NEW YORK, NY.- “Yesterday we saw a continuation of the strong international bidding and buying that drove Tuesday night’s auction as well,” said Scott Niichel, Co-Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sales, New York. “We were pleased to see private collectors in particular drive the top end of our sale, and participation online at the highest levels – including a Chagall still life that sold for nearly $600,000. Our results reinforce the persistent demand for Pablo Picasso, from the two 1960s paintings that led the auction to works on paper and his celebrated ceramics.”

Julian Dawes, Vice President of Private Sales and Co-Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sales commented: “The market responded with enthusiasm for works emerging from esteemed private collections, leading to strong results for pieces from the Diamonstein-Spielvogel, Zweig, Stern and Stein collections, among the many that we were privileged to have been entrusted with this season. The new auction record established for Albert Aublet is indicative of the success we have seen in presenting the work of artists typically offered in other sales or categories – works by Julio Gonzalez and Jean-François Millet performed well, which would traditionally appear in our Latin American and European Art auctions, respectively.”

Pablo Picasso, Paysage, vu d'atelier de l'artiste, 1967. Estimate $1/1.5 Million. Sold for $1,575,000

Pablo Picasso, Modèle dans l’atelier, 1965. Estimate $1.2/1.8 million. Sold for $1,215,000
Yesterday’s sale was led by two works from the 1960s by Pablo Picasso. The artist devoted a large portion of his time and passion throughout that decade to the reinterpretation and investigation of the old masters, an experience in which he personally reaffirmed his connection to some of the greatest painters in the history of art. The flattened composition of the abstracted natural forms in Paysage, vu d'atelier de l'artiste recalls the work both El Greco and van Gogh, while the use of color evokes the sfumato technique practiced by Da Vinci. In Modèle dans l’atelier, Picasso reflects on the theme of the artist and his model, as he re-works the compositions of masters such as Goya, Manet and Delacroix.

Over a 24-hour period, Sotheby’s has sold 25 works by Picasso, together totaling $53,066,250.

Auguste Rodin, Figure de l'homme qui marche, moyen modèle. Estimate $600/800,000. Sold for $1,023,000
The selection of sculpture was led by Auguste Rodin’s Figure de l'homme qui marche, moyen modèle. Conceived in 1899-1900 and cast in September 1960, the bronze is revealing of Rodin’s experimental working methods and his great fascination of excavated sculptural fragments of Roman and Greek art.

Max Ernst, Amour violent, 1925. Estimate $800,000/1.2 million. Sold for $915,000
The cover lot of the auction catalogue, Max Ernst’s Amour violent belongs to one of the most creative periods in the artist’s oeuvre, marked by a constant stream of technical experimentation and invention. The work is an elegy to love, poetry, pain and longing, all subjects that were dominant in his Ernst’s work throughout his career.

Paul Gauguin, Chemin de village (La Sente du Père Dupin), Painted in 1879. Estimate $350/450,000. Sold for $915,000
Following on the heels of Tuesday evening’s sale of Gauguin’s Cavalier devant la case, the Day sale saw strong interest in a wonderful landscape painted by the artist in 1879. An early work from his Post-Impressionist years, Chemin de village (La Sente du Père Dupin) was originally in the collection of Émile Schuffenecker, Gauguin's close friend and a fellow Post-Impressionist painter.