
Bonhams
Bonhams will sell a collection of works by Jewish modern artists belonging to the World War II–era School of Paris this season in London. Featuring works by Moïse Kisling, Léon Indenbaum and Jules Pascin, among others, the sale, titled “L’ Ecole de Paris 1905-1939: The Jewish Artists,” is expected to achieve £350,000–450,000 ($478,000–$617,000) and will hit the auction block on March 3 at Bonhams New Bond street location.
The group of 86 lots comes from the collection of the Nieszawer and Princ families, which own Bureau d’art, a Paris- and Tel Aviv–based art dealership and research firm with specializing in School of Paris artists. First established by French art dealer Nadine Nieszawer, the collection of works was later expanded by her son and daughter-in-law Boris and Deborah Princ.
Kisling’s Nature morte au pichet (1917), an early Cubist still life painting, by the Polish-born artist will lead the sale. Kisling moved to Paris in 1910 when he was 19, and lived and worked in the city’s Montparnasse and Montmartre districts, where he came in contact with contemporaries such as Picasso and Modigliani. The painting is estimated at £30,000–£35,000 ($41,000–$48,000).
The work last came up to market in December 2016, when it sold at Shapiro Auctions for $32,000. Prior to that, it sold during a Sotheby’s London Impressionist and modern art day sale in February 2007 for £38,400 ($72,500).
Among the other top lots in the Bonhams auction is La Cavalière (ca. 1917), a painted oak panel depicting a woman on horseback, formerly installed as part of staircase by Russian artist Léon Indenbaum. Best known as a sculptor, Indenbaum forged friendships with Modigliani and Diego Rivera, both of whom painted portraits of Indenbaum. By 1929, the artist had garnered a circle of prominent patrons including designers Jacques Doucet, Paul Poiret, and banking brothers Georges and Marcel Bernard. During the war, Indenbaum remained in hiding. According to Bureau d’art’s online entry on the artist, many of his works were lost or destroyed.
Other highlights in the sale include Bulgarian artist Jules Pascin’s Les Provinciales and La Figurante du Palace (1927). Made following a period spent studying under painter Georg Grosz in the early 1900s, Les Provinciales dates from his early years working in Paris, at the beginning of his extra-marital relationship with Matisse Academy model, Lucy Krohg, who is the painting’s subject. The work is expected to achieve a price between £15,000–£18,000 ($25,000–$30,000).
Pascin made La Figurante du Palace while living on the Boulevard de Clichy. The work dates from the period in his oeuvre is known as ”nacré,” named for the pearly hue of his paintings. It is expected to achieve a price of £18,000–£22,000 ($25,000–$30,000).
A painting of a reclining nude by the Czech painter Georges Kars, whose works recalls that of his friend and fellow painter Suzanne Valadon, will also be included in the sale. It is estimated at £10,000–£15,000 ($14,000–$20,000).