The market for French Impressionist paintings, which dimmed at the end of the 20th century, is soaring again. On Tuesday in London, Sotheby’s, in the space of one hour, sold five paintings by Monet for a combined total of £56 million (€70 million).
The top lot was Le Grand Canal from Monet's celebrated Venice series of 1908, which sold to an anonymous buyer for £23.7 million (€31.4 million). The estimate was £20 million-£30 million. The painting had been on display for the past eight years at the National Gallery in London.
The other four Monet paintings were: Les Peupliers à Giverny, an image of poplar trees, sold by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which made £10.7 million (£9 million-£12 million); L'Embarcadère, a Dutch landscape, made £10.2 million (£7.5 million-£ 10 million); Antibes vue de la Salis, a view of the south of France, made £8.7 million (£5 million-£7 million), and Vase de pivoines, still-life of peonies, made £2.2 million (£1.2 million-£1.8 million).
After the auction, Helena Newman of Sotheby’s said “undoubtedly it was a great night for Monet” but there were also big prices for other artists.
Sotheby’s said the February 3rd evening sales of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist Art realised £186 million (€242 million) “the highest total for any auction ever held in London, in any category”.
There were bidders from 35 countries, with “collectors from Asia and Russia asserting themselves as a continued force in the market”.
The sale's other highlights included a painting by another French Impressionist, Matisse, titled Odalisque au fauteuil noir and depicting Princess Nézy-Hamidé Chawkat, the great grand-daughter of the last Sultan of Turkey, which sold for £15.8 million (€20.9 million) way above its top estimate of £12 million. Toulouse-Lautrec's Au Lit: Le Baiser made £10.9 million (€14.3 million), the second-highest price ever achieved for the artist at auction.
