Paris Auction to Present Historical Collection of Paintings from the Private Collection M. André Lefèvre, including works by Picasso, Miró, Gris, Léger and Laurens
Nov. 30, 2007
The sale will also include important Impressionist, Orientalist and Russian paintings, and section of Modern and Contemporary Art, featuring works by Diego Giacometti
PARIS—The Cabinet d’Expertise Dan Coissard in association with Aguttes Auction House have the great pleasure to announce the Dec. 21 sale of an exceptional collection of paintings by Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Henri Laurens and Fernand Léger from the prestigious private collection of Monsieur André Lefèvre in Paris and now belonging to his descendants. For those unable to attend, catalog preview and Internet bidding are available via www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
It is with a great sentiment that we discovered this exquisite collection of 10 oils on canvas and works on paper during an appraisal for insurance purposes. These historical works have been conserved in a safe deposit box since the 1960s, and have not been seen by the public since they were exhibited in 1964 with the rest of the collection of André Lefèvre at the Musée national d’Art Moderne in Paris.
André Lefèvre, a successful banker, retired around the age of 40 to pursue his passion for art.
Through the years he built a collection of 275 paintings by some of the most prestigious and significant artists of his time, including Picasso, Braque, Miró, Léger, Gris and Modigliani. In 1964-1965 and in 1967, after his death, a great part of his collection was dispersed at public auctions held at the Palais Galliéra, while another 30 of his paintings were donated to the French national museums.
However, “the honest man,” as described by Jean Cassou, head curator of the Musée national d’Art Moderne in Paris at the time, had taken great care to advise his descendents to acquire certain works in his collection that he wished to be attached to his name; it is these specific works that we are proud to present.
“It is clear that Mr. Lefèvre was particularly interested in Cubism, a period that is predominant in his collection. This collection is the evidence of the taste and the spirit of the individual, and of this individual during a certain time.” It was immediately after World War I that Mr. Lefèvre began collecting; he had an interest in and an eye for the new techniques of the time and collected with decisiveness and vigor. Cubism, its philosophy, its geometric qualities, its intellectual sophistication, and its many astonishing subtleties, was characterized by the crushing poetry of Max Jacob, always on the cutting edge of the criticism of the human conscience, by the sinuous and sad portraits of Modigliani and by the sudden, striking stridence of the Fauves. This is the flurry that astounded the public but that intrigued this honest man. It was, therefore, above all Cubism that peaked Mr. Lefèvre’s curiosity, that inspired in him a certain indulgence, that distracted him, charmed him, satisfied him and completed him. Because more than any other movement of the time that produced great works, it was Cubism, declaring its audacity, biting and subversive, that delighted the spirit and brought a heated enthusiasm. These elements alone provoke sentiments that are somewhat mysterious to the individual in art criticism, but all together, they are simply out of the ordinary.”
This session will begin with the sale of the extraordinary oil on canvas Blue Star by Joan Miró, created in 192,7 and considered by the artist himself to be one of his most emblematic and representative of his œuvre. (Estimation: $7,300,000 / 10,200,000)
“I visited Miró in Mallorca, to discuss our project with him. During our visit, Miró emphasized the significance of this exhibition in order to demonstrate an aspect in his œuvre that was very important yet unknown to the public. We looked at pictures of the possible paintings that we would exhibit and he drew my attention in particular to Blue Star as a work key to his œuvre and to the time period. The importance of this work in the eyes of Miró comes from the fact that within it we find exceptionally the representation of human figures and cosmic signs reunited in one solitary image.”
Another work by Miró that will be presented is representative of his richest pictorial period between 1924 and 1927: Oiseau, an oil on canvas dated 1926, lays down the foundation of the artist’s singular language, through the depiction of graphic signs juxtaposed against a monochrome background. Here we encounter a work in which the background has simply been pasted onto an animal glue, the effect of which allows the forms of the flatly applied opaque colors to appear in all their magnificence. (Estimation: $3,700,000 / 5,100,000)
Amongst the works that we are presenting, we would like to cite a major work in watercolor by Picasso, “Absinthe”, portrait du poète Cornuty, that was lent to the exhibition Max Jacob et Picasso held at the Musée Picasso in Paris in 1994. (Estimation: $2,200,000 / 3,700,000)
This watercolor exemplifies the important link between the lives of Picasso and the poet during this time. During the winter of 1902-1903, in the middle of his Blue Period, the artist sought to escape from the specter of the death of his best friend, Spanish artist Carlos Casagamas. This watercolor expresses the artist’s emotional state while providing a synthesis of his past work and his work to come, most notably the premises of Cubism that would be inaugurated by les Desmoiselles d’Avignon a few years later. A second work by Picasso, a still life in pastel, dated 1921, will accompany this watercolor. (Estimation: $366,000 / 440,000)
This session will also feature two oils on canvas by Juan Gris: L’Arlequin à la guitare (The Harlequin with a Guitar) of 1918, (Estimation $3,700,000 / 5,100,000) and Le Broc (The Jug) of 1920 (Estimation: $440,000 / 512,000). These two cubist compositions by the artist depict his colorful and geometric style as well as subjects that are characteristic to his œuvre. These works will be followed by two of the first cubist works on paper by Henri Laurens: Etang la vallée of 1917 (Estimation $102,000 / 117,000) and Composition à la guitare of 1919. (Estimation: $44,000 / 60,000) Finally, two works by Fernand Léger will close this section of the sale: Les plongeurs noirs (The Black Divers), a gouache dated 43 (Estimation: $44,000 / 60,000), as well as Le pot de fleurs, a watercolor from 50 (Estimation: $60,000 / 73,000).
To view the fully illustrated catalog please visit www.LiveAuctioneers.com
