Sotheby’s announced a few more works in its World War I-themed sale within a sale, The Beautiful and Damned. Today’s announcement includes an Oskar Kokoschka and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner work. Each work is being restituted and will be sold with an estimate of between $15 and $20m.
Sotheby’s is honored to announce that two Modern masterworks recently restituted to the heirs of art-world luminary Alfred Flechtheim will highlight theirImpressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale in New York on 12 November 2018.
Among the finest examples by their respective artists ever to appear at auction, Oskar Kokoschka’s portrait ofJoseph de Montesquiou-Fezensac from 1910 (estimate $15/20 million) and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s compelling Das Soldatenbad (Artillerymen) from 1915 (estimate $15/20 million) both encapsulate the seismic shifts occurring in visual arts during the period leading up to and including the onset of World War I. They also serve as testaments to Flechtheim’s passion for collecting exceptional Expressionist works.
In addition to their inherent art historical significance, both paintings are distinguished by their illustrious provenance and remarkable stories of restitution to Flechtheim’s heirs. Prior to its restitution earlier this year, Kirchner’s Das Soldatenbadhad resided in the distinguished collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York for three decades, and in The Museum of Modern Art prior to that. Like the Kirchner,Kokoschka’s Joseph de Montesquiou-Fezensac was voluntarily returned to Flechtheim’s heirs in 2018 by the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. As in the past, the Flechtheim heirs are expecting to use some of the proceeds for charitable causes, and for Holocaust remembrance and education purposes.
Sotheby’s The Triumph of Color: Important Works from a Private European Collection in theauctions of Impressionist & Modern Art this November in New York.Put together primarily in the 1970s and ‘80s, the collection today represents one of the finest assemblages of post-Impressionist and Modern Art in private hands. The collection is defined by three superb masterworks by Wassily Kandinsky and rare works by the key protagonists of Fauvism and German Expressionism.
Several of the paintings were loaned to the Courtauld Institute of Art in London for over fifteen years, where they provided a unique display of works from the Fauve movement, the Expressionists and the route to Abstraction in the early-20th century.
Helena Newman, Head of Sotheby’s Worldwide Impressionist & Modern Art Department, commented: “Infused with an intensity of color and expression, this collection of works provides a rare and exciting opportunity to acquire several exceptional examples of early-20th Century Art. It is unprecedented for three major paintings by Kandinsky, each from a key moment in the artist’s creativity, to appear at auction together, and complemented by stunning examples by the Fauves and the German Expressionists, the collection encapsulates the triumph of color in art at the start of the 20th century.’’The three major paintings by Wassily Kandinsky chart the artist’s development across four decadesfrom the earliest successes to his greatest achievements.
Wassily Kandinsky, Zum Thema Jüngstes Gericht (detail). Painted in 1913. Estimate $22/35 million. Courtesy Sotheby's.
The group is led by one of the last 1913 oil paintings left in private hands, Zum Thema Jüngstes Gericht, a unique composition from this prime year of Kandinsky’s career, during which he reached the summit of his path to Abstraction (estimate $22/35 million).
 Wassily Kandinsky, Le rond rogue. Painted in 1939. Estimate $18/25 million. Courtesy Sotheby's. A stunning composition from the artist’s Paris period, painted in 1939, Le rond rouge is an exceptional large-format oil on canvas dating from the exhilarating years he spent in France (estimate $18/25 million). The core of the collection has always been works by the Fauves, including three outstanding canvases by Maurice de Vlaminck. Paysage au bois mort (estimate $12/18 million), Pêcheur à Chatou (estimate $9/14 million) and Nu couché (estimate $2/3 million) represent the full spectrum of Vlaminck’s greatest achievements. Executed in 1905 and 1906 at the height of the Fauve movement, the three works boast remarkable, thickly-painted surfaces and vivid palettes. Further highlights include exceptional works by some of the key artists of the German Expressionist movement, including Alexej von Jawlensky, Max Pechstein, August Macke and Heinrich Campendonk. Sotheby’s will offer 33 works in total from the collection across their Evening and Day Sales of Impressionist & Modern Art in New York on 12 & 13 November, together estimated to sell for in excess of $90 million. Highlights are now on view in their London galleries as part of Frieze week exhibitions, and will travel to Hong Kong this fall, before returning to New York for the full viewing of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern and Contemporary Art auctions beginning 2 November. An early abstract masterpiece, Improvisation auf Mahagoni, was painted at the end of the artist’s Murnau period (estimate $15/20 million). A stunning composition from the artist’s Sotheby’s is honored to announce that Egon Schiele’s masterwork landscape  Egon Schiele, Dämmernde Stadt (Die Kleine Stadt II) (City in Twilight (The Small City II)) signed Egon Schiele and dated 1913 (centre left) oil on canvas 35 5/8 by 35 1/2in. Painted circa 1913. Estimate $12/18 million. Courtesy Sotheby's. Dämmernde Stadt(Die Kleine Stadt II) (City in Twilight (The Small City II)) will highlight the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale in New York on 12 November 2018.Painted in 1913,Dämmernde Stadt is one of Schiele's finest landscapes remaining in private hands, with comparable works now principally found in museum collections. The dreamlike view above the city of Krumau - birthplace of the artist's mother - documents the pivotal period during which Schiele established his singular and now-iconic visual language, after years of shadowing his mentor Gustav Klimt.Independent of its art historical importance, the work is distinguished by the remarkable family history it has brought to life.Dämmernde Stadt was purchased in 1928 by Elsa Koditschek, a young Jewish widow living in Vienna. During the course of her harrowing persecution by the Nazis following the annexation of Austria in 1938, the work was forcibly sold in payment of alleged debts to the very person who helped Elsa survive. Sotheby's will present the work this November as the resolution of a joint and private restitution between the present owners and Elsa's heirs.Elsa's story is told today through an extensive and incredibly rare family archive of correspondence she wrote throughout the war and for years after. However, her heirs had remained unaware of the landscape until recent years, when Sotheby's research on an unrelated picture uncovered reference to the Koditschek name. Lucian Simmons, Sotheby's Worldwide Head of Restitution,and Andrea Jungmann, Managing Director of Sotheby’s Austria,initiated a dialogue between the family and the present owners that has ultimately resulted in the present offering.Dämmernde Stadt is now on public view in Sotheby's London galleries for the first time in nearly 50 years, through 9 October. The landscape will return to our New York headquarters for the full exhibitions of our Impressionist & Modern and Contemporary Art auctions, which open on 2 November. Dämmernde Stadt is estimated to sell for $12/18 million in the 12 November auction. ’DÄMMERNDE STADT (DIE KLEINE STADT II) The series of large-scale townscapes painted by EgonSchiele between 1913 and 1917 show him working at the apex of his artistic powers, experimenting with elements of composition, color and form that would eventually lead him to Abstraction.Dämmernde Stadt depicts the small, medieval town of Krumau, the birthplace of Schiele’s mother and one of only two locations that are the subjects of his celebrated landscapes. Referred to by Schiele as the ‘‘ dead city’’ , Krumau’s compact configuration was intriguing to the artist, who captured its winding streets and crumbling buildings from perched atop the high left bank of the Moldau river - known today as the Vltava in the Czech Republic. The result of this radical approach to perspective is a flat pictorial dreamscape that reflects both his highly-personalized interpretation, as well as his emotional and psychological response to the storied town.These stylistic element s manifest in myriad characteristics throughout the canvas: the boldly-delineated shapes of buildings’ rooftops; twilight cast in a muted palette; and windows aglow with brilliant, jewel-likecolors reminiscent of Gothic stained-glass. In looking to a Medieval past, Schiele was aligned with a contemporary strain of Gothic revivalism. However he was also attuned with the artistic movements developing concurrently across Europe at the time. His adoption of the high viewpoint and his growing sensitivity to formal relations suggest that he was looking at the work of Post-Impressionist artists, such as Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne. The influence of Klimt’s experiments with form, and the square format in particular, are also apparent in the present work was aligned with a contemporary strain of Gothic revivalism. However he was also attuned with the artistic movements developing concurrently across Europe at the time. His adoption of the high viewpoint and his growing sensitivity to formal relations suggest that he was looking at the work of Post-Impressionist artists, such as Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne. The influence of Klimt’s experiments with form, and the square format in particular, are also apparent in the present work. |