Jessica Fertig, Senior Vice President of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York, selects the once-in-a-lifetime sale of the greatest painting by Matisse ever to come to market.
The highlight of the year in Impressionist and Modern art at Christie’s was,
undoubtedly,
The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller: 19th and 20th Century Art Evening Sale on 8 May in New York.
The top price of the night was achieved
with
Picasso’s Fillette à la corbeille fleurie, which
fetched $115,000,000, making it the second-most expensive
painting by the Spanish great ever sold at auction. There were
also artist records for
Delacroix,
Corot, and Monet, whose waterlilies painting
Nymphéas en fleur realised $84,687,500.
For Jessica Fertig, however, the standout lot of the Rockefeller
sale — and, indeed, of all 2018 — was Matisse’s
Odalisque couchée aux magnolias. ‘To stand in
front of it was to experience all the sensuality, stunning
patterning and glorious colour you dream of when you think
of this artist,’ says the Senior Vice President of Impressionist
and Modern Art at Christie’s in New York. ‘It’s the greatest
Matisse ever to have come to market.’
The painting depicts Matisse’s favourite model, the dancer
Henriette Darricarrère, in luxurious repose in his studio
in Nice. It is part of the artist’s celebrated series of
paintings from the 1920s and 1930s known as the Odalisques,
featuring exotic-looking females in elaborately decorative
interiors — and ‘this is one of the very finest of them’, says Fertig. ‘Henriette’s pose is almost sculptural.’
David Rockefeller bought Odalisque couchée aux magnolias in
1958, under the guidance of his friend Alfred Barr,
the first director of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). It
was then hung in the living room of the Rockefellers’ Hudson
Pines residence, north of New York City.
The painting ended up selling for
$80,750,000 (including buyer’s premium), a world auction record for the artist — the
previous high for a work by Matisse at auction was
$48.8 million, set in 2010. ‘During the sale, I remember
the excitement and activity in the room were immense,’ says
Fertig. ‘A number of top collectors were vying to take this
once-in- a-lifetime opportunity.’
‘It was a sale like no other I've experienced, an utterly unforgettable night’ — Jessica Fertig
The Rockefeller sale of 19th and 20th-century art featured 44 lots and realised the huge
sum of $646,133,594, with every work selling. ‘It was a sale
like no other I’ve experienced, an utterly unforgettable
night,’ recalls the specialist. ‘Not just for the depth and
quality of the works themselves, with masterpiece following
masterpiece, but for their provenance — in having been owned
by the great American couple, Peggy and David Rockefeller
— and also for the charitable context’. All the proceeds from the series of auctions in May went to charities
the couple had supported.
‘It’s hard to put it any better,’ Fertig concludes, ‘than to
say this was an extraordinary painting from the extraordinary
sale of an extraordinary collection.’