Offering Fine Art, Jewelry, Furniture & Decorative Arts Acquired Over a Lifetime by the LA Philanthropist
NEW YORK, 7 November 2017 – Sotheby’s is honored to present property from collection of prominent Los Angeles philanthropist Elizabeth A. Keck across a series of sales beginning this November in New York. Collected over a lifetime and preserved in her California residences, the unique collection comprises over 150 works of fine art, European decorative arts and jewelry.

The Elizabeth A. Keck Collection: A Connoisseur’s Eye
From an early age, Elizabeth A. Keck – “Libby” as she was known – shared a passion for arts and music. Her studies at the Julliard School, where she learned to compose original music, coupled with her extensive international travel, fueled an appreciation for classical architecture and interiors. And her tireless dedication to the study of French furniture and decorative arts led her to become a highly-regarded connoisseur among renowned scholars.

As a matriarch of one of America’s leading philanthropic families, Libby played an active role in the Los Angeles arts and music scene, serving on the boards of the County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Huntington Museum and the Music Center. She was also a founding member of the prestigious non-profit organization The Colleagues, members of which have included Nancy Reagan and Betsy Bloomingdale, which still operates today to raise funds to benefit Children's Institute, Inc. and to end child abuse and neglect.

With a collection spanning the best of 18th century furniture and decorative arts to jewelry and Contemporary art, Elizabeth Keck’s passion for the best has been a motif of her connoisseurship over the decades. Libby relentlessly honed her eye, mastering a vibrant vision for her California residences, La Lanterne and Holmby Hills Villa Cornelia, while working closely with tastemakers and interior decorators such as Jacques Grange, who has cited her as one of the great muses to enter his life. Her resolute commitment to detail is apparent in every aspect of her home: from consciously choosing to brighten the classical color palettes of formal maison particuliers with explosive colors in bold works by Helen Frankenthaler and Serge Poliakoff, to deliberately deploying the California sunlight into her homes, so that each work of art is framed with natural light. And, perhaps the ultimate testimony to Libby’s love of color is exemplified in her collection of superb jewels, featuring a variety of rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds.

Andrea Fiuczynski, Chairman of Sotheby’s Americas commented: “We’re delighted to be offering the collection of one of Los Angeles’ grandes dames of the arts community. Libby’s passionate pursuit of beauty guided her to each work of art she acquired, forming a unique collection in which diverse material became cohesive, entirely livable, and still desirable today.”

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE COLLECTION AMERICAN ART Auction 13 November
Treasured by the Cassatt family for a century, Master Robert Kelso Cassatt is a beautifully executed and sensitive portrait by Mary Cassatt (estimate $500/700,000). Picturing her favorite nephew, the son of her beloved brother, the work demonstrates Cassatt’s preoccupation with portraying the world that she knew. Her dedication to her subjects, clearly present in Master Robert Kelso, informs the entirety of her oeuvre and contributes to the facility with which she captured familial, and particularly maternal, intimacy.

IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART DAY SALE Auction 15 November
In addition to works by Émile Bernard, Jean-Pierre Cassigneul and Louis Valtat, The Collection of Elizabeth A. Keck will offer Aristide Maillol’s bronze sculpture Torse De Marie (estimate $500/700,000). Modeled after his maid of the same name, Marie’s form appears repeatedly throughout Maillol’s oeuvre and served as a central figure in some of his most renowned works, including his celebrated sculpture Les Trois nymphes. As was his general practice, Maillol would begin his sculptures by modelling the torso and would later add the head and limbs. The present example speaks to how integral the torso was in all of Maillol’s finished works and further underscores the influence of antiquity that pervades his artistic process.

CONTEMPORARY ART DAY AUCTION Auction 17 November
Returning to the public eye after 30 years, Helen Frankenthaler’s Four Color Space is a captivating exploration of color and composition (estimate $500/700,000). Painted in 1966, the large-scale work showcases the artist’s initial exploration into compositional cropping, in which orientation is determined after the physical painting has been completed. Four Color Space also offers insight into the influence of the work of her husband Robert Motherwell, who had just begun his series of Open paintings, that explored the duality of presence and absence. In addition to Four Color Space by Frankenthaler, the Contemporary Art Day Auction will include a 1958 painting by Theodoros Stamos and an untitled gouache on paper by Serge Poliakoff from the Keck Collection.