Sale specialist Nathalie Jeantet enthused about a “great success… reflecting the vigour of a market always on the look-out for quality works fresh to the market and with reasonable estimates”.
The vigour in question centred almost exclusively on bidding for Manguin and Valtat. Manguin’s 1906 Les Oliviers à Cavalière (shown right), 2ft 8in x 2ft 2in (82 x 66cm), sold to an American collector for a double-estimate €245,000 (£153,000). Valtat’s 1895 Le Mas Reig – Banyuls, 21in x 2ft 2in (54 x 65cm), went to a foreign collector for a triple-estimate €102,000 (£64,000), while a European collector paid €45,000 (£28,125) for his Après-Midi dans le Jardin de Choisel (c.1935), 21in x 2ft 5in (54 x 73cm).
Jeantet’s assertion that French buyers were “very present in the saleroom and on the telephone” was not reflected by their total absence from a top ten listing that included six trade buys. A Japanese gallery purchased a late Utrillo Rue de Banlieue, 22in x 2ft 2in (55 x 65cm), for €60,000 (£37,500), while the American trade claimed both Camoin’s Coup de Mistral dans le Port de St-Tropez, 21in x 2ft 8in (54 x 81cm) for €46,500 (£29,100), and a 1925 Loiseau Vue de Fécamp, 21in x 2ft 2in (54 x 66cm), for a top-estimate €44,000 (£27,500).
American private buyers were also active, claiming Morisot’s sketchy Devant la Toilette, 22 x 18in (55 x 46cm), for €39,000 (£24,400) as well as the Manguin.
Manguin lifts the lot of Modern
GIVEN the fiscal disadvantages involved, Christie’s and Sotheby’s won’t usually be looking to Paris as a venue for sales of Modern art, but Christie’s (buyer’s premium 20.93%) had a modest French Collection of Post-Impressionist & Modern Paintings and Drawings on offer on September 28 that fared well enough, with 40 lots from 43 sold for a hammer total of €1.04m (£650,000) with seven per cent bought in by lot and just two per cent by value.
