FAB Market Insights

Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sales, New York, Fall 2016
Sotheby’s, 7pm, 14 November
Christie’s, 7pm, 16 November

We are pleased to introduce the evening sales of Impressionist & Modern Art at Christie's and Sotheby's below. We realise that the value of these works falls outside the parameters of most of our clients, but the major works are a market indicator and have more interesting stories to tell. For information and our personal viewpoints on the Day sales, please contact Ray Waterhouse in New York or Adrian Biddell in London, who will both be viewing and attending the auctions.

The major sales this fall in New York are being held one week later than usual to avoid a clash with the elections; the Impressionist and Modern auctions are being held the same week as the Contemporary auctions. Perhaps because of political uncertainty, consignments are down in number and value; the main evening sales offer 92 lots, which total around $330 million at the low estimate.

The works representing abstraction and non-objective art are strong. They are led by Kandinsky’s rare and impressive Rigide et courbé of 1935 at Christie’s (est. $18-25 million), which has not been seen on the market for more than 50 years, and Frantisek Kupka’s La forme du bleu of 1924 (est. $1.5-2 million) at Sotheby’s. Both deserve to sell well, although there hasn’t been a good Paris period painting by Kandinsky at auction since the early 1990s, when a work of a similar scale and ambition sold for $4.5m, a very considerable sum at the time.

Expressionism and the Fauves are led by Munch’s very familiar Girls on the Bridge of 1902 - the most expensive painting of the week (there is no published estimate, but it’s rumoured to be around $50 million) - it was last at auction in 2008 when it sold for $31 million – and a very fresh and vibrant landscape Le verger of 1906 by Maurice de Vlaminck. Both works are offered at Sotheby’s.

Impressionism and Post-Impressionism are represented by works by Pissarro (a gritty but evocative Rouen view that was in the collection of Somerset Maughan), three Van Goghs and a very fine Cézanne landscape. The group is dominated, however, by an outstanding painting of a haystack *Meule *by Monet of 1891 (estimate on request).

Works by École de Paris artists include 7 works by Chagall, but it’s Soutine’s bellboy *Garçon d'étage* at Christie’s (est. 6-9 million) that steals the show in this category, one of three Soutines being offered across both sales. Works by artists less readily categorised include a typically quirky marine by Lionel Feininger at Sotheby’s of 1912 (est. $4-6 million); a charismatic Bonnard of 1891 at Christie’s (est. $2.8-3.8 million), and a superb painting by August Strindberg: *Inferno* of 1903 (est. $3-5 million) also at Christie’s.

Over all of these strides the ever-bankable Picasso, the giant of the modern market, represented by a total of 16 works spread across the two sales with a combined low estimate total of $63 million. Christie’s have the lion’s share, offering 11 works by the Spaniard, and presenting them in a special vanity catalogue. Examples from most periods of the artist’s extraordinary life are represented across the two sales. Picasso kicks off Christie’s sale, lot 1 being a particularly endearing unique ceramic owl from 1951 (est. $1-1.5 million); and the two most valuable works in their sale are a stunning profile of Dora Maar: *Buste de femme* of 1938 (est. $18-25 million) and a rye *Homme à la pipe* of 1969 (est. $15-20 million). *Le peintre et son modèle *of 1963 (est. $12 -18 million) is the top Picasso offered by Sotheby’s.