By Carter B. Horsley

This day auction of Impressionist & Modern Art at Sotheby's November 3, 2005 is highlighted by several fine Fauve works, some fine drawings and a great terracotta bust by Auguste Rodin.

Lot 234, "Arbes Automne," is a very fine Fauve oil on canvas by Emile-Othon Friesz (1879-1949). It measures 32 by 25 5/8 inches and was executed in 1906. The back-cover illustration of the catalogue, it has a modest estimate of $350,000 to $450,000. It sold for $654,400 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article.

Auguste Herbin (1882-1960) is represented in this auction by three good and quite different works. The most spectacular is Lot 220, "Les Quais du Port de Bastia," an oil on canvas that measures 29 by 23 3/4 inches. Executed in 1907, it is a marvelous and very strong Fauve work. The catalogue notes that "The present painting is a dazzling mosaic of color, posing a sharp contrst to therelatively sober, restained scenes of Lille and Paris which Herbin executed in the few first few years of the century. Les quais du port de Bastia reveals the inspiration the artist found in the brilliant Southern light of Corsica."

The lot, which is the best in the auction, has a very conservative estimate of $250,000 to $300,000. It sold for $654,400.

Lot 338, "Composition" is a fine oil on canvas by Herbin that was executed in 1916 and measures 31 7/8 by 21 1/4 inches. During World War I, the artist was drafted into the auxiliary force of the French Army and decorated a military chapel and designed camouflage materials for the air force.

"During this difficult time," the catalogue noted, "he turned his attention to stilllife, using it as a basis for analyzing form and color. He introduced texture into his works by painting areas in thick paint and varying vrushstrokes, which was used to convey a relief-like quality to the surface of the canvas, and is particularly successful in the present paintng. Although Herbin's work was nearing abstraction, it remained based in reality through the war. In this painting, the geometric areas of color and texture are drawn together by the recognizable obects of the plant pot, the bunch of flowers and the pomegranate."

The lot has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $216,000.

Lot 258 is a good Cubist abstraction of a landscape by Auguste Herbin. An oil on canvas, it measures 31 7/8 by 39 3/8 inches and was painted in 1913. It has a modest estimate of $180,000 to $200,000. It sold for $93,000. The catalogue notes that "A few years after the present work was painted,Herbin was recognized as a pioneer of the synthetic form of Cubism which departed from the more fractured and highly analytical depiction of forms that characterized the movement's early years."

Lot 217 is a "Sketch for Blue Apple Tree Series" by Piet Mondrian (1872-1944). While Mondrian is most famous for his grid-like abstractions, his nature studies are very impressive. This oil on card laid down on canvas measures 12 1/2 by 15 inches and was executed circa 1908. It has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $318,400.

Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) was an American who became a German Expressionist painter and then developed his own style of lyrical abstraction. Lot 255, "The Philosophers," is a great pen and ink on paper that measures 9 1/2 by 12 3/8 inches. Dated in 1911, it is a wonderful example of his early expressionism that was tinged with humor and fantasy. It has a conservative estimate of $50,000 to $70,000. It sold for $138,000.

Lot 314 is a good oil on canvas by Man Ray (1890-1976) entitled "Leda and the Swan." It measures 30 1/8 by 40 1/8 inches and is dated 1941. The catalogue entry for the lot maintains that it is "one of the most remarkable paintings made by Man Ray during his eleven-year stay in Hollywood," adding that it appears in a portrait of Man Ray painted in 1941 by George Biddle. It has an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000. It sold for $475,000.

Lot 304 is a very strong street scene by Herman Max Pechstein (1881-1955) that has been consigned by the Los Angles County Museum of Art. An oil on canvas, it measures 34 7/8 by 24 3/4 inches. Dated 1922, it is also a double-sided work and the reverse is a painting of a sleeping child. The lot has a conservative estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $210,000.

Lot 228 is a very good, Cézannesque river scene by Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958). Entitled "La Seine à Chatou," it is an oil on canvas that measures 25 3/4 by 32 inches and was executed circa 1909-1910.

Vlaminck was one of the great Fauve painters and the catalogue entry for this lot notes that after viewing an exhibition in 1907 of Cézanne's work Vlaminck began to change his style. The entry includes the following very interesting quotation from Vlaminck:

"To work by pressing the tube directly on to a canvas soon leads to excessive cleverness; in the end you transpose mathematically...emerald green becomes black, pink a flamboyant red, etc. suddenly numbers stand out and success is deadend. The play of pure colors...the extreme orchestration into which I threw myself unrestraintedly no longer satisfied me. I could not stand not being able to hit harder, to have reached maximin insnenity, to be limited by the blue or red of a paint dealer."

The lot has a modest estimate of $350,000 to $450,000. It sold for $374,400.

Lot 202 is a very nice oil on canvas of two woman by a tree by Odilon Redon (1840-1916), the subject of a current exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. It measures 22 by 11 3/4 inches and was executed circa 1905. It has an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000. It failed to sell.

Lot 118 is a small but fine oil on board by Eugène Boudin (1824-1898), entitled "Trouville, Le Port," which was once in the collection of Cary Grant. It measures 13 7/8 by 10 1/4 inches and is dated 1885. It has an estimate of $80,000 to $120,000. It sold for $108,000.

One of the loveliest works in the auction is a red chalk drawing on paper by Edgar Degas, Lot 128, "Portrait de Femme." It measures 11 3/4 by 7 1/4 inches and was executed circa 1866. It is one of several works in the auction that has beenconsigned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It has an estimate of $70,000 to $90,000. It sold for $114,000.

Another work consigned by the same museum is Lot 129, "Clown Anglais," by Georges Roualt (1871-1958). An oil on canvas, it measures 25 3/4 by 17 inches and was painted in 1937. It was formerly in the collections of Stavros Niarchos and Mr. and Mrs. Edward G. Robinson. It has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $396,800.

Lot 142 is a beautiful terracotta bust, 16 inches high, of a young woman by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). It was executed circa 1875 and has a modest estimate of $120,000 to $180,000. It sold for $240,000.

The catalogue notes that around the time this work was executed artists such as Renoir and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux "looked back to the art of eighteenth century France, "finding in it a life and expression they felt was absent from academic art," adding that "Additionally, at the Petite Ecole in Paris the teaching of Lecoq de Boisbaudran favored the naturalism and vicacity of eighteenth-century art over the static idealism of ancient sculpture." The catalogue entry continued with the following commentary:

"Rodin followed Boisbaudran's training, and it is within the context of the eighteenth-century revival that his Portrait of a Young Woman is situated. The rapidity of the technique suggests qualities of photographic instaneity, where the subject's surprised movement is captured and suspended in time. By contrast, the few allegorial figures he modeled in terra cotta during the same period...obey the allegorical tradition and lack the singular expression and spirit that distingush our bust. In contrast to Rodin's many inmaginative busts from the same period, the sculpture is most likely a portrait, possibly of Mme. Rodin....Terracotta was a favorite material of eighteenth-century sculptors because it preserved the spontaneity and gesture of the artist better than any other medium. In contrast to the intervention of tools, assistants, and long fabrication involved in producing bronze or mables, terra cotta allowed immediacy of execution."

Lot 138, "Le Saule au Bord de L'Aven," is a good landscape by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). An oil on canvas, it measures 30 by 24 5/8 inches and is dated 1888. It has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $844,800.

Lot 145, "La Route d'Auvers, Pontoise," is a nice landscape by Camille Pissarro (1830-1903). An oil on canvas, it measures 15 1/8 by 18 1/8 inches and is dated 1879. It has a estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It sold for $464,000.

The cover illustration of the catalogue is Lot 330, "Suzanne au Bain," a large painting of a female nude by Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980). Painted around 1938, it is an oil on canvas that measures 35 3/8 by 23 5/8 inches. de Lempicka's works have escalated dramatically in auction values in recent years and this lot has an ambitious estimate of $700,000 to $900,000. While it is quite painterly, it does not have the elegant beauty of her best Art Deco-like works. It sold for $1,472,000.

Lot 261 is a nice watercolor and pencil on paper mounted on paper with yellow border by Paul Klee (1879-1940). It measures 6 3/4 by 7 7/8 inches and was executed in 1919. It has an estimate of $70,000 to $90,000. It sold for $132,000.

Lot 254 is a good floral watercolor on paper by Emil Nolde (1867-1956). Executed circa 1913, it measures 12 by 17 7/8 inches. It has an estimate of $120,000 to $180,000. It sold for $144,000.

Lot 315 is a very good gouache, ink and colored crayon on paper by Joan Miró (1893-1983). It measures 27 3/4 by 41 3/8 inches and was executed in 1973. It has an impressive frame and an estimate of $220,000 to $280,000. It sold for $262,400.

The sale total was $41,831,400 and about 75 percent of the offered lots were sold.