La Porte dans la verdure by Henri Le Sidaner
On Tuesday, December 6th, Bonhams New York hosted an Impressionist and Modern Art sale featuring several highly-valued works expected to ensure a successful auction. Unfortunately, those expectations couldn’t have been more wrong. It was an absolutely dismal affair and probably one of the worst sales I’ve ever watched. Even at the beginning, it was clear that Bonhams had stirred up very little interest in the sale. That said, there were at least a few interesting highlights (w/p = with buyer’s premium).
That day’s top lot went to Henri Le Sidaner’s La Porte dans la verdure, from the collection of Richard and Maxine Markell. The Markells were the owners of a Yonkers-based shoe distributor and prominent collectors of Chinese porcelain, whose estate also included Tiffany lamps and Impressionist paintings. This is the first time that the Sidaner has come up at auction, having been owned previously by Findlay Galleries in New York, as well as both Knoedler & Co. and Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. Bonhams specialists estimated the painting to sell for between $120K and $180K, with the hammer coming down at $140K (or $176.8K w/p).
Place de la Concorde by Jean Dufy
Coming up right behind was Jean Dufy’s 1950 Paris cityscape Place de la Concorde. Like the Sidaner, this is the first time this work has come up at auction, having been kept in the same private collection in California since 1958. The painting captures an elevated view of the square from across the River Seine, with the Madeleine Church hiding just behind the central obelisk. Meanwhile, the Basilica of Sacré Coeur sits on top of Montmartre Hill in the distance. To get this view, Dufy would have had to climb onto the roof of the Palais Bourbon, where the National Assembly of France meets. The painting was expected to sell for no more than $50K, but with such a beautiful subject, I wasn’t surprised when the work sold slightly above, at $80K (or $101.2K w/p).
Composition by Le Pho
Two works tied for third place… one was Le Pho’s oil-on-canvas work entitled Composition, which was sold by Findlay Galleries Palm Beach in 1968 to the current consigner. The work is very typical of the artist, with a woman and child surrounded by lush vegetation; valued by Bonhams at $70K to $100K, it sold for $75K (or $94.9K w/p). The other was by Françoise Gilot – she is perhaps best known for her ten-year relationship with Pablo Picasso, but was a great artist in her own right. At Bonhams, her 1978 abstract painting Magic Games was valued at $80K to $100. While it failed to meet its estimate, selling for $75K, it was a great improvement from when it last sold at Christie’s New York in 2010 for a mere $16K (or $20K w/p).
Magic Games by Françoise Gilot
The only surprise in terms of a higher-than-expected hammer price came a little late in the sale with an oil painting by the Italian-American surrealist Enrico Donati. The Message of the Sphinx is dark and mysterious, with patches of bright teal or gold. While only expected to sell for $12K at most, the hammer eventually came down at $55K (or $69.7K w/p). Even still, this surprise wasn’t enough to salvage the entire sale. From the beginning, the auction was so underwhelming. Thirty-eight of the total eighty-four lots (45%) went unsold that day. While that number alone doesn’t always indicate failure, it’s important to highlight which lots were bought in. It seems Bonhams did not do enough to drum up enough interest in the sale’s highly-valued lots. Of the fifteen lots with a high estimate of $100K or higher, eleven went unsold, including Maurice de Vlaminck’s Voiliers à Chatou (estimated to sell for $400K to $600K), Marc Chagall’s Paysanne au visage vert ($350K to $550K), and Max Pechstein’s Sonnenflecken ($1M to $1.5M). Had there been more interest or these lots’ reserves not been set so high, Bonhams might have been more successful. With a sell-through rate of just 55% and a specialist accuracy rate of 24%, the Impressionist & Modern sale that was expected to bring in no less than $4.9M ended up with a measly $925.2K.
Bonhams NY Impressionist & Modern Sale
La Porte dans la verdure by Henri Le Sidaner
On Tuesday, December 6th, Bonhams New York hosted an Impressionist and Modern Art sale featuring several highly-valued works expected to ensure a successful auction. Unfortunately, those expectations couldn’t have been more wrong. It was an absolutely dismal affair and probably one of the worst sales I’ve ever watched. Even at the beginning, it was clear that Bonhams had stirred up very little interest in the sale. That said, there were at least a few interesting highlights (w/p = with buyer’s premium).
That day’s top lot went to Henri Le Sidaner’s La Porte dans la verdure, from the collection of Richard and Maxine Markell. The Markells were the owners of a Yonkers-based shoe distributor and prominent collectors of Chinese porcelain, whose estate also included Tiffany lamps and Impressionist paintings. This is the first time that the Sidaner has come up at auction, having been owned previously by Findlay Galleries in New York, as well as both Knoedler & Co. and Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. Bonhams specialists estimated the painting to sell for between $120K and $180K, with the hammer coming down at $140K (or $176.8K w/p).
Place de la Concorde by Jean Dufy
Coming up right behind was Jean Dufy’s 1950 Paris cityscape Place de la Concorde. Like the Sidaner, this is the first time this work has come up at auction, having been kept in the same private collection in California since 1958. The painting captures an elevated view of the square from across the River Seine, with the Madeleine Church hiding just behind the central obelisk. Meanwhile, the Basilica of Sacré Coeur sits on top of Montmartre Hill in the distance. To get this view, Dufy would have had to climb onto the roof of the Palais Bourbon, where the National Assembly of France meets. The painting was expected to sell for no more than $50K, but with such a beautiful subject, I wasn’t surprised when the work sold slightly above, at $80K (or $101.2K w/p).
Composition by Le Pho
Two works tied for third place… one was Le Pho’s oil-on-canvas work entitled Composition, which was sold by Findlay Galleries Palm Beach in 1968 to the current consigner. The work is very typical of the artist, with a woman and child surrounded by lush vegetation; valued by Bonhams at $70K to $100K, it sold for $75K (or $94.9K w/p). The other was by Françoise Gilot – she is perhaps best known for her ten-year relationship with Pablo Picasso, but was a great artist in her own right. At Bonhams, her 1978 abstract painting Magic Games was valued at $80K to $100. While it failed to meet its estimate, selling for $75K, it was a great improvement from when it last sold at Christie’s New York in 2010 for a mere $16K (or $20K w/p).
Magic Games by Françoise Gilot
The only surprise in terms of a higher-than-expected hammer price came a little late in the sale with an oil painting by the Italian-American surrealist Enrico Donati. The Message of the Sphinx is dark and mysterious, with patches of bright teal or gold. While only expected to sell for $12K at most, the hammer eventually came down at $55K (or $69.7K w/p). Even still, this surprise wasn’t enough to salvage the entire sale. From the beginning, the auction was so underwhelming. Thirty-eight of the total eighty-four lots (45%) went unsold that day. While that number alone doesn’t always indicate failure, it’s important to highlight which lots were bought in. It seems Bonhams did not do enough to drum up enough interest in the sale’s highly-valued lots. Of the fifteen lots with a high estimate of $100K or higher, eleven went unsold, including Maurice de Vlaminck’s Voiliers à Chatou (estimated to sell for $400K to $600K), Marc Chagall’s Paysanne au visage vert ($350K to $550K), and Max Pechstein’s Sonnenflecken ($1M to $1.5M). Had there been more interest or these lots’ reserves not been set so high, Bonhams might have been more successful. With a sell-through rate of just 55% and a specialist accuracy rate of 24%, the Impressionist & Modern sale that was expected to bring in no less than $4.9M ended up with a measly $925.2K.