Personal Insights into the Life & Work of Titans of Impressionist & Modern Art at Christie’s in June 2016
* A Day in the Life of Pablo Picasso: from Morning to Night *
* The Bauhaus & Beyond – The Great Friendship of Kandinsky & Klee *
* The Birthplace of Impressionism: Monet’s L’Ancienne rue de la Chaussée, Argenteuil *
London – A much anticipated highlight in the two weeks of 20th Century auctions this summer (20 June to 30 June), Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale will take place on Wednesday 22 June. The sale includes 36 lots, providing personal insights into the life and work of titans such as Monet, Modigliani, Picasso, Kandinsky and Klee. The sale is led by a portrait of Madame Hanka Zborowska, 1917, by Amedeo Modigliani (estimate: £5-7 million, illustrated above left), which appears at auction for the first time, and a plein-air masterpiece by Claude Monet, painted in Argenteuil during the lead up to the landmark first Impressionist exhibition (estimate: £4.5-6.5 million, illustrated above right). A remarkable private Swiss collection of seven works by Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee, many dating from their time working together at the Bauhaus, provide an abstract conversation illustrating one of the most fruitful and lasting friendships in modern art and including the first work by Kandinsky acquired by Solomon R. Guggenheim (estimates from £200,000 to £3 million, including Mit und Gegen (estimate: £2-3 million, illustrated above centre). Two still lifes by Pablo Picasso from 29 December 1946 capture a single day in the life of the artist (each with an estimate of £2-3 million).
This sale opens a week of five Impressionist & Modern art sales at Christie’s King Street, South Kensington and online. With estimates starting from £500 up to £7 million, the auctions provide collectors at every price level with a wealth of opportunities to acquire captivating and important works by masters of the period.
PICASSO – FROM MORNING TO NIGHT- 29 DECEMBER 1946
Providing a remarkable glimpse into Pablo Picasso’s (1881-1973) everyday life in Paris, Nature morte and Nature morte aux volets verts were both painted on a single day: 29th December 1946 (each with an estimate of £2-3 million). Simplified to an interlocking arrangement of geometric lines, forms and flattened planes of colour, they demonstrate Picasso’s supreme mastery and handling of form. With a deft economy of means, he has conjured two contrasting, yet highly abstracted scenes of quotidian life. In many ways, 1946 marked the beginning of a new chapter in the artist’s career; a new wave of creativity burst forth as he experimented with new media and styles, and a heady sense of joie de vivre filled his art. The bunch of blossoming flowers – a motif almost completely absent in works from the war years – appears as a jubilant symbol of new life. They radiate from the darkness in Nature morte aux volets verts, like a beacon of light and hope against the dark night sky. In Nature morte, the group of abstracted, simplified objects are positioned in front of an open window, its vibrant green shutters thrown open, casting bright radiant light across one half of the scene, while the other appears to be plunged into dark shadow.
THE BAUHAUS AND BEYOND – KANDINSKY AND KLEE: AN ABSTRACT CONVERSATION
