PARIS.- The journey of a collector: from Alain Jacquet to Robert Combas (Le parcours d'un collectionneur: d'Alain Jacquet à Robert Combas), an important single-owner collection of French Post-War & Contemporary Art, will be offered at Bonhams Paris (4 Rue de la Paix) on Thursday 28 October. The sale will feature works by many of the most significant French artists of the post-war period, from the 1960s ‘La Figuration narrative’ and pop art movements, including Alain Jacquet, Jacques Monory, Erro, Bernard Rancillac and Robert Combas, amongst others. Leading the sale will be Grand Demi-Pot, 1968, by Jean-Pierre Raynaud, which has an estimate of €80,000 - 120,000.

International Director, Post-War & Contemporary Art, and Head of Sale, Giacomo Balsamo, said: “‘This collection has been assembled over a period of more than thirty years by an attentive and passionate collector who was a dedicated patron and friend of a generation of artists. It is a privilege to offer this selection of works for the very first time at auction. This exceptional collection offers a curated survey of French art in the post-war period through to the 1960s and beyond – when the dominance of New York meant the Parisian art scene was often overlooked on the international stage. Thankfully post-war French art, with all its experimentation, boldness and political flavour, is now gaining the recognition it deserves and we are delighted to be able to offer this incomparable collection, led by one of Jean-Pierre Raynaud’s famous pots.”

Writing in Bonhams Magazine, Adrian Dannatt, commented: “Post-war France was a bubbling cauldron of creativity, spitting out improbable flavours. What is truly impressive about the exemplary single-owner collection offered at Bonhams Paris in October, is that the collector has gathered prime examples of these alternative French movements, including masterpieces in each succeeding era and successive school.”

In 1962 Jean-Pierre Raynaud (Born 1939) quit his job as a gardener, filled a flowerpot with cement, painted it red, and declared it to be a work of art. It would become a recurrent symbol in his work – one of his everyday objects or “Psycho-objects” (1964-1968), which turned the mundane into a charged symbol of personal and universal experiences, from loneliness and belonging to nationalism and disaster. His first exhibition in 1964 was an installation of hospital objects, luggage, and photographs of the mentally disturbed, and included his soon to be signature flowerpots – evoking the death of Modernism and growth of the contemporary. Often presented in primary colours and with a reference to mass market items, his work aligned with the Pop art movement. One of Raynaud’s best-known projects La Maison (Home) (1968-93), was a 25-year endeavour in which he covered every surface of his own home in white tiles before demolishing it and displaying the rubble in hundreds of identical flowerpots.

Other highlights of the sale include:

• Robert Combas (born 1957), Le Rêve Paradis Plus Cauchemard. Estimate: €55,000 - 75,000.

• Alain Jacquet (1939-2008), Gabrielle d'Estrées, 1965. Estimate: €15,000-20,000.

• Victor Vasarely (1906-1997), Vonal-ferde, 1969. Estimate: €30,000 - 50,000.

• Bernard Rancillac (born 1931), La Parole 4 L'Evangile selon Mao, 1967. Estimate: €18,000-25,000.

• Jacques Monory (1934-2018), Dreamtiger n° 2, 1971. Estimate: €12,000-18,000.