NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s Classic Week presents auctions from Antiquities, Old Masters, European Art as well as two standout sales of property from The Collection of Eugene V. Thaw and The Collection of Elizabeth Stafford, from 30 October – 1 November. Across the week of sales more than 850 works will be offered, maintaining the hallmark traits collectors seek; superb quality, freshness to the market, and distinguished provenance. Aligning with the TEFAF fair, the auction exhibition at Christie’s Rockefeller Center Galleries begins on 25 October for the first auction.
The leading works of art offered during the series of sales include an important Assyrian Gypsum Relief of a Winged Genius from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, masterpieces from Gustave Courbet and Sir Edward Burne-Jones, a newly-discovered work by Pompeo Batoni, a sculptural pair of fauteuils by Tilliard, and a wax bozzetto of a standing man, possibly a model for Julius Caesar.
OLD MASTERS
30 October, 10am
Among the works with distinguished provenance offered in the Old Masters sale is El Greco’s Saint James the Greater from the Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller, which formally hung in the dining room at their Hudson Pines residence. Property from the Collection of John Michael Montias, an eminent historian of the Dutch Golden Age, includes a group of 7 lots led by Giovanni del Campo’s Allegory of Virtuous Love. The Collection of Elizabeth Stafford includes a wonderful selection of French paintings by Claude Lorrain, Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Étienne Aubry and Jean-Baptiste Pater. Also on offer is The Peruzzi Madonna attributed to Raphael or one of his close associates, a fascinating, unfinished second version of his celebrated Small Cowper Madonna. Other sale highlights include a newly-discovered Pompeo Batoni and works by Antoine Vestier, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Nicolas Régnier, and Bernardo Bellotto.
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF EUGENE V. THAW
30 October, 2pm
Property from the estate of one of the most renowned and influential art collectors and dealers of the 20th Century, Eugene V. Thaw will offer English Neo-Gothic and Georgian furniture, Old Master, 19th Century and American Art, Renaissance bronzes, porcelain, books, Antiquities and decorative arts. The Estate’s sale proceeds will benefit the Eugene V. and Clare Thaw Charitable Trust, which supports the arts, the environment and animal welfare. In this connoisseur’s collection works by Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Claude Lorrain and Jean-Honoré Fragonard juxtapose alongside an Archaic period Greek bronze helmet, two Kangxi period blue and white 'phoenix-tail' vases, a George II mahogany cabinet possibly by the royal cabinet-maker William Hallett, and an extremely rare and well-preserved wax bozzetto attributed to Giambologna.
ANTIQUITIES
31 October, 12pm
The top lot in the week of sales is an Assyrian Gypsum Relief of a Winged Genius, which is the finest example of Assyrian art to come to the market in decades, and sold on behalf of the Virginia Theological Seminary to underwrite a scholarship fund. Other sale highlights include an over life-sized Roman marble torso of Hercules inspired by a Greek sculpture of the Late Classical Period, a captivating Roman marble archaistic head of a Goddess from a New York Private Collector, and 20 Greek and Roman glass vessels from the Collection of John F. Fort, many of which were previously exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
EUROPEAN ART: PART I
31 October, 10am
The inaugural European Art Part I auction offers extraordinary masterpieces from the birth of the modern era. The top lot of the sale is an important and rare work by Gustave Courbet, Femme endormie aux cheveux roux, which is part of a revolutionary series of nudes painted by the artist in the mid-1860s. The 29-lot sale features paintings of the highest quality by Vilhelm Hammershøi, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Théodore Rousseau, William Adolphe Bouguereau and John William Waterhouse, among others.
EUROPEAN ART: PART II
31 October, 2:30pm
The European Art Part II sale features the leading artists of French Realist, Belle Époque, Barbizon, Symbolist and Orientalist schools. The sale includes 63 lots which reflect the extraordinary diversity of this period of art history. Sale highlights include works by Jacques-Émile Blanche, Julien Dupré, Rudolph Ernst, John Atkinson Grimshaw, Carl Vilhelm Holsøe, Willem Koekkoek, Léon Augustin Lhermitte, Anders Zorn, Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer and Léon Spilliaert.
A LOVE AFFAIR WITH FRANCE: THE COLLECTION OF ELIZABETH STAFFORD
1 November, 10am & 2pm
Following the record-setting sale of the Stafford’s exquisite Brancusi bronze La jeune fille sophistiquée (Portrait de Nancy Cunard) in May 2018, this dedicated collection sale of approximately 290 lots will offer superb French Furniture, Old Master paintings and drawings, decorative arts, and Sèvres porcelain. Christie’s galleries will reflect the spirit of the remarkable 18th century environments she created in her apartments on the Avenue Foch in Paris and Fifth Avenue in New York. Highlights of the sale include a delicate portrait by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, a richly carved pair of Louis XV giltwood fauteuils by Jean-Baptiste Tilliard, a pair of Sèvres porcelain Bleu Celeste flower-vases and pierced stands.
