Christie’s has announced Claude Monet’s masterwork La Mare, effet de neige (estimate: $18 million – 25 million) will be a highlight of the 20th Century Evening Sale taking place live on 12 May 2022 at Rockefeller Center. A historic masterpiece, the exemplary painting was among the selection of Monet canvasses represented at The Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in 1879. The work is incredibly fresh to market, having been held in a single private collection for over 70 years. Christie’s Restitution Department was privileged to provide research that helped facilitate a settlement agreement between the current owners and the heirs of Richard Semmel, the persecuted collector, who owned the painting during the Nazi era. The painting will be on exhibition at Christie’s Hong Kong 20-21 April.

Anika Guntrum, International Director, 20th & 21st Century Art, remarks: Claude Monet’s La Mare, effet de neige is undeniably one of the masterpieces of the Impressionist movement. The spontaneity and the freedom of execution seen in the rendering of light and atmosphere is a veritable tour de force.  The blanket of white snow, melting along the edge of the pond is a genius pretext for the artist to reveal, by touches of silvery blue and rose tones, a hint of springtime to come.”

MONET’S LA MARE, EFFET DE NEIGE

Claude Monet painted La Mare, effet de neige in Argenteuil winter of 1874-1875. The aethereal landscape employs tonal blue and white hues to create a frosted snowscape, bordered by homes with snow-dusted roofs. A trio of silhouetted figures, dwarfed by trees, traverse the scene. The work is brilliant, charming and subtle, standing as a superb example of Monet’s experimentation with the Impressionist style in the mid-1870s. During this crucial period of his practice, his increasingly loose brushwork and thick application of paint began to formally convey the more ephemeral and atmospheric effects of the natural world.

La Mare, effet de neige was sold a few months after its execution, at an auction at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris. Monet organized this sale with his fellow Impressionist painters, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley, after the poor critical reception of The First Impressionist Exhibition in 1874. At this sale, Paul Durand-Ruel, art dealer and champion of the Impressionists, purchased 18 of the 73 works offered, including Monet’s La Mare, effet de neige.

La Mare, effet de neige was exhibited publicly for the first time four years after it was complete at The Fourth Impressionist Exhibition or “4e exposition faite par un Groupe d’artistes Indépendants.” Monet had  initially been reluctant to participate in the exhibition, however, Gustave Caillebotte eventually convinced him to join. Twenty-nine works by the artist were included in the show, three of them Argenteuil winter landscapes—including La Mare, effet de neige. This group of 29 represented the full range of Monet’s mature oeuvre. They were all hung in the fifth and final room of the exhibition space, declaring their importance. As put by a 1879 article in Le Siècle, “the last room belongs to the high priests of Impressionism.” Despite his work being the crown jewel, Monet never visited the exhibition during its month-long run. Regardless, the show was a rousing success, with overwhelmingly positive reviews in the press.

Durand-Ruel held the painting until at least 1879. By 1893, the work had entered the collection of Henri Vever, one of the most important jewelry designers in fin-de-siècle France, and a major collector of Japanese prints and Impressionist pictures. In 1898, the painting was in the Holthusen collection, in Hamburg, Germany.

SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT

In the early 1930s, La Mare, effet de neige belonged to a German textile industrialist named Richard Semmel,  who lived in Berlin with his wife, Clara Cäcilie (née Brück). When the National Socialist government came into power, the Semmels were targeted for their Jewish background and Richard’s support of the German Democratic Party. After leaving Berlin for Amsterdam in 1933, Richard offered his art collection for sale, with mixed success. Shortly before the occupation of the Netherlands, the Semmels fled again to New York via Chile. Over  recent months, Christie’s has worked closely with the current owners in their discussions with the legal representative for heirs of Richard Semmel. Our Restitution Department offered research and support as the parties involved came to an agreement. The present work is being offered for sale pursuant to that settlement agreement. The settlement agreement resolves the dispute over ownership of the work and title will pass to the successful bidder.

 Christie’s has announce that Jackson Pollock’s Number 31, 1949 will lead the 20^th Century Evening Sale taking place 12 May 2022 at Rockefeller Plaza (Estimate on request; in excess of $45 million). Painted in 1949, the work is among the richest and most powerful examples of Pollock’s celebrated drip paintings, standing as an icon from a seminal moment in the development of twentieth-century art. It has been featured in a number of important exhibitions, including the 1967 Jackson Pollock MoMA retrospective in addition to the 1998 retrospective mounted at MoMA and The Tate. Held in the same private collection for over two decades, the work is incredibly fresh to market.

Pollock executed Number 31 during a flurry of brilliant artistic activity during the end of 1949. The work was subsequently exhibited with Pollock’s new dealer Betty Parsons later that year where critics described the exhibition as “the best painting he has yet done.” Number 31 will tour to Christie’s Los Angeles where it will be on view from 19 – 22 April before returning to New York ahead of the sale.

Alex Rotter, Christie’s Chairman of 20^th and 21^st Century Art, remarks, “In the late 1940s, Pollock’s drip paintings categorically redefined how we understand art. This moment saw the art world’s center of gravity shift for the first time away from the museums and galleries of Paris and into the streets of New York. With his revolutionary new technique, Pollock effectively upended the existing framework of traditional painting practices. True drip paintings were—and still are—the ultimate in mid-century American avant-garde, and are rare to come across in the secondary market. Number 31 is a superb example. It is a fantastic, frenetic combination of rich hues—straight from the paint can. It stands as a brilliant demonstration of Pollock’s rigor and effusiveness and we are thrilled to feature it as the top lot in Christie’s 20^th Century Evening Sale this Spring Marquee Week.”

Essentially an unknown artist in the early 1940s, Pollock first began exploring his now infamous drip painting technique in 1948. By the latter half of 1949, Pollock had found himself catapulted to success as a result of the popularity of this body of work, with paintings acquired by five major museums and 40 prominent private collections. By the time he created Number 31, Pollock had truly mastered the process. Pollock created only thirteen of these drip paintings on paper in 1949—each then mounted onto Masonite, composition board or canvas. Only eight of these display the gleaming, metallic paint employed in Number 31, one of the fullest and most opulent compositions of the group.

Christie’s has announced Wayne Thiebaud’s City Views (estimate: $10 million – 15 million) will highlight the Spring Marquee Week 20th Century Evening Sale at Rockefeller Plaza on Thursday, 12 May 2022. City Views is a striking triptych, standing as one of the largest landscapes ever painted by Thiebaud. The work is being sold by the nonprofit biomedical research organization Gladstone Institutes, with proceeds going to a dedicated fund that supports its scientific training and mentoring programs.

Gladstone has disrupted the traditional research model to accelerate discovery and cure development. Their vision is to overcome unsolved diseases through transformative biomedical research, particularly in the areas of cardiovascular, viral, and immunological diseases as well as neurodegenerative disorders. Gladstone also seeks to mentor and train future generations of scientific innovators. Created as a commissioned installation for the Gladstone Institutes in 2004, this May marks the first time City Views will be sold. Prior to the sale, the work will be on view in Christie’s San Francisco and Christie’s New York galleries.

Deepak Srivastava, President, Gladstone Institutes, remarks, “Mr. Thiebaud placed great value on teaching and mentoring, with many of his mentees going on to become influential American artists themselves. As a tribute to this legacy, all of the sale proceeds will go directly to a new, named fund to support our postdoctoral fellows along their journey to become leaders in biomedical science.”

Ellanor Notides, Christie’s, Chairman, West Coast, remarks, “Painted specifically for the Gladstone Institutes in 2004, City Views is a breathtaking and timeless rendering of San Francisco. Wayne Thiebaud—both local hero and internationally celebrated artist—was known for his map-like urban landscapes, and this is an absolutely superb example. The painting is an homage to our great city and we at Christie’s are so proud to steward it this Spring, and I am truly elated that proceeds will benefit innovation and discovery science  and furthering the great work that the Institutes continues to achieve for the betterment of global health.”

City Views is a demonstrative of Thiebaud’s skill and telegraphs the enthusiasm with which the iconic Californian continued to paint the Bay Area throughout the entirety of his career. Thiebaud, who passed away last December at the age of 101, first began painting San Francisco in the 1970s, creating faithful iterations of that which he saw before him. As time went on, he began to combine different vantage points into fantastic larger-than-life cityscapes. City Views is exemplary, with roadways flattened out into geometric panels to form a quilt-like grid with buildings and sky. Bordering on the edge of abstraction, the formal composition is amplified through its triptych format, the three canvasses coalescing in a delightful interplay of color, texture and shape in a singular reimagining of the modern West coast landscape.

Thiebaud painted City Views over the course of about one year, finishing it six months prior to the completion of the Gladstone building in which it would eventually be installed. With the canvasses still in the studio, Thiebaud continued to fiddle with the composition, incorporating in new playful elements and hidden gems for the perceptive viewer. The median in the road in the central panel became a necktie, and the trees became cupcakes dotting the landscape, recalling his infamous cake series. In a way, the outcome is a complete retrospective of the artist contained within a single work.