Description
Impressionist & Modern Art 8 King Street, St. James's, London .Christie's Impressionist & Modern Art evening sale is rich in works central to the modern movement of the early 20th century and, together with the fact that such a high proportion of works are totally fresh to the market, we expect demand to be strong this season.
This post auction catalog consists of 240 lots on 190 pages. All color illustrations ,each lot is described in detail and given pre-auction estimates. Prices realized can be obtained off the auction house web site or we will email you the results.
Featuring works by the leading artists of the period from C?zanne, Seurat, Degas to L?ger, Matisse and Picasso, the auction charts the course of Impressionism through to Fauvism, Cubism and German Expressionism. The centerpiece of the sale is Lyonel Feininger's Zeitungsleser II (Newspaper Readers II), from 1916, arguably one of the most significant works from the artist's mature years and poised to establish a new world auction record for the artist. Painted at a critical time in the history of 20th century painting, the work shows strong influences of Cubism and Futurism, the most significant movements of the pre-war years. The vibrant bright colors belie the fact that Newspaper Readers II was painted during the First World War, a period of great uncertainty and difficulty for Feininger, who as an American citizen living in the German Reich, felt increasingly nervous at the likelihood of the United States entering the war (lot 21). Never before seen at auction is Amedeo Modigliani's Portrait de Jeanne H?buterne, 1919, which dates from the period during which the artist painted some of the greatest works of his entire career. The painting on offer shows the artist's love and tenderness towards the sitter who was credited with tempering much of the artist's self-destructive passion. When Modigliani died in 1920 Jeanne was devastated and the very next morning, deciding that life without the artist would be unbearable, she threw herself from the window of her parents' flat (lot 10). A further major highlight is La danse, a cutout by Henri Matisse executed in 1938 and one of his most well-known images. Dating from the period when Matisse produced his most iconic collages, La danse, from a private collection, makes reference to the artist's masterpiece of the same name from 1910 and celebrates his achievements of the past and his pioneering advances in the present (lot 35). Also featured in the sale are La route de Marly-le-Roi by Alfred Sisley (lot 9); Grand bouquet de fleurs by Paul C?zanne (lot 13); Guitare sur un tapis rouge by Pablo Picasso (lot 40); Portrait de femme dans 'Le Rat Mort' by Maurice de Vlaminck (lot 24); L'homme
