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Galerie bei der Albertina ▪ Zetter
Adolf Loos (Brünn 1870-1933 Kalksburg) Lady's Writing Desk, around 1903/04 Softwood, oil varnish, brass fittings, writing inlay with new leather H 106 (with top) x H 80 (without top) x W 113 x D 67.5 cm Manufactured by Friedrich Otto Schmidt, Vienna Company stamp on the underside: Friedrich Otto Schmidt / Wien / 1 Singerstrasse 16 / Schmidt Miksa / Budapest / 5. Lipotkorut 4 Provenance: Private collection, Vienna Literature: Burkhardt Rukschcio/Roland Schachel, Adolf Loos. Leben und Werk, 1982, Salzburg/Vienna, ill. p. 115, n° 117 cf. Exhibition catalogue ‘Adolf Loos. Private Spaces’, Barcelona Design Museum, 2017, ill. p. 134 Exhibitions: Paris, ‘Adolf Loos – Exposition Du Cinquantenaire’, 1983; Karlsruhe, ‘Gründerzeit, Adolf Loos: Jahrhundertwende: Rückblick und Ausblick im Spiegel der Wiener Architektur’, 1987 Questions of furnishing remained an important subject for the architect Adolf Loos (1870–1933) throughout his entire creative output. The World’s Fair held in Chicago in 1893 was the reason for a trip to the USA, which resulted in a three-year stay. The engagement with modern lifestyle and Anglo-Saxon interior design culture were formative experiences for the aspiring architect. Today, Loos is widely seen as one of the most avant-garde architects of his generation and his work is presented in national and international collections, from the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Of this particular writing desk only two pieces are known to exist. It perfectly exemplifies Loos’ strict no-ornament policy, always putting functionality before aesthetic, and his high standards concerning materials and craftmanship. To ensure the latter he would often employ the traditional Viennese furnishings company Friedrich Otto Schmidt and its master carpenters as manufacturers for his interior designs. This model was shown in three separate museum exhibitions, in Paris 1983, Karlsruhe 1987 and Barcelona 2017.
De Wit Fine Tapestries
Large leaf verdure with wild boar Southern Netherlands, possibly Oudenaarde, 16th century Tapestry, wool and silk 265 x 370 cm This Large leaf lerdure with wild boar depicts an idealised view of nature. The vegetation is in bloom and various animals are roaming through the crops. Whilst tapestries of this type often survive in fragments, this piece is complete and contains all the typical, characteristic elements. The piece is in very good condition, with strong contrasting colours that emphasise the illusion of vibrant nature. Whereas we often see oval or circular balustrades in tapestries of this kind, which frame the natural scene behind them, the picture plane here is sharply interrupted by a straight balustrade. A gallery is formed which attempts to keep the viewer at a distance, but it cannot hold back the foliage, and some of the vegetation and animals pass beyond the frame and escape from the border.
Stern Pissarro Gallery
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Limoges 1841-1919 Cagnes-sur-Mer) Coco mangeant sa soupe, 1905 Oil on canvas 46.3 x 37.9 cm Signed lower right 'Renoir' Provenance: Ambroise Vollard, Paris; private collection, Zurich, circa 1930; Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, March 1942 (on loan from a private collection); Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Los Angeles, 1943-1949; Van Diemen-Lilienfeld Galleries, New York, 1953; Chapin and Mary Alexander Riley, Malibu/Worcester, acquired in 1953; Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts (inventory n° 1991.238) (one third gifted in 1992 and a second third gifted in 1997) Literature: Principales acquisitions des musées en 1992, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1993, p. 65; Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vol. IV, 1903-1910, n° 3415, p. 435 Exhibitions: Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Vincent van Gogh en zijn Tijdgenooten, 1930, n° 269; San Diego, Fine Arts Gallery, 1942; Los Angeles, Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Renoir (1841-1919), 1943, n° 5; Los Angeles, Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, A Superb Exhibition: Modern French Masters, 1949, p. 5 (travelled to New York, Barbizon Plaza Hotel); Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Renoir: Intimidad, 18 October 2016-22 January 2017, p. 149 (travelled to Bilbao, Museo de Gellas Artes de Bilbao, 7 February-15 May 2017) Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Coco mangeant sa soupe (1905) is an intimate portrait of the artist’s youngest son, Claude, known as Coco, aged four, painted at Cagnes-sur-Mer in the South of France. Built from soft, flowing brushstrokes in warm oranges, pinks and reds, it shows Renoir’s late style at its most affectionate. The painting was exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, in Vincent van Gogh en zijn Tijdgenooten (1930) and at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Renoir: Intimidad (2016–17). Its provenance includes Ambroise Vollard and the Worcester Art Museum. A tender, closely observed portrayal of family life, it offers an intimate glimpse into the final chapter of Renoir’s career.
Galerie Édouard Ambroselli
Artus Quellinus the Younger (Sint-Truiden 1625-1700 Antwerp) Virgin and Child, circa 1650-1665 Terracotta, stone H 81.2 x W 42.5 x D 34 cm Born into a dynasty of sculptors in the Southern Netherlands, Arthus Quellinus theYounger, became one of the leading artists of the region. He followed his cousin, Artus Quellinus the Elder, to work on the Amsterdam Town Hall, a landmark of European sculpture. Back in Antwerp, he ran a workshop that trained a successful generation of sculptors, and he exported his works across Europe. Our Virgin and Child, is a preparatory model for a larger statue. The Virgin’s elongated face and elaborate hairstyle, the Child’s plump belly and slender legs, and the crisp, flowing drapery are all hallmarks of the artist’s refined style. The throne is decorated with cherub heads and volutes that differ on each side, a way of offering the patron a choice between two decorative solutions. Spontaneous and intimate, this terracotta gives us the intimacy of a working model, a glimpse of the sculptor’s creative process.
COLNAGHI
Robert Mapplethorpe (New York 1946-1989 Boston) Female torso, 1978 Silver gelatin photograph 50.8 x 40.6 cm Made in 1978, the photograph belongs to a life-long dialogue in Mapplethorpe’s work between photography and sculpture. The subject would later serve as the opening image of his 1989 volume Some Women, where its classical reference establishes a point of comparison for the contemporary women portrayed in the book. The photograph was produced in an edition of ten. Impressions of the image are held in major public collections, including the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The documented provenance of this impression begins with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in New York, from which it passed into a private collection in Belgium.
Rueb Modern and Contemporary Art
Jan Sluijters ('s-Hertogenbosch 1881-1957 Amsterdam) Greet van Cooten with headband, 1910 Oil on canvas 35.5 x 42 cm Signed and dated Provenance: Salomon Beffie collection, Amsterdam; Willem Beffie collection, New York; Galerie van Voorst van Beest, The Hague; Reens collection, Amsterdam; A.J. van Hillegondsberg collection, Blaricum; private collection, Amsterdam Literature: online catalogue raisonné Jan Sluijters - www.rkd.nl/images/100130 Exhibition: The Hague, Pulchri Studio, Paintings, drawings and pointes-sèches of Jan Sluijters and Lodewijk, Schelfhout, 3 July-25 July 1915, n° 40 After winning the prestigious Prix de Rome, Jan Sluijters received a grant that enabled him to travel to Rome and later to Paris. There, he encountered Fauvism, an avant-garde movement that emerged in the early 20th century. The Fauves revolutionised the use of colour, applying vivid, unmixed colours directly to the canvas. Their bold approach challenged artistic conventions and initially provoked criticism. The art critic Louis Vauxcelles famously nicknamed them les fauves (“the wild beasts”). Together with Piet Mondrian and Leo Gestel, Sluijters became one of the leading representatives of Dutch Luminism, a movement that developed around 1909 and embraced the expressive power of light and intense colour. Painted in 1910, Greet van Cooten with Headband is an early example of Sluijters’s exploration of this vibrant new style. Its striking colours reflect the influence of Fauvism, while demonstrating his own distinctive approach to colour and light. Greet van Cooten was Sluijters’s favourite model; she later became his wife in 1913.
Desmet Fine Art
Odoardo Fantacchiotti (Rome 1809-1877 Florence) Musidora, Firenze, 1859 Inspired by James Thomson’s poem ‘Summer’, originally published in 1727 Marble H 167.6 x W 49 x D 49 cm Plinth: H 95.3 x D 63 cm (at base) Total height: 262.9 cm Signed 'Per commis del meritis / ... / Odoardo Fantachiotti / Scolpiva in Firenze / l'anno 1859 Art Loss Register: S00258863 Provenance: commissioned by August Belmont (1813-1890) USA; Randall family, Clarendon Court (Newport, USA) Literature: Ricordi fotografici degli artisti contemporanei in Toscana: ‘La Musidora’(Firenze-1858); V. Lia Bernini, G. Moradei, Odoardo Fantacchiotti scultore (1811-1877): atti delle giornate di studio nel bicentenario della nascita 1811-2011, (Toscana 2021), Volume 227, pp. 37-41 Two subsequent versions were made: the first in 1862 for Baron Belper, Edward Strutt (Israele collection); the second one in 1865 for the then King of Portugal, Luis I, now kept in the collections of Lisbon’s Palacio Nacional da Ajuda (inv. n°179). This sculpture is the first version of Fantacchiotti’s most acclaimed sculpture, Musidora, realised in 1859. Drawing inspiration from James Thomson’s poem ‘Summer’, the monumental marble depicts the moment in which the nymph, bathing in a secluded stream, realises that she has been observed by her admirer Damon. Engaging both with the legacy of Neoclassicism and the emerging sensibilities of Romanticism, Fantacchiotti stands as one of the representatives of mid-nineteenth century Florentine academic sculpture, receiving high praise by his contemporaries. This version was commissioned by August Belmont, a central figure of New York’s social elite, and founder and director of one of the country’s leading private banking firms, reflecting the American appetite for Italian marble sculpture, and the enduring influence of Florentine sculpture in the transatlantic taste.
Galerie Raf Van Severen
Rik Wouters (Mechelen 1882-1916 Amsterdam) Portrait of Rik Wouters, Chemise Blanche, 1912 Oil on canvas mounted on panel 51.5 x 61.5 cm Annotated at the back: Nr 99 Portrait de Rik Wouters par lui même toile collée sur panneau; Mme V: Rik Wouters; Portret van Rik Dhr Mevr. De Carnière Provenance: previous collection of Nel Wouters; Leten collection, Ghent; private collection, Brussels Literature: Roger Avermaete, Rik Wouters, Editions Arcade, Brussels, 1965 The subject of the self-portrait is a recurring theme throughout Rik Wouters’ artistic career. Throughout his life, he produced numerous paintings and sculptures depicting himself, offering insight into the evolution of his artistic style as well as changes in his physical appearance. These works range from one of his earliest self-portraits, characterised by its darker palette, to a painting from the final years of his life, when he had lost an eye as a result of his deteriorating health. The painting 'Portrait of Rik Wouters, Chemise Blanche' was created in 1912, the year of his artistic breakthrough, when he became the first Belgian painter to sign an exclusive contract with the renowned Galerie Georges Giroux. The painting depicts Wouters in a particularly serene setting, with little to no discernible emotion on his face. This sense of restraint is further emphasised by the Fauvist technique, which favours broad areas of colour over intricate details. Following Wouters’ death, the painting remained in Nel’s possession, reflecting the particular personal significance she attached to the work.
Galerie Jean-François Cazeau
Yayoi Kusama (Matsumoto 1929-2026 Tokyo) Uchu/Universe, 1994 Acrylic on canvas 91 x 73 cm Signed, titled and dated in Japanese on the reverse 'Yayoi Kusama 1994' This work is registered in the Archives of Yayoi Kusama Studio as n° 1518 Provenance: Ota Fine Art, Tokyo; private collection Sotheby’s London, 2022, lot 318; acquired by the current owner at Sotheby’s London; private collection, France
Galerie Flak
U’u Club Marquesas Islands, Polynesia, 18th or 19th century Carved wood and fibers H 138.5 cm Provenance: David Petty collection, London; Pierre-Richard Royer collection, Paris; Alexandre Bernand collection, Paris; private collection, acquired from the above in September 2016 Exhibition: TEFAF 2024, Maastricht, Serge Schoffel, catalogue T3, p. 28
Galerie Cento Anni
Philippe Wolfers (Brussels, 1858-1929) La source, 1908 White marble and green marble for the base H 60 cm Signed 'Ph. Wolfers' Provenance: Wolfers' family Literature: Werner Adriaenssens and Raf Steel, The Wolfers Dynasty, pp. 154 and 392, n° 223 Exhibitions: Brussels, 1908; Brussels, 1928; Ghent, 1979
Lemaire
Japanese and Chinese porcelain potpourri Kangxi and Edo periods, circa 1760-1770 Porcelain mounted in gilt-bronze H 23 x Ø 16 cm The piece is composed of two distinct sections. The circular Japanese porcelain base is decorated with a vegetal motif and set within a finely chased gilt-bronze mount, from which rise three small feet. Above, three Chinese biscuit porcelain dogs support a globular potpourri vessel, surmounted by a flower-form finial in porcelain. This work is typical of the marchands-merciers active in Paris during the second half of the 18th century.
Guy Pieters Gallery
Pierre Alechinsky (Brussels, 1927) Paysage impressionné, 1959 Oil on canvas 205 x 289 cm Pierre Alechinsky’s ‘Paysage impressionné’, executed in 1959, is a large oil painting from an important early period in the artist’s career. Painted after the CoBrA movement had dissolved, it reflects his interest in spontaneous, expressive forms, a vivid sense of movement and the freedom of the brush. The lively brushwork and interplay of colours give the painting a sense of movement, while the broad composition feels balanced and harmonious. This combination of energy and control makes the work especially engaging.
Galerie Tiago
Rectangular lacquered wooden suzuribako (writing box) Japan, Edo period (1603-1868) Wood, lacquer, silver, gold, hiramaki-e, takamaki-e, kirigane, gyōbu-nashiji, tsumemaki nashiji H 4.7 x W 27 x D 23.5 cm Decorated in gold lacquer with a continuous design depicting a pavilion set in a karst landscape dotted with pine and maple trees. Complete with an inkstone, a silver water dropper, a blade and a set of brushes.
Dalton Somaré
Chokwe chair Angola, late 19th century Wood, metal, and leather H 68 x W 31 x D 38 cm Provenance: collection of Joyce and Donald Doyle, diamond mine directors for the Compagnie de la Forminière in the Belgian Congo in the 1920s. The majority of their collection was donated to the Princeton University Art Museum. Thence by descent to their daughter Suzanne "Sue" Miers, née Doyle (1922–2016), Africanist historian and professor at Ohio University. Thence by descent to her children Charles Miers and Caroline Farrington, New York Literature: Narrative Wisdom and African Arts (Exhibition catalogue), St. Louis Art Museum, 19 October-16 February, 2025, pp. 74, 75, 81 Exhibition: Narrative Wisdom and African Arts, St. Louis Art Museum, 19 October-16 February, 2025 This leather-seated chair belongs to a tradition of Chokwe seats of authority, commonly described as ngundja. Its refined decoration transforms a functional furnishing into a visual expression of chiefly prestige. Such seats formed part of a wider repertoire of objects associated with leadership, alongside ceremonial weapons, staffs and elaborately carved pipes. The combination of a backrest, a leather-covered seat and metal tacks reflects the adaptation of European furniture encountered through trade from the seventeenth century onward. Chokwe artists reworked these features within their own sculptural language, making the chair an expression of local political and spiritual values. At the centre of the back is a sculpted female face, which must be identified as Pwo. Pwo honours female ancestors and has particular significance within a society that traces descent through women. Her imagery also belongs to the wider world of masquerade and initiation. The lower stretchers carry small sculptural groups as musicians playing handheld drums and a slit drum, and a mounted pombeiro, or long-distance trader. It must be noted the unusual prominence of a female subject in these carved scenes. These scenes can be read within the broader Chokwe tradition of presenting ritual and everyday activities as aspects of the social world entrusted to a leader. Extremely sophisticated geometric carving and rows of metal studs enrich the back and supports, contrasting with the leather seat and the varied tones of the wood. The combination of carved figures, the monumentality of the composition and the rigour of the geometric decoration in high relief lend this sculpture the dignity and authority of a true throne.
Brun Fine Art
James Cox (London 1723-1800 Watford) and Charles Magniac (Bedford 1786-1824 Paris) Coffer, circa 1760 Gilt bronze and glass painted in imitation of agate, pearls and precious stones 15.8 x 24.5 x 19 cm Engraved 'C3' on the inside front edge Expertise by Enrico Colle Literature: E. Colle, Enrico Colle, Brueghel: the Spirit of Collecting. Paintings. Sculptures. Wonders., Milan, 2026, pp. 294-299 Exhibitions: Brun Fine Art and De Jonckheere, Brueghel: the Spirit of Collecting. Paintings. Sculptures. Wonders., Milan, 2026
Franck Anelli Fine Art
Secretary Charles Topino (1742-1803), master in 1773 Transition period Oak, Breccia marble top, bronze and marquetry in rosewood, amaranth, holly, sycamore, lemonwood, stained woods and tobacco wood H 139 x W 92 x D 38 cm Stamped TOPINO and bearing the Jurande hallmark Transition period secretary in wardrobe stamped Charles TOPINO (1742-1803) and Jurande hallmark. Rectangular in shape, the front uprights with cut sides, the front legs arched, the hind legs straight, the oak frame, it opens with a drawer, two leaves and a flap revealing a compartmentalized interior of seven drawers and four compartments. Top of breccia marble from Aleppo. Inlaid decoration in rosewood, amaranth, holly, sycamore, lemon tree, stained wood, tobacco wood, drawing lattices on the uprights and the upper drawer, those of the latter, embellished with flowers, and trompe-l'oeil on the front and on the sides, a decoration of garlands of oval cartouches of stylised acanthus leaves uniting the panels of the toilet seat and the leaves, each also presenting, in the upper part, a leafy garland that can be found on the side panels. The latter are decorated with two gadrooned urns close to the flowered vases of the leaves. The toilet seat has a trompe-l'oeil perspective decoration, an orangery whose open shutters give a glimpse of a wooded landscape in the distance, a perspective accentuated by the checkerboard paving, also present on the leaves. Eight boxes of fruit trees are spread around a table on which are placed two flowered vases and under which is a watering can. The interior reveals six side drawers in three rows, inlaid with a floral vase pattern, as well as a central drawer. Stamped TOPINO and hallmark of Jurande Charles TOPINO received master in 1773 The art of marquetry The bronzes are discreet on our desk and this is intended to give pride of place to marquetry, qualified as wooden painting. If it is possible and tempting - rightly to link a cabinetmaker to his marquetry and this is regularly the case for Topino whose utensil marquetry inspired by the borders of Chinese Coromandel lacquer screens of the time is a characteristic of the artist - it turns out that the models circulated and that inlaid panels could be used by the same circle of cabinetmakers. If the vases, potiches, flowers, utensils reproduced, invented, associated, allow us to recognize Topino's art, it should be noted that the framing motif made up of oval reserves with quartefeuilles and spandrels can be found on secretaries, a chest of drawers and a dressing table stamped Jacques Bircklé. By this same cabinetmaker, a secretary also presents the same vases present on our furniture. Very similar marquetry panels. both in their compositions and in their frames can be found on a chest of drawers attributed to Jacques Bircklé, illustrated in the book by Pierre Kjellberg, who also defines the paving pattern as Bircklé's 'almost exclusiveness'. our secretary thus witnessed the circulation of drawn or engraved models.
Waddington Custot
Jean Hélion (Couterne, Rives-d'Andaine 1904–1987 Paris) Homme au chapeau, 1943 Oil on canvas 58.1 x 43.1 cm Signed and dated on reverse ‘Hélion va 43’ This work is recorded in the online catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint de Jean Hélion, no. 876 (http://www.helion-cat-rais.com/moteur/pop.php?id=1216) Provenance: John Ashbery, New York (directly from the artist); Connaught Brown, London Exhibitions: ‘Jean Hélion’, Spencer A. Samuels & Co., Ltd, New York, 7 April–22 May 1976, catalogue no. 8 (repro. In b&w); ‘Works from the Collection of John Ashbery’, Kasmin Gallery, New York, 1 November–22 December 2018; ‘Regards croisés’, Waddington Custot, Paris, 11 June–26 September 2026
Galerie Raf Van Severen
Jean Brusselmans (Brussels 1884-1953 Dilbeek) Decor for Erwartung, 1936 Mixed media on paper 60 x 90 cm Label at the back; Erwartung; Decor pour 'Erwartung', d’Arnold Schoenberg, 1936; Décor pour le 4e acte Literature: Paul Haesaerts, Jean Brusselmans, 1939, p. 67; Robert L. Delevoy, Jean Brusselmans: CR établi par Mme G. Brys-Schatan, 1972, 421.IV In 1936, the French-language premiere of the monodrama Erwartung by Arnold Schoenberg was organized in the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. And it was Jean Brusselmans who was commissioned with the design of the sets. In “Decor for Erwartung” we see the study for the 4th scene of the drama. During this scene the female protagonist, who is desperately on search for her lover, encounters a road in the middle of the forest. To her horror, she can only discover his lifeless body by the edge of a lonely house. Brusselmans’ typical painting style, where he grabs back to simplicity and clearly alienated figures, remarkably makes it easier to visualize how the sets must have looked during the actual play. It gives the viewer an endless source of imagination. Together with the history behind the work it makes an absolute masterpiece of “Decor for Erwartung’.
Dei Bardi Art
Kneeling donor figure South Netherlandish, second half of the 16th century Limestone 67 x 22 x 37 cm Provenance: ancient collector's label on the reverse This rare limestone portrait of a Renaissance donor, kneeling in prayer and remarkably well preserved. Carved in the Southern Netherlands in the second half of the 16th century, the figure combines exceptional quality of execution with a richly detailed costume. The woman wears a huik, the characteristic outer garment of the women of the Low Countries, over a ruff with figure-of-eight pleats. This combination places the work in the last decades of the 16th century, c. 1560-1590. Beneath, a bodice with a central busk and cuffs incised with fine ornament complete an ensemble rendered with great precision. Familiar from painted portraits, such dress is only rarely preserved in such detail in sculpture. The face, with its heavy eyelids and marked features, favours a faithful likeness over an idealized type and lends the figure a quiet gravity and a strong sense of individual presence. The sculptor worked the piece fully in the round, and the crispness of the ruff, the incised cuffs, the hands and the drapery points to an important private commission, most likely from a family of considerable means and standing. The figure bears witness to those families who, in the Renaissance, could commission skilled sculptors to perpetuate their memory. Such images also conveyed the power of their patrons. This secular tradition, so different in spirit from religious sculpture, helped shape the stylistic evolution of Renaissance art. An old collector’s label on the reverse attests to the figure’s long history in collections.
BOON GALLERY
Kim Tschang Yeul (North Korea, Maengsan County 1929-2021 Seoul) Water Drop, 1983 Oil and sand on canvas 24 x 19 cm Signed on reverse Certificate of authenticity by the Kim Tschang Yeul estate, Paris, 2026 The Poetry of Transparency, Matter & Memory Kim Tschang-Yeul’s Water Drop (1983) is an iconic work of modern Korean art. It transforms a simple droplet into a meditation on existence, memory, and time. Set against a rough, earthy surface, the transparent drop appears luminous and delicate. Its subtle golden reflections contrast with the dense texture beneath it. This opposition evokes the tension between permanence and impermanence. Kim Tschang-Yeul (1929–2021) devoted nearly five decades to painting water drops. His artistic vision was shaped by the Japanese occupation and the Korean War. These experiences inspired reflections on suffering, remembrance, and reconciliation. For Kim, the droplet symbolized purification, inner peace, and spiritual renewal. The meticulous act of painting became a form of meditation. The textured background represents the material world, while water suggests fragility. Its reflections and shadows create a remarkable illusion of reality. The surrounding emptiness enhances the composition’s silence and contemplative power. Kim’s work resonates with Buddhist and Taoist ideas of emptiness and impermanence. It also explores the interconnectedness and transience of all existence. By 1983, he had gained international recognition, particularly in Paris. His art bridges Eastern philosophical traditions and Western pictorial techniques. Although related to Dansaekhwa, his water drops express a distinctive artistic identity. Today, his paintings remain emblematic of Korean modernism. Ultimately, Water Drop transforms a fleeting moment into a timeless meditation on beauty, memory, and transcendence.
Epoque Fine Jewels
René Lalique (Ay 1860-1945 Paris) Art Nouveau dragonfly brooch Paris, circa 1903 18 k yellow gold, 'plique-à-jour' enamel and polychrome enamel, old mine cut diamonds, citrine and pearls 11.6 x 4.4 cm Signed Lalique Accompanied by its original fitted case marked R. Lalique, 40, Cours-la-Reine, Paris, monogrammed 'E.A.' An important Art Nouveau dragonfly brooch by René Lalique, in 18-karat gold, designed as two opposing dragonflies with delicate wings of translucent plique-à-jour enamel, accented with old mine-cut diamonds. At the centre, the dragonflies clasp a cushion-shaped orange citrine, their bodies and legs enhanced with polychrome enamel. Graduated pearls trace the extremities of the wings, lending the composition a graceful sense of movement and lightness, characteristic of Lalique’s jewellery at the height of the Art Nouveau period.
Costermans
Louis XV writing table Paris, Louis XV period, circa 1750 Ormolu-mounted tulipwood, satinwood, amaranth, and red leather H 66 x W 55 x D 37 cm Stamped I·P·LATZ Jean-Pierre Latz (Cologne 1686-1754 Paris) was titled as favoured craftsman to the king This small folding table stands at the very top of the social hierarchy of objects: beneath its top, a sliding shelf reveals a writing desk upholstered in red leather, whilst a side drawer conceals an inkwell. This transformation mechanism is remarkably discreet, requiring the cabinetmaker to collaborate with a mechanic and a locksmith. On the top, a lyre adorned with a ribbon – a rare motif on small pieces of furniture from this period – reflects the era’s taste for the arts. It is reminiscent of the writing table commissioned for the Marquise de Pompadour, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This table is the work of Jean-Pierre Latz, who came to Paris from Cologne in 1719 and became the King’s favoured cabinetmaker. Inventive and daring, he cast and chiselled his own bronze fittings in defiance of the regulations, and counted Frederick II of Prussia, Augustus III of Poland and the eldest daughter of Louis XV amongst his clients. Furniture bearing his signature is rare.
Samuel Vanhoegaerden Gallery
Karel Appel (Amsterdam 1921-2006 Zurich) People, Birds and Sun, 1951 Gouache and pastel on paper, mounted on canvas 65 x 100 cm Signed and dated lower right Provenance: the estate of the artist; Galerie Max Hetzler, London Exhibition: Karel Appel-Cobra/Non Cobra, Galerie Max Hetzler, London, January-February 2024 This work by Karel Appel embodies the playful, instinctive visual language that makes his finest Cobra-period pieces so instantly recognizable. As the original version of the painting held in the Tate Gallery’s collection, this piece offers a glimpse into the evolution of a composition in which the imagination is given free rein. A child, a bird, a sun, and fantastical creatures appear alongside and intertwined with one another, without ever conforming to a traditional representation of reality. The figures are childlike and direct. Large eyes, erratic contours, and bold, spontaneous lines lend them an expressive presence. Appel does not paint what he sees, but rather he paints what he imagines and senses. The exuberant colors - yellow, red, green, blue, and black - collide, overlap, and amplify one another. The yellow plane infuses the composition with light and energy, while the dark lines provide structure to the various figures. This combination of childlike spontaneity and controlled painterly craft lies at the heart of Appel’s Cobra aesthetic.