(Paris) Two oils on canvas and four original and unpublished gouaches by Marc Chagall have been presented since Friday and until Tuesday at Christie’s Paris, ahead of a first auction of 22 works scheduled for London on June 28.
Posted at 10:59
These unpublished works in shimmering colors, painted by Chagall between 1938 and 1984, have never been exhibited or put into circulation on the art market in their vast majority, since the death of the artist in 1985 in Saint-Paul. -de-Vence where he is buried, according to Christie’s.
All the symbols dear to the painter and to his singular dreamlike universe are present: the flying married couple, the horses, the rooster, the musicians, Judaism, the circus and the cities dear to his heart.
They are part of an important collection of oils on canvas, works on paper, prints and books belonging to the estate of the painter, born in 1887 in Vitebsk, Belarus, then an integral part of the Russian Empire, and who lived in Paris between the wars (1923-1939) then in the United States (1941-1947) where he went into exile before returning to France in 1948.
The six key works presented in Paris will be offered at auction in London with 16 other original works (oils and gouaches) on June 28 in duplex with Christie’s Paris.
An online sale of a selection of books that belonged to the artist or in which he participated, as well as works on paper and reproductions, will be organized at the same time, the auction house told AFP.
Other auctions of unpublished works collected in the collection are planned for the fall in Hong Kong, then again in Paris and New York, according to Christie’s, which did not wish to provide more details as to the total number of works. works included in this fund belonging to Chagall’s family patrimony, and to its overall estimate.
Among the works presented in Paris, there are two oils on canvas, of which Couple and Violinistestimated between 1.4 million and 2.1 million euros ($1.9 million and $2.8 million) and painted in the 1970s by Chagall.
another canvas, The Painter and the Bride and Groom in Three Colorsproduced in 1984 by the then 97-year-old painter, is estimated between 1.1 and 1.7 million euros ($1.5 million and $2.3 million).
Four other works on paper, combining gouache, pastel, ink and pencil techniques, are estimated between 140,000 euros and 351,000 euros ($188,000 and $472,000). Among them, one Study for the Red Horse (1938-1944) and a Rooster on red background (nineteen eighty one).