LONDON.- Today’s sale of 19th Century European Paintings at Sotheby’s in London brought a total of £5,205,875 ($7,608,386 / €6,856,688), against a pre-sale estimate of £3.64-5.3 million and with 69% of lots sold.

Claude Piening, Head of Department, 19th Century European Paintings, Sotheby’s London, said: “We were extremely pleased with today’s results which, seen together with our excellent sale in New York last week, confirms that the 19th-century European paintings market is in rude health. Collectors and institutions competed to the highest levels for masterpiece works, including Helene Schjerfbeck’s The Red-Haired Girl II (which we are thrilled will be accessible to the public in its new home), and Henri Gervex’s Rolla, a veritable icon of French 19th-century art.”

The sale saw a depth and breadth of bidding across many categories and markets. Notable highlights include:

· An auction record for Henri Gervex, for the artist’s variant of his most famous work Rolla, sold to a private collector for £1,385,000 ($2,024,178 / €1,824,191). Aged twenty-six, Gervex experienced a succès de scandale in Paris in 1878 when he exhibited Rolla. The painting was pulled from exhibition at the Salon on grounds of immorality. Most likely painted on commission for a collector who wanted their own piece of the scandal, the painting is the first full version of Rolla to come to auction in over 30 years, and the only known variant of its size.

· Finnish artist Helene Schjerfbeck’s The Red-Haired Girl II ignited an intense bidding war between several institutions, driving the final sale price to £1,205,000 ($1,761,108 / €1,574,934), more than double its pre-sale low estimate. The painting was acquired by the Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation in Finland – one of the finest collections in the Nordic region, embracing Finnish art from the Golden Age through to the 20th century, alongside works by other European masters from the 15th to the 19th centuries.

· La laitière, a long-lost masterpiece by Finnish artist Albert Edelfelt, sold to the European trade for £353,000 ($515,910 / €461,371). Unseen by the public since it was exhibited in Helsinki in 1892, the painting was until now known only from a black-and-white photograph taken at that time.

· Solid prices for works by Spanish artists, including an above estimate £137,000 ($200,226 / €180,443) for Santiago Rusiñol’s painting of Raixa Gardens in Mallorca.

· Spirited bidding for the opening lot, Federico Zandomeneghi’s Au théâtre, sold for £167,000 ($244,070 / €219,957), more than triple the low estimate (£50,000-70,000).