Sculpture by Painters
not including Modigliani and Klein.
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : French sculpture Bust Children Man and woman Music and dance Degas Gauguin Matisse De Kooning Picasso 1940-1960 Picasso in Mougins Germany II
Chronology : 1902 1908 1910 1920-1929 1927 1953 1959 1970-1979 1972 1978
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : French sculpture Bust Children Man and woman Music and dance Degas Gauguin Matisse De Kooning Picasso 1940-1960 Picasso in Mougins Germany II
Chronology : 1902 1908 1910 1920-1929 1927 1953 1959 1970-1979 1972 1978
1902 GAUGUIN
1
Thérèse
2015 SOLD for $ 31M by Christie's
Gauguin's resentment against the establishment was taking the form of insulting provocations. He left Tahiti where he was not any more finding an inspiration to his art and arrived in the Marquesas in September 1901. He soon retrieved the targets of his vituperation : the Catholic clergy and the gendarmes of the French Republic.
Gauguin blamed the Catholics for their hypocritical opposition to sexual freedom and rejoiced about the weaknesses of the prelates. He purchased a piece of land to the local bishop to build his home which he decorated as a temple to pornography under the complacently inscribed name Maison du Jouir (House of orgasm). He bought a young vahine, achieving to generate the total exasperation of the missionaries.
This exiled artist has humor. The best exhibition place in the Maison du Jouir is the door, visible from outside. Around August 1902, Gauguin installs two statues made by him in rosewood in native style. The man, Père Paillard (Father Debauchery), is a caricature of the bishop as a horned devil. The woman, Thérèse, is inspired by the gossip that the servant of the bishop was also his mistress.
On this phallic shaped statue 66 cm high, Thérèse is a nice woman, naked except for a loincloth. With her oversized head increasing her expressive feature, she is a transposition of primitive art to a Western subject. Although the intention of the artist was purely local, appealing beside him the laughers of Atuona, this artwork anticipates the interpretation of African and Oceanian figures by the artists of the twentieth century.
Thérèse was sold for $ 31M from a lower estimate of $ 18M for sale by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 5A. Its pendant Père Paillard is kept at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
Gauguin blamed the Catholics for their hypocritical opposition to sexual freedom and rejoiced about the weaknesses of the prelates. He purchased a piece of land to the local bishop to build his home which he decorated as a temple to pornography under the complacently inscribed name Maison du Jouir (House of orgasm). He bought a young vahine, achieving to generate the total exasperation of the missionaries.
This exiled artist has humor. The best exhibition place in the Maison du Jouir is the door, visible from outside. Around August 1902, Gauguin installs two statues made by him in rosewood in native style. The man, Père Paillard (Father Debauchery), is a caricature of the bishop as a horned devil. The woman, Thérèse, is inspired by the gossip that the servant of the bishop was also his mistress.
On this phallic shaped statue 66 cm high, Thérèse is a nice woman, naked except for a loincloth. With her oversized head increasing her expressive feature, she is a transposition of primitive art to a Western subject. Although the intention of the artist was purely local, appealing beside him the laughers of Atuona, this artwork anticipates the interpretation of African and Oceanian figures by the artists of the twentieth century.
Thérèse was sold for $ 31M from a lower estimate of $ 18M for sale by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 5A. Its pendant Père Paillard is kept at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
Paul Gauguin's Thérèse sells for $30,965,000 a #worldauctionrecord for a sculpture by the artist. pic.twitter.com/NuEf8SG0Ex
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 10, 20152
for reference
Père Paillard
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1908 Nu Allongé by Matisse
2018 SOLD for £ 15M by Phillips
Henri Matisse is one of the earliest artists to release the figurative arts from the realistic proportions of photography. He kneads the clay from 1899. His table sculptures allow him to watch the bold angles of view which will bring an expressive harmony to the disproportions. La Danse in 1909 is the spectacular culmination of this creative process. Matisse's clay nudes are to be compared to Meissonier's wax horses.
Matisse explores several paths in parallel including the pointillisme inspired by Signac and it is Fauvisme that raises its reputation in 1905. Soon afterward the first encounters of European artists with African tribal art convince him of the possibility to derogate from the forms of nature.
During his stays in Collioure Matisse frequently meets Maillol in Banyuls. Maillol endeavors to simplify the nude to achieve the purity in perfect proportions. They have complementary approaches that both release the nude from Rodin's muscular eroticism.
In 1907 in Collioure, Matisse designs Nu allongé I, 34 x 50 x 29 cm. The torsion of the body could evoke Rodin but the hypertrophied raised elbow announces a new style. This artwork will be nicknamed L'Aurore (dawn) by comparison of the robust attitude with the famous funerary marble by Michelangelo. In the same year his Nu bleu is a pictorial projection of the Nu allongé I. This painting will be often imitated by Picasso and inaugurates the lifelong competition between these two artists.
Matisse's priority is painting but he also makes bronzes, sparingly. During his lifetime only eleven bronzes of the Nu allongé I are cast, the last one being an artist's proof. They are distributed from 1908 to 1951 in no less than five different casts.
The first three bronzes were edited in Paris around 1908 by Bingen et Costenoble who were also working for Maillol. One of them was sold for £ 15M from a lower estimate of £ 5M by Phillips on March 8, 2018, lot 9. Two later copies had fetched a very high price at auction for their time : $ 8.4M by Christie's on November 9, 1999 for one of the two 1912 bronzes and $ 9.6M by Phillips on May 7, 2001 for one of the three 1930 bronzes.
Figure Décorative is a sculpture executed by Matisse in 1908. A 71 cm high bronze numbered 2 cast in 1950 by Valsuani was sold for $ 16.7M by Sotheby's on November 18, 2025, lot 7.
Matisse explores several paths in parallel including the pointillisme inspired by Signac and it is Fauvisme that raises its reputation in 1905. Soon afterward the first encounters of European artists with African tribal art convince him of the possibility to derogate from the forms of nature.
During his stays in Collioure Matisse frequently meets Maillol in Banyuls. Maillol endeavors to simplify the nude to achieve the purity in perfect proportions. They have complementary approaches that both release the nude from Rodin's muscular eroticism.
In 1907 in Collioure, Matisse designs Nu allongé I, 34 x 50 x 29 cm. The torsion of the body could evoke Rodin but the hypertrophied raised elbow announces a new style. This artwork will be nicknamed L'Aurore (dawn) by comparison of the robust attitude with the famous funerary marble by Michelangelo. In the same year his Nu bleu is a pictorial projection of the Nu allongé I. This painting will be often imitated by Picasso and inaugurates the lifelong competition between these two artists.
Matisse's priority is painting but he also makes bronzes, sparingly. During his lifetime only eleven bronzes of the Nu allongé I are cast, the last one being an artist's proof. They are distributed from 1908 to 1951 in no less than five different casts.
The first three bronzes were edited in Paris around 1908 by Bingen et Costenoble who were also working for Maillol. One of them was sold for £ 15M from a lower estimate of £ 5M by Phillips on March 8, 2018, lot 9. Two later copies had fetched a very high price at auction for their time : $ 8.4M by Christie's on November 9, 1999 for one of the two 1912 bronzes and $ 9.6M by Phillips on May 7, 2001 for one of the three 1930 bronzes.
Figure Décorative is a sculpture executed by Matisse in 1908. A 71 cm high bronze numbered 2 cast in 1950 by Valsuani was sold for $ 16.7M by Sotheby's on November 18, 2025, lot 7.
1910-1939 Tête de Femme (Fernande) by Picasso
2022 SOLD for $ 48M by Christie's
During his summer of 1909 at Horta, Picasso made eight paintings and several drawings of his accompanying muse Fernande. In his search for a new artistic language that would supersede the reality by the emotion, he bored the 28 year old model.
Back in Paris and ever desiring to experiment techniques, he conceives a Cubist form of bust sculpture based on Fernande's features including her styled hair over the head. The clay is modeled so that the figure is going abstract from some angles of view.
Vollard acquires that clay in 1910 and creates a plaster from which he will have bronzes cast on request from customers up to his death in 1939 for an overall total of about 20 units. The foundry is rarely identified. The exhibition of that Tête de Femme by Vollard in his gallery certainly influenced the development of modern sculpture by Boccioni and Brancusi.
One of these 42 cm bronzes of the Tête de Femme (Fernande) is de-accessioned by the Met Museum which had another example gifted in 2021 by Leonard Lauder. It was sold for $ 48M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 16C.
Back in Paris and ever desiring to experiment techniques, he conceives a Cubist form of bust sculpture based on Fernande's features including her styled hair over the head. The clay is modeled so that the figure is going abstract from some angles of view.
Vollard acquires that clay in 1910 and creates a plaster from which he will have bronzes cast on request from customers up to his death in 1939 for an overall total of about 20 units. The foundry is rarely identified. The exhibition of that Tête de Femme by Vollard in his gallery certainly influenced the development of modern sculpture by Boccioni and Brancusi.
One of these 42 cm bronzes of the Tête de Femme (Fernande) is de-accessioned by the Met Museum which had another example gifted in 2021 by Leonard Lauder. It was sold for $ 48M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 16C.
masterpiece
1913 Forme uniche della continuita nello spazio by Boccioni
museu de arte contemporanea, Sao Paulo
Marinetti creates the Manifesto del Futurismo in 1909. His strategy is to shock, for stopping the weakening of Italian culture and for creating new literary forms adapted to the modern civilization of speed and violence. The past must be forgotten.
In the following year, a group of young artists publishes another manifesto to apply these new ideas to painting. Umberto Boccioni is the theoretician of the group. Perhaps he appreciates that the expression of movement through painting is too difficult for the public. The centipede dog created by Balla in 1912 is a bit ridiculous.
Without neglecting the Futurist painting, Boccioni is now interested in sculpture, which he had never practiced before. He publishes solo in April 1912 a Manifesto tecnico della scultura futurista. He is also inspired by the Cubist fragmentations by Picasso and Duchamp-Villon.
Boccioni makes in 1913 three studies in plaster in which the movement is illustrated by a muscular extension. He then creates a man on the move which is a synthesis of his theories. For marking how much his approach is an incentive for a new art, he titles this figure Forme uniche della continuita nello spazio.
The Forme uniche has remained the only important sculpture by Boccioni, the artist who went too fast, died trampled by a horse in 1916. It expresses an extreme human energy while abandoning realism, and opens the way to Giacometti, Moore and also to the successive transformations of Matisse's Nu de dos and the humanoid robots of the movies. It was chosen in 1998 to illustrate the Italian coin of 20 cents of euro.
The four seminal sculptures by Boccioni were not edited during his lifetime. The first three were destroyed in 1927. The Forme uniche survived. The image is shared by Wikimedia. Two bronzes were created in 1931. One of them brings a refinement, a pedestal under each foot, which still increases the extreme dynamism of the figure. This configuration was cast in ten units in 1972.
A 117 cm high bronze with a gold patina from the 1972 edition was sold for $ 16.2M by Christie's on November 11, 2019, lot 18 A. Despite its importance in the history of modern sculpture, this figure is extremely rare on the art market : no example had been offered at auction since 1975. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In the following year, a group of young artists publishes another manifesto to apply these new ideas to painting. Umberto Boccioni is the theoretician of the group. Perhaps he appreciates that the expression of movement through painting is too difficult for the public. The centipede dog created by Balla in 1912 is a bit ridiculous.
Without neglecting the Futurist painting, Boccioni is now interested in sculpture, which he had never practiced before. He publishes solo in April 1912 a Manifesto tecnico della scultura futurista. He is also inspired by the Cubist fragmentations by Picasso and Duchamp-Villon.
Boccioni makes in 1913 three studies in plaster in which the movement is illustrated by a muscular extension. He then creates a man on the move which is a synthesis of his theories. For marking how much his approach is an incentive for a new art, he titles this figure Forme uniche della continuita nello spazio.
The Forme uniche has remained the only important sculpture by Boccioni, the artist who went too fast, died trampled by a horse in 1916. It expresses an extreme human energy while abandoning realism, and opens the way to Giacometti, Moore and also to the successive transformations of Matisse's Nu de dos and the humanoid robots of the movies. It was chosen in 1998 to illustrate the Italian coin of 20 cents of euro.
The four seminal sculptures by Boccioni were not edited during his lifetime. The first three were destroyed in 1927. The Forme uniche survived. The image is shared by Wikimedia. Two bronzes were created in 1931. One of them brings a refinement, a pedestal under each foot, which still increases the extreme dynamism of the figure. This configuration was cast in ten units in 1972.
A 117 cm high bronze with a gold patina from the 1972 edition was sold for $ 16.2M by Christie's on November 11, 2019, lot 18 A. Despite its importance in the history of modern sculpture, this figure is extremely rare on the art market : no example had been offered at auction since 1975. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans by DEGAS (posthumous)
Intro
An original artist with an uneasy temper, Edgar Degas was one of the most innovative graphic artists of the nineteenth century. He knew that he was close to the Impressionists and appreciated their rejection of classicism. His own creative process was very complex, as shown in the example below.
In 1879, Marie draws the attention of the artist. Aged 14, this "petit rat d'Opéra" is an ungrateful teenager, far from physiological maturity, with awkward gestures, but already attracted to her future career as a dancer (which ended before it was to start when she was fired from the dance school for repeated absences).
Degas was a painter, draftsman, sculptor, photographer, printer, but his great art was oil and pastel. He used drawing and sculpture like sketches.
On his first sculpture of Marie, 74 cm high, the girl is naked. This makes sense since the artist wants to study the movements of her body. This is not enough for him. He realized another larger statue in painted wax, a little over 1 m, in the same position, with the unconventional idea to equip it with a dancing dress in cloth and real hair. By its realism that does not reject some ugliness, this portrait of an adolescent girl is indeed a key work of modern sculpture.
As in his many pastels of ballerinas, Degas captures a moment of life which is neither from the performance nor relaxed, which may be a reverie or an exhaustion.
After much hesitation, he shows his Petite danseuse de quatorze ans at the Impressionist exhibition of 1881. After this unique event and until his death in 1917, no sculpture of the master will be exhibited.
Degas had considered that his waxes were too fragile for preparing bronze casts. In 1918 his heirs contracted Adrien Hébrard to produce limited bronze editions of all seventy-four wax sculptures found during the posthumous inventory.
Hébrard worked often on request from collectors. The first complete set of bronzes was finished in 1921. This activity made the founder busy up to 1938 including a total 29 casts of the Petite Danseuse.
Petite danseuse de quatorze ans was edited by Hébrard in bronze with muslin skirt and satin hair ribbon.
In 1879, Marie draws the attention of the artist. Aged 14, this "petit rat d'Opéra" is an ungrateful teenager, far from physiological maturity, with awkward gestures, but already attracted to her future career as a dancer (which ended before it was to start when she was fired from the dance school for repeated absences).
Degas was a painter, draftsman, sculptor, photographer, printer, but his great art was oil and pastel. He used drawing and sculpture like sketches.
On his first sculpture of Marie, 74 cm high, the girl is naked. This makes sense since the artist wants to study the movements of her body. This is not enough for him. He realized another larger statue in painted wax, a little over 1 m, in the same position, with the unconventional idea to equip it with a dancing dress in cloth and real hair. By its realism that does not reject some ugliness, this portrait of an adolescent girl is indeed a key work of modern sculpture.
As in his many pastels of ballerinas, Degas captures a moment of life which is neither from the performance nor relaxed, which may be a reverie or an exhaustion.
After much hesitation, he shows his Petite danseuse de quatorze ans at the Impressionist exhibition of 1881. After this unique event and until his death in 1917, no sculpture of the master will be exhibited.
Degas had considered that his waxes were too fragile for preparing bronze casts. In 1918 his heirs contracted Adrien Hébrard to produce limited bronze editions of all seventy-four wax sculptures found during the posthumous inventory.
Hébrard worked often on request from collectors. The first complete set of bronzes was finished in 1921. This activity made the founder busy up to 1938 including a total 29 casts of the Petite Danseuse.
Petite danseuse de quatorze ans was edited by Hébrard in bronze with muslin skirt and satin hair ribbon.
1
1927
2022 SOLD for $ 42M by Christie's
A bronze 103 cm high not including the wooden base was sold for $ 42M from a lower estimate of $ 20M for sale by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 2C.
This copy with brown patina was cast in 1927 by Hébrard in commission from a US collector. It is fitted with the usual muslin skirt and satin hair ribbon of that model.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 13, 2022
#AuctionUpdate From the Anne H. Bass Collection, Edgar Degas’s ‘Petite danseuse de quatorze ans’ broke the auction record of the artist tonight; price realized $41.6 million
This copy with brown patina was cast in 1927 by Hébrard in commission from a US collector. It is fitted with the usual muslin skirt and satin hair ribbon of that model.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 13, 2022
#AuctionUpdate From the Anne H. Bass Collection, Edgar Degas’s ‘Petite danseuse de quatorze ans’ broke the auction record of the artist tonight; price realized $41.6 million
- Edgar Degas's "Petite danseuse de quatorze ans," a bronze sculpture from 1878-1881 depicting a young ballerina in real clothing, shattered the artist's auction record at $41.6 million during Christie's May 2022 sale from the Anne H. Bass Collection, exceeding its $20-30 million estimate.
- The original wax version, exhibited in 1881, sparked controversy for its unflinching realism, portraying 14-year-old Marie van Goethem with a tulle skirt, linen bodice, and hair ribbon, challenging 19th-century ideals of beauty.
- This cast, one of 28 bronzes produced posthumously from Degas's waxes, highlights the sculpture's enduring appeal, with prior sales like a 2015 Sotheby's example at $30.8 million underscoring rising demand for Impressionist works.
#AuctionUpdate From the Anne H. Bass Collection, Edgar Degas’s ‘Petite danseuse de quatorze ans’ broke the auction record of the artist tonight; price realized $41.6 million pic.twitter.com/Dn4JLCbWTB
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 12, 2022
2
1921-1938
2015 SOLD for £ 15.8M by Sotheby's
A copy with a provenance history beginning in the 1930s was sold for £ 13.3M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2009, lot 8.
Another example with no reference on the possible date was sold by Sotheby's for £ 15.8M on June 24, 2015, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house..
Another example with no reference on the possible date was sold by Sotheby's for £ 15.8M on June 24, 2015, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house..
1953 Le Roi jouant avec la Reine by Ernst
2022 SOLD for $ 24.4M by Christie's
A Dadaist and a Surrealist, Max Ernst enjoyed fancy. He maintained from 1929 as an alter ego the character Loplop, Father Superior of the Birds, used by him to introduce other features including itself. He began to sculpt in 1934 with his then fellow surrealist Giacometti.
Ernst played chess with Marcel Duchamp who was an acknowledged expert of the game. He realized in 1944 during his summer holidays a full chess set including the board and the 32 pieces. He played also with his partner and future wife Dorothea Tanning.
Conceived in 1944 during the same holidays, Le Roi jouant avec la Reine is a fanciful feature of the two main characters of the game. The mid length king inspired from Kachina figures is dominating, with his horned head, straight torso and both hands strongly posed on the base. His attitude reminds a player studying the game. The queen in reduced scale is protected under the right embrace and six pieces complete the scenery.
Ernst presented the plaster to fellow artist Robert Motherwell. Motherwell managed to keep safe the fragile 100 cm high plaster until 1953 when Jean and Dominique de Menil made it cast in bronze by the Modern Art Foundry.
The production of nine bronzes spanned from 1953 to 1961. An undated and not numbered example with brown patina was sold for $ 24.4M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 40.
Only 4 copies have been numbered. The number 1, also not dated, was sold for $ 16M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2017, lot 4. It had belonged to the De Menils until ca 1973.
The heirs of the artist authorized in 2001 a final example which is kept at the Centre Pompidou.
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 10, 2022
#AuctionRecord From the Paul G. Allen Collection, ‘Le roi jouant avec la reine’ by Max Ernst set an auction record for the artist with a price realized of $24.345 million
Bronze casts were produced starting in 1953 to preserve the fragile plaster, primarily at the Modern Art Foundry in New York, with involvement from patrons like Jean and Dominique de Menil. According to sources, the lifetime edition consists of 6 numbered casts plus 1 artist's proof (AP), cast between 1953 and 1961. Dimensions vary slightly across casts (typically 96–100.5 cm in height), likely due to casting processes or measurements. An additional posthumous cast was authorized in 2001 (after Ernst's death in 1976).
The bronzes reflect Ernst's surrealist interest in chess (a recurring motif, influenced by Duchamp) and hybrid forms, with the king as a dominant, horned figure over chess pieces. Casts have appeared in major exhibitions (e.g., "Max Ernst: Sculptures, maisons, paysages," Centre Pompidou, 1998) and literature (e.g., John Russell, Max Ernst: Life and Work, 1967). Auction activity is limited to private casts (3 known sales: 1992, 2017, 2022; plus the 2025 upcoming), with values rising significantly. Institutional casts are not for sale. If additional casts exist (e.g., the presumed AP), they remain untraced in public records.
Ernst played chess with Marcel Duchamp who was an acknowledged expert of the game. He realized in 1944 during his summer holidays a full chess set including the board and the 32 pieces. He played also with his partner and future wife Dorothea Tanning.
Conceived in 1944 during the same holidays, Le Roi jouant avec la Reine is a fanciful feature of the two main characters of the game. The mid length king inspired from Kachina figures is dominating, with his horned head, straight torso and both hands strongly posed on the base. His attitude reminds a player studying the game. The queen in reduced scale is protected under the right embrace and six pieces complete the scenery.
Ernst presented the plaster to fellow artist Robert Motherwell. Motherwell managed to keep safe the fragile 100 cm high plaster until 1953 when Jean and Dominique de Menil made it cast in bronze by the Modern Art Foundry.
The production of nine bronzes spanned from 1953 to 1961. An undated and not numbered example with brown patina was sold for $ 24.4M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 40.
Only 4 copies have been numbered. The number 1, also not dated, was sold for $ 16M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2017, lot 4. It had belonged to the De Menils until ca 1973.
The heirs of the artist authorized in 2001 a final example which is kept at the Centre Pompidou.
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 10, 2022
#AuctionRecord From the Paul G. Allen Collection, ‘Le roi jouant avec la reine’ by Max Ernst set an auction record for the artist with a price realized of $24.345 million
- The sculpture "Le roi jouant avec la reine" by Max Ernst, sold for $24.345 million, reflects Surrealist themes of subconscious exploration, with its abstract form inspired by chess pieces symbolizing power dynamics, a concept Ernst developed during his wartime exile in the U.S. in 1944.
- This auction record, set on November 9, 2022, from the Paul G. Allen Collection, highlights a rare instance where a Surrealist sculpture outperformed traditional paintings, challenging the art market's historical bias toward two-dimensional works, as evidenced by Christie's $1 billion sale total that evening.
- Research from the Journal of Cultural Economics (2023) suggests that such high-value sales of unconventional art forms may signal a shift in collector preferences toward objects with tangible, interactive qualities, potentially driven by a post-pandemic demand for physical experiences over virtual ones.
Bronze casts were produced starting in 1953 to preserve the fragile plaster, primarily at the Modern Art Foundry in New York, with involvement from patrons like Jean and Dominique de Menil. According to sources, the lifetime edition consists of 6 numbered casts plus 1 artist's proof (AP), cast between 1953 and 1961. Dimensions vary slightly across casts (typically 96–100.5 cm in height), likely due to casting processes or measurements. An additional posthumous cast was authorized in 2001 (after Ernst's death in 1976).
The bronzes reflect Ernst's surrealist interest in chess (a recurring motif, influenced by Duchamp) and hybrid forms, with the king as a dominant, horned figure over chess pieces. Casts have appeared in major exhibitions (e.g., "Max Ernst: Sculptures, maisons, paysages," Centre Pompidou, 1998) and literature (e.g., John Russell, Max Ernst: Life and Work, 1967). Auction activity is limited to private casts (3 known sales: 1992, 2017, 2022; plus the 2025 upcoming), with values rising significantly. Institutional casts are not for sale. If additional casts exist (e.g., the presumed AP), they remain untraced in public records.
Le Roi jouant avec la reine is a sculpture by Max Ernst. Significance in the career of this artist who was mostly known as a painter.
"Le Roi jouant avec la reine" (The King Playing with the Queen) is a surrealist bronze sculpture created by Max Ernst in 1944, during his exile in the United States amid World War II. The work depicts a towering, horned king figure looming over a chessboard, engaged in a game with a smaller conical queen and accompanying pieces, blending anthropomorphic forms with abstract geometry in Ernst's signature dreamlike style.
Though Ernst was predominantly recognized as a pioneering painter in the Dada and Surrealist movements—known for innovative techniques like frottage, grattage, and collage that explored the unconscious and irrational—this sculpture represents a pivotal expansion into three-dimensional work. It builds on his earlier experiments with sculpture, which began in the 1930s with plaster models of mythical creatures, but marks a mature phase where he translated his surreal visions into tangible, interactive forms. Created in a highly productive year despite the global turmoil, the piece was first exhibited in plaster at the landmark "The Imagery of Chess" show at Julien Levy Gallery in New York, which helped elevate Surrealism's presence in America and showcased Ernst's versatility beyond canvas.
Thematically, the sculpture delves into chess as a metaphor for strategy, power dynamics, and conflict—echoing the wartime context of displacement and uncertainty that Ernst experienced after fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe. Chess had long fascinated him; he designed custom chess sets as early as 1929 and viewed the game through literary and magical lenses, symbolizing both intellectual battles and personal relationships. Some interpretations link the king and queen figures to Ernst himself and his partner Dorothea Tanning, whom he met in 1942 and married in 1946, suggesting undertones of intimacy and domestic interplay amid broader chaos.
In Ernst's career, "Le Roi jouant avec la reine" underscores his refusal to be confined to one medium, reinforcing his status as a multifaceted innovator who bridged painting, sculpture, and even graphic design. It remains one of his most celebrated sculptural achievements, with editions fetching record prices at auction—such as over $24 million in 2022—highlighting its enduring impact on modern art.
Compare this figure with LopLop.
The central figure in Max Ernst's sculpture "Le Roi jouant avec la reine" (The King Playing with the Queen, 1944) is a towering, horned king— a hybrid, anthropomorphic form that blends human and beastly elements, evoking a minotaur-like or mythical guardian. This regal yet surreal entity looms over a chessboard, its elongated arms and abstract geometry suggesting both intellectual dominance and subconscious whimsy, rooted in Ernst's wartime exile and fascination with games as metaphors for power and strategy.
In contrast, LopLop is Ernst's recurring avian alter ego, a bird-human hybrid that first emerged in his Dada and early Surrealist works around 1929, often depicted as a beaked figure with a humanoid body or as a disembodied bird head presenting scenes from the unconscious.
LopLop, whom Ernst described as the "Bird Superior," symbolizes his Freudian self, acting as a guide to dream logic, omens, and the supernatural—tied to personal traumas like the death of his pet bird coinciding with his sister's birth, which fused birds with themes of mortality and transformation in his art. While both figures embody Ernst's exploration of hybrid identities and the irrational, they differ in form and context: the king is grounded in a sculptural, three-dimensional presence with horns and a chess-centric narrative implying control and conflict, whereas LopLop is more ethereal and two-dimensional (primarily in collages and paintings), emphasizing flight, presentation, and psychic automatism. Thematically, they overlap as extensions of Ernst's persona—the king possibly echoing LopLop's authoritative role in "presenting" surreal worlds, with some interpretations seeing bird-like undertones in the sculpture's elongated features amid Ernst's broader avian obsessions. Created later in Ernst's career during his American period, the king sculpture marks an evolution from LopLop's earlier, more introspective appearances, shifting from personal mythology to broader commentaries on power dynamics, yet both underscore his refusal to separate self from surreal invention.
"Le Roi jouant avec la reine" (The King Playing with the Queen) is a surrealist bronze sculpture created by Max Ernst in 1944, during his exile in the United States amid World War II. The work depicts a towering, horned king figure looming over a chessboard, engaged in a game with a smaller conical queen and accompanying pieces, blending anthropomorphic forms with abstract geometry in Ernst's signature dreamlike style.
Though Ernst was predominantly recognized as a pioneering painter in the Dada and Surrealist movements—known for innovative techniques like frottage, grattage, and collage that explored the unconscious and irrational—this sculpture represents a pivotal expansion into three-dimensional work. It builds on his earlier experiments with sculpture, which began in the 1930s with plaster models of mythical creatures, but marks a mature phase where he translated his surreal visions into tangible, interactive forms. Created in a highly productive year despite the global turmoil, the piece was first exhibited in plaster at the landmark "The Imagery of Chess" show at Julien Levy Gallery in New York, which helped elevate Surrealism's presence in America and showcased Ernst's versatility beyond canvas.
Thematically, the sculpture delves into chess as a metaphor for strategy, power dynamics, and conflict—echoing the wartime context of displacement and uncertainty that Ernst experienced after fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe. Chess had long fascinated him; he designed custom chess sets as early as 1929 and viewed the game through literary and magical lenses, symbolizing both intellectual battles and personal relationships. Some interpretations link the king and queen figures to Ernst himself and his partner Dorothea Tanning, whom he met in 1942 and married in 1946, suggesting undertones of intimacy and domestic interplay amid broader chaos.
In Ernst's career, "Le Roi jouant avec la reine" underscores his refusal to be confined to one medium, reinforcing his status as a multifaceted innovator who bridged painting, sculpture, and even graphic design. It remains one of his most celebrated sculptural achievements, with editions fetching record prices at auction—such as over $24 million in 2022—highlighting its enduring impact on modern art.
Compare this figure with LopLop.
The central figure in Max Ernst's sculpture "Le Roi jouant avec la reine" (The King Playing with the Queen, 1944) is a towering, horned king— a hybrid, anthropomorphic form that blends human and beastly elements, evoking a minotaur-like or mythical guardian. This regal yet surreal entity looms over a chessboard, its elongated arms and abstract geometry suggesting both intellectual dominance and subconscious whimsy, rooted in Ernst's wartime exile and fascination with games as metaphors for power and strategy.
In contrast, LopLop is Ernst's recurring avian alter ego, a bird-human hybrid that first emerged in his Dada and early Surrealist works around 1929, often depicted as a beaked figure with a humanoid body or as a disembodied bird head presenting scenes from the unconscious.
LopLop, whom Ernst described as the "Bird Superior," symbolizes his Freudian self, acting as a guide to dream logic, omens, and the supernatural—tied to personal traumas like the death of his pet bird coinciding with his sister's birth, which fused birds with themes of mortality and transformation in his art. While both figures embody Ernst's exploration of hybrid identities and the irrational, they differ in form and context: the king is grounded in a sculptural, three-dimensional presence with horns and a chess-centric narrative implying control and conflict, whereas LopLop is more ethereal and two-dimensional (primarily in collages and paintings), emphasizing flight, presentation, and psychic automatism. Thematically, they overlap as extensions of Ernst's persona—the king possibly echoing LopLop's authoritative role in "presenting" surreal worlds, with some interpretations seeing bird-like undertones in the sculpture's elongated features amid Ernst's broader avian obsessions. Created later in Ernst's career during his American period, the king sculpture marks an evolution from LopLop's earlier, more introspective appearances, shifting from personal mythology to broader commentaries on power dynamics, yet both underscore his refusal to separate self from surreal invention.
1959 Tête Sculptée de Dora Maar by Picasso
2007 SOLD for $ 29M by Sotheby's
At the beginning of 1941 Picasso relocates his series of busts of Marie-Thérèse, made ten years earlier at Boisgeloup, to his studio on rue des Grands Augustins. In the same year, he makes a plaster head of Dora Maar, 80 cm high. This domineering work, larger than life, is in an idealized style which is in total opposition to the dramatic or allegorical portraits of Dora that he was painting at the same period.
This plaster is edited in bronze in two copies by Susse in 1958 plus two copies by Valsuani at an undocumented date.
Picasso owed a debt of honor to Guillaume Apollinaire, who died in 1918. He had received a commission for the funeral monument of his friend in the Père Lachaise graveyard, but none of his projects had been accepted. In the mid-1950s he offered to provide the statue of Dora as a symbol of the ideal woman for a monument to Apollinaire in the square of the church of Saint-Germain des Prés.
One of the Valsuani bronzes was installed in the square in 1959. The other was kept by the artist, which suggests that the cast by Valsuani was made especially for the Apollinaire project.
The copy which had been kept by Picasso was sold for $ 29M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007 from a lower estimate of $ 20M, lot 22.
This plaster is edited in bronze in two copies by Susse in 1958 plus two copies by Valsuani at an undocumented date.
Picasso owed a debt of honor to Guillaume Apollinaire, who died in 1918. He had received a commission for the funeral monument of his friend in the Père Lachaise graveyard, but none of his projects had been accepted. In the mid-1950s he offered to provide the statue of Dora as a symbol of the ideal woman for a monument to Apollinaire in the square of the church of Saint-Germain des Prés.
One of the Valsuani bronzes was installed in the square in 1959. The other was kept by the artist, which suggests that the cast by Valsuani was made especially for the Apollinaire project.
The copy which had been kept by Picasso was sold for $ 29M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007 from a lower estimate of $ 20M, lot 22.
1962 Projet pour Apollinaire by Picasso
2021 SOLD for $ 26.3M by Sotheby's
The poet Guillaume Apollinaire had been a keen supporter of all the Parisian avant-gardes. In the early 1910s he had defined Cubisme as an art that would escape the reality of vision. Picasso maintained a lifelong obligation for his friend.
Picasso contemplated the idea of an Apotheosis fo Apollinaire in the lifetime of the poet. Both were born in the same year, 1881. After the untimely death of Apollinaire in 1918, a memorial committee created by André Billy desired a monument for the grave of their friend in the Cimetière du Père Lachaise. Picasso was the natural candidate for the project with a scheduled date of 1928 for its inauguration.
At that time Picasso was a mad lover of Marie-Thérèse. A first proposal loaded with eroticism was unanimously rejected by the committee. Picasso then tried his hand to a completely unprecedented sculptural style. Supported by his friend the welder artist Julio Gonzalez, he defined a weightless volume composed of and delimited by steel wire and topped by a tiny head. It was also rejected.
The tribute to Apollinaire remained in the mind of Picasso. In 1959 he donated a Tête de Dora as a monument to Apollinaire in the square of the church of Saint-Germain des Prés. An artist's proof of this bronze was sold for $ 29M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007, lot 22.
That tribute was not sufficient for Picasso. In 1962 he reused and enlarged the design prepared three decades earlier with Gonzalez. Gonzalez had died in 1942. Now supported by the blacksmith Joseph-Marius Tiola, he executed for his own collection a unique Figure in welded steel 120 cm high. This sculpture was sold for $ 26.3M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 7.
Picasso contemplated the idea of an Apotheosis fo Apollinaire in the lifetime of the poet. Both were born in the same year, 1881. After the untimely death of Apollinaire in 1918, a memorial committee created by André Billy desired a monument for the grave of their friend in the Cimetière du Père Lachaise. Picasso was the natural candidate for the project with a scheduled date of 1928 for its inauguration.
At that time Picasso was a mad lover of Marie-Thérèse. A first proposal loaded with eroticism was unanimously rejected by the committee. Picasso then tried his hand to a completely unprecedented sculptural style. Supported by his friend the welder artist Julio Gonzalez, he defined a weightless volume composed of and delimited by steel wire and topped by a tiny head. It was also rejected.
The tribute to Apollinaire remained in the mind of Picasso. In 1959 he donated a Tête de Dora as a monument to Apollinaire in the square of the church of Saint-Germain des Prés. An artist's proof of this bronze was sold for $ 29M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007, lot 22.
That tribute was not sufficient for Picasso. In 1962 he reused and enlarged the design prepared three decades earlier with Gonzalez. Gonzalez had died in 1942. Now supported by the blacksmith Joseph-Marius Tiola, he executed for his own collection a unique Figure in welded steel 120 cm high. This sculpture was sold for $ 26.3M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 7.
1972 Clamdigger by de Kooning
2014 SOLD for $ 29.3M by Christie's
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.
Again like Giacometti, de Kooning's world is dominated by the figures of a man and a woman. Giacometti had the Homme qui marche and the Femme debout. De Kooning had the Clamdigger and the Seated Woman. De Kooning's expression of the relation between body and movement was lauded by Henry Moore.
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, 2014, Christie's sold for $ 29.3M the artist's proof that de Kooning had installed at the entrance to his studio, lot 21. The statue had remained up to that sale with his descendants. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Made from a clay model and cast in 1974, two years after Clamdigger, the Large Torso taking the form of a sculpture from the Renaissance is an exception in the art of de Kooning. Nevertheless the details are abstract. For this artwork, the artist used gloves for a bolder 'action' gesture. Its size is 86 x 82 x 64 cm.The bronze 6/7 cast by the Modern Art Foundry New York was sold for $ 5.7M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2009, lot 14.
In 1980 de Kooning selected three of his 1969 sculptures for a bronze edition in monumental size. The Seated Woman 290 x 370 x 240 cm was made in seven units plus two artist's proofs. The 1/7 was sold for $ 8.2M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 27C.
Clamdigger by de Kooning. Why did the artist shift from painting to sculpture ?
Willem de Kooning's "Clamdigger" (1972) is a bronze sculpture depicting a standing, primordial male figure with exaggerated extremities—such as oversized hands, feet, and genitalia—contrasted against slender arms and legs, and a small head that appears to sink into the body. The work evokes existential tension, drawing from modernist traditions like those of Auguste Rodin and Alberto Giacometti, while its dark, textured surface invites viewers to physically circle and explore its shifting forms. The title draws from de Kooning's observations of clam diggers working in the bright sunlight near his home in Springs, Long Island, reflecting the influence of his rural surroundings on his art during that period.
De Kooning's transition from painting to sculpture was largely accidental but represented a natural extension of his longstanding artistic concerns with the figure, space, and dynamic forms. In the summer of 1969, at age 65, he visited Rome and encountered an old friend, sculptor Herzl Emanuel, at a bronze foundry in Trastevere, who invited him to experiment with modeling clay. De Kooning was immediately drawn to the medium's slipperiness and malleability, which allowed for endless reworking and remolding—qualities he contrasted favorably with oil painting, where a canvas couldn't be fully reset after the first stroke. He reportedly said clay was "even better than oil" because "you can work and work on a painting but you can’t start over again with the canvas like it was before you put that first stroke down." During this trip, he created small clay figures, selecting 13 to be cast in bronze.
Back in New York, he was initially unenthusiastic about the results, but encouragement from British sculptor Henry Moore to enlarge them to monumental scale spurred him to continue, leading to larger works like "Clamdigger." This shift was also influenced by his exposure to the exuberant physicality of Baroque sculptures in Rome and his earlier move to Springs in the early 1960s, where the reflective waters and everyday activities around Long Island Sound inspired new explorations in three dimensions. Ultimately, sculpture allowed de Kooning to recapture the urgency and inventiveness of early Abstract Expressionism through physical engagement, sustaining his creative output into the 1970s despite his primary identity as a painter.
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.
Again like Giacometti, de Kooning's world is dominated by the figures of a man and a woman. Giacometti had the Homme qui marche and the Femme debout. De Kooning had the Clamdigger and the Seated Woman. De Kooning's expression of the relation between body and movement was lauded by Henry Moore.
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, 2014, Christie's sold for $ 29.3M the artist's proof that de Kooning had installed at the entrance to his studio, lot 21. The statue had remained up to that sale with his descendants. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Made from a clay model and cast in 1974, two years after Clamdigger, the Large Torso taking the form of a sculpture from the Renaissance is an exception in the art of de Kooning. Nevertheless the details are abstract. For this artwork, the artist used gloves for a bolder 'action' gesture. Its size is 86 x 82 x 64 cm.The bronze 6/7 cast by the Modern Art Foundry New York was sold for $ 5.7M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2009, lot 14.
In 1980 de Kooning selected three of his 1969 sculptures for a bronze edition in monumental size. The Seated Woman 290 x 370 x 240 cm was made in seven units plus two artist's proofs. The 1/7 was sold for $ 8.2M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 27C.
Clamdigger by de Kooning. Why did the artist shift from painting to sculpture ?
Willem de Kooning's "Clamdigger" (1972) is a bronze sculpture depicting a standing, primordial male figure with exaggerated extremities—such as oversized hands, feet, and genitalia—contrasted against slender arms and legs, and a small head that appears to sink into the body. The work evokes existential tension, drawing from modernist traditions like those of Auguste Rodin and Alberto Giacometti, while its dark, textured surface invites viewers to physically circle and explore its shifting forms. The title draws from de Kooning's observations of clam diggers working in the bright sunlight near his home in Springs, Long Island, reflecting the influence of his rural surroundings on his art during that period.
De Kooning's transition from painting to sculpture was largely accidental but represented a natural extension of his longstanding artistic concerns with the figure, space, and dynamic forms. In the summer of 1969, at age 65, he visited Rome and encountered an old friend, sculptor Herzl Emanuel, at a bronze foundry in Trastevere, who invited him to experiment with modeling clay. De Kooning was immediately drawn to the medium's slipperiness and malleability, which allowed for endless reworking and remolding—qualities he contrasted favorably with oil painting, where a canvas couldn't be fully reset after the first stroke. He reportedly said clay was "even better than oil" because "you can work and work on a painting but you can’t start over again with the canvas like it was before you put that first stroke down." During this trip, he created small clay figures, selecting 13 to be cast in bronze.
Back in New York, he was initially unenthusiastic about the results, but encouragement from British sculptor Henry Moore to enlarge them to monumental scale spurred him to continue, leading to larger works like "Clamdigger." This shift was also influenced by his exposure to the exuberant physicality of Baroque sculptures in Rome and his earlier move to Springs in the early 1960s, where the reflective waters and everyday activities around Long Island Sound inspired new explorations in three dimensions. Ultimately, sculpture allowed de Kooning to recapture the urgency and inventiveness of early Abstract Expressionism through physical engagement, sustaining his creative output into the 1970s despite his primary identity as a painter.
1978 Back by Matisse (posthumous)
2010 SOLD for $ 49M by Christie's
In 1906, Matisse designs an original theme of sculpture: a nude woman standing, life size, seen from behind, leaning against a wall. The subject fascinated him to such a degree that he created three further versions, in 1913, 1916 and 1930. Psychoanalysts could probably tell us the reason of that backside position.
These four naked Backs are changing from realism to stylization, from flexibility to a balance of the masses. The last state is broad and symmetrical, the body barred from head to buttocks by a vertical braid that resembles the tail of a heavy horse.
Twelve bronzes were published from each of the four plasters between 1948 and 1981. On November 3, 2010, Christie's sold for $ 49M from a lower estimate of $ 25M a bronze of the Back IV, 189 cm high with a brown patina, cast in 1978.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
These four naked Backs are changing from realism to stylization, from flexibility to a balance of the masses. The last state is broad and symmetrical, the body barred from head to buttocks by a vertical braid that resembles the tail of a heavy horse.
Twelve bronzes were published from each of the four plasters between 1948 and 1981. On November 3, 2010, Christie's sold for $ 49M from a lower estimate of $ 25M a bronze of the Back IV, 189 cm high with a brown patina, cast in 1978.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
- This 2010 tweet by@ArtHitParade announced the $48.8 million sale of Henri Matisse's "Nu de dos, 4 état (Back IV)" at Christie's, a life-size bronze relief that shattered the artist's prior auction record.
- The sculpture, the fourth and most abstracted in Matisse's decades-long Back series started in 1909, features a simplified female nude emphasizing geometric harmony and was cast in 1978 from a 1930 plaster.
- Exceeding its $25-35 million estimate amid a bidding war, the sale to Gagosian Gallery highlighted surging demand for Matisse's sculptures, a record unbroken until a 2018 painting sale.
