Christie’s is to auction a unique selection of rare works on paper from the Triton Collection Foundation, spanning over three centuries of art history and representing the most important avant-garde movements of the 19th and 20th Century, including works by Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, Fernand Léger, Francis Picabia, Gino Severini, Odilon Redon, André Derain and Salvador Dalí, many of the works on papaer will be offered at auction for the first time. Forty nine of the works will be sold in the single owner evening sale Exceptional Works on Paper from the Triton Collection Foundation on 25 March 2015 in Paris during the Salon du Dessin. This will be followed by a further selection of works will be offered across auctions in Paris and London throughout 2015 and early 2016.
Triton Collection Foundation is privately owned, holds one of the most important collections of the 19th and 20th Century avant-garde art in private hands worldwide. It comprises a few hundred works from three centuries of global art from Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Vincent Van Gogh to Yves Klein, Gerhard Richter, Ellsworth Kelly, Marina Abramovich, and Ai Weiwei. The founders of the Triton Collection Foundation often lend works to public institutions, to allow the public access to the collection.
“The selection of works on paper which form the Paris single owner sale represents one of the most outstanding groups of drawings from the European avant-garde art to come to market for very many years. To emphasise this once in a lifetime opportunity for international collectors and the unique provenance, buyers will be able to have works marked with a stamp, registered with the Lugt Foundation that certifies The Triton Collection Foundation’s previous ownership” commented Tudor Davies, Head of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie’s Paris.
“Although the core of the Triton Collection Foundation’s collection will remain intact, we don’t part easily from these carefully selected works. However, no living art collection is ever static, moreover it needs to be able to adapt to on-going artistic development and innovation. Triton intends to use its new acquisitions to remain at the forefront of European collections and a home for the avant-garde, which we shall continue to share with the public in its widest form” explained the Cordia Family, the founders of the Triton Collection Foundation.
The Paris single owner evening sale Exceptional Works on Paper from the Triton Collection Foundation on 25 March 2015 will be led by Gino Severini’s (1883-1966) La modiste. Drawn in 1915 – the current year now marking the centennial of its creation. La modiste, formerly owned by British art and music critic Sir Sacherverell Reresby Sitwell (1897-1988), a distinguished figure on the British literary scene between the two World Wars known for his books on Mozart and Liszt, will be offered at an estimate €400,000 to 600,000 (£305,470 to £458,314).
Another highlight of the 25 March sale is the widely exhibited La boija, 1900, estimated to sell at €300,000 to 500,000 (£229,170 to £381,755) by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). The drawing in ink, gouache and pastel – a haunting image of a solitary woman by the seashore, her face elongated, mannerist mask of pain – is the most powerful and inspired of a group of magazine illustrations that Picasso created during spring and summer 1900, in the months leading up to his first trip to Paris and shortly after the very first solo exhibition of his career.
A selection of seven works from the Collection will also be included in the Impressionist/Modern Works on Paper sale in London on June 24th. Highlights of this group will include works by Edouard Manet and Marc Chagall.