Vincent van Gogh, Châtaigniers
en fleurs (1890)
Legendary: The Blaquier-Arrieta Collection Evening Auction, Sotheby’s, 18 November
Estimate: in the region of $180m
Vincent van Gogh painted Châtaigniers en fleurs (blossoming chestnut trees) during the final weeks of his life, having just moved to the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise after spending the previous year in a psychiatric asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Initially he took to painting with a renewed optimism at his surroundings and work. The painting at hand depicts flowering chestnut trees blooming into a blue sky, with women passing through with parasols and Japanese-inspired dress. Châtaigniers en fleurs is expected to fetch in the region of $180m, Sotheby’s says. The artist’s current record at auction is $117.2m, set by Christie’s New York in November 2022 during the Paul Allen sale with Verger avec cyprès (orchard with cypresses, 1888). Châtaigniers en fleurs has not been seen in public since entering the Argentinian Blaquier-Arrieta collection in 1975.
Courtesy Sotheby’s
Paul Cezanne, Arlequin (1888-90)
Legendary: The Blaquier-Arrieta Collection Evening Auction, Sotheby’s, 18 November
Estimate: Around $120m
Arlequin is a rare appearance on the market of one of Paul Cezanne’s paintings from his harlequin series, modelled on his son, Paul, and inspired by Mardi Gras parades from the artist’s childhood in Aix-en-Provence, France. It is one of only four such examples, according to Sotheby’s. When the painting was unveiled at Sotheby’s in London, it was the first time it had been seen in public since 1975, when it was acquired by the sugar magnates Carlos Pedro Blaquier and Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier. Before it entered their collection in Argentina, it belonged to legendary dealers like Ambroise Vollard, Paul Durand-Ruel and Paul Rosenberg. It also hung for two decades at Merton Hall in Cambridge, the then-family home of the British branch of the Rothschild family. Another version of the painting is part of the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. If it exceeds its estimate, Arlequin could set an artist record at auction. The most valuable Cezanne to sell at auction was a view of his beloved Sainte-Victoire mountain, for $137.79m, at Christie’s New York in 2022 during the sale of Paul Allen’s collection.
Courtesy Christie’s
Man Ray, Le Baiser (around 1930)
Collection Roger Therond, Christie’s, Paris, 13 November
Estimate: €250,000 to €350,000
Man Ray’s Le Baiser (the kiss) comes from the collection of Roger Therond, the journalist and longtime editor of Paris Match, whose holdings included photographs by some of the leading artists of inter-war Paris. Therond was particularly drawn to Man Ray, whom he nicknamed “the Frenzied One”. In Le Baiser, two figures are captured in ambiguous poses, leaving the relationship between the two sitters deliberately unclear. According to Christie’s, Therond encouraged his children to look at the photograph from a distance and imagine different possibilities and circumstances for the subjects. The sitter on the left side is the American photographer Lee Miller, who began her career as a fashion model and later worked as a correspondent for Vogue during the Second World War. Miller was one of the first journalists to arrive at the Dachau concentration camp after its liberation in 1945, and recorded some of the most haunting photographic evidence of the Holocaust. She famously posed for a photo while bathing in Adolf Hitler’s personal bathtub at his Munich apartment.