This spring, the world's two major auction giants Sotheby's and Christie's have successively spoiled the key lots of the spring auction, I don't know if it is a psychological effect, I always feel that the weight of the heavy equipment auctioned this spring is particularly heavy, and they are the pinnacle of their respective categories.
Monet, "Venice Grand Canal and the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie"
Let's take a look at the Spring Auction of Sotheby's in New York in May, which will feature Monet's oil painting "Venice Grand Canal and Church of Santa Maria della Ankon". We have seen many artists depict the classic beauty of Venice, but this Painting of Venice is truly outstanding, and he uses a new creative technique to delicately capture the ancient buildings and the ever-changing brilliance of the intersecting rivers in Venice.
It is well known that Monet's work was not popular in France, and the first to welcome his work was in the United States. Introduced by the special American artist Sargent, Monet and his wife Iris met the wealthy American Hunter, who was invited by Hunter to Venice in the fall of 1908 and was welcomed by the local American upper class, where Henette spent 3 months creating 37 works. At that time, Monet depicted the Church of Santa Maria de Ankon on the other side of the Grand Canal from the stairs outside the Palazzo Barbaro, leaving a unique 6 masterpieces, and "Venice Grand Canal and Church of Santa Maria de Ankon" is undoubtedly the most exquisite one.
The work was exhibited at the Kimbell Art Museum in 1997 and, 25 years later, appeared at Sotheby's in New York and is expected to sell for more than $50 million.
"Qianlong Emperor Royal Treasure Taishi Young Lion Niu ShouShan Stone Seal"
Sotheby's hong Kong will photograph the Qianlong Emperor's "Stone Seal of Niu Shou Shan" printed on countless national treasures this spring. The carvings of Yinniu are exquisite and superb, should be made for the craftsmen during the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods, Qianlong from the early days of his accession to the throne to the first compilation of "Shiqu Baoji" in 1745, frequent printing, countless ancient masterpieces such as the Northern Song Dynasty Heavy Treasure King Xi Meng's "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" scroll, Fan Kuan's "Xishan Travel Map" axis and Guo Xi's "Early Spring Map" axis, etc., many masterpieces written by masters, from Song Huizong to Ni Zhan, Qiu Ying, Zhu Yun, Lang Shining, one thing is connected, expressing Qianlong's cherishing and ownership of these national treasures. Among the imperial seals seen in the art market, the frequency of plutonium printing is unparalleled.
After Qianlong, the seal was stored in the Shouhuang Palace, and a hundred years later, the treasure seal was exiled to Europe, and in 1965 it reappeared at Sotheby's in London, and was bid by the discerning collector Wu Quan. Since then, it has been hidden in the world until this spring.
Chen Yifei oil painting "Night Feast"
Hong Kong's Sotheby's Spring Auction also features Chen Yifei's masterpiece "Night Feast" from the Chinese classical ladies series. Created in 1991, "The Night Feast" was on the cover of the Hong Kong Auction Catalogue the following year and was auctioned by Sir Run Run Shaw for nearly HK$2 million, breaking not only the auction record for the artist's own works, but also setting a record for the highest oil painting auction in China that year.
The current auction record for Chen Yifei's works was set in 2017 by Yutang Chunnuan for 149.5 million yuan. Whether "Night Feast", which was created in the same era and with the same theme as "Yutang Spring Warmth", can achieve good results again is worth our expectations.
Zhang Daqian's "Imitation of Wang Ximeng's Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains"
Zhang Daqian's green landscape works in the modern painting world can be described as a bull's ear holder, and the only surviving work of Wang Ximeng of the Northern Song Dynasty, "Qianli Jiangshan Map", is the history of painting of green landscapes and rivers, Zhang Daqian was once known for "blood battle ancients" and the painting world, his series of works "tribute to the ancients" has always been well received by the market, "Imitation of Wang Ximeng Qianli Jiangshan Map" created by Zhang Daqian in 1948, is also the only work to pay tribute to Wang Mengxi.
Zhang Daqian held solo exhibitions in Shanghai for three consecutive years from 1946 to 1948, and many of the works that were popular in solo exhibitions in those years continued to create price miracles in the art market over the years, and this "Imitation of Wang Ximeng's Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" was listed as "non-selling" in Zhang Daqian's Shanghai solo exhibition in 1948.
This painting is mainly green, with gold enhancement, and the exquisite treatment is amazing. In the painting, the water waves on the surface of the river are hooked with gold threads, and the sparkling golden light appears in the sunlight; the sky, the mountain silhouette, and the bottom of the slope are all covered with mud, which is like a cloud brocade. In his paintings, Zhang Daqian smelts the boneless, green, and golden methods together, and the fine brush hook gold covers nearly half of the picture, and in his life's works, I am afraid that this is the only one.
After the painting was returned to the Shanghai celebrity Sun Zhifei, it was blessed with a treasure and rarely shown, only in 1983 to exhibit Zhang Daqian's exhibition held in Beijing and Shanghai. Today's presence on the art market is a rare opportunity.
Andy Warhol, "Shooting Marilyn (Sage Blue)"
Andy Warhol's "Shooting Marilyn (Sage Blue)" will be featured at Christie's in New York in May. Andy Warhol's Marilyn's work is definitely the pinnacle of American pop art history, combining optimism, human fragility, celebrity effects and idolatry, and is one of the cultural icons of the 20th century.
After Marilyn Monroe's death in 1962, Andy Warhol began creating screen prints for her, slicing Monroe's face in bright colors and repeating it several times, often with slightly skewed features. By 1964, Warhol had invented a more elaborate printing technique, and used this special technique to create a limited number of portraits of Monroe, a technique far from his well-known mass production method, which was so difficult that he no longer used it, making this portrait a masterpiece.
Christie's revealed that the work is estimated at about $200 million, and once sold, it may become the highest-priced 20th-century artwork in auction history.
Picasso's Sculpture of a Female Head (Fernand)
This spring's Christie's in New York will also feature a Picasso sculpture "Female Head (Fernand)", estimated at $30 million, and it is worth mentioning that this lot was previously from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the sale of this Picasso work is to get rid of the financial crisis that the museum has encountered since the epidemic.
Created in 1909, the bronze sculpture was inspired by a Picasso muse, the bohemian model Fernand Oliver, around which Picasso created a total of 16 bronze sculptures, and more than 60 portraits related to her.
The Female Head (Fernand) has been called "one of the greatest works in the history of modernist sculpture" and Picasso's first Cubist sculpture, and its conception, creation and birth are important symbols of Cubism.
The bronze head as a whole gives people a mountain-like quality, and each time the head is moved, it can produce new angles and lines, forming a different viewing perspective. The birth of this sculpture marks that Picasso has matured to an unprecedented degree of boldness and complexity in mastering the creation of the three, and the head and face of the figure have been reshaped by many modules to create a new way of expression, which is both a figurative depiction of the female head and an abstract formal configuration, reflecting all directions of light in a constantly fading way. It was full of strong subversive implications at the time, and also opened the door to many new artistic possibilities.
In addition, the model Fernand was also Picasso's lover at the time, but soon after the creation of the sculpture, the relationship between the two became tense and often clashed, and they eventually broke up in 1912.
The sculpture was once in the collection of Lausanne, Switzerland, and was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1964.