Rare Monet Landscapes Lead Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale | Now on View in NY

NEW YORK, 3 November 2017 – Sotheby’s is pleased to unveil highlights from its upcoming Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art, which opens for public exhibition this Friday in New York. The 14 November auction is led by two of Claude Monet’s signature landscape paintings, Les Glaçons, Bennecourt and Les Arceaux de roses, Giverny (estimates $18/25 million, respectively), as well as Pablo Picasso’s Buste de femme au chapeau – a canvas referencing two of his greatest muses: Marie-Thérèse Walter and Dora Maar (estimate $18/25 million).

Sotheby’s marquee fall auctions of Impressionist & Modern and Contemporary Art will be on public view in our York Avenue beginning today, 3 November.

CLAUDE MONET FROM WINTER TO SUMMER
Among Monet’s most celebrated and visually spectacular canvases are his depictions of ice on the Seine. These majestic paintings exemplify the artist’s talent for capturing the nuances of the natural world in flux, and Les Glaçons, Bennecourt is among the most elegant (estimate $18/25 million). The work is further distinguished by its important early provenance: its first private owner was Louisine Havemeyer, the art collector and philanthropist, who acquired the picture from Galerie Montaignac in 1897 - a mere four years after it was painted. Together with her husband, Henry Osborne, Louisine amassed what was perhaps the finest art collection in America.

Dazzling in its use of color and exploration of the properties of reflection, Les Arceaux de roses, Giverny is one of only five canvases painted by Claude Monet between the summer of 1912 and 1914 (estimate $18/25 million). Three of these paintings, including the present work, focus on trellises covered in roses, set on the boat landing on the south side of Monet’s water garden. The present work is a stunning symphony of richly applied and worked pigment, and by far the most energetic in the series.

Following Sotheby’s record-breaking auctions of The Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon in 2014, we are once again honored to present fine art acquired over a lifetime by this legendary tastemaker. The group is led by Monet's Champ d’iris à Giverny, painted in 1887 during a period of respite from the artist’s extensive travels in Holland, Brittany and, finally, his newly-established permanent studio at Giverny (estimate $3/5 million). The work was acquired by the Mellons in 1953 and has remained in the family’s collection since. Separate release available.

POWERFUL PICASSO PAINTINGS
The Evening Sale will offer 11 works by Pablo Picasso, led by Buste de femme au chapeau from 1939 (estimate $18/25 million). Characterized by its vibrant color palette, sharp angularity and bold form, the work is a salient example of the Madonna-and-Magdalene dichotomy that manifested in Picasso’s work while he was simultaneously involved with two of his greatest muses: Marie-Thérèse Walter and Dora Maar. The daring oil painting, which remained in Picasso’s personal collection until his death and was subsequently inherited by his daughter Maya Picasso, before entering its current collection, is now being sold to benefit charitable organizations including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Separate release available

The monumental Homme assis au casque et à l'épée is a powerful example of a theme that was central to Picasso in the last years of his life (estimate $8/12 million). The work was painted in Picasso’s most prolific year, 1969, during which he seemed to not at all be affected by his advanced age but rather invigorated that he had more and more to paint. Towards the end of his life, the image of the musketeer evoked Picasso’s Spanish heritage and his nostalgia for the youthful vigor of his early years.

MARC CHAGALL’S MONUMENTAL CANVASES
The November evening sale boasts two important canvases by Marc Chagall, led by his lyrical masterpiece Les Amoureux (estimate $12/18 million). A stunning image of the artist’s two great loves – his childhood sweetheart and muse, Bella Rosenfeld, and his adoptive home of France – Les Amoureux encapsulates the best characteristics of Chagall’s oeuvre. The work has remained in the same family collection for nearly 90 years, having been purchased from legendary Parisian gallery Bernheim-Jeune in October of 1928 – the year it was painted. Separate release available.

Ever since his childhood, when he had seen the acrobats in the streets of the Russian town of Vitebsk where he lived with his family, Chagall was fascinated by the theme of the circus, and often returned to this subject-matter in his oeuvre. The arrival of the circus signified the sudden invasion of the wondrous in to the rhythm of everyday life, the transformation of the humdrum into a form of art that left behind a lingering sensation of happiness and amazement. Measuring ten feet across, Le Grand Cirque from 1956 is a monumental manifestation of this central theme for the artist (estimate $10/15 million).

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF BARBARA & MARTIN ZWEIG
Paul Cézanne’s Nature morte (estimate $7/10 million) – one the artist’s iconic still lifes – leads an exquisite group of high Impressionist and post-Impressionist works from the Collection of Barbara and Martin Zweig. The most fully-worked still life by the artist to appear at auction since Sotheby’s 2013 sale of the Lewyt Collection, Nature morte encapsulates Cézanne’s artistic achievement, and displays the brilliance and economy which characterize his best work.