LONDON.- Christie’s announces the forthcoming sale of Old Master, Modern & Contemporary Prints, which will be held on Wednesday, 19 March 2014, and is set to attract buyers and collectors from around the world. The sale offers a vibrant and varied range of works from the late 15th century to the present day by many of the most important printmakers of the Western canon, including: old masters Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt; expressionists Edvard Munch, Otto Dix and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner; modern greats Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Joan Miró as well as post-war giants Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol, amongst many others. Offering 228 works, the sale is expected to realise in the region of £4 million. In addition, Christie’s auction of James Ensor Prints: The Mira Jacob Collection will take place on the morning of 19 March 2014, offering one of the most comprehensive groups of the artist’s graphic oeuvre in private hands.

The sale is led by an important lithograph The Sick Child I, 1896, by Norwegian master Edvard Munch (1863-1944) (estimate: £200,000 - 300,000, illustrated above). Offered from a private collection, this extraordinary work is a moving testament to Munch’s traumatic childhood experience of the death of his mother in 1868, followed by that of his elder sister in 1877.

‘The only influences in The Sick Child were my home; my home was to my art as the midwife is to her children. I remember it well - those were the days of pillows, of sickbeds, of feather quilts. But I firmly believe that scarcely any of these painters has ever experienced the full grief of their subject as I did in The Sick Child. Because it was not just I who was suffering then: it was all my nearest and dearest as well.’ Edvard Munch.

Also included in this private collection are two rare impressions of Munch’s woodcut masterpieces Moonlight I, 1896 (estimate: £180,000 - 250,000) and Woman’s Head against the Shore, 1899 (estimate: £120,000 - 180,000). Evocative of Munch’s great themes of existential loneliness and melancholy, both pieces are also outstanding examples of his inventiveness as a printmaker and his expressive use of the woodcut technique. In addition to works by Munch, the sale also includes a fine selection of German Expressionist prints by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Mueller, Franz Marc and Otto Dix.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) is well represented in the Modern section of the sale which is led by his monumental Torse de Femme (L’Egyptienne), 1953 (estimate: £80,000 - 120,000). This elegant and highly stylized portrait of François Gilot, Picasso’s wife at the time, is one of Picasso’s largest and most ambitious etchings. The title L’Egyptienne was coined at the time by Picasso’s printers in the Lacouriére workshop because of Gilot’s hairstyle which resembles an Egyptian headdress. A large variety of plates from the artist’s most famous series La Suite Vollard are also featured, including a proof on vellum of Le Repos du Sculpteur devant un centaure et une femme, 1933 (estimate: £20,000 -30,000), and the beautiful Faune devoilant une Femme, 1936 (estimate: £50,000 -70,000). The Picasso section concludes with a fine selection of linocuts, including Tête de Femme (Jacqueline au Chapeau noir), 1962 (estimate: £40,000 -60,000); a portrait of Jacqueline Roque, Picasso’s last wife and muse.

The Old Master section of the sale is exemplified by a stunning collection of five etchings by Rembrandt (1606-1669) from the Estate of the Late Lillian Honor Lewis, which includes some of his most famous etchings, most notably The Three Trees, 1643 (estimate: £150,000-250,000) and Landscape with a Cottage and a Hay Barn, 1641 (estimate: £50,000-70,000), as well as a superb, first state impression of Jan Lutma, Goldsmith, 1656, on China paper (estimate: £100,000 - 150,000).

Highlights by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) include The Prodigal Son, circa 1496 (estimate £30,000 - 50,000), an early and much loved subject; and a fine impression of Nemesis, circa 1501 (estimate £50,000 - 70,000) amongst other important subjects such as Melencolia I, 1514 (estimate £40,000 - 60,000) and Adam and Eve, 1504 (estimate £60,000 - 80,000).

Christie’s will be offering a selection of fourteen sold-out editions published by the Whitechapel Gallery. This unique group features works by leading contemporary artists including Rachel Whiteread’s (b. 1963), Gold Leaf, 2012 (estimate: £6,000 - 8,000), created as part of her 2012 commission Tree of Life for the Whitechapel Gallery building façade; Beatriz Milhazes’s (b. 1960) exuberant mixed media print, Ova Rosa, 2013 (estimate £4,000-6,000) and Jeremy Deller’s (b. 1966) Untitled, 2010 (estimate: £1,000-1,500), a pin-up of glam rock superstars Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. Estimates range from £1,000 to £6,000.

Iwona Blazwick OBE, Director, Whitechapel Gallery, comments: For over a century the Whitechapel Gallery in London has premiered world-class artists, from modern masters such as Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Frida Kahlo to contemporaries including Sophie Calle, Lucian Freud, Gilbert & George and Mark Wallinger. The Gallery is a touchstone for contemporary art internationally and plays a central role in London’s cultural landscape, which is pivotal to the continued growth of the world’s most vibrant contemporary art quarter. Leading artists have generously donated limited edition artworks to raise vital funds for the Whitechapel Gallery’s exhibitions and education programme and in January 2014 saw the presentation of the 100th edition. To celebrate this milestone, the gallery is releasing a small number of sold-out editions, giving everyone a last chance to buy these works of art. The proceeds will make a valuable contribution to the Whitechapel Gallery’s pioneering work with thousands of children and young people, including artists’ residencies in schools and the Summer Whitechapel Gallery Children’s Art Commission.

Further Contemporary highlights include Miroir de la Tauromachie, 1909, by Francis Bacon’s (1909-1969) (estimate: £40,000-60,000); Bruce Naumann’s (b. 1941) powerful text based work Pay Attention, 1973 (estimate: £40,000-60,000), as well as a large group of prints by Andy Warhol (1928-1987), including famous early pop art subjects such as Campbell’s Soup, Cow, Marilyn and Mao, with estimates ranging from £7,000 to £100,000. The Warhol offering culminates with Endangered Species, 1983 (estimate: £220,000-280,000), a set of ten screenprints Warhol described as ‘animals with make-up on’, highlighting the plight of the world’s most threatened animals in a typically playful and upbeat way.

The sale concludes with the Olympic Portfolio London 2012 (estimate: £8,000-12,000) with commissioned prints by contemporary artists Fiona Banner, Michael Craig-Martin, Martin Creed, Tracey Emin, Anthea Hamilton, Howard Hodgkin, Gary Hume, Allen Jones, Sarah Morris, Chris Ofili, Bridget Riley, Rachel Whiteread, and Bob & Roberta Smith.