NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’'s announced highlights of its upcoming Impressionist and Modern Art Day and Works on Paper auctions at Rockefeller Center on November 6, as well as a second installment of its popular Picasso Ceramics online-only sale running October 24 – November 7, exclusively at www.Christies.com/PicassoCeramics. A combined total of 407 works will be offered across Christie’s Day, Works on Paper, and Picasso Ceramics sales to complement Christie’s flagship Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art on November 5, creating even greater opportunities for both new and established clients to collect blue-chip works by the masters of the era. Paintings, sculptures, watercolors and drawings by some of the most acclaimed artists of the late 19th through early 20th century will be featured in the sales, including Fernand Léger, Maurice de Vlaminck, Amedeo Modigliani, Marc Chagall, and Paul Cézanne, among others. All of the works will be on view to the public at Christie’s Rockefeller Center galleries this fall, starting October 24 for Picasso Ceramics and November 1 for the Day and Works on Paper sales.

David Kleiweg de Zwaan commented: “For the broad and growing base of collectors who want to start or expand their collections, Christie’s day sales are a perfect opportunity for them to take home works by blue-chip artists at an approachable price level. Whether they’re interested in Impressionists or Fauves, Cubists or Surrealists, this season’s expanded roster of sales offers works from renowned private collections, many of which have not been to market for over a generation. We are pleased to include dozens of Cubist works on paper and prints from the renowned Melamed Family Collection, and works from the collections of actress Joan Fontaine, Dorothy Tremaine Hildt and Rosalynd C. Pflaum.”

Christie’s expanded sales calendar reflects the growing global demand among collectors for a broad array of Modern and Contemporary Art at the middle-market price level. Over the past several seasons, Christie’s has excelled in this focused area, selling over 90 percent of Impressionist and Modern works offered at estimates between $500,000 and $2 million.

DAY SALE HIGHLIGHTS, NOVEMBER 6, 2 PM
BLUE-CHIP ARTISTS FOR DISCERNING COLLECTORS
Camille Pissarro: The sale is led by Camille Pissarro’s L’Anse des Pilotes et le Brise-Lames Est, Le Havre, 1903 (estimate: $1,000,000 – 1,500,000). Painted from the vantage point of his room at the Hôtel Continental, Pissarro’s Le Havre paintings from this period showed the artist still fuelled by the thirst to innovate at age 73. These works have often been the objects of praise, showing as they do Pissarro’s ability to reinvent himself and his art even in the last year of his life.

Maurice de Vlaminck: Bouquet de fleurs, a dazzling still-life painted at the peak of Fauve experimentation between the Salon d’Automne in 1905 and the Salon des Independents in 1906, fairly bursts off the canvas like fireworks, with its pure hues taken directly from the tube ($700,000-1,000,000).

Pablo Picasso: Tête, an emotionally charged, bifurcated oil portrait of the artist’s wife Olga, painted in 1929, ($600,000-900,000), is as much a portrait of their fractured marriage as of Olga, when contrasted with contemporaneous images of his younger muse, Marie Thérèse Walter frolicking on the beach.

Fernand Léger: Paysage fond orange, from 1953, manifests the artist’s late style ($700,000- 1,000,000). It is the culmination of a series of landscapes he worked on that year, each juxtaposing organic and mechanical elements in varying degrees.

WORKS ON PAPER HIGHLIGHTS, NOVEMBER 6, 10 AM
INVENTIVE WORKS FROM DISTINGUISHED COLLECTIONS
Several artworks are coming to Christie’s after spending a generation or more in a distinguished family collection, including the Melamed Collection, the collection of Rosalynd C. Pflaum, and the estate of actress Joan Fontaine.

Amedeo Modigliani: This large-scale (21” x 17”) drawing of a Cariatide from 1913 was executed when the artist was concentrating on his sculpture, rendering sculptural forms with a few simple ovoid lines in Modigliani’s signature style ($120,000-180,000).

Paul Cézanne: Page de croquis (recto); La partie de campagne (verso). This sheet, with drawings on one side and a watercolor study for La partie de campagne on the other, was executed circa 1875, and originally owned by the artist’s son, whose likeness is one of the sketches ($100,000-150,000). For nearly 60 years, this work has been in the collection of Rosalynd C. Pflaum, a noted author, philanthropist, collector and scholar of French history and culture. Her curated collection of works on paper includes the most acclaimed of French artists.

Marc Chagall: Vase de fleurs dans la fenetre, a brightly hued gouache of an enormous bouquet painted in 1935-36, has belonged to the actress Joan Fontaine from circa 1945 ($400,000-600,000).

Juan Gris: La Guitare, (1913) is one of about 50 works on paper and prints by the major figures of the Cubist movement from the Melamed Family Collection ($400,000-600,000). The violin and guitar are persistent features of Gris’ still-life compositions from that period, and the present work is a rare example of a drawing from this era, as the artist usually destroyed his preparatory works.

Joan Miró: Pour Romeo et Juliette was created by the artist in May 1926 for Prince Alexandre Shervashidze, the set painter who assisted with bringing to life Miró’s designs for the ballet’s production by Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes ($350,000-550,000). The work is inscribed by the artist with a dedication to his collaborator and captures Juliet’s tragedy in a minimum of simple shapes, lines and colors. It was later owned by Serge Lifar, one of the principal dancers in the production.

PICASSO CERAMICS CHRISTIE’S ONLINE-ONLY AUCTION
BIDDING OPEN OCTOBER 24 – NOVEMBER 7
Christie’s will hold Picasso Ceramics, its second New York online-only sale dedicated to ceramics produced by the leading artist of the 20th century, exclusively at www.Christies.com/PicassoCeramics, in conjunction with Impressionist & Modern Art week in New York and following the outstanding success of Impressions in Clay: Picasso Ceramics featuring Property from the Estate of Edgar M. Bronfman. The sale presents a strong selection of statement pieces of excellent quality, with estimates ranging from $1,200 to $80,000, and includes the full set of 8 plates, Service scènes de corrida, the coveted white earthenware sculpture Footballeur, and the particularly rare variant of Tête de chèvre de profil. Many highlights come from important private collections, including The Bergman Collection. All works in the sale will be on view at Rockefeller Center from October 24 –November 6.