Major 19th Century European Paintings at Auction
October 16, 2012
There are a series of exciting auctions in New York, NY that include some of the finest works of the period. Combined, these auctions include a total of twelve paintings by William Bouguereau, five by John William Godward, two by Emile Munier, two by Hugues Merle and other works by Dagnan-Bouveret, James Tissot, Julien Dupre, Leon L'hermitte, John Atkinson Grimshaw, Edmund Blair Leighton, and many others.  The first sale is October 29th, at Chrisite's, and is featuring William Bouguereau's Marchande de Grenades, a rare orientalist work, estimated to sell for between 2.5 and 3.5 million US dollars. Many ARC fans may remember we had a competition some time ago to identify this painting from a detail of the background. The competition demonstrated that impressionists did not invent impressionist techniques, which is what is often taught in college and university art courses. Bouguereau and many other of his contemporaries used impressionist techniques that pre-date the impressionist movement; the impressionists made it the entire canvas while the academic painters used it in the background as a way of creating selective focus. |
 Bonham's is having its sale on October 31st, featuring an important work by John William Godward, Waiting for the Procession, and Sotheby's is auctioning the most works, over 100 lots, on November 8th. Their sale includes eight of the twelve Bouguereaus being offered this fall. The below Bouguereau, featured on Sotheby's cover is titled La Branche de Cerisier and is estimated at 1.5 to 2 million US dollars. For non-collectors, we still encourage you to view the public auction presales which are one of the best ways to see important works from a given period that are in private collections and are otherwise not on public view. Most if not all of these paintings are sold back into private collections and many are never put on public view again. |
Christie's Preview –Friday, October 26 – Monday October 29th To view the full online catalogue click here. Bonham's Preview – Saturday, October 27 - Tuesday, October 30 To view the full online catalogue click here. Sotheby's Preview – Friday, November 2 – Wednesday, November 7 To view the full online catalogue click here. |