The top selling lot was Le Petit Patissier by Chaim Soutine, selling for $18 million against a pre sale estimate of $16/$22 million. The $18 million was a world record at auction for the artist. Four lots sold for over $10 million, ten for over $5 million, and 36 for over $1 million. Six of the top ten lots sold within the pre sale estimate range and 4 sold above the high estimate.
Christie's reported on the sale
Source: Christie'sRELEASE: CHRISTIE’S IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART EVENING SALE ACHIEVES $158 MILLION (£101 MILLION / € 120 MILLION)CHAÏM SOUTINE’S LE PETIT PÂTISSIER SELLS FOR $18 MILLION – SETTING A NEW WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
Strong Sell-Through Rates of 94% By Lot, 90% By Value – 35% Growth From Spring 2012
Vibrant Market Underscored By Bidding From 30 Countries
New York – Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on May 8 in New York achieved $158,505,000 (£101,443,200 /€120,463,800) and was sold 94% by lot and 90% by value, the strongest sell-through rates in the category since 2006. Of the 49 works offered, 4 lots sold for over $10 million, 10 for over $5 million, and 36 for over $1 million. Chaïm Soutine’s Le petit pâtissier, which realized $18 million, was the top lot of the sale and set a new world auction record for the artist.
Brooke Lampley, Head of Department, Impressionist & Modern Art, comments, “It was wonderful to see such confidence and enthusiasm on the part of the collectors gathered in our saleroom this evening. With all but three works sold and exceptional sell-through rates of 94% by lot and 90% by value, this sale ranks among the strongest we have hosted in this category in New York. Bidders competed head-to-head for classic Impressionist works by Monet, Sisley and Renoir, great Modernist works by Picasso, Léger and Miró, and masterpiece works by School of Paris artists Modigliani, Soutine and Chagall. In all, it was gratifying to witness a sophisticated and intelligent market at work, and see the strong collecting trends from our winter sales in London gain even more momentum here in New York.”
Throughout the sale, works at both the top end and the middle market level performed consistently well and several pieces in the sale demonstrated the lasting value of Impressionist and Modern art over time. In addition to Soutine’s Le petit pâtissier, which last sold at auction for $180,000 in 1977, Claude Monet’s Chemin achieved $5,163,750, having last sold for $770,000 in 1991. Similarly, Pablo Picasso’s Femme assise en costume rouge sur fond bleu fetched $8,523,750 having last sold for $662,500 in 1995.
The top lot of the night was the vibrant masterpiece Le petit pâtissier (the little pastry chef) by Chaïm Soutine (1893-1943), a subject which represents one of the best-known and most compelling achievements of his career and is illustrated on the cover of the artist’s catalogue raisonné. The painting sold for $18,043,750 (£11,548,000/ €13,713,250), and achieved a new world auction record for the artist, surpassing the previous record for the 1921 work, L'homme au foulard rouge, which sold for $17,215,886 in 2007. Painted circa 1927, Le petit pâtissier is the culminating work in a sequence of six portraits of pastry chefs created over the span of nearly a decade. During the course of this important series, Soutine achieved a dramatic reversal of fortune – from an unknown and destitute painter, to one of international fame – due to his discovery by the American collector and patron, Dr. Albert Barnes.
The pastry chef paintings signify Soutine’s earliest explorations of the figure in uniform, a theme that preoccupied him as he later painted valets, bell-hops and waiters. Soutine had known the bitter taste of poverty and he immortalized the humble employees who served. While the uniform had the effect of generalizing the sitter, it also allowed Soutine to capture the individual behind the occupation. The painting has been in an Important Private European Collection since 1977.
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