Going for Gauguin in London

On 29 June, 2010, Sotheby’s Paris sold a monotype by Gauguin, entitled Trois Têtes Tahitiennes, for €312,750 against a pre‐sale estimate of €100,000‐150,000. In March of 2011, Sotheby’s London will sell 10 Gauguin prints from the Stanley Seeger collection. The group is estimated at £430-574,000. Here’s Sotheby’s description of the lead work:

Monotypes, traced monotypes and woodcuts were developed by Gauguin to a level of artistic innovation unseen among his contemporaries. When he arrived in Tahiti without any form of printing press, Gauguin explored and developed his printmaking techniques to produce the traced monotype, or ‘printed drawing’ as the artist also called the method which allowed him to print clear linear compositions with coloured backgrounds. Crouching Tahitian Woman, 1901‐02, estimated at £180,000‐ 220,000, is a superb realisation of this process (pictured on previous page). Printed in sanguine and black, and with tracing in red crayon and pencil on the reverse, the work demonstrates Gauguinʹs pioneering experimentation in this medium.

Gauguin PR Mar11