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Boon Gallery
günther uecker
Günther Uecker (Germany, Wendorf 1930) Wind, 2005 Nails and oil on canvas laid down on wood 200 x 160 cm Signed on reverse This artwork is registered in the Uecker Archive with the number GU.05.011 and will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné Günther Uecker has for six decades developed his reliefs comprising dynamic arrangements of nails. Born in 1930 in Wendorf, Germany, Uecker studied at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee and Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, where he lives and works today. In the 1950s, influenced by Eastern philosophy and Gregorian chanting, he began a ritual of hammering nails. These materials signify protection and creation to the artist, who remembers nailing planks over the windows of his home to deter Soviet troops after the Second World War. By 1957, he was hammering nails onto canvas to achieve a 'sundial' optical effect, casting light and shadow in ephemeral patterns. In 1961, Uecker joined Heinz Mack and Otto Piene in the anti-expressionist movement Group Zero, which prioritised expanding beyond the traditional dimensions of the canvas into kinetic, serial, and participatory realms. After the group's dissolution in 1966, Uecker's work incorporated aspects of conceptual and land art, and he began designing stage sets for operas. Uecker's work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at museums worldwide. Retrospectives of his work have been organised by the Central House of Artists, Moscow (1988) and Kunsthalle München (1993), and he participated in Documenta (1964, 1968, 1977) and the 1970 Venice Biennale. His work resides in such collections as the Art Institute of Chicago; Guggenheim and MoMa in New York; Museum Ludwig in Cologne; Centre Pompidou in Paris; Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; and Tate Modern in London.
Van der Meij Fine Arts
janus la cour
Janus la Cour (Denmark, Tim Parish 1837-1909 Odder) From Bordighera, 1898 Oil on canvas 45 x 73.5 cm Signed lower right: 5.I.98 janus la Cour Provenance: estate auction Janus la Cour, Charlottenborg Copenhagen, December 1909, lot 119; private collection, Copenhagen Literature: Rikard Magnussen, Landskabsmaleren Janus la Cour. 1837-1909 (Copenhagen, 1928), n° 780
Galerie Hadjer
alexander calder
Alexander Calder (Lawnton 1898-1976 New York) Autumn Leaves, 1971 Aubusson tapestry woven by the Pinton workshop, France Wool and silk Original cartoon from 1971 170 x 240 cm Edition of six + two artist proofs - AP Provenance: Pinton workshop; private collection, France Exhibition: Victoria and Albert Museum, Collection, London
Gallery Desmet
Head of Goddess Marble Roman, 1st century AD H 21 x W 14 x D 15 cm Certificat d'un bien culturel: 242734 Accompanied by Art Loss Register certificate: S00236852 Provenance: the attics of Château de Monty Saint-Eloi (Oise), bought in 1896 (collection of Alfred Dailly 1848-1929); by descent to the Dugardin family, sold in their succession in 2023
Montagut Gallery
Baule statue Baule people, Ivory Coast, 19th century Wood H 40.5 cm Provenance: Galerie Olivier Le Corneur, Paris; Marceau Rivière collection, Paris, France; Alberto Costa Romero de Tejada, Barcelona, Spain; Javier Lentini collection, Barcelona, Spain Literature: África. La Figura Imaginada. Fundació LaCaixa, Barcelona, 2004. nº 44, p. 9 Unique within the corpus, this masterpiece destabilises, fascinates, and intrigues with its beauty and singularity. Its powerful serenity is magnified by its stature, refinement, gesture, and adornment. The sculpted forms, robust and vigorous due to its accentuated musculature, paradoxically suggest lightness, enhanced by its missing feet. The represented dignitary seems to be weightless, levitating, with its remarkably imposing elevated presence. The ideal of beauty and perfection amongst the Baule, representing moral perfection through its traits, is embodied here. Prestige is revealed in its details. Animated by combined energy and tranquility, its authority and dignity vibrate with admirable majesty. The distinctly rounded shoulders reinforce its stature, symbolising power, whilst the finely sculpted beard collar emphasises wisdom and maturity. Emerging from the torso are two nascent, flattened circular breasts with a dark brown patina, giving the figure an androgynous character and suggesting completeness through the union of both sexes. The finesse of the minute details enhances its gesture and adornment. The surface of its emaciated torso is adorned with subtly carved scarifications in slight relief, revealing or suggesting an armour, a necklace, an insignia of prestige and high rank. With fluidity, its delicate gesture attracts and guides the gaze to its slender fingers, which, on either side of the navel—slightly rounded, symbolising wealth and high social status—evoke a sign of welcome and esteem that spirits make when they encounter a diviner with whom they will form a future alliance. This gesture and the very particular treatment of the hands are unparalleled but can be closely associated in finesse with the treatment of the fingers in a work by the Master of Truth. Framed in a gentle oval, the strikingly peaceful face is sublimated by its crusty patina and the subtle interplay of forms between concave curves and reliefs. Slightly hollowed, the impact of its traits, carefully and clearly drawn, is accentuated. Its fine nasal ridge extends in a gentle continuity to the curved brow arches, intensifying the contours of the hollowed eyes, enhancing the circular shape of the gaze, revealing both its closed eyelids and the depth of introspection and meditation. The exceptional sophistication of its hairstyle, a testament to the Baule's sculptural finesse, contributes to this quest for perfection. This statue has been held in a collection for more than forty years and is now fresh on the market.
Gokelaere & Robinson
bodil kjaer
Bodil Kjaer (Denmark, Hatting 1932) President desk, 1959 Rosewood, steel H 72 x W 210 x D 100 cm Manufactured by E. Pedersen & Son, Denmark Bodil Kjær is a Danish architect, furniture designer, professor and researcher. Kjær’s furniture creations mainly date from 1959 to 1964. Her first order was a series of upholstered sofas for Paul Rudolph, dean of the Yale School of Architecture. She also designed a building for Harvard University for Josep Lluís Sert, head of the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Architect and furniture designer Marcel Breuer installed 28 of her upholstered sofas in a building he had designed in New York. Examples of her furniture are still visible today at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University. In the notes she prepared in 1995 for an exhibition in Berlin, Kjær commented: 'I often had problems finding furniture that could express the same ideas as those we used in the buildings we designed and which could, at the same time, express the ideas of Modern management'.
Artimo Fine Arts
Magician question and answer automaton 'album amicorum' book with original leather case and instructions for use Meussel et Fils à Genève, March 1823 Gold, enamel and tortoiseshell H 20 x W 15 cm Unique piece Provenance: J.-G. & J.-C. Meüsel, Geneva, Jewellers at rue des Orfevres, 184 Geneva, dated 1823; Lydia Huber Strutt (1759-1832), Geneva acquired 1823 (?); Bernard Franck (1848-1924), 21 rue du Château d’Eau, Paris, exact date of acquisition unconfirmed, but likely before 1900; Henry & Sidney Hill, Berry-Hill Galleries, New-York and London (formerly Frederick Berry & Sons of 25, Piccadilly), at the time specialists in gold boxes and objects, circa 1938; Maurice Sandoz, (1892-1958), Swiss nationality, resided variously in Burier, Switzerland, Rome, New York, Lisbon, Naples. Acquired the Magician circa 1938; private collection, Europe Literature: A. Chapuis, E. Gelis, Le Monde des Automates, vol. II, Paris 1928, pp. 170-172, figs.438/439; A. Chapuis, À travers les collections d’horlogerie: gens et choses, Neuchâtel, La Baconnière, 1942, ch. IX; Letter signed by Henry D. Hill of Berry-Hill, New York, 23 December 1947 to Alfred Chapuis confirming that they had purchased a part of the Bernard Franck Collection some years earlier. (Alfred Chapuis Archive held at the Musée d’Horlogerie, Chateau-des-Monts, Le Locle. Inv. G48.); A La Vieille Russie, Inc. A Loan Exhibition of Antique Automatons, 3 November-5 December 1950, Private Printing by Spinner Press, New York. p. 58, cat. n° 151; Maurice Sandoz collection, Watches and Automata, Fondation Maurice & Edouard Sandoz, 2012, vol. III, pp.201-202 Exhibition: A La Vieille Russie, Inc. A Loan Exhibition of Antique Automatons, 3 November-5 December 1950, New York
Chambre professionnelle belge de la Librairie Ancienne et Moderne (CLAM)
Michel Leiris (Paris 1901-1990 Saint-Hilaire) and Francis Bacon (Dublin 1909-1992 Madrid) Miroir de la tauromachie Paris, Galerie Lelong, 1990 Folio, loose (as issued), original publisher’s wrappers and box 4 original colour lithographs by Francis Bacon, all signed in pencil by the artist Limited edition of 155 copies, all printed on vélin d'Arches Librairie Lardanchet, Antiquarian bookseller
Galerie Marc Maison
alexandre sandier
Alexandre Sandier (France, 1843-1916) Decorative panel depicting Queen Cleopatra, circa 1880 Sarreguemines earthenware with painted decoration H 161.5 x W 202.7 x D 2.5 cm Literature: Alain Benedick, La Faïencerie de Sarreguemines, Éditions ABM 57, 2009; Figures décoratives par Alex. Sandier, Éditions A. Calava, Paris, undated; Guide du visiteur […]. 8e Exposition de l’Union centrale des arts décoratifs, Paris, Imprimerie Chaix, 1884 Exhibitions: Exhibition of the Union centrale des arts décoratifs in 1884; 1889 Paris Exposition In the 1880s, the Sarreguemines pottery began creating earthenware panels for interior and exterior decoration. This magnificent panel depicting Cleopatra, painted by Alexandre Sandier, is one such example. Its vivid yet soft and pleasing colors combine with a meticulous sense of archaeological detail to create a masterly lesson in Egyptomania, testifying to the fascination that Egypt still held for artists and the public alike at the end of the century.
Galeria Jordi Pascual
josé guerrero
José Guerrero (Granada 1914-1991 Barcelona) El Alba, 1967 Oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm Certificate of authenticity by Comité José Guerrero Provenance: Elliot M. Katz Living Trust, EE.UU; Galería Juana Mordó, Madrid; Galería Buchholz, Lisbon Literature: Francisco Baena, Serge Guibault, Juan Antonio Ramírez, Yolanda Romero and Inés Vellejo Ulecia, José Guerrero Catálogo Razonado, Vol I 1931-1969, Ed. Diputación de Granada, 2008, p. 564, fig. 460 Exhibition: Galería Buchholz, Lisbon, 'José Guerrero', April 1967
Galerie Lowet de Wotrenge
Jacob van Loo (Sluis 1614-1670 Paris) Portrait of a woman and her son as Venus and Cupid, circa 1670 Oil on canvas 87.5 x 77.5 cm Signed and dated lower right 'J. v. Loo f / An. o 16 (...)' Provenance: sale, Angers, November 25th, 1970, lot 198; Galerie Heim-Gairac, Paris, 1971; sale, Sotheby’s, London, May 2nd, 2018, lot 35; where acquired by the previous owner Literature: K. Bender, The Venus of the Low Countries. A topical catalogue of sculptures, reliefs, paintings, frescos, drawings, prints and illustrations of identified artists of the Low Countries, 2010, p. 80; D. Mandrella, Jacob van Loo 1614-1670, Paris, 2011, p. 203, fig. 146, ill. Jacob van Loo was one of the greatest artists of the Dutch Golden Age. Born in Sluis, a town in the Dutch Republic, in 1614, he trained with his father, the genre painter Jan van Loo. At some point in the 1630s, van Loo moved to Amsterdam, marrying Anna Lengele, the sister of painter Maerten Lengele, in 1642. During his first ten years in the city, van Loo mostly produced complex historical and mythological scenes inspired by the Flemish school and the work of Van Dyck. In the 1650s, the artist started painting scenes of galanterie, featuring musicians, soldiers and young women engaged in conversations, gambling and flirting, which were a source of inspiration for similar works by Johannes Vermeer. Van Loo was also highly esteemed as a painter of nudes and portraits, and received important public commissions. In the autumn of 1660, the artist fled Amsterdam after fatally stabbing the wine merchant Hendrik Breda during an altercation at an inn. Sentenced to death in absentia, he escaped to Paris, where he settled with his family and continued enjoying great success. In 1663, he was admitted to the Académie and, four years later, obtained French citizenship. Following his death in 1670, his two sons Jean and Abraham followed in their father’s footsteps, continuing a painterly family tradition that would successfully last until the nineteenth century. According to David Mandrella, the author of Jacob van Loo's catalogue raisonné, the present painting is one of the latest known by the artist, dating from 1670, the year of his death. It shows a woman in half-length, with dark, curvy long hair embellished by a shimmering string of pearls. She wears an all’antica dark green robe, revealing her nude breasts to the viewer. Set before a landscape, she hands a golden apple to her son, a smiling child half-dressed in a classicising drape. The Greek myth The Judgement of Paris, narrating the contest between the three most beautiful goddesses of Olympus – Venus, Hera and Athena – for the prize of a golden apple addressed “to the fairest,” allows us to identify the subject as Venus with her son Cupid. By the time the present work was painted, this subject had become very popular amongst Dutch painters, including, for example, Govert Flinck and Rembrandt’s pupils. Throughout his career, van Loo treated this subject on at least two other occasions, as exemplified by his Venus and Cupid (1649, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen) and An Allegory of Venus and Cupid (1654, Speed Art Museum, Kentucky). The former is exemplary of van Loo’s compositions, with few isolated figures reminiscent of Jacob Adriaensz Backer. In the latter, the artist exploited the mythological subject to create an allegory of wealth, highlighting the vanity and futility of earthly pleasures. During his Parisian years, the artist is believed to have approached mythological subjects exclusively with the purpose of disguising portraits – a practice probably born in Venice in the seventeenth century, which later spread to the Netherlands and France. The ambivalent fusion between these two genres is exemplified by a now lost painting by the artist, Ulysse découvrant Achille parmi les filles de Lycomède (1666), commissioned by a member of the Van Gangelt family, where the figures bear the traits of the daughters of the banker Caspar van Gangelt and those of the explorer François Caron. Similarly, the figure of Venus in the present work is believed to be a portrait of a real woman, possibly the wife of an élite Parisian patron who commissioned the painting, depicted together with their son. As per other similar mythological portraits by van Loo, such as the Portrait de femme en Diane (1668), the woman’s features are individualised and her gaze confronts the viewer, as if inviting him to recognise her. The present canvas is an exquisite example of the refined yet sensuous classicism of van Loo’s late oeuvre. The woman’s beautifully rendered, half-nude figure recalls the eroticised charge of van Loo’s works of the Amsterdam period, when he was celebrated for the exceptional quality of his nudes. According to the contemporary chronicler Arnoud Houbraken, van Loo excelled at “painting nudes, and female nudes in particular,” to the extent that his mythological scenes featuring naked gods and goddesses were more sought after and considered superior to those of his competitor Rembrandt. Van Loo was able to develop a type of academic nude, classical yet imbued with life, that succeeded in fulfilling the ambitions and social aspirations of the élite of the time. In paintings such as the present one, van Loo excelled in achieving the so-called welstant, or the art of standing well, which allowed his aristocratic clients to distinguish themselves from the inferior classes, by creating parallelisms with the classical world and its aesthetic canons. In the seventeenth-century Netherlands, a mythological subject such as Venus and Cupid was often used to justify the depiction of erotic images, which would have otherwise have been considered inappropriate. For a considerable part of the aristocratic and even burgher élite, a certain amount of erotic playfulness was permitted in both painting and literature, with Venus and Cupid being particularly appropriate subjects for love poems and marriage-related paintings. Works such as the present one had voyeuristic implications and aimed to stimulate the senses: by having the woman looking out at the viewer – which, in this case, would probably be her husband –, van Loo expressed the contemporary belief that the gaze of a woman could send out a powerful force that entered through the eyes of the beloved, inflaming his heart. In accordance with the sixteenth-century Italian tradition, contemplating images of beautiful nudes in the privacy of one’s own room was believed to increase the chances of generating beautiful and healthy offspring, such as the present handsome child.
Cabinet of Curiosities-Honourable Silver Objects
Van Cleef & Arpels brooch, Paris, 18K with 201 brilliant and 40 onyx, signed and numbered 18622, circa 1960 Cartier bracelet, Paris, 18K trinity yellow gold with brilliant approx. 6.45 ct, signed and numbered 281504 Cartier earrings, Paris, 18K trinity yellow gold with 90 diamonds 1.80 ct, signed and numbered 254844 Provenance: private collection
Floris van Wanroij Fine Art
hendrick de meijer
Hendrick de Meijer (Rotterdam circa 1620-after 1689/before 1698 Rotterdam (?)) Sailing vessels and a ferry on the calm Oude Maas river as seen from the North, with a view of Dordrecht and the Grote Kerk beyond Oil on panel H 74 x 104 cm Signed and dated ‘H.D. M … 16 . 9’, lower middle on the side of ferry The present picture is recorded at the RKD in The Hague under n° 534728 Provenance: European noble collection, with collector's seal on the reverse; private collection, Mr. Gustave Rothan (1822-1890), Paris; his sale at Paul Chevallier ‘Tableaux anciens des écoles flamande, hollandaise, française, espagnole, italienne et allemande formant l’important collection de M.G. Rothan’, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 29th, 1890, lot 25 (as by Aelbert Cuyp); collection Charles Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin, Lausanne, 1935; private collection, Switzerland Literature: Beck, H.U., Jan van Goyen 1596-1656, Ein Oeuvreverzeichnis, Amsterdam, 1972/1991, Van Gendt, vol. VI, pp. 268-271; Beer, Gerlinde de, The Golden Age of Dutch Marine Painting, The Inder Rieden Collection, Leiden, 2019, Primavera Pers, pp. 648-654; Bernt, W., The Netherlandish Painters of the Seventeenth Century, vol. II, New York, 1970, Phaidon, p. 78; Bol, L.J., Die Holländische Marinemalerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Braunschweig, 1973, Klinkhardt & Biermann, pp. 269-270; Schadee, N., Rotterdamse meesters uit de Gouden Eeuw, Zwolle, 1994, Waanders, p. 288
Floris van Wanroij Fine Art
jan mertens
Jan Mertens the Elder (active in Antwerp circa 1473-1509) Saint Anne Selbdritt, circa 1490-1500 Oak, carved in high relief H 85 cm Provenance: private collection, The Netherlands; anonymous sale, Christie’s, Amsterdam, 23 March 1983, lot 228, with ill.; With Limburg Antiquairs; Brouwershaven, Zierikzee and Düsseldorf, 1983-1984; private collection, Antwerp Literature: Stuurman-Aalbers, J & Stuurman, R., Internationaal Jaarboek Kunst en Antiek Veilingopbrengsten 1982, Utrecht/Antwerp, 1983, Spectrum, p. 180, n° 8, with ill.; Tableau (Dec 1983/Jan 1984). As Nether Rhine circa 1500, with ill.; Engelen, C., Jan Mertens en de laatgotiek, Confrontatie met Jan Borreman, Essay tot inzicht en overzicht van de laatgotiek, Leuven, 1993, p. 121, with ill. (chapter VII, Sint-Anna-Ten-Drieën, pp. 119-127). Reference literature: BRAFA catalogue, 2005, p. 362
Gilden's Art Gallery
rene magritte
René Magritte (Lessines 1898-1967 Brussels) Le Bouchon d'Epouvante from 'L'Aube à l'Antipode', 1966 Etching on wove paper Paper size: 38.4 x 28.6 cm Image size: 17.8 x 13 cm Hand signed in pencil lower right margin 'Magritte' and numbered in pencil lower left margin, edition of 17 This work was printed in 1966 at the studio of J. Rigal, Paris and published in a limited edition of 17 hand signed and numbered impressions for the series 'L'Aube à l'Antipode' (Dawn of the Antipode). It is from the rare suite of seventeen hand signed etchings. There is also a suite of 77 where only two of the etchings (La Comtesse de Monte Cristo and Les Deux Mystères (Ceci n'est pas une pipe) are signed in pencil Literature: Gilbert E. Kaplan & Timothy Baum, 1982. The Graphic Work of René Magritte. New York: II Editions Reference: Kaplan & Baum 11
Galerie de la Béraudière
germaine richier
Germaine Richier (Grans 1902-1959 Montpellier) La Sauterelle, moyenne, 1945 Bronze with dark patina H 54 x W 44 x D 65 cm Signed, numbered and stamped on the base: G. Richier, 2/8; on the side: Cire perdue Valsuani (lost wax cast) Edition 2/8 out of 12 (1/8 - 8/8 + HC1-HC2-HC3 + EA) Cast ordered during the artist's lifetime Provenance: Galerie Creuzevault, Paris; private collection, Sweden; private collection, Sweden; Julian Barran Ltd, London; Galerie Daniel Varenne, Geneva; private collection, Switzerland (acquired from the above in 1995); sale Sotheby's Paris, 5 December 2018, lot 6; private collection, Belgium Literature: Peggy Guggenheim collection, Germaine Richier, exhibition catalogue, Venice, 2007, p. 70; Jean-Louis Prat et Françoise Guiter, Germaine Richier, Rétrospective, Saint-Paul de Vence, Fondation Maeght, 1996, n° 15, pp. 46-47, ill. (another cast); Peter Selz, New Images of Man, New York, 1959, ill. p. 129 (another cast) Exhibitions: 1997, Berlin, Akademie der Künste, Germaine Richier, p. 77, n° 15, p. 85, n° 20, ill. (another cast); 1996, Saint-Paul de Vence, Fondation Maeght, Germaine Richier, Rétrospective, p. 46, n° 15, ill. (another cast); 1955, London, The Hanover Gallery, Germaine Richier, np., n° 10 (another cast) A key figure in the history of modern art, Germaine Richier remains unclassifiable. Trained by Bourdelle to sculpt from live models, her work took on an anthropomorphic character after the war, with the human body remaining at the centre of her preoccupations, but from then on taking on an allegorical and fantastic character, in the image of this Sauterelle, whose tormented material takes on a dramatic character of existentialist essence. Charged with a primitive force that, as André Pieyre de Mandiargues points out, is ‘as much rock or stump as flayed man’, La Sauterelle is undoubtedly one of the artist's masterpieces, a sculpture that has evolved towards an unprecedented baroque and expressive naturalism.
