In Paris: Spectacular works by Claude Monet come to auction

Top works of modern art from particularly prestigious collections will be auctioned during the “Semaine de l’Art”, which will take place next week parallel to the Art Basel fair in Paris. Sotheby’s will auction off 27 works from the Schlumberger industrial family’s collection at the Seine under the title “Le Temps Retrouvé” inspired by Marcel Proust. The collection traces the path to modernity, with works by Paul Cézanne and Gustave Moreau, Impressionist paintings – especially by Claude Monet – as well as works by Chaïm Soutines and Kees van Dongens. A painting of superlatives stands at the top: Monet’s large-scale flower painting “Iris”, which the artist painted in Giverny in 1924 and 1925. Never before shown publicly Like almost all other works in the Schlumberger Collection, it has never been shown publicly before its current presentation at Sotheby’s. When looking at it, one almost thinks of entering Monet’s lush flowering garden. The estimated price of 22 to 30 million euros is the highest ever set for a painting in France. The picture is in excellent condition because it remained free of varnish and it was transported very rarely. The foundation stone for the collection was laid by Jeanne Schlumberger (1889 to 1983). She began to take an interest in art in the 1950s after the death of her husband, entrepreneur Marcel Schlumberger. Parisian merchant Katia Granoff (1895 to 1989) became her authoritative consultant from whom she bought. For more than three decades, the collector and gallery owner had a friendly relationship in addition to business. Jeanne Schlumberger thus acquired some of Monet’s works, which Katia Granoff had previously acquired directly from the artist’s estate. The late work “Iris” belongs to this group of works, which entered Jeanne Schlumberger’s collection from the studio of Monet’s son Michel via Katia Granoff. Also “Saule pleurer” from 1919, the pastos painted and like a fireworks spraying painting of a weeping candy dazzling in the evening sun. Here the estimated price is nine to twelve million euros. Surrealism enriches the program at the end of the 1950s, the painters of abstract expressionism rediscovered Monet’s late work for themselves; Katia Granoff and Jeanne Schlumberger were ahead of their time. By Cézanne – also mediated by Granoff – three landscape paintings belong to the collection. They come from the estate of the artist in his family property at Aix-en-Provence, the place where the Provencal artist lived and worked for more than 40 years. Expectations range between 400,000 and 800,000 euros. At Sotheby’s, the annual auctions “Modernités” and “Surrealism and Its Legacy” are also top-class, with 40 and 33 tickets respectively. An abstraction of František Kupka from 1914 is to redeem six to eight million euros. René Magritte’s painting “Morceaux Choisis” is valued at five to seven million euros. With all auctions combined, Sotheby’s wants to convert 80.9 to 115.6 million euros in Paris. Like a mirror image of the Schlumberger collection in the company of Patrick Drahi, the competitor Christie’s by François Pinault called for 27 works from the collection of the legendary art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel on Thursday evening: It was he who helped the Impressionists to break through. A further 35 works from his collection, which remains family-owned to this day, will be auctioned at Christie’s Modern Art Daily Auction. In total, they could collect 30 to 43 million euros. “Without Durand, we Impressionists would all be starved,” Monet wrote in retrospect. Paul Durand-Ruel founded a first gallery in 1859 at the age of 28, among others for artists of the Barbizon School. The young trader was in many ways a pioneer of his profession: he bought works in advance, paid regular salaries and formed a network of galleries in Paris, London, Brussels and New York. When critics and the audience mocked the young Impressionists, Durand-Ruel, although it almost cost him his fortune, fought for their recognition. Success came first in America, then in Europe. His collection also boasts an outstanding lace: Durand-Ruel bought “Bord des falaises à Pourville” from Monet’s studio in 1882, when the paint was still wet, and a few months later transferred the painting to a private collection, only to acquire it again in 1891. In contrast to the flower painting “Iris” from the Schlumberger collection, the view of the coast radiating in green and turquoise shades at Dieppe has already been shown in numerous exhibitions – but it was not to be seen in the Frankfurt Städel show “Monets Küste”. A small path invites you to walk on the cliffs; on the sea, sails of fishing boats flash. The estimated price is between 11 and 15 million euros. Works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley or Camille Pissarro complement the offer. The 82-strong evening auction “20th/21st Century including Thinking Italian” at Christie’s will be led by an ocher-yellow “Concetto spaziale” Lucio Fontanas titled “Mezzogiorno in Piazza S. Marco”, for which 5.5 to 7.5 million euros are expected. Joan Mitchell’s 1957 “Sans titre” reminds us of the artist’s passion for Monet’s art (a tax of five to seven million euros). Two more daily auctions conclude the Christie’s program for the “Semaine de l’Art” with a total of 466 lots, which are to collect more than 100 million euros. Phillips is also holding an auction of modern and contemporary art in the French capital for the first time, underlining its ever-increasing appeal as an art trading centre. In the rooms of the gallery..