Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Early Gauguin Work Emerges at Sotheby’s Paris After a Century in Same Family

February 14, 2019 by Marion Maneker

Sotheby’s revealed today that its Paris auction rooms will have an early work by Paul Gauguin: Le Jardin de Pissarro, Quai du Pothuis à Pontoise, 1881, a highlight of the Impressionist and Modern Art sale in Paris on 29 March. The painting has been in the same family since the 1920s. It was exhibited in 1964 in Pont-Aven. Then, again, at a recent popular exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art (Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse, 2015-2016). The back of the work contains two self-portraits. Here’s Sotheby’s release on the work:

Aurélie Vandevoorde, Head of the Impressionist and Modern Art Department at Sotheby’s France, explains: “While it is always an event to see major works by the great pioneers at the turn of the 20th century, such as Modigliani and Cézanne, emerge on the market, this time it is particularly moving to be able to unveil to the public one of Gauguin’s masterpieces that is so emblematic of his work, and is a testament to the friendship between those two great figures of modern art: Gauguin and Pissarro.”

Rare evidence of the close relationship between Gauguin and Pissarro 

This work is emblematic of Gauguin’s early career as a painter. Between 1879 and 1881, Gauguin frequently visited Pissarro, whom he called his “dear teacher” in a number of letters. He would often stay in Pontoise, where Pissarro lived. The latter launched Gauguin’s career as a painter and taught him all the technique he required. These were formative years for Gauguin’s art. As Christophe Duvivier, Director of the Pontoise museums, puts it: “With Pissarro, Gauguin learnt to see landscape and summarise it.” And Victor Segalen writes: “From this master, Gauguin learnt how to choose which colours to put onto canvas. […] What is more, Pissarro taught him independence, and freed him from all control except his own […].” (Hommage à Gauguin, l’insurgé des Marquises, 2003).

The two men met in 1879 and Pissarro immediately offered advice and encouragement to the young Gauguin, who was then emerging as a painter. The friendship between the two men is reflected in a joint work made in 1880 and kept at the Musée d’Orsay: a portrait of Gauguin by Pissarro combined with a portrait of Pissarro by Gauguin.

The house featured in this painting is where Pissarro lived in Pontoise between summer 1881 and November 1882, on Quai du Pothuis. Gauguin often came to see his teacher here, and this painting bears witness to these regular visits. It appears to be contemporary with a work by Pissarro depicting the same scene.

A particularly touching detail is that it is almost certain that the figure beneath the umbrella is Pissarro himself. We know the latter often painted beneath an umbrella, as portrayed in many works and images showing the artist in Pontoise. This is more than a landscape, it is Gauguin’s homage to his teacher, whose presence is suggested here.

Exceptionally, on the back of the canvas are two self-portraits by the artist

According to the catalogue raisonné on Gauguin, these are the first known self-portraits by the artist. It appears certain that they were executed after the landscape. While they are painted on a blank background, both are of an exceptional quality, presaging some of Gauguin’s most famous self-portraits, made a few years later.

A work at the dawn of modernity

Painted very early in Gauguin’s career, this double work already reveals a striking modernity. The landscape is framed in a particular, innovative way, inspired by photographic techniques. If we compare this piece with the version painted by Pissarro, the modernity of Gauguin’s work is evident. It reveals a 20th century style and prefigures Gauguin’s innovations that would come in the years ahead. The self-portraits, with their pared-back facial features, also look ahead to the Synthetist period of Pont-Aven in 1888. With this work from his youth, the artist is fully asserting his identity.

Simon de Pury’s Lawsuit Reveals True Price Paid for Gauguin’s Nafea faa ipoipo (When will you marry?)

June 30, 2017 by Marion Maneker

There’s a lawsuit in the UK that gives us a narrative of the $300m sale of Gauguin’s Nafea faa ipoipo (When will you marry?) which was bought from Rudolf Staechlin’s family foundation in 2014 for an endlessly repeated report of $300m privately, one of the key events in marking the top of the art market in the 2014-15 period.

It turns out that the sale was for $210m and that is a source of some recriminations between the seller and one of the intermediaries who is suing to get a commission.

Simon de Pury went to school with Staechelin and acted as a go-between for Guy Bennett, the al-Thani family’s representative in art dealings. But de Pury tried one of the oldest sales moves, get the buyer and seller talking and hope one of them will move.

Turns out the Qataris were firm on their price and Staechelin eventually compromised:Continue Reading

Gauguin on a Run at Sotheby's

March 30, 2011 by Marion Maneker

Sotheby’s sold some Gauguin prints in London today at prices that confirm the run that began in June of last year when a monotype doubled the estimate to make €312,750. That turns out be a conservative number compared to this record-setting work:

Ten prints by Paul Gauguin from the Collection of Stanley J. Seeger, sold for £1.54 million ($2.47 million), almost four times the pre-sale low estimate for the group. A new auction record for a print by Paul Gauguin was achieved when Crouching Tahitian Woman Seen From The Back sold for £577,250 ($924,466), over three times the estimate (£180,000-220,000). The traced monotype, or ‘printed drawing’, was fiercely contested by a number of determined bidders, finally selling to a private collector on the telephone after a five-minute battle.

If that’s not enough action, Sotheby’s announced this week that its New York May sale would contain this rarity:

Jeune tahitienne is an exquisite sculpture carved during Paul Gauguin’s first trip to Tahiti between 1890 and 1893 (est. $10/15 million*). As the only fully-worked bust portrait that Gauguin is known to have created, it is unique within his oeuvre, and numbers among the artist’s finest sculptures in private hands.

 

Going for Gauguin in London

January 20, 2011 by Marion Maneker

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

Gauguin at Tate Modern (Telegraph Arts Video)

October 12, 2010 by Marion Maneker

Next Page »
LiveArt

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor
 

Loading Comments...