Claude Monet
Nymphéas (1908)
oil on canvas
36¼ inches by 35 inches
Sotheby’s London
A month after Claude Monet’s Meules sold for a staggering $110.7 million at Sotheby’s New York, a treasured and pristine Nymphéas that’s been in a private family collection for nearly nine decades is expected to fetch up to $44.6 million when it goes on auction for the first time ever at Sotheby’s London next week.
Monet’s beloved series paintings, waterlilies (nymphéas) and haystacks (meules), which epitomize the pinnacle of Impressionism, have, over the last year, set astonishing records. Most notably, Meules (1890) garnered more than double the high end of the estimate at Sotheby’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art on May 14 in New York, after remaining unseen for 33 years.
The waterlilies series represents the prolific founder of French Impressionism’s initial foray into abstraction, making it arguably his highest accomplishment. Monet was wildly enthralled by his water garden at his home in Giverny, as he painted several of his 250 works even as he suffered from cataracts, going nearly blind at the end of his career.
“This beautifully lyrical and softly ephemeral Nymphéas painted in 1908 is a timeless reflection of Monet’s vision and innovation,” said Thomas Boyd-Bowman, head of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sales in London. “Acquired in 1932, it has remained a hidden treasure in the same family collection for decades and will now make its very first appearance at auction.”
Nymphéas (1908) is among the coveted works created between 1904 and 1909, after Monet tore apart the banks of his pond so that the sky reflected onto the water. Employing free brushwork, Nymphéas (1908) draws together the precision of his
earlier work while foreshadowing his groundbreaking Grandes Décorations, permanently on sprawling view in two rooms at l’Orangerie Museum in Paris on the Place de la Concorde, opposite to Musée d’Orsay. It took Monet a decade to execute Grandes Décorations, as he was forced to build a new studio to paint canvases that stretch nearly 300 feet long.
The oil on canvas Nymphéas (1908) is expected to sell for between £25 million and £35 ($31.9 million and $44.6 million) on June 20.
Another highlight of the sale is Amedeo Modigliani’s Jeune Homme Assis, Les Mains Croisées Sur Less Genoux (1918), an oil on canvas estimated to sell for between £16 million and £24 million ($20.4 million and $30.6 million).
“A tender and transfixing image of a youth, this intimate portrait presents an unidentified young model with a sense of empathy, poignancy and serene beauty characteristic of the artist’s most accomplished paintings,” said James Mackie, head of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department in London. “The work was bought directly from the artist’s dealer Léopold Zborowski in 1927, and has been in the same family collection since then. For decades it has only been published as a black and white image, and will now emerge in its full splendor at auction this month.”
Also up for bid are Joan Miró’s Peinture (L’Air) (1938), oil on canvas (estimate £10 million to £15 million [$12.75 million to $19.1 million]); Pablo Picasso’s Homme à la Pipe, (1968,) oil on canvas (£5.5 million to £7.5 million [$7 million to $9.6 million]);
Camille Pissarro’s Le Boulevard Montmartre, Fin DeJournée, (1897), oil on canvas (£3.5 million to £5 million [$4.5 million to $6.4 million]); Henri Matisse’s Vase D’anémones, (1946), oil on canvas (£4 million to £6 million [$5.1 million to $7.7 million]); and René Magritte’s La Magie Noire (1946), oil on canvas (£2.5 million to £3.5 million [$3.2 million to $4.5 million]).
“From Monet to Modigliani, this season’s London sales bring together outstanding works by some of the world’s most beloved and sought-after artists. Monet’s Nymphéas – an iconic image of his most celebrated subject – is at the same time radical and poetic, whilst Modigliani’s deeply arresting portrait of an unnamed youth unites the personal and the archetypal,” said Helena Newman, worldwide head of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department. “These outstanding works have remained unseen for over half a century in their respective private collections and epitomize quality and freshness, both critical criteria for today’s global collectors. They will be offered alongside defining examples from landmark moments of Impressionism and Modern Art.”