Ernst
Christie’s followed up yesterday’s morning sale with European Art Part 2 in the afternoon… this would offer more of the lower to mid-level material. Surprisingly, the sale got off to a quick start as the first 18 lots found buyers; some of them making pretty strong prices. As the sale ticked on, it seemed the intensity of bidding dwindled and by the half-way mark we were getting long strings of unsold lots. At one point, 6 lots in a row failed to sell with some not even attracting a single bid. That said, there were a few pieces that performed remarkably well so let’s get into the numbers…
Seel
There were a handful of lots which all carried the same $150-250K estimate (among the highest in the sale), so heading in there was competition for the top spots. Ultimately, a work by Rudolph Ernst titled An Arab in a Palace Interior achieved a price good for the honors… the work, depicting an Arab man entering an ornately decorated room, was accompanied by very little provenance only dating back to the last time it changed hands in 1993 – at that time, the work sold through Christie’s London for $115K. This time around, the work hammered at $380K but the buyer forked over $468K once you factor in the premium (w/p). Another work expected to bring $150-250K took second… this too was an Orientalist genre painting. Adolf Seel’s Nacht Wache, showing an Arab man guarding the entrance to a mosque while a group of men are seated behind him, garnered $300K ($372K w/p). The work was vibrant and appeared in good condition, this one also had a skimpy provenance… the extent of which was its last public appearance at auction in 1996 when it sold at Sotheby’s New York for $85K.
Corot
Rounding out the top three was a not very exciting Corot, which also had a $150-250K estimate… this one however, had provenance all the way back to the artist and was fresh to the market – it last appeared in 1951 in Paris where it was acquired by the present owner. Here, the smallish 16 x 12 canvas found a buyer at $230K ($287K w/p). Another Corot, which was much larger and extremely dark (too dark for my taste), also carried a $150-250K estimate but that one just hit the range at $150K.
A handful of other lots made nice prices… a large work by Julien Dupre found a buyer at $110K ($137K w/p) on a $70-100K estimate; a beautiful little Jules Breton made $150K ($187K w/p) also on a $70-100K estimate – it last sold in 1998 for $66K; a portrait of General Gustave Paul Cluseret (a general in the French Army, who fought with the Union during the US Civil War) done by Gustave Courbet more than doubled its $60-80K estimate as it sold for $135K (168K w/p); and a large complex work by Jules Scalbert nearly tripled it’s $60-80K estimate at $220K ($275K w/p).
As is always the case, there were a few noteworthy failures in the bunch… I know I said there was some competition for the top spot, and this one, Atkinson Grimshaw's Under the Beeches had the estimate to easily take the honors at $250-350K… that said, the size of the work (11 x 17 inches) and its condition just did not seem to justify the expectations. There was also a large collaborative work by Willem and Hermanus Koekkoek which went unsold with a $180-220K estimate, a Jacques-Emile Blanche on a $100-150K estimate along with 19 lesser lots that failed to find a buyer.
By the end, Christie’s moved 42 of the lots up for grabs, or 66%. The total take was just $2.78M ($3.47M w/p) while they expected to bring between $3.3-4.9M, so they needed those premiums to make the range.