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A S E L E C T I O N O F A U C T I O N H I G H L I G H T S
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PIET MONDRIAN
Piet Mondrian (Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan) was intensely interested in the natural world and in rendering both its beauty and its intricacies. During his boyhood he made drawings after illustrations in scientific texts and studied painting in the realist manner with his uncle, who had been a pupil of the Hague School landscape painter Willem Maris. After qualifying as a teacher of drawing in 1889, Mondrian worked as a schoolmaster until 1892, when he moved to Amsterdam to enter the Academy of Fine Arts.
The young artist's earliest paintings were impressionistic views of the forests, fields and rivers of his native Holland. Gradually his style evolved, sometimes reflecting the technique of pointillism, at other times the vivid palette of the Fauvist experiments of Matisse and Derain. Even at these early stages, his art exhibited a tendency toward the geometric forms and primary colors that would mark his abstract style, which emerged after his move to Paris in 1912.
Mondrian painted flowers intermittently during his career. His first exhibition of floral subjects took place in 1898 and in 1901 he presented one of these works to Queen Wilhelmina on the occasion of her marriage. In the succeeding years, especially between 1906 to 1910, he produced a variety of floral pieces in charcoal, watercolor, and oil, a group that comprises a particularly lyrical and evocative portion of his oeuvre. Later, during the 1920s, he returned to flowers, producing another group of exquisite drawings and watercolors in a polished style characteristic of that period. He felt some ambivalence about these works, for he was by this time committed to abstraction; yet he found it hard to resist the wishes of collectors, many of whom loved and enthusiastically bought his floral subjects.
The two works by Mondrian in the Goodwin collection, "Flowering"-an exquisite evocation in oil of a foxtail lily-and a related study of the same subject in charcoal are thought to have been created some time between 1907 and 1910. They belong to a series of charcoal drawings of this subject produced by the artist during that period. Two related examples in charcoal are in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague.
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Lot 2106
Piet Mondrian
Dutch, 1872-1944
Foxtail Lily, circa 1909
Signed Piet Mondriaan (ll)
Oil on paperboard laid to masonite
29 1/8 x 39 inches (74.3 x 99.1 cm)
Provenance:
Collection of S. B. Slijper, Blaricum, Holland, no. 759, acquired directly from the artist, circa 1919
E. V. Thaw & Co. Inc., New York, 1964
Exhibited:
Toronto, Canada, The Art Gallery of Toronto, February 12 - March 20, 1966
Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Museum of New Mexico, John B.L. Goodwin Collection, March 19 - May 15, 1972
Literature:
Bax, Marty, Complete Mondrian, Lund Humphries Publishers and V & K Publishers, Blaricum, 2001, p. 439
Joosten, Joop M. and Robert P. Welsh, Piet Mondrian: Catalogue Raisonne of the Naturalistic Works (unitl early 1911), Abrams, New York, 1998, no. A615, p. 405, illustrated
Welsh, Dr. Robert P., Connoisseur Magazine, 'The Hortus Conclusus of Piet Mondrian', 1966, p. 133, repr. 6, vol. 161, no. 647, February
Property from the Collection of John B.L. Goodwin from the Estate of Anthony P. Russo
Sold to a buyer from New York for $433,000
A World Auction Record for a Mondrian Flower Painting
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Lot 2107
Piet Mondrian
Dutch, 1872-1944
Foxtail Lily, Study V, circa 1909
Initaled MP (ll)
Charcoal on cardboard
22 1/2 x 34 1/2 inches
Provenance:
Collection of S.B. Slijper, Blaricum, Holland, no. 916, acquired directly from the artist circa 1919
E. V. Thaw & Co. Inc., New York, 1964, as Flowering
Exhibited:
Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Museum of New Mexico, John B.L. Goodwin Collection, March 19 - May 15, 1972
Literature:
Bax, Marty, Complete Mondrian, Lund Humphries Publishers and V & K Publishers, Blaricum, 2001, p. 439
Joosten, Joop M. and Robert P. Welsh, Piet Mondrian: Catalogue Raisonne of the Naturalistic Works (unitl early 1911), Abrams, New York, 1998, no. A614, p. 405, illustrated
There are five known studies for Foxtail Lily. It is assumed that Foxtail Lily: Study V, because of its similarity in size and composition, must have been the final study for the version in oil.
Property from the Collection of John B.L. Goodwin from the Estate of Anthony P. Russo
Sold to a buyer from New York for $79,000
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ROBERTO MATTA
Roberto Antonio Sebastian Matta Echaurren (1911- 2002), usually known as Matta, was born in Santiago, Chile, where he studied architecture. Intellectually curious and restless, in 1933 he moved to Paris, where he met a number of important artists, including Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Ren' Magritte, Salvador Dal¡, and Le Corbusier. The poet and theorist Andr' Breton took a particular interest in him, encouraging him to join the Surrealist movement.
During the 1930s Matta developed an art of diffuse films of color, biomorphic forms, and bold lines. During this period he produced his "inscape," series, works that were intended as visual expressions of the "landscape" of his inner life. In 1938 he moved to the United States, where he remained for ten years. Here he began to work principally in oil on canvas as he continued to develop his expressive, semi-abstract works to depict the horrors of the Second World War. It was during this period that he produced the two "War Cartoons" in the present sale. During the 1950s and 1960s he divided his time between Europe and South America, and he became deeply involved in the political and social movements of the time.
Matta greatly enjoyed the society of other creative people. He and John B. L. Goodwin became personal friends soon after Matta came to America, and Goodwin posed for the drawing "Hand and Foot" in this sale during one of Matta's visits to his home.
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Lot 2118
Roberto Matta
Chilean, 1911-2002
Untitled, 1951
Pastel on brown paper laid down on 1/8 inch cardboard
38 5/8 x 58 inches (98 x 147.4 cm)
Exhibited:
Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Museum of New Mexico, John B.L. Goodwin Collection, March 19 - May 15, 1972
Property from the Collection of John B.L. Goodwin from the Estate of Anthony P. Russo
Sold to a buyer from New York for $73,000
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Lot 2117
Roberto Matta
Chilean, 1911-2002
War Cartoon, 1945
Crayon and graphite on Roberson's bristol board
16 3/4 x 21 inches (38.1 x 55.9 cm)
Exhibited:
Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Museum of New Mexico, John B.L. Goodwin Collection, March 19 - May 15, 1972
Property from the Collection of John B.L. Goodwin from the Estate of Anthony P. Russo
Sold to a buyer from California for $61,000
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Lot 2115
Roberto Matta
Chilean, 1911-2002
Untitled
Inscribed indistinctly on the reverse
Oil on canvas
42 x 43 3/4 inches (106.7 x 111.1 cm)
Provenance:
G Gallery, New York, February 1964, invoice no. 582
Exhibited:
Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Museum of New Mexico, John B.L. Goodwin Collection, March 19 - May 15, 1972
Property from the Collection of John B.L. Goodwin from the Estate of Anthony P. Russo
Sold to a buyer from New York for $61,000
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Lot 2116
Roberto Matta
Chilean, 1911-2002
War Cartoon, 1945
Crayon and graphite on Roberson's Bristol board
16 3/4 x 21 inches (42.5 x 53.3 cm)
Exhibited:
Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Museum of New Mexico, John B.L. Goodwin Collection, March 19 - May 15, 1972
Property from the Collection of John B.L. Goodwin from the Estate of Anthony P. Russo
Sold to a buyer from New York for $58,000
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Lot 2114
Alberto Giacometti
Swiss, 1901-1966
Interior, 1957
Signed Alberto Giacommeti and dated 1957 (lr); inscribed V on the verso
Graphite on RFK rives paper
19 5/8 x 25 5/8 inches (49.8 x 65 cm)
Exhibited:
Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Museum of New Mexico, John B.L. Goodwin Collection, March 19 - May 15, 1972
Property from the Collection of John B.L. Goodwin from the Estate of Anthony P. Russo
Sold to a buyer from Switzerland for $67,000
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Lot 2112
Paul Manship
American, 1885-1966
Portrait of John Goodwin as a Boy (with Relief of Squirrels on the Base), circa 1913
Plaster relief with slip coating
18 3/4 x 12 inches x 1 1/4 inches (47.6 x 30.5 x 3.2 cm)
Property from the Collection of John B.L. Goodwin from the Estate of Anthony P. Russo
Sold to a buyer from New York for $40,000
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