PARIS.- Christie's will present the Paris Avant-Garde sale, dedicated to 20th century masterpieces, on 21 October during the FIAC. The sale will feature over 40 lots with an overall estimate of between €14 and €20 million.

Antoine Lebouteiller and Paul Nyzam, co-directors of the sale: "We are particularly honoured to present a selection of exceptional works for this sixth edition of the Paris Avant-Garde sale. The works we have chosen, often unseen on the market, are from prestigious sources and demonstrate the key role played by Paris in the history of 20th century art. We look forward to welcoming collectors to one of the most important weeks in the market and to the opening of our new exhibition space on Avenue Matignon."

Paris Avant-Garde highlights the great masters of the 20th century who were far ahead of their time. Not relying on a predefined model of beauty, the work of these artists embodies the essence of modernity, still in the making, and breaks with traditional conceptions of art. Among the great names represented in this sale are Pierre Soulages, Marie Vassilieff, Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Alberto Giacometti and Theo van Doesburg.

Paris Avant-Garde will feature a selection of eight major works from the prestigious collection of the Rouart family, a pillar and driving force of Impressionism in the late 19th century. Two works by Édouard Manet and six by Berthe Morisot, including a bronze, will enrich the sale's selection.

Recognised today as the first female Impressionist, Berthe Morisot was for many years Édouard Manet's muse before becoming his sister-in-law in 1874 when she married his brother Eugène. Julie Manet, alias 'Bibi', Berthe and Eugène's daughter who was born in 1878, was painted many times by Édouard Manet -- two paintings of her were offered: Julie Manet sur l'arrosoir, 1882 (estimate: €4,000,000-6,000,000) and Julie Manet à quinze mois, 1879 (estimate: €250,000-350,000).

Three generations of the Rouart family have worked for several decades to bring the work of Berthe Morisot, but also that of all the Impressionists, back to light. Berthe Morisot distinguished herself as a rebel: by the very fact of being a painter - something that young women of good society, like herself, shied away from doing at the time - but also for having turned her back on academic teaching. Together with Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro and Edgar Degas, she founded the avant-garde group "Artistes Anonymes Associés". Her willingness to break with tradition, the transcendence of her models and her talent made her the doyenne of Impressionist painting.




Among the Berthe Morisot paintings in the collection, Le flageolet (estimate €150,000- 250,000), representing Julie Manet, will be a highlight of the sale.

Paris Avant-Garde will also present two exceptional paintings from Yves Montand's personal collection, in parallel with the centenary of the artist's birth celebrated on 13 October.

Alberto Giacometti's 1958 oil on canvas Nature Morte (Pommes) (estimate €1,000,000-1,500,000) takes up the artist's favourite still life theme. Giacometti was particularly fond of apples in his compositions, which here stand out against a barely suggested background. This painting embodies the minimalism that defines the artist's masterful work. His creative process, in sculpture as in painting, is ultimately the same - it is a permanent work of reduction, bordering on the disappearance of the subject. A very moving work by Georges Braque, Vase de tournesols (Les trois soleils) (estimate €150,000-250,000), takes as its subject a bouquet of sunflowers - treated in a striking manner by painters such as Vincent Van Gogh and later the German Expressionists - also comes from the Yves Montand collection.

Another prestigious family collection in this sale will feature a fine group of seven works by Spanish artist Julio Gonzalez. Among them, the two bronzes Femme dite "Les trois plis" (estimate €300,000-500,000) and Buste féminin (estimate €150,000-250,000) will be highlighted.

Another highlight of the sale will be Marie Vassilieff's previously unseen painting, l’Enfant aux Lapins et à la Poupée (estimate €200,000 - 300,000). Kept since 1970 in a private French collection, this rediscovery offers us a double horizon. On the front, a candid childhood scene contrasts with the still life on the reverse. Produced between 1916 and 1920, this work falls within a key period in Marie Vassilieff's life: the rise of the Vassilieff Academy and her artistic reputation, as well as the birth of her son Pierre in 1917.

Following in the footsteps of these exceptional works, Paris Avant-Garde will present a superb, previously unseen outrenoir by Pierre Soulages, which has been in a private French collection for thirty years. The spectacularly large Peinture 222 x 222 cm, 25 mars 1990 (estimate €1,200,000-1,800,000) is a particularly accomplished example of the artist's work with matter and light.

A key work by Theo van Doesburg from 1928, Contra-Composition (estimate €1,400,000-1,800,000) will be among the top lots in this sale. Remaining in the same private collection for 50 years, this oil on panel represents a pivotal moment in the artist's work, illustrating not only the growing complexity of the artist's purist painting at the time, but also the essential link between architecture and the plastic arts. Van Doesburg was instrumental in the creation in 1917 of the De Stijl group, a group of likeminded Dutch artists and architects who advocated an aesthetic and cultural revolution that would lead to a new unity between life and art, counteracting the senseless destruction and violence of war.

International collectors will also be able to discover Composition by Jean-Paul Riopelle (estimate €600,000-800,000), a rare and historic work created by the painter in 1949. From a private French collection, it represents a pivotal moment in the artist's career, when he experimented with dripping, giving a striking energy to the canvas.