Christie's Paris: Hélène Rochas collection doubles auction estimates

The sale of the collection of Hélène Rochas on September 27 at Christie's Paris, comprising Modern Art, Art Déco, Furniture and European Art Objects, paintings and old master drawings, as well as drawings from the 19th century, has doubled estimates, totalizing €17,785,050/£12,557,790/$20,340,905, with 98% in value and 95% in lot.

 Under the gavel of Christie's France President François Ricqlès, experienced and emerging art collectors worldwide - 74% Europeans, 15% Americans and 5% Asiatics - manifested their interest in sale that saw four world records at auction and a right of first refusal carried out by the Musée d'Orsay.

 "Fiddle and Spanish Guitar" (1933) by Ben Nicholson was sold for €3,313,000/£2,635,823/$4,269,463, marking a record at auction for the artist.

 "Deux masques" (ca. 1925) by Jean Lambert-Rucki and Jean Dunand was sold for €385.000/£306.306/$496.150, also another record for the artists in a collective work.

Edgar Brant and Daum with "Lampadaire La Tentation" (ca. 1920-1926), sold for €265.000/£210.834/$341.506 and Diego Giacometti with "Table-Berceau, first version" (ca. 1963), sold for €1.297.000/£1.031.893/$1.671.444, achieved records at action for their creations.

 The Musée D'Orsay carried out its right of first refusal and took home a center cabinet/cabinet de milieu (ca. 1910) made of maple veneer, rosewood, oak, leather, painted and engraved ivory by Clément Mère for €67.000/£53.305/$86.343.

 Worthy of notice among the paintings of renowned artists that covered the walls of Hélène Rochas' apartment at rue Barbet de Jouy à Paris dans le VIIème, is Wassily Kandinsky's "Braunes Schweigen,"  sold for €2.137.000/£1.700.197/$2.753.952.

 During the previous 14 days before the auction,  5259 visited the exhibition.

Christie's to auction The Collection of Hélène Rochas

           Andy Warhol 'pink' portrait of Hélène Rochas (1 of 4), 1974 (c) Christie's Images Limited 2012

Chrisitie's will be offering at auction in Paris on 27 September 2012, following a pre-sale public exhibition from 11 to 26 (except on Sundays) of the same month, The Collection of Hélène Rochas, also known as ‘la belle Hélène’ or ‘la belle Madame Rochas’.
 The collection comprises art works from the Modern and Post-War eras; exquisite examples from the Art Deco period, important furniture and European objets d’art as well as Old Master and 19th century paintings and drawings.

 Set aside from the big aristocratic collections as well as from those amassed by the French financial and industrial bourgeoisie,  Rochas' preferences were influenced by wealthy foreigners, aesthetes, and collectors who followed the examples of Carlos de Beistegui, Arturo Lopez-Willshaw, Antenor Patiño or even took inspiration from the more modern tastes of Eugénia Errázuriz and Cole Porter.

Alongside her friends Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé, Hélène Rochas was one of the first to start an important Art Deco collection. Among the acquired artworks and objects, now to be offered at auction, are a torchère serpent, created by Edouard Marcel Sandoz in 1931 (estimate: €25,000-30,000); a floor lamp by Edgar Brandt & Daum (estimate: €40,000-60,000), Deux masques, circa 1925 by Jean Lambert-Rucki and inlayed with egg shell by Jean Dunand (estimate: €60,000-80,000), as well as four works by Diego Giacometti, led by a Berceau coffee-table circa 1963 (estimate: €60,000-80,000). She explained she found a “dreamlike potential” in the period.

An important sale of her Art Deco collection was organised at Christie’s Monaco in 1990.

 In 1974, while living in New York, she commissioned four portraits by Andy Warhol (each estimated at €200,000-300,000), and also acquired Ben Nicholson’s 1933 abstract painting "Fiddle and Spanish Guitar", a testimony to the Abstract movements that led the 1930s art scene (estimate: €300,000-500,000). This work was displayed in her Paris apartment facing a striking Neoclassical sofa previously owned by Arturo Lopez-Willshaw, who had acquired it at the age of just 16 (estimate: €12,000-18,000). It was flanked with a pair neoclassical ormolu and lac burgaute candelabras, from Harewood Castle in England (estimate: €100,000-150,000).

 A magnificent 151 x 94 cm life-size Portrait of Lucien Guitry by Edouard Vuillard (estimate: €150,000-250,000), which was featured as number 303 in the Vuillard retrospective at the Grand Palais, Paris September 2003-January 2004, dominated the entrance hall of her Parisian apartment on rue Barbet de Jouy, in the elegant 7^th arrondissement.
 The living room was presided over by Braunes Schweigen, a 1925 oil painting by Wassily Kandinsky, which hung above a sofa (estimate: €1,5 million-2 million). A large 1954 terracotta vase by Picasso (estimate: €40,000-60,000) stood on one of a pair of Neoclassical side tables (estimate: €80,000-120,000).

The petit salon was the area where Madame Rochas hosted friends and guests, presenting them with a large Balthus painting, Japanese woman with red table, 1967-76, which hung over the entire wall (estimate: €3 million-5 million; dimensions: 144 x 192.2 cm). The work represents Setsuko Ideta, the painter’s second wife, whom he met in Rome, after he was appointed director of the Academy of France at the Villa Medici, and married in 1967. This relationship had a considerable influence on his art, and Setsuko became his muse, adopting a traditional Far-Eastern style. In the same room, above the fire-place sat an important flower bouquet by Jean Fautrier (estimate: €60,000-80,000) once part of the André Malraux Collection.

 Both the exhbition and sale will take place at Christie’s, 9 avenue Matignon 75008 Paris.
 The Collection of Hélène Rochas (sale 3538) is estimated to realise 8 million euros.

"Child with a Dove" by Pablo Picasso is for sale

Painted in 1901, when Pablo Picasso was 19 years old (beginning of his Blue Period), "Child with a Dove" (also referred as "Child Holding a Dove" and "Child with Pigeon") is for sale.

The auction house Christie's has been chosen by the owner of the painting to find a buyer and it seems that there is already someone interested outside UK. The work is valued at £50 million (€60 million; $79 million).

Since the piece was publically shown, the present owner was exempt from inheritance tax when he first received the piece, but this tax would become payable if the work was to be sold privately. Under UK regulations, owners in this situation have to publish a notice of intention of sale via the Arts Council England’s Acquisitions, Exports, Loans and Collections Unit, and allow three months for national collectors (institutions or privates) to decide whether they are in a position to cover other offerings from abroad.

According to news and considering that "Child with a Dove" is not one of Picasso's most important works, it is unlikely that the painting will stay in the UK.
Moreover the National Gallery revealed it had spent most of its legacy reserves to purchase Titian's Diana and Callisto from the Duke of Sutherland.

Although the auction house didn't reveal details about the owner, The Art Inquirer believes that "Child with a Dove" is owned by Henry Charles McLaren, 4th Baron Aberconway.

The painting, which served as cover illustration of a famous coffee-table survey of modern art published shortly after the Second World War by Albert Skirawas, was part of Samuel Courtauld's collection and was bequeathed in 1928 to Christabel Mary Melville MacNaghten, Lady Aberconway (12 December 1890 - 7 August 1974), who apparently was more than just a friend to Courtauld (7 May 1876 – 1 December 1947) in his later years.

Loaned since early 2012 to the Coultard Gallery and currently on show at Tate Britain's "Picasso and Modern British Art" blockbuster exhibition, the painting had been on long-term loan at London's National Gallery from 1974 to 2011.

No buyer for Goya's Portrait of Don Juan López de Robredo

Last month, the fact that the Spanish authorities didn't meet the price asked by a private collector for Goya's Portrait of Don Juan López de Robredo, Embroiderer to King Carlos IV of Spain, and that little time was given for particulars or private institutions to make an offer, caused controversy when it was announced that the painting would be sold at auction.

Francisco de Goya's painting, a 42 5/8 x 32 3/8 in. (108.3 x 82.3 cm.) oil on canvas depicting a Portrait of Don Juan López de Robredo, Embroiderer to King Carlos IV of Spain, seated, half-length, holding an embroidery design, was auctioned in yesterday's Old Master & British Paintings (Evening Sale) at Christie's London, King Street.
However, the painting with an estimate price of £4,000,000 - £6,000,000($6,248,000 - $9,372,000), did not find a buyer.

Nonetheless, the December 7, Old Master & British Paintings (Evening Sale) saw some new world record prices for artists at auction: " The Battle between Carnival and Lent" by Pieter Brueghel II, £6,873,250 ($10,722,270 / €8,021,083); " Dutch men-o'-war and other shipping in a calm" by Willem van de Velde II, £5,921,250 ($9,237,150 / €6,910,099); "An old man at a casement" by Govaert Flinck, £2,337,250 ($3,646,110 / €2,727,571); "The Holy Family" by Francesco Zaganelli da Cotignola, £1,015,650 ($1,584,414€ /1,185,264); "Portrait of a gentleman, possibly Richard Salwey, half-length, in a fur-trimmed red coat and a turban, leaning on a plinth" by Andrea Soldi, £825,250 ($1,287,390 / €963,067). The prices include buyer's premium.

New auction record for Roy Lichtenstein with "I Can See the Whole Room…and There's Nobody in It!"

The Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale (New York, Rockefeller Center), which took place on November 8, resulted in 16 new world records at auction, including: Paul McCarthy's "Tomato Head (Green)" (1994) sold for $4,562,500 (£2,828,750/€3,285,000); Charles Ray’s Table, a multimedia sculpture, which fetched $3,106,500 (£1,926,030/€2,236,680); Louise Bourgeois’s 21-foot wide bronze, Spider, soared beyond its pre-sale estimate of $4-6 million to achieve a new world auction record for the artist at $10,722,500 (£6,647,950/€7,720,200).

However, in a sale where thirty-three works sold for over the $1 million mark, including the first part of the Peter Norton Collection, which achieved $247,597,000 (£153,510,140/ €178,269,840), the star of the evening sale was Roy Lichtenstein's "I Can See the Whole Room…and There's Nobody in It!", a graphite and oil on canvas, measuring 48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm.), painted in 1961 and sold for $43,202,500 (₤26,785,550/€31,105,800), setting a new auction record for the artist.



"I Can See the Whole Room…and There's Nobody in It!" is one of the earliest and most important of Lichtenstein's Pop Art pictures, formerly in the collection of the pioneering collectors Emily and Burton Tremaine.

The previous record for a Lichtenstein work was for "Ohhh ... Alright..." (1964), sold at Christie’s New York in November 2010 for $42.6 million.

Image by Peter Macdiarmid (Getty Images)

Goya escapes from Spain and goes to auction at Christie's

A portrait painting by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, depicting Don Juan López de Robredo, embroiderer to King Carlos IV of Spain, is going to be auctioned at Christie's London.

Before the impossibility of the painting being acquired by the Museo del Prado or by the Patrimonio Nacional, the Spanish Ministry of Culture has authorized its exportation, a fact that has cause great controversy and has receive unfavorable opinions by the Spanish media.
According to official sources, the public institutions weren't capable of meeting the price asked by the owner of the painting, a private collector from Madrid.

Although not one of the most important paintings from the artist, it's a painting from one of the most important Spanish masters and a renowned artist worldwide.

The portrait of Don Juan López de Robredo, Embroiderer to King Carlos IV of Spain (El bordador Juan López de Robredo), an oil on canvas measuring 42⅝ x 32⅜ in. (108.3 x 82.3 cm) and with an estimated value of £4,000,000 – 6,000,000, will go on sale during the Old Master and British Paintings Evening Sale on 6 December 2011, at Christie's London.

Other 36 paintings, spanning near 500 years of European art history, will be offered up for auction during the same sale, including The Battle between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Brueghel II (1564/5-1637/8) (estimate: £3.5 million to £4.5 million); a full length Portrait of Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl of Chesterfield (1755-1815), by Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (1727-1788) (estimate: £2.5 million to £3.5 million); Dutch men-o'-war and other shipping in a calm by Willem van de Velde II (1633-1707) (estimate: £1.5 million to £2.5 million); An old woman spinning in an interior by Nicolaes Maes (1632-1693), 1658 (estimate: £1 million to £1.5million) and An old man at a casement, 1646, by Govaert Flinck (1615-1660) (estimate £700,000 to £1,000,000).

"Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath, with a Trainer, a Stable-Lad, and a Jockey" by George Stubbs to be auctioned at Christie’s

During the the Old Master and British Paintings Evening Sale on 5 July 2011 at Christie's in London, one of the most important works of the British painter George Stubbs (1724-1806) is expected to realise in excess of £20 million.

Commissioned by the horse’s owner, Frederick St. John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke, and executed during the year of 1765, "Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath, with a Trainer, a Stable-Lad, and a Jockey (40in. x 76¼in. (101.6 x 193.6 cm.) shows Gimcrack in the foreground with his trainer and jockey, a stable-lad rubbing him down, and in the background winning a ‘trial’ by some distance.

George Stubbs spent his early artistic career working as a portrait painter, first in his native Liverpool, and subsequently in York. He visited Rome in 1754 and later on spent 18 months in a farmhouse in Lincolnshire dissecting and drawing horses in preparation for the publication of his famous book The Anatomy of the Horse.

His accurate depictions of animals and exceptional talent earned the artist the patronage of many important aristocrats, particularly those involved in horseracing, the ‘sport of Kings’.
Often celebrated as the most remarkable artist-scientist since Leonardo, Stubbs portrayed the horse with anatomical perfection, showing his veins pulsing through his skin.

Gimcrack was one of the most popular and admired of all 18th century racehorses. Although he was small, he had great stamina and won an impressive 28 of his 36 races, finishing unplaced only once.

Sold by the Bolingbroke family in 1943, it was bought by Walter Hutchinson, founder of the National Gallery of British Sports and Pastimes, before being sold again at Christie’s in 1951 when it made £12,600 and entered the Woolavington Collection.

This is the third time that "Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath, with a Trainer, a Stable-Lad, and a Jockey" appears at Christie's.
The painting is offered from the Woolavington Collection, one of the finest private collections of Sporting Art, and will be auctioned at the Old Master and British Paintings Evening Sale on 5 July 2011 in London.