Little gems for $50,000 and under

Some of Édouard Vuillard’s most important painterly contributions came from his work with Les Nabis, a group of artists that helped drive the transition from academic art and Impressionism, to Abstract art, Symbolism, and other Modernist movements just before the turn of the century. 

Like the other members of this movement, Vuillard was inspired by Japanese woodblock prints, and played a large part in ushering in Art Nouveau, even being commissioned by Louis Tiffany to make designs for stained glass. After 1900, when Les Nabis separated, Vuillard began to return to his early subject matter like streets and interiors. Notably, as seen in Deux figures assises sur les marches d’une maison, these works focused on the visual effects of light and colour, rather than being keyed to a specific style.

As a member of Les XX from 1888 onward, Georges Lemmen exhibited alongside other Belgian avant-garde artists such as Théo van Rysselberghe and James Ensor.

The influence of Georges Seurat is palpable in his work, as it exerted itself over both Les XX and the Salon des Indépendants, in which Lemmen participated in the 1890s. His technique reflected both the Pointillist's brushwork and the Neo-Impressionists' masterly arrangement of colours. 

La Jarretière's intimate nature, depicting a young woman adjusting her garter, and the colourfully patterned fabrics and decorated wall in the background, reflect the Nabis' influence on Lemmen. In the style of Edouard Vuillard, his interest in applied arts such as couture, wallpapers and textiles is palpable here. Illustrating this unique intersection, La Jarretière is an important work in the Belgian artist's oeuvre, vibrant and exquisitely painted.

The Danish-French Camille Pissarro began as a realist painter, depicting landscape scenes to be displayed in the Salon de Paris. As time went on, however, his connection with other artists like Paul Cezanne began to feed a desire to create work outside of the academic traditions of painting. This would eventually result in his nickname, ‘The Father of Impressionism,’ as he worked with and served as a leading figure in the Impressionist group.

This double-sided image was made a few years after Pissarro met and began to study with Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, and after he took the then-unknown Vincent van Gogh under his tutelage. As Pissarro was fluctuating between Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist expression, this work comes from the scission between two artistic eras which would come to define his later years.

Born in a region of Austria-Hungary that is now part of the Czech Republic, František Kupka settled in Paris in 1894. He supported himself as an illustrator for the first years of his stay and his work was first exhibited in 1906 at the Salon d'Automne. His move to abstraction and commitment to pure colour was progressive, as is already palpable in his famous self-portrait The Yellow Scale from 1907.

By 1911, the radical turn away from figuration was complete and he began producing works in the style of the present Sans titre. His renown increased throughout the early 20th century, even as he fought in the First World War, and his work subsequently exhibited in important institutions around the world. He was notably included in Alfred H. Barr Jr.'s seminal Cubism and Abstract Art show at MoMA in 1936.

Although he wished to remain independent, Kupka was inherently one of the leaders of his generation, and the dynamism and brightness of his practice continues to inspire artists today.

Leaving home and boarding a ship to sail across the Mediterranean at the age of 18, Paul Signac was inspired by maritime imagery and sailing throughout his life. This work, portraying the arterial Grand Canal of Venice, captures this fascination, and shows his early connection to the Neo-Impressionist style. 

The work is related to the artist's 1905 Grand Canal (Venice), held at the Toledo Museum of Art, in Ohio, which he perhaps based off of this earlier watercolour. Venise, Fanal du Traghetto is highly characteristic of Signac’s overall style, and an excellent entry into collecting his work.

Albert Dubois-Pillet embraced his artistic vocation later in life, after a prestigious military career. In the 1890s, he he became an instrumental figure in Paris' Société des Artistes Indépendants. Alongside the likes of Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, he helped establish exhibitions outside the traditional Salon of late 19th century Paris, championing new painting methods and ideas. Influenced by some of his peers, Dubois-Pillet experimented with divisionist techniques early on, before fully embracing Pointillism. His paintings are known for their photographic precision, rich colour palettes and generously textured surfaces, as is illustrated in Voilier à quai.

Many of Eugène Boudin’s most well-known works depict sprawling skies and harboured ships. His characteristic interest in maritime life can be seen in Scène de Plage, which depicts a group of people on a beach looking out into the ocean. 

A close friend of Claude Monet, they both imbued scenes with shimmering colours that traced the natural light. As one of the first French painters to paint almost exclusively en plein air, his works capture beautiful scenes from the Mediterranean coast with masterful vibrance.

Born in Glatz, a German city now part of Poland, Renée Sintenis is best known for her animal sculptures, a practice she began in 1915. Springendes Pferd (Aufsteigendes Fohlen) was conceived at the beginning of her exploration with this theme in bronze. Like many of her other figures, this horse captures the poetics of movement more than it displays anatomical perfection. This distinct sense of form, grounded in expression as much as faithful representation, is characteristic of her oeuvre as a whole.

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita moved to Paris in 1913, three years after finishing art school. His first apartment, where he was a neighbour of Amedeo Modigliani, brought him in close proximity to other expatriate artists working in the city. His work combines Western and Japanese styles, and he would often structure an opalescent background with delicate black brushwork, as Maternité demonstrates. 

Foujita's life is storied and complex — after leaving France to ultimately return to his native Japan during the Second World War, he traveled around the world, exhibiting his work in places as diverse as Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and New York, gaining international recognition. He returned to France once the conflict concluded and was naturalized, baptizing himself Léonard-Tsuguharu. Embodying both Eastern and Western pictorial traditions and cultures, his work is informed by both, transcending any limits imposed by tradition.

Born in the Canary Islands, Óscar Domínguez arrived in Paris in the late 1920s and quickly found a home away from Spain among the Surrealists, led by André Breton. Known for his strong and sometimes volatile personality, Dominguez was notoriously independent and quick-tempered. On one occasion, getting into a fight with painter Esteban Francés, he threw a glass bottle that accidentally hit Victor Brauner and infamously caused him to lose his left eye.

The recurring motif of the Toros in his oeuvre is in part drawn from his Spanish heritage, which he shared with Pablo Picasso, and in part due to its general symbolism. The bull, just like the artist, represented incredible strength and impulsivity, being guided by pure instinct, but also captured a resulting vulnerability. The present bull, twisted, charging and yet deformed, is a fine example of the complexity with which Domínguez perceived the world and how it bled into his artistic practice. Painted at the height of his maturity, the work regroups the various influences he had been exposed to in Paris, as well as the artiste maudit’s tumultuous inner world and creative prowess.