On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial int… Read more

Property from the Collection of Nathan L. Halpern Nathan L. Halpern epitomized the Renaissance man. A pioneer in the world of television, he avoided the limelight and focused his attention on a wide range of interests. These included the collecting of European, Asian and Tribal art, photography, and worldwide specimens of seashells. A lifelong and voracious reader with a strong, agile intellect, he assembled a vast library of important books in the process of studying and researching his interests. His passion for photography and nature would significantly affect cultural and environmental aspects of life in New York. He became President of the International Center of Photography, and later an Honorary Trustee; Life Trustee of the Central Park Conservancy during its revival of Central Park; and a founding member and President of the East Hampton Beach Preservation Society. His love of the arts led him to become a benefactor and member of the Corporation of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Halpern was a distinguished alumnus of the University of Southern California, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was a member of three Pacific Conference champion basketball teams. He then graduated from Harvard Law School as a member and Treasurer of the Law Review, beginning his legal career as Assistant to the Chairman of the SEC. Mr. Halpern served in the United States military during the Second World War as a naval officer and later became the Executive Assistant to James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy. Seeking a warfront action role, he joined the Office of Strategic Services in London, participating in the planning of the events of D-Day. He later served as Executive Assistant to the Director of the U.S. Information Services in France, operating behind German lines in Belgium and then meeting with advancing Russian troops in order to start negotiating the repatriation of whole populations in Europe. Stationed in Paris after its liberation in 1944, Mr. Halpern pursued his passion for art, seeking out artists and dealers in what was still the global art capital. He met Picasso shortly after Paris' liberation through his friend John Ferren, the American artist, who was also in the Intelligence Services. Mr. Halpern and Ferren rode a jeep into the countryside and met Picasso, becoming the first Americans to greet him since the beginning of the Occupation in 1940. Mr. Halpern befriended Picasso in his studio on the rue des Grands-Augustins, and shortly before his return to the United States, accepted the powerful gouache Nu couché (lot 18) as a gift from the artist. This study relates to the artist's 1942 masterwork of the same subject, which was sold at Christie's in 1997 in the eminent Ganz Collection sale. On another occasion, in a truly visionary exchange, he swapped his overcoat and other sundries with Joan Miró's dealer Pierre Loeb for the seminal 1938 painting La caresse des étoiles (lot 11). When the war ended, he returned to New York in a transport plane with the picture wrapped in a blanket on his lap. During several of his wartime assignments, Mr. Halpern worked with William S. Paley, President of CBS and renowned art collector. Following the war, Mr. Halpern worked under Paley at CBS for four years, eventually becoming his assistant. Mr. Halpern then went on to establish Theatre Network Television, where he would spend the next forty-five years making breakthroughs in television entertainment, global communications and modern technology. Mr. Halpern's company was a pioneer in serving special audiences through television: live, multi-city large screen video-conference productions, pay-television broadcasts of cultural and sports events, product marketing and sales events for major U.S. companies, and interactive national political fundraising events are a few of his innovations. Furthering the concept of specialized communication, he developed image magnification, which transformed large-scale meetings, concerts, and special events, and pioneered satellite telecasting to Europe, Japan and China. He designed and supplied the high-resolution large screen television technology used by NASA in the management of its rocket launches, which was instrumental in the extensive circulation of the images from the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Mr. Halpern's technological innovations extended to the fields of medicine and science. He developed techniques in television that brought live broadcasts from hospitals into major medical conferences, to educate medical professionals through patient case studies, treatment options and surgeries. These innovations helped to bring healthcare to remote areas through transmission displays. During this period of innovation and entrepreneurial advancement, Mr. Halpern formed many friendships. One of the most profound was with the Hollywood producer and avid art collector Joseph H. Hazen. Throughout a fifty-year period they exchanged correspondence on a wide range of subjects including philosophy, literature, politics and, of course, art, trading views on artists, curators and dealers alike. Mr. Halpern also had a long friendship with Ian Woodner, the great Old Master and Modern Drawings collector, who bequeathed much of his collection to the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. He also developed an important relationship was with Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the first Director of The Museum of Modern Art, who played a significant advisory role in Halpern's purchase of Matisse's momentous drawing of 1935, Nu dans l'atelier (lot 7). Much of the Halpern Collection was formed in the 1960s through the leading New York dealer Sam Salz, who expanded the Modern focus of the collection to include late 19th century works by Cézanne, Monet, Degas, Renoir and Vuillard. Mr. Halpern was aware that, while each work he considered for purchase should affect him on an emotional level, the paintings should also integrate well with each other, an understanding that is evident in the cohesiveness of the collection. Ultimately it was this dual approach to art, simultaneously imaginative and intellectual, that imbued the collection with such a distinguished and singular character. Nathan L. Halpern was truly a visionary, whose inherent originality, courteous nature and sharp intellect--along with his extraordinary list of achievements and contributions to the community, his country, technology and science--unquestionably place him in the pantheon of celebrated and influential citizens of New York. Nicholas Maclean International Director Property from the Collection of Nathan L. Halpern

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

Portrait d'homme (Adelchi Morbilli)

Details

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Portrait d'homme (Adelchi Morbilli)
stamped with signature 'Degas' (Lugt 658; lower left)
pencil and blue wash on white paper laid down on board
11 7/8 x 8½ in. (30.2 x 21.6 cm.)
Drawn circa 1857

Provenance

Atelier Degas; fourth sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 2-4 July 1919, lot 102a.
Galerie Durand-Ruel et Cie., Paris (acquired at the above sale).
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York (acquired from the above, 23 January 1920).
Albert A. Gallatin (acquired from the above, 8 March 1920).
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York (acquired from the above, 9 June 1948).
Sam Salz Inc., New York.
Mr. and Mrs. Nathan L. Halpern, New York (acquired from the above).
By descent from the above to the present owners.

Literature

J.S. Boggs, "Edgar Degas in Naples," Burlington Magazine, June 1963, p. 274, no. 25.

Exhibited

New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Exhibition of Pastels and Drawings by Degas, March 1920, no. 42.
New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Drawings by Degas, December 1948, no. 6.
City Art Museum of Saint Louis; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and The Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, Drawings by Degas, January-June 1967, pp. 44 and 48, no. 21 (illustrated, p. 46).

Special notice

On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial interest in lots consigned for sale. This interest may include guaranteeing a minimum price to the consignor of property or making an advance to the consignor which is secured solely by consigned property. Such property is offered subject to a reserve. This is such a lot

Sale room notice

The medium of this drawing is pencil and blue wash on light pink paper laid down on board.

Lot Essay

Degas arrived in Naples from Marseilles in July 1856, and stayed with his grandfather, René Hilaire Degas. He made copies of paintings in the city museum, and painted a portrait of his cousin Giovanna Bellelli, who was visiting from Florence. In October Degas traveled on to Rome to attend the academy in the Villa Medici. He remained there until August 1857, when he returned to stay with his grandfather on his country estate outside Naples. During this second stay in Naples, which lasted until late October, Degas made a portrait of his grandfather (Lemoisne no. 33; Musée d'Orsay, Paris), and a drawing of his uncle Edouard which he dated October 1857 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris). It was probably during this time that he also made drawings of his cousins Alfredo Morbilli (Fourth Degas Atelier sale, lot 102c) and Adelchi Morbilli (the present work). In both Morbilli drawings the subjects are seen standing; Degas also executed a pencil portrait of Alfredo seated (present location unknown), and a second portrait of Adelchi, showing his head close-up in three-quarter view, which was formerly in the collection of John Rewald.

All of these drawings were rendered in the manner of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, the leading portraitist and draftsman of the day. Ingres was the director of the Villa Medici from 1835-1841, and his influence on life drawing at the academy remained pre-eminent long after his departure. Following this style, Degas' drawings of the Morbilli brothers likewise show carefully defined linear contours, contrasted with backgrounds, clothing and areas in shadow that have strengthened with linear hatching. Degas added a more personal touch in the application of blue wash in order to deepen the sense of space.

The above-mentioned seated portrait of Alfredo and the ex-Rewald drawing of Adelchi were at one time held by members of the Morbilli family. Degas, however, kept both the present drawing and the accompanying portrait of Alfredo in his own collection; they were framed together with a pencil portrait of a standing woman who has been identified as Adelchi's mother, Rosa Adelaida, the Duchessa Morbilli (L. 50bis). Degas appears to have kept these three drawings as a personal remembrance of his Neapolitan relatives, and a souvenir of the important period he spent in Italy. This group of three drawings was sold in the Fourth Degas Atelier sale in 2-4 July 1919 as lot 120a-c, and was thereafter broken up. The portrait of Alfredo (lot 120c) subsequently entered the collection of Robert Lehman, New York. The portrait of Rosa Adelaida is in the collection of Eugene V. Thaw, New York.

More from Impressionist and Modern Art (Evening Sale)

View All