By Carter B. Horsley
The morning sale of Impressionist and Modern Art Works on Paper at Christie's November 4, 2009 is highlighted by many fine works including watercolors by Nolde, Schmiddt-Rottluff, Joan Miro, and mixed-media works by Paul Klee, Edouard Vuilliard, Egon Schiele, Frantisek Kupka, Kurt Schwitters, Gino Severini, Robert Delaunay, and George Grosz.
Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) was famous for his Cubist views of the Eiffel Tower and this lovely, complex work includes the tower but is entitled "air, fer and eau, etude." A gouache on pencil on paper laid down on panel, it measures 19 5/8 by 33 5/8 inches and was executed in 1937. It has a modest estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $374,500.
George Grosz (1883-1959 is too often thought of a cartoonish satirist, but he was an intriguing artist of considerable mystery. Lot 121, "Der neue Mensch," is one of his watercolors and pen and India ink over pencil on paper that measures 20 by 13 ¾ inches that helped create the "mystery" reputation. It was executed in 1921. The catalogue notes that in 1920-1922 while he continued his satirical output that would be published in Ecce Homo, he also created "a remarkable series of pictures of an altogether different kind, which were more visionary than illustrative in their purpose," the catalogue remarked. "He temporarily set aside the expressionistic style, spiked with cubo-futurist elements and taking its provocatively insouciant attitude from Dadism, which he had developed since the end of the First World War, Instead he painted pictures that embody an alternative but no less radical and uncompromising brand of modernism, taking a form approach which reflects the mechanistic, purist and constructivist trends which were coming to the fore at that movement…..Grosz recasts the figure and its environment in an idealized and nearly abstract conception which is unique in his oeuvre, and to which he never returned to again. It is one measure of the rarity of these works that, until none has featured at international auction for a least a quarter century." The lot has an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $1,314,500.
A more conventional Grosz work is Lot 126, "Rpublikanischer Bahnhof" of 1919. The catalogue notes that "as a Communist and evolutionary sympathesizer Grosz was often on the run from the authorities; in1919 he and his publisher were tried and fined for criticizing the state." The lot has an estimate of $50,000 to $70,000. It sold for $314,500.
Lot 122, "Mittagsonne im Haft," is a very strong watercolor by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976). It measures 19 ¾ by 27 ¼ inches and was painted circa 1943. It has a very modest estimate of $30,000 to $40,000. It sold for $60,000.
Lot 123 is a very dramatic and unusual watercolor on Japan paper by Emil Nolde (1867-1956) who is best known for his luscious and bright floral watercolors. This is a somber and threatening storm scene of grays and yellows and a strong composition. It was painted in 1920. It has a modest estimate of $80,000 to $120,000. It sold for $84,100.
A good companion piece for the Nolde might be Lot 157, a somber work by Joan Miro of 1936. Entitled "Figures," it is a gouache and brush and India ink on paper that measures 16 ¼ by 12 3/4 inches. It has an estimate of $280,000 to $320,000.
The overcast climate of the Nolde and Miro carry over to Lot 120, a very fine gouache on paper laid down by the artist on board and entitled "Structural II." The 1924 work by Paul Klee (1879-1040) measures 10 1/8 by 8 ¼ inches and was once in the celebrated collection of Burton and Emily Tremaine of Meriden, Conn. The catalogue remarks on the artist's abstract renderings of curtains, gardens and castles in this work. It has an estimate of $320,000 to $380,000. It sold for 446,500.
Egon Schiele (1890-1918) began a series in 1911 of painting vagrant children from the slums of Vienna. This adolescent boy, Lot 164, is particularly affecting. It is a gouache and watercolor over pencil on paper that measures 18 1/8 by 12 ½ inches. It has an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000. It sold for $307,500.
The afternoon sale of Impressionist & Modern Art at Christie's is highlighted by a splendid Cubist oil and pencil on canvas by Albert Gleizes, (1881-1953), entitled "New York," Lot 280. Executed in 1916, it measures 36 1/4 by 28 5/8 inches and was formerly in the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. It has an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It failed to sell.
The afternoon sale also has two good works by Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), Joan Miro (1893-1983) and Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940).
Lot 268, "Piazza d'Italia," is a 15 7/8 by 19 ¾-inch oil on canvas by de Chirico that was once owned by Mr. and Mrs. Henry R. Luce of Ridgefield, Conn. It is one of over a hundred variants. It has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $314,500.
A much larger and considerably more interesting de Chirico is Lot 303, "L'amore del mondo," an oil on canvas that was painted in 1960 and measures 28 1/4 by 23 ¾ inches. It is a reworking of a painting of 1914-5 now at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York with the exception that in the later work the artist has inserted one of his troubadors behind the board that divides the composition asymmetrically. "L'amore del mondo" is one of the great paintings in a series of 'metaphysical works where importance is given to the reallocation of reality and whether the still life vocabulary is usually fantastic and based on intuition. The lot has an estimate of 450,000 to $700,000. It sold for $902,500.
Lot 297, "Tete et Oiseau," is a large bronze sculpture by Joan Miro that dates to 1983 and is number 2/6. It has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It failed to sell. The catalogue, which illustrates the lot on its cover, remarks that "In Tete et Oiseau, the juxtaposition of the coarse features of the bird with the smooth, grotesquely misshapen and strangely phallic head deliberately induces sensations of incongruity and shock….This diversity of form arises from the plastic suggestiveness of the found materials themselves, their uncanny conjunctions and the wonderful humanity of the idiosyncratic and deeply personal so distinctive of Miro's work. The poetry of the late sculptures owes much to the tension between the happenstance of the found objects and their perpetuation in cast bronze."
A smaller work, Lot 296, "Femmes, oiseau II," by Miro is a oil and pencil over paper collage on canvas that was executed in 1972 and measures 16 ¼ by 12 3/4 inches. The lot has an estimate of $180,000 to $220,000.
Lot 216 is a very muted but lovely urban scene entitled "La Bouquetiere," that measures 13 by 21 ¼ inches and is a 1900 peinture a la colle on canvas by Vuillard. It has a modest estimate of $50,000 to $70,000. It sold for $50,000.
A much larger and more haunting Vuillard is Lot 233 in which the son of daughter of Marguerite Caetani de Bassiano, a wealthy American expatriate, look at the viewer across a table in a lush garden. The artist was infatuated with the lady but was distraught when she returned the painting several months later saying that her new husband, the Prince of Bassiano, disliked it. It has an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000. It failed to sell.
Works by James Ensor (1869-1949) come to the market rarely and are usually embued with intense religiosity as if he has shown a flashlight into the dark recesses of a Boschian underworld. Lot 263 is a very nice scene of Calvary with considerable light and a very dynamic composition. An oil on canvas, it measures 23 3.8 by 29 2/8 inches. Executed in 1936, it has and estate $180,000 to $250,000. It failed to sell.
Lot 162 is an excellent gouache and watercolor over pencil by Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957). It measures 7 7/8 by 12 1/8 inches and was drawn in 1927-8. It has an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. It sold for $43,750.