On September 10, Christie’s Impressionist and Modern art department launched its fall season with its biannual midseason sale, offering 175 lots with estimates ranging from $3,000 to $80,000. The sale was 94 percent sold by value, 86 percent by lot and totaled $3.43 million †far above its presale high estimate.
Featured were an array of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century paintings, drawings and sculpture. Works by such artists as Gustav Klimt, Camille Bambois, Jean-Pierre Cassigneul, Jules Cavaillès, Alexander Kanoldt, Carlos Nadal, Salvador Dalí, Andre Masson, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Paul Signac, Yvonne Canu and Yves Tanguy were offered.
The sale’s top lot was a nude by Alexander Archipenko. The oil on canvas went to the trade for $218,500.
Cassigneul, renowned for his elegant depictions of fashionable women, was represented by several alluring works, including “Femme au peignoir blanc,” which realized $158,500, and “Woman with Feathered Hat,” an oil on canvas that made $80,500.
Highlights also included pointillist works by Canu, including two oil on canvas views of St Tropez. One of them, “Boats on Harbour with Flags,” achieved $76,900.
Rounding out the sale’s top ten lots were Jean Gabrielle Domergue, untitled nude, oil on canvas, $104,500; Jules Pascin, “Seated Woman,” oil on canvas, $92,500; Gustav Klimt, “Portrait of a Woman,” pencil on paper, $68,500; and two works by Robert Pinchon, “Jardin aux Irises,” oil on canvas, $68,500, and “Jardin aux Pavots,” oil on canvas, $62,500.
Stefany Sekara, specialist in charge of the sale, said, “This sale reiterated the continuing strength of the middle market, with works of good quality, attractively priced, proving highly desirable. With the auction totaling well over its presale high estimate, we now look forward to our November sales here in New York with continued confidence.”
Prices reported include the buyer’s premium. For information, www.Christies.com or 212-636-2000.
