The collection also features Lucian Freud’s Self Portrait: Reflection (estimate $70,000 - $100,000), which is the only etched self-portrait by the artist and was lovingly dedicated by Freud to John Richardson: “John with love from Lucian.” It is a somber, unflinching and unidealized depiction of the artist. The clever application of deep, sweeping lines down Freud’s neck draws the viewer to his strong, broad shoulders giving life to his otherwise hollow, hooded eyes and solemn expression. Unlike other etchings, Self Portrait: Reflection is much darker due to the obsessively complex layering of etched lines and the skill of his long-time printer Marc Balakjian from Studio Prints, London, which creates such a dramatic and haunting effect. The collection features two additional etchings produced by Freud from editions of 46 and 40 respectively, David Dawson (estimate $25,000 - $35,000) and Kai ($70,000 - $100,000), each of which was also inscribed by the artist to Richardson.

Pavel Tchelitchew’s Dancers (estimate $200,000 - $300,000), from his early 1930s series of works inspired by circus dancers, jugglers, strong-men and other performers, is another standout work. The subject matter reflects Tchelitchew’s keen awareness of Picasso’s Blue and Rose Periods, examples of which he had viewed firsthand in Gertrude Stein’s apartment during his formative period in Paris in the 1920s. The limited palette used in these compositions served to intensify the melancholic mood, and the characters in the painting seem to materialize from the haze of gaslight colors that surrounds them. In 1933, the year the work was painted, Tchelitchew began a collaboration with famed choreographer George Balanchine to create set designs for his productions, and reinforces the artist’s strong interest in performance. In addition to working with Balanchine, Tchelitchew was in great demand for ballet and set designs, working from 1919 to the mid-1940s in theatres as far afield as Istanbul and Buenos Aires and with talents such as the Ballet Russes, Orson Welles, and Sergei Diaghilev. This work was formerly in the collection of Henry P. McIlhenny, curator and chairman of the Philadelphia Museum Art, and was sold in 1987 to benefit the museum’s acquisition fund.

French Symbolist painter Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer’s Paysage Montagneux (estimate $150,000 - $250,000) underscores the range of Richardson’s collection. Lévy-Dhurmer is perhaps best known for his Wisteria Dining Room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was commissioned for the Paris apartment of Auguste Rateau, who also owned the present work. The monumental landscape reflects Lévy-Dhurmer’s move away from Symbolism to focus on natural scenes, many of which drew upon the work of James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Claude Monet. The painting was previously in the collection of Richardson’s close friend and renowned interior decorator Geoffrey Bennison, who acquired it at Sotheby’s London in 1972, making this the first appearance of the work at auction in more than 45 years.

The collection also includes a personalized screen print from Andy Warhol of The Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger (estimate $25,000 - $35,000); two works by the Swiss-born contemporary artist Ugo Rondinone, including one of his circular target paintings (estimate $80,000 - $120,000) and a stone sculpture consisting of rough-hewn blocks stacked atop one another to form a human figure (estimate $100,000 - $150,000); and an 18th century Old Master painting by Antonio Joli (estimate $50,000 - $70,000).

Starting in September, the collection will be offered across Sotheby’s autumn sale series in New York and London, including Prints & Multiples, Master Paintings, 19th Century European Art, Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale, Contemporary Art Day Sale, and more.

JOHN RICHARDSON
Sir John Richardson, KBE, FBA, was a British art historian and biographer of Pablo Picasso. Among his many accomplishment and achievements, he headed the New York office of Christie’s for nine years, starting in 1973; consulted with galleries and Artemis, a mutual fund specializing in works of art; and contributed writing to The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, among other publications. Richardson is perhaps best-known for his three-volume biography A Life of Picasso, which garnered several awards, including the Whitbread Award and Costa Book Prize. In 2011, Richardson was awarded France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in recognition of his contributions to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world, and in 2012 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.