Modern Art - A very important picture for Max Ernst

At the pinnacle of the offer is a painting by Max Ernst from the year 1953 (€ 500/700,000). French Modernism is strongly represented: we have a canvas from Pierre Bonnard painted in 1907 (€ 280/300,000) and a picture by Henri Martin for € 160/180,000, whilst a work by Fernand Léger is valued at € 100/140,000. A double-sided painting by Ernst Wilhelm Nay is estimated at € 180/220,000, a sculpture by Oskar Schlemmer at € 150/200,000, and a canvas by Otto Dix at €140/180,000. Two landscapes by Franz Radziwill are offered for € 130/150,000 and 100/120,000, followed by Gabriele Münter (€ 100/120,000), Lesser Ury and Otakar Kubin (Othon Coubine) each with € 80/120,000, and € 80/100,000 each for Christian Schad, Salvador Dalí, Mela Mutter and Abel Pann.

Max Ernst brought “Mer agitée, soleil, nuage et maître Corbeau avec son fils” to the canvas in collage and oil in 1953. Following the artist’s return from the USA, he began his central work period in France, and it was in this year of 1953 that he created works of art historical importance, including the present work. The museum-quality painting was very important to Max Ernst, and he kept it in his house in the south of France until his death. His widow Dorothea Tanning subsequently passed it on within the family (lot 22).

Pierre Bonnard, the ‘most painterly painter of his generation’, created “Le jupon écossais (Le modèle au grand chapeau)” in 1907, a work which attests to Bonnard’s love of playing with the conventions of representation (lot 26, € 280/300,000). “Muse à la lyre”, painted in 1890 by Henri Guillaume Martin, belongs to the outstanding works from the artist’s symbolist early creative phase (lot 64, € 160/180,000), whilst “Deux cordages sur fond bleu” by Fernand Léger from 1938, (oil on paper, mounted on canvas), has been set at € 100/140,000 (lot 42).

The double-sided painting “In Blockformen” from 1953 reveals Ernst Wilhelm Nay’s renunciation of all representational forms (lot 10, € 180/220,000). The important “Bauplastik R” from 1919 visualises in a nutshell Oskar Schlemmer’s complete artistic oeuvre. His conception of object-based abstraction is already formulated here (lot 20, € 150/200,000). It is indisputable that the paintings Otto Dix created in the 1930s and 1940s, during his withdrawal into a so-called “inner immigration”, must be acknowledged as a second, though entirely dissimilar, pinnacle in the artist's painted body of work. The present work “Bodenseelandschaft mit Blick auf Steckborn” from 1944 is valued at €140/180,000 (lot 90).

Franz Radziwill is present with two landscapes from 1920 and 1947. The representative, early painting is an impressive manifestation of Radziwill’s examination of the Expressionist paintings of his contemporaries (lot 38, € 130/150,000); his later picture has an estimate of €100/120,000), the same estimate as Gabriele Münter’s “Heiteres Blumenbild” from 1949 (lot 50). A painting by Lesser Ury (“Hochbahnhof Nollendorfplatz von der Bülowstraße aus gesehen, Berlin”) from the 1920s (lot 100) and one painted in 1914 by Otakar Kubin (Othon Coubine) (lot 30) are each estimated at € 80/120,000, whilst a value of € 80/100,000 has been given to canvases by Christian Schad (lot 85, from 1920), Mela Muter (lot 80, double-sided painting), and Abel Pann (lot 27, “Geschwister in Winterlandschaft” from 1913). A mixed-media work by Willi Baumeister, “Safer” from 1954 has a slightly lower estimate of € 60/80,000 (lot 96).

In the delicate landscape studies (as the present “Étude de ciel (Rivage et ciel”) – a singular episode in Edgar Degas’ oeuvre – the artist discovered for the first time the medium of pastel chalks, a medium which was so important for his entire subsequent oeuvre (lot 25, € 90,000). Two ink, watercolour and gouache works by Salvador Dalí from 1960 and 1963 are valued at € 80,000/100,000 and € 70/90,000 respectively (lots 43 and 44), whilst a value of € 35/45,000 has been attributed to Maurice Utrillo’s engaging gouache “Rue de Mont-Cenis à Montmartre” from around 1930 (lot 61). Slightly above this at € 40/60,000 is Joan Miró’s portfolio “Constellations” from 1959 (lot 41).

Twinkling amongst the Expressionist paper works are Max Beckmann’s important original etching “Der Raucher (Selbstbildnis)” from 1916 (lot 97, € 60/80,000), and four characteristic watercolours painted by Emil Noldein 1913, 1914 and 1922 (lots 48/52/102/103).

Notable sculptures feature five bronzes by Ernst Barlach, including ”Das Wiedersehen (Thomas und Christus)”, (lot 76, €40/50,000), “Der Zweifler” (lot 77, €40,000), and “Der Buchleser (Lesender Mann im Wind)” (lot 79, € 40/50,000). Finally, Fritz Klimsch is present with four bronzes from the years 1935 to 1950 (including lot 88, € 35/45,000 and lot 89,
€ 30/40,000).

Auction dates

Auction 1177 - Evening Sale Modern Art

Post War & Contemporary Art Modern Art
Thursday 17. 06. 2021, 06:00 pm
Lot 1 - 109
Auction 1177
Auction
Cologne
Thursday 17 June 2021
6 pm Lot 1 – 109

We look forward to your bids:
in person, online, in writing or by telephone.

The auction will be streamed online. We kindly ask you to place your bids – preferably at least 48 hours before the auction – online, by phone or as absentee bids.

Kunsthaus Lempertz
Neumarkt 3
50667 Cologne
T+49.221.925729-0
F+49.221.925729-6
Preview
Preview by appointment only please

Cologne:

Friday 11 June, 10 am - 5.30 pm
Saturday 12 June, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Sunday 13 June, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Monday 14 June - Wednesday 16 June, 10 a.m. - 5.30 p.m.

Berlin, Poststr. 22:

Selected works by appointment
Thursday/Friday 27/28 May
Catalogue
PDF-Catalogue

Auction 1178 - Day Sale Modern Art

Post War & Contemporary Art Modern Art
Friday 18. 06. 2021, 11:00 am
Lot 150 - 504
Auction 1178
Auction
Cologne
Friday 18 June 2021

11 a.m. Lot 150 - 283 Modern Art
2 p.m. Lot 300 - 504 Contemporary Art

We look forward to your bids:
in person, online, in writing or by telephone.

The auction will be streamed online. We kindly ask you to place your bids – preferably at least 48 hours before the auction – online, by phone or as absentee bids.

Kunsthaus Lempertz
Neumarkt 3
50667 Cologne
T+49.221.925729-0
F+49.221.925729-6
Preview
Preview by appointment only please

Cologne:

Friday 11 June, 10 am - 5.30 p.m.
Saturday 12 June, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Sunday 13 June, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Monday 14 June - Wednesday 16 June, 10 a.m. - 5.30 p.m.

Berlin, Poststr. 22:

Selected works by appointment
Thursday/Friday 27/28 May
Catalogue
PDF-Catalogue

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 0221/92 57 29–30

Edgar Abs
Press and public relations
Cologne, June 2021