Sotheby's to auction five paintings by Claude Monet
Claude Monet at Sothebys March 2022Claude Monet - Les Demoiselles de Giverny - 1894
On March 2, Sotheby's will auction a group of five paintings by Claude Monet, coming from an American collection in London, with a combined pre-sale estimate of around £35 million ($50 million).
Images: The group of five paintings to be offered at auction (image via Sotheby's) ·· Claude Monet, "Les Demoiselles de Giverny", 1894.
The work with the highest pre-sale estimate (between £15 million and £20 million) is "Les Demoiselles de Giverny" (1894), and this is probably due to the presence of haystacks in the painting, although the work is not part of the celebrated series of "Meules" (Haystacks) painted between 1890 and 1891, and of which one example was sold by Sotheby's for $110.7 million in 2019. Far from the boldness and appeal of those works, "Les Demoiselles de Giverny" was auctioned 10 years ago at Christie's for $9.6 million.
The auction includes two more landscapes by Monet. "Glaçons, environs de Bennecourt" (painted in the winter of 1892-93, and estimated at £5-7 million) is a typical scene of the frozen Seine that, according to Sotheby's, "shows Monet's progression towards his 20th century water lily paintings". "Sur la falaise près de Dieppe, soleil couchant" is an interesting and somewhat schematic view of the Norman coast, in which Monet, Sotheby's rightly notes, recaptures the colour palette he had used in his views of the Mediterranean coasts. Now carrying an estimate of between £3.5 and £5 million, the painting was auctioned in 2004 for $847,500.
After "Les Demoiselles de Giverny", the work wih the highest presale estimate (£10-15 million) is "Massif de chrysanthèmes", painted in 1897. Bright and vivid in contrast to the subdued tones of "Les Demoiselles", the painting is one of the best still lifes by Monet, a painter who, moreover, never devoted much effort to the still life genre. The work was auctioned for $2.35 million at Christie's in May 2004. Another small still life by the artist, "Prunes et Abricots", painted around 1882-85, is the smallest work in the group, and the one with the most modest presale estimate (£1.2 million and £1.8 million).

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