Sotheby’s has announced three vivid works for the May Impressionist and Modern Sales:

Paul Signac’s Maisons du port, Saint-Tropez (estimate $8/12 million) is a striking Pointillist painting from 1882. Inscribed Op.237, the painting heralds from an important period for the artist, during which he designated his works with ‘opus numbers,’ much as a composer would name a masterful musical composition. Maisons du port, Saint-Tropez has remained in the family collection of Ambassador John Langeloth Loeb, Jr. since his parents acquired it in 1958, and is appearing at auction for the first time this May in New York.

Only four major Fauve works have sold at auction since 2010, when Sotheby’s set a new benchmark price for the movement (see release attached). It is therefore exceptionally rare that the 9 May auction will offer two such masterworks: Andreì Derain’s Les Voiles rouges (estimate $15/20 million) and Maurice de Vlaminck’s Sous-bois($12/18 million). Both paintings were acquired in 1954 by art patron and philanthropist Sarah Campbell Blaffer of Houston, Texas, and have remained in her family’s collection since.