Sotheby's Spring Sale Features Impressionist Masters
Sotheby's will headline its spring modern and contemporary sale in London with masterpieces by Monet, Signac, Degas, and Léger. The high-profile auction promises to draw major collectors and renews focus on the enduring value of Impressionist and Modern art.
- The collective high estimate for the four headline works by Monet, Signac, Degas, and Léger is £24 million. The auction is scheduled for March 4th as part of the Modern and Contemporary evening sale. - Claude Monet's "Maison de Jardinier" (1884), which depicts the garden of Francesco Moreno in Bordighera on the Italian Riviera, leads the sale with a high estimate of £8.5 million. Many of Monet's other works from this period are housed in major institutions like the Musée d'Orsay and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. - The Monet painting boasts a prestigious ownership history, having once been in the collection of the renowned American artist John Singer Sargent. - Paul Signac's "Marseille, Le Port" (1934) and Fernand Léger's "Les Hommes dans la Ville" (1919) are each estimated to sell for as much as £6 million. The Signac comes to auction following a recent neo-impressionism exhibition at London's National Gallery. - The Léger work, "Les Hommes dans la ville," is closely related to a larger version of the same subject held in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. - Edgar Degas' "Scène de Ballet" (circa 1885) offers a glimpse into the world of the Paris Opéra and carries a high estimate of £3.5 million. - Before the London auction, the four key paintings will be exhibited to the public at Sotheby's New York from February 11th to 13th, and then in London starting February 26th. - The sale takes place in a market where Impressionist and Modern art sales grew by 5.7% over the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, reaching $4.25 billion in 2022.
