NEW YORK, NY.- Christie's New York announced In Pursuit of Light: The Collection of Carol and Terry Wall, featuring an exceptional trio of paintings by John Singer Sargent that will highlight the 20th Century Evening Sale during the Fall Marquee Week of sales. The Sargents, alongside other exceptional works from the Walls' collection, will debut at Christie's Paris in tandem with the highly celebrated fall exhibition Sargent. The Paris Years opening at the Musee d'Orsay, following its acclaimed run as Sargent and Paris at The Metropolitan Museum of Art during the spring and summer in New York City. In total the three paintings are expected to achieve $12- 17 million.

Tylee Abbott, Head of Department, American Art, Christie's, comments, “Sargent was a master of Impressionism as reflected within the three stunning paintings featured in this collection. These works represent Sargent at his very best. 2025 marks a century since Sargent's passing, yet these works remain refreshingly modern with their unique perspective and attention to light in representing the iconic Italian destinations of Capri and Venice. This year also marks 100 years since Christie's represented Sargent's estate in our London salerooms in a landmark auction. We are honored and excited that the upcoming sale of the Wall's collection this fall will present collectors with one of the most special opportunities to acquire masterworks by Sargent ever since.”

Two of the works, executed approximately a decade apart, depict luminist views of Venice: Corner of the Church of San Stae, Venice (estimate: $6 – 8 million), and Gondolier's Siesta (estimate: $2 – 3 million). As it has for many great artists throughout history, including Sargent's friend and contemporary Claude Monet, Venice served as a constant source of inspiration for the painter, especially during the mature years of his life. Corner of the Church of San Stae, Venice, once owned by Henry Clay Frick, is a rare oil from this period and epitomizes Sargent's reverence for the city's unique light and architecture. Despite visiting over numerous years, Sargent completed only about a dozen oil paintings of the famous city. Gondolier's Siesta is a marvel of his mastery of the watercolor medium distinguished by Sargent's rare focus on a compelling figural group at the foreground of a Grand Canal vista.

The third work, Capri (estimate: $ 4 – 6 million) was painted in fall of 1878 when the artist was just 22, noteworthy in its dedication to an everyday subject, which Sargent turned to for personal fulfillment following success at the formal Paris Salon. Capri is almost identical to Capri Girl on a Rooftop, a work of the same subject in the Crystal Bridges Museum collection which was featured in The Met exhibition and will subsequently be on view at Musee d'Orsay. The work exemplifies this formative period in the American expatriate's career, as he transitioned from the Paris studio toward a career as an internationally renowned society painter. It depicts Rosina Ferrara, a model who famously became Sargent's muse during his time in Capri, dancing in a pose that anticipates his famed El Jaleo at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.

In addition to these Sargent masterworks, the Wall Collection, presented under the title In Pursuit of Light, features several other noteworthy Impressionist paintings by American-born artists such as Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, Frederick Frieseke and William Merritt Chase.