La Belle Rafaëla by Tamara de Lempicka
On Tuesday, June 24th, Sotheby’s London hosted their Modern & Contemporary evening sale, featuring forty-seven lots that focused on art ranging from Impressionist paintings to twenty-first-century installations.
The top lot of the sale ended up being La Belle Rafaëla, a 1927 oil painting by the Art Deco icon Tamara de Lempicka. Sotheby’s specialists referred to the painting as “a radical pinnacle of her creative development as one of the most important women artists of the twentieth century.” While nude female figure painting is often thought of as the realm of male artists, Lempicka was dedicated to breaking down barriers and questioning traditional gender roles. Much of her art from the 1920s and 1930s exemplifies how the place of women in society was starting to change. Paintings such as Autoportrait (Tamara in a Green Bugatti), Portrait of Duchess de la Salle, and Portrait of Mrs. Allan Bott showcase the changing gender norms of the period by depicting differences in fashion, as well as women engaging in activities previously considered masculine. And now, by creating a major female nude painting, Lempicka challenged the conventions of her time once again. The work is incredibly sensual, with the subject emerging out of darkness like a Caravaggio painting. The painting is a form of reclamation of the nude representation of the female body, as well as an expression of the artist’s own desires, given that she was romantically involved with the model featured in the painting. La Belle Rafaëla is one of only two major paintings by the artists offered at auction this year, the other being her Portrait du Docteur Boucard, which sold at Christie’s London in March for £5.5 million hammer. The Lempicka just breached its £6 million low estimate, selling for £6.1 million / $8.3 million (or £7.46 million / $10.19 million w/p). This made La Belle Rafaëla number five on the list of most expensive paintings by the artist ever sold at auction, placing it just above Les deux amies, which sold at Christie’s New York in 2020 for $9.4 million w/p.
Nu assis dans un fauteuil by Pablo Picasso
Next up was the Pablo Picasso painting Nu assis dans un fauteuil. Completed in 1965, the work is part of a series Picasso created focusing on the seated female nude. The subject is likely Picasso‘s wife, Jacqueline Roque, whom he married in 1961. While the Lempicka nude was somewhat of a reclamation of the subgenre, the Picasso is one of the more common takes on the subject from the male perspective. However, Picasso subverts the concept in his own way by having his nude subject seated upright in a chair versus the more traditional and erotic rendition of the reclining naked woman. This is an arrangement that Picasso would utilize for much of his career, as seen in The Dream, his portrait of his mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter. The Sotheby’s sale marks the first time the Picasso has been featured at auction. House specialists expected it would bring in anywhere between £6 million and £9 million, the same estimate range as the Lempicka. It ended up falling slightly short, hammering at £5.8 million / $7.9 million (or £7.1 million / $9.7 million w/p).
And finally, in third place was an untitled oilstick drawing on paper by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Created in 1981, the drawing has also been referred to as Indian Head, referring to the central figure of the skull. Multicolored lines forming the rough shapes of arrows extend outwards from the top of the head like a patch of plant life. It exhibits influences from New York City street art, as well as the energy and dynamism of mid-century abstract expressionists. The drawing has never been available at auction before and was only exhibited once at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles in a 1998 exhibition commemorating the tenth anniversary of the artist’s death. The work ended up hammering at £5.4 million / $7.36 million (or £6.6 million / $9 million w/p), approaching the £6 million high end of its estimate range.
Untitled (Indian Head) by Jean-Michel Basquiat
Of all forty-seven lots, there was only one major surprise in the entire sale; the lot that kicked things off that evening. Yu Nishimura’s 2023 oil painting through the snow is part of the artist’s ongoing series of double portraits, featuring a full-length representation of the artist standing in front of a larger, somewhat hazy, bust-length portrait as a background. The faintest remnants of an umbrella blend into the subject’s hairline in the background, deflecting the snow away from the artist’s suit. The work is peaceful and contemplative, allowing the viewer to simultaneously focus on the artist as an individual and the artist engaging with the world around them. Nishimura has established a reputation as one of the most innovative contemporary artists in Japan. The sale of through the snow at Sotheby’s is additional proof of his increasing popularity. Expected to sell for no more than £70K, the Nishimura exceeded this estimate by over three times, selling for £230K / $313.4K (or £292.1K / £398K w/p). This makes it the second most expensive work by the artist ever sold at auction. It came in closely behind another one of his double portraits, across the place, which sold for $406.4K w/p at Sotheby’s New York this past May.
While the Modern & Contemporary evening sale performed well in some respects, it fell slightly short in others. Nineteen of the forty-seven available lots sold within their estimates, giving Sotheby’s a 40% accuracy rate. An additional sixteen lots (34%) sold below, while four lots (9%) sold above. With eight lots remaining unsold, the sale achieved an 83% sell-through rate. The entire auction was expected to bring in at least £55.26 million. However, because several high-value lots went unsold, the auction as a whole brought in only £50.95 million / $69.4 million. Some of these unsold lots include the Dame Barbara Hepworth sculpture Vertical Forms (est. £2 million to £3 million), the Sigmar Polke painting Kronleuchter (est. £1 million to £1.5 million), and the Pierre-Auguste Renoir work Jeune fille dans les champs (est. £800K to £1.2 million).