PARIS.- Christie's announced the Thessa Herold, une femme d'intuition sale, to be held online from 22 May to 2 June. At a time when history is restoring their rightful place to pioneering women of the avant‑garde, Christie's thus pays tribute to an exemplary figure of the Parisian art scene. Born in Malaga to a Spanish mother and a French father, Thessa Herold founded the Galerie de Seine in 1970 with her husband, Jacques‑Yves Herold, in the Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés district, then the beating heart of Parisian artistic and intellectual life. Guided by her commitment to living creation, Thessa Herold opened a gallery bearing her name in the Marais in 1993, a new hub for contemporary energy. Several times a year, she presented artists from the historical avant‑gardes, first and foremost Surrealism, alongside emerging contemporary figures. Major exhibitions devoted to Jean Arp, Paul Klee, Roberto Matta, Serge Charchoune, César Domela, Max Ernst, Wifredo Lam, Man Ray, Jean‑Paul Agosti, Béatrice Helg, and Henri Michaux would take shape there, under the exacting yet generous eye of a woman who knew how to recognise the brilliance of a creative gesture. Intrepid and free‑spirited, Thessa Herold embodied the vital energy that allows talent to be recognised. The exhibition catalogues she personally conceived, crafted with an artisan's care and her passionate spirit, were a defining feature of her approach. Poets, writers, and art historians contributed their words as tributes, bringing the voices of thought into dialogue with those of the works themselves. Through this sale, Christie's is delighted to be able to take part in the dialogues and tributes envisioned by Thessa Herold.

In total, no fewer than 170 works by the artists closest to her heart are offered at Christie's, in a carefully balanced selection spanning Modern Art and Contemporary creation. The overall estimate for the sale organised by Christie's is €2 to €3 million.

The tribute to Thessa Herold will continue at Drouot in Paris, at Maître Thierry de Maigret's auction house, on 5 June 2026, with additional works from the Thessa Herold Collection.

“You must buy with your heart, not with your wallet. You must follow a guiding thread and remain faithful to it. You must show great patience and strong conviction.” --Thessa Herold, galerista de corazón, Radio France International, Hernán Rivera Mejía 27/04/2007

Key artists and works in the sale

Jean Arp
 'I have four natures. I have two things. I have five senses.'

With these few words, Jean Arp expresses the plural character of his work and his personality. The 12 works included in the sale perfectly reflect this plurality and the richness of the artistic investigations, pursued throughout his life, by an artist resistant to all forms of classification. Thus, a 1962 oil on cut and relief wood, Source, illustrates his search for “plastic realities” that cannot be confined to the traditional boundaries of painting or sculpture (ill. on the left €50,000–70,000). A 1950 wooden relief, Fleur de Chartres, is emblematic of an inspiration rooted in the Dada period (€70,000–100,000). A 1960 bronze, Tête florale, recalls the central role of nature in Jean Arp's artistic explorations (€40,000–60,000). Paysage de Trèves, a rough bronze from 1961, condenses all the monuments of Trier into one of those primordial forms that the artist sought throughout his life (€8,000–12,000). A Papier déchiré from 1946 is emblematic of this mode of expression unique to Jean Arp, which later gave its title to an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 1983 (€1,500–2,000). In the sale, Arp's works are presented alongside those of many of his friends. Among them are Camille Bryen, Wolgang Wols, and Raoul Ubac, who were the subject of a joint exhibition at the Galerie Thessa Herold in 2005, and whose catalogue is now particularly sought after.

JEAN ARP (1886-1966), Source, Oil on relief-carved wood, 36.2 x 29.8 cm. 1962. Est. €50,000-70,000 © Christie's images limited 2026.

Roberto Matta
“Matta is Tatou” “Matta is an asset” “Matta is everything”

This is how Georges Sebbag concludes the foreword to the catalogue of the exhibition devoted to Roberto Matta by Thessa Herold in 2015. The writer and philosopher, close to André Breton, describes it as “a superb sampling of the art and manner distinctive to the artist.” The majority of the eight works by Roberto Matta offered in the sale were included in the catalogue of that exhibition, as well as in the retrospective organised in 2019 by the Hermitage Museum. This is notably the case with two canvases from 1957, each offered with an estimate of €100,000 to €150,000: Untitled, from the Cécile de Rothschild Collection (ill. opposite), and Enlevons les cartes. For Georges Sebbag, “Clavier d'interruption of 1961 plunges us into the very heart of Matta's grandiose visions or premonitions” (€50,000–70,000). From a series of drawings presented in the same exhibition, which “could be read like a comic strip,” the sale includes, among others, Heraclion (€4,000–6,000), Oefficiency (€2,000–3,000), and To observe into imagination (€2,000–3,000).

While Roberto Matta could on his own embody Thessa Herold's commitment to Surrealism, the Chilean artist in exile also stands as an emblem of the deep understanding of Latin America that she developed, notably in the company of André Breton. For “Hors des doctes ténèbres”, an exhibition she devoted in 1999 to a group of Cuban, Mexican, and Venezuelan artists, Thessa Herold entrusted the catalogue to Serge Fauchereau, curator of exhibitions that have since become legendary, from the Centre Pompidou to Tate and the Reina Sofía. Presented in this sale, a selection of works by Wifredo Lam, Rufino Tamayo, Agustín Cárdenas, and Leonora Carrington bears witness to the conviction and commitment with which Thessa Herold worked to secure international recognition for Latin American artistic creation.

ROBERTO MATTA (1911-2002) Untitled, Oil on canvas, 147 x 203 cm. 1957. Est. €100,000-150,000 © Christie's images limited 2026.

Paul Klee
Paintings by Poets – Poems by Painters

The title of a gallery exhibition in 1997 encapsulates one of Thessa Herold's essential quests. In an exploration of the bonds linking art and poetry, pursued with exemplary consistency by her gallery, the work of Paul Klee occupies a central place. While Paul Klee's interest in and practice of poetry are far less well‑known than his relationship to music, they were nonetheless fundamental in the eyes of an artist for whom “writing and drawing are identical at their core.” A composition abstracted into a field of color, Zwei Seelen aufwärts (Two Souls Upward) (ill. opposite), a 1927 watercolor, illustrates the spiritual and poetic direction Paul Klee imparted to his work (€50,000–70,000). Marionette 1931 N12, a watercolor and charcoal on paper, underscores its enigmatic character (€30,000–50,000). Dated 1940, the final year of Paul Klee's life, which also marks the close of a particularly fertile period for the artist, Schweizer Clown is the work of a man who knew himself to be gravely ill and who, violently attacked by the Nazis in his country of origin, would obtain Swiss nationality only a few days after his death (€50,000–70,000).

Continuing her exploration between painting and poetry, Thessa Herold examined in a catalogue published in 1999 the relationship between the work of Henri Michaux and that of Paul Klee. A great admirer of the Swiss master, Henri Michaux is represented in the sale by a fine selection of ten works.

PAUL KLEE (1879-1940) Zwei Seelen aufwärtz Watercolour, pen and ink on paper mounted on board 32.5 x 22.5 cm. 1927. Est. €50,000-70,000 © Christie's images limited 2026