Archive
Le Pho’s Paysage du Tonkin (Landscape of Tonkin), a lacquer on the panel of exceptional dimensions or the largest known lacquer executed by Vietnamese master Le Pho, is proudly on display at the extensive exhibition “Paraventi: Folding Screens from the 17th to 21st Centuries” curated by Nicholas Cullinan and supported by Prada. This exhibition investigates the histories and semantics of folding screens by tracing trajectories …
Le Nez is a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti which, like many of the artist’s other works, went through several versions, the Swiss genius constantly reworking his motifs. Less well known than L’homme qui marche or the “Femmes immobiles” series, it is no less beloved by meticulous observers of the work of the artist who died in 1966 at the age of 64. Le Nez, then, …
In the China Sea, the Matsu archipelago uses art to ward off Beijing’s threat The former military power plant in Matsu, Taiwan, has been transformed into an art installation designed to recall the Chinese bombardments once suffered by this tiny archipelago which, like the rest of the territory, remains threatened by Chinese invasion. The exhibition Your Country Needs You: Glory to Jun Hun (meaning “military …
Mai Trung Thu (Vietnam/France, 1906-1980) Contes et Légendes (Fairy Tales and Legends) signed ‘MAI THU’ and dated in Chinese (lower left) ink and gouache on silk laid on paper 43 x 58 cm. (17 1/8 x 22 3/4 in.) Painted in 1964 one seal of the artist Provenance Galerie Jean-François Apesteguy, Deauville Private collection, Switzerland Estimate HKD 700,000-900,000 USD 90,000-120,000 On display at Christie’s Singapore, …
Nguyen Trung (Vietnam, B. 1940) Lady with Tea signed and dated ‘NgTrung 08’ (lower left) lacquer on panel 100 x 100 cm. (39 3/8 x 38 3/8 in.) Painted in 2008 The work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the artist. Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Collection of Boi Tran Garden, Hue, Vietnam Private Collection, Paris, France Thuc Doan posing in front of …
More than five centuries ago, on October 31, 1512, the frescoes on the vault of the Sistine Chapel were inaugurated. Michelangelo’s masterwork, these frescoes are set in the chapel erected at the request of Pope Sixtus IV in place of the medieval Capella Magna. Since the 15th century, this chapel has housed the Conclave, the place where the cardinals are locked up to elect the …
The Scream – One of the world’s most famous artworks, a universal symbol of anxiety and it even has its own emoji. Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863-1944) The Scream unsigned oil, tempera, pastel and crayon on cardboard 91 × 73.5 cm. (36 × 28.9 in.) painted in 1910? Collection of Munch Museum Munch’s challenge in this painting is to depict a deafening scream through the silent art of painting. The face, with …
Under the title “J’ai une famille” (I have a family), the Palais de la Porte-Dorée in Paris is bringing together, until February 18, 2024, works by artists who arrived in France in the 1980s. The “J’ai une famille” exhibition brings together ten Chinese-born artists working in France: two women and eight men. Two have now died: Chen Zhen, in 2000 from an illness he knew …
Rue Delambre and the plaques of Gauguin, Breton, and Hemingway. Hotel Delambre – where Paul Gauguin, André Breton, and Maurice Le Scouezec stayed in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist, noted mostly for his colourful paintings that he created during the ten years he lived in Tahiti in French Polynesia (1891-1893 and 1895-1903). The gold plaque at the Hotel …
Gaston Roullet (France, 1847-1925) Village de Dong Ba, faubourg de Hue (Annam – 1885) signed ‘Gaston Roullet’ and titled (lower left) oil on canvas 70 x 100 cm. (27 1/2 x 39 3/8 in.) Painted in 1885 Gaston Roullet, appointed official painter of the Colonies and the Navy in 1885, was the first official Navy painter to visit Tonkin and Annam. He arrived in northern …
Christie’s Paris: La Collection Sam Josefowitz: Vente du Soir on 20 October 2023. Sam Josefowitz was one of the most revered collectors of our time. His vast-ranging collection of discoveries spanning antiquities to post-Impressionist works is defined by a passionate and scholarly approach. Whether entrepreneurial, cultural, academic or personal, Sam Josefowitz’s innate and boundless curiosity was the thread which connected his ventures. For more than …
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (France, 1824-1898) Jeune noir à l’épée (Young black boy with a sword) oil on canvas 105 x 73 cm. (41.3 x 28.7 in.) Painted in 1850 Collection of Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France In Jeune Noir à l’épée (Young Black Man with Sword), Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, then barely twenty-six, overturns aesthetic codes: he dares to apply the conventions of the academic …
Lewis Wickes Hine (America, 1874-1940) Interior of tobacco shed, Hawthorn Farm. Girls in the foreground are 8, 9, and 10 years old. The 10-year-old makes 50 cents a day. 12 workers on this farm are 8 to 14 years old, and about 15 are over 15 years in Hazardville, Connecticut 9 August 1917 Collection of Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France In the United States at the …
Odilon Redon (France, 1840-1916) Le Bouddha (The Buddha) pastel on beige paper 90 x 73 cm. (35 3/8 x 28 3/4 in.) Painted around 1906–1907 Collection of Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France From the 1890s, at the invitation of his friend Armand Clavaud, Odilon Redon developed a passion for botany, Hinduism and Buddhism. He devoured Paul Carus’s L’Évangile du Bouddha (1894) and Sadakichi Hartmann’s Le Bouddha …
Christie’s Paris: Avant-Garde(s) including Thinking Italian Paris, once again, the beating heart of the international market of modern, post-war and contemporary art. On this occasion, Christie’s presenting its second edition of the Avant-Garde(s) including Thinking Italian sale, an exceptional auction that pays tribute to the great names of artists from the 20th and 21st centuries. Spearheaded by the masterpiece of Joan Miró from La Colombe …
Raphael or Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italy, 1483-1520) Madonna Bridgeland (The Bridgewater Madonna) oil on canvas 81 × 55 cm. (32 × 22 in.) Painted c. 1507 – 1508 Collection of Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh LIGHT-DARK IN THE BRIDGEWATER A Chiaroscuro Masterpiece by Raffaello When did artists first use light-dark technique in painting? In Art 101 courses, this concept, often simplified and summed up by the term chiaroscuro …
Eugène Delacroix (France, 1798-1863) La Mort de Sardanapale (The Death of Sardanapalus) oil on canvas 73.71 × 82.47 cm. (29.02 × 32.47 in.) Painted in 1844 Collection of Philadelphia Museum of Art, America Eugène Delacroix (France, 1798-1863) La Mort de Sardanapale (The Death of Sardanapalus) oil on canvas 392 × 496 cm. (154 × 195 in.) Painted in 1827 Collection of Louvre Museum, Paris, France …
Jean Fouquet (France, c. 1420-1481) Pietà de Nouans-les-Fontaines oil on canvas 168 × 259 cm. Painted towards 1460-1465 Called Pietà when it’s actually the moment when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus lay Christ’s body on the Virgin’s lap. Fouquet’s largest painting (168 × 259 cm), yet little known to the general public, this is a work that deserves to be seen. You don’t discover it by …
Marie Bashkirtseva (Russia, 1858-1884) Un meeting (A meeting) oil on canvas 193 x 177 cm. (75.9 x 69.6 in.) Painted in 1884 Collection of Musée d’Orsay At the end of the 19th century, women could cultivate themselves, admire and copy works of art, but were deemed incapable of creating. And in the French capital, the beating heart of the avant-garde, where the École des Beaux-Arts …
John Peter Russell (Australia, 1858-1930) Fils du peintre jouant avec un crabe oil on canvas Painted c. 1904 – 1906 Collection of Musée des Beaux-arts de Morlaix In the late summer of 1886, on a windswept clifftop in Belle-Ile-en-Mer, John Peter Russell called out to Monet, “the Prince of the Impressionists”, whose canvas on the easel, strangely moored by stones and ropes, bore his unmistakable …
Charles Hugo (France, 1826-1871) Victor Hugo dans le rocher des Proscrits (Victor Hugo dans le rocher des Proscrits) Around 1853 Salted paper print from a collodion glass negative 10.3 x 6.3 cm. Don Mme Marie-Thérèse and André Jammes, 1984 Collection of Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France In shaping his own image as the leading opponent of Napoleon III, Victor Hugo was a pioneer of political photography, …
Marc Chagall (Belarus/France, 1887-1985) Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel (The Betrothed and the Eiffel Tower) oil on canvas 150 x 136.5 cm. Painted in 1938-1939 Collection of The Centre Pompidou, Paris, France When Marc Chagall painted “Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel” in 1939, the war was close at hand, and the artist didn’t rule out the dark idea that this would be his …
René Magritte (Belgium, 1898-1967) L’Empire des lumières (The Empire of Light) oil on canvas 195.4 x 131.2 cm. Painted in 1954 Collection of Peggy Guggenheim, Venice Don’t you find anything strange about this painting? It shows a house at night. The canvas is lit only by two lit windows upstairs and a street lamp, but also by the reflection of these lights in a pool …
Gustave Caillebotte (France, 1848-1894) In A Cafe oil on canvas 153 x 114 cm Painted in 1880 Collection of Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France It was at the fifth Impressionist exhibition that Caillebotte presented this café scene, a painting of modern life. A life-size male figure dominates the scene. It’s a model who’s been painted many times, here in flabby clothes, a little dishevelled, hands …
Edgar Degas (France, 1834-1917) L’Absinthe (The Absinthe Drinker or Glass of Absinthe) oil on canvas 92 × 68 cm. (36.2 × 26.8 in.) Painted in 1875-1876 Collection of Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France Edgar Degas chose as his subject a very popular drink at the end of the 19th century: absinthe. This is how the painting is often referred to. Look at the green colour of the glass, …
Nicolas Poussin (France, 1594-1665) Et in Arcadia ego (Les bergers d’Arcadie or The Arcadian Shepherds) oil on canvas 85 × 121 cm. (34.25 × 47.24 in.) painted in 1637-1638 Collection of Louvre Museum, Paris, France Nicolas Poussin – The leading painter of the classical French Baroque style A 17th-century painter, depicts a landscape in Arcadia, a mountainous region of the Peloponnese renowned since antiquity for its gentle …
Erwin Olaf (Netherlands, 1959-2023) has died at the age of 64 after a long battle with lung disease, according to information published on Wednesday, September 20 by several media outlets in the Netherlands, citing the artist’s family. “World-famous photographer Erwin Olaf has died. His family has announced the news,” reported NOS, the Dutch public broadcasting organisation. After suffering from emphysema in 1996, the photographer had …
Eugène Delacroix (France, 1798-1863) La Liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty Leading the People) oil on canvas 260 × 325 cm. (102.4 × 128.0 in.) painted in 1830 Collection of Louvre Museum, Paris, France Eugène Delacroix’s “Liberty Guiding the People” leaves the Louvre for restoration In 2019, the Paris museum launched a major restoration campaign for large 19thᵉ century formats. The painting, produced in 1830, will …
Auguste Rodin (France, 1840-1917) Le Baiser (The Kiss) sculpture; Marble 181.5 × 112.5 × 117 cm. (71.5 × 44.3 × 46 in.) Executed in 1882 Collection of Musée Rodin, Paris, France This couple embracing, this woman abandoning herself, this hand that the man places, barely, like a touch, on the hip of the one he loves! What work better symbolizes love? Who hasn’t recognized (or …
Raphael or Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italy, 1483-1520) Leone dieci, Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici (Portrait of Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de’ Medici and Luigi de ‘Rossi’) oil on wood 154 cm × 119 cm (61 in × 47 in) Painted c. 1518-1520 Collection of Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. I present for your admiration and study the c. 1518, Portrait of Pope Leo X (Leone dieci, Giovanni di Lorenzo …
Tran Phuc Duyen (Vietnam, 1923-1993) Les cueilleuses de la moyenne région au tonkin (The Pickers of the Middle Region in Tonkin) signed and inscribed ‘TRAN-PHUC-DUYEN ARTISTE-LAQUEUR HANOI VIETNAM 146 AV. DU GRAND BOUDDHA’ (on the reverse) lacquer on panel 74.5 × 51 cm. (29 3/8 × 20 1/8 in.) Executed circa 1948 Details of Tran Phuc Duyen’s signature The inscription ‘TRAN-PHUC-DUYEN ARTISTE-LAQUEUR HANOI VIETNAM 146 …
Le Pho (Vietnam/France, 1907-2001) Fleurs (Flowers) signed in Chinese and signed again ‘Le pho’ (lower left); signed, titled and inscribed ‘LE PHO Fleurs WF BH W. F. Findlay’ (on the reverse); gallery label affixed (on the reverse) oil on canvas 73 × 92 cm. (28 3/4 x 36 1/4 in.) Painted circa 1970 Provenance Wally Findlay Galleries, Beverly Hills Private collection, USA Estimate HKD 280,000-380,000 …
Nguyen Gia Tri (Vietnam, 1908-1993) Ombres et lumières sur la moyenne région (Shadows and Lights on the Middle Region) signed and dated ‘Ng Tri 70’ (lower right) lacquer on panel 44 × 61 cm. (17 3/8 × 24 in.) Executed in 1970 Provenance Private collection, France Marseille Enchères Provence, Marseille, 14 November 2022, lot 142 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Estimate …
Mai Trung Thu (Vietnam/France, 1906-1980) Leçon de calligraphie (Calligraphy Lesson) signed ‘MAI THU’ and dated in Chinese (upper right); titled ‘Leçon de calligraphie’ (on the reverse) ink and gouache on silk in the artist’s original frame 17.6 × 17.8 cm. (6 7/8 x 7 in.) Painted in 1977 one seal of the artist Provenance Galerie Jean-François Apesteguy, Deauville Acquired from the above by the previous …
Christie’s Hong Kong, 20th/21st Century Art, 24 September 2023 03:00 PM (HKT) Coinciding with Christie’s 10th Shanghai Auction Anniversary, seminal paintings by Chinese art icons, Zao Wou-Ki and Liu Ye, will headline the sale, together with an exceptional and mesmerizing Yayoi Kusama Infinity Net. Masterful works by Paul Signac, Chu Teh Chun, Sanyu and Le Pho comprise a representative modern selection, alongside a unique array …
The Invention of Language: Shared Revolution of Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso An exhibition at Paris’s Musée du Luxembourg traces the relationship between the American writer and the Spanish painter and their influences on 20th-century art and marks the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death in a place generally devoted to the broadly appealing celebration of the Renaissance and Impressionism; it brings together contemporary artists who …
Christie’s Invitation to a conference on the special occasion of the release of Gustave Caillebotte, L’impressioniste inconnu by Stéphanie Chardeau-Botteri at Christie’s Paris, 9 Avenue Matignon, Paris, 19 September 2023. Gustave Caillebotte by Stephanie Chardeau-Botteri For a long time, our families have known each other. For a long time, I had heard talk of the Josefowitz family, great art enthusiasts, great collectors of Caillebotte. It …
Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (France, 1755-1842) Marie-Antoinette en chemise ou en gaulle (Marie Antoinette in a Chemise Dress) oil on canvas 92.7 x 73.1 cm (36 1/2 x 28 3/4 in.) Painted in 1783 Collection of National Gallery of Art, Washington DC At the Salon of 1783, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Marie-Antoinette’s official portraitist and confidante, presented a portrait of the queen in a gown known …
Christie’s Invitation to a roundtable discussion on 25 Years of the Washington Principles on Nazi Confiscated Art. Keynote speaker Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, drafter of the Washington Principles and Christie’s Advisory Board Member will be joined by Simon Goodman, author of ‘The Orpheus Clock: The Search for My Family’s Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis’; MacKenzie Mallon, Provenance Specialist at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; and …
Christie’s Paris presents Mai Trung Thu’s La coiffure (Hairdressing) before the auction at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 November 2023. Mai Trung Thu (Vietnam/France, 1906-1980) La coiffure (Hairdressing) signed ‘MAI THU’ (lower right) ink and gouache on silk 28.5 x 38.5 cm (11¼ × 15⅛ in.) Painted around 1939 one seal of the artist Estimate HK$ 800,000-1,500,000 US$ 100,000-190,000 EU€ 90,000-170,000
Christie’s Paris presents Luong Xuan Nhi’s Au marché aux fleurs de pâcher (Peach-blossoms market) before the auction at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 November 2023. Luong Xuan Nhi (Vietnam, 1914-2006) Au marché aux fleurs de pâcher (Peach-blossoms market) signed ‘Luong Xuan Nhi’ (lower left) ink and gouache on base mounted on paper 50 x 38 cm. (19 5/8 × 38 in.) Painted in 1939 on seal …
Christie’s Paris presents Mai Trung Thu’s Mère et enfants (Mother and Children) before the auction at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 November 2023. Mai Trung Thu (Vietnam/France, 1906-1980) Mère et enfants (Mother and Children) signed ‘MAI THU; dated in Chinese (lower left) ink and gouache on silk mounted on paper, in the artist’s original frame; with an artist’s stamp 53 x 20.5 cm (20⅞ × 8⅛ …
Christie’s Paris is delighted to present an exhibition of works by My-Lan Hoang-Thuy this September. My-Lan Hoang-Thuy was born in 1990 in Bourg-la-Reine, France. She works and lives in Paris. Graduated from the Beaux-arts de Paris (2018), she was nominated for the Prix des Amis des Beaux-Arts in 2018 and participated in the Artpress Biennial of Young Artists at the Musée d’Art Moderne of Saint-Étienne …
