Impressionist Triumph at New York Auction Automatic translate

The picture from the series “Water Lilies” by French impressionist Claude Monet became the star of Christie’s fall season auction, which took place on November 7 in New York. The work, which is part of a series of more than sixty paintings painted between 1905 and 1908, was sold for $ 39 million ($ 43,762,500 including a “buyer’s prize”). The auction attracted great attention also by the fact that the paintings of Vasily Kandinsky and Juan Miro were put up for auction.

Claude Monet - Water Lilies, 1905

Monet’s painting "Water Lilies" (Nymphéas) became known thanks to the artist’s bold approach to the image of light reflection from the surface of the water. “It turned out that Monet is undoubtedly one of the most innovative landscape painters of his time,” said Brooke Lampley, director of the impressionist department at Christie’s auction. Over the past two decades of his life (1840-1926), the French artist often painted a pond in his garden, in Giverny. The best examples of his passion were first exhibited in 1909, at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris, where Monet made great strides. Critics said of him that "there is no other artist who could achieve such a wonderful effect of light and shadow, a bright holiday of flowers."

Another star of the auction was Kandinsky’s oil painting “Sketch for Improvisation 8”, which was sold at auction for a record price of $ 20.5 million. This painting is a vivid example of abstract art, the last of eight parts created by the Russian artist in 1909 in the groundbreaking series "Improvisations". The work, featuring a bright and bold palette, depicts scenes in Kiev. The key figure in the picture is the conquering warrior with a golden sword, possibly St. George. “The Improvisation series is at the same time a link and one of the most exciting innovations of the time, because through these paintings Kandinsky was able to expand the traditional boundaries of artistic expression and formulate a new theory about form, color or theme,” Lamplie explains. The painting was painted by Kandinsky in the town of Murnau, in Bavaria. Shortly afterwards, his book On Spiritual in Art was published. In it, the artist expresses his idea that artistic abstraction is born under the influence of "internal necessity", and not as a consequence of external influences.

The painting "Painting (Woman, Newspaper, Dogs)" by the Spanish surrealist Juan Miro (1893-1983), using the signs and symbols of iconography, was sold for $ 12.2 million. Another Spaniard, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), became one of the most popular artists at auction this night - several of his works were sold at once, having a close relationship with the artist’s personal life. So, “The Bust of a Woman,” which dates from 1937 and depicts his beloved Dora Maar, is sold for $ 11.6 million, while “The Head of a Woman,” written by Francoise Gilo, the mother of two children of Picasso, went away for only 4, 6 million dollars. The painting "Women with a Dog", which depicts another Pablo Picasso’s muse, Jacqueline Roque, was acquired for $ 5.6 million.

At the auction, several sculptural works were sold. The "Muse" by Konstantin Brancusi (1876-1957), was estimated in the final analysis at 11 million dollars. Alberto Giacometti’s “Leg” (1901-1966) was sold for $ 10 million, and his “Head over the Rod” for $ 6 million.