LiveAuctioneers bidder pays world record auction price for seascape by Picasso’s last living student
Sept. 24, 2005
Chevy Chase MD – Marcel Mouly’s Bateaux Dans Le Matin (Boats In The Morning), a colorful Cubist seascape, sold for $26,620, and was the surprise of Sloans & Kenyon’s September 17-18 Estate Catalogue Auction, shattering the artist’s previous auction high by almost 400%. The painting’s new owner participated in the bidding live online through LiveAuctioneers.com.
Mouly’s previous auction high of $6,696 was realized in June 2003 in Oslo. Of the recent record-breaking sale, T.A.D. Tharp, director of Sloans & Kenyon’s Fine Art Department observed: “We were all astounded when an unheralded painting by a hitherto largely forgotten French artist brought four times the previous world record (auction) price. Unquestionably the ’60s really are back!”
Marcel Mouly, born in Paris in 1918, is the last living student of Picasso and was a protégé of Fernand Leger. Mouly’s works combine colors in the manner of Fauvists like Matisse, Derain, and Dufy, with background structures influenced by synthetic and analytic Cubism. His work is included in the permanent collections of more than 20 museums throughout the world including museums of modern art in Paris, Helsinki, and Japan; the Museum of Geneva, and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
Bidding opened at an astounding $11,000 for the 1965 oil on canvas, which had a presale estimate of $500-700. Three telephone bidders – including one from France – battled against three bidders online. Ultimately, it was a California collector who laid claim to Bateaux Dans Le Matin.
Sloans & Kenyon’s president, Stephanie A. Kenyon ASA, pointed out, “The nation’s capital has emerged as a competitive venue in the global marketplace for auctioning important art and antiques.” Sloans & Kenyon Auctioneers and Appraisers, located near Washington, D.C., in Chevy Chase, Md., was founded in 2003 and has quickly established a reputation as one of the country’s premier fine art and antiques auction houses. The company holds cataloged estate auction approximately six times a year.
# # #
