Big names at surprising prices: Christie’s must-have finds under $50,000

Best known for his spindly bronze sculptures of abstract human forms, the Swiss-Italian artist spent much of his career exploring how to reduce forms into their essence. When discussing Alberto Giacometti’s work, the philosopher Jean Paul Sartre described it as ‘always mediating between nothingness and being’. In this drawing, Giacometti studies the form of a classic Italian coffee maker, perhaps the one used in his own home. Cafetière à Stampa was completed after the war in 1955, at the peak of Giacometti’s creative output.

Primarily known for his abstract wrought iron sculptures, the Catalonian artist Julio González made a series of works dedicated to maternity over the course of his lifetime. In this emotive drawing made two years before González passed, a mother tenderly embraces her child. Although González never conformed to a singular style, he often gravitated towards Cubist forms, largely beginning in 1928 after he befriended Picasso while teaching him in metalwork.

Drawn in 1901, Saint Tropez depicts one of the artists’ favourite motifs in a compelling Neo-Impressionist palette. Paul Signac first came to Saint-Tropez in 1892, falling in love with the colours and charm of what was then still a quaint fishing village. It was there that Signac created many of his most prized works, paving the way in establishing the French port town as an important destination for fellow painters such as Henri Matisse.

Although widely known for his sculptures, the Tuscan artist Marino Marini began his career at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence as a painter. This gouache explores the theme of horse and rider that would come to define Marini’s career. Painted in 1952, the image of a fallen horse, now without its rider, exemplifies the artist’s postwar work, which became marked by heightened structural intensity and psychological tension.

In this black ink on linen work depicting a female face and flower, Henri Matisse conveys two of his favourite subjects with his signature restraint, using just a few bold strokes to bring a composition to life in a style that is instantly recognisable. Complete with Matisse’s exuberant initials, iconic location and date, the work evokes the artist’s long love affair with the Côte d'Azur, where he lived out his later years and made many of his most renowned works.

This early sculpture was conceived one year after Pablo Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Like two of the five women depicted in the seminal painting, Poupée carries on themes of African artistic tradition, resembling a spiritual totem pole with an African masklike face. The sculpture, cast in bronze with a golden brown patina, has resided in the same collection since 1975.

Marie Laurencin, an influential figure amongst the Parisian avant-garde known for her genre-defying, female-centred works, didn’t confined herself to the canvas; she was also beloved for her poetry, set designs, and wallpaper illustrations. She was a frequent guest at the salons of Gertrude Stein, who famously bought the first painting Laurencin ever sold. Beauregard (III) (1925) is a remarkable example of Laurencin’s mastery of color, fluid lines and evocative female forms.

Picasso moved to the South of France in 1946, where he met the heads of the Madoura Pottery studio, the ceramicists behind the iconic Atelier Madoura in Vallauris, George and Suzanne Ramié. Becoming fascinated with the medium, began partnering with them and designing his own ceramics, which have become some his most beloved works. The pitcher Visage au Nez Noir, named after the long black nose bisecting the face, depicts a face with exuberant eyes resembling suns, or flowers, and dots to comprise a beard, in a Madoura-inspired palette.

The French Impressionist painter Ferdinand du Puigaudeau started his career travelling from his hometown of Nantes, France, to Rome, Belgium and Tunisia. He was largely self-taught until enrolling at the renowned École de Pont-Aven in Brittany. Throughout his lifetime, Puigaudeau formed friendships with artists Paul Gaugin, James Ensor and Edgar Degas — who also collected his works. Painted the same year that the artist’s work was first shown at the École des Beaux-Arts, the still life Nature mort aux fruits includes a painted scene on the wall behind the table, a nod to the artist’s characteristic landscapes.