NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announces the 19th Century European Art auction on April 25, which will offer a strong selection of fresh to the market works by the leading artists of the various schools of the period. The tightly curated sale is primarily sourced from private collections and will include 95 lots. The sale features a very strong section of Italian paintings lead by Francesco Hayez’s celebrated Il Bacio, considered one of the true icons of Italian Romantic art (estimate: $700,000-1,000,000), as well as Testa femminile di profilo, con cappellino by Giuseppe De Nittis (estimate: $200,000 – $300,000), a beautiful and intimate work much inspired by Impressionism.

This comprehensive auction is well-balanced, offering a strong Barbizon section with works by Gustave Courbet, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Julien Dupré and Léon Lhermitte, in addition to Orientalist works by Frederick Arthur Bridgman, Benjamin Constant, Rudolf Ernst, and a unique Orientalist painting by John Singer Sargent. Masterpieces by William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Sir Alfred James Munnings are included, in addition to Ivan Aivazovsky’s beautiful Arrival of the Columbus Flotilla to the American Coast, regarded as one of his best works from his series of paintings centered around the great explorer and featured at the 1893 World’s Fair (estimate: $1,200,000 - $1,800,000).

A group of seven paintings deaccessioned from the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be sold to benefit the acquisitions fund, and will include works by Charles-François Daubigny, Johan Barthold Jongkind, and Félix Ziem, among others.

Select Highlights

• GUSTAVE COURBET (FRENCH, 1819-1877) Les dunes de Deauville Estimate: $200,000 - $300,000

• IVAN AIVAZOVSKY (RUSSIAN, 1817-1900) Arrival of the Columbus Flotilla to the American Coast Estimate: $1,200,000 - $1,800,000

• JEAN FRANÇOIS RAFFAËLLI (FRENCH, 18501924) Allée d'arbres aux Champs-Elysées Estimate: $250,000 - $350,000

• JEAN-JOSEPH-BENJAMIN CONSTANT (FRENCH, 1845 - 1902) A Janissary Estimate: $100,000 - $150,000

• SIR ALFRED JAMES MUNNINGS, P.R.A., R.W.S., (BRITISH, 1878-1959) Portrait of Charles and Grace Amory Estimate: $800,000 - $1,200,000

• WILLIAM ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU (FRENCH, 1825-1905) Une dryade Estimate: $1,000,000 - $1,500,000

• EUGEN VON BLAAS (AUSTRIAN, 1843-1931) Gossip Estimate: $400,000 - $600,000

• FREDERICK ARTHUR BRIDGMAN (AMERICAN, 1847-1928) Chess Players, Biskra Estimate: $300,000 - $500,000

• RUDOLF ERNST (AUSTRIAN, 1854-1943) The Captured Lion Estimate: $200,000 - $300,000