The royal family of Qatar purchases Paul Cezanne’s Card Players for a record $250 million

“Card players”, Paul Cezanne

The work is one in a series of five, but until now was the only one remaining in private collection.

Royal family of Qatar

Vanity Fair reported that Qatar's royal family bought one of the 5 existing versions of Cezanne's 'The Card Players' for over $250 million. Forbes published today that it was Josh Baer of BaerFaxt who first broke it in 2011 the purchase of Cezanne's Card Players for $250 million from the estate of Greek shipping magnate George Embiricos.

Paul Cézanne was born on January 19, 1839, in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Paul Cezanne

While in school, he enrolled in the free drawing academy in Aix, which he attended intermittently for several years. In 1858, he graduated from the Collège Bourbon, where he had become an intimate friend of his fellow student Emile Zola. Cézanne entered the law school of the University of Aix in 1859 to placate his father but abandoned his studies to join Zola in Paris in 1861. For the next twenty years, Cézanne divided his time between the Midi and Paris. In the capital, he briefly attended the Atelier Suisse with Camille Pissarro, whose art later came to influence his own. In 1862, Cézanne began long friendships with Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. His paintings were included in the 1863 Salon des Refusés, which displayed works not accepted by the jury of the official Paris Salon. The Salon itself rejected Cézanne’s submissions each year from 1864 to 1869.

In 1870, following the declaration of the Franco-Prussian War, Cézanne left Paris for Aix-en-Provence and then nearby L’Estaque, where he continued to paint.

The workshop of Paul Cezanne from Aix-en-Provence

He made the first of several visits to Pontoise in 1872; there, he worked alongside Pissarro. He participated in the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874. From 1876 to 1879, his works were again rejected for the Salon. Cézanne showed again with the Impressionists in 1877 in their third exhibition. At that time, Georges Rivière was one of the few critics to support his art. In 1882, the Salon accepted his work for the first and only time. Beginning in 1883, Cézanne resided in the South of France, returning to Paris occasionally.

In 1890, Cézanne exhibited with the group Les Vingt in Brussels and spent five months in Switzerland. He traveled to Giverny in 1894 to visit Monet, who introduced him to Auguste Rodin and the critic Gustave Geffroy. Cézanne’s first solo show was held at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery in Paris in 1895. From this time, he received increasing recognition. In 1899, he participated in the Salon des Indépendants in Paris for the first time. The following year, he took part in the Centennial Exhibition in Paris. In 1903, the Berlin and Vienna Secessions included Cézanne’s work, and in 1904 he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, Paris. That same year, he was given a solo exhibition at the Galerie Cassirer, Berlin. Cézanne died on October 22, 1906, in Aix-en-Provence.

 "Selfportrait", Paul Cezanne

One of the most influential artists in the history of twentieth-century painting, Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) has inspired generations of modern artists. Generally categorized as a Post-Impressionist, his unique method of building form with color and his analytical approach to nature influenced the art of Cubists, Fauvists and successive generations of avant-garde artists.

Brâncuşi’s bronze sold for almost $15 millions in New York



“Le premier cri”, by Constantin Brâncuşi (1867-1957), bronze, 26 cm (10¼  inches)

"Le Premier Cri" by Constantin Brâncuşi (1867-1957) represents a fabulous polished bronze sculpture and it was sold for $14,866,500 at the Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie's Auction from New York. Conceived in 1917, the sculpture illustrate the artist's rapid trajectory from figural art to pure abstraction in the 1920s.

The art work had 4 owners: Henri Pierre Roché from Paris, who bought it directly from the artist, Claude Bernard Gallery from Paris and Isidore Cohen from New York who bought it in 1968 and sold it in 1975 to the family of the present owner.

The sculpture was last displayed during the exhibition “The unfinished century: Heritages from the XXth century” which took place at the Museum of Modern Art from Tokyo. Also, the bronze was presented in 9 big events organized in New York and Europe: Chicago, Paris, Zurich, Philadelphia and Vienna in 1926.

On Christie’s site, you can watch a presentation of the art work done by Adrien Meyer, Specialist in Impressionist & Modern Art, New York.



The catalogue provides the following commentary about this work:

"The genesis of the present bronze dates to 1913, when Brâncuşi carved “Le premier pas”, his earliest free-standing, full-length figure and his inaugural sculptural effort in wood... That work, which depicts a highly stylized figure of a toddler taking his first, unstable steps, was included in Brâncuşi's earliest solo exhibition at Alfred Stieglitz's Photo-Session Gallery in New York, March 1914.  Following the close of the exhibition, Brâncuşi appears to have destroyed the body of the sculpture, keeping just the head; the complete figure is known only through photographs... In 1914 or 1915, Brâncuşi re-worked the head of “Le Premier Pas”. In 1917, the sculptor made a series of casts of the head, modeled directly from the wood; four of the casts, including the present example, are polished bronze, while three are plaster and one is black cement... The sculptor's immense confidence in these egg-like works emerged in a remark that he made about them in 1926: “With this form I could move the universe.”

Ming vase smashes record at mixed Sotheby's sale in Hong Kong

The biannual Sotheby's sales are considered a key indicator of the Asian art market. While ceramics and classic Chinese paintings performed solidly, the Asian and Chinese contemporary art sales showed signs of strain, with unsold work ratios of over 20 percent as the global economic uncertainty deepens.

Whilst some major lots with conspicuous cracks failed to sell, bidding was strong for a sublime blue and white "meiping" vase of fruit sprays from the Ming Yongle period that went for HK$168.7 million ($21.6 million) to a telephone bidder, a world record at auction for any piece of Chinese Ming porcelain.

This "macho" Ming Dynasty meiping vase of the Yongle imperial period (XVth century) was offered by Sotheyby's Hong Kong at an estimated $10.3 million-12.8 million and sold with $21.6 million

"The Ming was strong this time," said William Chak, a prominent Hong Kong dealer who bought a sky-blue Yongzheng gourd vase at the sale for HK$4.6 million.

Ming porcelain (1368-1644), older though often less decorative and ornate than Qing (1644-1911) wares, has in recent years been relatively less desired by nouveau riche mainland Chinese buyers, meaning its prices haven't reached anywhere near the heights of dazzling late Qing trophy pieces.

The Meiyintang collection was built up over more than 50 years by two Swiss brothers, Stephen and Gilbert Zuellig, who were advised by the legendary dealer and connoisseur Edward Chow and the elder statesman of antiquities collectors, Giuseppe Eskenazi. It comprises some 2,000 pieces ranging from the Neolithic period through to the Qing Dynasty and is widely considered to be the greatest collection of Chinese porcelain still in private hands in the west.

 

$65 million at auction for a work by Chinese artist Qi Baishi

Eagle perched on the branch of a pine tree, surrounded by two calligraphy scrolls,
by Qi Baishi, 100x266 cm

A work by Chinese artist Qi Baishi was sold at auction in Beijing at the end of May for 425.5 million yuan ($65.5 million) - a new record for a contemporary Chinese painting according to China Guardian auction house. The 1946 painting of an eagle perched on the branch of a pine tree, surrounded by two calligraphy scrolls, measures 100 by 266 centimetres.

This is the second-highest amount ever paid for an artwork at auction in China, after the 436.8 million yuan (over $67 million) paid in 2009 for a work by Song dynasty calligrapher Huang Tingjian, who lived during the 11th century.

Work by Song dynasty calligrapher Huang Tingjian

Qi, who died in 1957, was one of the most prolific Chinese artists of the 20th century, and his works have recently become sought after. The self-taught painter focused on depictions of nature such as plants, insects, birds and fish.

Qi Baishi (1864 - 1957)

Chinese art prices have rocketed in recent years, fuelled by the country's economic boom and its growing numbers of super-rich. China topped the United States in 2010 as the country with the richest art auctions, according to the French company Artprice, which tracks global deals.

China generated sales accounting for 33% of art sold worldwide in 2010, while the US cash registers took in 30%. Britain represented 19% of the total, with France coming in fourth place with 5%. After Pablo Picasso, the artist whose works brought in more cash than any other in 2010 was Qi, according to Artprice. Compatriots Zhang Daqian, Xu Beihong and Fu Baoshi were in third, eight and ninth place, respectively.

World's most expensive painting of Pablo Picasso

"Nude, Green Leaves and Bust", Pablo Picasso

The paint “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” done by Pablo Picasso in 1932 is the most expensive painting. The work was sold in May 2010 at New York’s Christie’s auction house for 106.5 million dollars (76.2 million euros). By this amount, the painting set a world record.

        The painting depicts the Spanish artist’s lover and muse, Marie-Therese Walter, lying nude with the painter looking on. Picasso met Walter when he was 45 and she was 17, outside the Galeries Lafayette in Paris, while he was still married to Olga Khoklova.     

Nicolae Grigorescu: record after record

The painting “Little peasant girl resting” (Tărăncuţă odihnindu-se) by Nicolae Grigorescu become the most expensive painting sold on the Romanian art market. The painting was sold for EUR 270,000 on 13^th of April at the Artmark auction house in Bucharest.

"Little peasant girl resting"

       

By its theme with the representation of women in the center, the painting 'Little peasant girl resting' is part of an important dimension of the work Grigorescu, one that provides a valuable esthetic, ethnographic, art history and culture information about  Romania from beginning of twentieth century.

        Women's choice to illustrate the context in which it is placed, the typologies of female characters and the sense that the artist is giving the image are issues that raises interesting issues on the creation of Grigorescu - one rich in possibilities for exploration.

The previous record was also held by a Nicoale Grigorescu painting through the sale of “Pub in Rucar” for EUR 230,000 on March 23 at the Spring Artmark auction. This work was belonging to the Ion Luca Caragiale collection and illustrate a characteristic scene of the Romanian village.



"Pub at Rucar", oil on wood, 26,5x45, signed in red at the left bottom Grigorescu

 

At the same auction, another work of the artist called “At the edge of the forest” was awarded for EUR 200,000. This is the biggest paint of Nicolae Grigorescu. 

"At the edge of the forest", 91x72 cm by Nicolae Grigorescu



Sales prices for Grigorescu’s pantings increased from September 2010, when the famous “ Ox cart“ (Car cu boi) has amounted to EUR 155,000 and then last year’s December when the “Sheperdess” (Pastorita) was sold with EUR 175,000 at the Artmark auctions.

"Sheperdess", oil on wood, 24.5x45 cm, signed in red at the right bottom Grigorescu