The Schlumberger and Durand-Ruel collections dominate the Paris auctions
The two auctions of collections with grand-sounding names raised over 116 million euros at Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Monet’s works were in great demand.
The auctions in Paris held in conjunction with the Art Basel in October have grown significantly over the last five years, partly due to Brexit, but above all because of their ability to attract the sale of entire prestigious collections. On the afternoon of Thursday 22 October, no fewer than two auctions of collections with illustrious names took place, generating total proceeds of over 116 million euros – more than 40 per cent of the 275 million euros raised across all sales that week by the two rival auction houses, located just a stone’s throw from one another and from the exhibition currently taking place at the Grand Palais. Although both were successful sales with no unsold lots amongst the 50 lots in total, the results deserve closer attention and tell different stories, whilst representing a similar historical approach to collecting Impressionist art, with Claude Monet taking centre stage.
The Schlumberger Collection at Sotheby’s
The first lots to go under the hammer were the 23 from Sotheby’s for a total realisation of no less than 74.4 million euros, exceeding even the most optimistic expectations of 39–54 million euros.
No lot was guaranteed, meaning the sale rested entirely on the prestige of the collector Jeanne Schlumberger (who passed away decades ago), who, in the post-war period, thanks to her forward-thinking partnership with the gallery owner Katia Granoff, acquired works from Claude Monet’s late period. Among these, the auction’s masterpiece stands out; it alone contributed a staggering 50 million euros, far exceeding the estimate of 22–30 million following a very long series of bids amongst six contenders, and was ultimately sold to a buyer in Asia; it is a large canvas depicting the ‘Irises’ in the garden at Giverny, where, in the very last years of his long life, Claude Monet took refuge to paint obsessively.
The painting dates from 1924–25, the year before the artist’s death at the age of 80, and was sold directly by his heirs to the collector; its museum-quality dimensions and provenance justify the price, despite the composition’s restrained colour palette, which conceals an unusual and skilful play of reflections on the lake’s surface. A second work by Monet, depicting the weeping willows in the garden with their contrasting vivid tones, a piece from 1918–19 measuring approximately one metre, sold for 9.7 million euros, reaching the low end of the 9–12 million estimate only after adding commissions, whilst the late view of the house through the roses from 1925–26 reached the low end of the 2.5 million estimate including commissions, unlike the classic Impressionist view of the Seine at Vernon from 1894, which was contested up to 4.3 million from an estimate of 1.2–1.8 million euros. Consequently, the four works by Monet fetched 66.5 million euros, whilst the remaining 19 lots realised a total of 8 million, including a 1899 work depicting a vertical figure by Pierre Bonnard which tripled its estimate to 2.5 million euros, part of a decorative triptych on country life, and three works by the Symbolist Gustave Moreau, led by an 1881 work on paper, ‘Reve d’Orient’, which set a new record for the medium at 1.4 million euros, doubling the estimate.
The result might have been even more substantial had it not been for the withdrawal of three panels from the early period of Paul Cézanne dating from 1862–64, part of a mural dismantled from his home, works sold by private treaty to the city of Aix-en-Provence and thus on their way back to their place of origin, with a combined estimated value of 1.4–2 million euros. This outcome is the most desirable fate for these works, which had, in any case, been declared ‘national treasures’ and were therefore not eligible for export.
The Durand-Ruel collection at Christie’s
The top lot in the catalogue of 27 lots, sold just a few hours later by Christie’s was also a work by Claude Monet: the classic 1882 Impressionist ‘en plein air’ landscape ‘Bord des falaises à Pourville’, one metre in length, was sold to a third-party buyer for nearly 12.8 million euros, from an estimate of 11–15 million euros, whilst a still life with three vases of tulips from 1885 changed hands for 3.1 million within the estimate of 2.5–3.5 million euros, after the addition of commissions. Monet thus accounted for almost 40 per cent of the total proceeds of 41.6 million euros, with eight lots fetching over a million euros, all of which were guaranteed; in five cases, these may have gone to their respective third-party guarantors.
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