Tête de Mousquetaire by Pablo Picasso
On Tuesday, October 9th, Christie’s London hosted their Impressionist and Modern Art sale, focusing exclusively on works on paper. While these sales are not rare at the major auction houses, this particular auction seemed to be of great interest to many eager buyers, given the surprising results. The auction consisted of twentieth-century works by Chagall and Dali as well as older works on paper from earlier modernists like Matisse and Renoir. Ultimately, a Picasso took the top spot with Tête de Mousquetaire. Picasso created this pastel, chalk, and ink drawing a year before his death, inscribing a dedication on the back to his wife, Jacqueline. It’s a small drawing, measuring only 8 ¼ by-5 ¾ inches, yet Christie’s gave it an estimate range of £150K to £250K. Tête de Mousquetaire became one of the many works in the sale that sold for far above its expected range, more than doubling the high estimate figure and hammering at £540K / $706.2K (or £680.4K / $889.8K w/p).
Les planteurs de pommes de terre by Jean-François Millet
Les planteurs de pommes de terre is a preliminary sketch by Jean-François Millet for the artist’s 1861 painting of the same name. It shows the titular potato farmers planting seed potatoes for a later crop. It seems very typical of the artist’s work, combining Barbizon landscape painting with scenes of nineteenth-century French peasant life. It dates to around 1859 or 1860, mostly made from black chalk with bits done with crayon and pastel. However, Millet made other sketches and drawings of the same figures as early as 1851. This drawing last sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2016 for $334K w/p, and it seems Christie’s expected its value to have remained the same over the eight years. Specialists only expected it to sell for no more than £250K, yet several interested parties brought the final hammer price up to £350K / $457.7K (or £441K / $576.7K w/p). And finally, in the sale’s third-place spot, one of the more interesting works to cross the block that day was another Picasso. Hibou, Autoportrait is one of the artist’s most fascinating multimedia works. With the title literally meaning Owl, Self-Portrait, Picasso made an owl drawing with black pastel, cutting out almond-shaped spaces to insert images of the artist’s own eyes. For this, Picasso used David Douglas Duncan’s photograph Pablo Picasso’s Eyes, La Californie, Canne 1957, a copy of which also sold at Christie’s that day for £17.6K / $23.1 w/p (est. £4K to £6K). Picasso dedicates the drawing to Duncan in the bottom right-hand corner. As far as his drawings go, an estimated range of £150K to £250K is not bad. But given the multimedia composition and the incredibly unique and personal subject, it’s not surprising that the work ended up selling for over its high estimate at £340K / $444.6K (or £428.4K / $560.2K w/p).
Hibou, Autoportrait by Pablo Picasso
Though not included in the top lots, one of the sale’s highlights was the number and variety of works by Marc Chagall. Twenty-three works, about a quarter of the total lots, were by Chagall, with eighteen selling above their high estimates. In fact, seventeen sold for more than double that number. The most valuable Chagall was the gouache and watercolor work Les amoureux au bouquet rouge, which sold for £352.8K / $461.4K w/p. But probably the biggest of Chagall’s surprises, the biggest of the sale, was a pair of ink drawings. Both are rather plain, with just India ink, no color, yet unmistakably in Chagall’s style, especially the 1969 variation autour. Christie’s specialists are unsure if the drawing was for Chagall’s painting Songe du Clown or for Printemps. It makes more sense that it was a drawing for Songe du Clown since he finished the painting the same year, while Printemps was completed back in 1938. Chagall, however, could have simply returned to the theme later. Christie’s expected the drawing to sell for no more than £700, with the other for no more than £600. The variation autour ended up selling for £11K / $14.4K (or £13.9K / $18.1K w/p), while the other drawing, Au bord de la rivière, sold for £16K / $20.9K (or £20.2K / $26.4K w/p). Their hammer prices were, respectively, 15.7 and 26.7 times higher than their high estimates.
Fifty-three lots (58%) sold above their estimates, twenty-nine of which achieved more than double the high estimate. Six lots sold for more than five times the high estimate. Fifteen lots (16%) sold below estimate, while seven (8%) went unsold, giving the sale a strong 92% sell-through rate. Even though only sixteen of the ninety-one lots total (18%) sold within their estimates, the sale as a whole should have done phenomenally well. However, of the seven unsold lots, Christie’s had given three particularly high estimate ranges. Henri Matisse’s ink drawing Deux Odalisques (est. £100K to £150K), Franz Marc’s gouache, tempera, and charcoal drawing Rotes Rind (est. £120K to £180K), and George Grosz’s watercolor Orgie (est. £350K to £550K) all failed to find buyers that day. So it seems that the lots that sold over their estimates merely compensated for the small number of lots bought in. Christie’s predicted the entire auction to bring anywhere between £3.7 million and £5.7 million. Factoring in the bought-in lots plus the number of lots that sold over their estimates brought the final to just north of £5 million / $6.5 million.
Christie’s London Impressionist & Modern Works On Paper
Tête de Mousquetaire by Pablo Picasso
On Tuesday, October 9th, Christie’s London hosted their Impressionist and Modern Art sale, focusing exclusively on works on paper. While these sales are not rare at the major auction houses, this particular auction seemed to be of great interest to many eager buyers, given the surprising results. The auction consisted of twentieth-century works by Chagall and Dali as well as older works on paper from earlier modernists like Matisse and Renoir. Ultimately, a Picasso took the top spot with Tête de Mousquetaire. Picasso created this pastel, chalk, and ink drawing a year before his death, inscribing a dedication on the back to his wife, Jacqueline. It’s a small drawing, measuring only 8 ¼ by-5 ¾ inches, yet Christie’s gave it an estimate range of £150K to £250K. Tête de Mousquetaire became one of the many works in the sale that sold for far above its expected range, more than doubling the high estimate figure and hammering at £540K / $706.2K (or £680.4K / $889.8K w/p).
Les planteurs de pommes de terre by Jean-François Millet
Les planteurs de pommes de terre is a preliminary sketch by Jean-François Millet for the artist’s 1861 painting of the same name. It shows the titular potato farmers planting seed potatoes for a later crop. It seems very typical of the artist’s work, combining Barbizon landscape painting with scenes of nineteenth-century French peasant life. It dates to around 1859 or 1860, mostly made from black chalk with bits done with crayon and pastel. However, Millet made other sketches and drawings of the same figures as early as 1851. This drawing last sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2016 for $334K w/p, and it seems Christie’s expected its value to have remained the same over the eight years. Specialists only expected it to sell for no more than £250K, yet several interested parties brought the final hammer price up to £350K / $457.7K (or £441K / $576.7K w/p). And finally, in the sale’s third-place spot, one of the more interesting works to cross the block that day was another Picasso. Hibou, Autoportrait is one of the artist’s most fascinating multimedia works. With the title literally meaning Owl, Self-Portrait, Picasso made an owl drawing with black pastel, cutting out almond-shaped spaces to insert images of the artist’s own eyes. For this, Picasso used David Douglas Duncan’s photograph Pablo Picasso’s Eyes, La Californie, Canne 1957, a copy of which also sold at Christie’s that day for £17.6K / $23.1 w/p (est. £4K to £6K). Picasso dedicates the drawing to Duncan in the bottom right-hand corner. As far as his drawings go, an estimated range of £150K to £250K is not bad. But given the multimedia composition and the incredibly unique and personal subject, it’s not surprising that the work ended up selling for over its high estimate at £340K / $444.6K (or £428.4K / $560.2K w/p).
Hibou, Autoportrait by Pablo Picasso
Though not included in the top lots, one of the sale’s highlights was the number and variety of works by Marc Chagall. Twenty-three works, about a quarter of the total lots, were by Chagall, with eighteen selling above their high estimates. In fact, seventeen sold for more than double that number. The most valuable Chagall was the gouache and watercolor work Les amoureux au bouquet rouge, which sold for £352.8K / $461.4K w/p. But probably the biggest of Chagall’s surprises, the biggest of the sale, was a pair of ink drawings. Both are rather plain, with just India ink, no color, yet unmistakably in Chagall’s style, especially the 1969 variation autour. Christie’s specialists are unsure if the drawing was for Chagall’s painting Songe du Clown or for Printemps. It makes more sense that it was a drawing for Songe du Clown since he finished the painting the same year, while Printemps was completed back in 1938. Chagall, however, could have simply returned to the theme later. Christie’s expected the drawing to sell for no more than £700, with the other for no more than £600. The variation autour ended up selling for £11K / $14.4K (or £13.9K / $18.1K w/p), while the other drawing, Au bord de la rivière, sold for £16K / $20.9K (or £20.2K / $26.4K w/p). Their hammer prices were, respectively, 15.7 and 26.7 times higher than their high estimates.
Fifty-three lots (58%) sold above their estimates, twenty-nine of which achieved more than double the high estimate. Six lots sold for more than five times the high estimate. Fifteen lots (16%) sold below estimate, while seven (8%) went unsold, giving the sale a strong 92% sell-through rate. Even though only sixteen of the ninety-one lots total (18%) sold within their estimates, the sale as a whole should have done phenomenally well. However, of the seven unsold lots, Christie’s had given three particularly high estimate ranges. Henri Matisse’s ink drawing Deux Odalisques (est. £100K to £150K), Franz Marc’s gouache, tempera, and charcoal drawing Rotes Rind (est. £120K to £180K), and George Grosz’s watercolor Orgie (est. £350K to £550K) all failed to find buyers that day. So it seems that the lots that sold over their estimates merely compensated for the small number of lots bought in. Christie’s predicted the entire auction to bring anywhere between £3.7 million and £5.7 million. Factoring in the bought-in lots plus the number of lots that sold over their estimates brought the final to just north of £5 million / $6.5 million.