By Carter B. Horsley This day auction of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie's May 5, 2004 has some lovely paintings and drawings and is highlighted by a beautiful painting by Eugene Boudin (1824-1898), a very pleasant Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), an early Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) a fine work by Gino Severini (1883-1966), and good works by Jean Metzinger (1883-1956), Joan Miró (1893-1983), Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910), Victor Brauner (1903-1966), Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973) and Julio Gonzalez (1876-1942).
Lot 201, "Le Havre, Bassin de L'Eure," is a very beautiful harbor painting by Eugene Boudin, one of the earliest Impressionists. An oil on canvas, it measures 21 3/8 by 29 1/4 inches. Executed in 1881, it has a modest estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. It sold for $253,900 including the buyer's premium as do all results in this article. It has been consigned by the Doris Duke Collection for the benefit of the Doris Duke Foundation.
Lot 210 is a very nice riverscape by Gustave Caillebotte, whose prices have soared in recent years. Entitled "La Seine et la pointe de l'lle Marande," it is an oil on canvas that measures 23 3/8 by 28 7/8 inches. Executed circa 1890-1, it is an asymmetrical composition highlighted by a tall stand of poplars. It has a modest estimate of $180,000 to $220,000. It sold for $186,700.
Another Seine scene is Lot 211, "La Seine à Rouen," an oil on canvas by Paul Gauguin. Executed in 1884, it measures 18 1/8 by 25 1/8 inches. It has a modest estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $276,300. It was once in the collections of Justin K. Thannhauser of New York and The Reader's Digest Collection of Pleasantville, New York. Gauguin had visited Pissarro in Rouen and moved there soon thereafter from Paris. He would soon move to Copenhagen for a while before abandoning his family and returned to Paris.
Lot 266 is a fine Pointillistic work by Henri-Edmond Cross. An oil on canvas, it measures 19 1/8 by 25 3/4 inches the Venetian scene was executed in 1903-5. It has an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It failed to sell.
Lot 293 is a very striking abstraction by Gino Severini. An oil on canvas, it is entitled "Le Chatelard, paysage" and measures 39 3/8 by 29 inches. Executed in 1918, it has a modest estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $388,300. Severini was a major figure among the Italian Futurists but by 1916, the catalogue noted, Severini had "significantly distanced himself from the Futurist preoccupation with simultaneity and movement, and turned instead to an interest in cubist structure, space and subject matter." "Of all the Futurists," the catalogue entry continued, "Severini was the one in the closest contact with painters in Paris, where had lived since 1906 and his friendly relations with Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Juan Gris transcended the partisan rancor that had often divided the Italian and French avant-garde painters....The present work, which shows a well beneath a large tree,...shows far greater organizational complexity than the landscapes painted the year before....The composition is complex, densely layered, and carefully proportioned."
A nice companion to the Severini is Lot 289, "Nature morte à la carafe," by Jean Metzinger. Also painted in 1918, it is an oil on canvas that measures 32 by 23 5/8 inches. It has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $276,300. The catalogue provides the following commentary:
"In the years preceding the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Jean Metzinger worked at the very epicenter of the cubist shock wave that had revolutionized modern art. Indeed, he appeared to many observers of the scene to be the leader of the new movement. He showed his paintings in all the large public exhibitions where one went to view new art....He was a major figure in the pivotal Section d'Or exhibtion at the Galerie La Boetie in October 192. With his colleague Albert Gleizes he wrote Du Cubisme, the first comprehensive and coherent text to date that explained the theories and aims of the new movement, which was published at the end of 1912....Metzinger was assigned to serve as a medical orderly in early 1915, but was invalided out of the service later tht year.....In a letter dated 4 July 1916 to Gleizes, who was living in New York, Metzinger wrote that he was moving towards a new synthesis, as distinct from the 'materialist perspective of Gris' and the 'romantic perspective of Picasso.' It was a 'metaphyiscal perspective. The actual result? A new harmony. everytyhing is number. The mind hates what cannot be measured: it must be reduced and made comprehensible.'"
The backcover illustration of the catalogue is Lot 298, "Femme, étoiles," by Joan Miró, an oil on canvas that measures 8 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches. Painted in 1944, it has an estimate of $350,000 to $450,000. It sold for $399,500.
Lot 313 is a strong work by Victor Brauner, the surrealist. An oil on canvas, it measures 45 5/8 by 35 1/8 inches. It has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It failed to sell.
Lot 112 is a strong Cubist still life by Jacques Lipchitz, the sculptor. The gouache and pencil on paper measures 8 1/4 by 11 1/2 inches. Executed in 1917, it has an estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. It sold for $109,940. The catalogue observed that while Lipchitz "acknowledged only one oil painting," he "executed others in tempera and gouache, including the present work."
Another drawing by a fine sculptor is Lot 131, "Tete cubiste," by Julio Gonzalez. A pen and India ink and colored wax crayon over pencil on paper, it measures 8 3/4 by 4 1/8 inches. Executed in 1936, it has a modest estimate of $15,000 to $20,000. It sold for 19,120. It was once in the collection of Hans Hartung, the artist.
Lot 105 is a good pencil drawing of a bather by Paul Cézanne that was executed between 1873-1877. The work on paper measures 5 3/4 by 2 7/8 inches. It has an estimate of $35,000 to $45,000 and was once in the collection of Sir Kenneth Clark of London. It failed to sell.
Lot 106 is a strong gouache, watercolor and black chalk on paper by Pablo Picasso. It measures 10 1/2 by 7 7/8 inches and was executed in 1920. It has an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. It failed to sell.