Artwork worth over £17m with pieces from Kandinsky, Degas and Cézanne is going on sale at antiquessearch.com on 16th December 2022.
The online sale will see 118 Masterpieces come up for sale. Internationally recognised gallery owner and collector Alain Dreyfus from Basel, Switzerland is presenting the live auction. The event will see masterpieces by famous painters come up for sale with a combined starting price of over 20 Million Swiss Francs/£17m.
Auction highlights include three pieces from artists Paul Cézanne, Vassili Kandinsky and Edgar Degas. These pieces are sure to create a buzz with art lovers worldwide, as they have been held in private collections for some time.
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Girl Carrying Flowers in her Apron by Edgar Degas (1834-1917), starting price 1 million Swiss Francs.
Oil on canvas 73.3 x 55.7 cm
This girl, who steps forward with grace and restraint, sketches a slight dance step, halfway to a curtsy. With her arms stretched forward to raise her skirt, which holds a spray of flowers, she gives a glimpse of her ankles, crossed in a precarious balance. Emerging from the shadow of the background, she steps into the light as if on a proscenium. Wouldn’t she, in fact, be taking a bow after a performance? The flowers would then be those of her ovation, as for a young opera star… Somewhere between a portrait and a genre scene, this painting, with its fine and lively brushstrokes, portrays an attitude of great freshness, captured on the spot. This early work foreshadows the favourite subjects that Degas would develop in his maturity and already reveals his passion for the little “rats” of the Paris Opera, whom he undertook to paint from every angle. While there are no clues in the setting to situate the action, the dress and early age of this little girl here probably reveals a “good family” child from the painter’s entourage, captured on the occasion of a family event.
Church in Murnau by Vassili Kandinsky (1866-1944) with the legendary starting price of 4 million Swiss Frances
(See top of page)
Oil on board 35 x 46.8 cm
Dominating with its rectilinear silhouette the few houses that surround it, this small church emerges among their roofs. Like a familiar landmark in a dreamlike landscape, its bulbous bell tower and curved pediment offer the characteristics of Baroque architecture in the midst of rugged countryside. In fact, in front of the religious building, nature competes in height with the two mountains that bar the horizon and confront its yellow ochre façade with their red and blue masses. The confrontation here is first of all through colour, where the warm tones, predominantly yellow, clash with the red flow that descends from the mountain to invade the roofs in an orange mixture. Overlooking this, it is a colder cobalt blue that occupies the sky and the mountain ridge. It is therefore colour that governs the composition. But this cohabitation of bright and saturated tones finds its harmony through the modulation of an apparent and regular touch. From the foreground to the background, the paintbrush hints at its oblique hatchings, giving the landscape movement, almost a framework. And indeed, apart from the silhouette of the church, everything here is sloping. The slope of the mountains, but also the slope of the meadows in the foreground, right down to the trees whose trunks are leaning. The passage of the clouds is part of this same dynamic, accentuating a sense of reading which, from the church, takes us beyond the mountains. Reduced to their simplest expressions, the forms, if still camping a landscape, seem nevertheless to free themselves from it to lead us towards abstraction, that of an interior landscape which expresses an interiorized vision of the painter.
Two Playing Boys by Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) starting price 450.000 Swiss Francs
Oil on canvas 55 x 45 cm
Two children seated outside a house are petting a rabbit. The second one, huddled next to them, seems to be waiting for his turn. The scene takes place at the foot of the stoop of a house, in a shady courtyard where there is a barrel and probably the hutch, behind the children. The children, a brother and sister with similar features, belong to a wealthy family, judging by their attire. The perceptible details of the architecture behind them suggest a middle-class house with a wrought-iron railing and an arbour supporting a Virginia creeper. A patch of blue sky in the upper right reveals a sunny day bringing light into the courtyard. While the brown palette suggests half-light, the children, with their bright, clear colours, are lit from the front, in contradiction with the light source behind them. The painter’s intention here is not so much to respect the rules of a realistic representation as to draw us portraits of two children, probably from his family, fixed in a moment of intimacy.
Other artwork from painters including Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) Eugène Boudin (1824-1898), Vassili Kandinsky (1866-1944) Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), Federico Zandomeneghi (1841-1917), and Natalia Gontcharova (1881-1962) is included. This is a very exciting auction with many pieces coming onto the market after being held privately for a number of years.
Franz Fedra, co-founder antiquessearch.com commented: “We are delighted to be working with Alain Dreyfus and hosting this live auction on 16th December. The selection of water colour paintings from 15th-20th Century is outstanding with many of them previously held in private collections, offering a wonderful chance for collectors to secure a piece. Stand out pieces from Kandinsky, Degas, Cézanne, are exciting to have in the sale, sat alongside other world renowned artists including Louis-Leopold Boilly, Jean Baptiste-Simeon Chardin and Jean-Honore Fragonard. There are 118 pieces being sold from 73 different artists.”
“We created antiquessearch.com after the philasearch.com website was such a hit. Users can stream the live auction throughout the day as well as bid and really take part in the action from the comfort of their own home.”
All items may be viewed here.
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