An artist's life condensed into five canvases.
Claude Monet again goes under the hammer for an evening devoted to modern and contemporary art in London at the premises of Sotheby's on March 2.
The lot, from a private collection, includes five canvases dated between 1882 and 1897. The set is estimated at 35 million pounds, or nearly 42 million euros.
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The most imposing work in this corpus,
Massif de chrysanthèmes
(130.7 cm by 88.8 cm), was painted in 1897, the year in which Claude Monet began his series of water lily ponds.
It bears witness to the impressionist's fascination with Japan.
The composition of the painting was certainly inspired by the work of the Japanese engraver Hokusai, whose prints Monet owned for his
Large Flowers
.
In Japan, the chrysanthemum is a symbol of power and often of the country itself.
Coincidence or not, the painting was exhibited at the Takaoka Museum of Art in 1995.
The
Chrysanthemum Massif
, painted in 1897, is estimated at between 12 and 18 million euros.
Sotheby's
If its price is estimated between 10 and 15 million pounds - between 12 and 18 million euros approximately -, its size does not make it the most expensive work of the lot.
Les Demoiselles de Giverny
(1894) competes with an estimate oscillating between 15 and 20 million pounds, or between 18 and 24 million euros approximately.
This metaphor of wheat stacks, one of the painter's best-known motifs, comes from a colloquial French expression, evoking moving figures in a landscape.
This is reminiscent of the female figures painted by Claude Monet in nature during the 1870s.
Tracing the progression to his large water lily paintings, these five stunning works brilliantly illustrate Monet's history as the father of modern art.
Helena Newman, President of Sotheby's Europe
Another significant painting:
Plums and Apricots
.
Produced around 1882 and 1885, it is part of a period when the painter's work was beginning to be recognized.
In 1890, the still life was acquired by art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel.
Today it is estimated between 1.2 and 1.8 million pounds, or approximately between 1.4 and 2.2 million euros.
Finally, two water scenes are also up for auction, namely
Glaçons, environs de Bennecourt
(1893) and
Sur la Falaise near Dieppe, sunset
(1897). The first highlights Monet's progression towards his paintings of water lilies, subjects he would paint during the last thirty years of his life until his death in 1926. The second canvas, on the other hand, can be described as unusual by the choice of colors. Here, Claude Monet uses a
"soft Mediterranean palette"
to paint the chilly north of France. With the gestural brushstrokes lavished in the
Cliff
, the painter took his first steps in abstraction.
Respectively, the two works are estimated between 5 and 7 million pounds (6 and 8.4 million euros) and 3.5 and 5 million pounds (4.2 and 6 million euros).
The five paintings will be presented to the public in the premises of Sotheby's in New York, Hong Kong and Taipei, before heading to London to be sold at auction.
Painted in 1897, the canvas
Sur la Falaise near Dieppe, setting sun
, is part of a series of works depicting the Normandy coast.
Sotheby's