Lot 45, "Baigneuse assisse," by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, oil on canvas, 18 1/4 by 15 1/8 inches, 1890

Lot 45 is a lovely and lush small oil on canvas of a seated female bather by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1918).  It measures 18 1/4 by 15 1/8 inches and was painted in 1890.  It has been widely published.  It has a modest estimate of $1.200,000 to $1,800,000.  It sold for $2,532,500.

Lot 10, "La Rue Saint-Lazare, temps luminere," by Camille Pissarro, oil on canvas, 28 7/8 by 23 3/8 inches, 1893

Lot 10, "La Rue Saint-Lazare," by Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), is a 28 3/4-by-23 5/8-inch oil and canvas that was painted in 1893. It is a very fine example of the Parisian scenes for which the artist was famous.

A 2001 Sotheby's catalogue provided the following commentary on this lot:

"During the last decade of the 19th Century, Pissarro painted more city spaces than any other Impressionist, and as such made the most sustained contribution to urban view painting by any great artist since the death of Canaletto in 1768....In its complexity and richness, Rue Saint-Lazare leads us to rethink traditional art-historical categories. It is neither an Impressionist nor a Neo-Impressionist (i.e., Pointillist) painting. It articulates a new artistic language that points unequivocally toward the twentieth century. In its technique and its ideas, it is at once a consummate Post-Impressionist painting and an emblem of the forces driving the rise of modern art during the complex decade of the 1890s....it embraces some of the most advanced characteristics of both Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism. However, at the same time the Rue Saint-Lazare stands at a critical distance from both movements and offers a fesh stylistic alternative that combines such opposed qualities as solidity and movement; rigor and freedom; ambiguity and clarity; and vivacious but carefully orchestrated ranges of rich color. Moreover, the apparent chaos of random activity in the streets of modern Paris is offset by the surrounding architecture and the implied geometry of the streets crisscrossing in the foreground."

The lot had an estimate at that auction $4,000,000 to $6,000,000 and sold for $6,605,750, an auction record then for the artist. At this auction, it has an estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000.  It sold for $12,350,000.

Lot 9, "Vue d'Auvers-sur-Oise; La barrière," by Paul Cézanne, oil on canvas, 18 by 14 7/8 inches, 1873

A remarkably lovely and rather atypical landscape by Paul Cézanne, Lot 16, "Vue d'Auvers-sur-Oise," was executed in 1873. An oil on canvas that measures 18 by 14 7/8, it was once in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ittleson Jr. At a November, 2004 auction at Christie's it had an estimate of $1,500,000 to $2,500,000 and sold for $1,855,500. According to the catalogue, the painting "is a vibrant example of the artist's Impressionist period when he was working with Pissarro...in the area around Pontoise....Working directly from nature beside his friend and mentor, Camille Pissarro..., Cézanne abandoned the dark tonalities and rough facture of his earlier canvases and adopted the light, varied palette and fleet, vibratory touch of Impressionism."  At this auction, it has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 and sold for $2,412,400.