PARIS.- As part of the Drawing week, Christie’s will take part in this international event by organising its « Drawing Days » on March 25 for the Old Master & 19th Century Drawings and on March 26 for the Works on Paper sales. These two auctions will precede the sale of Impressionist and Modern art as well as the sale of Greta Stroeh's Collection, "A Tribute to Arp", on March 26.

Christie's annual Parisian sale of Old Master & 19th Century Drawings offers a wide variety of works on paper covering over four hundred years of design and European creativity from around 16th to the 19th century. With more than 100 lots, the auction presents an opportunity to acquire some of the most celebrated drawings of the French, Italian, Dutch and Flemish school, with estimates ranging from €1,000 to €300,000.

Hélène Rihal, Head of the Department comments: “Two great Venetian artists are featured with two top lots including Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s Head of a man (€70,000-100,000) on blue grey paper and a rare Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo drawing coming from the series of Punchinello (ill.above, €200,000-300,000). Referenced as lost in the literature, this study by Punchinello with children and a horse reappears on the market today, coming from the collection of the late Commandant Paul-Louis Weiller, captain of industry and patron of the arts.

Amongst the Netherlandish section, Christie's will offer a delicate black and white chalk on blue paper of a rare finesse executed in Rome in 1639 by Peter van Lint (1609-1690): the Apollo Belvedere (€20,000-30,000), a mythologic scene Pluton et Eurydice (€20,000-30,000) by Hans Rottenhammer (1564-1625) and a set of impressive Three Projects of family tree, estimated at €10,000-15,000, executed by Erasmus Quellinus II (1607-1678) for an engraved series.

Masterworks of the French section will be highlighted by masters such as Simon Vouet (1590-1649) which this sale will present three rediscoveries: a series of pastels of a great freshness and never seen before on the market. The most famous is none other than the Portrait of the Cardinal Mazarin in his red coat, estimated at €100,000-150,000, while a delicate Portrait of a man in profile, turned to the left, signed and dated, which is exceptional for this series of colourful portraits, is also estimated at €100,000-150,000.

Amongst the French great artists, a drawing by François Boucher (1703-1770) will be offered with a charming red and white chalk of A nude sitting woman (estimated at €80,000-120,000) which belongs to a series of women's academies that echo the two paintings in the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon and the painted decor of the Hotel de Soubise (Paris). The sale will also offer a quick sketch on blue paper by Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766) of A woman in mask, an exquisite drawing of Trois gentilshommes et Pierrot by Claude Gillot (1673-1722), estimated at €20,000-30,000, a delicate scene of A mother and a child by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805), and a sketch by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724-1780) estimated at €6,000-8,000.

The 19th century French section will be equally rich in great names such as William Bouguereau (1825-1905), Théodore Chassériau (1819-1856), with a Group of horsemen, estimated at €8,000-12,000, or Honoré Daumier (1808-1879), a prolific draughtsman and cartoonist who immerses us in the legal world of the time, here with a Caricature of a Court Prosecutor, estimated at €30,000-40,000.

In the register of orientalist works, Christie's announced the rediscovery of a large Portrait of a young black woman by Jacques Majorelle (1886-1962) delicately enhanced with gold and a great freshness coming directly from the artist's family, estimated at €70,000-90,000. Finally, also remaining with the artist's descents, a series of Chinese landscapes depicting Hong Kong, Macau and views of India by the travelling painter Auguste Borget (1808-1877), made in the 1840s, will be presented.