Modern Clutter

Art Daily: "National Gallery of Ireland will present Impressionist Interiors"

The National Gallery of Ireland will present Impressionist Interiors, on view 10 May – 10 August 2008. Millennium Wing. This summer, the National Gallery of Ireland will present an exhibition highlighting the intimate observations of the Impressionists and their contemporaries. Featuring many wonderful, well-known paintings by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cassatt, Gauguin, Vuillard and Morisot, the exhibition will explore how these artists created a strikingly modern vision of the world around them.

Rejecting the narrative conventions of academic art, Impressionist artists chose deliberately informal interior scenes for many of their compositions. Impressionist Interiors will include 40 paintings on loan from important European and US collections as well as works from the Gallery’s own collection. (...) >>>

This is recommended viewing, if only for the ‘The French Breakfast’ (1910), by Childe Hassam (1859-1935), Collection Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza - From the exhibiton: ‘Impressionist Interiors’, National Gallery of Ireland, Millennium Wing.


- Caption: Edgar Degas (1834-1917), "La Famille Bellilli" (or "Portrait de Famille) (1858) -

The Price of an Industrial Revolution Railway Bridge

Art Price: "Test Sale in New York"

In a few days, Sotheby’s and Christie’s will hold their prestigious New York sales with works by the leading artists in impressionism and modern art up for auction. Tension is running high one week ahead of these major sales since they will effectively test the confidence of collectors in the face of the current economic uncertainty.

Of course, dollar weakness may provide a fillip for this blue-chip market, but it could be that caution carries the day and a brake is put on price rises at the high end. Impressionism and post-impressionism did disappoint last November, particularly at Sotheby’s, when a Van Gogh was bought in whereas it had been expected to achieve more than USD 28 million and on which the auction house had agreed a guaranteed price. This mistake was sanctioned as of the following day, with a collapse in the Sotheby's share price. One week later, the success of the contemporary art sales again underpinned collector confidence in proving that the market had remained strong.

For its Impressionist and Modern Art sale, Sotheby’s, whose stock price is trading at below USD 30 on Wall Street compared with above USD 57 in October 2007, is focusing more on modern art. (...) Christie's headline lot, a Monet painting entitled Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil which is expected to raise close to USD 35 million. Even if these works have not come up for auction for decades, competition is pushing the two auction houses to again take significant risks. (...) >>>


Meanwhile at Bloomberg's: "Monet Sells for Record $41.5 Million at Christie's N.Y. Auction"

May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Claude Monet's cerulean blue painting of the French countryside bisected by an iron railway bridge sold for a record $41.5 million tonight at a Christie's International auction in New York.

The sale suggests that $318 billion of credit losses and writedowns reported by banks linked to U.S. subprime loans haven't derailed the international art market. The 1873 painting was sold early in the evening's impressionist and modern art auction, the first of two weeks of bellwether sales projected to total $1.8 billion. Four of the evening's first 21 lots didn't sell.
Christie's estimated that "Le Point du Chemin de Fer a Argenteuil'' would fetch as much as $40 million. It was sold to a telephone bidder.

New York art adviser Cristin Tierney said that while buyers of impressionist and modern art aren't as plentiful as contemporary art devotees, they remain loyal and rich. (...) >>>

A Luminous American Riot

ArtDaily: "The Golden Age of American Impressionism on view at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester"

The Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester through June 15. This major traveling exhibition showcases 54 rarely-seen paintings from the golden age of American Impressionism (ca. 1880–1920), from one of the country’s premier museums. Included are luminous works by such masters as William Merritt Chase, William Glackens, Lilian Westcott Hale, Childe Hassam, Maurice Prendergast and John Henry Twachtman.

Members of the first generation to absorb the aesthetics of French Impressionism, these artists applied the brighter palette and broken brushwork of their European counterparts to the American landscape. Also on view is American Impressionism from the Permanent Collection, which brings together fourteen works from MAG’s collection, including many on view for the first time. Many of the artists, among them George Leonard Herdle (the Gallery’s first director) and Emma Lampert Cooper, have Rochester connections. (...) >>>

- Caption: Maurice Prendergast (1859-1924) - Ponte della Palia (1898-99 and 1922) -

The Great Impression!

ArtDaily: "Sotheby's February Impressionist & Modern Art Sale"

Sotheby’s Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern art in London on Tuesday, February 5 will bring to the market major works by many of the leading names in the field – among them Picasso, Jawlensky, Sisley, Monet, Cézanne, Renoir and Franz Marc. Together with the rest of the series of sales, they carry a combined estimate in excess of £100 million, making this among the highest value series of sales Sotheby’s has ever staged in Europe. ... >>>

- Caption: lot 72, Raoul Dufy (1877-1953): "Le Casino" -

Here's the catalogue "Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale". The details of the auction are as follows:

Auction Date: 5 Feb 08, 6:30 PM
Location: London, New Bond Street

Don't get confused: a day later the following auction takes place: catalogue "Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper".

Auction Date: 6 Feb 08, 10:00 AM
Location: London, New Bond Street

- Caption: lot 125, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973): "La Fenêtre à St Raphaël. Carte d'invitation" -