Christie's Online Magazine No.300

From: Christie's - Saturday Mar 19, 2022 04:07 pm

Christie’s

Richard Gere’s photography collection, Ben Nicholson, A rare Polonaise carpet, Persian miniature paintings, Post-war Surrealists, The art of spring, and more |

‘Most of the pictures I respond to have a story’: Richard Gere on why he collects photographs

Owned by Adolphe Carl von Rothschild: ‘The best Polonaise carpet on the market in years’

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Ben Nicholson: the rivalry that spurred him to master ‘clarity and the great art of omission’

Persian miniature paintings — Rustam to the rescue and other colourful tales of Iranian heroes

Inna and Boris Salomon — the collectors whose gallery became a beacon of post-war Surrealism

Spring fever: 10 lots coming to Christie’s bursting with dappled sunshine, bluebells and blossom

More stories

Editor’s picks

Danseuses (Les Coulisses de l’Opéra), painted by Edgar Degas around 1886, is a masterful study of contrasting aspects of a ballet performance. The figures on the right chat and wait behind the scenes, while the dancer and harlequin to the left are either already on stage or entering it

Estimate: €2,000,000-3,000,000
31 March, Paris

From 1967 until the mid-1970s, Elisabeth Frink lived in a craggy, forested part of the south of France. It’s likely that Wild Boar, from 1975, is based on a real encounter in the woods near her home, which helps explain the raw vitality of the work, and its hint of simmering menace

Estimate: £120,000-180,000
23 March, London

Chomon Gorge is a dramatic landscape of cliffs, rapids and waterfalls on the Abu River in Japan. Yet in his painting Chomonkyo (Chomon Gorge), dating from 1925-26, Imanaka Soyu captures a moment of sublime stillness, with the massive rocks almost seeming to dissolve into the mirror-like water

Estimate: $20,000-30,000
22 March, New York

This Cartier brooch depicts a boat clipping along at pace, sunlight glinting off its sails. That glint comes from 12 variously cut citrines in a gold setting, while the hull of the vessel is rendered in buff-top onyx, with diamonds evoking the foamy waves beneath

Estimate: HK$40,000-60,000
until 24 March, Online

Ben Nicholson in 1932. Photo: © The Courtauld / Bridgeman Images. Right, Ben Nicholson, O.M. (1894-1982), October 1949 (Rangitane), 1949. Oil on curved panel. 82⅞ x 71 in (210.5 x 180.3 cm), including frame. Estimate: £700,000-1,000,000. Offered in the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale on 22 March 2022 at Christie’s in London // Agustín Cárdenas (1927-2001), Jaquamba, 1958. Doussie wood. Estimate: €70,000-100,000 / Max Ernst (1891-1976), Universaphrodite ou Naissance d'Aphrodite, 1947. Oil on canvas. Estimate: €200,000-300,000 / Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Le Couple, circa 1938. Gouache on paper laid on canvas. Estimate: €100,000-150,000 / Francis Picabia (1879-1953), Rubi, 1929. Oil on panel. Estimate: €1,500,000-2,500,000. All offered in Une passion surréaliste: Collection Inna & Boris Salomon on 30 March 2022 at Christie’s in Paris

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Christie's Online Magazine No.300