NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announced the sale of Property from the Estate of Edgar M. Bronfman, the distinguished businessman, philanthropist, and diplomat, in the upcoming auction season. Mr. Bronfman’s thoughtfully acquired collection was formed over the course of several decades and spans the categories of Impressionist & Modern Art, American Art, Post-War and Contemporary Art, Prints & Multiples, and Decorative Arts. The collection boasts a large selection of works by such blue-chip artists as Picasso, Monet, Degas, and Avery, among others. The collection, which will be sold in New York, London, and Hong Kong, as well as in an online-only sale, is expected to realize in excess of $34 million.
Few individuals have contributed so greatly to contemporary Jewish life as Edgar M. Bronfman. A visionary businessman and unyielding advocate for world Jewry, Mr. Bronfman translated his tremendous success at the Seagram Company into a decades-long journey in philanthropy, dedicating himself to promoting a “Jewish renaissance” whose effects continue to be felt to this day.
Edgar M. Bronfman joined his family’s Canadian distillery business at just 21 years old, working as an apprentice taster and accounting clerk before quickly ascending the executive ranks. In 1957, he took over Seagram’s American subsidiary, and in 1971 was placed at the head of the entire company, where he implemented a series of diversifying moves that secured Seagram’s position as one of the world’s most innovative firms. With the resources acquired via his business success, Mr. Bronfman devoted his energies to the cause of the Jewish people. “My goal,” Mr. Bronfman wrote, “is to build a Jewish future by working to form a knowledgeable, proud and welcoming Jewish community throughout the world.”
After he was elected president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in 1981, Mr. Bronfman began a series of remarkable international campaigns for the security and prosperity of the Jewish people. Under his 26-year tenure, the WJC became the world’s preeminent Jewish institution, recognized by world leaders as a formidable voice in diplomatic affairs. Of particular note was Mr. Bronfman’s role in advocating for Jewish rights and well-being in the Soviet Union, and in 1985 he became the first WJC president to be formally received by the Kremlin. Convinced of the need to present a strong and unified Jewish voice, Mr. Bronfman earned a reputation amongst world leaders and diplomats as a resolute, tireless negotiator. In 1982, Mr. Bronfman became the first representative of a Jewish organization to speak before the United Nations, and in the 1990s he spearheaded the WJC’s campaign to recover Jewish property seized during the upheavals and aftermath of the Second World War. Mr. Bronfman continually expanded his efforts, serving as president of the World Jewish Restitution Organization and chairman of the United States Commission on Holocaust Era Assets.
Behind Edgar M. Bronfman’s international advocacy in the World Jewish Congress was his belief in Jewish culture, heritage, and values. He forever cherished the traditions at the heart of Judaism: learning, pluralism, debate, and enquiry—the essential components for the faith’s continued relevance. As founder, president, and chairman of the Samuel Bronfman Foundation—named in honor of his father—Mr. Bronfman focused on international engagement, bringing Jewish knowledge to people of all backgrounds. He founded the prestigious Bronfman Youth Fellowship program in 1987, challenging future Jewish thinkers, writers, and leaders from Israel and North America to deepen their understanding of Judaism and the importance of social responsibility.
Internationally recognized for his prodigious giving and dedication, Mr. Bronfman was inducted into the French Legion of Honor; was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton, the Leo Baeck Medal, the Hillel Renaissance Award, and the Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award; and was bestowed honorary degrees from the University of Rochester, New York University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tulane University, Williams College, and Pace University. In his absolute devotion to humanitarianism and the Judaic traditions that informed his life, Edgar M. Bronfman stands as an inspirational figure for people of all backgrounds—a testament to the power of belief in the modern world.
Impressionism and Modern Art
A stunning selection of Impressionist and Modern Art will be offered on May 6 and 7 throughout the Evening Sale, Day Sale and Works on Paper Sale. Highlights of the Evening Sale include the following works of art.
From Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) is the arcadian work, Mangeuse de pastèque et homme écrivant, which was painted on 13 May 1965 (estimate: $7,000,000–10,000,000). The young man in the painting, clothed and attending to his writing, is a surrogate for Picasso, indicated by the striped pattern on his shirt, similar to the fisherman’s vest the artist was fond of wearing in the studio and around his home in Mougins. The gorgeous, ripely figured young woman seated nearby with a slice of watermelon – a symbolic offering for all the fruits of this earth and her lovely body – is Picasso’s muse and wife, Jacqueline Roque.
Edgar Degas (1834-1917) Le Tub, circa 1889, is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and important sculptures of the modern era (estimate: $4,000,000-6,000,000). With its unflinching physiognomic realism and deliberate revision of the traditional syntax of the female body, this arresting sculpture of a young woman washing herself in a shallow basin represents a daring break with academic mores. The iconographic complexity of Le Tub is heightened further by the unusual vantage point that Degas seems to encourage the spectator to adopt. Since the bather is partially submerged in the shallow basin, a full view of the figure can be obtained only by looking down at her.
In Henri Matisse’s (1869-1954) Femme auprès de la fenêtre, painted in Nice in 1920, the view through a window is a perfect analogy for the art of painting and metaphor for the advent of modernism (estimate: $3,000,000-5,000,000). With shutters opened and thrown back, the dazzling light of a new day streams in and sets the room ablaze with color, as fresh sea breezes aerate damp and musty interior spaces. In these spaces filled with light, Matisse suggests the tenor of everyday living, creating a visual poetry of delicate stillness and quietude, captured in casual, momentary vignettes.
Egon Schiele’s (1890-1918) Akt mit roten Strumpfbänder (recto); Liegender Akt (verso), executed in 1911 shows the changes in Scheiele’s aesthetic style and in his relationships with women that characterised this fulcrum period in his brief career (estimate: $3,000,000-5,000,000). Akt mit roten Strumpfbander demonstrates the increasing skills that Schiele had developed in the use of watercolor and gouache, as well as his highly idiosyncratic sense of line. The reds and pinks in the subject's upper body and face have a billowing quality that reveals the artist taking advantage of the liquidity of his medium in order to add a feeling of flushed and stippled flesh. The rose tints of her body dominate the composition, as does her face, which grounds the viewer in a penetrating gaze.
Kees van Dongen’s (1877-1968) Egyptienne au collier de perles was executed in 1913, a major turning point for the artist (estimate: $2,000,000-3,000,000). It was during this year that his controversial painting, Tableau, was removed from the Salon d'Automne by the police on grounds of indecency. Scandalizing the art world, this event cemented Van Dongen's reputation as a master of the provocative, sexualized female nude. That same year, van Dongen travelled to Egypt, and his experiences resulted in a celebrated revitalization of his Fauvism. Egyptienne au collier de perles combines the exoticism that had flavored so many of his most famous paintings with a dynamic composition formed by the sitter’s cross-legged pose. Demand for Van Dongen’s portraits of women in this orientalist style remains strong throughout the global collecting market; his portrait of a gypsy woman, La Gitane, set a record price for a female portrait by the artist at Christie’s London in 2010.
Post-War and Contemporary Art
Post-war and contemporary art works from the Bronfman collection include European and American abstraction from the 1950s and 60s. The main highlight from the grouping is Hans Hofmann’s (1880-1966) Le bouquet du vine from 1964 where active gesture by the painter results in an explosion of bright color (estimate: $800,000-1,200,000). Other highlights include works by Sam Francis and Richard Pousette-Dart.
American Art
A definitive work from the most-celebrated period in the artist’s oeuvre, Milton Avery’s (1885-1965) The Mandolin Player has a lyrical sense of music and motion (estimate: $800,000-1,200,000). The highly saturated palette of greens, blues, oranges and pinks is representative of Avery’s works from the mid-1940s, as is his rendering of expressive figures through a contained, plastic two-dimensional design. The interconnectedness of music and the formal components of visual art had been explored by American Modernists such as Arthur Dove and Georgia O'Keeffe in the 1910s and 1920s and were championed by European abstract painter, Wassily Kandinsky. Avery had likely been exposed to Kandinsky's work while exhibiting at the Valentine Gallery on 57th Street in 1935. Avery explored the topic in a more literal approach, demonstrating his ability to blend modern themes and broader European influences while remaining committed to a familiar subject, thus creating his own style.
George Inness’s (1825-1894) treatment of the landscape, particularly in his later work, is marked by a more subjective and ultimately more modern aesthetic than that of his contemporaries. The innovative brilliance of his art eventually brought him high acclaim--particularly for the later landscapes of which Summer, Montclair of 1887, is a notable example (estimate: $600,000-800,000). In Summer, Montclair, Inness presents a pastoral scene with a village church spire on the horizon and stream and grazing cattle in the distance. Beginning in 1884, Inness was able to achieve a complete synthesis of his innovative formal means and his goal of poetic expression. The central component of this synthesis was color, which he described as ‘the soul of a painting.’ Forms, on the other hand, though still based in the observation of nature, were softened by atmosphere and dissolved by light. Inness relished in capturing the colors of dawn, dusk, twilight, moonlight, the colors of all seasons and of all hours of the day. However, unlike the Impressionist painter Monet, Inness did not focus on the implied optical effects of motion or action, he instead created a dreamy stillness giving a sense of calmness.
Picasso Ceramics
Christie’s will offer a stellar modern ceramics collection in Impressions in Clay: Pablo Picasso Ceramics featuring the Estate of Edgar M. Bronfman. Following the overwhelming success of previous dedicated Picasso ceramics sales at Christie’s, this sale will be offered exclusively as an online-only auction and runs from May 2 through May 16. The entirety of the collection will be on view during Prints & Multiples view (April 18-22), and highlights will be presented during the Impressionist & Modern view (May 2-6). The sale includes works at prices beginning at $1,500. Top lots include Picasso’s Tripod (A.R. 125) ($50,000-70,000) and a complete 8-piece Corrida service set (A.R. 416-423) ($70,000-90,000).
