This day sale of Impressionist & Modern Art at Sotheby’s has some good paintings by Berthe Morisot, several excellent Post-Impressionist works and some nice Picassos.
The sale total for the auction was $21,902,525 with only 62.9 percent of the 268 offered lots selling.
Morisot (1841-1895) is a fine Impressionist painter and many of her best works are extremely sketchy such as Lot 327, “Petite Fille Dans Un Jardin,” an oil on canvas, 31 7/8 by 22 ¾ inches. According to Marie-Louise Bataille and Georges Wildenstein, the authors of “Berthe Morisot,” which was published in Paris in 1961, this 1884 painting, shown above, is a fragment of a larger work that was divided by the artist. The young girl’s face and hat and the back of the bench on which she is seated are the only recognizable elements in this composition in which the young girl is placed at the extreme left and most of the frenzied and colorful brushwork is confined to the left side with the exception of the outline of a bridge or arch in the top right corner. The work is extremely fresh and vigorous and has a conservative estimate of $60,000 to $90,000. It sold for $148,750 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article.
Lot 328, “Conversation,” is a more complete Morisot and depicts the artist’s daughter, Julie Manet, and Jeannie Gobillard. The oil on canvas measures 25 ½ by 32 inches and was painted in 1893. At one time the property of the Collection of Lorraine Pritzker, the painting has an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000. It too is sketchy although the figures are full defined, one with her back to the viewer and the other with a slightly forlorn expression. It sold for $390,750.
A more exciting and memorable Morisot is Lot 345, “Jeune Fille en Blanc,” A 25 ½-by-21 1/4 –inch oil on canvas, the bravura work shows a young women dressed in white with an interesting and quixotic gaze. It has a modest estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It failed to sell.
Another Morisot is Lot 550, “Le Violon,” a pastel on canvas, 31 ½ by 20 inches, executed in 1893. This work shows a woman in a black dress playing a violin while a dog at her feet tries to get her attention, or show its affection. The work has a modest estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. It sold for $20,300.
Lot 334 is a lovely sketch of two young girls walking by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). The 9 ½-by-6 ½-inch oil on canvas was executed circa 1905 and was once in the collection of Pamela Churchill Harriman. It has a modest estimate of $70,000 to $90,000. It failed to sell.
There are several fine, second-tier Post-Impressionists whose work is not hung in every museum but often crops up at auction and this sale has several really good examples. Lot 347, “La Table Pres de la Fenetre, Reflets,” is a quite luminous and fine still life in front of an open window by Henri Le Sidaner (1862-1939). The 36 ¼-by-29-inch oil on canvas is certainly one of the artist’s best works and was painted in 1922 and has an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000. It sold for $632,750.
Another work by the same artist is Lot 348, “Jet d’eau sous bois,” a 25 ¾-by-19 3/8-inch oil on canvas that was painted in Versailles in 1925 and shows a fountain in the woods. While there are no figures in the painting, the artist has depicted the tall spray of the fountain so that it almost looks like a ghost-like figure against the green and yellow foliage. The work is very subtle and has a modest estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It failed to sell.
These two lots combined with Lot 352, “La Place aux Oiseaux à Ville-Franche-Sur-Mer,” another Le Sidaner painting, should elevate the artist’s status as they are all really good works. This lot was painted in 1925 and is an oil on canvas, 28 5/8 by 36 ¼ inches. It comes from the Arturo and Leopoldo Uriarte y Pineiro Collection, and is a lovely, sun-dappled street scene that has an estimate of only $150,000 to $200,000. It sold for $181,750.
Henri Martin (1860-1943) is very well represented by Lot 369, a large scene of “Saint-Cirq-Lapopie.” The 45 5/8-by-43 ¼-inch oil on canvas was executed between 1920 and 1930 and is extremely well done and quite monumental. It has a modest estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. It sold for $170,750.
One of the finest works in the auction is Lot 376, “Le Soir,” by Paul Sérusier (1863-1927). The 23 5/8-by-28 5/8-inch oil on canvas was executed in 1906 and is reminiscent of good Vincent Van Goghs. It has a modest estimate of $80,000 to $100,000. It failed to sell.
Lot 338 is a delicate and very nice pencil and watercolor on paper by Paul Cézanne (1839-1906). The 12 ½-by-18 ½-inch work was executed circa 1888-1892 and has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000 and shows the outlines of several trees and some bushes in front of a viaduct. It sold for $269,750.
Lot 349, “Feu d’Artifice a Venise,” is a interesting work by Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer (1865-1953). The pastel and charcoalon paper, 35 ½ by 22 ½ inches was executed in Venice in 1917. “Influenced heavily by the Symbolist movement and artists such as Puvis de Chavannes and Gustave Moreau, Lévy-Dhurmer became very interested in the complex relationship between music, emotion and painting,” the catalogue noted, adding the artist exhibited with Henri Le Sidaner “whose influence is evident in the present work.” It has an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $72,625.
Misia Godebeska was a Russian pianist who married Thadée Nathanson, the editor of the famous journal La Revue Blanche, and she would become one of the most celebrated women in Paris at the turn of the century. Lot 364, “Misia au Corsage Rose,” is a 24 3/8-by-18 ¼-inch oil on canvas portrait of her by Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). The painting is very good, although Misia’s beauty is not shown to advantage; the catalogue observes that “The serious expression presents a striking contrast with the vibrant, red-striped wallpaper, while the flirtatious pink flower displayed in her hair eludes to the complex personality of the sitter.” It sold for $159,750.
The auction includes two lovely brush and ink on paper drawings of women by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Lots 397 and 398. Both were executed in Gosol, Spain in 1906 and measure 16 1/8 by 10 ½ inches. The catalogue notes that the year they were executed marked a transition for the artist from depicting thin, elegant women to the more colossal nudes that would characterize his next phase. Lot 397 has an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000 and Lot 398, which shows the back of a woman, has an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000. Neither lot sold.
Lot 407, “Snake and Cat,” is a charming watercolor, pencil and pen and ink on paper mounted on artist’s board by Paul Klee (1879-1940). The 8 ¼-by-6 3.8-inch work is dated 1918 and has a somewhat ambitious estimate of $350,000 to $450,000 as it is not as exquisite and pristine as much of his oeuvre, but it is interesting because it contains numerous columns of figures over which the artist has drawn his amusing and bemused animals. It failed to sell.
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) is one of the 20th Century’s most consistent great artists whose minimal compositions and palettes are delicate but also monumental, despite their often small scale. Lot 412, “Manhattan I,” is a fine example of Feininger’s subtlety. Here a spindly rooftop water-tank, a hallmark of Manhattan, seems to be peer upwards at a mighty skyscraper against a blue-gray sky and a bright white sun/moon. Feininger’s architectural delineations are wisps of straight lines, many of which extend beyond his lined framing of the subject. This is a fine, albeit modest, example of his art and has an estimate of only $12,000 to $16,000. The 12 ¼-by-9 ½-inch watercolor and pen and ink on paper was executed Oct. 6, 1937. It sold for $15,600.
Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) is an artist of similar artistic temperament with Feininger, although his paintings tend to be more sculptural and tactile. Lot 469, “Two Circles on Curved Form,” is a fine example of his art and has an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It failed to sell. It is an oil on wood mounted on the artist’s board and measures 23 5/8 by 20 inches. Lot 470, also by Nicholson, is a pencil and oil wash on paper mounted on artist’s board, entitled “July 20 (PB), “ and it has an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000 and is an interesting geometric study with a muted but lovely palette. It sold for $35,250.
A superb foil to the Feininger and either of the Nicholsons would be Lot 515, “Maquette for Walk-In,” by Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975). Number “3/12,” it was conceived in 1970 and is a 9-inch high abstract bronze sculpture with lovely, almost luminescent patinas. It was once in the collection of Saul Steinberg and has an estimate of $30,000 to $40,000. It sold for $49,050.
There are numerous good sculptures in the auction and one of the best is Lot 456, which is from the Collection of Lorraine Pritzker. Entitled “Turning Torso,” is was executed in 1921 by Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964) and is a 28 1/2 –inch high bronze with a luscious deep blue patina. The catalogue notes that the sculpture was conceived in 1921 and cast circa 1962 in an edition of 8 of which this is number 1. Archipenko’s sculptures are usually superb Cubist compositions, but this lot is much more Classic in treatment. It has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $401,750.
Jean Arp (1887-1966) is represented by three polished bronze sculptures, Lots 457-9, all from the Collection of Lorraine Pritzker, and all gleaming in gold color and casting unusual reflections because of their amorphous and sinous forms. Lot 459 is perhaps the most powerful. Entitled “Bourgeon d’éclair,” is is 22 inches high and was conceived in 1965 and cast in an edition of five. It has an estimate of $40,000 to $50,000. It sold for $37,550.
The recent exhibition on Chaim Soutine (1894-1943) has brought a lot of his work to the auction block. Phillips had three very good portraits in its May 7, 2001 auction and this auction has a fine portrait of the head of a women, entitled “Femme,” as Lot 535. The 12 ¼-by-19-inch oil on canvas is very vibrant, strong, lush and beautiful and has an estimate of only $150,000 to $200,000. It sold for $247,750.
One of the auction’s most interesting lots is 497, a 9 ½-by-46 ¾-inch gouache on three sheets of joined paper mounted on card by Albert Gleizes (1881-1953), Fernard Léger (1881-1955), and Leopold Survage (1879-1968). The work is a study for the mural that was executed for the Pavillon de l’Union des Artistes Modernes at the Exposition Internationale des Arts dans la Vie Moderne held in Paris in 1937. The left portion of this work was executed by Gleizes, the central portion of Léger and the right portion by Survage. The catalogue notes that “the mural was executed over a staircase which explains the distinctive shape of a downward slope from left to right. The work is very lively and the styles of the three sections appear quite unified. The lot has a modest estimate of $35,000 to $45,000 inasmuch as it is very decorative and artist collaborations are always interesting. It failed to sell.
The cover illustration of the catalogue is Lot 450A, “Fetes de Nuit, Venise,” a 28 ¾-by-36 1/4 –inch oil on canvas, painted in 1921 by Kees Van Dongen (1877-1968). The work, which could easily be mistaken for a Raoul Dufy has an ambitious estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $555,750.