days of an erotic summer in Dinard a few years earlier.
The composition juxtaposes pleasure and tragedy, by staging a group of young women similar to the ideal image of Marie-Thérèse in all roles: player, swimmer, drowned, lifesaver, rescued. Without any man.
This work was born from the rivalry of Picasso with Matisse who was at the same time preparing for Barnes the huge mural triptych La Danse II. It is not a coincidence that the bodies of Matisse's dancers and of Picasso's bathers are similarly contorted.
Nudes painted by Matisse in La Danse II are decorative and stylized but not at all anecdotal. Picasso wants to stay at the forefront of artistic expression and adds a narrative and even philosophical effect by this opposition between life and death.
If we consider in Le Sauvetage the variety of occupations and the desire for drama, we may state that this bizarre painting is as an epic precursor to Guernica.
POST SALE COMMENT
Picasso fans loved the unusual style and the narrative theme of this painting, sold for $ 31.5 million including premium.
Pablo is madly in love with Marie-Thérèse but could not spend the summer vacation with her. The reckless young woman was seriously ill after a swim in a polluted river. The announced inspiration for Le Sauvetage is a mixing between this tragedy and the happy days of an erotic summer in Dinard a few years earlier.
The composition juxtaposes pleasure and tragedy, by staging a group of young women similar to the ideal image of Marie-Thérèse in all roles: player, swimmer, drowned, lifesaver, rescued. Without any man.
This work was born from the rivalry of Picasso with Matisse who was at the same time preparing for Barnes the huge mural triptych La Danse II. It is not a coincidence that the bodies of Matisse's dancers and of Picasso's bathers are similarly contorted.
Nudes painted by Matisse in La Danse II are decorative and stylized but not at all anecdotal. Picasso wants to stay at the forefront of artistic expression and adds a narrative and even philosophical effect by this opposition between life and death.
If we consider in Le Sauvetage the variety of occupations and the desire for drama, we may state that this bizarre painting is as an epic precursor to Guernica.
POST SALE COMMENT
Picasso fans loved the unusual style and the narrative theme of this painting, sold for $ 31.5 million including premium.
1955 Hotel Window by Hopper
2006 SOLD for $ 27M by Sotheby's
Edward Hopper is a director of the world around him. He is shy, laconic and conservative. His marriage to Jo, who is sociable, open and liberal, will last their lifetime. The notebooks scrupulously kept by Jo are often the only entry to understand Edward's creativity.
Jo becomes Edward's only model, which avoids jealousy, but he positions her against her own temperament. She lets go, and becomes the symbol of the loneliness felt by the artist. In 1942 in Nighthawks, Edward and Jo are the diners in the deserted restaurant. This famous painting is a great example of the atmosphere of a thriller in major art.
Edward carefully observes his surroundings : the hotels, restaurants and theaters of New York City, the road to Cape Cod and the gas stations. He takes sketches before making his paintings in his workshop. Often the realization, as in Nighthawks and Hotel Window, goes beyond his original intention in the gloomy.
Hotel Window, oil on canvas 102 x 140 cm, was painted in 1955. In the lobby of a hotel, a gray-haired woman absent-mindedly looks through the window at night. The room is poorly furnished and no one will disturb this old woman who has the same hard facial features as the Jo from Nighthawks, but 13 years older.
Hotel Window was sold for $ 27M by Sotheby's on November 29, 2006 from a lower estimate of $ 10M. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Jo becomes Edward's only model, which avoids jealousy, but he positions her against her own temperament. She lets go, and becomes the symbol of the loneliness felt by the artist. In 1942 in Nighthawks, Edward and Jo are the diners in the deserted restaurant. This famous painting is a great example of the atmosphere of a thriller in major art.
Edward carefully observes his surroundings : the hotels, restaurants and theaters of New York City, the road to Cape Cod and the gas stations. He takes sketches before making his paintings in his workshop. Often the realization, as in Nighthawks and Hotel Window, goes beyond his original intention in the gloomy.
Hotel Window, oil on canvas 102 x 140 cm, was painted in 1955. In the lobby of a hotel, a gray-haired woman absent-mindedly looks through the window at night. The room is poorly furnished and no one will disturb this old woman who has the same hard facial features as the Jo from Nighthawks, but 13 years older.
Hotel Window was sold for $ 27M by Sotheby's on November 29, 2006 from a lower estimate of $ 10M. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1962 Lemon Marilyn by Warhol
2007 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
The series of twelve single Marilyn 51 x 41 cm are made with a single screen printing over acrylic paints of various colors. Two of these paintings are monochromatic. They are the precursors of the global imaging desired by Warhol.
The White Marilyn was sold for $ 41M by Christie's on May 13, 2014. The Lemon Marilyn was sold for $ 28M by Christie's on May 18, 2007, lot 18. The Orange Marilyn was sold for $ 16.3M by Christie's on November 15, 2006, lot 32.
The White Marilyn was sold for $ 41M by Christie's on May 13, 2014. The Lemon Marilyn was sold for $ 28M by Christie's on May 18, 2007, lot 18. The Orange Marilyn was sold for $ 16.3M by Christie's on November 15, 2006, lot 32.
1963 Double Elvis by Warhol
2021 SOLD for $ 37M by Sotheby's
An Elvis 2 Times 207 x 180 cm in silkscreen ink and paint was sold for $ 37M by Sotheby's on May 12, 2021, lot 4. The silver paint of the background provides a high reflectivity. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The catalogue includes a photo in period featuring the actress Jean Seberg, aged 25, nicely playing a terror in front of two double Elvis's in Warhol's studio, including the piece narrated above.
The catalogue includes a photo in period featuring the actress Jean Seberg, aged 25, nicely playing a terror in front of two double Elvis's in Warhol's studio, including the piece narrated above.
1963 Early Colored Liz by Warhol
2014 SOLD for $ 31.5M by Sotheby's
Andy Warhol has built much of his initial fame with a single image of Marilyn and a single image of Liz, taken from magazines. They however did not have the same role in the development of his business.
The first Marilyns from 1962 are experimental. Andy's idea is to mix the techniques of acrylic and silkscreen. He makes his hand in a variety of processes, dimensions and positioning of the image that is sometimes already multiplied in juxtaposition on a single canvas.
The Liz selected during the summer of 1963 opens the use of paint for a multiple reproduction with fixed dimensions. She is first seen on a background of silver painting, referring to the movie screens. A first pass of screen printing provides a mark for the colors: pink skin, red mouth, turquoise eye shadows. A second screen printing brings the deep black lines and hair.
In November 1963, Andy is preparing an exhibition of 101 x 101 cm Liz's which will be similar excepted the background color. The paintings used in this exhibition are numbered from 1 to 6. Seven additional specimens were not numbered. The series is identified as the Early Colored Liz.
The Early Colored Liz number 3 with green background was sold for $ 31.5M on November 11, 2014 by Sotheby's, lot 27.
In the following year, Andy uses his Liz in printed editions, again with backgrounds from various colors.
The first Marilyns from 1962 are experimental. Andy's idea is to mix the techniques of acrylic and silkscreen. He makes his hand in a variety of processes, dimensions and positioning of the image that is sometimes already multiplied in juxtaposition on a single canvas.
The Liz selected during the summer of 1963 opens the use of paint for a multiple reproduction with fixed dimensions. She is first seen on a background of silver painting, referring to the movie screens. A first pass of screen printing provides a mark for the colors: pink skin, red mouth, turquoise eye shadows. A second screen printing brings the deep black lines and hair.
In November 1963, Andy is preparing an exhibition of 101 x 101 cm Liz's which will be similar excepted the background color. The paintings used in this exhibition are numbered from 1 to 6. Seven additional specimens were not numbered. The series is identified as the Early Colored Liz.
The Early Colored Liz number 3 with green background was sold for $ 31.5M on November 11, 2014 by Sotheby's, lot 27.
In the following year, Andy uses his Liz in printed editions, again with backgrounds from various colors.
1964 Sixteen Jackies by Warhol
2021 SOLD for $ 34M by Sotheby's
The series of Jackies by Andy Warhol was using eight different images taken from the press coverage before and after the President's assassination, reused as emotional portraits without their context.
The individual screenprints from the recuperated images were serially made on 50 x 40 cm canvases prepared in flat blue, gold or left in white, before being assembled as composite items.
This work was executed in 1964, the year after the death of the President, as a good example of the application of Death and Disaster in US life, including the fall from an ephemeral celebrity. 24 multiplied Jackies were exhibited in Philadelphia in October 1965. Their composite structure enabled them to be reconstructed from one installation to the next.
A Sixteen Jackies was sold by Christie's for $ 15.7M on November 15, 2006, lot 37, and for $ 34M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 12. It is made of 16 canvases from the Philadelphia exhibition for an overall size of 206 x 165 cm.
This 4 x 4 grid is using six images in respectively 4, 3, 3, 3, 2 and 1 examples, equally mixing eight blue and eight black and white reproductions without the rare gold variants.
The individual screenprints from the recuperated images were serially made on 50 x 40 cm canvases prepared in flat blue, gold or left in white, before being assembled as composite items.
This work was executed in 1964, the year after the death of the President, as a good example of the application of Death and Disaster in US life, including the fall from an ephemeral celebrity. 24 multiplied Jackies were exhibited in Philadelphia in October 1965. Their composite structure enabled them to be reconstructed from one installation to the next.
A Sixteen Jackies was sold by Christie's for $ 15.7M on November 15, 2006, lot 37, and for $ 34M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 12. It is made of 16 canvases from the Philadelphia exhibition for an overall size of 206 x 165 cm.
This 4 x 4 grid is using six images in respectively 4, 3, 3, 3, 2 and 1 examples, equally mixing eight blue and eight black and white reproductions without the rare gold variants.
1964 Triptych Portrait of Lucian Freud by Bacon
2011 SOLD for £ 23M by Sotheby's
An essential and prolific part of the art of Francis Bacon is constituted by the triptychs. Giving three different visions of the deformed subjects of his fantasies, the artist provides the key to its three-dimensional interpretation.
He made his relatives and himself parading before his strange three-sided virtual mirror.
On February 10, 2011, Sotheby's sold for £ 23M from a lower estimate of £ 7M a triptych portrait of Lucian Freud by Bacon, done in 1964. 35 cm high, these paintings are suitable to interest and intrigue psychiatrists and psychoanalysts as well as art lovers. They are illustrated in the article shared by The Telegraph. The exercises of mutual portraits between the two artists have not finished to reveal their secret motivations.
He made his relatives and himself parading before his strange three-sided virtual mirror.
On February 10, 2011, Sotheby's sold for £ 23M from a lower estimate of £ 7M a triptych portrait of Lucian Freud by Bacon, done in 1964. 35 cm high, these paintings are suitable to interest and intrigue psychiatrists and psychoanalysts as well as art lovers. They are illustrated in the article shared by The Telegraph. The exercises of mutual portraits between the two artists have not finished to reveal their secret motivations.
