Autour de “Souvenance d’un printemps” by Marc Chagall
For the past several years, Christie’s has put on a sale exclusively featuring the works of the Russian-born artist Marc Chagall. And every year, these sales consistently blow everyone’s expectations out of the water. And this past Tuesday was no different when Christie’s Paris hosted an auction featuring seventy-two works by the acclaimed artist with some incredible results.
Most of the works available at Christie’s were done on paper using media such as pastel, gouache, and ink. All came directly from Chagall’s estate through his heirs, making this the first time they have become available on the market. Things started with a bang with the very first lot, Autour de “Souvenance d’un printemps”, a 1983 work on paper made from tempera, gouache, and ink. It is a preliminary work executed in preparation for his later lithograph Souvenance d’un printemps. Christie’s specialists had predicted the work to become one of the sale’s top lots with a high estimate of €55K; it ended up setting the tone for the sale when the timer ran out, and it sold for €95K / $102.8K (or €119.7K / $129.5K w/p). A little later on, Chagall’s 1979 gouache and pastel work L’Ange aux ailes rouges dans le ciel jaune de Saint Paul came up. Like the autour from earlier, Christie’s specialists had predicted this to be one of the stars of the sale, assigning it a €38K to €55K estimate range. The angel surpassed not only its estimate but the standard set by the autour from earlier, hammering at €110K / $119K (or €138.6K / $149.9K w/p), exactly double its high estimate. And finally, the top lot proved to be one of the biggest surprises that day. Sainte famille en rouge et bouc en vert is a work on paper Chagall created in 1950 from oil paint, India ink, and gouache. Measuring slightly over 23 by 18 inches, Christie’s estimated it to sell for no more than €28K. It ended up soaring past these expectations, selling for more than four-and-a-half times its high estimate at €130K / $140.6K (or €163.8K / $177.2K w/p).
L’Ange aux ailes rouges dans le ciel jaune de Saint Paul by Marc Chagall
While the sale as a whole proved exceptional by any other standard, the results were perhaps not particularly surprising for those who have been paying attention to the Chagall sales Christie’s has been hosting for the past several years. The first time I watched and recorded one of these sales was in 2022 when Christie’s London achieved £7.78 million against a £6.5 million total high estimate, with 90% of lots selling over their pre-sale estimate ranges. The next year, at the Christie’s Paris Chagall et la musique sale, 98% of lots selling over estimate resulted in a total hammer of €4.26 million against a €2.29 million high estimate. This time, Christie’s had initially predicted the seventy-two lots to bring in no more than €1.05 million. But with a relatively “paltry” sixty-nine lots (96%) selling for more than their pre-sale estimates, the house brought in €2.33 million, more than twice what they had expected. The remaining lots included two that sold within their estimates (3%) and one that sold for slightly under (1%). Like the previous Chagall sales, Tuesday’s auction saw a 100% sell-through rate.
Sainte famille en rouge et bouc en vert by Marc Chagall
Even more exceptional is that forty-one lots (57%) sold for more than double their high estimates. This is a lower percentage than last year when thirty-four out of fifty lots (68%) sold for more than twice the maximum, but better than 2022 when that number was nine out of twenty (45%). On Tuesday, however, two lots sold for more than ten times their high estimates. L’Ange au-dessus de l’homme à la tête de Torah is a relatively small ink-and-pencil drawing created around 1955, featuring some of Chagall’s favorite motifs and symbols, including an angel, flame, and the Torah. Given its simplicity, lack of color, and small size (10 ⅝ by 8 ⅛ inches), Christie’s estimated the drawing would sell for between €1.1K and €1.4K. With several interested parties fighting over the work online, the final bid finally came in at €18K / $19.5K (or €22.7K / $24.5K w/p), 12.8 times the pre-sale high estimate. Even bigger, though, was the surprise brought on by an even simpler drawing. Élie sur son char de feu shows Chagall’s take on the prophet Elijah and the chariot of fire as related in the Second Book of Kings. A final hammer price of €9.5K / $10.3K (or €11.9K / $12.9K w/p) is nothing mindblowing unless the initial high estimate is only €700, bringing the drawing’s ‘surprise factor’ up to 13.5.
Christie’s Paris Chagall Sale
Autour de “Souvenance d’un printemps” by Marc Chagall
For the past several years, Christie’s has put on a sale exclusively featuring the works of the Russian-born artist Marc Chagall. And every year, these sales consistently blow everyone’s expectations out of the water. And this past Tuesday was no different when Christie’s Paris hosted an auction featuring seventy-two works by the acclaimed artist with some incredible results.
Most of the works available at Christie’s were done on paper using media such as pastel, gouache, and ink. All came directly from Chagall’s estate through his heirs, making this the first time they have become available on the market. Things started with a bang with the very first lot, Autour de “Souvenance d’un printemps”, a 1983 work on paper made from tempera, gouache, and ink. It is a preliminary work executed in preparation for his later lithograph Souvenance d’un printemps. Christie’s specialists had predicted the work to become one of the sale’s top lots with a high estimate of €55K; it ended up setting the tone for the sale when the timer ran out, and it sold for €95K / $102.8K (or €119.7K / $129.5K w/p). A little later on, Chagall’s 1979 gouache and pastel work L’Ange aux ailes rouges dans le ciel jaune de Saint Paul came up. Like the autour from earlier, Christie’s specialists had predicted this to be one of the stars of the sale, assigning it a €38K to €55K estimate range. The angel surpassed not only its estimate but the standard set by the autour from earlier, hammering at €110K / $119K (or €138.6K / $149.9K w/p), exactly double its high estimate. And finally, the top lot proved to be one of the biggest surprises that day. Sainte famille en rouge et bouc en vert is a work on paper Chagall created in 1950 from oil paint, India ink, and gouache. Measuring slightly over 23 by 18 inches, Christie’s estimated it to sell for no more than €28K. It ended up soaring past these expectations, selling for more than four-and-a-half times its high estimate at €130K / $140.6K (or €163.8K / $177.2K w/p).
L’Ange aux ailes rouges dans le ciel jaune de Saint Paul by Marc Chagall
While the sale as a whole proved exceptional by any other standard, the results were perhaps not particularly surprising for those who have been paying attention to the Chagall sales Christie’s has been hosting for the past several years. The first time I watched and recorded one of these sales was in 2022 when Christie’s London achieved £7.78 million against a £6.5 million total high estimate, with 90% of lots selling over their pre-sale estimate ranges. The next year, at the Christie’s Paris Chagall et la musique sale, 98% of lots selling over estimate resulted in a total hammer of €4.26 million against a €2.29 million high estimate. This time, Christie’s had initially predicted the seventy-two lots to bring in no more than €1.05 million. But with a relatively “paltry” sixty-nine lots (96%) selling for more than their pre-sale estimates, the house brought in €2.33 million, more than twice what they had expected. The remaining lots included two that sold within their estimates (3%) and one that sold for slightly under (1%). Like the previous Chagall sales, Tuesday’s auction saw a 100% sell-through rate.
Sainte famille en rouge et bouc en vert by Marc Chagall
Even more exceptional is that forty-one lots (57%) sold for more than double their high estimates. This is a lower percentage than last year when thirty-four out of fifty lots (68%) sold for more than twice the maximum, but better than 2022 when that number was nine out of twenty (45%). On Tuesday, however, two lots sold for more than ten times their high estimates. L’Ange au-dessus de l’homme à la tête de Torah is a relatively small ink-and-pencil drawing created around 1955, featuring some of Chagall’s favorite motifs and symbols, including an angel, flame, and the Torah. Given its simplicity, lack of color, and small size (10 ⅝ by 8 ⅛ inches), Christie’s estimated the drawing would sell for between €1.1K and €1.4K. With several interested parties fighting over the work online, the final bid finally came in at €18K / $19.5K (or €22.7K / $24.5K w/p), 12.8 times the pre-sale high estimate. Even bigger, though, was the surprise brought on by an even simpler drawing. Élie sur son char de feu shows Chagall’s take on the prophet Elijah and the chariot of fire as related in the Second Book of Kings. A final hammer price of €9.5K / $10.3K (or €11.9K / $12.9K w/p) is nothing mindblowing unless the initial high estimate is only €700, bringing the drawing’s ‘surprise factor’ up to 13.5.