MONET MASTERPIECE Highlights Auction of Private Collection at Christie's Claude Monet. Les arceaux de roses, Giverny, 1913 Estimate: £9,000,000-£12,000,000
leads Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 18 June 2007
News-Antique.com - May 31,2007 - Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale: 18 June 2007 at 6.30pm
Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale: 19 June 2007 at 2.00pm
Christie’s London
London – One of the most important works by Claude Monet (1840-1926) to appear at
auction in recent years leads Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 18
June 2007. Les arceaux de roses, Giverny, 1913 is estimated to fetch between £9 million and
£12 million and is the crown jewel of The Private American Collection of 10 important works of
art by masters of Impressionist and Modern Art which also include Camille Pissarro, Paul
Signac, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Marc Chagall. Hidden away and appearing at auction for
the first time in over 40 years, the collection is estimated between £14 million and £19
million.
“We are delighted to have been entrusted with such a significant collection. Les arceaux de roses, Giverny is a
very rare and beautiful depiction of Monet’s water-lily pond which demonstrates the artist’s virtuosity at using
all the colours of his palette. It is one of the most important works by Claude Monet to appear at auction in
recent years and we expect strong international interest when it is offered at Christie’s London on 18 June,”
says Olivier Camu, Head of Impressionist & Modern Art at Christie’s London.
Les arceaux de roses, Giverny, 1913, leads the selection of 5 works from the collection offered in
the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 18 June 2007. It was last publicly
exhibited in the great 1960 Claude Monet: Seasons and moments exhibition at the New York
Museum of Modern Art and is one of those iconic depictions of Monet’s water-lily pond.
Like its sister piece, Les arches fleuries of 1913 which hangs in the Phoenix Art Museum,
Arizona, Les arceaux de roses shows the artist’s rose bower and its dazzling reflection on a
water surface strewn with water-lilies in full bloom. Filled with water and the reflections and
plays of light, the painting demonstrates Monet’s absolute love of colour and is a tour-deforce
in the artist’s oeuvre. It was essentially as a result of this love of colour that Monet
created his now-legendary garden at Giverny, which remains a site of pilgrimage for
admirers to this day. Monet moved to Giverny in 1883 and as his recognition and wealth
grew, he gradually created a garden in which a thousand beautiful impressions could be
captured. Bursting with plants and colour, the garden was described by Arsène Alexandre as
floral fireworks and this effect is clearly visible in the vibrant red roses in the present work.
Also offered from The Private American Collection in Christie’s evening sale is Camille
Pissarro’s (1830-1903) Le Pont-Neuf, naufrage de la Bonne Mère, 1901 (estimate: £2,200,000-
3,200,000), formerly in the celebrated Fuld Collection and last seen at auction in 1964. It
shows the artist as a painter of the modern age with the bustling street atmosphere perfectly
conveyed in this scene of cosmopolitan Parisian life. Amongst his series depicting
