La Quiétude by Kees van Dongen
On Friday, October 13th, Christie’s London hosted a sale featuring selections from the Sam Josefowitz collection. Sam Josefowitz was a Lithuanian immigrant to the United States who, along with his brother David, founded the Concert Hall Society, a mail-order club based in New York that sold classical music records. The brothers ran the company for about ten years before selling to Crowell-Collier Publishing. Josefowitz amassed an art collection known for its diversity, ranging from antiquities to modern masterworks. However, some commentators noticed how he had a special admiration for the painters of Pont-Aven, which included Paul Gauguin, Aristide Maillol, and Félix Vallotton. However, none of these artists were responsible for the top seller that day. That distinction belongs to the Dutch artist Kees van Dongen and his 1918 painting La Quiétude. Van Dongen is often associated with the Fauvists, and one can see why, given his wild and bright color palette. The painting mainly shows two nude women, one completely red, the other entirely blue, lying against a gray background. There’s also a pair of birds, one red and the other blue, observing in the upper left, while a dog and a blue monkey occupy the lower right. Christie’s specialists describe the work as a modernist take on the Orientalist themes of previous generations of painters. The work was only one of two featured in the sale given a £3M to £5M estimate range; the other one being the lot immediately preceding it, Cinq Heures by Félix Vallotton. However, while the Vallotton exactly hit its low estimate, La Quiétude exceeded its estimate range and achieved £9.1M / $11M (or £10.8M / $13.1M w/p). With that hammer Price, La Quiétude is now the second most valuable work by Kees van Dongen ever sold at auction. His 1911 painting Jeune Arabe is the most expensive work, which sold for $12.25M hammer at Sotheby’s New York in October 2009.
Hommage à Böcklin by Diego Giacometti
After the Van Dongen, next there was a piece by Diego Giacometti. The work is a console table called Hommage á Böcklin, in reference to the Swiss symbolist painter who later came to influence the surrealists and fantasy art. The table is bronze and iron with pieces of copper colored with a green and gray patina. The crossbar contains several trees, while off to the side, near one of the legs, Giacometti placed a small owl figure. Like the Van Dongen, Hommage à Böcklin exceeded its estimate range. Predicted by Christie’s to sell for no more than £3M, the Giacometti sold for £4.2M / $5.1M (or £5.1M / $6.2M w/p). This particular casting of Hommage à Böcklin is now Diego Giacometti‘s third most valuable work sold at auction. A different casting of the work sold at Sotheby’s New York in December 2021 is the sculptor‘s most valuable work, selling for $5.7M hammer. Attesting to the Josefowitz collection’s diversity, the third place lot was one of the several antiquities featured in the sale. This was an Assyrian relief sculpture on a gypsum block dating to the ninth century BCE. At its creation, the Assyrians were the most powerful state in the Middle East. In a display of power and wealth, the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II moved his capital from Ashur to Nimrud, where he built an extravagant palace, the site of which was where the sculpture sold at Christie’s was uncovered. The carving, excavated by Sir Austin Henry Layard and shipped to London by the British consul in Baghdad, shows a character from Assyrian art known as a winged genius. A winged genius is a bearded male figure with bird’s wings and were most often put in places associated with royalty. Estimated to sell for between £2.5M and £4M, the Assyrian winged genius sold for £3.2M / $3.9M (or £3.9M / $4.7M w/p).
Assyrian winged genius relief
Of course, the sale wasn’t without its surprises, the most prominent of which happened to be one of my favorite lots. A version of Albrecht Dürer’s famous rhinoceros woodcut print was up for grabs on Friday, assigned an estimate range of £120K to £180K. Given that it’s one of the German Renaissance master’s most iconic works, I was slightly surprised at such a low valuation. However, it seems a handful of bidders thought the same, fighting over it for several minutes and driving the final price up to £480K / $582.4K (or £604.8K / $733.8K w/p), over 2.5 times the high estimate.
Of the thirty-eight lots available, thirteen sold within their estimates, giving Christie’s specialists a 34% accuracy rate. Only one lot (3%) sold below estimate, while sixteen (42%) sold above. Eight lots failed to sell, giving Christie’s a 79% sell-through rate. With a pre-sale total estimate range of £31.4M and £49.9M, the entire collection fell nicely in the middle, bringing in a total of £42.1M / $51.1M.
Christie’s London Sam Josefowitz Collection
La Quiétude by Kees van Dongen
On Friday, October 13th, Christie’s London hosted a sale featuring selections from the Sam Josefowitz collection. Sam Josefowitz was a Lithuanian immigrant to the United States who, along with his brother David, founded the Concert Hall Society, a mail-order club based in New York that sold classical music records. The brothers ran the company for about ten years before selling to Crowell-Collier Publishing. Josefowitz amassed an art collection known for its diversity, ranging from antiquities to modern masterworks. However, some commentators noticed how he had a special admiration for the painters of Pont-Aven, which included Paul Gauguin, Aristide Maillol, and Félix Vallotton. However, none of these artists were responsible for the top seller that day. That distinction belongs to the Dutch artist Kees van Dongen and his 1918 painting La Quiétude. Van Dongen is often associated with the Fauvists, and one can see why, given his wild and bright color palette. The painting mainly shows two nude women, one completely red, the other entirely blue, lying against a gray background. There’s also a pair of birds, one red and the other blue, observing in the upper left, while a dog and a blue monkey occupy the lower right. Christie’s specialists describe the work as a modernist take on the Orientalist themes of previous generations of painters. The work was only one of two featured in the sale given a £3M to £5M estimate range; the other one being the lot immediately preceding it, Cinq Heures by Félix Vallotton. However, while the Vallotton exactly hit its low estimate, La Quiétude exceeded its estimate range and achieved £9.1M / $11M (or £10.8M / $13.1M w/p). With that hammer Price, La Quiétude is now the second most valuable work by Kees van Dongen ever sold at auction. His 1911 painting Jeune Arabe is the most expensive work, which sold for $12.25M hammer at Sotheby’s New York in October 2009.
Hommage à Böcklin by Diego Giacometti
After the Van Dongen, next there was a piece by Diego Giacometti. The work is a console table called Hommage á Böcklin, in reference to the Swiss symbolist painter who later came to influence the surrealists and fantasy art. The table is bronze and iron with pieces of copper colored with a green and gray patina. The crossbar contains several trees, while off to the side, near one of the legs, Giacometti placed a small owl figure. Like the Van Dongen, Hommage à Böcklin exceeded its estimate range. Predicted by Christie’s to sell for no more than £3M, the Giacometti sold for £4.2M / $5.1M (or £5.1M / $6.2M w/p). This particular casting of Hommage à Böcklin is now Diego Giacometti‘s third most valuable work sold at auction. A different casting of the work sold at Sotheby’s New York in December 2021 is the sculptor‘s most valuable work, selling for $5.7M hammer. Attesting to the Josefowitz collection’s diversity, the third place lot was one of the several antiquities featured in the sale. This was an Assyrian relief sculpture on a gypsum block dating to the ninth century BCE. At its creation, the Assyrians were the most powerful state in the Middle East. In a display of power and wealth, the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II moved his capital from Ashur to Nimrud, where he built an extravagant palace, the site of which was where the sculpture sold at Christie’s was uncovered. The carving, excavated by Sir Austin Henry Layard and shipped to London by the British consul in Baghdad, shows a character from Assyrian art known as a winged genius. A winged genius is a bearded male figure with bird’s wings and were most often put in places associated with royalty. Estimated to sell for between £2.5M and £4M, the Assyrian winged genius sold for £3.2M / $3.9M (or £3.9M / $4.7M w/p).
Assyrian winged genius relief
Of course, the sale wasn’t without its surprises, the most prominent of which happened to be one of my favorite lots. A version of Albrecht Dürer’s famous rhinoceros woodcut print was up for grabs on Friday, assigned an estimate range of £120K to £180K. Given that it’s one of the German Renaissance master’s most iconic works, I was slightly surprised at such a low valuation. However, it seems a handful of bidders thought the same, fighting over it for several minutes and driving the final price up to £480K / $582.4K (or £604.8K / $733.8K w/p), over 2.5 times the high estimate.
Of the thirty-eight lots available, thirteen sold within their estimates, giving Christie’s specialists a 34% accuracy rate. Only one lot (3%) sold below estimate, while sixteen (42%) sold above. Eight lots failed to sell, giving Christie’s a 79% sell-through rate. With a pre-sale total estimate range of £31.4M and £49.9M, the entire collection fell nicely in the middle, bringing in a total of £42.1M / $51.1M.