A century after his birth, the shadow of Yves Montand will hover over the house of Christie's during the sale of two paintings from his collection, Thursday, October 21.
The actor and singer, who died of a heart attack in 1991, was a great lover of art.
With his wife Simone Signoret, they assembled during their three decades a beautiful collection.
As part of the annual Paris Avant-Garde sale, two remarkable still lifes are offered.
Read alsoSignoret-Montand, the legendary couple of French cinema would be one hundred years old
The first is the work of Alberto Giacometti, entitled
Pommes
.
Dated 1958, this oil on canvas is one of dozens of still lifes that punctuated the last years of the painter's life. Abstract and minimalist, it is strangely reminiscent of
Apples on a Buffet
, one of his best-known works. In his presentation, Christie's explains that
“the reality that Giacometti shows is elusive and fleeting. The scattered objects which delimit the whole contribute to a sensitive experience, a play of appearances which come, go and fade under the test of the gaze. "
Its price is estimated between 1 and 1.5 million euros.
The second,
Vase de tournesols (Les Trois Soleils)
, was painted in 1961 by Georges Braque. This oil and sand on canvas is one of the last paintings of the painter who died in 1963. Still life is undoubtedly the common thread of Braque's work, which he first painted in a cubist way until the end. from the 1910s. He then switched to a more classical form, but diversifying his approach towards the abstract and the non-linear. The price of the painting is estimated between 150,000 and 250,000 euros.
The Montand-Signoret couple, one of the most iconic in French cinema, had strong links with the art world.
"Regularly frequenting the village of Saint-Paul de Vence, it is thanks to Jacques Prévert that Yves Montand met Simone Signoret and worked closely with Braque, Picasso or even Giacometti",
details the auction house in its press release.
A first auction honoring the actor couple took place in 2017, bringing together various artefacts from their personal lives and their 34 years of relationship.
