
Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) GENFERSEE VON CHEXBRES AUS [LAKE GENEVA AS SEEN FROM CHEXBRES]
Est. CHF 4,000,000–6,000,000 (€ 2,810,000-4,210,000)* Image: Courtesy Sotheby's Zurich
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Sotheby's AG
Talstrasse 83
8001 Zürich
Tel: +41 44 226 22 00
Fax: +41 44 226 22 01
www.sothebys.com Auction: Talstrasse 83, Zurich Monday, 14 June 2010 at 6.00 pm
‘The demand for market-fresh museum-quality works of Swiss art is persistent. We are all the more delighted that the coming auction gives us an opportunity of bringing together a widely ranging selection of top-quality work by highly regarded Swiss artists, some of it coming from private collections. In fact we have been able to achieve the highest overall valuation since Swiss art auctions were first launched in 1979,’ says Urs Lanter, Sotheby’s Director and Swiss art expert. The work of the established Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) deserves special mention. Hodler was not just one of the leading figures on the Swiss art scene, he was also a pioneer of the modern approach to landscape painting.
The lake landscape GENFERSEE VON CHEXBRES AUS [LAKE GENEVA AS SEEN FROM
CHEXBRES], painted in 1911, has for many years formed part of the same private
collection. The oil painting was exhibited in 1914 at the gallery of the
Frankfurter Kunstverein, and is estimated at CHF 4,000,000–6,000,000
(€2,810,000- 4,210,000).
Another privately owned oil painting SOMMERLANDSCHAFT BEI INTERLAKEN
[SUMMER LANDSCAPE NEAR INTERLAKEN], once part of the Arthur Stoll Collection.
This is a mountain landscape, painted in or around 1888 and exhibited in
numerous exhibitions in New York, San Francisco and Switzerland. The estimated
price is CHF 1,500,000-2,000,000 (€ 1,060,000-1,410,000). This year’s June
auction also comprises a group of paintings coming from an important Swiss
private collection, including works by famous artists like Cuno Amiet, Giovanni
Giacometti, Ferdinand Hodler, Félix Vallotton, Augusto Giacometti and Ernst
Ludwig Kirchner.
DIE MAIRA BEI STAMPA [THE MAIRA NEAR STAMPA], an important early work by
Giovanni Giacometti (1868-1933), shows a beautifully sparkling play of form and
colour representing an autumn river landscape. It is characteristic of
Giacometti’s artistic rendering of his impressions of nature, in which both the
serpentine arabesques of the Jugendstil and Japanese prints are an influence. In
the year 1905 it featured in the IXth International Art Exhibition at the Glass
Palace in Munich; a year later it was shown at the Künstlerhaus in Zurich.
Executed in the years 1904-05, the monumental picture is valued at CHF 1,800,000
– 2,500,000 (€1,270,000-1,760,000).
Cuno Amiet (1868-1961) was a close friend and associate of Giacometti’s.
Several of his works are being offered here. JUNGE FRAU IM GARTEN [YOUNG WOMAN
IN THE GARDEN] represents the former actress Amy Moser, an English national who
married the businessman and art collector Carl Robert Moser in 1906. Amiet first
painted Amy Moser in 1903, and went on to capture her elegant appearance in
numerous drawings and paintings right up to 1916. The present oil painting Amy
Moser im Garten [Amy Moser in the Garden] boasts glorious colours and is rich in
contrasts. It was created in 1910, and was sold by the artist in the following
year to the Frankfurter Kunstverein [Frankfurt Art Society]. Later the work
became part of the famous collection of Josef Müller in Solothurn (estimate: CHF
700,000-900,000; €491,000-635,000).
MUTTER MIT TOCHTER [MOTHER WITH DAUGHTER] is a notable picture in its
combination of the important stylistic and iconographic motifs with which Amiet
was engaged in 1913. The close relationship between his wife Anna and her
adopted daughter Greti was a central theme of his paintings during this year.
Particularly worth emphasising here is Amiet’s creative engagement with the
‘Brücke’ group of artists, as well as with the paintings of Jawlensky – both
recognisable as influences in the present oil painting. (Estimate: CHF
100,000-150,000; €70,500- 106,000).
The paintings on auction are further supplemented by works of Félix
Vallotton, represented here by a park panorama and a landscape picture. The
small landscape of the BOIS DE BOULOGNE was painted by Vallotton in 1919. Motifs
from the Bois de Boulogne had featured frequently in Vallotton’s painting since
1903. In that year the artist moved into a house in the 16th arrondissement,
situated not far from the well-known Parisian recreation area. The present
picture, valued at CHF 350,000-450,000 (€246,000-316,000), was such a favourite
of the artist’s that he made another version of it in 1925, the year of his
death. In 1902 Vallotton spent the summer holidays in Locquirec, a fishing
village on the north coast of Brittany. He had an apartment right on the beach,
with a captivating view over the bay to the opposite shore. Just this view is
shown in Paysage à Locquirec [Countryside at Locquirec]. (Estimate: CHF
150,000-250,000; €106,000-176,000).
In addition to this Giovanni Giacometti, father of the modern maestro
Alberto Giacometti, is represented in the evening auction with a further work, a
scenically atmospheric representation of the Engadine. AM CAVLOCCIOSEE [ON LAKE
CAVLOCCIO] (1921) shows a lake view in an Alpine idyll of late summer, with
captivating depth effects. (Estimate: CHF 1,200,000-1,500,000;
€845,000-1,060,000).
The genre painter and artist of Swiss folk life Albert Anker (1831-1910)
also makes an appearance, with two market-fresh works. STRICKENDE BERNERIN MIT
KIND [BERNESE WOMAN KNITTING WITH CHILD] dates from the year 1898. It shows a
motif typical of the artist, in which he depicts with great precision persons
living in a certain situation which is characteristic of their existence. This
work comes from a Swiss private collector, and has an estimated price of CHF
700,000–900,000 (€ 491,000-635,000). The almost exactly life-size BILDNIS MARIE
ANKER [PORTRAIT OF MARIE ANKER], dating from 1881, likewise comes from a Swiss
private collection. It depicts the nine- year-old daughter of the artist. Valued
at CHF 300,000 – 500,000 (€211,000-351,000), the portrait has been in the
possession of the Reinhart family.
The selection being put up for auction is rounded out by the works of
contemporary Swiss artists, including Jean Tinguely, Gottardo Segantini, Irène
Zurkinden, Toni Calzaferri and Max Bill.
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